"The vicinity of the ruins of Agillian is now the largest gathering place for exiles from Catanay, Naxos, and other city-states. Since the death of Aguilas, due to the suppression of Dionysius, the Sichael people have not elected a new king, and the various Sichael towns can no longer be united, so there is no great threat to the settlement of Agillian. However, they were threatened by the Sikuli, Tauromenan, and the mercenaries of Catanay who came to raid from time to time. Serophanes continued: "If all these exiles can come to Meyaro, then you can add four or five thousand soldiers!" ”

A rabble of untrained people from various city-states is not as good as a group of slaves. Antonios thought to himself, but did not say it, he looked at the location of the Agilian pointed by Xenophanes: it was located on the western side of Mount Etna, and from Meiaro, it would be possible to reach it by following the Alcantara valley to the west. But in this way, the location of Tauromegnan poses a threat to this passage, and it will be less to send only two hundred soldiers to defend against the Tauromegnan attack?

Antonios asked, "If I lead an army against Tauromenan, will the slaves and freedmen there be able to cooperate with us?" ”

Shelovenis shook his head and said, "I'm afraid it's difficult. Dionysius handed over Tauromegnan to the Campanian mercenaries to occupy at that time, although their numbers were not large, but the city of Tauromegnan was not large, and there was very little arable land, they did not need too many slaves, often they sold the captured exiles to Catane and Sikuli, and the freedmen would not go to Tauromennan, where there was neither a port nor arable land, what did they live on? ”

Sherefinis remembered something, and a look of fear appeared on his face: "I once went to see the city of Tauromenan, which was high on a high mountain, and the terrain was steep, and only a winding path could reach it. Our soldiers will probably pay a great price if they want to storm it, and—" He didn't finish his sentence, but he was clearly not optimistic that the First Army would be able to take the mountain city.

Antonios listened, slightly disappointed.

Shelovenis then said, "However, if you attack Sikuli, the slaves and freedmen there will definitely be able to help!" Dionysius destroyed several city-states, and now the whole of southeastern Sicily, with the exception of Syracuse and its surrounding city-states, is inhumane and inhuman. As far as I know, not only were the slaves of many city-states exiles, but even many freedmen were exiles, and as in the case of Mejaro, they were eager to overthrow Dionysius and rebuild their homeland. The citizens of these city-states were aware of the situation, but did not take effective measures to stop it, because their newly acquired land and ports required a large number of people to take care of the ......"

Although the situation described by Selovenis was tempting, Antonios was not ready to do it. The reason why he wanted to capture Tauromegnan was because he had to deal with the attack of the Syracuse with all his might, and it was best to ensure the security of the north of Meiaro, otherwise the Syracuse would attack from the south, and the mercenaries of Tauromegnan would attack from the north, and even the colonists of Locli and Medma in Messina would send reinforcements, and Meiaro would be in danger of being completely surrounded. As for the taking of the city of Sikuli, it seems to be beautiful, but at the time of the imminent arrival of the great enemy, to disperse his forces, leading to a possible two-sided battle, is a great taboo stipulated in the Dionian Military Law, and Antonios certainly does not make such a mistake.

Antonios thought silently: it seems that the only way to do this is to strengthen the defense of Mejaro, wait for the arrival of those exiles, and decide on the next step according to the development of the situation.

……………………………………

When the Spartan emissary Cresopus returned to Sparta, Mr. Agosy had received orders from the Council of Elders to go to Corinth, take over from Praxitas, command the Spartan League's army, and continue the assault on the city of Corinth.

Chrysopes reported the mission to the Council of Elders.

The Spartan elders, who were over 60 years old, were surprised by the stubborn attitude of the Dioonians in the face of such a predicament and even more delusional attempts to defeat Syracuse, and what surprised them even more was that Dionya actually defeated the navy of Syracuse, an unexpected result that made the elders look at each other.

After a long while, the elder Theopatis asked in a deep voice, "Chrysopes, the Dioonians have arrogantly rejected our Spartan friendly proposal, so that the war in Great Greece will continue. You have just returned from Greater Greece and understand the situation there, what advice do you have? ”

"Dear elders, Dionysius is determined to conquer Great Greece, and Davers is bent on avenging the people, and the two sides are like a pair of red-eyed rams, and words alone cannot make them cease the war, and if we Sparta cannot find any other way to mediate this war than words, the war in Great Greece will continue until one of them falls......" Chrysopus replied truthfully, implying that Sparta's prestige was not enough to subdue these two great powers in the Western Mediterranean, They have to come up with something practical to make them obey, such as the army.

The elders were silent for a while: now that most of Sparta's energy was devoted to this war in Corinth, there was still a small part of the army in Asia Minor, and where was there room to open up another battlefield.

After a long time, Elder Lucipus sighed: It seems that the people of Syracuse will not be able to help us in the short term! ”

Praxitas, as regent of King Agosipolis of Sparta, was present at the Council of Elders in place of Agosipolis, when he asked: "Chythosopus, who do you think will win this war, Syracuse or Dionia?" ”

As soon as this question came out, the other elders all looked at him in surprise, and the meaning expressed in their eyes was obvious: Do you need to say this! Although Dionysia won the naval battle, the final victory still had to be resolved on land, but the difference in strength between the two sides was obvious, and the final winner was Syracuse is very likely, you must know that Dionysius led an army of 80,000, and Sparta has never had such a strong army!

But there was a hesitation in Christopus's expression, and he thought for a while before saying: "Although in terms of strength, Dionysius has a clear advantage, but Dionya has Davers. In the past, every war that took place in Dionia, looking at the situation before the war, we would think that they could not win, but in the end they all won, so Dioonia will become a city-state alliance that we have to pay attention to within a few years. And now, having repelled the Samones in central Italy, Davers returned to Turiyi, and it is said that it was under his command that the Dionian fleet miraculously defeated the navy of Syracuse, which was far superior to them. Now that he is leading Dionia's army against Dionysius' army of Syracuse, it is really difficult to judge the outcome or defeat! ”

"Dionysius is no match for the stupid generals Dionya has ever encountered!" One of the elders retorted, "He defeated Carthage!" ”

"Davers! ......" Diopertis lamented: "Christopes, I remember that you had proposed to the council that he be admitted as a guest of honor of Sparta. ”

"Yes, I made that proposal to the Council." Chrysops replied truthfully.

"I didn't expect that a young man who was inconspicuous a few years ago has now become a headache for us Sparta!" Diopertis turned to face the elders and said with a solemn expression, "We need to seriously consider the inference of Corithorpes, and we need to think about how we Sparta should respond if Dionia really defeats Syracuse?" ”

When the elders heard this, they were surprised and fell into deep thought, and they found out that although Sparta had little contact with the Dionian Alliance, the relationship was not very good, on the contrary, they heard that Dionya had signed a friendship agreement with Athens, Sparta's sworn enemy, and once Dionya won the Great Greek War, Sparta's previously considered safe rear - the Western Mediterranean was poked out of a big hole by it, and Sparta would deal with the challenge to its hegemony from traditional powers such as Athens, Thebes, and Corinth. Also guarding against the hostility of this powerful alliance of city-states to the west, the pressure on Sparta will undoubtedly increase dramatically!

Many of the elders began to look gloomy when they thought of this.

Some elders pretended to be relaxed and said, "This is just a hypothesis, the chances of Dionya winning are very small!" ”

"We simply let Dionia have no chance of winning!" Another elder said menacingly.

"So what can we do? Send troops to Greater Greece to support Syracuse?! Now that most of the warriors are concentrated in Corinth, we can still send troops there! Do you want the other allies to help? It's a pity that our previous attention and support for the Western Mediterranean has been invested in Syracuse, so we don't know as much about Greater Greece as we do about Athens! Annoyed that the elders had removed him from his position as commander of the Spartan League's army, Praxitas mocked: "Oh, by the way, there is also a Tarantum, our son, who was easily defeated at the same time as Dionysa won the Battle of Syracuse!" Look, this is the Western Mediterranean plan you've been making up for decades, a bunch of shit! ”

The elders were speechless by him for a while.

At this time, a voice sounded in the quiet venue: "Perhaps...... We can have a friendly meeting with Dionia. ”

Everyone's eyes immediately converged on Chrysopus.