On the map, Dionysa occupies the smallest territory in Sicily. In fact, Davos played a small trick by not enclosing the entire Catanian plain, the eastern part of which was already under the control of Antrapolis.

"The other city-states, like Agrigento, Gera, Tyndareus...... All were neutral city-states, serving as buffer zones for Carthage, Syracuse, and Dionia. Davers pointed to the icons on the map with his pen and said seriously.

Ocleton looked at the map carefully, and suddenly a sentence came out of his mouth: "Do these neutral city-states also include Messina?" ”

Although Messina was not a large territory, it was located in an important position, so it was also considered an important city-state in Sicily.

"Of course not!" Davos said without hesitation: "The citizens of New Messina are colonists from Locley and Medma, they are Dionysius's accomplices, they assisted Syracuse in blocking the Strait of Messina in this war, and also attacked the port of Ligem several times. Ligim has made a proposal to us Dionya to attack Messina and secure himself, and the Dionian Senate has agreed to their request for a joint army...... "Davos has once again concealed the fact that Dionia and Ligem have decided to join Messina."

Carthage was not a Greek city-state, and its two most important shipping lanes did not pass through Messina, so it was not too concerned. While looking at the map and thinking about the suggestion that Davers had just made, Ocleton raised his head for a long time and said, "Dear King Davers, the Carthaginian Senate has sent me mainly to revise the friendship treaty signed between Dionia and Carthage, and at the same time to find out how Dionia's next war against Syracuse will be conducted. I didn't expect ...... I didn't expect you to give me such a big one...... Well...... Surprise! However, this is also beyond my purview, and I must bring your proposal back to the Senate for them to decide whether or not to accept it. ”

Davers understood, but at the same time he said unhurriedly: "I hope that Carthage's reply will be quicker, because the Syracuse in the city of Siriting may not hold out for more than a few days, and it is time to surrender." Davers confidently said this with a well-founded basis, the news of "Dionysius escaped" had leaked, the soldiers in the city panicked, and the people of Syracuse had to send someone to negotiate peace. And Davers took the opportunity to tell the envoy the latest battle situation in Sicily, whether he believed it or not, there would be an even greater turmoil in the city of Sicily.

When Ocliton heard this, his heart was shaken. He understood what Davers meant by saying that the surrender of the Syracuse in the city of Silitin would mean the end of the South-Italian War, and that Carthage would negotiate with Ionia, which had already eased up, on different terms.

………………………………

Seeing off the Carthaginian envoy who had left in a hurry, Henepolis hurriedly asked, "Your Majesty, will the Carthaginians agree to your proposal?" ”

"Judging from the performance of this envoy just now and the situation of Carthage that we have investigated during this time, there is indeed a serious war-weariness in the city of Carthage, even if the situation in Sicily is very favorable to Carthage now, many people in the Carthaginian Senate will probably not approve of waging war......" Davers recalled a lot of information about Carthage that he had read before, and said: "What can be obtained through negotiation, how can the Carthaginians, who value efficiency, be stupid enough to use force to solve it." Moreover, Carthage should have understood that the occupation of all of Sicily would not only be not beneficial, but would be extremely harmful. ”

"Why?" Henipolis asked curiously.

"If you think about it, you can see why."

“…… Belch...... Is it because it would provoke the wrath of the entire Greek world against it? ”

"Not bad. Carthage occupies Sicily entirely, and not only our great Greece, but also Greece itself, will be directly threatened by a foreign race, how can we Greeks accept this situation! Carthage should have been able to feel this in its previous wars with Syracuse, not only against Syracuse, but also against the Greeks in Italy and the Greeks in Greece itself......," said Davers meaningfully.

"Oh, of course one city-state of Carthage could not defeat the power of Greece as a whole. Either way, it will eventually fail. ”

"Heni, your teacher has been interested in Carthage recently, and has collected a lot of information about it, have you read it?" Davers changed the subject and asked.

"Your Majesty, it's not like you don't know, I've been in Laos before, how can I have time to visit the teacher." As soon as Henipolis mentioned Laos, he felt a little uncomfortable in his heart.

"I have read these materials and discussed them with Ansitanos, and I have come to understand that the Phoenicians had many colonies in the western Mediterranean, and they colonized much earlier than we Greeks, but why do we only know one Carthage?"

"yes, why?" Henipolis asked with interest.

Davers elaborates: "Because the Phoenicians colonized in a different way than we Greeks. The Greeks colonized because they were too numerous to feed a larger population, and were forced to colonize in order to survive in order to gain new land and be able to survive...... Phoenician colonization ...... No, it should not be called colonization, but a commercial activity, and the Phoenicians ventured into the western Mediterranean hundreds of years ago in order to obtain high profits, and as a result they discovered silver mines in the Iberian Peninsula and precious metals in Sardinia...... In order to collect these precious metals and transport them back to Phoenicia, they built many barns on the coast of Africa, in the western part of Sicily.

Please note that this is a barn, not a town! Most of the Phoenicians in the barracks were engaged in metalworking and transshipment trade, and in order to meet their daily needs, they had to trade with the neighboring natives and our Greek city-states, so the Phenicians were the most integrated race in the western Mediterranean and in harmony with the surrounding foreign races. Even if a royal strife broke out in Phoenician, causing some members of the Tyre royal family to flee to Carthage, which led to the rise of Carthage, replacing Tyre, the mother state of Phoenician, as the new trading center of the Phoenicians in the western Mediterranean, and the Carthaginians and Greeks living in harmony—"

"Wait a minute, Your Majesty. The Carthaginians, however, were full of malice towards the Sicilian Greeks, repeatedly invaded the territory of the Greeks, and they also sacrificed children and behaved ugly! Henipolis hastily interrupted Davers's words and said angrily.

Davers didn't care, he smiled lightly: "It's their custom in Carthage to sacrifice children, I won't comment. But according to your teacher's review of the materials, he came to the conclusion that 'it was our Greeks who took the initiative to attack Carthage's allies several times that led to its counterattack. ’

A hundred years ago, the Spartan prince Dolius claimed that the land near Erix in western Sicily had been the resting place of his ancestor Hercules, so he wanted to build a city there. Eryx was the religious center of the Carthaginians in Sicily, how could it be possible for the arrogant Spartans to build a city, so Carthage launched a war to drive out the Greek coalition brought by Sparta.

It was only when the army of the tyrant Dillon of Syracuse launched an attack on Kathage's friendly ally Himera decades earlier, attracting Carthage reinforcements. However, after Dillon defeated Carthage, he portrayed the war as a great victory comparable to that of the Greek coalition against the Persians.

I am afraid that most of the Carthaginian terror images have been deliberately propagated by the Syracuse people in order to force the other city-states of Sicily to rally around it......"

"Your Majesty, are you saying that this is all a trick of the Syracuses?!" Henipolis was amazed.

"The Carthaginians' mother Bontel and Sidon were unable to provide a steady stream of new immigrants like the Greeks, and the Carthaginians, who were not very populous, may have been wary of the covetousness of Greek immigrants from the Eastern Mediterranean to western Sicily, so they had to show force from time to time to deter their greed......"

After Davers finished speaking, Henipolis laughed: "Your Majesty, you speak like this, as if you are not a Greek. ”

Davers said with a straight face: "Only from the standpoint of a neutral can we appreciate the true feelings of the Carthaginians, and I think that Carthage at this time will be happy to accept the friendship of a powerful neighbor in Greece!" Davers said this, but what he thought in his heart was: Dionya at this time could not afford to provoke Carthage, which had a strong war potential, so don't wake it up, let him continue to do business, trade, and run a farm with confidence.

……………………………

Dionysius' ship took advantage of its familiarity with the east coast of Sicily to escape the pursuing Clipper de Theoria by taking them into the reef area. While passing through Tonis, the boat circumvented the blockade of the Dionian fleet and finally reached the island of Ortigia.

Surrounded by the sea on three sides, the island of Ortigea is full of cliffs and walls, and its defense is quite tight. It also had a small port of its own, but it could neither dock nor get on the island unless it was allowed by the islanders, but for Dionysius this was not a problem.

As soon as Dionysius arrived on the island, Hyparinus, Calidmus, and Mercenaries, the leader of the mercenaries, arrived one after another.

"Apollo bless! Master Dionysius, you're back! While you were away, Herois started a rebellion, and he instigated ......"

After listening to the rambling narration of the minister Calidmus, Dionysius's heart sank to the bottom, and when he saw the Dionian fleet in the sea near Tonis, he had a very bad premonition in his heart, but now the premonition has become a reality, he did not expect that the situation in Syracuse would be so bad: the coalition led by Macias was defeated by the Dionian army, and almost all the city-states north of Syracuse rebelled and broke away from Syracuse's control. The city of Syracuse, with the exception of the island of Ortikia, became the domain of the rebels......

The more he listened, the more annoyed he became, and he couldn't help yelling: "So much nonsense! Stop it! ”

Kalidemus was immediately silent.

Dionysius stood there gasping for breath, straightened out his chaotic thoughts a little, and looked up at his father-in-law: "Where is Felistus?!" ”