Ocliton immediately stood up, wanting to eliminate the impact of the other party's words on the senators: "Pretakuba, do you know that the current Dionya is much stronger than the original Syracuse!" They have at least ten legions, four fleets, and a population of 2 million, and the size of their territory is far from comparable to the territory and city-state controlled by Syracuse at the beginning, so it can easily form an army of 100,000 people, and can we do it?! Therefore, it is not appropriate for us to go to war with Dionya now, but to speed up our expansion in the interior of Africa, and increase our strength, so that we can fight Dioonia in the future! ”

Pretakuba sneered: "In the future? When will it be in the future?! Wait for Dionia to completely occupy all of Italy?! I think there's never been a better time to go to war with Dionia! Because Dionya is experiencing a drought and they are short of food! Your Excellency may not have forgotten that we just rejected their request for food, let alone 100,000 men, and I doubt that Dionia will be able to organize 50,000 soldiers!

We own western Sicily, Numibia, southern Iberia, and are allies with the great powers of Rome in central Italy and the Kingdom of Mauritania in western Africa. And I heard that the Samonians, who were forced to form an alliance with Dionya the last time they were defeated, are now very dissatisfied with Dionia, and it is entirely possible that they will be co-opted by us, as well as the Spartans who are afraid of Dionia's might...... You see that Dionia seems to be powerful, but in fact it has a lot of enemies, and our odds are great! ”

Pretakuba's words caused a stir among the senators.

Hanno, who had been silent, frowned slightly when he heard the words "southern Iberia".

At this time, he saw the leader of the neutral faction, Esyaruba, standing up with a serious face: "Everyone, you all know that I don't like war, and the war with Syracuse cost me a son, but I want to remind you of one thing, for more than a year, our Carthaginian trade with Sardinia has been sharply reduced! What's with?! I think you are well aware that the judges we sent to the various city-states of Sardinia investigated and found out that the people of these city-states secretly sailed to the Dionian cities of Enona and Poseidonia, across the sea from Sardinia, to buy clay pots, olive oil, wine, and even livestock...... Wait a minute.

Although our judges urged the city-states of Sardinia to strengthen their administration, they did not stop it, because the Dionians sold goods at a much lower price than we did. Unlike the previous Campanian Confederate city-states, Dionya ignored our protests and even imposed restrictions on our merchants in Dionia, such as the recent Dionian commercial officials who punished several of our merchants in Lokley simply because they sold grain at a higher price than the price that Dionian had imposed on them. It is unacceptable that Dionya should punish our merchants by determining the price of goods according to the needs of the people, which is the principle of trade followed by the merchants of the various city-states of the Mediterranean!

Ladies and gentlemen, our ancestors of Carthage came here from Tyre, lived by business, and gradually prospered, and finally became strong today, without prosperous trade, there would be no strong Carthage, commerce is our root! I don't care if Dionya takes more land, but now it is deliberately restricting our trade and trying to dig out our roots, which must cause us to be vigilant! We must also fight back strongly! Ask the Ionians to make concessions on trade! ”

Esyaruba's speech was deafening and resonated with the elders:

"Lord Esyaruba is right! My caravan no longer sells wine to Sardinia, because very few people buy it, and the Dioonians are all playing tricks on it! ”

"It is not enough to make Dionya make concessions on trade, as long as it continues to expand, then there will only be fewer and fewer city-states and monopolies for our free trade, and Carthage will in the future have to submit to Dionya because of the exhaustion of trade! If we want trade to continue to thrive, we must destroy the kingdom of Dionia! ”

"Yes, we will unite with Rome and wage war against Dionya together! Regain our dominance of the Western Mediterranean! ”

……

Listening to these words in the hall, Hanno's face became more and more gloomy, he did not know in his heart that the continuous expansion of Dionya in recent years was the greatest threat to the security of Carthage, but he did not want to start a war at this time, for two reasons: first, the occupation of the Numibian region was still unstable; Second, although Margo was driven to the Iberian Peninsula, he occupied a large area there, built several towns, and appointed his own officials, and always disobeyed the orders of the Senate, and Hanno tried many times to strengthen Carthage's administration of those newly occupied territories, but some of the methods he adopted were ultimately unsuccessful, which gave him a headache. If the war against Dionya was launched at this time, it would have given the warlike family a chance to return to the Carthaginian Senate!

Having been in operation in the Senate for more than ten years, Hanno had taken full control of it. Although the words of Pretakuba and Esyaruba greatly touched the elders in the meeting, as long as Hanno did not give a final nod, the elders who were attached to him would not easily vote in favor of it, and the proposal would not be able to form a final resolution because the number of supporters was not enough.

And Hanno insisted on withstanding the pressure and did not express his position for seven days.

……………………………………

Cadiz, a colony founded by the Phoenician powerhouse Tyre in the southern part of the Iberian Peninsula. It is said that it was discovered hundreds of years ago, when a high-ranking official of Tyre was caught in a storm while traveling to the Baleari Islands, and the ship was blown off course, sailed past the Pillar of Hercules, and stopped on a beach. So the colony of Cadiz was established here.

With the discovery of a large number of silver veins, iron and other metals in the southern part of the Iberian Peninsula, and the intensification of trade between the Phoenicians and the kingdom of Tartesus in the southern part of the Iberian Peninsula, and their de facto control of the mining and metal ore processing industry throughout the southern Iberian Peninsula, Cadiz became prosperous, and it soon became the main transportation hub for the Phoenician trade activities in Iberia, and perhaps even the most prosperous of the entire Phoenician colonies in the Western Mediterranean. Huge quantities of silver from the Iberian Peninsula were mined, melted, and processed into a steady stream of silver sent to Tyre to meet the needs of its overlord, Assyria, and thus to gain more freedom for the Tyrians.

But in the following hundred years, the eastern Mediterranean was plagued by wars and hegemonic changes, and the mother state of Tyre declined, and Carthage then rose to take the place of Tyre, and over the course of a hundred years, all the Phoenician colonies in the western Mediterranean were brought under its jurisdiction, and Cadiz was no exception.

The silver and other metal blocks processed in the city of Cadiz were first transported to Carthage, where the Carthaginians controlled all trade with the mother states of the Eastern Mediterranean.

When the Magonides set foot in the Iberian Peninsula, they were not allowed to interfere in the affairs of the Cadiz, according to the rules of the Carthaginian Senate. But after more than ten years of operation, Cadiz has been secretly brought under the control of the Magonid family.

On this day, a dilapidated merchant ship sailed outside the port of Cadiz, and to the surprise of the people of the port, it was a group of Greeks.

So, the city hall of Cadiz, which got the news, immediately sent a patrol to detain the people on board, only to learn that the merchant ship was from the Kingdom of Dionia, and it was originally going to trade with the Greek colonial city-state of Sagunto in the north of the Iberian Peninsula, but unexpectedly encountered a storm and the cargo ship was blown to the coast of Cadiz.

The friendship agreement between Carthage and Dionya stipulated that the Dioonians were not allowed to trade directly with other Carthaginian colonial or affiliated city-states except with Carthage, otherwise they would be punished, but the punishment would have to be heard by the officials of both sides. If, for some reason, they enter Carthage's possessions by mistake, they may be allowed to leave without remaining in their place after clarifying the situation.

Therefore, when the Cadiz understood the situation, they urged the merchant ship to leave, but the problem was that the merchant ship was too badly damaged and had to be repaired before it could go to sea again, so the Cadiz had to send the ship to the shipyard for repairs, and put the Dionians under house arrest in the hotel and not to go out, of course, they had to pay for the repair and food of the ship.

During this time, someone sneaked into the room of the owner of the merchant ship, Ionis, who claimed to be a Phoenician from Huelva, whose owner was a great merchant of Huelva, who owned thousands of mining slaves and controlled the mining rights of several silver mines, and mined several tons of silver ore every month, which could have made more money, but Carthage forced them not to sell to the outside world, but could only process the mined metal ore and sell it to Carthage, and the profit was much less. Therefore, his master was very unhappy with this, hoping to find a secret sales channel and sell the mountains of silver at a higher price......

Ionis was a little moved to hear this. Having been an emancipated slave to the Kunograta family and later granted citizenship, he became a merchant with the support of Sostatus, and he was in constant contact with his benefactor, Sostatus, who knew that the Ministry of Commerce of the Kingdom of Dioonia had a concern.