Plato smiled and said seriously: "My opinions have been finished in the previous scholarly conferences, and there is nothing new, so how can I be embarrassed to stand on the podium again." Besides, the speeches of many young scholars at this scholar conference are also very wonderful, especially your son Apox, who has made such an amazing discovery at such a young age, which is really enviable! Moreover, most of these young scholars are from your Ionian Academy, which shows that your Ionian years of unremitting investment in education are finally beginning to bear fruit. In comparison, the other city-states, including our Athens, are far behind! At this point, Plato's face showed a little worry.

"Yesterday, Spicippus' speech also won praise from many scholars! Plato, you don't have to worry about having no successor! Lysias reassured.

Spitipus hurriedly got up and thanked the elders.

Plato was not modest, he pointed to his nephew and said: "Compared with the first conference of scholars, the current Spitipus has indeed made great progress, but so far he is the only one in my school that can be called a 'young scholar', and your school has produced many outstanding young scholars, this gap is very large!" ”

"The Dioonian Academy is a public institution of the kingdom, funded by the Dioonia treasury, and the best students are selected from the schools in the kingdom's towns every year, and then further cultivated, and the natural success rate will be very high. And the Akademi School Park is built by you at your own expense, and you can't recruit more students due to the limitations of funds, venues, and teachers, which of course can't be compared.

However, I have heard that the reputation of the Akademi Academy has begun to spread in the Eastern Mediterranean, and I believe that gradually more and more talented young people from various Greek city-states will be willing to study in your Academy, and the situation will be greatly improved. Lysias reassured.

Plato sighed: "As I wrote in my book The New Ideal Republic, 'If a nation or a city-state wants to achieve sustained prosperity, it must first focus on education, which can not only equip young citizens with wisdom, but also cultivate them with sound thoughts and morals from an early age. Only when the quality of the citizens is improved and they know how to think can the whole country develop healthily......

Unfortunately, we Athenian citizens do not think so, they only focus on immediate interests, hoping to be able to divide the property in the treasury equally, so a few years ago at the citizens' assembly they unanimously agreed to implement the citizens' assembly allowance system (that is, all Athenian citizens attending the assembly were given half a drachma as compensation each time, and as prices rose, this allowance was increased accordingly, and even extended to participate in other meetings to receive allowances).

Having tasted the benefits of sharing in the wealth of the city-state, they formally adopted the 'system of stipends for theatre attendance' (an occasional subsidy for the purchase of theatrical tickets to poor citizens during the Athenian celebrations, a tradition that began in the time of Pericles), and a special fiscal officer was appointed to administer the theatrical allowance......"

Plato worriedly: "Now that the citizens of Athens have enjoyed the benefits of sharing in the wealth of the city-state, they want the city-state to issue more frequent and larger subsidies, while the surplus of Athenian taxes will become smaller and smaller, and their ability to cope with the economic situation will become less and less." But the more comfortable Athenian citizens became, the more reluctant they were to engage in arduous and dangerous military operations.

Some time ago, Conon's son, Timothys, proposed at the council that 'he should lead the navy around the Peloponnese, strike at the Spartan navy, and establish the superiority of the Athenian navy once and for all.' The council approved his proposal, but no money was allocated for the levy, and the people were not enthusiastic about joining the army, so Timotheus had to raise his own money, hire soldiers, and pay for his own money, and then form a fleet to go on the expedition.

As a result, after the conquest of Corfu, the sailors refused to fight for him again due to lack of funds, and the entire military operation ended in a hurry. The military generals who encountered such a dilemma were not only Timosius, but also Iphicrates and Cabrias...... These relatively good Athenian generals also suffered from military spending restrictions, resulting in a series of Athenian military operations in recent years with little effect.

This also led to the fact that good generals who were willing to serve Athens had to serve foreign monarchs on a regular basis, and also made them have enough money or could borrow money to support their military campaigns for Athens, such as Iphiclates who not only often served the Thracians, but also married the daughter of a Thracian king, Timothys had a high reputation in Ionia, and also married the daughter of a king of the city-state of Asia Minor......

In normal times, they spent more time abroad than in Athens, because then they had more freedom to live a life of luxury and glitz without the blame of public opinion. How much loyalty do they still have to Athens over time?!

It's a vicious circle! But the citizens of Athens did not see these dangers, and most of them only valued the fact that they could go to the theater for free and get paid for sitting at the various venues every day...... That's the saddest thing! ”

Hearing this, Davers didn't want to express his opinion on the affairs of Athens, but he thought about it again, and said in a straight voice: "The Athenian government's reluctance to raise an army from the treasury to fight will lead to a worse result, the Athenian generals use the money they raise to pay the mercenaries, and the mercenaries naturally obey the orders of the generals instead of the Athenian government, and the Athenian government has completely lost control over the army, and it is difficult to order the army to carry out the strategy it has formulated." Even if the general of the unified army had some kind of ambition for Athens and ordered the army to attack Athens, would these mercenaries obey? ”

Plato was stunned when he heard this, slowly put down the wine glass that was brought to his mouth, and said hesitantly after a while: "Although there are some contradictions between Timothys and Iphiclateus, these Athenian generals are still full of love for Athens today...... But you're right, since the army is for the city-state, the city-state should of course also pay the soldiers and ensure their livelihood, and both sides have mutual obligations. However, if one party waives this obligation, the other party of course has the right not to carry out this obligation......

The day before yesterday, I came to Turii and had heard about 'Dionya raising taxes to form a border army', and the people of Dioonia are indeed very happy to have a strong and intelligent government! ”

Plato took a sip of his wine, not wanting to discuss the annoying question any longer, and continued: "The reason why I came to Turiil near the end of the Scholars' Council is because I have spent some time wandering around the other towns of Dionia. ”

"Oh!" Davers said with a regretful face: "You should tell me in advance, and let me arrange it for you, so that your travel itinerary will be more convenient and safer." ”

"I don't tell you, just to make my wandering more free, to make what I see with my eyes more real." Plato pointed to his eyes and asked narrowly, "Venerable King Davers, do you want to arrange for me, are you afraid that I will see something bad?" ”

Davers smiled heartily, "You should know me, I don't have anything to worry about." ”

"Indeed, I should congratulate you!" Plato said with great interest: "I went to the south, to Lilipa, the former military capital of Carthage, and to the great city of Rome to the north, and spent two days in Bereventum, the former central town of the Samonians...... Dionya is a vast country, and it took me a lot of time just to get there.

But I would like to correct what you have just said, the king, that the road was safe, whether by sea or land, and I had not encountered pirates, nor bandits, nor war, and that there was peace and tranquility everywhere I passed, even in the territory of the Samones, whom the Greeks called 'fierce barbarians'.

You must know that more than ten years ago, more than twenty years ago, the Greater Greece and Sicily regions were at war with Greece proper, the wars between the Greek colonial city-states, the wars between the colonial city-states and the natives, and the wars between the Greek city-states and Carthage...... Nowadays, the war conflict in Greece itself continues, but the western side of the Adriatic Sea is a completely different scene, which is a great change brought to the western Mediterranean by the existence of the Kingdom of Dionia! ”

Plato took another sip of wine and continued to speak loudly: "I have to mention another important change, although the journey was long, the transportation was very convenient, the sea routes were smooth, and the port towns I visited, no matter how large or small, had relatively good port facilities and orderly management.

As for the land routes, we have to mention that the roads that you have spent the treasury and built in large quantities are smooth, wide, and strong, and they still exist even in the mountains of Samonai and Lucania. You also build roads in the territories of the Volcy and Campanian allies...... Oh, you call it a 'road network', and it is indeed a network that unites most of the races of the Italian peninsula, facilitating their travel and trade, and increasing communication between the various ethnic groups.

When I walked down the avenue, there was always a constant stream of pedestrians, mostly with an optimistic spirit on their faces, and I saw in their faces a longing that forced them to appear in a hurry, whether in a pack cart or carrying a package, but not because of poverty, but for a better life...... And this desire is exactly what the kingdom of Dionya has given! ”