Matter and form are abstract concepts, and a concrete thing contains both. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

- Aristotle (one of the great philosophers, scientists, and educators in the ancient history of the world)

The city-states of Athens and Sparta had no deep hatred since ancient times, and when the city-states of the Greek peninsula joined forces against the invasion of the Persian Empire hundreds of years ago, the city-states of Athens and Sparta were the two main leaders of the alliance; The powerful navy of the Athenian city-state dominated the allied naval operations, while the strong infantry of the Spartan city-state dominated the allied land operations.

Thanks to the concerted efforts of the city-states of Athens and Sparta, the forces of the Greek Peninsula were victorious, and the Athenian city-states paid the price of countless warriors spilling the blood of the Aegean Sea, and the kings of the Spartan city-states and the most elite Spartan hoplites were also killed in the Thermopylae Pass.

Later, after the rise of Alexander the Great, all the city-states on the Greek peninsula were annexed by Alexander the Great's Macedonian kingdom; Even the city-states of Athens and Sparta were conquered by Alexander the Great, and the Greek peninsula was one of the most central areas of Alexander's empire after the Macedonian kingdom became Alexander's empire.

Unfortunately, Alexander's empire did not last long, and with the untimely death of Alexander the Great, the unprecedentedly large Alexander empire fell apart; Alexander the Great's widow succeeded to the throne of the Macedonian kingdom, and his main generals established independent states such as the Kingdom of Egypt and the Seleucid Empire.

The city-states on the Greek peninsula, large and small, got rid of the rule of the Macedonian kingdom after the death of Alexander the Great and returned to their own independent era; However, the strength of the Kingdom of Macedonia was not something that the small city-states of the Greek Peninsula could resist, and the Peloponnese, the most prosperous region of the Greek Peninsula in the past, became the territory of the Kingdom of Macedonia.

Even so, there were many other independent Greek city-states, which had regained their freedom, and understood that in order to resist the invasion of the Macedonian kingdom, the Greek city-states should be closely united and concentrate their strength on the threat of the Macedonian kingdom.

In such an environment, the alliance of Greek city-states led by the Spartan city-state was born; However, the city-state of Athens, which once fought side by side with the city-state of Sparta, refused the invitation of the city-state of Sparta and became an independent power on the Greek peninsula between the Kingdom of Macedonia and the alliance of Greek city-states.

The city-state of Sparta actually understood the decision of the city-state of Athens to refuse to join the League of Greek City-States; If it was not the Spartan city-state but the Athenian city-state that initiated the Greek city-state alliance, then His Majesty the King of the Spartan city-state would not hesitate to refuse to join the Greek city-state alliance, which is the relationship between the Athenian city-state and the Spartan city-state.

A loose organization such as the League of Greek City-States must have a strong city-state in an absolute hegemony position, so that it can truly unite the strength of the other member city-states and confront the ambitious Macedonian kingdom; Needless to say, both the Athenian and Spartan city-states had such power, but they were unwilling to submit to the other's position.

If there were two leaders in the Greek city-state alliance, it would soon be torn apart by internal power struggles; In order to avoid this situation, and for the better development of the alliance of Greek city-states and their own city-states, the Athenian city-state directly rejected the invitation of the Spartan city-state.

Unlike in the past, there is no need for the current city-states of Athens and Sparta to abandon their alliance for the sake of these concerns; The once mighty Macedonian kingdom has become history, the member city-states of the Greek city-states alliance have also been destroyed by the power of the Roman Republic, the Brutus family has never been stronger in the Greek peninsula, and the city-states of Athens and Sparta are once again facing an existential crisis.

Compared to the decaying Macedonian kingdom, the ambitious Brutus always made the rest of the Greek peninsula feel more oppressive; Especially in the current Greek peninsula, apart from the Brutus family, only the city-states of Athens and Sparta remained.

In response to the aggressiveness of the Brutus family, the Athenian city-state decided to take the initiative to seek an alliance with the Spartan city-state; The Spartan city-states also understood the truth of the bitter lips, and they put aside the contradictions between the two city-states on the Corinthian issue, accepted the Athenian city-state's request for an alliance, and offered to form a combined Greek army to deal with the military threat of the Brutus.

From the perspective of their respective advantages, the combination of the military superiority of the Spartan city-state and the economic superiority of the Athenian city-state would have a very good effect; After the city-state of Athens and the city-state of Sparta agreed to form a combined army, the city-state of Athens took out millions of gold coins as funds, and the city-state of Sparta took out 5,000 Spartan hoplites and 10,000 Greek hoplites as the core combat force.

With 5,000 Spartan hoplites and 10,000 pikemen in the Spartan city-state as the core, the Athenian and Spartan city-states recruited 35,000 Greek warriors in three regions at the southern tip of the Greek peninsula; These Greek warriors were all armed into well-armed Greek pikemen and began to undergo rigorous training from the armies of the Spartan city-states.

This combined legion of the Athenian and Spartan city-states was an army of pure Greeks and an army of pikemen; Although the soldiers of the Spartan city-state ensured their combat effectiveness, their troops were still too homogeneous, and if they did engage the enemy on the battlefield, they would inevitably be at a disadvantage.

How to enhance the combat effectiveness of the coalition army has become a difficult problem for the Spartan city-state, the rulers of the Athenian city-state will not intervene in the specific management of the army, they will only provide a steady stream of financial and material support for the coalition army, and the specific military problems are solved by the more professional generals of the Spartan city-state, which is also the tacit understanding between the Athenian city-state and the Spartan city-state.

While the generals of the Spartan city-state were trying to figure out how to improve the combat effectiveness of their army, the naval fleet of the Athenian city-state brought back 10,000 elite Rhodesan slingers from the Rhodes city-state in the Aegean Sea; These elite slingers, recruited from the city-state of Rhodes by the city-state of Athens, were all handed over to the coalition forces by the city-state of Athens for unified command.

The efforts of the Athenian city-state were seen by the Spartan city-state, and the arrogant Spartan city-state naturally would not take advantage of the Athenian city-state like this; On the sixth day after the Athenian city-state recruited 10,000 Rhodes' slingers and handed them over to the unified command of the coalition forces, the Spartan city-state did its best to join the coalition army's newly formed 10,000 Greek cavalry.

After the efforts of the Athenian city-states and the Spartan city-states, this coalition army formed by the Athenian city-states and the Spartan city-states finally had a size of 70,000 men, and was stationed on the border between the Athenian city-states and the Brutus family to prevent a possible invasion by the Brutus family.

The fact that the last two remaining Greek city-states on the Greek peninsula have united is very exciting news for the whole Greek nation; The two sides have carried out a series of friendly cooperation since the alliance, and the originally estranged relationship has also quickly warmed up.

The day after the 70,000 allied troops were led by the meticulous generals of the Spartan city-state to arrive in the border area between the Athenian city-state and the Brutus family, the Athenian city-state withdrew all the troops stationed in Corinth from Corinth, and officially renounced the ownership of Corinth by the Athenian city-state and made Corinth in the Peloponnese a public city for the Greeks!

After learning that the Athenian city-state had renounced the possession of Corinth, the Spartan city-state also officially announced that the Spartan city-state would also permanently renounce the possession of Corinth, and recognized the arrangement of the Athenian city-state to Corinth, protecting Corinth's eternal existence as a public city for the Greeks.

As the Athenian and Spartan city-states made concessions to each other on the Corinthian question, the alliance between the two sides became stronger; The city-state of Sparta even sent a military mission of nearly 1,000 people to the city-state of Athens at the invitation of the city-state of Athens to help improve the combat effectiveness of the armies of all the Greek city-states in the entire Attica region.

In return, the city-state of Athens also gave the city-state of Sparta a full one million gold coins and various grain and grass materials worth two million gold coins free of charge when the financial resources of the city-state of Sparta were almost exhausted; In addition, the supply of food and grass for the coalition army, which was supposed to be jointly borne by the city-state of Athens and the city-state of Sparta, was also borne by the city-state of Athens, and the city-state of Sparta was no longer required to bear it.

It has to be admitted that external pressure is indeed conducive to the rapid movement of a disunited nation towards unity and union; Even the two Greek city-states of Athens and Sparta, which had not come together for a hundred or two years, quickly united under the pressure of the Brutus family, and played the slogan 'The Greek Peninsula is the Peninsula of the Greeks', which made the Brutus family feel incredible.

However, none of this affected the Brutus' determination to unite the Greek peninsula; Even if the city-states of Athens and Sparta came together and even formed a combined army of 70,000 men, so what?

The strength of the Brutus family is not at all comparable to that of the Athenian and Spartan city-states, and the unification of the Greek peninsula by the powerful Brutus family is also the general trend; With the strength of the city-states of Athens and Sparta, how could they block the unification of the Brutus family on the Greek peninsula, and could they resist the attack of the Brutus family just because they were united?

From the point of view of the ruling regions, the Athenian and Spartan city-states had only three provinces, while the Brutus family had four whole provinces; What's more, the combined ruling area of the Athenian city-state and the Spartan city-state is not as large as the area of a Thessaly province of the Brutus family, and the difference in strength between the two sides is too great! (To be continued.) )