In this world, if you don't have the courage you won't be able to accomplish anything; Courage is the greatest quality second only to honor. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo

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

When the Julius family and the Germanic barbarians were in a mess, the situation on the Greek peninsula became more and more serious, and the situation of the Brutus family became more and more difficult; The decay of the Macedonian kingdom was evident throughout the Greek peninsula, but the rise of the Thracians was extremely disturbing.

In terms of land distribution, the four provinces of the Kingdom of Macedonia are not very well distributed; The Peloponnesian Province, the richest province of the kingdom, was cut off from the kingdom itself by the Athenian city-state, for which the Macedonian kingdom waged several wars against the Athenian city-state, but all of them ended in the defeat of the Athenian city-state.

In desperation, the Macedonian kingdom had to rely on its navy to maintain the connection between the mainland and the Peloponnesian Province; With the exception of the Peloponnese, the other three provinces of the Kingdom of Macedonia were not geographically located and were at least unsuitable for defense.

The province of Macedonia, the capital of the Kingdom of Macedonia, was a province connected to the Propontes region of the Thracian barbarians; To the north of its capital, the province of Paionia was connected to the Thracian barbarian regions of Proptonis and Thrace, both of which were under siege by the Thracian barbarians, and were basically easy to attack and difficult to defend.

As for the fourth province of the Macedonian kingdom, the province of Thessaly, located in the center of the Greek peninsula, it was even more difficult to protect itself; Because the province of Thessaly of the Kingdom of Macedonia, to the south is the province of Epirus and the province of Etturia of the Brutus family, and to the east is the city-state of Athens, the sworn enemy of the Kingdom of Macedonia.

Such a geographical location made it even more difficult for the already weak Macedonian kingdom to develop; The ambitions of the Brutus family were known throughout the Greek peninsula, and the feud between the Athenian city-state and the Macedonian kingdom was not a day or two, even the Thracian barbarians, who had been under the rule of Alexander the Great, had been seeking revenge since Alexander's empire seceded.

Faced with such a situation surrounded by enemies, the king of the Macedonian kingdom still fantasized about recreating the glory of his ancestor Alexander the Great all day long, and put some words on his lips to restore the territory of the Macedonian kingdom, which could not help but make people sneer at him.

Of course, the situation on the Greek peninsula is far more complicated than outsiders think, and it is not only the Macedonian kingdom that is in a difficult situation, but every other power on the Greek peninsula is in a bad situation, even worse than the Macedonian kingdom.

For example, the city-states of Athens and Sparta, which were composed of Greeks, the strength of the Athenian city-state has always been very strong, but it is only the strength of a city-state, and it is impossible to compare with such a powerful existence as the Kingdom of Macedonia; In previous wars, the Athenian city-state relied on the concerted efforts of all the city-states throughout Attica to defeat the invading Macedonian army.

Even so, the Athenian city-state could not change its own precarious situation; After all, the city-state of Athens was just an isolated city-state, and the southern part of the city-state of Athens was the Peloponnesian province of the Kingdom of Macedonia, and the western part of the province of Thessaly of the Kingdom of Macedonia.

In order to be able to resist the invasion of the Macedonian kingdom, the Athenian city-state could only focus its development on the seas east and north of the Attica region; This is the key to the fact that the city-state of Athens had a powerful naval fleet and extremely prosperous maritime trade, and the development of the region of Attica was simply not available on land, but only by sea.

As for the other Greek city-state that was stronger than the Athenian city-state, it was the undoubted Spartan city-state; The region of Laconia, ruled by the Spartan city-state, did not exist in any other Greek city-state, and that was the territory of the Spartan city-state.

Theoretically, the city-state of Sparta was also the overlord city-state of the entire Greek city-state alliance; In other words, the Spartan city-states could also gain the support of other powerful Greek city-states that were members of the alliance of Greek city-states, and wield the power to command them.

It is a pity that only three of the five Greek city-states that once formed the Greek city-state alliance have left; The ancient city of Syrac, which ruled the Greater Sicilian region, was peacefully annexed by the Roman family Augustus, and the Semon city-state, which ruled the Aetoria region, was also cleverly annexed by the Roman Brutus family because of the ambitions of Pyrrhus.

After the loss of the city-states of Syra and Semon, the Greek city-states were left with only the city-states of Sparta and Rhodes, as well as the city-states of Pergamon; The crux of the matter is that the city-state of Sparta was at the southernmost tip of the Greek peninsula, while the city-state of Rhodes was on the island of Rhodes in the Aegean Sea, and the city-state of Pergamon was in the Phrygian region of the eastern continent.

The disconnected alliance of Greek city-states had become a formal alliance with no practical meaning at all; Naturally, the Spartan city-state could not have the support of the so-called Greek city-state alliance, which meant that the Spartan city-state was just an isolated city-state similar to the Athenian city-state, with the only difference being that the Spartan city-state was more militarily powerful.

At present, there are only four forces on the Greek peninsula, that is, there are only four families: the Brutus family, the Macedonian kingdom, the Athenian city-state, and the Spartan city-state; Except for the Brutus family, the other three forces have their own contradictions with each other, and they cannot stabilize the situation on the Greek Peninsula at all, but the existence of the Brutus family has made the already unstable situation on the Greek Peninsula enter a white-hot state.

After the Brutus family occupied the kingdom of Epirus, they naturally had the strength to threaten the southern part of the Macedonian kingdom, and the Macedonian kingdom was definitely unlikely to have any good feelings for the Brutus family; Later, the Brutus family used the hand of Pyrus to annex the city-state of Semon, a union of Greek city-states, which caused strong hostility between the city-states of Athens and Sparta.

In any case, the city-state of Semon was part of the Greek city-state, and Aeturia was also the territory of the Greeks; The annexation of the Greeks by the Brutus family of the Romans was undoubtedly unacceptable to the Athenian city-state, which was also Greek.

The Spartan city-state was originally the leader of the Greek city-state alliance, and the Semon city-state, which was one of the members of the Greek city-state alliance, was thus annexed by the Brutus family; If it weren't for the fact that the Spartan city-state did not border the Brutus family at all, the Spartan city-state would have directly started a war against the Brutus family, and would not have talked nonsense with the Brutus family at all.

The Brutus family, who successively acquired the kingdom of Epirus and the city-state of Semon, already had the geographical advantage of threatening the entire southern part of the Macedonian kingdom; This was an unacceptable result for the Macedonian kingdom, which was already under enemy on all sides.

A weak neighbor is better than a strong neighbor, and the previous kingdoms of Epirus and the city-states of Semon are more suitable to be neighbors of the Macedonian kingdom than the ambitious and powerful Brutus family; In order to prevent the Brutus family from attacking at any time, almost all of the main army of the Macedonian kingdom moved to the border area between the Macedonian kingdom and the Brutus family.

From a purely military point of view, the thirteen legions owned by the Brutus family have seriously endangered the security of all the powers in the Greek peninsula; In order to cope with the huge army of the Brutus, all the powers of the Greek peninsula, including the Kingdom of Macedonia, have been actively expanding their military warfare.

In fact, four of the thirteen legions of the Brutus family were not considered the army of the Brutus family at all; The commanders of these four legions were appointed by Sulla and Pompey, and the weapons, equipment, and food and grass supplies were also provided by Sulla and Pompey, and even the military salaries of the soldiers were issued by Sulla and Pompey, and Tiberius even tacitly agreed that these four legions belonged to Sulla and Pompey.

Even so, in the eyes of the outside world, these thirteen legions were all the armies of the Brutus family; In fact, there was nothing wrong with this view before the Brutus family completed their conquest of the entire Greek peninsula, and they were indeed under the command of the Brutus.

While the other three parties of the Greek peninsula turned their attention to the Brutus, the Thracian barbarians brazenly launched a war against the Macedonian kingdom; The most powerful tribe of Thracian barbarians, the Thyrian tribe, led by its leader Saudus, gathered a Thracian army of 30,000 men and launched a surprise attack on the region of Paionia in the Macedonian kingdom.

The Kingdom of Macedonia, which had drawn almost all of its main army, simply did not have enough troops to cope with the Thracian army's attack; In just seven days, the Thracian barbarian army occupied the entire region of Paionia, and the governor of the Macedonian kingdom of Paionia was hanged on the city wall by the leader of the Tyris tribe, Saudes.

After taking Paionia, the ambitions of the Thracian barbarians did not stop there, and Saudes continued to lead his army to attack directly on the capital province of the Kingdom of Macedonia in the south of Paionia; If it weren't for the royal legions of the Kingdom of Macedonia fighting desperately to repel the Thracian army, I am afraid that the empty Macedonian Kingdom in the rear would have been occupied by the Thracian barbarians.

In order to repel the attack of the Thracian barbarians, the most elite royal legions of the Macedonian kingdom paid a very heavy price, and the entire legion was crippled; The Thracian barbarians, who were repulsed, retreated to the Paionia region with the loss of their troops, and the disadvantages of the Macedonian kingdom were still obvious, and their strength in their hands was simply not enough to recover Paionia.

At such a time, there would be no point in leaving the main army in the border area with the Brutus family; As a result, the king of the Macedonian kingdom directly transferred all the main forces deployed in the border areas back to use them in the war against the Thracian barbarians. (To be continued.) )