Mediterranean Hegemon of Ancient Greece

“Young man, don't get so fired up.” Ansitanos continued to sit calmly as he comforts his student. He then pointed to a jar on the table beside him, “Come and have a taste of this water from Carthage to quench your thirst. It tastes good, sour and sweet. I just had my attendant buy it at the market in Syracuse.”

“No, I won't drink it!” Said Henipolis as he sat angrily on the wooden chair, causing it to make a creaking sound.

“Heni.” knowing his student's temper, Ansitanos said, “In the future, you will be the archon of Laos, so you must not act on impulse. If we were to return like this without seeing Dionysius, we will not only be blamed for not completing our mission, but also the Syracusans will just laugh at our lack of manners-”

“It's clearly Dionysius who do not have any manners by not meeting us in time. How could they blame us?!” Cried Henipolis defiantly, interrupting Ansitanos.

“Because they could just say, ‘I am busy negotiating with the Carthaginians that is why I was unable to meet you immediately…’ After all, for the Syracusans, Carthage is more important than us Theonians.” Ansitanos said calmly.

Henipolis snorted and looked at Ansitanos, “Teacher, in fact, Dionysius just wanted to ignore us and make a fool of Theonia, right?!”

“If Dionysius were really such a small-minded person, he would not have been able to sit as the tyrant of Syracuse. I am afraid that he just treats different matters with different importance.” Ansitanos stroked his somewhat grey beard, with wisdom gleaming through his eyes, “Hence we should not worry at all, as we only need to wait slowly…and see the weight of Theonia Union in Dionysius' mind.”

Young as he was, Henipolis was not a fool. On the contrary, his talent is the reason why Ansitanos has allowed this student of his to accompany him to Syracuse, “Well then, I will go and watch a play in the theatre in the afternoon. Let's see who has more patience between Dionysius and us and see who couldn't stand it any longer first! To be honest, although Syracuse is larger and has more population than Thurii, it does not have the liveliness of Thurii. There is no ball games to watch here, no delicious food to eat, and the only thing you can do is go to the theatre.” Henipolis picked up the jar on the table and took a mouthful of it before spatting it all out on the floor, “This stuff is sour and fishy. It’s awful, much worse than beer!”

“Young men truly do not know what taste is.” Ansitanos hurriedly took the jar, fearing that Henipolis would waste all the water in it, “You know, the Carthaginians learned to make this from the Numidians, and after some minor improvements, it made the taste more suitable for sailors at sea. In Numidia, this is not just for quenching their thirst, as it is also a part of their food…”

“What does this Numidia have to do with us? Listening from your tone, it seems that you just want to study the history of this race.” Henipolis said with disapproval, thinking he knew this teacher of his better.

“It's not me. It's the owner of the house you usually live in. He is the one who is very interested in this, asking me about Numidia many times.” Said Ansitanos as he takes a sip of the water.

“You mean lord Davos?!” Henipolis immediately became interested, “What is he asking Numidia for?! After all, Theonia Union and Numidia are separated by the sea, Sicily and Carthage, so we definitely won't have any direct contact with them whatsoever.”

Ansitanos pointed to his head and said slowly, “There are always one or two people in this world who can think from a height that others can't reach, as they have a vast space here.”

“Lord Davos is indeed an amazing man!” said Henipolis from the bottom of his heart. Suddenly, he thought of something and said, “Teacher, now that the Carthaginians have chosen a truce, I fear it is not good for us to meet Dionysius and even worse for Theonia!”

Ansitanos looked at his student with appreciation and asked, “Why?”

Knowing that his teacher was testing him again, he carefully straightened out his thoughts before saying, “In the western Mediterranean, Syracuse has always been the most powerful Greek city-state. However, due to the Carthaginians, they have been stuck in Sicily. Carthage’s powerful force in Sicily has not only kept Syracuse on guard but also threatened its survival many times. That is why dealing with Carthage alone is already very difficult for Syracuse, so where can they have the extra energy to care about things outside Sicily?!

However, the truth is, the Syracusans have always been interested in our Magna Graecia. I remember that decades ago, Hieron, the tyrant of Syracuse, has even sent his troops into Magna Graecia. But now, in recent years, the situation in Sicily has changed a lot. In Carthage’s two major military campaigns, Syracuse has badly beaten them to the point that they had to offer a truce as they had suffered more than 20,000 casualties. Thus I fear that Carthage could not threaten Syracuse anymore.”

Ansitanos nodded and praised his student's opinions. However, he believed Syracuse would not take military action against Magna Graecia, so he said, “The Carthaginians’ defeat lied in the fact that even though it appeared that they are at war with Syracuse, but in fact, they are fighting against the power of the entire Greek city-state because the Peloponnesian League headed by Sparta and Napoli in Campania would not allow foreigners to completely occupy Sicily and let them cut off the trade routes between the eastern and the western Mediterranean, which could even threaten their rear. So I believed that after these two tragic defeats, the Carthaginians would become smarter and not easily start a war in Sicily, and with its strength in Africa, they will still be the biggest threat to Syracuse.”

“Teacher, you are right! However, at least for now, Syracuse is much more powerful than Carthage. So I fear that after their armistice with Carthage, the Carthaginians will certainly retreat to the west of Sicily, and Syracuse's unification of Sicily is something that anyone could already see and might happen in the near future.” He said anxiously.

“Yes, that's what our union should focus on next.” Muttered Ansitanos.

“Paying attention to it is not enough. I don't think Dionysius would be satisfied being just the hegemon of Sicily. After all, Dionysius is a greedy man, as we could see from him triggering both with Carthage due to his expansion of his territory. So once Sicily is stable, he will probably aim at Magna Graecia.”

Although Ansitanos disagreed with Henipolis' exaggeration of Syracuse's threat of war, Ansitanos, as a scholar, enjoyed debating with his students, which helped get inspiration. So he frowned and asked, “Why must it be Magna Graecia?”

“Because to the south of Sicily is Carthage, and Dionysius, even though he is arrogant, would still not dare to go into the real territory of Carthage; To the east, is Sparta's sphere of influence; To the west is the Iberian Peninsula, which was not only a long voyage, but was also reported to have several colonies of Carthage, and Dionysius would never make the same mistake as Athens unless he had lost his mind. Therefore, the only place left is Magna Graecia to the north, which was only separated from Sicily by the narrow Strait of Messina. And Dionysius could send a hundred thousand troops to Magna Graecia in just half a day.”

And I believe that Dionysius had long been coveting Magna Graecia. Otherwise, he would not have married a Locrian woman and allied with Locri. Now, even though he was fighting against Carthage, he still did not forget to send spies to make a disturbance in Theonia, which shows his ambition for Magna Graecia!”

“Heni, what you should need to understand is that being ambitious is one thing and being able to wage war is another. Dionysius might covet Magna Graecia, but Magna Graecia has our Theonia Union now.” Said Ansitanos. Then a strange thought suddenly rose in his heart, ‘If Thurii were still the former Thurii, then it would have been unthinkable for the city-states of Magna Graecia to face the behemoth that is Syracuse. Thankfully, Hades had sent Davos, who had established Theonia Union and had almost integrated the power of Magna Graecia, which cause Dionysius to be cautious!’

“Besides, I heard that Syracuse's war every year has caused their treasury to be unable to make ends meet, causing the people to be greatly dissatisfied. I believe that you had already felt it when you were strolling around the city these past few days. So under such a bad situation, can Syracuse launch another large-scale war like their previous war against Carthage? I do not think that it is possible. Moreover, we have come to Syracuse this time to show Dionysius the determination of our Theonia Union and to eliminate his unrealistic ambitions once and for all!” Said Ansitanos with confidence.

Henipolis, influenced by him, nodded cautiously.

At this time, the attendant came into the guestroom and said, “Lord Ansitanos, someone is looking for you outside. They said that Philistus had sent them.”

Philistus, the great minister of Dionysius? Ansitanos and his student looked at each other…

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

Philistus has invited Ansitanos for a banquet tonight.

At dusk, the carriage sent by Philistus has already arrived at the guesthouse, and Ansitanos and Henipolis got on the carriage.

The place where Ansitanos has been staying is in the urban centre of Syracuse. Syracuse was initially just the Ortygia Island, but when Gelon became the tyrant of Syracuse a few decades ago, he led a large number of settlers and began expanding inland. Afterwards, the expanded urban area became the central area of Syracuse, with most temples, theatres and markets being concentrated here. However, this large area was only a small part of the subsequent expansion of the urban area by Syracuse.

In the decades after the rise of Gelon, Syracuse expanded the urban area to the northeast, which even includes a place close to the coast three times larger than the central area of Syracuse, and this coastal area also had a quarry with abundant reserves.