Mediterranean Hegemon of Ancient Greece

Philoxenus then said that Syracuse was willing to sign a peace agreement with Theonia.

While the prepared Davos simply said, “For Syracuse to sign a peace agreement with Theonia, you must agree to the following conditions.

First, Syracuse was the one who started this war, which caused severe damage to Theonia and Magna Graecia. Hence Syracuse must compensate Theonia two thousand talents for the reconstruction of Theonia and the other city-states of Magna Graecia.

Second, as the invaders of this war, every Syracusans captured by the Theonian army had their hands soaked with the blood of the Magna Graecians. Thus Theonia could not easily release them, so they must pay a ransom, and the identity of the prisoners would determine the ransom.

Third, Syracuse must abolish the Sicilian League.

Fourth, Syracuse must recognise that Taunis, Leontinoi, Catania, Sikuri, Naxos and Tauromenium joined the Theonia Alliance and must not infringe the interests of these city-states.

Fifth, Messina…”

Even though these harsh conditions had angered the eloquent and outspoken Philoxenus, Davos' following words made him suppress the impulse to leave immediately, “If you don't want to accept these conditions, Dionysius can talk to Theonia.”

That was what Herolis and the others feared the most. Hence to prevent Dionysius, who was already down at the bottom, from recovering, Philoxenus had to negotiate with the Theonian officials led by Ansitanos, who were under Davos.

The following day, the news of ‘Dionysius almost succeeding in his raid on Syracuse if not for the help of the Theonian army’ was transmitted back to Scylletium. Once Philoxenus learned about it, he realised the danger Herolis and others faced, so he sped up the negotiation process.

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At the same time, when the Locrians learned about the Syracusan army surrendering to Theonia, they immediately panicked.

On the other hand, Hielos led 10,000 soldiers to covertly marched from the west to the east, quickly passing through the mountain path to approach Locri. He then used a dozen ballistae to smash Locri's temporary defensive camp at the exit of the mountain pass, defeat part of the Locrian army with a swift attack and invade Locri's territory.

After getting the terrible news, the Locrians panicked even more.

At this time, numerous rumours spread in Locri, such as “Davos' main force has gone sought and will reach Locri in a day!”… and so on, which resulted in the commoners, nobles and politicians in Locri being unable to keep their calm.

Seeing the situation worsen, Demodokas and his close friends ran to the port with their families, trying to escape from Magna Graecia by ship.

However, their political opponents, whom Demodokas suppressed, took the opportunity to incite the public, claiming that only by capturing Demodokas and his men and presenting them to Theonia could they alleviate Theonia's anger toward Locri…

Thus the docile Locrians who strictly abide by the city-state's laws launched an attack on Demodokas and the others.

Soon, blood stained the seawater of Locri's port. Demodokas and some strategoi, council members and their families, including more than 200 elderly, women and children, fall into a pool of blood, with none managing to survive.

The brutality of the meek Locrians in their anger alarmed Demodokas' political enemies, and they began worrying for themselves. Thus, to not follow Demodokas and the other's footsteps, the Council of Locri finally agreed to Theonia's harsh terms and sent an envoy out of the city to approach Hielos.

Henceforth, the war in Magna Graecia had ended, and Theonia had conquered all the hostile Greek city-states except Taranto.

When the Tarantine learned about the Syracusan army's surrender to Theonia, they were already cowering in the city as the Messapi-Peuceti army surrounded them. And the only reason they can still know about what's happening outside is that the sea route wasn’t blocked, which was due to Theonia.

Due to the Theonian fleet firmly preventing the Messapi-Peuceti combined fleet from entering the Gulf of Taranto, the Messapians Peucetians didn't dare to provoke Theonia at this moment. Therefore, they ordered the fleet to retreat, preserving the sea route to the outside and access to supplies for Taranto.

With Theonia imprisoning numerous Tarantine citizens, Taranto could only rely on the old and sick to resist the invasion of the Messapi-Peuceti army. Even though Taranto was in such a dangerous situation, the Tarantines were still struggling and unwilling to agree to Theonia’s demand for them to become a ‘free city’ of Theonia Union. Because apart from their pride as a former powerhouse, the Tarantines were still expecting Sparta to make the greedy Theonians give up their attempt to annex Taranto and have them release their loved ones to save the vulnerable Taranto.

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At the start of March, the Spartan envoy Cheirisophus' ship sailed straight across the edge of the Gulf of Taranto, bypassed the Cape of Crotone and entered the port of Scylletium.

Davos stayed in Scylletium for more than ten days because he had too many matters to attend to from morning to night every day.

The first is the negotiation with the Syracusan rebels. Although the negotiation didn't specifically involve Davos, he still needed to pay attention to the process and control the general direction.

In the end, they reached a peace agreement. Besides the changes in the amount of war reparations, the price of ransom for the captives, and some minor addition and discarding, the agreement basically fulfilled Davos' attempts to weaken Syracuse, reduce its influence in Sicily and safeguard Theonia's interests in the eastern Sicily.

Philoxenus wanted to be able to send back the Syracusan soldiers immediately to defend the empty city of Syracuse. At the same time, Davos also wanted to send away the newly surrendered prisoners as soon as possible. Otherwise, with so many people remaining in Magna Graecia, it would only make them consume more food and the need to send a large number of troops to watch them.

However, both sides still have disagreements on two issues:

The first was the thousands of mercenaries among the captives that surrendered in Scylletium.

Philoxenus believed that they were all the loyal dogs of Dionysius, so they were the targets of Herolis and the others to remove. So to prevent accidents, he didn't want them to return.

Davos, however, said that he had made a promise before the Syracusan army surrendered and was unwilling to break his words. Furthermore, Davos didn't want them to leave these mercenaries who had followed Dionysius for a long time and were used to burning, killing and looting like bandits. So even though Theonia, whose territory was rapidly expanding and was in urgent need of population to fill, he was afraid to leave these mercenaries, which would corrupt Theonia's pleasant atmosphere. Moreover, with the fierce war raging in Asia Minor and Peloponnese, Greek exiles would come from everywhere, so Theonia wouldn't lack Greek refugees who wanted to obtain land and live in peace.

Therefore, he threatened Philoxenus that he would take responsibility for returning these mercenaries even if they didn't agree.

Philoxenus was worried that the Theonians' insistence would increase the variables to Herolis and the others, who had already taken control of Syracuse. Thus he could only agree to pay ransom for these former mercenary citizens and mercenaries but demanded Theonia that they must follow his orders in transporting them.

Davos only cared about if they could fulfil their promises, so he wasn’t concerned about whether these prisoners returned to Syracuse to become slaves or get executed.

The second disagreement is that Philoxenus wants Theonia to also release the Syracusans captured in the previous battle.

But Davos rejected it and bluntly said, “The war has seriously damaged the Theonians' home and sharply reduced its population…thus Theonia needs these captives as labourers to help the people rebuild their home. It will only be a year later can we consider the possibility of releasing them.”

In fact, even though that was one of the reasons, Davos didn't say the most important reason. Davos was afraid that Syracuse's strength would quickly recover if they released all the captives at once, which might give the newly appointed Syracusan officials other thoughts. But with these hostages in hand, Theonia could more confidently and gradually stabilise its rule in Magna Graecia and eastern Sicily within a year.

After several unsuccessful disputes, Philoxenus finally managed to add a clause to the agreement that during this year, they must guarantee the health and safety of the prisoners.

Of course, the content of the dispute between the two sides doesn't include the thousands of Syracusan captives Theonia sold to Carthage, most of whom were Syracusan citizens, not the port people who served as sailors.

During the negotiation with the Syracusan envoy, Davos also continued to meet with the people from Locri and Hipponion, telling them about the benefits of joining the Theonia Union and resolving their anxiety. At the same time, he was also observing the visitors and gathering information for the future statesman to elect to the Senate from these two places.

Besides those, Davos was discussing with the Senate through letters about the management of the newly occupied territories and the Praetor candidates of Medma and Scylletium.

At the same time, he also discussed with Rhegium's polemarchos and his father-in-law, Athelycus, the joint dispatch of troops to Messina through letters.

Even though Davos’ clerk Henipolis assists him in writing letters and copying documents daily, Davos still doesn’t have free time to rest.

At this time, Cheirisophus' ship arrived at the port of Scylletium.

Cherisophus was surprised by the bustling port, especially when he saw every pier filled with Theonian soldiers escorting Syracusans in thin clothing and empty hands to board a passenger ship. After the passenger ship was loaded, they carefully sailed away from the port and headed south while getting escorted by Theonian warships…

After seeing this sight, Cherisophus realised that the war in Magna Graecia had ended!