Mediterranean Hegemon of Ancient Greece - Chapter 639
Davos’ words caused Patroclus to bite his lips.
Davos looked at him and said, “If you become my son-in-law, your future will become more difficult. So are you still willing to marry Cynthia?”
As Davos’ voice fell, Patroclus exclaimed, “I am! I am willing to take Cynthia as my wife! And I will make more contributions to prove my ability and change people’s prejudice!”
Davos looked at the confident and spirited young man in front of him. With admiration in his eyes, Davos said, “Tomorrow evening, I will hold a private banquet at my home. So I wish to invite you and your parents to discuss your engagement with Cynthia.”
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After conquering Dauni, the next step was to govern this newly conquered land.
In Theonia’s Senate, Davos approved the praetors of the Daunian towns that the Senate elected. However, Davos vetoed the candidates of one of the most problematic towns – Lucera, until Androlis proposed a name that everyone had almost forgotten – Antonios. Only when most statesmen who were former mercenaries, Lucanian statesmen, Bruttian statesmen, and so on gave their support did those wise statesmen realise this was Davos’ will.
Antonios, who kept claiming that he was ill at home and didn’t see anyone else, received the letter of appointment signed by Davos and sent by the court’s herald, Aristias.
During this period, Antonios had gotten used to seeing the once bustling mansion turned deserted, his wife crying every day due to her father’s imprisonment and her brother’s execution, complaining that he had not helped. Antonios had experienced so much in the past few months that when he looked at the appointment letter in his hand, his eyes became moist as he knew that King Davos hadn’t forgotten him. From this appointment, he could see that only a statesman who made outstanding achievements and was highly valued by Davos could serve as the praetor of Dauni’s central town, Lucera.
“His majesty asked me to convey his words to you.” said Aristias bluntly, “I hope you can learn from the past, govern Lucera well and make the Daunians integrate into Theonia as soon as possible.”
Antonios replied excitedly, “I will not let his majesty down!”
After that, he declined the invitation of those statesmen who were former mercenaries, such as Kapus, Philesius and Amintas, to hold a celebration party for his return. Then the early morning of the following day, he took only two attendants with him and quietly went to Lucera to take his post.
. . . . . . . . . . . .
Teleutias, the brother of the Spartan king Agesilaus, led the Spartan army to march northward at a leisurely pace until the spring of the following year (that is, the eleventh year of the kingdom of Theonia, 382 B.C.). Once he arrived at the Chalkidiki Peninsula, he was warmly welcomed and strongly assisted by the Macedonian king, Amyntas, who provided him with many cavalries. And after winning two battles, they manage to approach the city of Olynthus. But during the siege, the Chalkidiki League’s reinforcements, who came to support Olynthus, defeated the Spartan army and killed its commander, Teleutias.
Once this news reached Sparta, it resulted in unrest.
And Agesilaus became so disheartened that he had caught an illness that left him bedridden.
After a discussion, the Gerousia decided they would never compromise with the Chalkidiki League led by Olynthus and would instead continue their attack until they destroyed them. Otherwise, they will not be able to restore Sparta’s prestige in Greece.
Thus, Sparta started a war mobilisation order to its allies in Peloponnese, preparing to gather a large coalition to fight in northern Greece and handing the army’s command to another Spartan king, Agesipolis.
With the fall of Thebes, the Athenians became more uneasy, so they gave their full assistance to the exiled Thebans by establishing multiple shelters in the mountains between Attica and Boeotia. But while Athens remained wary of Sparta, they were reluctant to openly turn them into enemies, especially now that Sparta was so strong. Instead, they just paid close attention to Sparta’s movements.
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In the northwest outskirts of Athens, there is a school called the Akademia near the grove of olive trees by the Cephissus river.
On the bank of a river with flowing water, green grasses and flowers in full blossom stand in this courtyard, whose door is a rustic arch with the words “Let no one ignorant of geometry enter”.
In a small pavilion in the courtyard were dozen young people sitting around as they listened attentively to a middle-aged man giving a lecture.
This middle-aged man has a broad forehead, deep eyes, and broad shoulders. Although he isn’t too tall, he is relatively burly. In addition, he emanates a kind of elegant and quiet temperament. He was Plato, the famous scholar in all of Greece.
Plato was well educated from an early age as he was from a distinguished household. During his youth, he was pretty fond of poetry and drama until he met Socrates at a poetry contest and had a discussion. After that, he threw his poems into the fire, burning them on the spot and took Socrates as his teacher.
That year, Plato was just twenty years old.
After Socrates was tried and executed, Plato, who was extremely disappointed with Athens’ government, began his travel life. He went to Mecca, Asia Minor, Persia, Egypt, Cyrenaica, and Sicily one after another and finally returned to Athens because of an accident.
Although Plato was still interested in politics due to his family, he became disappointed again at Athens’ political conservatism after the loss of Thrasybulus and the strife between the various factions. After a long-term journey to other Greek city-states and other places outside of Greece, his experience and knowledge significantly increased. However, he also felt that it wasn’t easy to manage a city-state without specialised expertise in governance and a group of like-minded friends, as it would not become fruitless and might cost him his life. Hence, with his friends’ support, Plato founded the Akademia to train a group of talents who understood philosophy and natural science and could govern the state after returning to Athens. And through them, he would change the status quo of Athens and other Greek city-states, indirectly making his political ideals come true.
Now, its been five years since the Akademia’s establishment. Besides having many Athenian youths become his students, he also got some foreign youths to visit him and worship him under his tutelage, making his Akademia gradually become famous.
At this time, Plato said in a calm but hoarse tone, “…Yesterday, I discussed why I believe aristocracy, like in ancient times, is the best government. Today, I want to discuss why such a government had declined.”
The youths immediately became interested as they listened to him attentively.
“Although the rulers would always try their best to make their children receive the best education so that they could be wise and use their knowledge to discern things and act correctly. But as time affects the growth and development of animals and plants, so do human marriage and childbearing. The rulers could not always correctly choose the time for them to have children by using observation and rational thought, as they would sometimes get it wrong and conceive children too early…
Thus the rulers selected from these degenerated descendants cannot be the best. And after they take over their parents’ position, they would look down on those wise people in the city, and despise music, education and physical training, so the young people in the city-state would increasingly become uneducated… Thus, they and their descendants would gradually lose the qualities a true ruler should have and lose the ability to distinguish between gold, silver, and bronze-souled people from iron-souled. And once iron and bronze-souled people were mixed with gold and silver-souled, it would produce imbalance, inconsistency and disharmony. And once disagreement and inconsistency appear, it would cause war and hatred…”
The student pondered deeply.
After a while, one of the students asked, “Teacher Plato, do you mean that…marriage at an inappropriate time, the mixture of lineages, and the loss of purity are the main reasons for the decline of aristocracy?”
“Aurelius, you understand it correctly.” after praising his student, Plato continued, “Once a conflict arises, these groups under the ruler would develop in two different directions. The bronze and the iron-souled group tended to private ventures, annexing land and houses and collecting money. On the other hand, the gold and silver-souled group tended towards virtue and tradition because of the genuine wealth they possessed in their hearts. And after these two groups fought with each other, they would reach a compromise…they would privately take the land and houses of the city-state as their own while turning their former friends and supporters into wanderers and slaves…this led to the emergence of a new regime, which I call timocracy.”
The students became lost in their thoughts.
A student asked in doubt, “Teacher Plato, how can we know when it is time to get married?”
“Speusippus, that is a good question, as it has stumped even me,” Plato said with a smile on his face. He then continued, “The truth is that even the gods couldn’t marry at the right time. Otherwise, there wouldn’t have been so many powerful monsters in ancient times. But after a long time of pondering, I came to some understanding of the subject and have elaborated it in my book the《Republic》. That is to make an outstanding person marry another outstanding person at the right time and give birth to the best.”
What is an outstanding person? Besides the men of the city-state, the women also needed to be treated equally as the men, allowing them to get a good education. Let them train in sports, study literature, music, mathematics…and during the process, they would be able to find out whether she is a golden-souled or silver-souled, or of the bronze or iron-souled, and choose the best of them to be married with the best. However, they still shouldn’t have children too early.
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