Mediterranean Hegemon of Ancient Greece

Agnes dismisses her claim, “Sister, you worry too much. It's fine as long as Eunice genuinely likes the person.”

“That's easy for you to say! Let's wait until Aviya comes of age, and then it will be your turn to worry,” Cheiristoya rolled her eyes. Then, after stretching a bit, she said, “I am going to the bathhouse to take a bath and relax. Since it will be dinner time by the time the children return, would you like to join me? I also have several undergarments in different colours and shapes that you can try and see if they fit.”

“Okay.” Agnes also stood up.

Bathing has become a recent daily habit for the Theonians. However, with the hot spring bathhouse a bit far from Thurii, and the royal family can only go there occasionally due to safety concerns, Davos has directly ordered the construction of a bathhouse in the courtyard.

The two middle-aged women with outstanding figures laughed and chatted as they left the hall.

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

As dusk approached, the meeting in the Grand Senate Hall of Theonia came to an end, and the statesmen left in groups.

Today, the Senate received a report about King Davos winning successive victories in the Latium region and Abellinum's application to become a free city of Theonia…but this good news was accompanied by Neapolis' urgent request for help against the invading Samnite army in the Campanian region. However, this didn't dampen the statesmen's spirits, as they chatted and laughed while descending the stairs.

Meanwhile, the five rotating speakers of the Senate were walking slowly behind as they were still discussing some issues.

“His Majesty stated in his letter about the situation in Rome stabilising while the army is currently expanding the territories we occupied and preparing to defeat the Romans completely. Thus, he asked us to make detailed plans in advance for the mass relocation of some of the Theonian population to the Roman region after the war, as well as to disperse and resettle the Roman nobles who surrendered in other cities. What do you suggest?” Cornelius asked.

“I noticed that His Majesty wrote in his letter to relocate the citizens of Theonia rather than letting the preparatory citizens and freemen go to fill the newly occupied land as we had done before, which shows that His Majesty attaches great importance to the Roman region and wants to integrate Rome into the kingdom quickly!” Lysias said deeply.

“From the messenger's report, Rome has a fertile plain much larger than our Sybarite plain, and the Tiber River is wider than the Crati River, with a quite prosperous agriculture and animal husbandry. If we can completely integrate Rome, not only can we solve the worries that the previous drought had brought, but also greatly enhance our strength…”

Androlis pondered before saying, “But that region doesn't border with our existing territories. In addition, there are still quite a few other forces and races around, with the Romans themselves remaining relatively strong. Perhaps because of these factors, His Majesty decided to relocate many Theonian citizens so that they could quickly become the backbone of stabilising the Latium region. If we had sent the preparatory citizens and freemen, they might be unable to defend the kingdom's interest in that dangerous area.”

“Despite not witnessing the battle between our soldiers and Romans with my own eyes, we had recently brought back nearly two thousand deceased citizens and over two thousand wounded in just the Thurii region alone. While the officials of the city hall were busy assisting the Ministry of Military, caring for the families of the deceased and arranging for the wounded's treatment, I have also heard there have been many casualties in other regions, which shows how fierce the Romans are!” said Lysias in a heavy tone.

“Do you still remember how His Majesty wanted to relocate citizens to the Campanian region some time ago? At that time, we had already decided to relocate some young citizens from the Lucanian region, so Hemon and I had prepared the relocation plan. Unfortunately, we were later forced to suspend it due to Carthage's participation in the war. This time, we could just relocate them to Rome.” Vespa suddenly suggested.

“Vespa, don't just pay attention to the Lucanian region.” After reminding Vespa, Sedrum began contradicting him, “How many citizens can you relocate out of the Lucanian region? I'm afraid it won't even reach ten thousand! But His Majesty wrote that excluding those Roman plebeians who had already surrendered, the land in Rome alone could accommodate another two hundred to three hundred thousand people. In addition, there are also other places like Veii, Ostia, and Caisra! Since His Majesty wants to disperse the Roman nobles who will submit to him in the future and resettle them in other cities, why don't we move some of the citizens of those cities to Rome to free up spaces where we would resettle those Romans, which will be very convenient!”

“Lord Sedrum gave an excellent proposal!” Androlis interjected, “Considering that the city hall of Rome has only just been established and is not yet capable of handling political matters and that the Romans are still in the process of adapting to our government, we can instead carry out the migration to Rome in stages, with a small number of citizens each time, to avoid any major disruptions. Also, the citizens heading to Rome can't all be young, as there must also be middle-aged and elderly citizens for the community to be stable. Also, the majority of the citizens going to Rome must be of Greek descent-”

After saying that, Androlis noticed Vespa and Sedrum's expressions becoming unhappy, So he quickly explained, “I don't mean to discriminate against other ethnicities. Rather, I suggested this to make the Roman plebeians integrate into the kingdom as soon as possible…”

“Androlis gave a reasonable suggestion, and we must carefully consider them.” Cornelius praised his young colleague for a moment before continuing, “Everyone, this would be our first time migrating the kingdom's official citizens. As you all know, unlike the preparatory citizens and freemen, they have all the rights granted to them by the kingdom's law, own land, and live well in their current places, so how can we have them willingly move to Rome? How can we ensure they would be happy in their place of residence?… These are the problems that brought us the most headaches!”

“I don't think that would be a problem,” Androlis said disapprovingly. He continued, “The kingdom's citizens are not worried about leaving their hometowns and settling in unfamiliar places. On the contrary, what they fear most is living a too peaceful life because this means they cannot obtain opportunities to win merits -through war and adventure, increase their wealth, and achieve rapid advancement in status. But in Rome, they would get many such opportunities. Wasn't that why so many officials risked their lives and chose to travel with His Majesty even before the great war with Rome?! And now that common citizens can also get such opportunities, I believe they will participate enthusiastically.”

Androlis' words caused the other three to nod while leaving Cornelius to cough in slight embarrassment, “Uh…Androlis raised a reasonable explanation. Still, we need to implement it first and see the real reaction of the people. Therefore, we need to prepare more in advance to reduce the people's resistance, such as detailed land replacement for the relocated citizens, transportation of their properties, distribution of new homes and the disposal of their old homes…”

“It seems we need to invite Burkes(Minister of Agriculture) and Raphias (Chief Census Officer) to discuss this matter together and then work out a preliminary plan for His Majesty to evaluate,” Lysias said.

“I think we can first have city halls of each place to promote the benefits of settling in Rome in advance-” While Androlis was in the middle of giving his suggestion, they heard the voice of Philesius, “Lord Cornelius! Lord Lysias!…”

Cornelius turned around and saw four high-ranking officials of the Ministry of Military, Hielos, Philesius, Arpenst, and Hieronymus, walking towards him. As a result, he couldn't help but wonder, “What do you need?”

Philesius looked at Hielos.

The Minister of Military, Hielos, said, “Esteemed speaker, the Senate had unanimously rejected the unjustified request of the Samnites’ envoy to exchange the Campanian prisoners for theirs, which is in line with the promises made by His Majesty after that incident. However…just refusing isn't enough, and we need to come to the rescue of the Campanian League that the Samnites are attacking, after all, they are our ally.”

“Rescuing Neapolis is the main issue we will discuss at tomorrow's meeting.” Cornelius said with a frown, “His Majesty is currently leading most of the army to attack Rome to the north while we are also at war with Carthage in the south. In addition, Alexius is stationed in the Apulia region to stop the invasion of the Samnites and other covetous forces. As far as I know, all the legions in the kingdom have already joined the war, and even the Seventh Legion is about to go south to Sicily. Moreover, His Majesty repeatedly ordered us not to move lightly. Now that you have come to discuss this matter, I would like to ask how you plan to rescue Campania?”

“Could it be that you want to draw out the Ninth or Tenth Legion?” Androlis continued Cornelius’ words despite arguing with him just now, “With the distance of Apulia and Campania and the difficulty of transportation, the pressure to transport military rations will only increase. Moreover, we don't know if those cunning Samnites are deliberately luring us to transfer our army away from Apulia and then attack the Dauni region again! After all, while our army needed to take a detour, they could just go straight through the mountains in a straight line.”

“It's not the army in Apulia,” Hielos said with certainty, “We hope the Senate will pass a resolution to allow the free city of Potentia to immediately raise an army to support the Kingdom's war against the Samnites.”

“Potentia?!” The five rotating speakers were somewhat surprised. With Potentia maintaining its stability and close ties with the Lucanian region for over a decade, the trade, personnel exchanges, the spread of religion…and other things are developing rapidly and unimpeded. Furthermore, the people of Potentia were never absent from the various celebrations and competitions within the kingdom, so not only the common people of Theonia but also most statemen had subconsciously thought that Potentia was a part of the Lucanian region, forgetting that it was actually just a free city in the kingdom.

Then, Hieronymus, the chief military instructor, said, “From the Ministry of Military's statistics, once Potentia conducts a fullscale conscription, it can form an army of about twenty thousand strong. Thus, Potentia can at least provide ten thousand reinforcements.”