Mediterranean Hegemon of Ancient Greece

This time, Adipiges came from Consentia to specially report to Aristias that the soldiers of the fifth legion freed by Dionysius after the defeat of the battle of Allaro River were causing some problems in the Bruttian region, hoping he could arouse the Senate's vigilance. However, he didn’t even expect to run into this matter. As a slave, he was used to grazing animals, so he had excellent riding skills and was familiar with the terrain of the Consentian Plateau, allowing him to ride on a long-distance even in the dark.

After understanding the whole story, Aristias knew that the matter was crucial and did not dare to ignore it, so he immediately made a decision, “Come, you and I will go to see Lord Marigi immediately!”

Why would they go to Marigi, the Chief Commercial Officer, instead of Sesta, the grand inspector who had the power to punish the statesmen who left without permission, or Kunogelata, who was temporarily responsible for the management of the whole Theonia?

It's because Marigi is the confidant of Lord Davos and is familiar with the intelligence department that Aristias was in charge of. On the other hand, Aristias could obviously feel Kunogelata's dislike of him when he met him several times. As for Sesta, he wasn't familiar with him and was afraid to delay the time.

After hearing the alarming news, Marigi went to see Sesta without any hesitation, and Sesta immediately sent someone to check these statesmen's residence. As they had expected, their residence was completely empty.

They then immediately went to Kunogelata's residence.

Although it was still not late at night, Kunogelata is after old, so he has long been asleep. After being woken up, he was still a bit sleepy, but when he heard Sesta say, “Petaru, Bodiam and Kaduk left Thurii without authorisation and went quietly to Brutti, and they might cause chaos!” His sleepiness has completely disappeared.

“Whether they left due to an emergency in the tribe or other reasons, but without the approval of the Senate, unauthorised departure is a violation of Theonia Union's Law!” Even though Kunogelata spoke gently, it still could not hide his anxiety, “Immediately send cavalries to the Bruttian area to see if you can capture them! If you can't catch up with them, immediately go to Consentia and inform Hielos to intensify their vigilance and search and to ‘look after' them as soon as they are found.”

At this time, there were only 500 cavalries left in the city, but they were all citizens and were not armed, so they had to go to their houses one after another and wake them up at this late hour. Therefore, Kunogelata reminded, “Don't make loud noises when you gather the cavalries, so as not to cause the people to panic!”

“What if the cavalries catch up with them, and they resist?” Sesta coldly asked.

“It's better not to hurt them, but if there is no other way…but you must never-” As soon Kunogelata's words left his mouth, Sesta had already strode outside.

“One thing I forgot to say… Aristias had already sent someone to rush to Consentia and inform Hielos.” Marigi interjected in time to show the merit of Davos' intelligence officer.

“Oh, really?!” This is really an unexpected surprise for Kunogelata. He then quickly looked at Aristias, who was standing in the corner of the room.

“The situation was urgent at that time, so I decided without authorisation in order to alert Praetor Hielos of Consentia. My subordinate is now on his way to Consentia, but now that it is dark and the roads are difficult to traverse, I just hope that he could get to Consentia before Petaru and the others.” Aristias explained.

Because of his previous prejudice, Kunogelata was unable to praise the leader of the intelligence department. So he just nodded and then said to Marigi, “Although it is late now, we must inform the other statesmen and tell them what happened tonight so that they could be mentally prepared. Thus Lord Marigi, I hope you can go and have them come to me.” Kunogelata tried to remedy the situation to avoid them saying that he was a dictator and to give Davos an explanation.

“Alright!” Marigi simply replied, turned around and left.

Aristias was about to follow him out when Kunogelata stopped him, “You stay.”

Aristias was surprised to see Kunogelata come close to him and asked, “What's your name?”

“Aristias.”

“Aristias, you have done a great job!” Kunogelata said solemnly and continued, “I know that you are the eyes of Lord Davos. But now, the situation in Theonia is bad, and I hope that you can do me a favour.”

“As a Theonian citizen, contributing to the union is my duty.” Aristias immediately replied.

“Before lord Davos comes back, I want you to send someone to pay attention to the movements of the other Bruttian statesmen in the Senate and immediately let me know if there are any abnormalities. And I will explain it to Davos once he returns.” Said Kunogelata as he looked at him.

Aristias hesitated for a moment, nodded reluctantly and said, “Lord Kunogelata, I'll keep you updated every day.”

Just after coming out of Kunogelata's residence, Aristias waved his fist and smiled: In the past, he could only do things covertly, and some statesmen were disgusted at him. But this time, he was recognised by Kunogelata, an important figure among the statesmen, which can be said to be a big step for the Intelligence Department.

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

On the road leading to Consentia, dozens of people, including Bodiam, Petaru and Kaduk, held up torches as they galloped.

Beyond their torches’ range was just dark wilderness where they could only hear the strong mountain wind sweeping across the unobstructed plateau, emitting a harsh whistling sound as if women were crying…

Petaru wrapped his leather robe tighter around him. On this terrible winter night, he felt cold not only in his body but also in his heart: Petaru had already made up his mind to break away from the Theonia Union, but when he really acted, the only thing he could think of was what would the fate of him and his tribe. However, he had no way to find out, just like the pitch dark road in front of him.

“Listen, what is that sound?!” Kaduk suddenly shouted.

“It's a wolf' bark!” Someone recognised it and loudly reminded, “Be careful. There are wolves ahead!”

The crowd gathered in a hurry and dared not disperse. It's a headache to meet a wolf in the wilderness, especially at night.

Everyone continued to advance carefully.

Before long, they saw five wolves gnawing at something by the road, so they immediately used their torches, spears and short swords to disperse these green-eyed and sniggering wolves. However, they didn't go far and lingered around.

“It's a dead horse!” They immediately saw what the wolf was eating.

“It should not be long after it died.” After hearing his tribesmen' words, Bodiam's expression became grave, “t seems that someone rode through here not long ago.”

Petaru's heart jolted, and his complexion became ugly, “It is likely that someone found out our action and rode through here to report to Consentia!”

“We moved so covertly that no one should know it in advance, and the fastest way to Consentia is through here. Thus even if they were to found out, they could not have bypassed us. This time, it is just a coincidence. Someone's stable must have been left open, which caused the horse to sneak out but was killed by those wolves…” Kaduk retorted.

“But this is not a Bruttian horse.” Bodiam, who was inspecting the horse's body, reminded everyone, “The skeleton of the horse on the ground is large compared to the short Bruttian horse.”

“You don't know that there are now many tribes on the Consentian plateau which are also raising horses from other places?” Kaduk once again retorted.

“Stop arguing. No matter where the horse came from, we must be vigilant.” Petaru hurriedly mediated and continued, “I decided to go to my original tribe on the south of Cosentia first. (as one of the main initiators of the Bruttian war and an accomplice of Pian's tribe – Petaru's tribe was divided after the war, one was near Consentia while the others were moved to the edge of the territory near Clampetia.)”

“I have to go back to Consentia.” Said Kaduk as well. Back then, as the one who opened the city gate and led the Theonian into the inner part of Consentia, Theonia rewarded him and allowed his tribe to be intact and not relocated. Therefore, his tribe was now dominant among the many small tribes in Consentia.

“Take care of yourself.” That was all Petaru could say because if Kaduk did not sneak back into his tribe and take enough warriors, it would not help their rebellion. Hence he put aside his old grudge and was willing to join forces with him.

“After you convince your tribes, don't forget to lead them to Anbania as soon as possible! After all, only when we are together can we become strong that the Theonians wouldn't dare to invade us easily and allow us to have enough time to make more choices!” Bodiam reminded them.

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

After Bruttii’s integration into Theonia, significant changes have taken place in the city of Consentia.

The inner part of the city was the administrative area, mainly including the city hall, the council hall, the court, the temple, the square and the Military Department. On the other hand, the Praetor and the officials’ residence were also located next to the square.

The main role of the council hall was mainly for the Praetor of Consentia to consult the chieftains of the Bruttian tribes regarding some management matters in the Bruttian region. From this point of view, while the other Greek cities were still preparing for the local councils, Consentia had long been doing a similar mechanism. Of course, this has to do with the tribal-based existence of the Bruttii region, where Lucania’s Grumentum practised a similar system.

Speaking of the courts within the city of Consentia, the Theonian Law states that the tribe can punish their tribesmen for breaking the law according to their tribal rules, but if the tribesmen disagree with the result, they can appeal to the Consentian court, where the judge will conduct another trial according to the Theonian citizenship law and eventually negotiate a settlement with the tribal chieftains. Since the tribes often act in the interests of the tribe as a whole or the chieftain, most offenders disagree with the sentences they handed down and turn to the Consentian court. Although this makes the judges' work increasingly busy and the number of courts increases from the initial one to five, its impartiality has been recognised by the Bruttians more and more.