Davos' chief tent could not hold more than forty men, so he had Martius, the head of the escort, lead thirty men (and the escort was enlarged) to fence off a clearing in front of the tent to keep strangers from prying eyes and to light torches all around ...
Davos' gaze swept over each face:
Captain of the 1st Heavy Infantry Company - Steady and Generous Capps
Captain of the 2nd Heavy Infantry Company - Antonius, who is good at recognizing people and catching opportunities in battle
Captain of the 3rd Heavy Infantry Company - Amyntas the Brave
Captain of the 4th Heavy Infantry Company - Alexis the Thinking and Scheming
Captain of the Fifth Heavy Infantry Company - his loyal confidant, Hieros
Captain of the 1st Light Shield Company - Tactically Capable Epithenes
Captain of the 2nd Light Shield Company - Tzipit who worshipped Davos because of his devotion to God
As well as Melchis, the supply officer, Helps, the medical officer, Acistus, the herald, and Ledus, the cavalry captain (despite the fact that he had very few horses left, Davos kept the establishment and the soldiers, after all, they had already had quite a bit of experience in cavalry combat). There were also twenty-eight sub-captains, all of whom were experienced in combat and were team officers of their own talents. Added to that were fourteen hundred veterans who had been on the warpath for over a year. That was all the squad he had to gain a foothold in this world!
Tonight, he had to convince them to continue to follow him to a foreign land thousands of miles away after a long year of campaigning, about which he was not very confident. With that thought in mind, he coughed lightly and said, "Brothers, that farce you put on in Byzantium today was well played! Kriand immediately sympathized with our situation and was willing to provide us with some food, it's all thanks to you!"
The crowd laughed.
Oliveros was even more vocal, "Chief, this is not a farce, but a comedy. You didn't see those Byzantines fainting with fear!"
The crowd laughed again, except for Martonius, who had a guilty conscience and had to keep his head down and snicker.
"Yeah, comedy." Davos sighed softly and said, "But how long can this comedy last? We are stuck here, unable to go anywhere, and afraid to go. According to reliable sources, Sparta is already preparing to go to war with Persia, and Spartan general Tiburon has already traveled to Ephesus to call for soldiers, so how could he spare our group of veterans who have a lot of experience fighting against Persia! It won't be long before we may be fighting on Persian soil again!"
"Is this true? I'm tired of fighting the Persians and I don't want to go back!"
"How come? I'm ready to buy a piece of land in Crete and find a wife ..."
...
The crowd immediately stirred and murmured very uneasily ...
Instead of answering them, Davos shook out another shocking piece of news: "And, the still good-natured Kryander is stepping down, and in his place is Aristarchus of Sparta!"
There was an "ah".
Davos swept a glance in that direction and said coldly, "Some of you know of him and some of you don't. I tell you that this Spartan was famous in the previous war with Athens! Not because he fought valiantly, but-" Davos looked grave, and said with a heavier tone, word by word, "he twice sold the defeated Greeks into slavery!!!"
These words were like pouring a can of cold water into a boiling frying pan, and the crowd exploded.
"Is he going to traffic us?!"
"If he dares to do that, I'll fight him!"
"We are free people, not enemies of Sparta! They have no reason to do this, and it's against Greek tradition!"
"Sparta was already brutal and overbearing, and now that it's the overlord of Greece, it's still doing what it says it's going to do!"
...
Davos gazed at the panic-stricken crowd, his voice full of emotion as he said, "We are free Greeks, and we have lived hard to survive. But in the eyes of the Spartans, in the eyes of those citizens of the city-state, we are landless pariahs, thieves and robbers who threaten the stability of the city-state! So, Anaxippus was free to deceive us (referring to this Spartan naval governor who, in order to trick them into coming to Byzantium, said he would pay them a salary, only to break the contract as soon as he arrived)! Kriander can also deceive us at will, tricking us out of the city, closing the gates, withholding food, and having to face the Thracians in great numbers! Is Sparta so powerful that we dare to resist? Either we are sold into slavery, not fed or clothed, until one day we die of exhaustion on the farms and mines, and are then thrown into the wilderness; or we follow Sparta into battle, and are bruised and battered every day until we die in battle in some unknown wilderness; or of course, we may be fortunate enough to return safely to our home towns, but what of that? As a landless freeman, one is an outsider in any city-state, enjoying none of its rights, and subject to scorn until one dies in obscurity ..."
The crowd listened in silence, so quiet you could hear someone sobbing ...
At this point, Davos was also filled with tears, "Is this what we wanted after a year of bloodshed in Persia and struggling hard to return home! Is it possible that our right to want a stable and happy life is not given! Is there no place in this world for us poor free folk to live quietly!!!"
Davos' heartfelt roar and questioning jolted every team officer in the room, their fists clenched and teeth clenched, their eyes angry and pained ...
Xylos stood up, shakily held out his hands, and said, "Chief Davos! Our commander-in-chief! The Divine Favorite of Hades! Please tell us what we are to do? What to do to get out of our predicament!!!"
"Yes, Chief Davos, we need your oracle!!!" Xellos' words alerted a number of people, and Capheus, Antonius, and the others excitedly made pleas to Davos.
When all eyes were gathered on Davos' face, his look became incredibly solemn: "Last night ... a man entered my dream, and the golden light that emanated from his body made it impossible for me to see his face ... He pulled me out of the bed, pulled me up, through the window, and flew all the way up into the air ... I looked down in fear, and the Mediterranean Sea appeared as clearly as a picture before my eyes ... The Peloponnese is like a hammer deep in the sea, and Italy, which is immediately to the west of it, is like a leather boot ... Further west, I also saw the Pillars of Heracles like a door separating the Mediterranean Sea from the ocean ... Egypt's Mediterranean coast was like a long green carpet stretching all the way to Africa... ..."
Davos's dreamlike narration captivated the group, and the realization that the Mediterranean looked like this against their own geographic perceptions convinced them of Davos's words.
"That's when the one who emanated the golden light spoke to me?"
"What did he say?" The crowd asked in unison.
"He said, 'Davos, the mission for you and your soldiers is in the west of the Mediterranean!' , and when he finished, he pushed me through the air, and then I woke up in shock." Davos said in a distraught voice, still in a trance.
"West of the Mediterranean, where is that?"
"In Sicily?"
"It could be Italy."
"Iberia is also a possibility."
"Why it won't be Nubian."
"Who is that golden light man, Hades?"
"How can Hades have a golden light? It should be Athena!"
......
While everyone was speculating, Davos sighed, ever since he became the chief, he had deliberately avoided his identity as a "God's Favorite", and instead won the trust of his men through his own ability. But this time, the matter was so important that he had to use the Greek gods again, and he purposely made the oracle ambiguous.
For oracles are inherently ambiguous. For example, there was a Lydian kingdom in Asia Minor that wanted to go to war with Persia, so it went to Delphi and spent a lot of money to get an oracle from Apollo, which said that a big country would be destroyed. The Lydians went back to war with great joy, and the result was the destruction of the Lydian kingdom. The priests of Apollo explained that in Asia Minor, the Lydian kingdom was also a great power.
Note: Tourii (thurii)
amendolara