If Robert hadn't taken the initiative, the barbarians might not have been able to enter the city at all. Even if they had plundered the city, the impact wouldn't have been significant. However, if Robert had taken the initiative but been defeated by the barbarians, the consequences would have been dire.
As a bishop, Robert could not only summon angels, but he was also a major figure in the Holy See, able to speak directly to the Pope.
"Where did you go?" asked Joseph.
"I went to the farm outside the city, freed all the slaves, and told them that the barbarians were coming and would kill them. I also organized a force of several thousand people and headed towards the city," Goliath replied.
"All of them released?" Joseph shook his head. This would have serious consequences; the nobles who owned the farms wouldn't give up easily.
However, from Goliath's point of view, he had no choice. There were no Roman soldiers left on the island, and the nobles were all keeping their doors closed, so he couldn't count on them. He could only release the slaves. No matter what the consequences, he had to survive first.
"I brought those freed slaves to the harbor," Goliath continued, "and engaged in a fierce battle with the Bacchic barbarians. The battle was extremely intense. Later, a giant crab suddenly appeared on the sea, and Dionysus, along with his barbarians, retreated, plundering the port's civilian ships as they left."
"A giant crab?" Joseph asked, confused.
He had also seen the giant crab that Pandora had transformed into. It was dozens of meters tall, impossible to miss. It turned out that Dionysus's men were signaling to him.
"Then you returned," said Goliath. "I sent the slaves back to the farms, instructing the nobles to treat them as hired workers in the future, not to abuse them, not to whip them, and certainly not to kill them, otherwise they would be punished for murder."
"The nobles didn't say anything?" asked Joseph.
Goliath looked around, making sure no one was paying attention, then whispered to Joseph, "I led the men to attack the merchant ships at the harbor again, slightly making up for some of their losses. If anyone comes to complain to you, just blame it on Dionysus."
Joseph frowned and reprimanded him, "How could you do that!"
Goliath explained helplessly, "What choice did I have? I still have to be the governor here and cannot offend all the nobles and merchants. The slaves have been released, and I have signed all the documents. If I cancel their status, they will surely rebel immediately. Not only would it cost a fortune to suppress them, but they also took up arms to help us fight Dionysus at our most critical moment. We cannot betray them."
Joseph was dissatisfied with Goliath's kindness, believing him to be too weak as a nobleman. For Joseph, slaves were nothing more than talking tools; what harm was there in deceiving them? If canceling their citizenship could save money, then so be it. However, at this point, there was indeed no extra manpower to suppress the slaves. Joseph also had to go hunt for Dionysus.
Raiding merchant ships will damage Andros's reputation and discourage merchants from coming, which would be a big problem. Thankfully, blaming it on Dionysus is a good trick.
"Dionysus has escaped, leaving no one behind?" Joseph asked.
"Yes, they all escaped, ransacking our island. The cathedral was also destroyed, and I arranged for the slaves who didn't want to stay on the farm to live in the cathedral." Goliath replied.
Joseph asked anxiously, "I left a quinquereme (a type of ancient Greek warship) here with hundreds of soldiers, where have they all gone?"
He dared to dispatch the fleet based on his trust in the quinquereme and its hundreds of soldiers, believing they were enough to guard Andros. After all, there were just over 30,000 residents on the island, and usually, three hundred soldiers would be enough to protect or control the entire island.
The entire fleet numbered over two thousand people, and their duties were not only to protect Andros, but they also had to carry out missions throughout the eastern Mediterranean. Therefore, the fleet did not stay on Andros, and there might not even be a quinquereme on the island at times.
Goliath replied, "I don't know, but..."
"But what?" Joseph pressed.
"It seems that there were Roman soldiers who joined Dionysus's ranks and went with them to burn and kill." Goliath said.
"What!" Joseph was startled, "Are you saying the quinquereme has defected?"
If this were true, it would be a serious problem. There had never been a case in history of an entire quinquereme defecting, and Joseph absolutely didn't want to be the first.
"I'm not sure, it's also possible that there were followers of Linley on the quinquereme, who seized control of the ship." Goliath explained.
This was possible, sailors were mostly fond of drinking, they could only quench their thirst with wine on the sea, without clean drinking water. Once left unattended, they would get drunk. Not only the sailors, but many rowers were the same. If there were followers of Dionysus on board, controlling key positions, and led the ship into the encirclement, using several hundred to a thousand barbarians to attack, it would not be strange for the ship to lose.
If this was the case, Joseph's responsibility would be too great, one could argue that he is entirely to blame for the looting of Andros. He left the quinquereme to guard Andros, but did not notice that key positions on the ship were infiltrated by followers of Dionysus, leading to the ship being seized, Bishop Holiness being killed in battle, and Andros nearly falling.
Goliath, with thousands of non-combatant slaves, was definitely no match for the barbarians, and only the courage of those recently released was supporting them. In time, their bravery would dwindle, and they would be defeated like a crumbling mountain.
"I think this time the enemy is so powerful, and there must be a lot of them, not ten thousand, but seven or eight thousand, and there are thousands of Germanic barbarians among them, and several thousand other warriors, and hundreds of ships, big and small. After sinking dozens of enemy ships, the quinquereme was outnumbered and died heroically." Goliath suddenly said.
"That's right." Joseph thought there was no other way, he could only exaggerate the enemy's strength to cover up the failure, "Dionysus landed on Andros with ten thousand followers, capturing the governor's residence and the church, and it was only thanks to the governor organizing the slaves to fight back, killing thousands of Germanic barbarians, that after a hard fight, with my land and sea forces attacking together, we finally drove Dionysus back to sea."
"That's not right." Goliath questioned.
"Oh? What's wrong?" Joseph asked.
"Originally there were ten thousand, and they lost dozens of ships in battle, and when they landed there were still ten thousand?" Goliath said.
"Then… then there were originally twenty thousand." Joseph said.
"Let's make it thirty thousand, keep ten thousand for the church, Robert summoned angels, so he needs to have some achievements." Goliath suggested.
"Thirty thousand is thirty thousand… no!" Joseph suddenly remembered something.