Sipros continued: "Now the two towns of Niutum and Grummentum, which once belonged to the Lucanians, are now part of the Ionian Union, and many Lucanians have become Dionian citizens. So how could the Lucanians of the other tribes really hate Dionia! On the contrary, with the help of your Elia, Dionya can take advantage of the weakening of the Lucarian tribe to occupy the entire Lucania region and make Dioria's power even stronger, so how could Dionia not ally with Elia! ”

Canios fell silent, pondering every word that Sipros had said, and said for a long time: "When Dionia becomes stronger, aren't the other city-states belonging to the Southern Italian Alliance afraid?" ”

Sipros had not yet completely recovered from his agitation, he took a big sip of wine and said without hesitation: "Regardless of what the other city-states think, I think the strength of Dionya is a good thing for Elia, we are tired of the frequent wars between the city-states and the invasion of the Brutis, and the stronger Dionya is, the more peace will be brought to this land." After all, judging by Dionia's past practices, it has always been friendly to its allies, unless you take the initiative to invade it. It's nowhere near as brutal as Syracuse in the south! ”

Canios understood what Sipros meant by "brutality", and that Dionysius, after conquering the Greek city-states of Sicily, sometimes slaughtered the local population and turned the remaining captives into slaves, which had never been done before in the history of the Western Mediterranean, and greatly shocked the Greeks of Sicily and Greater Greece, so that Canios could hear about it even as far away as Elia. He looked at Sipros across the table, wondering with malice: Could Dionysius' brutality be one of the main reasons why these southern Italian city-states were willing to ally with Dionia?

He asked curiously: "The political system of Dionya is so special, I think the city-states of southern Italy, including Trina, should have noticed, is there any city-state that has tried to implement these laws of Dionya that are beneficial to the expansion of the city-state?" ”

Sipros was stunned for a moment, and then smiled bitterly: "At today's celebration, I also briefly talked about this topic with a few members of the Council of Crotone I know, this is basically impossible, do you think that all the citizens of the city-state will agree first?" ”

As soon as he was reminded, it dawned on him that the conservative and xenophobic citizens of the Greek city-state could not allow outsiders to share the wealth and rights of the city-state! And the highest authority of the city-state, the citizens' assembly, is composed of most of the citizens of the city-state, and it is impossible for them to let these bills pass that are not favorable to them!

"Why is Dionya able to do it?" Canios raised his own doubts.

"This ......," Sipros said as he patted the table lightly and pondered, "I can't tell you the detailed reasons, but the great power and prestige that Davers, the Archon of Ionia, has, is undoubtedly the most important reason. ”

Kanios agreed, but an archon like Davers could not have been in Elia.

"But......" Sipros said hesitantly, looking at Canios, "there are still some problems with a new city-state alliance like Dionia......

"What's the problem?" Canios asked urgently.

Sipros glanced back, and at some point the waiter of the restaurant was already standing behind him, and he shook his head and stopped talking.

……………………

The next morning, the inauguration ceremony of the Hades Temple continued.

This time, in front of the temple, Davers, the high priest of Davers, presided over the slaves of the alliance in the name of Hades, the king of Hades, to give freedom to the slaves within the alliance.

As this was the first time it was held, not many slaves were freed, mainly the outstanding members of the Confederacy in the past year, and most of the private slaves were from the Davers family.

As the territory of the Dionian League expanded, so did the banks and restaurants that Kristoya opened, and she continued to open up new business channels, such as Christoia's shop, which mainly sold school supplies for the newly built Dionian school, as well as rugby and football equipment, for which she purchased a large number of slaves to ensure sufficient labor and at the same time give freedom to the high-performing slaves. On the one hand, he wanted to follow their example, give hope to other slaves, and urge them to work harder; On the other hand, as an archon, Davers led the people to treat their slaves well, so as to alleviate the contradictions between slaves and the whole society within the entire Dionian League.

Among the slaves freed by Davers was Kristia's personal maid, Arsuna, who had already told Kristto that even if she was freed, she would still be willing to continue to serve Kristooa as a hired hand, and Kristonia was of course very welcome. In fact, apart from the change in status, Asuna's lifestyle is not much different from before, including receiving a salary, as Christoya had long since paid her close slave girl.

Because domestic slaves spend a long time with their masters, they often have feelings similar to those of relatives, so it is not uncommon for the master to release the slave before death or continue to serve the master's family after the slave is free. However, for the freed slaves of Dionia, there was one more thing they had to do as soon as possible, and that was to immediately apply to the Union Registrar to be a prospective citizen.

After the emancipation ceremony, the joyous celebration begins.

Plays paid for by the Union and offered free to the public will be performed for three days in the newly built theater in the city of Turiyi, and in Athens, there will be countless people queuing for number plates to get in. But in Dionia, especially in Turiyi, the public is more interested in the Dioonia rugby match, which attracted the attention of countless people last year just in the four cities of Amendolara, Turiyi, Niutum and Laos, and this year it has added Crimesa, Castron, Asphorustum and even Grummentum, which has just been merged into the league (it is mainly composed of soldiers from the Third Army who moved to Grummentum). The expansion of the participating teams has made the competition more intense, and the opening ceremony has become more formal.

The dignitaries of the city-states of the Dionian League and the Southern Italian League received invitations, and when the entire arena was full, the loud bronze trumpets resounded throughout the arena, and the players from each city lined up to enter the arena and circle the stadium in turn.

The crowd cheered enthusiastically, especially when they saw the players from their city.

When Amicles saw Castron's players marching past the main stand, he clapped vigorously and said loudly to those around him: "Look, that's our Castron players!" At the forefront are the Gorks, who are as strong as a herd of Lucanian bulls! ”

The people around him let out a good-natured laugh.

The three Crimsa senators who had just entered the Senate, Antaoris, Erick Puss, and Preades, did not understand why the chief general of Castron was so excited, and Cuno Gorata smiled and explained to them in a whisper: "When we held a rugby match last year, we also invited Castron, but Laos participated, but Castelon did not, so many people made fun of it, saying, 'Castrons are timid and timid by nature, and they dare not participate in this fierce game of men. It seems that these words really stimulated them, and this year they specially formed a team to prove themselves, and even their general Gorkis himself died. ”

For the trio who had never seen a game before, they couldn't yet comprehend the enthusiasm and frenzy of the Dionian populace, but they were also infected by the frenzied atmosphere around them, applauding the players paraded on the field like other city-state dignitaries.

Then, they saw the team representing Crimesa, because the leader of the team held aloft a wooden sign with the word "Crimea" engraved in bright red letters, and the team of more than 50 people was mostly unfamiliar faces.

Antaoris knows that in recent months, there have been citizens and reserve citizens of Dioonia who have moved to Crimesa for the purpose of allocating land, so even if they have been in the Dionian League for a short time, the skills of this team may not be too bad.

Antaoris also saw a few familiar faces in the team, who, like the rest of the team, had excitement on their faces, chatting cordially with their teammates and waving to the crowd outside the stadium, who had been citizens of Crimeza and now became citizens of Dionia, but who had only been a few months into the team, but had naturally integrated into the team.

Anta Oris was in a mixed mood for a while.

"Master Antaorris, I'm looking forward to seeing how the Cremisa players perform." Kunogorata's meaningful words brought Antaoris back to his senses.

"Don't worry, they're definitely better than Castron." Antaoris said with a pretended lightheartedness, and several people laughed.

The eight teams finally settled in the center of the field.

At this time, Davers stood up from the spectator seat, and the originally boiling arena gradually quieted down.

The dignitaries of the Southern Italian League were shocked and envious: the great prestige of Davers among the Ionian populace was evident!

Davers' voice resounded in the arena: "Hundreds of years ago, the great god Zeus created the Olympia Games, and since then fierce games have replaced bloody battles, and there has been less war and more peace between Greek city-states!" A year ago, Hades, the great Hades, brought us rugby, and since then rugby has flourished within the Dionian League, and people have gained health, happiness, unity and friendship in this fierce sport! Today, the best players of the Dioonia League and the League are gathered here to thank Hades for his gift and will compete for the only championship in the most exciting and fierce rugby competition! Fight, players! Hades will bless you! ”