"Diobetis, are you really a Spartan?!" Lysander sneered: "Don't forget De Maratos!" ”

The elders were in an uproar, Demaratos—that was a long-standing shame for the Spartans.

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Although the Spartan warrior admired killing and despised pleasure, he did not dislike beautiful women, and while the best criterion for judging a future wife was easy to procreate, whether a Spartan woman was beautiful was also a ready-made standard for judging whether her morals were noble as a mother of future children. And participating in training with men from an early age also gave Spartan women their own unique beauty, they had long blonde hair, toned bodies, and elegant calves. Giving birth to an ugly daughter can be frustrating for parents, but there is a chance for change, and that is to come to an ancient sanctuary next to Helen's grave and pray to the bronze statue of Helen, which is said to make the child grow up beautiful.

A hundred years ago, a pair of Spartan parents prayed to Helen for their ugly daughter, and the ugly priestess in charge of the sanctuary grabbed the child's long hair, and after seeing the child's appearance, made a prophecy: she would become the loveliest woman in Rastimon.

As time passed, the girl became a famous beauty, and her charm made the king of Sparta smitten so smitten that he snatched it from her husband with royal power, and just over seven months later, the new queen gave birth to a son. Was the father of the child the king or the commoner? The Spartans did not dig deeper, and the boy grew up and eventually succeeded to the throne as king, and he was Demalatos.

At the time of Demaratos's succession, another Spartan king, Cleomenes, had been on the throne for five years, and his succession was much more difficult, because his father could not impregnate his wife, and the elders of the law demanded that he divorce his wife and remarry, he hesitated and chose bigamy, and when the second wife gave birth to three sons for him, his first wife gave birth to Cleomenes. However, the king had long loved his second wife, and naturally preferred the children she bodied, and Cleomenes was not favored by his father, and his half-brother Dolius was raised by the king and appointed as the rightful heir, and Dolius was considered to be the best of his generation. However, after the sudden death of the king, the conservative Spartans believed that Cleomenes, the son of the king's first wife, had priority to inherit the throne, so the successor Cleomenes exiled his brothers on the pretext of sending Dolius to colonize the western Mediterranean.

Cleomenes was quick-witted, decisive, ambitious, and power-hungry, and how could De Maratos, who had just succeeded to the throne, be his opponent, and was quickly overthrown by Cleomenes. Cleomenes ruled Sparta alone for more than 20 years, defeating Argos, controlling Arcadia, intervening in Delphi, and interfering in the political situation in Athens...... Sparta's influence extended to Northern Greece. At this time, the Persian king Xerxes was preparing to invade Greece again, and learning the lesson of Darius, he sent a large number of spies to Greece to divide and divide the various city-states, and Aegina, an island city-state not far from the eastern side of the Peloponnese, offered land and water to Persia, Cleomenes angrily denounced this apostasy and decided to punish Aegina.

The Aeginas hurriedly appealed to another Spartan king, Demaratos, who was happy to cause trouble for his political enemies, and secretly united with the elders of the Council of Elders who were unwilling to go to war with Persia to provide support. This infuriated Cleomenes, who finally decided to get rid of this intolerable collaborator once and for all, so at the council of elders he initiated, he questioned Demaratos's origins, and he not only won over Demaratos's people, most of the elders, but also bribed the priests of Delphi so that the oracle he sought was also unfavorable to Demaratos, and as a result, Demaratos, who had reigned for 24 years, was deposed from the throne and defected to Xerxes, becoming a traitor who led the way.

But the victorious Cleomenes did not last long, his bribery to Delphi was revealed, the Spartans were furious, he was found guilty, first fled from Sparta, then returned, but was relieved of power, from then on he drank heavily, beat people, shouted and cursed, everyone said that he was crazy, his two half-brothers Leonida and Cleomebroteus declared him insane and locked him in the temple. The next day, he was found dead, the flesh had been cut off piece by piece, and a knife was in his hand.

This caused quite a stir! It was rumored that this was a blasphemous punishment for Cleomenes, and it was widely accepted by the public: suicide.

Soon, Leonida became king. But privately, rumors spread from time to time that Cleomenes had died at the hands of two brothers.

The reason why Leonidad led the three hundred king's guards to Thermopay Pass to defend against the Persian army was forced by the situation, and at the same time, he also had the intention of proving his innocence to the Spartans.

……………………

It was a history of treachery for the Spartans, and it could even be said to be a disgrace for Sparta. In the venue, there was silence for a while.

Speaker Kreostida simply announced: "The election of a new king begins!" ”

Both Agosilaus and Leotizides had their flaws and supporters, so the debate was dominated by a contest between the two sides over the neutral elders...... And the final result of the vote - Agosilaus won.

With tears of humiliation in his eyes, Leoticides looked hatefully at the elders who had congratulated Agesilaus, and then quietly left......

The Speaker, Kleostida, asked the guards to welcome the five Ombudsmen who were already waiting outside the council hall and announce the results of the election to them.

So the procurators came to Agosilaus, who stood with a solemn expression and listened to them read aloud: "Great Zeus, according to the results of the election of the Council of Elders, we declare the blood of the holy Hercules, Agosilaus, king of Sparta!" ”

Agosilaus could hardly maintain a calm expression, and his voice trembled and he swore an oath: "I swear in the name of Zeus that I, Agosilaus, will govern and rule Sparta according to the laws already established by the city-state!" ”

The Ombudsman responded: "As long as you keep your oath, we will ensure that your reign is perpetuated!" ”

In February 398 BCE, Agosilaus became king of Sparta.

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At the southeastern tip of Sicily, Dionysius led 80,000 infantry, 3,000 cavalry, and more than 400 ships from Siracuse to march west along the southern coast of Sicily.

While easily liberating the city-state of Kamanlina, which had been forced to pay tribute to Carthage, Dionysius received the news that "Dionysia defeated Crotone", and he was silent for a while, and then said to the attendant beside him: "Write to Felistus at once, and say that I have agreed to Lockley's request to send them reinforcements as soon as possible!" ”

He then sent the herald to urge the army, which had been resting for a day, to continue its march westward.

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"Crotone has sued for peace with Dionia!" After receiving the news from Crotone, the Archon of Tarantum, Eumacus, was surprised and said, "I really didn't expect that a year ago, Dionia was a small city-state that needed our protection to survive, and now it has quickly developed into a powerful alliance of Great Greece!" ”

The former consul and now the senator of the Senate, Desitimas, sighed, "Luckily we are allies with Dionia! ”

"Tarantum's safety cannot be relied upon by other people's promises!" Yumakus shook his head and said firmly: "We should speed up the conquest of the Mesapi and strengthen the power of Tarantum as soon as possible, so that we can have the confidence to speak when facing Dionia!" ”

"The capture of Manduriya has already caused a lot of casualties among our citizens! But if you still attack Brindisi, there will be more Tarantum citizens to die! How could the Senate agree to such a radical approach of yours! Desitimas accused, with some anger.

Eumacus looked at Disitimas with a hint of contempt in his eyes: "Desitimas, my friend, you still haven't figured it out! This is not only the will of the majority of the senators of the Senate, but also the will of the people! Spurred on by the rapid rise of Dionia, the populace is tired of decades of inaction in the Senate! I hate to endure the attacks of the Mesapi every year! They are asking us to make a change! Although there are some casualties among the citizens, we have mastered Manduriya, and it will be much more difficult for Mesapi to invade our territory! Now that Lord Diomilas is about to return to Tarantum, Acheta continues to lead his forces against Brindisi. I believe that Acheta, after learning that Crotone was forced to sue for peace with Dionia, did not need our urging, he would have stepped up his offensive against Brindisi! ”

Disitimas fell silent, and after a moment, he hesitated and said, "I'm a little worried that such a massive attack will provoke the Puchetti people in the north, who are of the same race as the Mesapi......"

"If we don't attack, they won't hate us?!" "If we take Brindisi," he retorted, "we will not only cut off the Mesapi from the north, but also trade with the Adriatic, which will have many advantages...... If the Puchetti you mentioned see that our city is empty and take the opportunity to attack, then we can also-"

Eumacus looked at Desitimas, who understood what he meant, and sighed: "Ask our ally Dionya for help!" ”

…………………

Despite Lycias's efforts to defend Milon, the citizens' assembly still sentenced Milon to be expelled from the country and not to return for ten years.