Plato smiled and said seriously: "My insights have been finished at previous scholars' conferences. If there is no update, why are you embarrassed to stand on the podium again? Besides, there are many young scholars' speeches at this conference of scholars, especially your son Apox. It is really enviable to have such amazing discoveries when you are young! Moreover, most of these young scholars come from your Dionys Academy, which shows that your Dionys' years of persistent investment in education has finally begun to bear fruit. In contrast, other city-states, including our Athens, are much behind!" When he said this, Plato's face showed a little worry.

"Yesterday, Spisips' speech also won praise from many scholars! Plato, you don't have to worry about no successor!" Lycias comforted.

Spisips hurriedly stood up and expressed his gratitude to the elders.

Plato was not humble. He pointed to his nephew and said, "Compared with the first Scholars Conference, Spisips has indeed made great progress now, but he is the only one in my school that can be called a 'young scholar', and your school has emerged many outstanding young scholars, and this gap is very big!"

"Dionia Academy is a public institution of the Kingdom and is funded by the Dionia Treasury. Every year, select the best students from the Kingdom's urban schools and further training, and the natural success rate will be very high. Akkadmi Academy is established by you for personal investment. Due to the limitations of funds, venues and teachers, you cannot recruit more students, which is of course incomparable.

But I heard that the reputation of Akkadmi Academy has begun to spread in the Eastern Mediterranean. I believe that gradually more outstanding young people from various Greek city-states will be willing to study in your school, and the situation will be greatly improved." Lycias comforted.

Plato sighed: "As I wrote in the book "New Ideal Country", 'If a country and a city-state want to achieve sustainable prosperity and development, it must first focus on education. Education can not only enable young citizens to have wisdom, but also cultivate them to have sound ideas and morals from an early age. Only when the quality of citizens has been improved and they know how to think can the whole country develop healthily...'

Unfortunately, we Athenian citizens do not think so. They only value immediate interests and hope to distribute the property in the treasury evenly. Therefore, a few years ago, they unanimously agreed to implement the subsidy system for the Citizens' Congress (that is, all Athenian citizens attending the conference will be issued half a Drakhma as compensation each time. As prices rise, this subsidy will also increase accordingly, and even expand to participating in other meetings, you can get subsidy compensation).

After tasting the benefits of sharing the wealth of the city-state, they officially passed the "implementation of the playwright system" two years ago (the subsidies for purchasing playwrights are occasionally issued to poor citizens during the Athens celebrations. This tradition first began in the Pericles era). For this reason, a special financial official was established to manage the playwrights..."

Plato said worriedly: "Now the citizens of Athenians enjoy the benefits of sharing the wealth of the city-state. They hope that the subsidies will be distributed more frequently and in more quantities. The remaining portion of Athenian taxes will become less and less, and the ability to cope with economic conditions will become worse and worse. However, Athenian citizens will live more and more comfortable, and become unwilling to engage in difficult and dangerous military operations.

Some time ago, Connon's son Timothus proposed at the council that, "We should lead the navy to sail around the Peloponnese Peninsula to attack the Spartan Navy and completely establish the advantages of the Athenian Navy." The council passed his proposal, but did not allocate the funds for the expedition, and the people did not join the army. Timothus had to raise money himself, hire soldiers, and pay the rewards, and then formed the fleet of the expedition.

As a result, after conquering Kekela Island, due to lack of funds, the sailors refused to fight for him again, and the entire military operation ended in a hurry halfway. The military generals who encountered such difficulties were not only Timothus, but also Iphicratus and Cabrias... These relatively excellent Athenian generals were also subject to military expenditure restrictions, resulting in a series of military operations in Athens in recent years.

This also led to the great generals willing to serve Athens having to often serve Gentile monarchs, and also gave them enough money or the ability to support their military operations for Athens through loans. For example, Ephiclatus not only often served the Thracians, but also married a daughter of the Thracian king. Timothus had a high reputation in Ionia and also married a daughter of the city-state of Asia Minor...

In normal times, they spend more time abroad than in Athens, because they have more freedom and can live a luxurious and glitzy life without being criticized by public opinion. In the long run, how much loyalty do they have to Athens?!

This is simply a vicious cycle! But the citizens of Athens cannot see these dangers. Most of them only value watching operas for free. They can get money by sitting in various venues every day... This is the most sad thing!"

After hearing this, Daversbon did not want to express his opinion on Athenian affairs, but he thought about it and said seriously: "The Athenian government is unwilling to pay the army from the treasury to form an army to fight a war will lead to a worse result. The generals of Athenian use the money they raise to pay for the mercenaries. The mercenaries naturally obey the generals' orders rather than the Athenian government. The Athenian government completely lost control of the army and it is difficult to order the army to implement the strategies it formulated. Even if the general who commanded the army had some ambitions for Athens and ordered the army to attack Athens, would you say these mercenaries obey?"

Plato was stunned when he heard this, slowly put down the wine glass that was delivered to his mouth, and after a while hesitation said: "Although Timothus and Ephiclatus have some conflicts, the current Athenian generals are still full of love for Athens... But you are right. Since the army is serving the city-state, the city-state should of course pay for the soldiers and protect their lives. Both sides have an obligation to each other. But if one party gives up this obligation, the other party has the right not to perform this obligation...

The day before yesterday, I came to Turiyi and had heard that 'Dionia formed a border army through tax increases'. It is indeed a very happy thing for the people of Dionys to have a strong and intelligent government!"

Plato took a sip of wine and did not want to discuss the annoying issue anymore, and continued: "The reason I came to Turiyi this time when the Scholars Conference was about to end was because I spent some time wandering around other towns in Dionia."

"Oh!" Davers said with regret, "You should tell me in advance and let me arrange it for you so that your travel itinerary will be more convenient and safer."

"I won't tell you, just to make your wandering more freely and make what you see more real." Plato pointed to his eyes and asked in a narrow voice: "Great King Davers, do you want to make arrangements for me, are you afraid that I will see something bad?"

Davers smiled heartily: "You should know me, I have nothing to worry about."

"Indeed, I should congratulate you!" Plato said with interest: "I went to the south - the former military city of Carthage, Lilibi, and also to the auspicious city of Rome to the north, and spent two days in Bereventum, the central town of the former Samones...Dionia's territory is indeed vast, and it took me a lot of time on the road alone.

But I want to correct what you said just now. The road is very safe. Whether by sea or by land, I have not encountered pirates, bandits, nor war, and everywhere I pass, I seem peaceful and peaceful, even in the Samone territory, which the Greeks call the "fier savages."

You should know that more than ten years ago, more than twenty years ago, the Greater Greek region and Sicily were in constant wars like the Greek mainland, the war between the Greek city-states, the war between the colonial city-states and the indigenous people, the war between the Greek city-states and Carthage... Now the war conflicts in the Greek mainland are still continuing, but the west of the Adriatic Sea is already a completely different scene. This is the huge change brought to the Western Mediterranean by the existence of the Kingdom of Dionys!”

Plato took another sip of wine and continued to say loudly: "I have to mention another important change. Although the journey is long, the transportation is very convenient and the sea routes are smooth. No matter the size of the port towns I visited, their port facilities are relatively complete and their management is orderly.

As for land, we have to mention the roads you have spent on and built in large quantities, flat, wide and strong, even in the continuous mountains of Samone and Lucania, they still exist. You also build roads in the territories of the Volsie and Campanians... Oh, you call it the "road network", it is indeed a network, which connects most races on the Italian Peninsula, provides great convenience for their travel and trade, and strengthens exchanges among people of all races.
Chapter completed!