Seeing Phoebidas boarding the boat with unwillingness and leaving Tarantum's port, Diomeras immediately changed his expression and said to Eumacas seriously: "The Spartans have a very right thing. Tarantum will not cheer up anymore. Even a new city-state like Dione, which has no historical tradition, will despise us!"

"Are you really going to start a war against Mesapi?!" Eumacas hesitated.

"Hasn't the Mesapi people been launching wars against us all the time?" Diomeras asked back, and he said sadly: "It is because we have always been tolerant of the Mesapi people that it increasingly believes that our Tarantum is weak, and it will invade us more and more. It also makes other city-states in the Greater Greece increasingly ignore the existence of Tarantum! We must fight back and completely solve the Mesapi problem!"

"Total solution?! That's not what you told me last time!" Eumacas said with a frown.

Diomeras said, and hurriedly said, "I mean, first of all, we must concentrate our efforts to seize Manduria, which poses the greatest threat to us, and then see the opportunity, it is best to seize Brindisi, so that our strength will be greatly enhanced! Other Mesapi City-State can slowly attack..."

Eumacas was a little moved, but he was still hesitant: "Do we have the strength to defeat Mesapi's main force in one fell swoop?"

"Of course we have!" Diomeras said firmly, and in order to convince his colleagues, he added: "And we have a strong reserve force!"

"What reserve force?" Eumacas was stunned.

Diomeras pointed to the west of the sea: "Dionia, our alliance, we have helped it for so long, and it should do its best!"

Eumacas finally said: "I will support your proposal in the Senate."

………………………………………

"Damn, the city-states of the big Greeks, such as Dionia, Castron, and Tarantum are all in a group!" Phoebidas said angrily on the ship.

"Let's go to Crotone?" Dorobisis advised carefully.

Phoebedas glared at him and said, "Go to Syracuse!"

Of course, Phoebidas knew that Crotone and Dionia had a bad relationship because of the previous war. But he could not go because Crotone's enemies were not only Dionia, but Locre had a worse relationship with it. Locre was a Spartan ally Siracauza in the Greater Greece. If he went to Crotone, Siracau would probably go to Sparta to complain. Although he was determined to take revenge on Dionia, he did not expect that Tibronyi would be exiled, not to mention that Siracau was better partnered with than Crotone.

But when he got along with the Sicilian tyrant who heard it was a bit domineering, Phoebidas felt that he should learn from the lessons that were too ostentatious in Greater Greece, and in a different way, and to achieve his goals more obscurely.

………………………………………

The newly built Kristoya restaurant in Turiyi is located near the dock in the southwest of the city. Compared with another Kristoya restaurant next to Turiyi Market, it mainly faces alliance citizens, Gentile messengers and wealthy businessmen, so it provides high-end dishes such as beef and mutton. For this reason, part of the restaurant is specially divided into small open-air yards to exhaust smoke during barbecue.

When Timason, Zantiparis and Criano were invited by Agarcia to enter the yard, they were not unfamiliar with everything in front of them, after all, they had enjoyed it in Davers's mansion.

Kriano was interested in the price of beef and mutton, and asked the slaves who were serving him while eating: "How much does it cost to eat this one?"

The slave thought for a while and said, "Dear Guest, it depends on how much you eat? Usually, one person needs about two to five drachmas."

"So expensive!" Kriano shouted in surprise: "I can't earn a Drakma a day now!"

"It is more expensive than ordinary dishes, but it is worth the price!" The slave explained patiently: "First of all, the beef and mutton in our restaurants are purchased from Niutum and Lukalia, which are famous in all major Greece, and of course the price is not cheap. Secondly, the restaurant also needs to send people to the top of the mountain to collect unmelted ice and snow to freeze these meats. This is a very risky thing! Then, there are also some meat-cutting methods that are good at cutting meat. The store also hired chefs from Egypt to prepare sauces of various flavors for you. Finally, I will serve you all the time... Look, there are so many complicated processes and so many people to make the beef and mutton you like to eat. Do you still think it is expensive?!"

"You have a clever mouth!" Kriano couldn't help but sigh after hearing this. Then, he sighed again and said bluntly: "It's a pity that he is a slave!"

"Although I am a slave now, the kind master still pays me every day. According to the Slave Act promulgated by the Alliance, 'A slave can become a free citizen as long as he works hard for his master for more than four years, can raise money for redemption, and can obtain the consent of his master.' And our master, Cristoya, is as kind as Lord Davers, and she has made a divine promise to the great god Hades in front of us! Therefore, I think in ten years, I will definitely become a citizen of Dionia!" The slave's eyes shined with gratitude and hope.

Davers, you are really good at bribing people’s hearts! Aren’t you afraid of the slave owners’ objections? Kriano looked at the slightly excited slave, and did not say this, and asked casually: “What’s your name?”

“Tanarus.”

"I hope your wish will come true." Criano said against his will.

Tanarus responded happily: "Thank you for your blessings, kind guest!"

"Look, there are finally some Quarkriano's heart!" Timasong quipped.

"Timasong, are you jealous, are you?" Kriano pretended to be angry and picked up the beer can: "Come on, let's drink!"

"Wow, just your alcohol tolerance, want to pour me over?" Timasong didn't take the wine glass and picked up the wine jar: "Come on, let's finish it in one sip!"

"Drink it!" The two of them raised their heads and poured wine.

Zantiparis shouted anxiously: "Drink slower, Aggarcia will cost a lot of money to treat us to dinner!" Then, he joked to Aggarcia, "This restaurant should be considered Davers's property. He should ask him to charge less money when checking out."

"Uh... don't worry about Agarcia. He is a senator, how could he not even take out dozens of Dracmas!" Crienor burped and said loudly, with a sour smell in his words.

"Criano is right. You don't have to worry about money. We will let go of food and drink tonight!" Agarcia said loudly as if she had not heard the sarcasm in Criano's words.

"Give me another can of beer!" Timason said to Tanarus: "This wine is good, I love it!"

"Give me another can!" Criano shouted.

"Please wait." Tanarus rushed to the door and shouted out the guests' needs to the waiter in the corridor.

The banquet lasted for about half an hour and everyone was slightly drunk.

"A year ago, we fought with the Persians every day, and we saw the stiff corpses of our comrades around us. At that time, we didn't even have much hope to return to Greece alive, and we wouldn't have thought that we would drink and eat meat so happily today..." Zantiparis said with emotion: "How difficult! We really have to thank the gods for their blessing!"

"Cheers to us to be together alive!" Timasong raised his glass to propose.

"Thanks to Zeus (Hades) for his blessing!" Others also responded one after another.

Zantiparis put down his wine glass and said, "Agarcia, aren't you just letting us drink and have a meal?" He was careful and had long discovered that Agarcia's expression was a little depressed.

Agarcia reached out to scooped meat and paused in the air. For a moment, he put down the colander and wiped the wine stains from his mouth with his hands. He looked at the three people who were looking for their eyes and said in a deep voice: "Today, the messenger of Sparta is here and asks the alliance to capture you and hand it over to Sparta..."

The news of the arrival of Spartan warships in Turiyi had spread in the port. Of course, Timasong and the others knew, but they didn't expect that the Spartan envoys came specifically for them.

"How did you answer the Spartans?" Criano asked anxiously, and the other two looked nervous.

"Don't worry, even if the Spartans threatened with war, Davers still firmly rejected the Spartan envoy!" Agarcia's answer made the three of them breathe a sigh of relief.

"Davs is worthy of being the leader who often wins battles and is not afraid of the threat from the Spartans!" At this moment, Criano praised Davers again.

"Actually, the Spartans are not scary. We followed them to fight in Asia Minor for more than half a year and know Sparta well. Their generals do have great combat experience, but there are too few Spartan citizens who can really send to the battlefield. They mainly rely on the troops of allies and mercenaries when they go out to fight. The combat effectiveness is actually not very strong. It makes them feel very difficult for dealing with Persia alone. I don't think they still have the strength to go to the alliance to provoke it!..." Timasong also comforted.
Chapter completed!