Isocrates anxiously waited for the final decision of the Dionia Senate in a spacious lounge inside the chamber.

Soon, the guards came in and asked him to go to the venue.

When he walked into the venue, he found Davers, the consul of Dionia, standing in the center of the venue.

After Davers smiled at him and signaled to ask him to sit down, Davers smiled and said to him: "Great Messenger of Athens, I am glad that you brought the friendly friendship between Athens, the great city-state of the Mediterranean, and the friendship between Athenian Union, which made us, who are in a remote corner of the Greek world, stop mourning and self-pity, because in the new drama "The Dionys" by Athenian playwright Aristophane, we Dionys are regarded as barbarians for the people of Athens to enjoy..."

As soon as this said, Isocrates cried out inwardly: "It's broken."

Sure enough, he heard someone shouting behind him: "What right does the Athenians have to humiliate us Lucanians!"

"They are not only humiliating the Lucans, they are humiliating all the citizens of Dionian!" another man shouted angrily.

"If the Athenians all look at us with this attitude, then the Athenians are not welcome here!"

...

One after another, angered voice hit Isocrates sitting in front, making him feel like a volcano that was about to erupt, and his face changed a little.

Daphs looked at his embarrassment and continued: "Isocrates, you said that Athens and Dionia have a deep friendship. This cannot be just spoken, but it needs to be based on actual actions. Now, according to the actual situation in Athens, we cannot see the friendship between the Athenians and Dionia. What we see is only the people of Athenians who ruthlessly ridicule and sarcasm of some characteristics of an emerging city-confederate alliance that is different from other Greek city-states, and can even become a topic of conversation for restaurants in Athens for several consecutive months. This is not the performance of a city-state that once claimed to be the "best school in Greece" and has a long historical tradition! It is not the performance of a city-state that claims to be deeply affectionate and wants to form an alliance with Dionia!

Therefore, the citizens of Dionia will not be assured to leave their backs to a city-state that discriminates against themselves when facing a strong enemy. Therefore, I think it is too early to talk about the military alliance."

Damn Aristophane! Damn Aristophane! Isocrates' countless curses in his heart could not change the reality of failure in alliance. He was frustrated and wanted to stand up and try his final efforts.

Davers in front waved at him, signaling him not to interrupt, and then said, "Although Turi is no longer the Turi, and the Dionian League has no connection with Athens, the Dionians are by no means ungrateful race. We have clear grudges. We pay ten times the grudges given to us, and we pay ten times the grace given to others.

"The consul is right! Tarantum once formed an alliance with us when we were in trouble, so we sent a large army to save their city-state! Turiyi once gave you a mercenary to gain a foothold in the first place, so in the face of the Crotone army, we did not surrender, but instead avenged the dead Turiyi with a big victory! Dionys promised to cherish the friendship he paid for for life, so friendship cannot be given lightly!" The old man Scomblas shook his white beard, raised his head and chest, glanced at Isocrates, and showed a proud look of "Dionia's friendship is extremely precious, it's really a bargain for you."

Davers smiled and continued, "Since the center of the Dionys League is in Turiy, we naturally inherited some of the emotions of the Turiy people in the past. We are willing to have friendly exchanges with Athens and strengthen exchanges to eliminate misunderstandings between us..."

When Isocrates heard this, he understood the meaning of Davers and other senators in the Senate: except for the military alliance, Dionys was willing to get along with Athens in a friendly manner. Strengthening trade and cultural exchanges seemed to be no different from the core meaning of his previous speech.

But Isocrates understood that the difference was obvious. If Isocrates initially talked about cooperation as an Athenian big brother, but now the Dionians have stepped on the elegance and nobility in his bones under his feet, they told him: Dionian's friendship is extremely precious, and you can give some charity to Athens, but it depends on the performance of Athens...

Being able to sit in the position of the consul, creating today's Dionia with one hand, is not simple for this young man! Isocrates looked at Davers in front of him and felt the pressure...

………………………………

While Isocrates was giving a speech at the Senate of Dionia, Ansitanos took Lycias to the north side of Piazza Victory, where there was a newly built building that looked like a temple. Under the steps were bronze statues of nine muses, lined up in a row.

"Is it the Temple of Apollo?" Lycias looked at Ansitanos in confusion.

Ansitanos still had a mysterious smile on his face, but he just didn't speak.

With increasingly curiousness, Lycias walked up the steps and finally found several huge letters "library" on the lintel at the entrance of the temple.

"Is this?" Lycias could roughly guess the function of this building, but such a large building is only used to hold books? Are there so many books?

He looked at Ansitanos again in confusion, hoping that he could explain it.

"This is the library built by our consul, Lord Davers, and he took the lead in donating money!" Ansitanos said proudly at those words: "He once said, 'Books are the gems of human wisdom, whether it is Persia, Egypt, Carthage, or the Sumer, Hittites, and Assyrians... The history and civilization they created are ultimately gathered in words and books. It is the common wealth of our mankind, the ladder for us to escape from ignorance and to a more brilliant civilization. So we must do our best to collect them! Protect them! If these treasures are destroyed by war and disasters, it will be the most painful loss for us mankind! But we not only need to collect books, but also share and read these books for more people, so that the people of Dionia can improve themselves with knowledge, create wealth with knowledge, and create a more brilliant culture with knowledge. This is the meaning of building a library!"

After hearing this, Lycias was fascinated by his side and murmured: "A person who can speak such a great language must be a great person!"

Ansitanos smiled secretly.

"Take me in and have a look!" Lycias couldn't wait to go in, but was stopped by the guards at the door.

"This is my friend, he came with me, and I want to go in and visit." Ansitanos hurriedly stepped forward to explain.

"Okay, Lord Ansitanos." The guard saluted respectfully.

"There is force in the place where knowledge is stored!" Lycias said angrily as he walked in.

"Books are precious and fragile. A fire can destroy them all, of course, someone needs to defend them to prevent accidents." Ansitanos explained.

Lycias expressed his understanding, and after he was relieved, he said, "It seems that no one can enter here."

“Only Dionian citizens and preparatory citizens can enter.”

"In this way, the free people of Dionia have another motivation to become citizens." Lycias stayed here for nearly two days and understood how big the gap between the citizens of Dionia, the preparations and the free people enjoyed, but this gap is not impossible to eliminate. Unlike Athens, even if they work hard, it is okay to cross the gap between the Athenians and the Gentiles.

"I'm afraid there are 40,000 to 50,000 citizens of the Dionians in Turi. If they all enter this library, can they accommodate them?" Lycias asked in confusion.

"We have considered your concerns for a long time. First of all, the quality of the citizens of Dionia has not reached the level of literacy that everyone can read; secondly, they cannot appear here at the same time. Even if there are too many citizens to enter the library, there are regulations on the number of people in the library. However, it seems that this situation may have been many years later. By then, Dionia may have a second, third, and fourth library..." Ansitanos's words were filled with confidence in his alliance.

Lycias was silent, but soon he was attracted by the scene in front of him: rows of tall wooden cabinets were neatly placed in the museum, cutting the huge space into a walkway for three or four people to pass side by side. Each wooden cabinet was open, divided by wooden boards into small rectangular spaces, and inside it was a roll of books or materials assembled from papyrus or parchment paper. There was an area in front of these bookcases, with many wooden tables placed, and only a few people sat there reading quietly.

Lycias, who was fond of books, looked straight and couldn't help but say, "There are so many books!"

"In fact, there are not many. Most of the bookcases behind are empty. After all, the library has only been completed less than 20 days." Ansitanos said with some emotion: "Mr. Davers once called on the citizens of Dionys to take out their own collection of books and let the library copy one and store it here, and also to engrave the names of the steles for the citizens who contributed books. At that time, there were many citizens who responded to the call, so that the scribes in the library were too busy..."

Looking in the direction of Ansitanos' finger, Lycias saw several stone tablets erected on the left side of the entrance to the library. He had only looked ahead before, but he ignored it.

The stone tablet is densely engraved with names.

Lycias noticed that only the first name was written with the title: "This...This...This...This...This-" He stroked the title in disbelief.
Chapter completed!