Davos’ words deeply worried Cheirisophus, making him hurriedly say, “These are only the conditions Sparta drafted before the negotiation. You can also give your conditions first, and we will negotiate together.”
“Cheirisophus.” Davos coldly said, “The war in Magna Graecia ended, and Sicily’s situation is rather stable for Theonia, so I can now draw out more than 200 triremes and more than 50,000 soldiers at any time! If I lead this massive fleet to the east, it will only take us less than three days to reach Peloponnes, so will Sparta be able to stop us?!”
Without waiting for Cheirisophus’ answer, Davos decisively said, “You can’t! Your fleet has already lost to Conon’s navy at Knidos. Now, you only have less than a hundred ships cowering in the Gulf of Corinth and not daring to come out! They aren’t a match for the Theonian fleet at all! If a fleet with 50,000 soldiers subsequently landed on the coasts of Messenia, would your army be able to stop it?!”
The corner of Davos’ mouth curled slightly, “They won’t! You sent most of Sparta’s warriors to Corinth, a few to Persia, and the rest had to suppress the Helots at Sparta. And even if Sparta can gather all your warriors, we, Theonia, wouldn’t be afraid as I believe that Theonia’s huge and elite legionaries can completely defeat your proud Spartan warriors!”
Davos then pounded the wooden table, making Cheirisophus, who had experienced countless life-and-death struggles, subconsciously shudder as he felt his heart hit by the fist.
“Naturally, I don’t even need to make such an effort.” Davos’ expression relaxed again as he slowly sat down and said, “I would only need to let the army disperse the Spartan troops left in Messenia, blockade the Tagetus Pass, and then support the Helots – or. Just let Messenians become independent and arm them. Afterwards, we could just withdraw so that we wouldn’t even need to consume too much food and participate in countless fighting. But can you Spartans deal with armed Messenians easily? No, you can’t! The Messinians’ revolt decades ago already made you suffer!”
It was more than suffering as the Spartans couldn’t do anything against the Messenian’s revolt and had even begged Athens and other allies to send troops to help them suppress these rioting Helots. As a result, the polemarchos of Athens at that time, Cimon, with several thousand Athenian soldiers, came to help Sparta. But because they did not expect the difference in political system and traditions, they received a lot of suspicion and aggression, which made the soldiers return home in anger. After returning, they spread about their experience in Sparta to the public, which triggered the public’s outrage against Sparta and led to the downfall of the pro-Spartan leader Cimon. Afterwards, Pericles became the new leader of Athens for decades and created Athens’ golden age.
Yet even with their allies’ help, Sparta still failed to exterminate the rioting Messenians, leading to the hardship of the Spartans’ livelihood as the Helots were encouraged to resist constantly. In the end, Sparta had to compromise with the rebels and allow them to leave Sparta’s territory freely…
That was a pained memory for the Spartans. Yet Davos easily said that he would repeat the incident, making Cheirisophus hostile, “Could it be that Theonia wants to declare war on Sparta?!”
“Theonia naturally doesn’t want to do this, but Sparta is forcing Theonia to prepare for war!” Davos said deeply.
“Forcing Theonia?!” Cheirisophus thought he heard a joke as he seriously reminded, “Sparta came to negotiate a friendly agreement with Theonia in good faith!”
“When Syracuse destroyed many Greek city-states in Sicily and forcibly ordered them to obey them, Sparta had not come out to stop Syracuse! When Dionysius invaded Magna Graecia with his armies, slaughtered the people and plundered, you Spartans still didn’t stop them! But now that Theonia has defeated Syracuse to restore the order in Magna Graecia and Sicily and the peace to this place, you came out to stop us?! Is this Sparta’s so-called sincerity?!!” Davos said coldly, his tone gradually increasing.
“Davos, listen-” Cheirisophus wanted to explain.
“By what right does Sparta have to dictate Theonia, Magna Graecia and Sicily?!” Davos interrupted Cheirisophus as he angrily questioned him, “By your few thousand warriors?! By your tens of thousands of allies in Peloponnese?! By those hodgepodge mercenaries?! With just my command, I can gather more than 200 triremes and 50,000 elite soldiers to attack Peloponnese and tear the Spartan territories and its allies to pieces, so you arrogant Spartans can understand how to show respect to a powerful nation! So that you greedy and selfish Sparta can understand that the western Mediterranean is not the Peloponnese, which does not allow any foreign power to stir up the waters!…”
Listening to Davos’ emotional and furious accusation and seeing the new king’s arms slamming powerfully, Cheirisophus remembered what Phidias had said long ago after completing his mission to Theonia and demanded at the Gerousia to punish Theonia, ‘Theonia is a city-state union that advocates might and aggression; we must find a way to restrain them, or they would bring us trouble in the future!’ But now, they were not more than just trouble as they were the greatest threat of all! It was as if the Davos in front of him became a grown lion who no longer needed to hide his claws and fangs and was now roaring at the former Greek hegemon.
At this moment, Cheirisophus calmed down as he realised something from Davos’ rebuke, “King Davos since you are dissatisfied with our conditions for the peace negations, what are your conditions?”
Davos’ anger he displayed wasn’t directed at Cheirisophus but at Sparta’s Gerousia behind him, so when he heard Cheirisophus, he thought that he had achieved his goal. Even though he still didn’t restrain his anger, he no longer shouted as he snorted and said, “We Greeks in the western Mediterranean can manage our own matters without Sparta intervening. If Sparta can recognise this, Theonia will not be interested in the Greek matters in the eastern Mediterranean, which is the basic condition for Theonia and Sparta to reach a peace agreement!”
Cheirisophus was shocked at Davos’ ambition of wanting to share the Greek world in the Mediterranean with Sparta. Despite Sparta not paying much attention to the Mediterranean, they still supported Syracuse to help them guard Sparta’s rear. Hence the opinions among the Spartan warriors were that Syracuse was the weaker party in the alliance dominated by Sparta even though Dionysius began to become disobedient due to Syracuse becoming stronger. But now, Theonia was officially offering to be on an equal footing with Sparta…causing Cheirisophus to stare at Davos in disbelief.
On the other hand, Davos just firmly stare at Cheirisophus.
After a moment, Cheirisophus said, “I understand what you mean, and I will relay your words to the Gerousia. I believe they could give their reply quickly.”
“Alright. However, the war in the western Mediterranean is rapidly developing, so I am afraid the situation will be completely different in a few days. Thus you need to hurry up,” Davos’ seemingly inadvertent reminder made Cheirisophus anxious again.
After seeing off Cheirisophus, who had left in a hurry, Henipolis asked with concern, “Milord, will Sparta agree to your conditions? And negotiate with those terms?”
Even though Davos wasn’t so sure about it, he still smiled and said, “The current Theonia doesn’t fear Sparta, nor is there anything we need of Sparta. Unlike us, the Spartans wouldn’t be able to sleep after Cheirisophus relayed my threatening words.”
“Still, the Spartans would definitely hate Theonia in their hearts even if they signed the friendly agreement with us with those conditions!” Said Henipolis worriedly. He then continued, “Your majesty, wouldn’t it be better for us to take advantage of the fact that Sparta is now stuck in the quagmire of war to crush them once and for all according to what your majesty said earlier?!”
“Hahaha… Heni, it seems you hate Sparta more than I do!” Davos laughed.
“Your majesty, I’m just…just worried about what Sparta would do later…” Henipolis argued.
Davos patted him on the shoulder and confidently said, “Be at ease. A city-state like Sparta has no future without our, Theonia’s, help!”
Even though Davos couldn’t remember this period of history clearly, with his in-depth understanding of Greece over the years, he knew that: Sparta would have irreconcilable contradictions with Corinth and Argos in the Peloponnesian Peninsula, Athens and Thebes in central Greece, and their wars were bound to continue. Now that Theonia had ended their war with Syracuse, they urgently needed time to digest and absorb the new land. Thus there was no need for them to poke the hornet’s nest that was Sparta. After all, even if Sparta were weakened, Theonia wouldn’t get any benefits. On the contrary, it would just give other city-states in Greece, such as Athens and Thebes, better opportunities to expand… Hence it was better to just let them fight each other, giving Theonia more time to develop.
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
It was just as Davos had expected: Despite appearing furious after receiving Cheirisophus’ report, the Gerousia inwardly felt afraid: The Theonian army of Magna Graecia was ready to attack, yet Sparta was unable to fight on a new battlefield.
The Greeks ridiculed the Spartans by calling them ‘Vipers hiding behind Mount Parnon’, which shows that even though these over 60-years old Spartan elders appeared to be arrogant and conservative, they knew how to adapt to the times.
