Lycasis closed the door and hung a wooden sign saying, “Went out of town, clinic close”.
“Hey, Nicostratos, you are going out?!” The owner of the butcher shop across the street waved his cleaver and shouted.
Nicostratos grunted, ignoring the butcher. He always thought that it was because of this butcher, who shouted and hawked across the street every day, that made the rich people unwilling to visit his clinic. Thus he had the thought of moving the clinic several times, but the housing in the city is not cheap, and the location of the houses he could afford is not as good as here. That’s why he doesn’t look kindly to this rude neighbour of his.
“How long will you be out?!” The butcher shop’s owner was already used to the physician’s attitude. Seeing that he didn’t answer, he continued to ask loudly.
The clever Lycasis saw that his teacher was becoming gloomier. Thus he replied on his behalf, “We will be out for about twenty days, Uncle Kus.”
“Too long!” The butcher shop’s owner exclaimed, “What if we get sick and you are still not here?!”
Nicostratos twitched a few times. Finally, he could no longer hold himself back as he turned around and shouted, “Then you should not get sick until I return!”
“That’s not for me to decide whether I get sick or not. All of it is up to the mischief of the gods!” The butcher shop’s owner complained.
Nicostratos no longer want to talk to him anymore. Thus he strode forward.
“Physician Nicostratos, where are you going that you will be gone for so long?” Another person asked.
This time, Nicostratos stopped because the one who asked was the baker. He was his important customer that rarely comes but paid a lot of money every time he came to see him.
“To Thurii.” He answered seriously.
“Thurii? You were invited?” When the merchant saw Lycasis carrying a medical box, he said with pride, “We Crotonians are famous all over Magna Graecia for our medical skills! Although Theonia has a much larger territory and is good in fighting, they are still far inferior to Crotone, who has a long history, in other aspects!”
The butcher supported him and said, “You are right! Those people in the north are all refugees. They neither have culture nor tradition!”
Theonia’s influence in Magna Graecia grew year by year, making the ordinary people in the once-powerful Crotone frustrated. Out of bitterness, they always like to compare some of their city-state’s advantages with Theonia while ridiculing them to get some psychological satisfaction.
Nicostratos gave a few perfunctory replies and walked out of his street quickly.
“Imbecile.” It was at this moment that a word came out of his mouth.
The rise of Crotone’s medicine originated from Democedes a hundred years ago. When he was young, this young Crotonian was determined to become the best physician in the Mediterranean. Thus he travelled all over the places to learn the art of healing, and after completing his studies, he practised in Athens, earning a great deal of money with his skills. Later, he went to Samos to treat its tyrant. However, Samos was captured by the Persians when they attacked Asia Minor, resulting in him becoming a captive and escorted to Susa, where he cured Darius, the king of kings, who had sprained his ankle. He was then released to serve the royal family but was restricted from returning to Greece.
Living in Persia for more than five years, he started missing his hometown, thousands of kilometres away.
One day, Atossa, the queen of Darius and the daughter of Cyrus the Great, the founder of Persia, suffered from a lump on her breast that no one could cure. After hearing Democedes’ superb medical skills, she reluctantly asked the Greek to come to the inner court for medical treatment and promised that as long as he could cure her, the queen would grant any of his requests.
As a result, Democedes healed Queen Atossa back to health. Then, at his request, Atossa suggested to Darius that Democedes could travel around Greece together with Persian spies to gather information for their future conquest of Greece.
With Darius consent, Democedes vowed to return to Susa.
But the result was, after leaving Persia, he found a chance to get rid of his Persian guards and escape back to Crotone.
At that time, although Persia was powerful, they had still not yet started their conquest of Greece. Thus they could not affect the western Mediterranean, which was thousands of kilometres away.
Democedes then opened a clinic in his hometown. Then he began accepting many apprentices, where he selflessly imparted his many years of medical experience and the medical skills of Greece and Persia that he combined, which greatly improved the medical level of Crotone and made the physicians of Crotone the second to none in Magna Graecia for a hundred years.
But in recent years, Theonia’s medical skills improved rapidly, just like the strength of its union. It was even rumoured that even some complicated and diverse diseases that the Crotonian physicians could not solve can be miraculously cured by the Theonian physicians. Even some Greeks not from Theonia are all trying to go to Theonia’s hospital, with most of them going back to their homes happily. Due to this, the reputation of “Theonia’s physicians’ great medical skills that Hades’ taught” gradually spread.
As far as Nicostratos knows, many wealthy Crotonian citizens often go to Thurii, the centre of Theonia, to see a physician in recent years. The Theonian physicians had also set up a “Medical Symposium of South Italia”, held once a year in spring, inviting the physicians from Theonia Union and its allies to gather in Thurii and discuss new medical discoveries and exchange medical skills. Last year was the first time it was held, but the conservative Nicostratos didn’t go. However, after chatting with his colleagues who had come back from the medical symposium, the only thing they uttered were words about the novel medical theories and methods they learned from Theonia, which surprised Nicostratos and made him ponder deeply.
Thus, when Thurii’s hospital invited Theonia’s allies at the beginning of this year, he could no longer sit still to leave.
Going to Thurii only needed half a day by boat from the port and with the help of a tailwind, but the gloomy Nicostratos suffered from seasickness and had to travel by land.
Arriving at the north gate, another physician, Strasippus, was already waiting there for them. Soon after, they left Crotone and walked northward along the soft unpaved road.
The three then came to the pontoon bridge of the Neto River.
At the beginning of the Crotonian Second War, the Crotonians burned the pontoon bridge to prevent the Theonians from reaching Crotone. However, after rebuilding it, for some reason, the bridge had not only became narrower but also became less stable than before.
Strasippus could not stop himself from uttering while crossing the bridge, “On the Crati River in Thurii, there are actual wooden bridges that are not only wide and flat but also high enough to allow boats to pass under them. Compared to them, our pontoon bridges are more like those that the barbarians built!”
Nicostratos didn’t say anything. He remembers that last year when Crotone held an ecclesia to discuss whether to invite Theonia’s help to build a wooden bridge over the Neto River, most of the Crotonian citizens opposed it, which made this bill not be passed. Nicostratos himself was one of them, as, like most people, his idea is that facilities such as roads and bridges are fine as long as it works, and the money from the treasury should be used in repairing public facilities such as theatres, arenas, temples, and even provide extra benefits for citizens at special celebrations.
Thanks to the blessings of the gods, Magna Graecia has had good weather in recent years and have bumper harvests. And with the surrounding areas having frequent wars in these two years, the price of grain has risen. Thus after saving enough for their own use, the people would then sell the rest in the market. Therefore this year, when spring came early, the citizens, together with their slaves, begun plating in the farms early.
Walking on the Plains of Crotone, one could see endless green grain fields and slaves working hard.
In spring, due to the abundant rainfall, the roads become muddy. Due to this, Nicostratos and his party walked slowly to prevent slipping. However, they only manage to step out of Crotone’s territory by afternoon.
As they trudged the deep and shallow slippery mud, their feet began getting sore. But a while later, a flat, solid and spacious road appeared before them, relieving everyone.
“Teacher Strasippus.” Lycasis, who had never travelled far away since childhood, exclaimed excitedly, “Could this be the Krimisa-Aprustrum road that Theonia had built?!”
“Yes.” Strasippus glanced at Nicostratos, “Old friend, what do you think of this road?”
Nicostratos snorted and walked straight ahead without speaking. Then he stopped on the side of the road, looking for a vacant block of stone to sit down, as his waist problem already starting acting that it felt like crumbling from their travel.
Lycasis was young and energetic. Seeing the bustling of the coming and going on the road, he wanted to cross and walk down on the result. As a result, he was nearly hit by a fast-moving cart, ushering the driver’s scolding. Feeling embarrassed, he went back to the side.
After being spoken by Nicostratos, he quieted down. But after a while, he pulled Strasippus again and asked, “What’s that cart for?”
Looking in the direction of his finger, a covered cart drawn by two horses headed north at a relatively high speed, with Theonia’s symbol of “Bident and Three-headed dog” painted on both sides of the cart. And the vehicles on the road deliberately avoided it.
“That’s the postal cart.”
“Postal cart?”
“That’s what the Theonian call it. It’s responsible for delivering letters and parcels to the people between two places. I even heard that Theonia has a department specially responsible for this.” Strasippus said.
“That’s a good way to make it more convenient for the people of the city-state.” Nicostratos interjected.
“It would have been nice if we had a postal cart in Crotone as well! At least to deliver medicines to the patients, so that they don’t have to waste time by running back and forth.” Lycasis said with envy.
“Young man, that costs money.” Strasippus sighed.
