Behind ‘Heracles’ were herders herding 20 cattle, followed by a massive procession of men, elderly, women, children, pipers, drummers and trumpeters playing cheerful melodies. During the whole parade, the group laugh and joke around, making a lot of noise as they walk around Thurii, just like when Heracles drove his herd of cattle all over the western Mediterranean, filling the whole city with a festive mood.
The parade’s end is just the start of the festival, as various competitions follow it.
And the most important competition was the strongman competition, where the contestants had to carry a five-metre-long, thigh-thick cedar log and walk out a distance of 40 metres to pass the preliminaries. In the subsequent elimination round, the contestants had to hold stone pillars that got increasingly heavier, lift a five-kilogram shot put and see how far it could go…which would then be followed by the most important hurdle, that is, to pull the carriage while countless audience cheer the players as they watch them pull the massive carriage with a certain weight, tensing their whole muscle to use all their strength, and like a strong horse, pull the carriage forward.
The competition winner will receive the title of the ‘Strongest Man of the Kingdom’ and a blessing from the priests of the Temple of Hades. Afterwards, he will wear a crown and tour the city surrounded by an enthusiastic crowd. In addition, he will also receive the honour of dining together with King Davos. Finally, he would receive a lot of monetary rewards.
Wrestling was another important competition during the festival, as everyone knew that Heracles was a great wrestler, especially in his battle with the giant Antaeus. After nine years of development, the wrestling tournament held at the Heracles festival in the kingdom of Theonia has become as popular as the traditional four major Greek Games. But unlike when winning the four major sports games, where you could only win honour, winning the wrestling competition of Thurii also gives you a substantial monetary reward. Thus there were many participants, and each match was quite intense.
The wrestling competition lasted nearly a month, just at the end of the festival. And the champion also enjoyed the same treatment as the champion of the strongman competition.
Moreover, the audience of these two competitions mainly were members of the Ministry of Military and the various legati. The reason for that was these two competitions allowed not only citizens and preparatory citizens to compete but also freemen and even slaves. Then the Ministry of Military would talk to those who got good results to join the Kingdom of Theonia or get liberated because such excellent players would generally become outstanding soldiers.
Besides these two competitions, the festival has other exciting competitions, such as bull riding, sheep racing, pig matching and so on…this is also to show their respect to Heracles, the protector of livestock. And the fun mountain-climbing race is to show Heracles’ adventurous spirit, while the hilarious wife-carrying race was to pay homage to the valiant and romantic god…
Thus, unlike other festivals, the Heracles festival was filled with laughter. While enjoying their time, Plato also noticed that at least half of the contestants and audience in all competitions were non-Greeks. But Plato could fully feel their reverence for the Greek god from the bottom of their hearts as they enjoyed the competition and interacted harmoniously with the Greek citizens.
Plato, however, didn’t stay until the end of the festival. At the start of June, he bid farewell to King Davos and the Theonian Akademia as he was ready to return to Athens. After all, he still has a lot of things to deal with in his Akademia.
Davos held a farewell banquet for him.
At the banquet, Plato said gratefully, “Thank you very much for your great assistance to me during this period, your majesty Davos! It has given me ample time to observe the political system of the kingdom of Theonia, and I have found that Theonia has quite a few advantages compared to other Greek city-states.
First was Theonia attaching great importance to education. With the government funding for the construction of schools in the various cities and the low cost of admission, it allowed the kingdom to implement almost universal basic education for children from the age of six. Moreover, this education is all-rounded, not only teaching the children mathematics, literature, rhetoric, logic, philosophy…but also sculpture, music, and dance to nurture their minds and physical exercise to strengthen their bodies. Thus by the time they come of age, they would become the golden and silver seeds of Theonia, easily allowing them to be excellent citizens of the kingdom.
The second was even though Theonia emphasises the law; they place more emphasis on moral education. Otherwise, you wouldn’t make Hades the patron god of your kingdom. You preach Hades’ justness and strictness so that you could guide the people to do more good deeds in their life… the same is true for your reverence for Hera because it plays an important role in the kingdom’s stability by guiding the people to love their marriage and family. Theonia’s use of gods and goddesses to guide its citizens is quite novel, yet it is a very effective method worth learning.
Moreover, your majesty told me I shouldn’t make a strict division of labour for the kingdom’s citizens. Yet Theonia has strictly divided the civil servants through an examination method. Having those who know the law to serve as judges, having those who are good at production to serve as supervisors, those who are good at making money to manage trade, and those who are good at statistics are in charge of money…you even promoted your military officers through the ranks of soldiers and squad leaders, and most of your praetors have extensive experience in managing a city. This is totally different from most Greek city-states, including Athens, as most of the senior officials of the city-states that the people elected through the ecclesia are hypocrites who only know how to say pleasant words and pander to the people but don’t know how to manage a city-state well, let alone lead their troops to victory. The ignorance of the people had allowed these people to hold the authority of the city-state, so how could they make the city-state strong?!
Also, your majesty allowed the girls to receive the same education and sports training as the boys from an early age. Besides that, you even gave them property and freedom of life once they reached adulthood. Although you haven’t yet managed to let women also hold some positions in the kingdom, you still have done an excellent job on the issue of gender equality compared to the other Greek city-states.
Theonia had also done a fair job in distributing properties. The kingdom had given every citizen an acre of land, and depending on their contribution to the kingdom, the kingdom could also reward them with additional land and other properties instead of letting most of the kingdom’s public property be taken by nobles and the wealthy…”
Hearing these words, Davos was happy. Davos then half-jokingly said to the statesmen who came to the banquet, “Did you hear that? It seems we have a lot of good things, so you should have more confidence and work harder for the kingdom!”
The others responded with laughter.
Plato didn’t laugh. Instead, he looked at Davos and said thoughtfully, “I found that Theonia has one of the greatest advantages! And that is you, your majesty Davos!!”
“Me?”
“Yes.” Plato became emotional as he said loudly, “As the king, you didn’t override the law. Instead, you acted by following it. Furthermore, you didn’t spend lavishly or pursue a luxurious life. On the contrary, you acted restrained. As far as I know, the system of government of the kingdom of Theonia and these bills that amazed me mostly came from your advice, which is difficult to do without profound knowledge, deep observation and good judgment. And the only person who can do all of that is a Sage! Sages don’t necessarily have to write books and be widely known, just like how my teacher Socrates who always speaks but doesn’t write. But you, on the other hand, your majesty Davos, are all action and no words, which shows that you are a genuine sage king!”
Plato became excited at this moment, “My previous judgment was wrong. Although my ideal state doesn’t exist in reality, it is currently being realised here in Theonia!”
In Davos’ previous life, Plato travelled to Taranto during its peak strength. There, Plato took an interest in the long-term archon, Archytas, who, as an important figure of the Pythagorean School, was the image of a sage king that Plato desired. In his writings, Plato held Archytas in high esteem. But since Archytas had died early in this life and Taranto was reduced to a free city in the kingdom of Theonia, Davos, who had created a more splendid glory than Archytas, had gotten Plato’s attention.
The proud Plato naturally wouldn’t admit that there was an obvious flaw in his the Republic during the farewell banquet. Unlike the current situation of Theonia, Plato was a bit narrow-minded as he focused only on one city and even thought that the appropriate number of people in a city-state was 5040. Yet Theonia, with its massive population and vast land, could be equally governed well, which struck a chord in his heart.
With reluctance and longing for the future, Plato left Thurii and returned to Athens. While focusing on teaching, Plato also devoted most of his energy to pondering the political system of the city-state. A few years later, he wrote ‘Davos’, claiming that it was far more valuable than his previous articles, such as ‘Lysis’, ‘Gorgias’, ‘Hippasus’…and so on, which is no less valuable than his book the Republic.
Notes: I finally finished writing this volume! I was afraid to write about Plato, philosophy and academic debate because I wasn’t good at those, and I was advised to avoid it. But I later thought that since I am writing about ancient Greece, how could there not be a scene of the various schools contending in the classical era? Thus I forced myself to write it. For that reason, I had read several books, so even though my writing was somewhat casual, it was at least a victory over myself.
The next volume would be even more exciting because these are the things you want to see: Rome, Carthage, Etruria, Egypt, Celts, Iberia…
Hence the name of the next volume is…..《The Stormy Situation in the Western Mediterranean》!
