Chapter 620: Meeting with Garni
Kunogelata waved his hand to let the female slave out. Afterwards, he looked at Lysias and said seriously, “The Senate is the most important organisation of the kingdom that checks the king’s power, so if the statesmen of the Senate kept…cough…who would dare oppose his majesty’s proposal…cough…”
“I understand, and I will do my best, so stop talking and take a good rest!” Lysias promised.
Theonia’s royal palace is below the hill, located at the intersection of the Crati river and Cosceli river, while above was the residence of King Davos.
Less than 300 metres to the east of the royal palace was the Grand Senate Hall. And even though the royal palace isn’t as grand as the Grand Senate Hall, it has its unique charm.
The two-storey, square-shaped royal palace faces the east with the hill on its rear and the river on its side. Although they used large, regular square-shaped stones to make the walls, their surface was relatively flat without huge gaps because they poured ‘Davos’ cement’ on them. At the same time, they reinforced the inside of the square stones with ‘H’-shape fixtures to make them firmer.
Under the outer eaves around the wall were dozens of simple and practical Dorian stone pillars that a person could barely hold. In contrast, the section of eaves that extends outward from the centre of the wall facing east was supported by eight Ionian stone pillars. Then they added a triangular roof to its eaves, and in the centre was a sculpted golden disc with the symbol of the Theonian kingdom – a crown made of a pomegranate branch on a bident.
With the entire palace’s foundation being more than one metre high, there were twenty sets of steps in front of the Ionian stone pillars. Then in front of the stone stairs was a small altar-like circular platform made of white marble. And in its centre stood a towering flagpole with the flag of Theonia fluttering at the top.
Standing straight under the flagpole were two heavily armed palace guards. And every morning, fifty palace guards in a neat phalanx formation would march from the palace to the flagpole to raise the flag with exquisite posture and then lower the flag at dusk with the same formation and posture. This unique and solemn ceremony had surprisingly attracted many people of Theonia and even foreigners to stop and watch every day.
When Garni came to Thurii, they still hadn’t built the palace yet. This time, Garni was standing in front of the palace as the king summoned him, which best reflects the architectural skills of the kingdom of Theonia. Garni marvelled at the ingenious workmanship of the Theonians as he stared at the towering and thick walls. In addition, its solemn appearance, similar to the temple, made him restrain his thoughts and breath. And once he stepped onto the white stairs, he could see the coat of arms of the kingdom of Theonia hanging high above the lintel, emitting a dazzling golden light and an invisible pressure making him feel his insignificance and awe.
After walking up the stairs, he saw a group of palace guards guarding the palace’s entrance just behind the eight Ionian pillars. Only after they carefully checked the order carried by the guide who brought him here was he allowed inside.
Closely arranged smooth polished pebbles adorned the palace’s floor; its base colour was black, with white as the design’s primary colour, while other colours supplemented it. And the floor’s designs were mostly exquisite geometric patterns, such as flowers and plants, waves, squid…this made Garni feel novel that if it weren’t for the need to meet Davos hurriedly, he would like to linger here for a while longer.
“His majesty also planned to have murals painted on the walls and place sculptures on both sides of the walkway. However, we couldn’t find good painters and sculptors, so that wasn’t implemented for now.” Said the guide proudly after guessing what Garni was thinking.
Garni quickly took back his gaze and nodded as if he didn’t care.
After arriving outside the king’s office on the palace’s second floor, the guide went in to inform the king. Then after entering inside, Garni saw the one who controlled the kingdom of Theonia striding out to greet him and saying loudly with a smile, “Garni, the warrior of Samnite and the chieftain of Abellinum, I welcome you to Thurii again!”
“Your majesty, King Davos!” Garni hurriedly bowed his head respectfully.
“Come in! Come in!” Davos warmly beckoned him into the office and told the guide, “Go to the kitchen and prepare some drinks to be immediately delivered!”
Davos then asked Garni to sit down on the chair near the large desk. But instead of sitting behind the desk, Davos sat down on another chair, just opposite of Garni, to show his respect for the weak Abellinum.
That small detail touched Garni so much that he turned his head unnaturally and looked behind the desk. On both sides of the desk, he could see two scribes busily copying documents. Then he was attracted to the black and white mosaic murals on the wall, which seemed to be the map of Italia.
“It’s been seven years since I last saw you.” Said Davos.
Garni looked at Davos and hurriedly replied, “Yes, your majesty.”
“That time, the palace wasn’t yet built!” Davos smiled and sighed as if he was talking to a friend, “How time flies, and just like that, seven years passed in a flash! Still, I didn’t expect you to send a team this year, so I was delighted to receive Kesima’s letter! I was even happier that your team did well at the tournament, to my surprise and the public. I guess many fans would remember Abellinum from now on…”
Garni modestly said, “Your majesty, that was just luck. After all, we just lost the second match against Vergae.”
Seeing the regret in Garni’s heart, Davos smiled and said, “Yeah, your performance made many fans misjudge and protest to the city hall that you and Pyxous were playing a fixed match.”
Garni smiled bitterly and tried to explain.
But Davos continued, “I watched both of your matches, in fact…Pyxous lost to you because they underestimated you and were unfamiliar with your play style. More than ten years had passed since Hades…enlightened me about rugby and taught it to the people, but due to the frequent matches and training, the sports of rugby developed rapidly. And as far as I know, many strong teams now have dozens of offensive tactics alone, giving the position of the players on the field becoming more and more divided so much so that the game is no longer just a contest of strength and speed, but relies more on intelligence and tactical execution. So when you played against Vergae, their complex tactics clearly inhibited your play, which is why you lose quickly…”
Davos seriously analysed their cause of defeat and finally said, “It’s no longer enough just to practice hard on your own. Instead, you should play more matches, compete with others and learn from each other, so I suggest…Abellinum team should participate in Lucania’s regional tournament every year, but Thurii will naturally continue inviting you to the Champions League!”
“Erm…” Garni hesitated.
“What is it? Do you have any difficulties?” Davos asked.
Garni said, “Thank you for your concern, your majesty! After I return, I will discuss this proposal with the others.”
“If you have any difficulties in participating in the competition, just tell Kesima, and he will try his best to help you solve it.” Davos said seriously.
Garni repeatedly nodded.
The two talked for a while about rugby, football and even the Heracles-inspired game, which was created to pay homage to Heracles.
Garni became excited, so he said, “Your majesty, I’ve come to Thurii this time: Besides watching my team’s performance, I have another thing I wish to tell you-”
“Oh, what’s the matter?” Davos still had a smile on his face.
“Back when the kingdom of Theonia signed an agreement with our Hirpini tribe and formed an alliance, besides the ‘mutual non-aggression, one side must assist when encountering an enemy…’, the alliance also required that ‘we must not restrict the flow of people on both sides, we should strengthen trade, the exchange of beliefs and we must not restrict the employment of people…’
But in fact, only Abellinum obeyed while the towns and tribes headed by Beneventum, such as Aequum, Tuticum, Akranam, Aquilonia…and so on, only obeyed on the surface but were secretly forbidding the people to contact your Theonia. Otherwise, the priests in the tribe would severely punish them. Now that nine years had passed since the signing of the agreement, your majesty, you must admit that besides the territory of Abellinum, the Theonians had difficulty setting foot in the other Samnite areas.
On the contrary, our, Abellinum’s, goodwill towards Theonia has caused the great chieftain Lesguk and the other chieftain dissatisfaction, and I believe that your majesty knows this too. And as the end of our agreement approaches*, Lesguk, together with other tribes, suppressed Abellinum even more. And regardless of the Samnites’ tradition, they forcibly divided our grazing areas, and once our people and livestock crossed the line, they would detain them!…” (Although Theonia won the war, the three major Samnite tribes weren’t willing to become a vassal of Theonia and were relatively resistant. But in the end, they reached a compromise and set the duration of the alliance agreement to ten years which they could renew once it expired.)
Garni clenched his fists and said in a tone filled with hatred, “Lesguk also contacted the other tribe’s chieftain as well as the high priests to obtain the authority to hold a ritual celebrating Savoni in Beneventum early next spring, and according to tradition, all Samnite’s chieftain must go to Beneventum to participate in the ceremony. However, someone secretly told me that Lesguk wanted to use this ceremony for the entire Samnite tribe to have the Samnites’ high priests condemn me for the great sin of ‘blasphemy’ for allowing the priests of Hades to preach in my territory. Then he would impose a divine punishment on me (that is, having his limbs cut off, leaving his body on the top of the mountain where the sacrifice was held and letting the wild wolves bite him to death)… But if I didn’t attend, he would condemn me with two major crimes of ‘contempt of tradition and blasphemy’. So not only will I be executed, but the people of Abellinum who supported me will also receive severe punishment!
Your majesty, I, Garni, have only acted following the agreement and remained friendly with your Theonia. But I didn’t expect that my kinsmen would hate and frame me, so your majesty, I hope for your support, for me! For Abellinum! For our fair treatment!”