In particular, each team represented its own town or city, which made the spectators more inclined and invested in the game. Although they did not understand many of the rules, it did not stop them from cheering for the teams in their own region. They even quarreled with the spectators from other regions.
As the football game continued, a strange phenomenon kept happening in Rome. The conflicts between the original Rome citizens and the newly migrated citizens of Diónia had decreased. Even after the game, they could be seen putting their arms around each other's shoulders and shouting the names of the players of their respective teams in their own language. On the other hand, the citizens of various Demos had begun to quarrel with each other …
… …
While the people of Rome were celebrating, the soldiers of Diónia in the camp outside Saturnicum were quite depressed. To prevent the spread of the plague, they had to obey the order to stay in their tents as much as possible. They could not gather in the camp, nor could they hold various competitive sports in the camp. They even had to be checked by the doctors every day. It was the most boring day of the Hades Celebration. The only fortunate thing was that the King of Devers would visit the soldiers in the tents from time to time. This was also the first time the soldiers had direct contact with the King of Diónia.
The doctors and nurses were busier. They had to wear tightly wrapped clothes every day and run from camp to camp. They were busy with examinations and treatment, especially those who were sent to the camps of Rome suffering from the plague. They had to risk being infected at any time. But even so, many doctors still rushed to go because it was a rare opportunity for them to combine theory with practice.
The medical staff of Diónia carefully treated and took care of the injured and infected soldiers of Rome, treating them like family. They gradually moved and eliminated the hatred of the soldiers of Rome against the people of Diónia.
The chief medical officer, Stesicordas, often wrote to Hippocrates, who lived in Turií, to consult him about the problems encountered in the treatment.
When Hippocrates, who was already in his seventies, learned that there was a plague in Latin, he insisted on going by ship. He was dissuaded by his students many times and failed to make the trip. But later, the story of his willingness to risk his life for the sake of medicine spread and inspired countless doctors of Diónia.
The Hades Celebration and football games in Turií were not as good as in previous years. The towns of Sicily could not send teams to participate because of the war. The best players in other cities were often the best soldiers. They were either with the King of Devers in the expedition to Latin, or under the command of Alexis in the mountains of Samonai.
In addition, the enemy appeared in the Apulian region. A fleet of more than 500 soldiers landed on the coast near Barham. They carried the flag of the former Kingdom of Puchetti and shouted the slogan "Drive the people of Diónia away, give freedom to the people of Puchetti", but they rushed into the nearby villages to loot. The people of the neighboring towns hated their banditry and quickly gathered the citizens of the Legion Reserve in the city to form an army of 600 people. Under the command of the Second Cavalry Legion, who rushed over after hearing the news, they launched an attack on the enemy entrenched in the village and defeated them in one fell swoop.
From the captives, it was learned that there might be a few remaining forces of Apulia attacking in the following period of time. The Senate made a decision: the towns of the Apulian region did not need to send teams to Turií to participate in the competition. They had to complete the autumn harvest as soon as possible and fully prepare for the defense.
They also asked the Ministry of Military Affairs to inform the Ninth Legion and the Second Cavalry Legion to be stationed in the barracks of Puchetti. For the time being, they would be under the command of the commander of the Ninth Legion, Tegtinos, to take charge of the middle road and be responsible for counterattacking the enemies landing from the various coasts of Apulia.
The decision of the Senate aroused opposition from the people of the towns of Apulia, especially Mesapi and Puchetti. They sent people to the Senate of Turií to plead with the senators and stated that sending teams to participate in the competition would not affect their defense against possible enemies.
The Senate finally agreed to their request, but this incident aroused the resentment of the people of Apulia against the enemy.
Under the situation where the people of Apulia were united against the enemy, the few people who were secretly in contact with the remaining forces did not dare to act rashly.
During the celebration, there was one thing that the people of Turií had been talking about.
Due to the absence of the King of Devers, it was reasonable to say that the person in charge of the ceremony in the main temple of Hades on the day of the ceremony should be replaced by the Sceptre Priest of the Kingdom, Plesinas. However, Plesinas expressed his refusal. He insisted that on the day of Pluto's birthday, his descendants should preside over the ceremony to please the gloomy King of the Night, so that he could better protect the kingdom in this special year.
Most of the senators agreed with this, but the actual situation was a little troublesome. Not only were the Devers not in Turií, but even his only adult son, Cloto Catax, was not in Turií, and the other children were still young …
After discussion, the senators finally decided that Queen Cristoya would be responsible for presiding over the ceremony.
In the eyes of the senators, although Cristoya was not a descendant of Pluto, she was the wife of the King of Devers. They were family, and Hades would not have too much of an opinion.
Why not choose Aegnis? The reason was simple. She was already the chief priest of the Temple of Hera. If she presided over the ceremony, it would anger the two gods, Hades and Hera. Of course, Cristoya's influence on the senators was also the reason why the senators did not express strong objections.
So on the day of the ceremony, the graceful Queen Cristoya stood in front of the altar in the main temple of Hades, solemnly reciting the sacrificial words to Hades. Her beautiful and noble face and clear and melodious voice became the most unforgettable scene of this ceremony.
… …
While the people of Diónia in Magna Graecia celebrated to get rid of the gloom brought about by the war, the people of Diónia in Sicily were gradually ushering in the most difficult time of the war.
Margo led more than 50,000 soldiers over the mountains and entered the southern edge of the Catania Plain. He built a camp between the city of Leotini and Paragonia, attempting to cut off the connection between these towns and isolate Paragonia.
Therefore, during the construction of the Carthage camp, the garrison of Paragonia and the new barracks of Catanai, not far north of Leotini, repeatedly sent troops to harass the Carthage army. However, because Margo was always on guard, they were unable to achieve great results. On the contrary, there was one time when the Carthage cavalry intercepted the army that came out of the new barracks to harass the Carthage army could not retreat in time and suffered a lot of casualties. This also made the commander of the Seventh Legion, Breroux, more cautious in using his troops.
However, the Dionysian Army's attack also caused the construction of the Carthage barracks to be roughly completed after a few days. During this period, Margo did not stay idle. He sent thousands of Numibian cavalry to break into the Catania Plain in an attempt to plunder the people and supplies of Catanai.
However, Cypross and Leotychides had long expected this. Just before the Carthage army approached Paragonia, they had mobilized all the people of Diónia living outside the city to bring supplies and temporarily move into the city of Catanai.
The Numibian cavalry, who failed to gain anything, began to destroy villages, farmlands, and other facilities. As a result, on the Catania Plain, piles of fire were ignited, and villages were reduced to ashes in the fire. The only fortunate thing was that Paragonia had successfully blocked the Carthage army for a few days, allowing the people on the Catania Plain to complete the autumn harvest in time.
The people hiding in the city of Catanai were very anxious when they learned that their homes had been destroyed. They gathered together and petitioned the city hall, hoping that the army could repel the foreign cavalry that was wreaking havoc on the plain.
Since the main force of Carthage was attacking from the south of the Catania Plain, Leotychides had led half of the Eighth Legion to retreat from Agillion to the city of Catanai.
These days, Leotychides went to the top of the city to inspect the defense situation during the day and listen to the reports of the scouts. At night, he stayed in the study, looking at the map and thinking.
When Cypross came to visit Leotychides, as he expected, the Sicilian commander was still in the study.
"Prososus, the outside world is in chaos now, and you can still sit still!" Cypross said half-jokingly and half-seriously when he saw him.
Leotychides knew what he was talking about, and said in a cold tone, "War is not a fight between children. If you are bullied, you have to take revenge immediately. I don't need to listen to the screams of some ignorant people."
Cypross heard this and frowned slightly. He advised in a gentle tone, "You have to understand the pain of the people losing their homes. Although their anger is a little irrational, I'm afraid that it will affect your soldiers. You have to know that the soldiers of the Eighth Legion and the reserves are mostly Catanai, and their houses and farmlands have also been destroyed. I'm afraid that this will have a significant impact on their morale, won't it?"
Leotychides looked away from the map and looked at Cypross, and asked, "Is there anything unusual?"
"I'm not sure about that, but I think the soldiers will more or less have some thoughts," Cypross replied awkwardly.
"You think?" Leotychides raised his eyebrows. Considering that Cypross was the wartime governor of Sicily, he still needed his strong support to command the battle. He swallowed the sarcastic words that he was about to blurt out, and barely suppressed his emotions, he said, "I'll pay attention to the situation of the soldiers, but now the people of Carthage are hoping to lure our army out of the city, so that they can use their advantage in numbers to defeat us in the field, and reduce the resistance for the future conquest of Catanai. So we have to stay calm and not fall into the trap of the people of Carthage. Lord Cypross, is there anything important that you came to see me for? "
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