Chapter 185 The Prosperous Port of Piraeus

The reason why Athenian pottery is loved by the rich people of Dionia is not only because of the uniqueness and high quality of this black-ground red-painted pottery, but also because of the exquisite pictures on the pottery. Athens brings together many outstanding painters from the Greek world, almost all of them are engaged in the career of bottle painting. Oneximos is one of the best. He once won two prizes in the bottle painting competition of the Panathenaic Society, and Hesklaw. It took a lot of money to hire him.

In the face of Hesklaus's compliments, Onethymos' performance was not much different from other Athenians: "May the Dionysians fully appreciate the beauty of my work! Ah... this batch of The amount of pottery is too much, I am a little tired and need to rest for a while."

Looking at the pretentious, stretched, and yawning Onesimus, Hesklaus murmured in his heart, but he echoed: "Yes, yes, you really should have a good rest... It seems that this one of mine Orders can only be postponed temporarily.”

"How come there is still an order?!" Oneximos said impatiently: "Wait until I have a rest!"

"Then I can only reject the order with the buyer, because they want it in a hurry." Hesklaus said seemingly unintentionally: "It is said that the royal family of Dionia ordered the goods themselves, and they want this batch of pottery. It is placed in the palace and used to entertain dignitaries from all over the world during the Games."

"What did you say? What did the Dionysian royal family want?!" Oneximos asked suddenly and earnestly.

"Yes, I can swear to Athena that it was the order of the Dionysian royal family!"

"Uh...I think I can rest after this batch of pottery is finished." Oneximos immediately changed his words cheeky. Although he looked down on the Dionian people, he knew very well that the Holy Kingdom of Dionia was the overlord of the entire Western Mediterranean and the Greek world, and how noble its royal family was. If his works could be owned without any Loved by the powerful King Dionysus, and used to receive dignitaries from other city-states, he will surely become famous throughout the Mediterranean (a characteristic of Athenian pottery is that the pottery is signed by the potter and the bottle painter).

A teasing smile appeared on the corner of Hesklaus' mouth, and he said, "Okay, I'll arrange it now."

"Wait a minute, what are the requirements for the content of the bottle painting?"

"It must be the relevant content of the "Tome of Hades". After all, the Dionysian royal family is a descendant of Hades."

"I understand, buy me a copy of Hades Goddess as soon as possible." Oneximos said without hesitation.

There is another reason why the Dionians like Athenian pottery, because the Athenian pottery vase paintings are not like other city-state pottery vase paintings are mostly still life, its vase paintings are narrative, wars, heroic legends, gods, etc., and There is often a sense of tragic epic, which may be related to the Athenians like drama.

Most of the demands that Dionysian buyers often put to Athens pottery merchants are related to the war in the rise of the Dionysian Kingdom, the miracle of Hades, and the greatness of King Davos. The bottle painters could only be obedient. Later, a wise man opened a bookstore in the town of Selesia, specializing in selling books about the Holy Kingdom of Dionia: "The Long March" by Xenophon, "Great Greece" "History" by Ancitanos, "War in the Western Mediterranean" by Henipolis, "Chronicles of Northern Italy" (by Ancitanos in the restricted area of ​​the Turii Library to consult Maximus, the secretary of the Kingdom's Intelligence Department The information written by the Etruscan Frontier Corps back then was adapted)...of course there is (the Hades tome). This also makes Thelesia the only place in mainland Greece that sells the Tome of Hades publicly, apart from Messenia, Neo-Sparta, and Thessaly.

"Be careful! Be careful! If you break one, you will lose your three-month salary!..." The foreman kept reminding the slaves who were carrying the pottery, and each piece of exquisite pottery was put into the shop. In a wooden box full of straw and thick wool.

Before leaving, Hesklaus repeatedly told the foreman to start the production of the next batch of pottery as soon as possible.

But we must strive for perfection without making any mistakes.

There is a port not far from Selesia, dedicated to the transportation and export of pottery, but Hesklaus still brought the pottery back to his house on the outskirts of Athens. Said to be his own house, in fact, it is only a long-term rental, because Hesklaus is a foreigner and has no right to buy real estate in Athens.

If it was 4 years ago, Hesklaus would not have the guts to come to Athens to do business, because he was a small businessman from Thessaly, which was once regarded as a barbarian land by the Athenians, but Thessaly became Dai. In an area of ​​the Holy Kingdom of Onia, the Thessaly became citizens of Dionia, and Hesklaus was fortunate enough to know a great Turii businessman, and he moved his family to Athens after receiving his support and support. , engaged in pottery industry.

Athens is an open city-state, filled with a large number of Gentiles in various industries, but most of them have low status. Although Athenian citizens hated the identity of Hesklaus, the identity of Dionysian citizens ensured that when he was in trouble, the judge would not be too partial to the locals. Of course, he must also abide by the laws of Athens, except for the regular payment of a certain amount. As a foreign businessman, he also had to pay a small market tax that Athens citizens were exempted from paying, in addition to his taxes and occasional public donations.

Of course, these fees were only a drop in the bucket for the profits he earned. What reassured him most was that because of his status, he would not be randomly recruited by the Athenian government to fight as a hoplite. Of course, since the establishment of the New Greek Union, there has been no war in mainland Greece, and the days when the people were afraid are over.

Now that Hesklaus has no desire to return to Thessaly, he prefers to stay in this commercial Athens all the time.

In the evening, Hesklaus held a banquet at home and invited several Thessaly merchants who were doing business in Athens like him.

Everyone sat at the banquet eating delicious food, drinking wine, and talking about the great changes that Dionia brought to Cesari in the past few years.

Not to mention other things, the form of their banquet has changed a lot. It is no longer like a traditional Greek banquet. Each guest has a couch, half-recumbent to eat, drink, and talk, but all sit on wooden chairs. There is his own dining table in front of the body, which is due to the increasing frequency of exchanges between Dionia and Thessaly, and the impact of some Dionia citizens moving to the Thessaly Plain. The Thessaly people used to have a sense of inferiority compared to the Greek mainland in the south. Now they have become citizens of Dionia. Although this sense of inferiority is gradually fading away, another sense of inferiority is quietly growing. When they were citizens of Dioria, the Thessaly people who had close contacts with Dioria have been trying their best to learn. For example, businessmen have been trying to imitate their customs in order to shorten the distance with each other.

The atmosphere of the banquet was very warm, and everyone drank a little too much. Hesklaus also called his eldest son Lirias, and told him drunkenly: Tomorrow, we will take him to Turii by boat.

The 9-year-old boy was so excited he didn't sleep well all night.

As a result, in the early morning of the second day, Hesklaus, who had sobered up, had no memory of the incident at all, and Lirias cried and made trouble. Finally, under the persuasion of his wife, Hesklaus had to nod in agreement.

After breakfast, he took his son and led a pack team to the port of Piraeus.

Piraeus is the largest commercial port in the Eastern Mediterranean, with thousands of cargo ships entering and leaving the port every day, making it extremely prosperous.

Hesklaus came to a remote wharf. Although it was still early in the sky, it was full of cargo ships, and the ground was full of various commodities. Countless wharf laborers and slaves were busy moving goods to the ship. Fortunately, at the banquet last night, several Thessaly merchants made an appointment to set off for Turii today. They have already booked a cargo ship and found labor (Piraeus port regulations: non-port-owned pack teams) Do not enter the wharf, so as not to disturb the order of the wharf and cause losses), Hesklaus hurriedly asked labor to carefully move the wooden crates containing his pottery to the warehouse of the wharf one by one, and then the labor foreman took him into the warehouse.

In the center of this huge room, which is also full of goods, is the office of Athens port officials at this dock. After they have confirmed the type and quantity of goods that Hesklaus wants to transport out of Athens, Hesklaus will be registered and signed, and then After calculating the value of the whole batch of goods according to the market price, they are required to pay 1/10 tax of the exported goods immediately (Athens stipulates that both export and import goods must pay 1/10 tax, which is simple and rude and saves trouble, but tax If it is too high, it will naturally lead to the high selling price of the commodity. Once the commodity is unsalable, the owner will face a loss).

Hesklaus carried a large sum of Hades silver coins (Dionysian coins, since the establishment of the New Greek Union, it was very popular in Greece because of its high silver content and exquisite workmanship, and the Athens owls Because of the depletion of the Laurion silver mine and the massive consumption of the treasury by the wars over the years, the silver content of silver coins has dropped again and again, and it is no longer as popular as it used to be. Even many Athenians prefer to use Hades silver coins. ), delivered immediately as requested.

There is also a set of official measuring tools in the office. The clerk carefully tested the coins and confirmed that they were correct before allowing Hesklaus' cargo ship to leave the port.

By the time the cargo was loaded onto the ship and the cargo ship left the dock, it was almost noon.

Hesklaus and the others were on the largest cargo ship. After the entire fleet left the Salong Bay, the wind turned south, and the fleet with its sails hoisted swiftly as if it had grown wings. Several merchants including Hesklaus were all happy, because the help of the sea breeze meant that the fleet could reach Turii earlier.