Chapter 3 The Twin Cities of Naxos

"It's possible that they...they cut down trees...or secretly cleared the fields in the mountains, or the hunting violated the rules..." Gabrinus guessed.

According to the "Dionysian Law", citizens must obtain permission from the local agricultural officer to cut down trees. In addition, it is not allowed to secretly open up wasteland in the territory of the kingdom, and must be approved by the Ministry of Agriculture. Even hunting is not allowed to overkill, especially not to kill young animals, otherwise they will be fined by the Ministry of Agriculture. Of course, it is impossible for the Ministry of Agriculture to have so many people to supervise these illegal things. It relies more on people's reports, especially the tribunes who are most keen to punish these people who violate the law.

Caranax didn't speak. He thought that in order to please his superiors, his colleagues were making wild speculations and guessing, and they would offend the powerful Laodician family in Naxos, which was completely unnecessary.

Galademus was thoughtful, and his eyes swept across the mountainside, just in time to see the servants of the Laodiceans who were standing on the edge of the field and overseeing the work of the hired workers. The foreman, who was quietly looking over here, met Galademus's gaze and hurriedly avoided it.

Galademus moved in his heart and walked straight over.

The man immediately nodded and bowed to greet Galademus, and also took the initiative to promise that he would pay the tax at the tax office in time after the harvest.

After the turmoil last year, the Laodician family had obviously been warned, and every time they saw Galademus, they were very respectful.

Reaching out his hand not to hit the smiling face, Galademus had to ask politely, "Are the two slaves who came down from the top of the mountain just now from your family?"

"Of course not, I was just about to summon the hired workers to arrest the two slaves who ran from nowhere and tried to break into my fields. I didn't expect you to drive them away first. I would like to thank you, sir. Help!" The foreman said gratefully: "Today is so hot, you have been busy for a long time, you must be tired and hungry, on behalf of my little master Papho Grace, I invite you and your subordinates to go to the house. Let's have dinner to show my family's gratitude! Little Master Papho Grace will be very happy to know you're going!"

Galademus hurriedly thanked him and declined politely. Then he looked at the Sikelians in the field, and a few Greeks he didn't know. He didn't think these temporary hirelings would know the two slaves. . Although he has doubts in his heart, after all, he is only a tax officer, not an inspector, and it is not up to him to investigate violations of laws and disciplines. When he returns to the Prosdmore Political Office, he will tell the agricultural officer about this matter, whether it is Illegal tree cutting, hunting, and land reclamation are all their jobs.

Galademus went down the mountain, reached the foot of the mountain, and looked back at the golden wheat field. He vaguely felt that the foreman who had just spoken seemed to be still looking at him.

"That person should be Antrus." Gabrinus said uncertainly.

"That's right, he is the most trusted slave butler Antrus of Elder Laodyssian. I heard that even Paphogres wants to listen to him." Cabanax said affirmatively.

"It's no wonder that Laodisian asked him to take charge of the house in Naxos. Paphogres is not a good thing. I heard that he dared to molest the daughter of an elder minister when he was in Turii, so he Was driven back to Naxos, is this true, my lord?" Gabrinus asked curiously.

"Of course it's a rumor!" Galademus immediately denied it. He had no interest in spreading gossip about others, but the conversation between his subordinates made him secretly pay attention. He didn't expect that the smiling servant just now was Strombo The Antrus, who I mentioned in the last year's turmoil, made it difficult for him to walk for a while.

It's unbelievable! Galademus secretly alerted himself, and decided to remind the agricultural officer to check it carefully after returning to the Demopolis Hall.

It was already around 6 o'clock in the afternoon on the return trip, but it was dark in the summer night, and the sun was still hanging in the sky at this moment, and the three of Galademos walked eastward along the north bank of the Alcantara River.

On the right is the rushing river to accompany the river, green grass swaying to meet, and on the left is the continuous wheat field. The golden sunset shines on the golden wheat seedlings, on the farmer returning from the field, on the front In the lively town... all people and things are covered with the joy of harvest.

Speaking of a small town, the area of ​​Mejaro Town is even much larger than that of Sikuli City, and its population is larger than it. Ten years ago, Naxos exiles rebuilt the old city near the Gulf of Naxos, but some of the people living in Meyaro were reluctant to move because their fields were on the banks of the Alcantara River. Moving back to the new city of Naxos, and going back and forth to work every day, it takes a lot of time on the road. As a result, almost half of the people in Naxos City and Mayaro Town feel empty.

A year later, the Sikuli sent envoys to Turii, demanding the annexation of the kingdom of Dionia.

Why did Sikuli, who only joined the Dionysian Alliance, so eagerly demand that it be completely transformed into Dionia's territory? The reason is very simple: Sikuli has Naxos to the north and Katanai to the south, which are the cities of Dionia, and Sikuli is sandwiched between the two cities on this seaside corridor (there is Egypt to the west). Tena Volcano), the territory is small, and the originally occupied town of Meyaro was also taken back by Naxos, so more than half of the citizens of Sikuli had no land, and they watched the citizens of the two cities in the north and south all have a share. , The days are prosperous, can you not be greedy! As a result, the Sikuli convened a citizens' assembly, and unanimously strongly demanded to become citizens of Dionia.

Many Sikuli people who became citizens of Dionia went to Catanai and got their land, and some people came to Meyaro, which they were familiar with, which made the population in Meyaro not only far away. It surpassed Sikuli and surpassed Naxos New Town.

As a result, there was a proposal from the elders: simply upgrade Meyaro to a city and send a chief executive to manage it.

This proposal was strongly opposed by the elders of Naxos, and the reason for their opposition was very simple: because Mayaro was in the territory of Naxos.

Antonios, who was the chief executive of Naxos at the time, also objected. After all, if Meyaro was separated, the annual tax that Naxos could directly receive would inevitably be greatly reduced (the kingdom of Dionia implements a tax-sharing system). , the central government and the cities are divided into five or five accounts).

It was not until the continuous influx of new citizens of Dionia that the population of the new city of Naxos caught up, which made these disputes much smaller, but the people of Dionia still jokingly called Naxos "Naxos" Twin Cities".

Indeed, in order to better manage Mayaro, every Naxos chief executive must send an administrative adjutant to sit in Mayaro, who is specifically responsible for managing this town that is not a city, but is better than a city.

The city administrative adjutant is a new official position in the Kingdom of Dionia. According to the size of the city, a city chief executive is equipped with 1-3 administrative adjutants. They assist the chief executive in managing city affairs and have their own division of labor. When the chief executive goes out for important business Or take on heavy responsibilities when they are seriously ill and unable to manage government affairs. This is a senior official position. Meyaro has also become a place for the Dionysian Senate to cultivate the ability of elders with insufficient administrative experience, that is, to designate the elder to directly serve as the administrative adjutant of Naxos and the manager of Meyaro. There is also a city known as the "Twin Cities" in the territory of the Kingdom of Dionia, that is Crimesa, but the town built on the swampy plain is smaller than Meyaro.

The population of Naxos New City eventually grew, but Sikuli never increased. Some elders also proposed: Sikuli City is too shabby with few villains. It is better to cancel its name as a city and downgrade it to a small town. Like Tauromenion, it can also save a lot of administrative costs (Tauromenion was designated as a military fortress in Sicily by Davos because the city was dangerous and the land was too barren. One of the barracks trained by the Eighth Corps).

Such a proposal was of course strongly opposed by the elders of Sikuli, and no one wanted to see their home state being demoted, so this matter was left alone.

Galademos thought about these anecdotes about Mayaro and walked into the town. His office was in the town hall in the center of the town, covering the entire middle and lower reaches of the Alcantara River. Working here, rather than in its own Demo area, is another administrative feature of Naxos in the Kingdom of Dionia.

Ten years ago, the First Army held the square around the Mayaro Municipal Hall. After a hard and hard battle, it finally defeated the Syracuse coalition and laid the foundation for Dionia to finally have the Catania Plain. To commemorate this great achievement, a memorial column was erected in the center of the small square next to the political hall, and at the top was a statue of a legionnaire marching forward with the flag of the First Legion.

There are two small temples not far from the political hall, one is the Temple of Hades and the other is the Temple of Demeter. You must know that there are temples of these two gods in the city of Naxos, but the people living in Meyaro proposed to build two more temples in Meyaro on the grounds that "the temple is too far and it is inconvenient for worship". It was rejected by the Chief Executive and Parliament. As a result, the people of Meyaro collectively raised funds to build two small temples, which is another feature of Naxos.

Although it was already dusk, there were still many people entering and leaving the two temples. Most of them were farmers who had just returned from the fields, and they were praying for the coming harvest.

Galademus entered the political hall, and most of the public officials had already finished their day's work and left the building one after another. Galademus turned around, but couldn't find the farm officer, so he had to say goodbye to his two subordinates and prepare to return to the house.