Chapter 74 Farewell

Behind "Hercules" are herdsmen driving 20 cattle, followed by not only a huge procession composed of men, old people, women and children, but also pipers, drummers, and trumpeters playing cheerful melody , the whole team chatted, laughed, and made noises, just like when Hercules drove the cattle all over the Western Mediterranean, and walked around the whole city of Turii, making the whole city full of hilarious atmosphere.

The end of the parade is just the beginning of the celebration, followed by various competitions.

The most important competition in the celebration is the strongman competition: the contestants must carry a five-meter-long, thigh-thick cedar wood and walk a distance of 40 meters to pass the preliminaries. In the next elimination round, the players need to hold up the stone pillars that are constantly heavier, they need to lift the five-kilogram shot put, and see how long it takes... The most important difficulty is to pull the carriage, and countless spectators are there for the players. Come on and cheer, watch them pull the huge carriage with a certain load, tighten the muscles of the whole body, use all the strength, like a strong horse, pull the carriage forward.

The final winner of the championship will be awarded the title of "Kingdom Hercules" this year. After receiving the blessing from the priests of the Temple of Hercules, they will wear a wreath on their heads and cruise the city surrounded by enthusiastic people. The honor of receiving King Davos and having a meal together will also be given a lot of material rewards.

Another important competition during the celebration is wrestling. Everyone knew that Hercules was a great wrestler. Especially his battle with the giant Antaeus is well known. After nine years of development, the wrestling competition held at the Celebration of Hercules in the Kingdom of Dionia is no less than the traditional four Greek games. Compared with winning in the four major sports games, the main thing you get is honor; winning the championship in the wrestling competition in Turui can also get a lot of gold and silver rewards, so there are many participants, and each competition is equivalent. intense tension.

The wrestling competition, which lasts for nearly a month, coincides with the end of the celebration, and its champion enjoys the same treatment as the champion of the Strongman competition.

It is said that in the audience of these two games, there are often members of the military affairs department and various army commanders watching. Because these two contests allowed not only citizens and probationary citizens to participate, but also freedmen, gentiles, and even slaves. Those who get good grades will be lobbied by the Ministry of Military Affairs to join the kingdom of Dionia or break away from slavery, because such good players are usually good soldiers.

In addition to these two competitions, the celebration has other interesting competitions. For example: bull riding, sheep racing, pig racing... This is also to show respect to Hercules, the protector of livestock. The fun mountain-climbing race is a tribute to Hercules' adventurous spirit, while the hilarious jogging race with his wife pays homage to the merry god...

So unlike other celebrations, there is always laughter during the Hercules celebration. While they were happy, Plato and the others also found that at least half of the contestants and spectators in various competitions were non-Greeks. the joy of the game,

Harmonious interaction with Greek citizens.

Plato did not wait until the end of the celebration. At the beginning of June, he said goodbye to King Davos and Dionysian Academy, preparing to return to Athens. After all, Akademi Academy still has a lot of business waiting for him to deal with. .

Davers gave him a farewell party.

At the banquet, Plato said happily: "Thank you very much, Your Majesty Davos, for your great help to me during this period of time! It gave me plenty of time to observe the operation of the Dionysian Kingdom's political system. I found Dionysian Asia has many advantages over other Greek city-states.

First of all, Dionysus attached great importance to education, and the government funded the construction of schools in various cities. The low school fees allowed children over the age of six in the kingdom to implement universal basic cultural education. This kind of education is all-round, not only teaching children mathematics, literature, rhetoric, logic, philosophy... but also teaching sculpture, music, dance to nurture their minds, and physical exercise to strengthen their bodies. When they reach adulthood, they are the gold and silver seeds of Dionia, and they can easily be good citizens of the kingdom.

Secondly, although Dionysus emphasizes the role of law, it actually emphasizes moral education. Otherwise, you will not believe in Hades as the protector of your kingdom. Promote Hades' fair and strict hell punishment to guide the people to do more good deeds... The same is true of your respect for Hera, guiding the people to love marriage and family, which has played a very important role in the stability of the kingdom. Dionysus uses gods to guide citizens to good, which is a very novel, but very effective method, which is completely worth learning from other city-states.

Again, Your Majesty Davos, you said to me before, 'You will not make a strict division of labor for the citizens of the kingdom', but Dionia has made a strict division of labor among the public officials of the kingdom through a method called "assessment" . Let those who are proficient in law serve as judges, those who are good at producers serve as supervisors, those who are good at making money manage trade, and those who are good at statistics are in charge of money... Even your generals are promoted through soldiers and team officers. Yes, most of your city administrators also have rich experience in city management. This is completely different from most of the Greek city-states, including Athens. Most of the senior city-state officials elected by the people through the citizens' assembly are hypocrites who only rhetoric and cater to the people. They don't know how to manage a city-state well, let alone how to Lead your troops to victory. The blind ignorance of the people has allowed these people to grasp the power of the city-state, how could it have made the city-state stronger!

Also, Your Majesty Davers, you let girls and boys receive the same education and sports training from childhood, and give them more freedom of property and life when they become adults, although you have not yet made women hold some public offices in the kingdom. , but compared to other Greek city-states, you have done very well on the issue of gender equality.

Also, Dionysus was fair in the distribution of property. Every citizen of the kingdom can be allocated five acres of land, and then according to the citizens' contributions in the kingdom, they can also be distributed to land and other property rewards, instead of letting most of the kingdom's public property be earned by nobles and rich people. Pick……"

Hearing these words, Davos was in a good mood, and half-jokingly and half-seriously said to the other elders who came to the banquet: "Have you heard, our party members have so many advantages, you should have more confidence in the kingdom and work harder. right!"

Others responded with a smile.

Plato didn't laugh, he looked at Davos and said seriously: "I found that Dionysus has one of the biggest advantages, that is, Your Majesty Davos!"

"I?"

"Yes." Plato began to exclaim with excitement: "As the king of a country, you are not above the law, but act according to the law. You are not profligate and pursue a luxurious life, but low-level regulation. According to As far as I know, the polity of the kingdom of Dionia and the laws that amaze me mostly come from your advice, which is difficult to do without profound knowledge, deep observation and good judgment. All can only be philosophers! Philosophers don't have to write and be known. Socrates, my teacher, always speaks and does not write. Your Majesty, Davos, you only do and don't speak. You are a real The Philosopher King!"

Speaking of this, Plato looked excited and his eyes lit up: "My previous judgment was wrong. My ideal state is not impossible to exist in reality, but it is being realized, just in Dionia!"

In the previous life, Plato had traveled to Tarantum. At that time, Tarantum was in its prosperous period. Plato met Achieta, who had been a consul for a long time, because he was an important figure in the Pythagorean school. , Achita is the typical image of the "philosophical king" that Plato expected, so he highly praised Achita in his writings. But in this life, Archita died early, and Tarantum became a free city in the kingdom of Dionia, but Plato turned his attention to Davos, who created more splendor than Archita.

Of course, Plato, who was proud at the farewell banquet, did not admit that he had an obvious flaw in the "Republic" compared with the status quo of Dionia, that is, his eyes were a little narrow before, focusing only on one city, He even thought that the population of the city-state should be 5,040 people, and Dionia had a huge population and vast land, which could also be managed well, which touched his heart a lot.

With reluctance and longing for the future, Plato left Turii and returned to Athens. While focusing on teaching, he also devoted most of his energy to thinking more deeply about the political system of the city-state, and a few years later wrote the "Davers", which he claimed was far more valuable than what he had previously written. He wrote articles such as "Lysis", "Gorgia", "Hippias", etc., and it is no less than the book "Utopia", which is a later story.

Note: Finally finished this volume! Before, I never dared to write about Plato, philosophy, and academic debates, because I am not very good at this. Some book friends advised me to avoid it, but then I thought that since I wrote about ancient Greece, how could there be no classical culture? The scene of a hundred schools of thought contending, so I wrote it bravely, and I read several books about it.

The next volume is even more exciting, because there are things you want to see: Rome, Carthage, Etruscan, Egypt, Celtic, Iberia...

So the name of the next volume is "Western Mediterranean"!