Mediterranean Hegemon of Ancient Greece
chapter-191

“NO! I DIDN'T SAY THAT!” Seeing the sudden change of the judge’s expression, the merchant hurriedly refuted. Suddenly, there were angry voices behind him, “How dare you discriminate against us Lucanians, do you no longer wish to live?”

“Izam is a brave warrior of our union. How dare you shame his wife! Your honor, please punish this lecher severely!”

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

The merchant could only secretly complain. He originally thought that the woman was just a pretty good-looking Lucanian slave, because she just ask the price and had taken her a long time to buy, so it made him confuse for a moment and had said those words, but he didn't expect that the woman he provoke is the wife of a citizen of Theonia. In fact, it was because he had only been here for a few days and didn't understand the customs here, and because most of the wives of other city-state citizens stayed at home. If a woman can go to the market to buy and sell things, if they are not foreign women, then they must be female slaves, and even if you try to take advantage of them, no one would care even if you touch them twice. However, Theonia is different, many of its citizens married Lucanian women, while many Theonian Greek women married Lucanian preparatory citizens. These foreign races did not have as many complicated practices as the Greeks, and they acted boldly and openly, which naturally had gradually influenced and changed the conservative Greek citizens of Theonia. In addition, their revered archon, Lord Davos, had even allowed his wife to appear in public and had even opened banks and restaurants in the market, which naturally further promoted the change of their practice. Therefore, it is now common to see the wife of Theonian citizens in the market.

“Defendant, what the complainant said is the truth?” Protesilaus asked. Seeing that the merchant wanted to open his mouth immediately, he reminded him in a loud voice, “If you only discriminate against her, then you will only pay fines and a corporal punishment, but if you were to still lie after swearing an oath in front of the gods, then it will become a crime of blasphemy and you would be punished by having your tongue pulled out! So you have to think clearly before you speak!”

When the merchant heard it, he was silent for a long time, and his forhead was dripping with sweat and he finally said in a low voice, “What she said….most of them are the truth….but….but I didn't know that discrimination against diffirent race is also against the law!”

“Really?” Protesilaus looked at him with seriousness, “When you rent a stall, didn't you familiarize yourself with the 《In order to do business in Theonia, you must follow these regulations》 that was written by the market management office?”

“No….”The merchant wanted to deny it, but he suddenly remembered one of the regulations of the market management office of Theonia: If you are not familiar with the regulation, then you are not allowed to rent a stall. So, he could only nod and say, “Yes.”

“In that case, since you know the law and have still violated it! First of all, if you violate the law ‘In Theonia it is forbidden to discrimate against different races’ you are to pay a fine of ten drachmas and a corporal punishment of getting caned twice, so that your memory will improve and never do it again! As for your harassment against the complainant, but had not done any action, this….does our union have a law in this respect?” Protesilaus asked Praxileos.

Praxileos thought about it and shook his head.

“It seems that at the next meeting of the senate, I will have things to do.” Protesilaus muttered to himself. He then thought about it and said, “As to what your punishment for harassing the complainant is, I will leave it to the complainant to decide.”

The merchant trembled, he then looked at the complainant with a pleading gaze. The young Lucanian woman did not decline and simply said, “Then have the administrator of the market management office to punish him by having him do five days of compulsory labor.”

“Hmm, alright!” Protesilaus applauded the proposal of the complainant, “Defendant, you can choose to not accept the ‘five-day compulsory labor’ that was proposed by the complainant, but you will be expelled from the union and will never be allowed to do business here!” Then Protesilaus said with a more serious tone, “Are you willing to accept this punishment?”

As a merchant, dignity is not important. What matters is whether he can earn money. His pottery business in Thurii is very prosperous these days, so he of course does not want to be expelled from the union for such a small matter, and so he naturally accepted the punishment.

The next dispute was the opposite, it was a conflict between a registered freeman vendor and a foreign merchant. The fact is clear and the evidence is conclusive, so there is no need to dispute about this and can be punished directly in accordance with the market management regulations with the violation of “Do not discriminate against foreign merchants” and “fighting and making trouble”. However, during the trial, the freeman refused to admit the beating, and constantly hinted to Protesilaus that he is a follower of Bolus, and had been working for him. So he hoped that the judge could put the matter to rest.

The young and energetic Protesilaus couldn't understand why these people often showed off their noble birth, especially Bolus who looked down on statesmen that were not from Thurii. So he took this opportunity and would not let him go and loudly denounced, “Audacious, how dare you ruin the reputation of Lord Bolus! You have not only bullied the complainant, but have also hurt him and have behaved cruelly! And you still refuse to admit your crime and have violated your oath. So I will also sentence you to the crime of blasphemy and carry it out immediately!”

The freeman was shocked and immediately asked for mercy, while the crowds cheered Protesilaus loudly.

In the end, the freeman was unwilling to accept the “tongue pulling”, and had instead chosen to receive the equivalent punishment of getting caned 40 times and carried it out of court. At the same time, the scribe recorded his crime, and even if he recovers, the census office will expel him from Theonia.

The cases in the market and port are just some minor disputes and conflicts, so the judgment process is very fast and there is no need for cumbersome legal procedures, lawyers and juries….

Tios watch from outside of the court for a while and understood that this small court is to show the citizens, slaves, and outsiders the just position of Theonia Union, and to safeguard the legitimate rights of all law-abiding people in the territory of Theonia, specially for the merchants like them who have traveled from place to place, which moved them.

Merchants like Tios are considered citizens with status in their own city-state, so when they are doing business in other city-states, the local citizens are often envious of them and hold the mentality that “These outsiders wants to take the money of the city-state” and have often taken some hostile actions, and the officials of the city-state often favors the citizens of the city (because they need the support of the citizens in elections). Among the Greek city-states, Athens has the best attitude towards outsiders who had settled and did business in their city-state, because of their super developed trade and crafts, they need an open attitude to welcome the technology, capital investment and employment brought by foreigners, and so on., So they gave the foreigners considerable power in the law, apart from being unable to own land and hold public office, outsiders could even contract mines in Athens, monopolize shipment and so on.

The generosity of Athens is naturally rewarded with kindness from the foreigners. In normal times, they would make some charitable donations, such as repairing the temple, holding theater celebrations and allowing the citizens of Athens to watch it for free. When Athens is in danger, they will also step forward like the Athenian citizens to serve as a soldier, or purchase weapons and equipment, and even triremes and donate them to the government of Athens.

And now, Theonia is likely to follow the footsteps of Athens, and was even bolder than Athens in some aspects. Tios had come this time because the Senate of Theonia Union had passed a new law: Allowing foreign merchants to lease the land between the Saraceno river and Siris river as a land for crafting for a period of 20 years.

This news had immediately caused a stir among the foreign merchants in the market of Thurii and quickly spread to Magna Graecia. Most of the merchants who have been to Thurii are optimistic about the business prospects of Theonia Union, what is more, Theonia has allowed Laos to join its alliance, so that any merchants who does trade in the union can enter Laos at a favorable price and open up trade with Naples, Marseille, Gaul, Iberian Peninsula and Mauritania. In particular, the construction of Thurii-Laos road has begun. With the quality of the road built by Theonia, the completed road will certainly make transportation between the two cities be more convenient, and they estimate that the shortest time to get from Thurii to Laos is only two days, which is not much different from the time needed for shipping through cargo ship, moreover, the risk of going by sea is greater, because as long as one encounter pirates or storm, all their efforts may be destroyed. At the same time, when crossing the Strait of Messana(Messina), the city-states of Messana and Rhegium, one south and one north, charge high tolls, which will greatly reduce the profits that they will earn.

The land through which Tios travelled when he last stayed at Amendolara, though it is flat, the land is hard(mostly gravel). Because it can not be used as agricultural land, so it was not included in the ‘allocated land’. Most of the land has been left idle except for a small part of the land where the Amendolara military camp was built for public militia training. For Tios, such barren land was also full of value, he thought to get one and then open a weapon workshop.

After profiting from the last trade, Tios became more interested in this newly emerging union. He realizes that Theonia is a union that advocates military might, otherwise, they will not hold a Triumphant Return to give honor to victorious strategoi and soldiers. Therefore, Theonia will have no less wars in the future, and with the rapidly increasing number of Theonian citizens, it will mean that there will be a greater demand for weapons. According to his understanding, there is a large weapon shop in the port of Thurii, which he found out to be established by the union in order to provide for the families of the soldiers who have died in battle and also to take care of the disabled soldiers. Most of the weapons and equipment that are sold were seized, most of which needs to be repaired. Basically, Theonia has no production of a complete set of heavy infantry equipment from scratch, nor they have the ability to do it, which allowed Tios to see a chance to earn money.

The most famous commodity of Corinth right now are weapons. Corinth's weapons and equipment are well-known throughout Greece, and Tios had done this field of business before and had rich experience. Moreover, Tios is able to hire the highly skilled Corinthian blacksmith and set up a smithy in the union. This not only saved him shipping costs, but also facilitated the acquisition of raw materials and the cost will also be lower, because Thurii has copper mines and the iron ores of Lucania. And he can tailor-made high-quality armor and weapons for the citizens of the union, or he can also sell them to the union in bulk, or even to the aborigines(Theonia Union does not restrict the exportation of weapons). This is more profitable and stable than buying and selling grain, so he couldn't wait to join the auction after he made a decision.