Chapter 597: Asistes Evaluation (II)

Esteemed lords, as far as I know, the Campanians were afraid of the kingdom when the third legion first occupied Irna as they didn’t want to face the threat of a more powerful nation while fighting against the Samnites. And with such a mentality, they shakingly signed an alliance treaty with us. Although they were psychologically resistant to us then, after our years of…efforts, especially by Irna, the Campanian’s fear of us is dissipating. On the contrary, their favourability for the kingdom is increasing! Many Campanians even think that our Theonia is a wealthy, culturally rich and friendly Greek kingdom where they can find work and earn money for their families without getting exploited too much. To date, about 8000 Campanians have officially become Theonian citizens in Irna, about 1,400 Campanians have become preparatory citizens, and the number of registered Campanians who wants to become Theonian citizens is about 3000, and this number is still increasing!…”

After Asistes finished his report, the statesmen applauded. This time, it was clearly not out of courtesy but in recognition of his achievements in Irna over the past few years and the pride of their kingdom getting recognised by the people of a powerful city-state league in Italia.

Once the applause stopped, Hemon stood up and said, “Lord Asistes, the town of Irna is special. However, it is special not only because it borders the Campanians but is also close to the Samnites. Have you also taken the same measures to make Irna a bridge between the kingdom and the wild neighbour of the Theonian Alliance, the Samnites?”

Compared to the previous questions, this question was to give him additional points. Thus Asistes nodded tacitly to Hemon, “Thank you, Lord Hemon, for your question! Irna is indeed adjacent to the Samnites, mainly the Caudini, one of the four major tribes of the Samnites. However, unlike the Campanian League, Irna was not the only territory of our kingdom bordering the Samnites, but also Compsa and the free city of Potentia. And all three of us were making efforts to improve our relations with the Samnites.

But the Samnites are different from the Campanians as they are not Greek, so their customs and habits are entirely different from ours. In addition, since they had been enemies of the Campanians in the past and were obviously wary of our kingdom, only a few Samnites entered the city of Irna for several years despite all my attempts to make it easier for the Samnites to enter the city of Irna to buy, sell or work,… However, after deciding to establish the town of Baparia in the valley close to the Caudini town of Nuceria three years ago, this town has developed rapidly-”

Just as Asistes said that, Davos suddenly asked, “Nuceria…is the leader of this Caudini town Kinduk?”

“Your majesty, it is indeed the same Kinduk, the Caudini chieftain you captured and turned out to be the chieftain of the largest Caudini tribe in Nuceria.” replied Asistes and added, “He treated us Theonia quite kindly.”

Davos nodded: After defeating the Samnites army who invaded Potentia, they managed to capture several distinguished Samnites chieftains, such as Kinduk, Garni and the great chieftain Tolek were all taken as prisoners. But for some reason, Davos allowed them to stay in Thurii for a while and treated them like honoured guests. Afterwards, he even released them back to Samnites along with the other captives, ‘It seems that not only Garni but also Kinduk has his attitude towards Theonia changed…’

After seeing Davos no longer speak, Asistes continued, “We all know that the Samnites live in the mountains and were mainly grazing for a living, so they have a lack of food, which is not enough to support their large population. Thus for decades, it has been mainly the Caudini who have constantly attacked the Campanian League to obtain more land. And ten years ago, the Samnites made a large-scale attack on Potentia but were defeated by his majesty’s army and forced to become our ally.

So in the town of Baparia, we build a market to sell grain and other food to the Samnites. While the Samnite, who doesn’t have coins, could also use any goods with us for barter, such as ore, prey and livestock… However, we would first appraise them and try to be fair. And as time went on, the Samnites who traded with us gradually abandoned their wariness. On the contrary, many of their people began entering the town and accepting employment from the town’s citizens to get more grains to bring back to their tribe, such as cutting down trees, clearing the wastelands, and ploughing the farms…in exchange for payment. And to this day, nearly 300 Samnites work in the town on a single day during the busiest time in Baparia.

At the same time, they also began to slowly accept some of our customs, such as rugby games. After all, many Samnites like this kind of sport with fierce physical collision, which is very suitable for the Samnite warriors to play. And I believe that in another year or two, a team formed by Samnites will participate in the kingdom’s rugby championships…”

Davos suddenly interjected, “Thurii invited a team composed of Samnites to participate this year. They had come from Abellinum, which is near Compsa.”

Asistes was startled but soon laughed, “It seems Lord Kesima has done a better job than me in this regard.”

Among the statesmen, another man stood up, “Lord Asistes, I want to know how the spreading of the belief of Hades in Campania?”

Asistes looked and saw the one who asked the question was Plesinas. As the grand priest of the Temple of Hades, Plesinas would naturally know about the development of the temples of the various cities, so asking this question at this time was actually just to give some points away. After nodding to Plesinas, Asistes glanced at Marigi, who was at the corner of the hall.

Knowing that although Marigi was the only Persian-born statesman in the kingdom and usually seemed to be isolated during the Senate meeting, he was, in fact, a liaison between the statesmen who were former mercenaries and other statesmen. Naturally, the one standing behind him is King Davos. Thus in today’s evaluation, the three consecutive questions that focused on his most outstanding achievements during his six years in Irna mostly came from Davos’ instructions.

While suppressing his gratitude to King Davos, Henipolis said as calmly as possible, “Although the Temple of Hades in Irna isn’t under the jurisdiction of the city hall, we supported the temple’s development by selling grains and medicinal materials to the temple at a very low price, and we even provided labourers and physicians when the temple is understaffed. And to the Campanians and Samnites who entered Irna, we offered a lot of guidance so that they could go to the temple for help if they encountered any difficulties…

Over the years, the Temple of Hades has helped countless hungry, homeless, sick…outsiders suffering various difficulties, so after they returned to their homeland, they built many small Altars of Hades in Pompeii, Naples, Soluntum…and even some Samnite tribes had done that. Furthermore, Pompeii even began celebrating Hades’ Day with Irna on September 9.

The Samnites, however, were slightly different: Besides believing in Hades, they respected Heracles more. Thus apart from building the Temple of Hades in the town of Baparia, we also built the Temple of Heracles and would celebrate Heracles’ Day on May 20 every year, which resulted in many Samnites running to Baparia and actively participating in the Heracles Event and other competitions…”

After Asistes finished speaking, Plesinas immediately said, “Thank you, Lord Asistes, for your support in spreading Hades’ faith rapidly in Central Italia!”

Once Plesinas sat down, another statesman, Kreru, a Bruttian statesman, stood up. As a young statesman, he crudely asked, “Lord Asistes, as far as I know, the territory of Irna was littered with forests and huge trees before you took over your position. But during your six years term, almost all the trees in the territory were cut down. Don’t you think that is a little too much?!”

Asistes smiled and replied, “Thank you, Lord Kreru, for your concern for Irna’s environment! For this issue, I would like to explain it a bit: First, the Ministry of Agriculture approved cutting trees in Irna, so we didn’t break any law and acted carelessly.”

With that, he looked at the Minister of Agriculture, Burkes, who had resigned from his position as the Minister of Agriculture because of the Pollux case a decade ago. But after, his successor, Baripiri, died of illness a few years late during the busiest time of the Ministry of Agriculture due to Magna Graecia accepting too many new citizens whose fields needed guidance and supervision. Furthermore, the newly acquired land in Messapi and Peuceti urgently needed planning and rational distribution, so Davos elected Burkes again because the Ministry of Agriculture urgently needed a competent leader. Thus with Davos’ persuasion, Burkes returned to this familiar but unfamiliar position and has remained in his seat ever since.

Burkes then thought back about it and said, “The Ministry of Agriculture has indeed approved it. Six years ago, Lord Asistes had made a request to his majesty. After we discussed it, his majesty decided to allocate most of the allowed number of trees to be felled in various parts of the kingdom to Irna, which may give Lord Kreru the impression of cutting down many trees.”

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