Chapter 678: Discussion on the handling of the Caudini

Davos’ words surprised everyone present as they didn’t expect their king’s appetite to be so big. Unlike the lenient demand Theonia adopted on the Samnites after defeating them more than a decade ago, Davos’ demand now is much harsher.

“Your majesty, I don’t think the Caudinis will agree to your demand,” Cornelius warned.

“Negotiation is all about reaching an agreement. After putting forward some difficult conditions, we would gradually ease them according to Caudini’s response until both parties are satisfied. But the bottom line is that we must take Nola under our control, and they must re-elect their great chieftain since we will never allow someone who has repeatedly broken the treaty and hated Theonia to remain in that position!” Davos said decisively.

“Your majesty, it is possible to make the Caudini accept our condition with their current strength,” the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ansitanos, said confidently.

“But the defeat of the Caudini and our subsequent demand might arouse the vigilance of the other Samnite tribes. And since they are already dissatisfied with us, they might even cause new troubles.” Lysias warned with some concern.

“I agree with his majesty! Even without this incident, the Samnites’ resentment towards our Theonia remains. And as far as I know, these vicious Samnites regard their defeat and submission to us as a disgrace and would always hold a grudge against us. Thus it is better to seize every opportunity to weaken them so that even if they kept their hatred against us, the Samnites wouldn’t even have the strength to exact their revenge on us!” Androlis said loudly.

Lysias then looked at Androlis with dissatisfaction. With how active the newly elected rotating speaker is, he would likely manage to catch up to him.

Davos, on the other hand, nodded in approval and felt that he had made the right decision in choosing Androlis as a rotating speaker. Even though Androlis and Kunogelata can handle internal affairs, Androlis is more active in handling matters. Still, the most important thing is that he actively cooperates with Davos, allowing some of Davos’ decisions and proposals to be implemented smoothly through the Senate, which is much better than the deceased Kunogelata.

“Your majesty, the demands you have proposed are wonderful!” The Minister of Military, Hielos, didn’t praise him blindly as he saw things strategically. He then said from the bottom of his heart, “By obtaining Nola and Suessula, we would be able to connect the Caudini town of Nuceria in the south of Campania, which is friendly with us, and Abellinum of the Hirpini tribe, which leans towards us, with our territories of Irna, Poseidonia and Compsa. And with the support of our allies in the Campanian league, we will be able to completely blockade the Samnites in the mountains and limit their encroachment and expansion.”

Davos became pleased with Hielos seeing his intentions. He then coughed and further reminded, “Besides restraining the Samnites, we would be able to accelerate our conquest and assimilation further. Once we trap the Samnites in the mountains, they would lack food because of their barren land and would be forced to either come out to plunder or trade with us, giving us more opportunities. In addition, we would need to strengthen our military forces in the Dauni region to prevent the enraged Samnites from moving east and raiding our newly conquered territories… by the way, how are the preparations for the Eleventh Legion going?”

“With Lord Antonios’ full support, we manage to build our military camp near Luceria. Furthermore, we had carried out several rounds of military training…”

Hearing Hielos’ report, Davos tapped his armchair, ‘It seems Antonios managed to clear himself from the impact of the Ladician case. Apart from stabilising the situation in Luceria these two years, he had also actively cooperated with the Ministry of Military…’

Davos pondered for a while and said, “Since we still haven’t chosen the legatus of the Eleventh Legion, the Ministry of Military should warn the officers of Dauni’s military camp to strengthen their vigilance in the western mountains to prevent the Samnite’s invasion. Once they see the enemy, Antonios can temporarily command the Eleventh Legion.

At the same time, you should also tell Melisander, the legatus of the Tenth Legion in the Peucetian area, to immediately rush to Dauni once the battle starts.”

“Yes, your majesty.”

After receiving Hielos’ reply, Davos turned his eyes to Ansitanos again, “How are our advances to the Frentani people going?”

The Frentani people live in the low mountains area north of Dauni, close to the Adriatic coast. The Frentani claimed to be a branch of the Samnites, but they weren’t aggressive and had a smaller population. Still, the Samnites didn’t recognise them. And even though the Samnites didn’t recognise them, they would rarely invade them. Then again, it might also be because their land is too barren.

“Ever since their signing of a friendly treaty with us, the Frentani people are no longer as anxious as they were at the start and even understand our, Theonia’s style, of keeping our promises…” But while Ansitanos was talking, the Chief Commercial Officer, Marigi, interjected, “Your majesty, the market we establish on the banks of the Tifernus river, is now very lively. And both large and small Frentani tribes would even bring their goods, ores and wood…every day in exchange for grain, olive oil, clay pots and other goods, completely different with how cautious and barbaric the Samnites were when trading with us…”

Davos nodded. Then he suddenly remembered something and asked Hielos, “I remember the Frentani people asking us to send a fleet to patrol their coast to drive away the vicious pirates a few months ago. How is it going?”

“Your majesty, the Fourth Fleet sent several warships to patrol the coast for them and had even fought several battles with the pirates who attempted to come ashore to plunder them. For this reason, Miltiades(the navarch of the Fourth Fleet) wrote to the Ministry of Military, asking us to give him more warships…” replied Hielos.

“I remember that. On the second month, I approved the document about adding five triremes to the Fourth Fleet that the Ministry of Military submitted.” Davos tapped his finger on the desk and mused, “With how much the Frentani people depend on us more than the Samnites, I believe they would come to our side once we wage war against the Samnites in the future!”

After saying that, he changed the subject, “Alright, everyone. Although we still haven’t started our negotiation with the Samnites, we still need to prepare the people to move there as soon as possible to quickly occupy and stabilise the eastern part of the Campanian plain once we obtain the three cities of Nola, Suessula and Capua.”

Raphias, the Chief Census Officer, immediately reminded, “Your majesty, even though we have already assigned the registered preparatory citizens and freemen to the Apulia region(Apulia region included Messapi, Peucetti and Dauni) in the past few years, there are still quite a lot of vacant lands in the Dauni region without enough new population to fill them. Thus we even set aside some of them as public lands of the kingdom. So we can only send the freemen, who had just moved to Theonia, to Campania…”

Davos frowned. Although Davos had adopted such an extreme method in the early days of Theonia’s development because of the urgent situation, he no longer wanted to use such methods of reducing the quality of the entire population and making governance much more difficult.

Vespa suddenly interrupted, “Your majesty, the kingdom still has enough new people to send to Campania.”

Raphias then looked at him in surprise, “Where are these people you mentioned?”

Davos reacted, “Are you talking about…those tribe’s children?”

“Besides the elderly and children, and the sick and disabled in the various tribes, the young and strong have already gone out independently one after another over the years. If not for the slaves, those tribes would have difficulty grazing their livestock…” Vespa lamented the decline of the Lucanian tribes. However, he also knew this was inevitable, “Now that more than a decade had passed, most of the children back then are now adults. But more importantly, their desire to go independent, start a family and own land is even stronger than the tribal warriors before. And since most of them are reserve soldiers of the Third Legion, they can immediately become the main force in stabilising Campania and defend against the Samnites after they settled.”

Davos became overjoyed hearing that. Besides solving the problem that would come from moving the population to Campania, it would also solve the remaining tribal problem. But as the king, he had to consider more things. He then looked at Sedrum and asked, “The Bruttian tribe should also experience the same situation, right?”

“Yes, your majesty. However, there shouldn’t be as much as the Lucanians.” Sedrum thought for a bit and explained, “Since there was a rebellion in Bruttii during the South-Italian War, there were many tribes that were completely dismantled and destroyed…”

“Then I would trouble you two lords to go to Lucania and Bruttii respectively and count the young adults from the various tribes willing to settle in Campania and finally report it to Raphias. Then once we finish our negotiations with the Caudini, you shall immediately dispatch them.” After saying that, Davos finally felt relieved. Back then, Theonia had to compromise with the Lucanians and Bruttian tribes because of their weakness. But now, they could deal with things much rougher, like how they completely dismantled the tribes in Messapi and Peuceti. And even if that resulted in more unrest, these two regions were now free of any tribes.

And now, Davos finally saw the hope of completely removing the Lucanian and Bruttian tribes that had remained.

“Your majesty, shall we have the Third Legion wait there until the negotiations with the Samnites?” Hielos asked.

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