[X] [Hyria] Grant Hyria autonomy and Artahias allyship [+5,500 freemen providing tributes and levies including heavier infantry, Artahias becomes a loyal Eretrian ally rather than vassal].
[X] [Dauni] The Path of Peace [Eretria and the Dauni will cease hostility, open trade to one another, and stop plotting against one another].
[X] [Athenai] Accept the Athenian treaty [Athenai will be grateful, Taras will be disturbed, Eretrian grain trade will grow faster in the future].
"I have spoken enough regarding the Dauni. My great-uncle recalled an earlier time, after Eustarchus the fool led us into the Dauni lands to our humiliation, when there were calls we must destroy the Dauni at any cost. We did not do so, and we have had little cause to regret it. The scheming the Dauni have been accused of was ineffective at best. And yet we spoke so often of yoking them that who may blame them for their hostility? And to say the Iapyges are untrustworthy does a grave injustice to the stalwart friendship that King Harpos showed our people in ruling over the Peuketti; once he realized the alternative to peace with our polis was death, he chose peace and prospered accordingly.
And in the event the Dauni do not prove willing to keep their word we may go to war with them with Justice on our side and with the blessings of the gods. This is how it has always been for our polis and I pray it will remain so. Since we in any case do not intend to go to war with them now, so that we might pursue our projects in the Adriatic, what harm is caused by dropping talk of war if or until they prove false? And if peace prevails long enough the Dauni will, whatever we might say of their trustworthiness, come to value our silver and the products of our artisans as their brothers the Peuketti have.
And to speak of the Adriatic, I favor the treaty with Athens for that cause. We have been allowed to control the Adriatic because Athens has kept Corinth at bay. They have done their for their own interests, to preserve the flow of grain from our lands. This treaty will increase that flow of grain greatly and thus render Athens even more well-disposed to our city. The extra silver will greatly improve our coinage and the trade will keep our budget from exceeding the income we have available. Corinth would not dare trivially challenge us even in the event the peace holds, should we count Athens as our friend. And with the income from the extra trade we can build up a navy that can be a true hegemon of the Adriatic, which is a surer safeguard of our neutrality and liberty than good intentions.
Much is made of the disappointment of Taras. Yet this pact of friendship is not a violation of the treaty we have signed. Let us also remember that Taras has not been completely at ease these years. They have made a common friendship with Rhegion, and ended their rivalry with Thurii. They are a growing market and trading partner of the Sikeliote League, who we have grown more distant from. The balance of power within Italia is shifting away from Eretria if we do nothing, and we have no guarantee the peace party will always prevail in the Tarantine elections. We should do somehting about this, but it would be useful for us to cement Athenian goodwill beforehand so we could have a stronger case for other Italiote powers to value our own friendship. If the Tarantines take exception to us exercising our right under our treaty then they are free to make a treaty of trade and friendship with Lakaidomon, that is if the Spartans have anything worth trading for.
Also in honesty I find myself much disturbed by the report of our xenoparakletor, wise Obander. The Athenians are fickle, and right now their lower classes adore our city. They might be turned against us in fury if we disappoint them. And then nobility of Athens, the aristoi who should be the leading men of the polis, account us of little importance. If as Obander conjectures the brute Erasmos Dion put Alkibiades up to proposing the treaty we may suspect Dion has some strategy in mind; it was he who conquered and subjugated Kerkyra with such force. We have maintained our neutrality in part because Athens has never forced us to take sides, but if we face the hostility of the city we will be challenged to the utmost for our very survival. Athens is a dangerous friend but far more dangerous as an enemy; so let us take their friendship, and their silver, and hope that we may not need face them.
And if we do face them we will still need more time to gather more wealth and more allies. So let us accept the treaty to buy that time, and buy more triremes."
