In the east, Athenai and Sparta duel over the destiny of all Hellas. In the west, great city-states rise and fall like reeds, the ambitious vanquishing the weak. But upon the farthest shore of Greater Greece, a new and extraordinary power rises. Eretria Eskhata, a new city founded upon the ashes of the old, emerges onto the stage.
The fates watch you, o citizens of Eretria. Will you emerge victorious and enter the annals of history, or fail and be buried in the dust as a ruin and a curiosity? Will you build a legacy to stand the test of time, or fade away as an obscure memory? Will you triumph or will you end in tragedy?
The year is 431 BCE, 345 years since the first Olympic Games. Sparta, once hegemon of all Hellas, now faces the rising polis of Athenai. With its silver mines at Laurion, its unbeatable fleet, and its vast Aegean empire, the city has gained power beyond all in Hellas. Now, a dispute between the city of Korinthos and its former colony Kerkyra in the Ionian sea has developed into a deliberate provocation as Athens has closed its ports to the Spartan ally Megara, destroying its economy. Declaring the peace broken, Sparta has called together its allies and rallied its armies.
Away from all of this, at the boot of Italia, lies the region of Magna Graecia. Wealthy Greek city states from Syrakousai to Taras battle for dominance over the wealthy hinterland. In the interior lurk feathered warriors, waiting for their opportunity to strike, for the Greeks to grow weak and divided. In the northwest, a little city by the name of Rome battles for survival on the bloody banks of the Tiber. To the southwest, the wealthy phoenician city of Carthage bides its time, waiting, expanding its empire across the western Mediterranean.
Among these states rises the city of Eretria Eskhata, once a city of exiles and now hegemon of Epulia. Controlling a small empire of subordinate cities and barbarian tributaries, Eretria Eskhata has carved a home for itself through blood and cunning.
Blessed by the Divine Marriage of Athene and Apollon, the citizens of Eretria have become wealthy and strong. Their democratic constitution guarantees the freedom and liberty of every citizen. Their armies are unique among those of Hellas for the skill of their cavalry and infantry. Their rowers, trained in their naval barracks, propelled forward by legends of battles of three masts against fifty, expertly sail the wine-dark sea.
But all is not well in the city. Hateful of mass slavery, the citizens of Eretria have instead inadverdantly created a vast class of immigrant freemen, the metics. Some are brilliant craftsmen or weavers of sea silk. Others are tenant labourers who work on estates alongside native serfs. Still others are wealthy merchants with large fortunes. All are aware of the contradiction between the city's professed ideals and their subordinate position. All are aware of the burdens they pay to live in the city, the treatment they receive as those of lesser status. All are also aware of their numbers. Indeed, if Eretria is a city of the people, it is not a city of all its people.
And there are many terrors that the city must face. To the south is strong Taras, with its domination over the Sallento. To the southeast, Korinthos seeks to regain the prestige and power of its archaic empire, and Eretria stands in the way. To the southwest, the city of Syrakousai seeks to avenge former disgrace and rebuild its hegemony.
Now, amid all this, the city's Xenoparakletor brings grim news from abroad. The Peloponnesian War has begun.
Magna Graecia: Titanomachia is a continuation of a popular quest run from 2015 and 2017 in two iterations. Those two quests covered around 25 years between them, from the landing of the Eretrians in 490 BCE after the Persians invaded the city to the election of famed war hero Herodion in 465 BCE. The game is focused on combining intuitive and interesting mechanics for managing a city and its characters with the flavor and historical context for the era. In this case, we have taken a 34 year timeskip forward to the start of the Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta. Players will begin by choosing which particular vision of the city carried them through the interim, and then we will transition to beginning the game, year by year. The game's mechanics are influenced by Civilization, Total War, and Imperator: Rome, but I have taken great pains to alter many of these mechanics and create historically accurate numbers for revenue and expenses. Everything will cost approximately as it did in this era, as much as possible.
Though not really required reading, especially given the timeskip, here are links to the previous two games: Original, Followup.
Now, let's move onto the mechanics.
Ekklesia
The city of Eretria Eshkata is a city of the people, and you are the people. The Ekklesia, as the formal assembly of the people, is the final authority on all matters in the city; tyranny is not even considered here, such is the confidence of the people in their own decisions. All adult male citizens regardless of property or wealth have an equal voice here.
When you vote you are literally placing a vote on behalf of the people; you may even want to roleplay as a member of the ekklesia and it is certainly encouraged (named characters have been acknowledged in the quest if their voice is loud and influential enough, and even win minor offices). Since the voters directly represent the people, their discussion might affect the course of the city even if what they voted on does not win. Huge majorities or pluralities will reflect on how the citizens of Eretria see decisions.
The assembly is the ultimate authority in the city, but there are a number of factions and offices that have emerged over time to help the assembly fulfill its role.
User Motions & Write-ins
One of the things that I value in Magna Graecia is user input. Some of the most fantastic concepts of the past were entirely user-inputted, but the usual "write-in" system can also allow for some stupendously stupid outcomes. To that end I've designed a more formal system that allows better write-ins.
The rock-obsessed democracy of Eretria believes in the value of standing on top of boulders when proposing something, and for that you need five kleftes, your lifters. If, during the discussion phase of voting you feel you have an alternative to a currently proposed vote, you can propose a user motion by first tagging me to approve it. If I do, then it moves to the lifting phase. If five people "lift your rock", then it will be included as a user motion when the vote is created. I reserve the right to not approve motions if I feel they infringe on the authority of executive offices or I feel they're not historically accurate.
The other type of user motion is usually for bigger decisions that don't necessarily have to do with the current vote options but can be voted on anyways if the person gets five kleftes. Examples include removing the current proboulos, starting a war (a user motion to start a war began a major conflict that ended with victory over the neighboring tribes) or repealing some previous decision. These kinds of user motion can be made at any time but will only be voted on separately from the main vote for that year.
Finally, there are the special user motions to reward specific characters with the wreath of Apollon and the an inscription on the painted rock of Athene, the foremost rewards for public service, a new mechanic introduced by player user motion. These motions can only be introduced during an election year, require five lifters for the Wreath of Apollon and 10 lifters for the rock of Athene before it is even put to a public vote, ensuring that only the truly worthy will be able to obtain these crucial awards. The inscription on the painted rock can only be granted after a person's retirement from politics, and represents their permanent legacy.
Factions
The Demes are the three major factions of Eretria. Loose, broad-based coalitions of people from every single class, the demes have formed out of the most famed historical leaders in Eretria's history: Drako, Herodion, and Antipater. Even though all these leaders have passed, their memory lives on in the people who have been molded by them and their beliefs. Each of the three factions has its own vision and project on how the city should be and what the citizens should aspire towards. The Demos Drakonia look to the sea and trade for the city's prosperity. The Demos Exoria, Herodion's faction, seek to strengthen the city's army and secure its borders. The Demos Antipatria encourages Hellenic immigration to the city and pursues diplomacy that seeks to build coalitions of its neighbors.
At game start, players will choose which factions most influenced the city in the 34 years since the previous game. Each faction will come with its own powerful starting bonuses, and will influence how the city is seen around the Mediterranean. After the beginning of the game, the factions will compete for influence and power in the city. There is no measure of civil stability or influence; instead, players will have to think through what the city's mood and stability is like, and factions will have their influence represented through which offices they control.
Offices
Every four years Eretria holds an election for the next Proboulos and Xenoparakletor, as well as lots for each of the more minor offices. The Proboulos is the city's domestic minister, managing its finances, constructions, and administering the ekklesia (as well as carrying out its will). The Xenoparakletor is the city's voice to outsiders, dealing with other states. They not only host the Epulian League, a small collection of city states surrounding Eretria and under her hegemony, but collect information from Eretrian citizens and merchants from across the Mediterranean, compiling a report for the assembly of what is going around them turn-by-turn. The Strategoi are elected, but a head strategos is only elected from among the ten strategoi in a time of war. Finally, there is the Metic Assembly, elected not by the assembly but by metics outside of player control, and only when the Metics are called to speak.
However, this is where chance comes in. When players elect a proboulos and xenoparakletor they are signalling how influential that faction is at a given time. The faction that gains control of these esteemed office swill have a greater chance for their candidates to be chosen for lot in the minor offices, such as the master of the mint, the grand mantis in charge of festivals, the chief of public lands or the Agoranomos who manages trade in the city. When factions take control of these offices they have special powers to present issues to the ekklesia and will do so, raising issues and putting forward suggestions they would not otherwise. If a faction has control of all or most of the city's offices, then the Ekklesia will only be presented with the issues that faction wants them to be presented with.
Characters
A Greek city is much more than just an abstract symbol or a border on a map. It is built out of people and personalities. Great figures such as Dionysius of Syracuse, Archytas of Taras, Alkibiades or Perikles cannot be forgotten or pushed to the side. Indeed, it was the characters that brought flavor to the original Magna Graecia, but in time it became difficult for new characters to break in to an old stable, and a few personalities became entrenched. In Titanomachia, to represent this, each character running for an election (to Xenoparakletor, Proboulos, or in times of war, for Strategos) has six stats drawn from Aristotle's Nicomachean ethics: Glory, Lawfulness, Friendliness, Courage, Magnificence, and Wisdom. Unlike in other character systems, more of a stat is not always a good thing; someone too glorious may become over-mighty, while someone too friendly yields too much to others, but a high or low score can remain an advantage depending on the combination. The purpose of these statistics are to give citizens a better idea of who these people are, rather than how good they are; competence is difficult to judge except in the heat of battle, while character is easier. Citizens can only trust that the people they have chosen for their virtues display those virtues in war as well as peace. A mix of traits can create a number of intriguing characters; someone can be extremely lawful but unfriendly, or wise but cowardly. Character stats can also change over time; old men may become less friendly or more glorious, and young men may find their courage in the heat of battle.
There is an eight-point scale for character stats. 1 means very low; 8 means very high. 4 is in the middle.
Glory (Kleos): The virtue of glory is renown for a man's accomplishments in life. A man with high kleos is more likely to be respected among his peers and enemies and to be able to unite the people in a crisis but may in turn become over-ambitious if their glory is not tempered by modesty. Those who come from notable families will have higher expectations for reaching the glory of their ancestors.
Lawfulness (Isos): The lawful man is just to a fault. He will be as fair to the ordinary people as to the aristocrats. At times, however, consistency in fairness can become displeasing to the polis, as the aim to be fair above all can disturb the peace which maintains the unity of the people together, and such fairness can manifest itself as cruelty if wedded to a respect for harsh laws and a hate for change.
Friendliness (Phillia): Friendliness is the quality of compromise and cooperation. The man with philia believes primarily in the necessity of working with others and having a pleasant and genial life. However, although the friendly man may become beloved by the people and respected, if his friendliness is a front for deception, or else he becomes a man who yields too much to insult.
Courage (Andreia): The courageous man is confident in himself and his honor. Courage is necessary both on the battlefield and in oratory, and without it the man is little more than a mewling calf, afraid of the whispers of others. However, the man who is too courageous becomes foolhardy and stubborn, a rash person of explosive temperament, sometimes too willing to tread over others.
Magnificence (Megaloprepeia): The magnificent man gives great things and receives them. He spends his fortune or effort on public works and public ceremonies, contributing to the city he calls his home, whether with his labour or his wealth. A man with an excess in magnificence spends inappropriately or for his own glory, while a man with a lack of magnificence is a miser or a pauper.
Wisdom (Sophia): The wise man has worked hard to achieve the knowledge and understanding needed to grasp the world around them in theoretical terms. Wisdom is an extraordinary virtue, but even it can go too far. A man without much wisdom is a practical, simple-thinking man, whereas one with too much wisdom may prefer the theoretical and the abstract to the real, and be better for drafting laws than enforcing them.
Demography & Levies
In the classical period, Greek states did not rely on vast professional armies or mercenaries, but levies of their own freemen. In Eretria, every freeman, Metic and Citizen, can serve. There is a set ratio of citizen men to metic men, and this has a significant effect on the city's finances. At any one time, 75% of the city's adult men are ready to be levied into its armies, though the full levy, or Levy Pandemos, can only be raised in an emergency. The city draws on a large cavalry force (especially for its size) and a large number of hoplites, with ratios to the total number of troops that can alter if circumstances change. In Ancient Greece, society determines the military, and not the other way around; social distinctions are also often military ones. Aristocrats ride and hoplites march, while light-armed psilloi throw javelins, rocks, and sling bolts.
This also means that a city losing manpower can be disastrous. Casualties here are not defined as anyone injured but those who have been taken out of the manpower pool; they are either gravely crippled or killed, and are a direct subtraction from the city's number of adult freemen, reducing not only its tax revenue but its manpower.
The city's navy is determined by its number of trained rowers. Navies are extremely intensive not only on manpower but the city's finances, and if the city were to deploy its triremes all at once filled by all its trained rowers, it could find itself running a deficit. Navies are thus the preserve of manpower-rich, wealthy states, and Eretria can be proud to call itself among that group. Rowers are drawn from the ranks of the lower-class psilloi, and since many of the psilloi are too poor to be at war much anyway, it is in the city's interest to fill up the ranks of the rowers as much as it can afford.
The cost of war is represented in two ways. The city has a maintenance cost for its permanent units (the medium-infantry Hieros Ekdromoi and the elite cavalry Kleos Exoria). In addition, since trireme rowers are professionals, they are given a reduced but still substantial pay at all times, and have a direct incentive to agitate for war because of their increased pay during wartime. During a war, the city's militia forces of hoplites, cavalry, and light infantry become available, and cost the city a substantial sum of money to conduct in the field even for a few months. However, because of the realities of militia warfare, campaigning is seasonal; an army can only sustain itself in the field for a few months before it melts away, its constituent parts going home.
Changes were made to the military system in Turn 8, so new players coming in and reading through should not worry about the discrepancy in military numbers before and after turn 8.
War
Eretria will sometimes be confronted with wars it must fight against its neighbors or even hegemons. In a war the city elects a head strategos who will lead an army; the city can appoint additional strategoi and create separate armies. Rarely will the city's entire possible levy be called at once, and even rarer will be the case when the city decides to increase the proportion of men called to fight, pulling in the old, the sick, and the weak. In a siege, the city has strong walls and the supplies to resist for three years, and perhaps indefinitely if it retains naval supremacy. The city being sacked may not be a game over, but will result in the damage of buildings, the loss of income, and the loss of citizens, even leaving aside the probably punitive peace deal afterwards. It is thus not usually advisable.
The strategos controls the army in the field, not the ekklesia, and they must merely trust in the judgments of a strategos on the field of battle. If the strategos fails, however, the city is free to recall or execute them for their crimes, but one must beware of generals who gain too much power or are reliant on mercenaries, for they may not take such a response lying down...
Mercenaries are special units recruited as political units. In the ancient Mediterranean a mercenary band was a political community united by a single leader guiding his men to honor and glory. Well-paid mercenaries can sustain a city against superior enemies for years on end and allow it conduct a more permanent campaign with unparalleled strategic depth and choices that other cities could not dream of. However, at the same time, mercenaries who are not well-paid, or who have loyalty to a specific general, may instead turn on the polis and snuff out its democracy, claiming power for themselves. So, long and short of it, pay your mercenaries.
Finances
The city of Eretria has specific incomes and expenses. Your primary income is from taxation, both direct and indirect (unique among cities, Eretria taxes some freemen directly). Taxation comes from your number of male freemen; the more you have, the more you get from taxation. However, there is one important caveat; Metics are taxed at almost twice the rate of citizens, and are a massive portion of your tax revenue. There is thus a very clear incentive not to provide more citizenship to your metics, as once they become citizens the number of taxes they pay will significantly drop. However, one must be careful with treating them too much like a cash cow, for they may eventually become fed up.
Aside from that, the city makes money from taxing trade (see Trade), receiving income from the members of the Epulian League and its barbarian tributaries, and public revenues representing state-owned farms and mines as well as the revenues of public works. Loot in times of war can be an extraordinary boon for the city, enriching its citizens and providing enormous and instant influxes of talents into the treasury.
In terms of expenses, the city has to upkeep its army and navy, pay to construct buildings (see Great Works) and pay salaries and subsidies. The city not only has to pay for its more elaborate governmental apparatus (much more complicated than most cities its size) but also for subsidies to playwrights and actors in order to encourage the city's culture, which remains austere and abysmal.
Finally, there is also the city's Sacred Treasury. Established by Kallias the Wise, a noted reformer who held many important positions throughout the city's early history, the sacred treasury takes 10% of the city's gross income and puts it aside into an emergency fund. Now more than 1,200 talents, the Sacred Treasury is the city's emergency fund. Only allowed to open in a crisis or a time of war, the treasury is the city's last line of defense, allowing it to recruit mercenaries, repair walls, or rebuild fleets.
Trade
In Titanomachia trade is quite simple. The city has a set number of trade routes which it cannot control, representing the fact that ancient cities rarely intervened directly in trade policy except in times of war. The trade routes will go to various regions and can be both geopolitically important and lucrative; Eretria begins the game shipping grain to the city of Athens, which could affect the Peloponnesian war and draw more attention to the city. There are also luxury trade routes; far more lucrative than normal ones, these trade routes represent special luxury goods, such as the famed Attic pottery or Kyrene's Silphium, a natural abortifacient so popular it would later go extinct from over-exploitation. At game start, Eretria's main luxury trade route is in its famed Byssos cloth, a fine silky linen sourced from a special Adriatic shell. The city has the opportunity, either through growth, naval dominance, or the construction of trading posts and the expansion of its harbour, to gain more trade routes.
To portray the weakness of the 5th century BCE polis in collecting revenue from trade there is tariff efficiency, which represents how effective Eretria's agoranomoi are at taxing trade. Higher tariff efficiency will mean higher revenues from individual trade routes, and can eventually mean that the majority of the city's revenue comes from trade rather than domestic sources, giving it an additional edge on its neighbors. In times of war, some trade routes could be temporarily cut, or the city could cut them, to strategically deny resources to enemies. The only type of trade route not subject to the tariff efficiency modifier are monopoly trade routes, which have the full value of that type of trade route from the start and and are both rare and immensely lucrative for a city to gain.
Great Works
At game start Eretria is a rather shabby city. Although it is the center of a strong state, a tier below the most powerful Greek states, the city is a messy web of streets and small temples. One of the first tasks of any faction will be to develop the city by improving its beauty through great works. Great works are special constructions with unique bonuses that players will be able to see transforming the city with a map of the polis that will dynamically change as new works are constructed. Great works allow you to make your mark on the world, with cultural works influencing the city's relations and neighbors, military works strengthening its defenses, and commercial works improving its ability to make money. Indeed, some great works may become so great that they are remembered not only in the city but across the Mediterranean, magnifying the city's prestige and respect among other Greeks.
Diplomacy and the Wider World
The quest begins at the start of the most momentous conflict in the Greek World to that point. The Peloponnesian War spread far beyond Greece, with an Athenian expedition to Sicily and fighting as far as the city of Byzantion at the opening to the Black Sea. As a result, diplomacy will be important. The Xenoparakletor, responsible for the city's foreign affairs, will provide yearly updates of what is going on in the Mediterranean and how the war is progressing, as well as any other notable events. The world outside Eretria is ever fluid and never static, a dynamic and terrifying place full of enemies aplenty. Players will be presented with many important choices on how to respond to diplomatic dilemmas ranging from local border wars to intervening in vast conflicts.
These days, neutrality is a dangerous thing in the Mediterranean. In Greece, the clash of titans makes neutrality ever less of an option. In Sicily, a resurgent Syracuse threatens peace on the island, while a looming Carthage looks on with interest. In Italy, the interior tribes grow ever more restless and populous, growing bolder, staging raids on Greek territory and carrying away captives beneath banners of feathers. Interstate anarchy rules the Mediterranean, and all are against all. Eretria can use the opportunity of fluidity and dynamism to take a more active role in Magna Graecia, build an Illyrian Empire, or intervene decisively in old Hellas. Or, perhaps, it may fail and burn, its citizens enslaved and treasure stolen, another ruin to be pondered over, forgotten and desolate.
Adult Freemen: 24,181 (Census of 353 OL) Citizen Ratio: 42.0% Adult Male Citizens: 10,156 Adult Male Metics: 14,025 Total Free Population: 84,254
Patron Gods: Divine Marriage of Athene & Apollon Other Major Gods: Poseidon & Demeter, Zeus, Ploutos, Artemis
Political Offices
Next Election is 357 OL.
Proboulos: Epiktetos Linos (Demos Drakonia). Xenoparakletor: Obander Eupraxis (Demos Antipatria). Lead Strategos: Only appointed in times of war. Metic Prytanis: Timotaios Herais (Demos Antipatria).
Agoranomos: Itheos Akadios (Demos Exoria). Assembly of the Mint: Krethon Ibykos (Demos Exoria). Popular Tribunal: Sosibios Kineas (Demos Drakonia). Chief of Public Lands: Kebes Bisaltos (Demos Exoria). Grand Mantis: Parmon Polyeides (Demos Drakonia). Elder Ekdromos: Austesion Sabyllos (Demos Exoria).
Great Works
Wide Walls: Proud stone walls that protect the city from enemies. Sea Wall: Protect the city from any sea-based attack. Arkadion: A Temple to the Divine Marriage of Demeter & Poseidon. Temple of the Divine Marriage: A temple to the Divine Marriage of Apollo and Athena. Temple to Zeus Olympios: A temple to the supreme God of the Hellenes, Zeus Olympios. Temple of Artemis Amarysia: A temple and attached grove to the huntress Artemis. Naval Barracks: Where the city's rowers train. Hill of the Divine Marriage (Great Work): An artificial hill that looms above the city and holds its most important temples. Byssos Harbor: (Under Construction, done 359 OL).
Treasury & Income
Treasury in 356 OL: 294.4 Talents Income: 313.6 Talents Taxation: 191.0 Talents Commerce: 98.1 Talents League Income: 11.3 talents (Melaina Kerkyra & Epidauros) Tribute: 11.2 Talents Public Revenue: 2.0 Talents
Expenses: 309.5 Talents Navy Upkeep: 78.9 Talents (New Ships) Army Upkeep: 44.0 Talents Construction: 110.0 Talents (Great Harbor of Byssos) Misc: 40.0 Talents (Grain Subsidy to Kymai, Expedition to Melaina Kerkyra and Epidauros) Salaries & Subsidies: 24.0 Talents (Registry of the Merchant Fleet) Sacred Treasury Contribution: 31.1 Talents (10% into Sacred Treasury)
Sacred Treasury in 357 OL: 1597.9 Talents (+31.4 Talents per turn) Treasury in 357 OL: 298.5 Talents
Levy Pandemos: 14,286 (75% of all Adult Freemen minus men in special units and navy)
4,094 Hoplites (19% of all Adult Freemen)
675 Cavalry (3% of all Adult Freemen)
9,516 Psilloi (53% of all Adult Freemen)
Deployed Levy
Standing Army (Eretria Eskhata)
500 Sacred Ekdromoi (deployed at all times for 38.5 talents a turn)
50 Kleos Exoria (deployed at all times for 5.5 talents a turn)
City of Thurii: Full alliance with the city of Thurii cultivated in opposition to potential ambitions by Taras or other Italiote powers. Freemen & Ships: 14,000 Freemen, 20 Triremes.
City of Krotone: Full alliance with the city of Krotone cultivated in opposition to Syrakousai. Freemen & Ships: 10,000 Freemen, 10 Triremes.
Sikeliote League: Full alliance with the Sikeliote League cultivated in opposition to the main power in South Sicily, Syrakousai. Freemen & Ships: 22,000 Men, 15 Triremes.
Treaties
Treaty of Phaidros: Signed in 348 OL. Enforces peace between signatories. Signatories: Thurii, Eretria Eskhata, Taras, Metapontion Duration: 20 Years (Expires 368 OL)
Treaty of Eupraxis: Signed in 351 OL. Reconciles signatories, places permanent embasses in each city, and bars alliances with Mainland powers until end of Peloponnesian War. Signatories: Taras, Eretria Eskhata
Below are recorded some of the major institutional customs or laws that have seen alteration since the beginning of the quest.
Eretrian Festival Calendar
The festival calendar was reformed in 351 OL by the assembly on the prompting of proboulos Theron Archippos, adding the Courting of Ploutos and the Conquest of the Sea as official festivals.
Spring
The Courting of Ploutos (Mid Spring). A more humorous and commercially oriented women's festival, the courting of Ploutos tells the story of Ploutos' attempts to flee from the bounds of marriage and love in favor of commerce. Celebrated in Eretria as the source of the city's trade wealth, Ploutos is surprisingly popular among widows and wealthy women because of this particular tale's affirmation of the importance of women to wealth. After fleeing from every potential mate, Aphrodite grows incredibly frustrated and crafts Nomisnia, a demigoddess who is good at creating wealth as Ploutos; the two immediately become competitors, further frustrating her. Finally, at last, Hermes intervenes, and convinces the two that they would have double the wealth if they were married, and at last the two accept, finding love in mutual success at business. The festival is celebrated through a dramatic re-enactment, dances between lovers, and a literal shower of drachmas given to the poorest women of the city.
Procession of the One Marriage (Late Spring): A massive three-day procession that starts at the Gate of Heroes and stops at the temple of the Divine Marriage at the end of the processional way. At the end of the way, a young man representing Apollon and a girl representing Athene are "married", after being carried through the city on a chariot driven by the ekdromoi in place of horses. The festival also includes bull running on the first day, added to the enterprising hooliganry of a young man many years ago. Bulls are slaughted during this festival and no work allowed in the city.
Summer
Holiday of the United City (Early Summer): The foremost civic holiday in Eretria. A celebration of Apollo & Athene, the Holiday of the United City is also when young men are ordained as adults and welcomed into the rolls of men who can be called to war. It is a bellicose and festive occasion, full of wrestling, favored most by the men, and is also when Metics are given the reward of citizenship if they are judged to have served the city enough in some capacity. Speeches are made, the youths dance and chase one another, and there are two days of dancing. Many bulls are slaughtered during this festival, and it is the premier source of beef for many poorer citizens.
Festival of Apollon & Artemis (Late Summer): The premier festival for barbaroi outside the city. Tribute is collected from all of the tributary vassals, athletic games are held, a contest of plays is held in the Theater of the Thunderbird, the barbarian agora is opened up to any and all from within and without the city. With the arrival of the cattle drive along with the ceremony of the barbaroi swearing sacred oaths, this festival has become extremely popular.
Autumn
Running of the Weasels (Mid Autumn): A folk festival that has been incorporated into the new calendar by Theron Archippos. The Running of the Weaels is most popular among the young, especially young men and women, who hope to find lovers and marriages at the festival; its situation after the end of a summer campaign is not accidental. Usually presided over by an honored citizen, the festival is one day and consists of young men chasing women wearing weasel masks through the Gate of the Weasels while being in turn chased by their elders who scream at them that weasels are a poor animal to keep as a pet and beat the ones who fall behind with sticks. Afterwards there is a communal feast and a singing competition of the women, voted on by the men. The festival is dedicated to Demeter.
Winter
The Conquest of the Sea (Mid Winter): A grand festival involving mock sea battles and swimming contests which celebrates Poseidon's subjugation of all the creatures of the sea. Poseidon is a popular god across Italia and Sicilia, in sharp contrast to his sometimes muted worship among Ionians on the Mainland. The Conquest of the Sea, conducted in the chilly mid-winter, promises to bring fantastic seafood to the mouths of hungry Eretrians and celebrate the city's naval and commercial traditions as well as thank the Gods for the first voyage that Eretria ever undertook. The greatest part of the festival is the battle between rowers in painted boats representing the dolphins allied to Poseidon and the krakens who oppose him, who conduct a mock ram battle with their boats, trying to tip each other over in the harbor of the fifty masts.
Metic Laws
The Metics are the disenfranchised underclass of Eretria. Unable to own property or vote in the assembly, they are permanent Hellene residents in Eretria who are mostly concentrated as tenants across the large and small farms of Eretria's citizens, while others are skilled craftsmen. Metics are also required to wear straw hats to identify themselves at all times and distinguish themselves from citizens. With a tax burden double that of the citizenry despite their numbers, Metics are the main source of revenue in Eretria, but may also be the greatest threat to the city's internal stability. Metics still serve in the city's military, mostly as light infantry, as few can afford a hoplite panoply. Most Metics are immigrants from Hellas, though a few are slaves who purchased their freedom.
Following a reform in 346 OL, Metics present their grievances to the citizens through a citizen representative in the assembly every eight years. The same reforms granted Metics citizenship if they were truly exceptional in their heroism, allowed metics to go on juries if they the defendant was a metic, and gave Metic fathers the same rights over their daughters as citizen fathers.
Colonial Laws of Linos
Passed by the ekklesia 352 OL and named after their main advocate, Epiktetos Linos. For the first twenty-four years after a colony's foundation by the Epulian League, that colony, as a member of the Epulian League, will grant any Hellene willing to settle there a parcel of land and citizenship. In Eretria this passage is actually subsidized for poor citizens or Metics. The founding of colonies is centrally controlled by Eretria Eskhata.
Epulian League
Emerging from the expansion of Eretrian hegemony to the surrounding Epulian colonies, the Epulian League is both a blunt extension of Eretrian power and an experiment in cooperative diplomacy and mutual defense. From this contradiction has emerged a network of cities stretching from the south of Epulia to the northern Adriatic beholden to Eretria and restricted in foreign liberties, and yet feeling enough affection to their overlord that they are willing to accept the fiction that they exist in a league of equals under a protective mother city. They meet annually in Eretria at the city's Epulian Synedrion, a squat and unimpressive building near the city's older harbor.
Eretria has a permanent presidency over the league, and occupies a special status among its members. Alone among the members of the league it can form outside alliances, though if this alliance was judged as against the interests of the league by 2/3rds of its members the alliance could be overrode. However, to test the patience of their overlord would be a foolish move indeed for a group of cities who lives in fear of both the interior barbaroi who despise their existence and the bloodthirstiness of an Eretria with its back pressed up against a wall.
Most egregious of the league's stipulations is the collection of a 10% due by Eretria, which theoretically is to be used in the league's common defense but more often goes into the energetic and unprecedented building projects that the Eretrians use as an an alternative to wealth redistribution and an exercise in the glory of their planners and architects. Without a common treasury or even rules on how the money should be used, there is little accountability for Eretrian to pilfer the money for its own parochial purposes.
But common bonds of culture, faith in the Divine Marriage and the fundamental reality of Eretrian domination keep the league together, and the relative leniency of the Eretrians combined with the awareness that this leniency comes at the price of compliance has meant that the league has remained stable and without rebellion throughout its history. The fact that all members of the League are also either colonies of Eretria or were subordinated soon after their foundation in an atmosphere of mutual danger has softened the otherwise prideful and autonomist attitude of the polis, as there is no history of independence to remember and yearn for.
Reforms in 348 OL, spurred on by the careful Pylonos of Pylona, have been made to shift the league away from a simply exploitative model and accepted by the Eretrians as a reward for loyalty and a necessity for maintaining allegiance. Members of the League now:
Elect a strategos who leads the cities under Eretrian command in war and presents the concerns of the cities at the Synedrion in peace
Hold quadrennial Epulian Games hosted outside Eretria Eskhata, celebrating both the Divine Marriage of Athene and Apollon and the
A system of common weights and measures based upon Eretrian measures, one also popular throughout Italia
League ceremonies, including an Oath to the Divine Marriage for new members and sacrifices to Zeus Olympios
Have the ability to wage independent wars, but can keep no outside alliances
A designated section of the Eretrian Agora where they can ply their wares
Can veto Eretrian proposals to the league if 2/3 of all Epulian League Cities refuse the proposal
The Lithokratia
Lithokratia is among the most dire and serious laws that can be invoked in Eretria. Introduced in reforms during an interruption in the Drakonian dominance, though based on a precedent dating back to the city's founding, Lithkoratia means literally "the rule of stone", though might be better translated as "rule of stones", as it refers to the boulders of the assembly upon which citizens must stand if they wish to be heard.
Lithokratia, inspired by the period directly after the city's founding in which there was no institution except for the assembly and the city was controlled by a radical and energetic citizenry reveling in its newfound power while battling for its survival, can only be activated during a crisis in which an enemy has crossed the boundary stones separating Eretria from the tributary Peuketii and Messapii. Upon news of this reaching the city, a member of the assembly can request that both the proboulos and xenoparakletor complete the act of cession, in which their powers are temporarily subsumed into the assembly. If both agree, then lithokratia begins, and can only be ended by the assembly.
During lithokratia, normal elections are suspended. A black stone, perhaps from a falling star, is taken from its resting place in the back of the Temple of the Divine Marriage and placed in the center of the assembly field. From among the people a Klefton, or lifter, is elected, who will help guide the assembly through the crisis and stand upon the stone. The Klefton is vested only in veto authority of intemperate assembly laws, but can also propose new laws to the assembly andand has far less limits on the subjects on which he can speak on in the assembly than any ordinary officer. Ten Kleftes are chosen by lot to hold him up, and can restrain him by majority vote, as well as being able to propose laws to the people. A strategos is elected per usual, but with the assembly taking direct control, the government reverts to a state of popular supremacy until the crisis has ended. Lithokratia can be lifted by a simple majority vote of the assembly once the crisis appears to have passed, or if the war has ended; it cannot be held for more than a two-year period, and once lithokratia has ended the situation in the city will revert to normal and elections will be held in the following year.
The purpose of Lithokratia as a law was to allow for an end to all factionalism and distraction during a period of grave danger. With the assembly empowered to make all the decisions, lithokratia represents an unprecedented opportunity for an ordinary citizen to make their voice heard, but if it is maintained for too long, the happiness of the city's aristocracy will erode, the city's traditional institutions will lose their influence, and the city's position in other spheres will suffer as the lithokratia is necessarily limited in focus to ending an existential crisis to the city's safety.
A lithokratia is an extraordinary opportunity for citizens to implement wide-ranging reforms in responding to a crisis, but it is also a tool used sparingly and carefully only in the most dangerous circumstances for a short period of time. Since its introduction, Eretria has been blessed to have never been in a situation where its use has been necessary.
Inevitably, questions come up with a game as grounded in real life history as this one. In order to avoid repetition of basic questions about history, I have included this FAQ (based off real questions people have asked) to answer the ones that come up the most often. These are generalizations and thus have many exceptions; they are mainly here so people can get a good broad look at how things worked in Ancient Greece.
Q: How did Citizenship work in Ancient Greece?
In Ancient Greece, citizenship is a status, not a privilege. This means that unlike in Ancient Rome, there is no partial citizenship. Greeks saw citizenship almost as an ethnicity and an important part of their identity, and thus held it highly and guarded it jealously. Only Greeks could become citizens in a city, and citizenship was granted only very rarely. Citizenship is hereditary, passed through the male line (and in Athens through both parents) Although theoretically it is possible to "marry in" to citizenship, many cities tightened citizenship rules in the classical period to make it so both parents had to be citizens.
In most ancient Greek cities (referred to as a polis, or poleis in the plural) only a certain class of men could vote on important matters. Some cities such as Athens had universal male suffrage, allowing male Greeks in the city of all classes to vote. However, this still left out the metics and women, who were not allowed to vote. In the archaic period citizenship was still malleable, but by the Persian Wars (so our setting!), it had become firmly established in most cities. Citizenship is no laughing matter and is the primary identifier for many citizens beyond their tribes, clans, and oikos (or family). Although in later periods citizenship became again more malleable as the polis declined as the primary organizer of Greek life, it still retained an importance into the Roman period.
Q: What are Metics?
Metics are permanent residents in Greek cities who are disenfranchised. They might have no lineage of citizenship, are immigrants, or are non-Greeks who are not slaves but live in the city. Metics are a sort of second class in the city; they are exempt from any political debates, cannot own property, and have to pay a special poll tax. They still serve in times of war, however, which can create some tensions.
It is important to understand that metics are essentially "citizenless" for the most part; although some residents might be citizens of other cities, most metics tend to be without any citizenship and form their own communities within Greek cities. In Athens and other cities with larger metic populations, they have their own separate courts and judges which allows them to live in a society parallel to that of the citizenry.
Metics cannot be "naturalized" or granted citizenship in a Greek city except in exceptional circumstances. The nature of citizenship as an exclusive status and important identifier means that keeping metics separate is an important part of what forms a city's identity and keeps citizens confident of their own superiority even if they might be in actuality poorer than the metics of the city. Although in the late 4th century BCE the designation of "metic" disappeared totally, in the 5th century BCE it was still an important identifier in many cities and cannot be removed without extreme unrest. Attempting to grant the metics mass citizenship or introducing a regular process to gain citizenship would go against the very conception of Greek citizenship.
In many cities Metics had representatives in the ekklesia to at least nominally acknowledge their existence and vouch for them. Importantly, the term "metic" is actually a specifically Athenian term, but they tended to exist in other cities as well during the time period. It is simply that the largest wealth of information that we have is from the city of Athens.
Q: How did ancient justice systems work?
It is important to understand that Greek justice systems that we know of are based on a very shallow archaeological record because besides Athens and Sparta (who had its system written about mostly by others) most Greek justice systems have not been investigated in detail. However, it is important to understand that in general, Greeks did not put a high amount of emphasis or interest in legal advocacy; that is to say, there were very few, if any lawyers.
Instead, defendants and plaintiffs would represent themselves in a court before a panel of judges or a jury. The ones presiding over the case would depend on the government in the city; in many oligarchies it would be "Archons" or other powerful leaders of the city who would decide on cases, while in democratic cities it would be before very large juries to prevent corruption; Athens could have as many as 6001 jurors on a single case.
However, the justice system in many cities was only mildly respected at best, and only in Athens and a few other cities did anything approaching a "rule of law" appear. Instead, arbitrary and corrupt decisions would be provided for larger cases by heavyhanded aristocrats and nobles, or there would be no trial at all beyond a sham.
The only notable exception to this were ancient constitutions, which were not the same as modern ones. In the ancient sense, a constitution is simply the accreted collection of legal customs, not a singular document that sets out the highest laws in the land. Most city states in the Mediterranean in the 6th and 5th centuries BCE adopted legal constitutions establishing basic principles of the city, although how much this was respected depended from city to city. In Greek cities (one should remember Carthage also had a constitution, though we know little of it) the laws would be displayed in the central square, called an Agora, which would also generally be the gathering place for political meetings and philosophical debate.
Q: What was the status of women in Ancient Greece?
Most of our sources from the period focus on the two outliers, Athens and Sparta. What we can say from the writings of early poets like Hesiod and later writers is that women in Greece did not have a very good position to say the least. The best way to describe it is a sense of latent paranoia; men in Greece thought that although man was limited, he was at least rational, but the woman was inherently irrational and had to be controlled by her peers. This is best exemplified by the legend of Pandora's Box; entrusted with the most important box in the history of the world, Pandora, being a stupid woman, bungles it up. In that, the Greeks are perhaps not unique, but how they implement this is.
The consequence is that although there are some legal safeguards for women, for the most part they are beholden to their husband, becoming in effect the property of the oikos; they are in effect "tamed" by their husband and exist at his service. This is not nearly as domineering as the Roman Pater Familias, but there are expectations they she will tow the line to her husband's expectations and take care of the children.
None of this prevented many brilliant women like the famous oratory teacher Aspasia (who taught Perikles) from becoming prominent, but it did mean that the position of Greek women was considerably curtailed. Sparta is a bit of an "exception", but not in the way one might think. The reason why Spartan women were allowed to be more free than other women is because there was an expectation they would use this freedom to turn themselves into exemplars of the Spartan citizenry; the legend of the Spartan hoplite killed by his mother because he was the sole person to come home from a battle is there for a reason. Spartan women were expected to be good broodmares, and like any broodmare were thus allowed to go about the pasture to their heart's delight.
In Athens, the opposite existed. Extremely concerned over the morality of women expressed by Hesiod and Pandora's Box, as well as a need for the male citizenry to affirm its identity, produced one of the most oppressive atmospheres for women in Greece both at home and overseas. Women were veiled and had to be with a chaperone in public; the citizens of other cities complained about this, in fact, showing how far Athens had gone. However, this did not preclude women from participating in festivals like that at Eleusis. The dimensions are a bit more complicated than one might expect, and that women may have disliked this position does not mean that many did not help support it. Overlaying modern morality will have poor results.
Q: What is the status of the aristocracy in Ancient Greece?
As the Greek Dark age began, a group of men who were able to acquire relatively more land than their peers (relative being the keyword, as this was tiny by later standards) began to distinguish themselves by their ability to graze horses on their lands and acquire wealth through the produce of their fields. This group, emerging from the mists of the early dark age as the aristoi, or Best Men, appeared all across Greece and came to primacy; over the course of the Greek dark age, they acquired ever more power, overthrowing or subverting the earlier "kingdoms" that were likely little more than hereditary warlords. Developing a group identity, the aristoi sought to emphasize the right to rule that they had by virtue of their superior birth and upbringing expressed in the term of arete, or excellence.
Arete justified all of the arbitrary abuses and controls that the aristocrats placed upon the peasantry and smallholders. However, as the emergence of the hoplite phalanx in the 700s and 600s BCE disrupted traditional military arrangements, the more prosperous but non-aristoi landholders began to demand more power. In some cities, the aristocrats were able to create a power-sharing arrangement that allowed them in, as well as for the first time allowing those who had gained their wealth through commercial means, circumventing the traditional route of landholding as the means to power.
In other cities, uprisings and political chaos as well as feuding between aristocratic families and clans brought their rule to an end as tyrants, usually populist rulers who exploited the divisions of aristocrats to take control, overthrew the aristocratic-dominated assemblies in their favor. Other than in Sicily, which remained politically chaotic until the rise of Rome, the tyrants only lasted a generation or two, whereupon they were overthrown by oligarchies that incorporated all elites including those that had gained their wealth by commerce, and even threw bones to the hoplite "middle class", as it was. However, this arrangement proved unstable for the reason that it re-opened the old wounds of feuding (that the tyrants had based their social contract upon preventing) and destabilized the whole polis. Rising debts and demands for land reform from landless laborers and small farmers resulted in massive social disruption in the last years of the 500s BCE, with the emergence of democracy.
However, many aristoi did not actually ingratiate themselves to democracy but stayed outside of its bounds, participating only in order to secure their rights but acting as though it was simply an interregnum on their rule. As a result, there remained an intransigent class in the poleis, the aristoi, that could wait in the wings if democracy proved to be a failure, as for many cities it did, at least in the opinion of its most distinguished members. This disdain for democracy can be best exemplified by Plato, who preferred the idea of the Philosopher King over what he saw were the irrational wiles of the democratic body.
This is of course, not the whole story, but for a generalization that ignores obvious outliers like Sparta, it works well enough.
Q: What is the ethnic divide between the Greeks like?
It is difficult to generalize because the complexity of Greek life was, well, complex. The idea of a united Greece was clearly subscribed to; it was clear that there were Hellenes and there were Barbarians. However, the natural state of this united conception of the Greek people was to be divided, and it was unquestionable that the Greeks were divided. It is difficult to talk simply of "ethnic" considerations because the arrangements that divided the Greeks could be far more complex.
To some extent, however, there existed clear boundaries of dialects and such that the Greeks themselves agreed with. The Athenians, for example, identified themselves as the father of all the Ionian Greeks, and as a result took control of a pan-Ionian festival at Delos at the end of the 6th century BCE. Certainly, Greeks of different dialects would have had different ways of saying things, and the Athenians were doubly unique because Attic was a sub-dialect of Ionian. Although these emerged as divisions in politics as well as in language, they were most likely to be expressed in different styles of art and architecture as well as some religious differences and emphasis.
The Ionian-Dorian divide is the most notable one for us, although obviously others existed, and the identification with polis tended to trump that of ethnic consideration. It was only when ti came to internal divisions between Ionians and Dorians, most obvious in the Greek colonies where many different groups mixed, that things could become violent. The Dorian Gelans were notorious for expelling and deporting vast amounts of Ionians from their lands.
Q: How did Greek slavery work?
Modern conceptions of slavery are somewhat colored by the fact that we have a vivid imaging of the racially based chattel slavery of the Antebellum South in the United States. However, this slavery is far removed from that used by the Greeks and other ancient peoples. Greek slavery tended to be for two main purposes; as a manual labor force and as servants in the house. Their treatment varied on the time, place, and their line of work.
Greek slaves that were utilized in manual labor generally were imported to make up for labor shortages in cities like Athens, where the involvement of debts by Solon at the beginning of the 6th century BCE meant that the traditional cheap labor force, indentured servants, were no longer available. Slaves were almost never used in galleys in the ancient world because the galley was seen as a place of honor and a respectable profession. Instead, they would be used in the home or in the field, although the most famous use of slaves in classical Greece was in the horrendous conditions of the silver mines of Laurium in Attica, where slaves worked to short deaths in a dreadful working environment.
The ethnic makeup of slaves tended to depend on place to place; Thracians and other peoples from the north of Greece were popular because of their accessibility, although the enslavement of other Greeks was hardly uncommon in wars. Slaves could gain their freedom through manumission and unlike in the antebellum south where such freedom was extremely difficult to get, it was accessible to slaves lucky or hard-working enough to buy their own freedom. Once free, slaves were non-citizens, although there are a few historical cases of slaves who did a service to the polis being freed and made citizens en-masse. Freedmen were rarely discriminated against on the basis of their former slavery; it was more that they were non-citizens, metics.
Q: How did Greek colonies work?
The modern conception of the "colony" conceives of a peripheral area tied to the metropole that provides it with raw materials and has little political representation. Greek colonies were named after these because of the pretensions of 19th century Historians to connecting their own civilization with that of the Greeks, but the colonies of the Hellenes were extremely different from those of the European colonial powers in the age of imperialism. Greek colonies tended to be, almost all of the time (there are exceptions which we will get to!) self-governing bodies that were formed specifically as independent political units away from the mother city. Although the mother city and the foundling had a special relationship, this hardly extended to any sort of political control of the mother city over the foundling.
Greek colonies were founded in two main phases; the first was in the early dark age with a migration across the Aegean to the western edge of Anatolia, creating the future Greek political region of Ionia; there was also some expansion to Cyprus during this period. During the 700s, 600s, and 500s, however, population pressure, political chaos at home, economic demand for raw materials like grain, and other problems compounded to push migrants further and further afield from Greece, colonizing everywhere from Italy to the Black Sea coast to Libya. Greek colonists would usually gather around a founder, the oekist, who would have considerable political power over his charges, a location would be surveyed and chosen, and then they would embark.
The Greek colonies proved to be enormously successful, allowing for the transplanting of Greek culture, art, and trade to a variety of different environments. Colonies were on the surface near-identical in political organization to their counterparts in the Mainland, but some subtle differences pervaded, and the influence of indigineous peoples which the colonists either intermarried or expelled from their lands was clear in many regions. This allowed for a cultural exchange that was important for the development of many peoples, such as the Etruscans whose exposure to Greek art and culture, although overstated, did cause important changes in their art and political arrangements largely concurrent with the expansion of Mediterranean trade.
The scene of our story is one of the most densely settled regions, known in ancient times as Italia (only the south of Italy was referred to in this way) or Magna Graecia, Great Greece, an acknowledgement both of the wealth of its inhabitants and the similarity of climatic and agricultural conditions to the homeland. These colonies would be powerful, acting as patrons to art and culture as well as philosophy (the Greek Mathematician Pythagoras ran a cult in the city of Krotone that was immensely influential) until pressure from indigenous peoples and eventually the Romans would end their efflorescence.
Q: How did Greek morality work?
The Greeks conceived of themselves as the heirs to the Homeric tradition. The Iliad and the Odyssey pervaded their thoughts and education in a way that seems incomprehensible to us; even the nearest analogue of the Bible does not really begin to cover it. The heroic stories of the Iliad would provide a kind of guiding line for the Greeks to follow, even to the point where it might have limited progress or caused folly. The Greeks were bound by their conception of creating an image of themselves that proved true to the Homeric ideal, even if their poleis and battle arrays were in fact extremely contradictory to the content of Homer. In this context, the Greeks saw themselves constantly in competition with their peers.
That does not begin to cover it, though. That they were in competition is an easy statement to make, but the reality is far more pervasive than we might imagine; in every field, the Greeks sought to compete. Even in the presumably cooperative field of the Hoplite Phalanx, each of the hoplites sought to outdo the others by being the most valiant in the field while also keeping within the phalanx. It was a competition to see who could be the most orderly, in effect. The famous divisions of the Greeks stems from this kind of conception; the Greeks never thought themselves as a united people politically.
All of this led to the defining feature of the Greek man's life that would distinguish him, arete, excellence, which we have already encountered in the context of the aristocrats. To have arete is the most important thing, and arete can be won in competition, whether martial, or athletic, or rhetorical. There is no conception of discipline as we might imagine or even authority as the Romans might have imagined, because everything is competition, everything is contest. The great irony of the famous Olympic games was that the most unitary event in Greece was a competition.
In terms of philosophy, by the time of the game Greek philosophers had mostly abandoned supernatural explanations for phenomena, instead preferring to focus on the idea of man's relation to the natural world. This did not mean they were not religious, but that they preferred to understand nature in the manner of empiricism. This is a generalization, though, and a grand one; the hokieness of some aspects of Greek science, if it could even be called that, should not be forgotten. Certainly, though, their thought was considerably advanced when it came to considering nature in terms of a purely natural, non-spiritual construction. However, the disdain that Greek aristoi had with working with their hands and working in general (leisure was the preferred state for Greeks) meant that practical and applied science was a poor field. Combined with a bias towards things which could be justified within the context of the Iliad (thus excluding war machines), Greek science never left the realm of the theoretical except in some spectacular exceptions usually in the field of warfare.
Greek disdain towards merchants was also part of it, although it should hardly be overemphasized; many Greek cities such as Korinth were much less biased than we originally assumed. However, even the cities amiable to commerce never developed a very coherent economic theory, and for philosophers and writers, economic phenomena could be described in the form of arete, or moral failing. If a city has superseded another city, then the first city is not economically dominant because of its superior trading networks, it is dominant because of the excellence and austerity of its people. This did not prevent the development of powerful tools such as sophisticated maritime insurance, but it did mean that the field of economics, and connecting commerce to the pursuit of science, lagged badly.
Q: What about Greek Religion?
Most of what you know about Greek religion is Athenian propaganda.
It is sad but true. The Athenians, in an attempt to elevate Athena above many of the other Gods, wrote many of the patron gods of other cities as slovenly and blundering. This is not to say that the reality of Greek religion was radically different than what we think, but that our limited evidence means that it is difficult to say what many cities thought of their Gods. What we know is that the idea of the Gods as anthropomorphic and somewhat human goes back at least to Homer and his works, so it is not entirely an Athenian smear campaign at work. However, what we do know is that the Greeks certainly held their Gods in great reverence and explained events through the omens and punishments of the Gods.
Cities had their own local deities and patron Gods as well as more universal Gods that were known by practically everyone. Discussion about the Gods was, as with everything else in Greece, extremely fractious, with differing legends and interpretations (the Athenian one, or rather one Athenian one, being the most known today). There were many different festivals, such as the aforementioned Festival at Eleusis that celebrated Demeter returning the spring when Zeus had Hades return Persephone. Such festivals could give political power to the cities who controlled them, and thus when Athens seized control of Eleusis in the early part of the 6th century BCE it proved an important tool for Athens to mold the "mysteries" of Eleusis into an expression of popular religion.
People in Ancient Greece were not casual about their feelings about the Gods. Although later writers in the Hellenistic Period could go as far as to reject the old pantheon because of the loss of faith that the collapse of the Polis as the center of Greek life had on Hellenistic society, in the classical period faith remained as strong as ever, even if there was no "codification". Oracles such as those at Dodonna and most famously at Delphi acted as important ways for Greeks to get advice; do not think of Delphi as the expression of a foolish people who thought that reading entrails was an acceptable method of prediction, but a system of wise advice-givers who for very high prices could give excellent information to those who want it. Delphi was most often consulted for things such as colonial expeditions; this was hardly mystical stuff. People did believe it, they truly did, but that did not mean that they did not expect the advice to be helpful.
Q: Did racism exist in the ancient world?
Racism in the modern conception certainly did not exist. The Hellenes, even as they disdained barbaroi, the Barbarians, who could not speak Greek, hardly discriminated on the basis of skin color, and even their language-based bigotry was not nearly as virulent as American racism. The Greeks thought themselves superior to everyone, it is true, but this was not a racially based superiority, but a culturally-based ones, and peoples who adopted Greek culture would be to some extent accepted into the larger Greek community. This was never quite the whole story; the Greeks disliked the Macedonians because they thought them half-Greek. Still, Greek writers wrote approvingly of peoples who had "gone Greek" and had been transformed into Hellenized peoples. This process actually proceeded most not under the Hellenistic rulers (where it was mostly superficial) but in the adjacent peoples to the Greek colonies. The Elymians, for example, a people in Sicily, had by the 400s BCE become so Greek that they were building splendid temples in the Greek style. Other peoples like the Etruscans adopted the Greek alphabet.
So was there prejudice? Absolutely. Was there rigid skin-based racism? Not at all.
QUEST BIBLIOGRAPHY
Academic Papers & Textbooks
Asheri, David. Laws of Inheritance, Distribution of Land, and Political Constitutions in Ancient Greece. Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte 12, no. 1 (1963): 1-21.
Boardman, J. (1999) The Greeks Overseas: Their Early Colonies and Trade (4th ed.) Thames and Hudson.
De Angelis, Franco. Estimating the Agricultural Base of Greek Sicily. Papers of the British School at Rome 68 (2000): 111-148.
Hall, Johnathan, "How 'Greek' were the Early Western Greeks?" in Greek Identity in the Western Mediterranean, edited by Kathryn Lomas, 35-54.
Morris, I. and B. Powell (2009) The Greeks: History, Culture, and Society (2nd Ed.) Pearson.
Wonder, John. The Italiote League: South Italian Alliances of the Fifth and Fourth Centuries BC. Classical Antiquity 31, no. 1 (2012): 128-151.
Books
Ancient Greece: From Prehistoric to Hellenistic Times by Thomas R. Martin, (2nd edition) 2013.
Mediterranean Anarchy, Interstate War, and the Rise of Rome by Arthur Eckstein, 2009.
Rise of the Greeks by Michael Grant, 1987.
Soldiers and Ghosts by J.E Lendon, 2005.
The Classical World: An Epic History of Greece and Rome by Robin L. Fox, 2006.
Numerous other minor sources on things like the Samnites and Etruscans. Extensive use of the admittedly weak wikipedia when nothing else can be found.
Eusebios, victor of the Battle of the Fifty Masts, five-times admiral of Eretria, hero to the city, reformer of its navy, explorer of distant shores, brother-in-law of Drako the Elder, father to seven, died modestly. Surrounded by family and friends, the eighty-four year old Eusebios listened intently to the favorite grand-nephew who recounted Eusebios' own journey west to Carthaginian Sicily with verve and excitement. After the tale was finished, the ancient sailor reclined in his seat, closed his eyes, and smiled. He had wanted to hear the story one more time.
Eusebios was the last of a generation that had passed into legend before the flowers had begun to sprout from their graves. Drako the Elder, who had been first proboulos and seen the city through many tribulations, had died of a sickness in his country estate. Herodion, who had fought in the city's battles as commander and performed legendary deeds in Sicily as a Carthaginian mercenary, slipped from his horse on a country ride and declined to get back on, dying on the grassy field. The elder Antipater had died in battle as he wished, brawling with Ares on a bloody Italian plain, surrounded by his fellows. Lesser heroes, from the wise Kallias to the crafty Sideros who had reformed the Eretrian constitution and prevented the rise of a tyranny, had died years before in peaceful circumstances, happy at the achievements they had garnered.
After the familial ceremonies had been observed, Eusebios' body was put on display and guided on procession throughout the city. Starting from the Hill of the Divine Marriage, where the squat temple of Apollon and Athene, the finer Arkadion, and the rotund shrine of Zeus surrounded the coffin, the procession guided him down the hill and out to the district of Old Bare. Here and there one could see the foundations of old Peucetii buildings girdled by Eretrian houses, a last memory of the city's founding hypocrisy. As the procession guided him onto the processional way, it crossed the Agora, where merchants from Hellas and the west haggled and sold wares. All were silent as the procession passed; it was never wise for a foreigner to disturb Eretrians during their memorials for the dead. Sometimes, indeed, it seemed that the Eretrians had more reverence for their heroes than their Gods.
The procession stopped at the assembly field. Here, rocks were rolled and boulders lifted. A number of citizens spoke. Athenagoras Symmachos Drakonid, speaker for the Demos Drakonia, spoke of Eusebios in familial terms; after all, the sailor had married into his family. Here, Athenagoras said, was the greatness of Eretria; that the poor and the rich mingle together, that they marry together, that they work together, for the good and the glory of the polis that honors them in turn. Obander Eupraxis Antipatrid, chief speaker for the Demos Antipatria, spoke of the man's glory for the city, of the immense skill at sea that he had, of how he never once in his life coveted power, that he respected the city's traditions and worked to uphold them at sea and on land. Finally, there was Mnemnon Keylonos Kleanderid, speaker for the Demos Exoria. He said that Eusebios was a man who had always been austere, awesome in his modesty, that he had done whatever had to be done for the sake of the city and its domination. All three, of course, were running for Proboulos, and among the citizens there was a sense of skepticism, that all three were in some way impinging on this festival by campaigning so clearly in the way they had presented their speeches.
The Grand Mantis, Dardanos Pydamon, now spoke to the intent of the Gods. The Divine Marriage had blessed the city; the citizens agreed, mumbling among themselves that this was true. The Divine Marriage had also been a union of land and sea, for Demeter and Poseidon had been similarly married in the Arkadion, and to this the citizens also agreed, pleased that their insatiable need to pair up Gods was respected. Eusebios, then, was the perfect union of pauper and aristocrat, the union of land and sea, the union of father and son, the union of all these many other things which the citizens could not help but agree he was a union of. In the end, the unionizing came to a close, and the Grand Mantis hopped down from his stone. A few citizens, perhaps a better versed in the art of oratory, hoped that in the future Dardanos would think of other things to put in his speech besides analogies to the Divine Union.
A bull had been slaughtered and both poor and metics were allowed to partake. Forced to wear hats, the metics looked much like a sea of mushrooms, watching in crowds the procession. Some wept for Eusebios, others not; he was not known for being good to them, and so those that remembered him well did so because of their service in the navy, where he was known as a stern but kind commander who inspired extraordinary loyalty in his men. Others did not remember him at all, and simply came to watch.
At the monument to victory the procession was stopped by the rowers. Hundreds had come to see the man who had created the navy. They wept over him and tore their clothes. Some painted themselves blue and donned goatskin caps to look as if they were Illyrians, then carried makeshift masts of ships over their backs, guiding the procession past the Gate of Heroes. The few barbaroi that loomed around in their agora gazed on in resentment or fascination. Few liked the Eretrians, but they still had business in the agora and so turned their backs away. The procession reached the cemetery, the sarcophagus of stone was carried forward, and then at last laid down within the compound. More words were spoken, and then, at last, silence. The old men were reverent, wondering where the world had gone where even Eusebios had died, while the young bounced away in excitement. At last, they said, the hero is dead. At last, they shouted, it's our time.
And so retired the city of Eretria, dispersing to and fro, laying flowers upon the grave of the great mariner and then returning to their business. Heroes were heroes, but among the living there was still work to be done.
Welcome to the City of Eretria Eskhata. You are a proud and wealthy people, among the wealthiest of all the Greeks. Although your city remains underdeveloped compared to your size, that has little reflection on the size of your finances and manpower. You begin with 21,721 Adult Freemen out of a state of 75,683, all according to this year's census. Of these, 9,774 are male citizens and the rest metics, spread out over a large territory in southeast Italy. Thanks to innovations in taxation and your capable citizen administration, you will pull in 168.3 talents this year in taxation, with an additional 29.8 talents from the taxation of commerce coming to and fro. You receive 11 talents from public revenue, drawn from the city's extensive public lands, mining, and minor taxes. All the Greek cities of Epulia are subject to you in the Epulian League, bringing in an additional 8.2 talents. The Peuketii Kingdom, ruled by King Deipartos, pays tribute to you, along with the small Peuketii town of Turai and the Messapii town of Egnatia. All together, you have a gross income of some 229 talents.
In terms of expenses, the main cost are your professional rowers. Trained at the Eretrian Naval Barracks, rowers subtract from your overall manpower pool and receive a professional pay at all times; during campaigns, their pay is tripled. At the moment, your 3,060 sailors cost you 61.2 talents, with no triremes active and 18 triremes inactive. Most of your army will only be paid during a campaign, but your special units, the Hieros Ekdromoi composed out of the best hoplites in the city, and your Kleos Exoria, composed out of your best horsemen, are active at all times and cost you 44 talents at all times. You pay out 15 talents every year for the various salaries, subsidies, and positions you must fill. Finally, you are paying 10% of your income into the Sacred Treasury.
At the moment, your treasury sits at 259 talents, while the Sacred Treasury sits at 1245 talents.
At the moment you would be able to field a total of 7,251 soldiers besides your special units in a war. 2,900 would be hoplites, 544 will be cavalry, and 3,807 will be Psilloi, or light infantry. In addition, you can count on the support of your allies and tributaries in a war, with 816 League Hoplites, 948 Peuketii Skirmishers, 229 Peuketii Cavalry, 94 Egnatian Skirmishers, and 47 Egnatian Cavalrymen.
You currently have four staple trade routes and one luxury trade route. You have a very poor tariff efficiency of 35%, owing to your historically non-trade oriented stance.
There are four major offices in Eretria: The Proboulos and Xenoparakletor are elected positions, the Strategos is elected in times of war, and the Metic Prytanis a citizen elected by Metics to represent them and conduct their assembly. There are six minor positions, chosen by lot. The Assembly of the Mint controls the city's money supply and coinage, the Chief of Public Lands the administration and distribution of public property, the Popular Tribunal, that administers juries and creates new laws to be voted upon by the Ekklesia, the Grand Mantis, chosen by lot among the city's priests and responsible for the city's temples and festivals, and the Elder Ekdromos, chosen by lot from among the oldest of the Hieros Ekdromoi to lead them and admit new members, supervised by the Grand Mantis.
There are three Demes, or tribes in the city, representing the city's political groupings. These are the Demos Drakonia, the Demos Antipatria, and the Demos Exoria. All three run candidates and compete for positions; it is expected that citizens running for office will fall into one of the three groups, as it allows the citizens to better gauge their mission and beliefs for the sake of the city. However, political neutrality is more of an expectation for some offices, such as the Elder Ekdromos, the Grand Mantis, and the Strategos, and it is expected that those who align with a given deme will not leverage their power inappropriately. If they do, the ekklesia has the power to eject them.
The City of Eretria is a dirty, messy city. It has few great works and the citizens have been clamoring for years for there to be renovations or expansions of the city's temples. Others suggest that the athletic field outside the city should be transformed into a full stadium so that the summer festival of Artemis and Apollon can become a true Panepulian celebration, and still others recommend instead that the city focus on expanding its larger western harbour for the sake of the city's security and commerce.
This is the sum of Eretria's history to the present, told by Eurasmos son of Aristides.
Eretria Eskhata founded itself on the ashes of the local town of Bare. The surrounding kings, who were very wroth at this, sent forces to destroy Eretria, but the city chose Herodion to defend it and he crushed the barbaroi. Crafty, the Barbaroi used this distraction to save their brethren we had enslaved on landfall, but the actions of the valiant women of Eretria prevented them from doing damage to the city itself.
In the ensuring years there was great strife and discord as the citizens thought themselves wronged by the nobles, the citizens grown haughty and confident with the expansion of the franchise to all men regardless of property. One citizen, Lykurgus, was exiled and attempted to raise a great host of pirates to seize the city, but was defeated in an extraordinary battle by the great Eusebios, who defeated fifty ships with three. This battle has been subject to much dispute, but my father had seen it with his own eyes and agrees it is as I have said. Eusebios saved a barbaroi city, Gnatia and its king became the friend of Eretria.
Afterward, the city enjoyed peace till a plot by the barbaroi slaves was discovered, and they were killed. The city decided on war with its many neighbors, and were able to triumph thanks to the good heroes Eusebios and Herodion who wrought terrible vengeance at sea and on land upon the barbaroi with the aid of their ally, Taras, in the south, led by a good king favorable to Eretria. After this, the city reformed its institutions and an aristocrat, Drako became the first true leader of Eretria, steering the ship fairly and justly so much that many would emulate his manner later.
The city helped fight against the Mede in the cataclysm of the battles of Salamis and Mycale, and fair Herodion, finding himself unliked at home, departed abroad for Carthage. Drako lost a challenge to swift-thinking Timaeus, who ruled erratically and was removed in favor of Antipater, a compatriot of Drako's. Antipater was seen unfairly as brutish and stupid, but his time was stable and peaceful. However, many new poleis came upon the Barbaroi to Eretria's north, and they threatened the peace. Wise Drako made a League of these cities and went to war with the Barbaroi. The war had its failures, as strongheaded Eustarchus, a patriot, was elected strategos on promises of glory, but only fell in battle ignobly.
After, Drako became strategos, and brokered a good peace wherein the Barbaroi fled inland and the coast was Eretria's. He cultivated good government and good relations, and replaced Antipater as leader of the city. However, years of praise combined with personal tragedy to risk his reputation when he made moves towards the tyrannical; it was only the wise moderation of the city that prevented such a thing.
Quelled from his ambition by the city, Drako now once more ruled justly and nobly. In the south, there was chaos in Taras, but the city of Kerkyra used trickery and scheming to make Eretria abandon its alliance and favor it instead. The city found itself with many new serfs after hunting supported by its barbarian tributaries, and set laws for the serfs. It also forged a defensive pact with Kerkyra, in lieu of anything better.
After many years abroad, fair Herodion now the one-eyed returned home and was welcome with much fanfare. Becoming victory as the proboulos, he took the city to war with the Peuketii town Azetion and forced its surrender, allowing its people to flee to the barbaroi king Daxtus of the Messapii in exchange for an oath of peace.
In the interim between the rise of Herodion and the death of Eusebios a great many events happened, some of them terribly confused. The city of Eretria fought a war against the Messapii following a breach of the peace signed by Daxtus provoked by the city of Gnatia. In cooperation with Taras Eretria defeated the Messapii but elevated its southern rival. Gnatia became Egnatia and was forced to become an Eretrian tributary, whilst a war with the Dauni provided the city the opportunity to seize most of the coast. However, to understand the history of the city, one must first grasp the dominance of the demes. Forming after the end of Herodion's time as proboulos and the reforms of Kallias and Sideros, the demes competed for power over the city. Ultimately, a single deme dominated the affairs until the death of Eusebios, the...
Pick one of three.
[] Demos Drakonia
..Demos Drakonia, formed out of the followers, family and friends of the elder Drako, son of Eugenius. Drako had always advocated a more commercial naval city, and this emphasis became greater upon the marriage of his sister to Eusebios, hero of the Battle of the Fifty Masts. The Demos Drakonia transformed Eretria into a trading city, waging naval war over the Illyrians and achieving trading dominance in northern Italy against both them and the northern Etruscans. Not all was well, of course, as some have complained that the city's growing wealth has created new inequities between the rich and poor. The most notable achievements of the Drakonians were...
...the new Illyrian trading network, anchored to the colony of Ankon and trading posts in the Etruscan city of Adria, the Liburnian townof Iadar, and the Illyrian town of Rhyzon near Lissos. [Begin the game with an additional 3 staple trade routes, 1 new luxury trade route, 45% tariff efficiency, and a small outpost at Ankon, modern Ancona].
...the innovations in trireme construction, creating the Eretrian trireme, a ship that could be built faster and at cheaper cost with a smaller crew complement without losing too much of its combat ability [Start with 3,300 sailors and 22 triremes as well as a crew complement of only 150 per trireme rather than 170, allowing you to crew more triremes with less men along with a stronger naval tradition and more experienced rowers].
[] Demos Antipatria
...Demos Antipatria, formed out of the followers and comrades of the deceased Antipater the Elder. Although once associated with the aristocracy, the Antipatrids changed their position following his death and transformed into an advocate for the people, and especially, for the necessity of immigration from Hellas and the need for alliance with fellow Greeks in Magna Graecia. During their long dominance, the Antipatrids presided over an extraordinary migration of thousands of Hellenes to Eretria, enlarging the state and making it ever wealthier. Antipatrid Eretria has become well-known and respected among all the Western Greeks, but in turn, her strategy has drawn her into conflicts abroad, and her policy of immigration has made the metics an even larger majority. Their greatest achievements were...
...Populating Eretria by leveraging the city's contacts abroad to encourage ever more metics to come and serve in the city, reforming the metic assembly to be stronger as a consequence and selling off public lands to encourage citizens to settle in the countryside [Freeman population starts at 25,000, Citizen ratio decreases to 40%, Metics have stronger political representation]
...Strengthening the city's ties abroad, allowing to gain more respect and prestige in both Hellas and the west. The Antipatrids forged careful alliances and coalitions against their enemies that prevented one power from getting too strong, and encouraged the continuation of the Sikeliote League. [City will begin far more respected among its neighbors, reducing diplomatic incidents and encouraging enemies to negotiate before going to war. Start with an alliance with Metapontion, a city to the west of Taras].
[] Demos Exoria
...Demos Exoria, formed by the Kleos Exoria who had been fellow exiles with Herodion the Mercenary in Carthage. The Demos Exoria exalted strength and courage above all, and in power they wished to ensure that Eretria would be a place where heroes could live. Not only did they prosecute war against their barbaroi neighbors and finally and decisively crush the Dauni Confederacy, but they also conducted a series of military reforms that, while expensive, would ensure that the city's hoplites, cavalry, and psilloi, would be better prepared for the wars ahead. At home, they pursued a moderate policy, preferring mostly to deal with negotiations with the Barbaroi and ensuring that they remained loyal and subjugated. Their greatest achievements were...
...the subjugation of the Dauni, costing thousands of Barbaroi lives, killing their king, and putting an end to their confederacy. The capital at Auscula was sacked, and although it has been a generation, the Dauni still resent the action. However, now divided into cities once more, they are no longer in as much of a position to protest, weakened and fractious as they are. [Start with the Dauni tribe subjugated, paying tribute and contributing levies to Eretria, with a larger barbaroi mass both more lucrative and more difficult to manage].
...the Herodian reforms, which increased the amount of public expense shouldered by the polis in order to pay its citizens during long campaigns, as well as military reforms that improved the effectiveness of their permanent units, the Hieros Ekdromoi and Kleos Exoria. [Start with improved land levies and a 20% rise in the cost of all army upkeep].
...During this long period from the time of Herodion to the death of Eusebios, the city also collected major allies and rivals. Those who the city could count among their friends became their closest friends, while those the city could count among their rivals became fierce and terrible in their opposition. Such was the way of the world, in which all fought against all, and the city had to contend both with those who wished for it to help them with their troubles and those for whom the city was the source of their troubles.
Among the city's shifting alliances during this time, one ally stood out among all others. Perhaps they were not always assisting the city, or the city only assisted time in dire crises, but this was usually because these allies were of such stature that all those around Eretria did not even think to attack her. This ally was...
Pick one of three.
[] ...The City of Carthage. Proud Carthage, the colossus of the west that ruled from the Libyan desert to the Pillars of Herakles. Though Carthage could sometimes be an inconstant or preoccupied ally, when it intervened to save Eretria from an attack planned by Taras, it did so in a grand and terrible fashion. Carthage remembered the service of the mercenary Herodion, and remembered him by the title, "Best Among Greeks", though this was no great honor as the Carthaginians thought little indeed of the Greeks. However, of course, to have such great friends brings danger, for to ally with Phoenicians was seen as cowardly and outrageous among some of the western Greeks, and those who were not friends of Eretria became her enemies.
[]...Athenai. One might have wondered what it was that brought Athenai and Eretrian together. Was it a mutual guilt over the failure of the former to save the latter, who promptly fled, when Darius the Mede came with his terrible ships? This common history bound the cities together, but it was Eretrian support to Athens during their first great conflict with Sparta, and their shipments of grain to the city, that truly ingratiated Athens to the Eretrians. Now no longer seeing Eretria simply as a potential ally for its incessant wars with Sparta but as an affectionate friend, the city may look less with covetous eyes at rich Epulia. In turn, however, this alliance and friendship has also created the potential for much risk, as Eretria could now be pulled into the Peloponnesian war...
[] ...Thurii & the Sikeliote League. Thurii was a new state, founded by Athenians only fifteen years prior, yet like Eretria it had propelled itself to the pinnacle of power in its region. Thanks to negotiations and diplomacy between the two Italian powers, and the addition of the Sikeliote League composed of a number of free Sicilian cities, an Ionian alliance has formed in Italy. The alliance was also forged on bounds of mutual respect; the Sikeliotes remembered Herodion's battle against the Carthaginians and the Eretrians were aligned against Thurii's enemy, Taras. Though not necessarily as powerful as Carthage or Athens, this alliance still holds much strength, more reliability, and allowed Eretria to avoid the threat of being pulled into major conflicts, except for those conducted solely on Italian soil...
Of course, such times cannot be discussed without also discussing the enemies that Eretria faced. After all, there could be no peace between equals who fought over the same territory, or between those who coveted allies and those who coveted land. Conflict would be inevitable and it was virtue and courage that determined the stronger of the two. Although Eretria faced many enemies in this period, it had only one great rival, with both cities wishing the other would turn to dust, and with which there could be little compromise or peace until one or the other had been subjected, or another had come to take their place...
Pick one of three.
[] Taras. There is an old Italic story from the northwest of the twins who, once so similar in manner and close in friendship, turn on one another in jealousy, until a fratricide ensues. Animosity between Eretria and Taras had not been guaranteed by history, but by the active decisions of each country. Though they were too close in power, strength, and distance to ever be friends, the burning hatred the two feel for one another was borne from a dispute that emerged from the war against Daxtus' confederacy, and the Tarentines suspecting that the Eretrians were plotting with Daxtus to turn against them after they had seized the city of Gnatia, now Egnatia. In response, the city of Taras ejected Eretria's citizens, and has quietly built a hegemony opposing the city in central Magna Graecia.
[] Syrakousai. There are many reasons for Syrakousai and Eretria to despise each other. From the exploits of Herodion, who rode with Carthage against this great Sicilian city, to the harboring of Ionian refugees from Syrakousai by Eretria after the refugees were expelled from their cities, the two regional hegemons have become implacable enemies. Syrakousai, though a democracy, seeks to restore its empire in Sicily by making war against its neighbors; Eretria has, time and again, prevented that by funding its enemies and promoting the formation of new coalitions against it. Now, with new leaders in Syrakousai and a stronger diplomatic focus in the city, it aims to turn Sicily against Carthage and the Sikeliote League in order to finally break its power, and perhaps, to cross over into Italy and take revenge...
[] Korinthos. Once one of the greatest cities in Greece, Korinthos has suffered from political instability and economic decline. Still a trading center, the city has become eclipsed by Sparta on land and Athenai at sea, making it into a second tier of Hellene power. Frustrated at the loss of its former colony of Kerkyra and the danger this poses to its Adriatic empire, Korinthos has been further infuriated by the very presence of Eretria. In the past, Eretria went so far as to subordinate a small mixed colony of Akhaians and Korinthians, Aufidenos, to the Epulian League, preventing Korinthos from gaining a foothold in the region. Now, with its war against Kerkyra and its seizure of the Illyrian colony of Epidamnos, Korinthos has gone so far as to cause a major war in Greece for the sake of its ambition.
Warning: Map below is large. If you can't access it there will be regional screenshots next turn (Note: Map was updated after Player choice was made, ignore Ankon if you want the original map before players chose Demos Drakonia).
I understand some players had trouble seeing the map because it was just too big. That's perfectly fine; the map is only intended as a reference and I am usually going to be taking some snippets, but so that players have a better grasp of what's going on, here are some regional maps:
Sicily
A mess of medium states brawling for dominance. In the east, the Sikeliote league composed of Katane, Naxus, Leontini, Megara Hyblaea and Aetna. In the southeast Syrakousai and its dependencies. In the south, the cities of Gela and Akragas, and their dependencies. In the north, Himera, and and in the west, Carthage. All these states are Greek aside from Carthage, and the interior is dominated by native Sikels, Elymi, and Sicani. Everything southwest of Sicily is Carthaginian.
Southern Italy
From the toe of Italy going north, Rhegion, Lokri Epixephyrii (an ally of Syrakousai), Krotone, Thurii, Metapontion and Taras. In the interior, the barbarian Lucanians and Brutii, recently expanded into the interior surrounding Krotone and other Greek states, making it far more uncomfortable for them. In the west, Kymai, controlling the Bay of Naples.
North Italy
Etruscans organized into two separate leagues, surrounded by Celts to the north and various small Italian tribes around them. In the south of Northern Italy, the city of Rome, largest city of the Latins, notable for recently destroying the Etruscan outpost of Fidenae on the right bank of the Tiber and little else.
The Adriatic
Along the Coast, the Liburni and various Illyrian tribes. Where the Picentini are, the potential site of the colony of Ankon, if players choose the Demos Drakonia route. Small Greek colonies dot the coast. The interior is dominated by Illyrians, and at the top of the Adriatic the Enetoi, an ancient seafaring people, dwell.
Hellas
In one corner, Athens and its dependencies across the Aegean, in the other, Sparta. The massive Odrysian Kingdom, rulers of all of Thrace, are to the north. Sparta controls the southern Peloponnese directly and most of the rest through the Peloponnesian league. In the east, the massive Persian Empire. In between Sparta and Athens, minor states, like the Akhaians, Korinthos, and Boeotia.
Hopefully this helps anyone and everyone who doesn't have the map or who has the map but who can't zoom. The entire map covers a rectangle from Carthage in the southwest to the mouth of the Danube in the northeast, but it will rarely all be used at once simply because it's just so big. When I need a bird's eye view of a particular place, however, I will simply zoom in and use the map.
For context if anyone is confused or doesn't know the reference: Back in the original quest there was an outspoken metic girl called Ariadne whose father was fined after she got in a spot of public trouble. Shortly after that she disappeared during a riot, and not a few weeks later a very bright young lad by the name of Ianedar shows up, put forward by the merchant and former Proboulos Timaeus as a metic man of good standing and great intelligence. He and Timaeus become very close, and Ianedar, who is very definitely an upstanding young man, becomes the city's master of mint, doing a very brilliant man's job of it. As a man. Which she is. He. I mean he.
In the end, "He" and Timaeus remain very good friends (AND JUST FRIENDS) until their deaths. It wasn't anything particularly important to the quest but was a little bit of fun I snuck in for future historians in this universe to investigate and develop headcanons about.
I have some questions @Cetashwayo, mainly about the apparent Second Divine Union, as well as some questions about any further unique developments for Religion and Myth in Eretria, it seems really interesting to see how our cultures developed a bit and I would very much appreciate some more info if that's okay.
A. How did the Second Divine Union, the one between Poseidon and Demeter, Occur?
B. Why did the Second Divine Union Occur, the first started because of a dispute in who to make the cities patron god, what prompted it this time?
C. How has this impacted the separate Myths of the two. The First Union has Athena and Apollo grow to love each other via several meetings or long conversations, or fighting a Sea Monster, how is the tale of this Union told?
D. Have their been other godly unions? There's mention of Eretria 'Need to pair up gods', is this indicative of a growing cultural trend? Is it just a shipping joke?
E. Has this Second Union spread as the first one did? I recall the First Divine Union becoming especially popular in Sicilian Greece, and amongst Democratic nations around the Ionian Sea and Southern Italy. Has the Second Divine Union made headway similarly?
F. Have the Iapygians and Illyrians been influenced by Eretrian culture? I recall Gnatia, now Egnatia, especially was becoming more Hellenic, and the Messapii had already adopted Artemis directly as a patron. Have our tributaries and the other Barbarians in our sphere become more Hellenic? And the Epulian League, have their religious beliefs converged with our own?
G. Bit of a divergence, but how has the Eretrian veneration if the dead affected its religious culture, most specifically, has it started to affect the Greek Hero Cults That were once so influential in Greek Society?
A. The wedding of Demeter and Poseidon comes from the myths of Arkadia, a region in Greece where some of the metics that immigrated to Eretria came from. However, in that story Poseidon, uh, rapes Demeter first, and so that was not very popular among the Eretrians, who saw it as a boorish and improper interpretation of the hallowed God of the Sea. And so, in the more popular version in Eretria, instead, during the period in which Persephone descends into Hades for the winter, Demeter is struck by grief and mourns the loss of her daughter. Poseidon is struck by her deep sadness and wishes to cheer her, but knows little of how to speak with a woman, and even less a Goddess of land and fertility. And so he attempts instead to impress her with the bounty of the sea.
Standing by the sea one day, Demeter comes across a beautiful shell, but is unable to appreciate its beauty because she is a creature of the land and it is one of the sea. The next day, she returns to the shore, and now a golden seahorse emerges from the water, dancing and splendid, and Demeter only gets annoyed and kicks the horse back into the sea. Outraged, Poseidon throws himself into a rage, storming and bellowing, causing the whole ocean to curdle with waves and the land to shake, but it does nothing for him; instead it simply makes him more angry and unhappy and he disavows her, wishing never to see her again.
At last, this spate of misery causes Athena and Apollo to grow irritated with the inconsolable mopers and devise a plan. Athena, known to be crafty and cunning, works out a place where the sea and the land might yet meet. At the top of Italy, amid the swampy waters north of the Pados River in the Adriatic's head, there is a vast, low desert of salt, but as it is neither land nor sea, it is barren, without fish or foul. Apollo, meanwhile, being much the same as his wife, works out a way to get the two together. He tells Demeter that there is a place at the head of the Adriatic where she will find an end to her current troubles, and tells the same to Poseidon. Demeter, believing this is a way to stop being harassed by random sea creatures, and Poseidon, believing this is a way to finally rid himself of his obsession to this woman, both proceed to the lagoon, only to find each other there.
Immediately, just as planned, they begin screaming at each other. Poseidon lets it be known that he has been the one sending the gifts in the hopes this will enrage Demeter, and it absolutely does. The two commence to get into an absolutely rancorous fight, to the point where even Zeus peers over and asks what's going on, only for Apollo and Athena to beg him not to intervene. And indeed, by the time they are done fighting, the desert has been flooded full of fish, and the remaining islands have been stuffed full of fowl and reeds, until it is a mess of green and blue, a grand lagoon. It is at this point that Athena and Apollo intervene and show the two what they have created together, and that this lagoon is something that they have in common and perhaps they could just talk to each other. And so, it is said, that Demeter and Poseidon, though still skeptical, attempt to use the opportunity to talk to each other during the winter months, and indeed, over time they begin to learn of one another, and Apollo assists Poseidon in crafting poetry for Demeter and creating islands like pearls in the sea, whilst Demeter rears salty reeds and carpets of kelp, bringing beauty to the ocean and forming the modern Venetian lagoon. And it is from this gardening routine that the two eventually fall in love for the rest of time.
The story is especially popular among the poorer of Eretria because it is a much more humble story, about the necessity of the man and the woman crafting a home together, rather than Apollo and Athena's high-flying adventures.
B. Cultural evolution. It's an important shift which reflects the city's multicultural atmosphere as a home for many types of Hellenes, a syncretic development.
C. See A.
D. Partly a joke, but Eretrians like to think of the world in binaries. There is free and unfree, citizen and metic, man and wife, earth and sea.
E. No, it's mostly an Eretrian thing. The Divine Union also has limited success in Sicily; it was popular back in the day but although it still has currency the lack of real cultural cachet that Eretria has nowadays means it hasn't been as strong as it could be, or has diverged into separate directions entirely.
F. Egnatia's name change is part of its shift towards hellenism. All of them have become more hellenic; the Messapii give tribute to Zis and Aprodita (Zeus and Aphrodite) and so do the Dauni. The Epulian League holds to their own beliefs, especially because of Eretria's poor cultural cachet.
As HanEmpire said, this is actually all just the prologue for a Rome Quest.
More seriously, NavySeel has the right of it. I wanted a name that people knew more, and Megale Hellas isn't actually an accurate name for the region. The Romans called it Great Greece or Greater Greece because they were the first wealthy Greek cities they encountered, and Greece itself had been in decline for some time. The Greeks of Magna Graecia call themselves Italiotes, part of Italia, but I can't really call the region Italia without seriously confusing people.
@Cetashwayo I have a question regarding the Rival votes: Are the descriptions true regardless of whether we end up picking them?
For example, based on the map I assume the subordination of Aufidenos will have happened even if we don't choose Korinthos as our rival. Same goes for Syracuse's designs on the Sikeliot League.
So, will our dispute with Taras and subsequent the exile of our citizens also have happened? Even if they are not picked as our rival?
Although events might still happen, the way in which they are handled is different. Eretria does not anger or insult the rival as much, or else draws less attention to itself as a major obstacle or the one to beat.
What Italiote League are we talking about here? The OTL 5th century Krotone led alliance against Thurii and Lokris? Or something non-historical resulting from the butterflies of our arrival in Magna Graecia?
Thanks for noticing that. In an earlier draft of this update I had the Italiotes as a single unit, but decided against it. I've removed the reference to the Italiotes.
Did Leontios manage to get someone like himself to succeed him? We need to keep an eye on them if he did. He caused (or assisted) a lot of problems, even if it was hilarious.
We also seem to have gained some new subjects during the timeskip. While Aufidenos was apparently stolen from the Korinthians I am curious about the rest. Based on its position it seems like Turai was founded in Messapii land seized during the war though I wonder why they aren't included in the Peuketii kingdom. If I recall correctly they were the original proponents for founding a city there so it seems strange that they do not control it. Finally i'm gonna assume that Monopolis is a colony from the mainland, if so I wonder who their mother city was.
1. Turai was a city of Peuketii who were settled in the area by Daxtus. When the Eretrians took the city they let the people of Turai live if they helped them against Daxtus, and they agreed. The King of the Peuketii wanted them out, but by this point Harpos had died and been replaced by his son Batavorta, and Batavorta was a weak king who argued poorly and did not impress Eretria, so he was ignored.
2. Monopolis was founded by Akhaians who had the express permission of Eretria to land there so that the city would gain another ally and an anchor to their south. Both it and Aufidenos are very small so it has never been a great concern to Eretria, since they contribute tribute and levies regardless.
The Megarians hadn't expected cavalry, after all. By the time the Athenian rabble had dropped their chamber pots and chisels and rallied to Perikles' call to loot the whole plain from Pagai to Mount Geraneia for the sake of some obscure revenge, they were already too late. Erasmos Dion and the riders had descended from Attike and caught the Megarians like Artemis-snared bucks. They were a loud lot, those farmers. Oh, they protested, the Thessalians must have allied the Athenians again. Oh, they insulted, how barbarian they look, with such absurd upturned feathers. Oh, they begged, that's my favorite tree, I did not mean it about the feathers, I call the tree Isidora, you must spare her, the oil her fruits make is such a lovely colour-
Always with the bloody feathers. A shame about the tree, but it's important to impart lessons.
That particular feeling of prideful offense was a new one for Erasmos. Only five years prior he had been another demos-yoked aristocrat drinking himself to death in endless midnight symposia, vaguely mewling about how much nicer and fairer the Spartan constitution was and how traitorous Perikles was to his class. Now, here he was, leading five-score cavalry on a raiding mission for the very man that he had hated so vaguely and deeply for so long. He took great pleasure in imagining what his father's reaction would have been. "Make a man of yourself, you foolish boy! Wait, not like that-"
This peculiar turn had all started with what seemed to have been a simple and innocuous mission. The city of Eretria Eskhata, surefire allies of Athenai, great trading partners, wonderful friends for all time, had been drifting apart from Athene's favored ite city for some time. Erasmos had once suggested that if they convinced the Eretrians to divorce Apollon and Athene they would surely return to the fold, but that joke did not go over well.
In any case, the Eretrians had traipsed through Epulia and found themselves a cute little fleet along with a propensity to pick up orphaned children from across Greece for import to their city, without even the common decency to make them slaves, which was odd enough. The real concern, though, was to ascertain whether the city's drift was simply away from Athenai or against it, especially given that the Korinthians and Kerkyrans had gotten into one of their enormously tedious fights again. Another enemy in the Adriatic would spell trouble for any planned expedition to intervene in Ambrakia and Aetolia against the sheep-shagging friends of Sparta that inhabited the region.
And so, without prior prompting or really much good reason at all, Perikles had invited Erasmos into his abode and told him to go on a mission to the city. The sharp old coot had apparently gauged Erasmos' desperation correctly, because he took it with the eagerness of a centaur to young women. Okay, perhaps a boorish analogy. The eagerness of a stallion to a mare. No, no, enough with that. So vulgar. The...eagerness of a rower to sacking a rebellious ally. Ah, there we are! Much more patriotic.
And so, Erasmos embarked upon the trip only one year earlier with a fateful partner, the young man Alkibiades. Charming, to be sure, extraordinarily handsome as well, though Erasmos suspected a certain air of Eris around the lad and tried to avoid getting too close. Unfortunately, Alkibiades was the kind of boy that was everywhere and so would be close regardless of whether you wished or not. He had an endless virility and dynamism that manifested in a series of dramas too long to recount. It was unclear how he had even managed to secure his passage on; there were rumors of a pottery shipment being involved, though Erasmos had no eye for money and could make neither heads or tail of it.
It can be sufficed to say that by the end of their expedition in Eretria, Alkibiades had broken an equal amount of hearts and noses, usually in that order and usually delivered to the wife and the husband respectively, been charged by the city's popular court for ten offenses, and incited a gang of metics to abduct an aristocrat's horse for the purpose of impressing a young lady. She was not impressed, given it was her father's horse. Amusingly, the citizens of the city already appeared to have a name for this kind of behavior, and called Alkibiades the "Leontios of the East", which was meant to be some great indictment but only encouraged the rampaging eighteen-year old further, until at last Erasmos had to extricate him with a vast amount of gold and an escape plan involving an Illyrian shepherd and a massive amphora. They had parted ways after that; last he heard of the boy he had been dispatched north and rescued some man named Sokrates at Potidaea.
But in any case, leaving aside the immense and overwhelming foolery of his young companion, Erasmos learned an intriguing amount about the city, marking it far stranger about the Hellenes as he expected. For one, it appeared to be ruled not by the people, as had been claimed, but by officials; they were quite excited to elect their four-year tyrant in the following year, and had made sure to collect a vast number of standing rocks for the occasion, as no citizen in the city could speak if he did not have both the metaphorical and literal stones below him to do so.
In the second place, the city truly did not have many slaves; a few had been organized into groups and were harassing passers-by about a fantastic opportunity at a local merchant's dinghy, and some walked the streets with their masters, but bore few markings and carried themselves like citizens, a familiar sight from the ill-behaved Athenian slaves that turned his stomach. The metics were worse; loud, noisy, barking in a dozen different dialects from Attic to Kretan and always accidentally poking him with their straw hats as he walked by their markets. An annoying lot that ranged from the fine-clothed aristocrat to the hairy labourer, those ones. And the beards, by gods the beards. Old Drako the Lawgiver would have wept at the chinstrap worn by the statue of his local namesake (after having the man flayed appropriately). In that moment Erasmos was enveloped in a new urgency; to ensure that if the barbers of Athenai ever attempted such styles he would exterminate them to the man. It would be a citizen's duty.
Putting aside all the curiosities and dreadful facial hair, the city was simply shabby, with handsome people and ugly buildings. Their public works were imparted with little respect for the Gods, their processional way was crowded with dung, their harbor was stuffed with ships, and their water was gathered in smelly cisterns from the rain. There were still remains of the old barbaroi city they had founded the city atop of, out of some unmanly sense of guilt. Bah! At least the women were something special, haughty and fun in a way the frightened Athenian ladies could do little to compete with. And so he had told all of this to Perikles, and the old man had simply smiled that all-knowing grin he wore public occassions and asked about the cavalry.
Oh yes, the cavalry! It was quite good, sir, Erasmos explained stupidly at the time, suddenly overtaken by some youthful excitement and unaware what he was in for. They've got a funny way of doing it, but their cavalry wheels and rides expertly, their horses are as fine as Thessalians or Tarentines, and their riders, feathered or not-
And so, with that unfortunate set of sentences (simplified for the sake of the reader), Perikles thanked Erasmos, patted him on the back, and sent him off with his new division of state-provided horses and feathered helmets, despite the fact he knew little about either feathers, and he was a middling rider. But such was the times of euphoria in those days, that the world was a marketplace of ideas, and Athenai would purchase and steal any that it could find. In a further miracle surely brought upon by the pity of the Gods for his position, Erasmos the drunk managed to find an equine spirit, granted by Athena, to become Erasmos the cavalry commander.
And that, dear readers, is the little tale of how Erasmos Dion became the leader of the Hippeis Eskhata, Athenai's foremost cavalry force, and found himself raiding the Megarid, only the first of many misadventures for the city's enemies. But those are a story for another time.
Results of the 345 OL Census
Demography & Culture
Eretria Eskhata - 345 OL
Adult Freemen: 21,721 (Census of 345 OL) Citizen Ratio: 45.0% Adult Male Citizens: 9,774 Adult Male Metics: 11,947 Total Free Population: 75,683
Patron Gods: Divine Marriage of Athene & Apollon Other Major Gods: Poseidon & Demeter, Zeus, Ploutos, Artemis
Political Offices
Next Election is 345 OL. (Placeholder for now)
Proboulos: Held by none. Xenoparakletor: Held by none. Strategos: Held by none. Metic Prytanis: Held by none.
Agoranomos: Held by none. Assembly of the Mint: Held by none. Chief of Public Lands: Held by none. Grand Mantis: Held by none. Elder Ekdromos: Held by none.
Great Works
Wide Walls: Proud stone walls that protect the city from enemies. Sea Wall: Protect the city from any sea-based attack. Arkadion: A small temple to Demeter & Poseidon. Temple of the Divine Marriage: A modest temple to the Divine Marriage of Apollo and Athena. Naval Barracks: Where the city's rowers train.
Treasury & Income
Treasury in 345 OL: 259.0 Talents Income: 269.6 Talents Taxation: 168.3 Talents Commerce: 69.8 Talents League Income: 8.7 talents Tribute: 11.8 Talents Public Revenue: 11.0 Talents
Expenses: 160.8 Talents Navy Upkeep: 74.8 Talents Army Upkeep: 44.0 Talents Construction: 0.0 Talents Salaries & Subsidies: 15.0Talents Sacred Treasury Contribution: 27.0 Talents (10% into Sacred Treasury)
Sacred Treasury in 346 OL: 1272.6 (27.0 Talents) Treasury in 346 OL: 367.8 Talents
Total Levy: 7,011 (50% of all Adult Freemen minus men in special units and navy)
2,804 Hoplites (40% of available levies)
526 Cavalry (7.5% of available levies)
3,861 Psilloi (all remaining available levies)
Deployed Levy
Standing Army (Eretria Eskhata)
500 Sacred Ekdromoi (deployed at all times for 38.5 talents a turn)
50 Kleos Exoria (deployed at all times for 5.5 talents a turn)
1 Staple Trade Route to Athenai (Grain)
1 Staple Trade Route to South Italy (Anchovies & Wine)
1 Staple Trade Route to Sicily (Olive Oil)
1 Staple Trade Route to Southeast Illyria (Olive Oil)
1 Staple Trade Route to Northeast Illyria (Wine)
1 Staple Trade Route to North Italy (Olive Oil)
1 Luxury Trade Route to Athenai (Byssos Cloth)
1 Luxury Trade Route to Etruria (Pottery)
Subjects & Subject Levies
Epulian League Members: Eretria Eskhata, Sipontion, Pylona, Garnae, Barletos, Ankon, Monopolis, and Aufidenos Tribute: 8.7 (10% of yearly income of each city) Epulian League Levies: 816 Hoplites
Peuketii Kingdom Ruler: King Gorgos (son of King Batavorta) Capital: Sannape Tribute: 9.8 Talents a turn Levies: 883 Peuketii Skirmishers, 196 Peuketii Cavalry
City of Thurii: Full alliance with the city of Thurii cultivated in opposition to potential ambitions by Taras or other Italiote powers like Krotone. Estimated Levy: 4,000 Men
Sikeliote League: Full alliance with the Sikeliote League cultivated in opposition to the main power in South Sicily, Syrakousai. Maximum Levy: 8,000 Men
Winning Votes
Demos Drakonia (Background Faction)
Thurii & the Sikeliote League (Ally)
Syrakousai (Rival)
Goings on from around the Mediterranean, presented by Xenoparakletor Iason Nikias of the Demos Drakonia
IASON: Greetings, citizens! The Xenoparakletor speaks, buoyed by news carried by Demeter and Poseidon across land and sea. This shall be the last of my reports, for my term comes to an end, a term blessed by Apollon and Athene and the spirit of liberty! It is a good time for our city. Our cattle grow fat, our people prosperous. The wise men of the Demos Drakonia have delivered this to you, in service to the Gods. But elsewhere, others are not so blessed, and ever more the world turns, guided by the Fates that carry forth our lives. Let me speak now to the report of the world around, and let no man speak up during my speech, or may he be dragged from the assembly and beaten with sticks!
News from Hellas! The Peloponnesian conference has convened and concluded the error in Athenai's ways, that they have broken the sacred peace! War has begun! The Athenians have made a foray into the Megarid with a great many of their citizens, looting the countryside on the advice of strategos and notable of the city Perikles, son of Xanthippos! The city of Plataiai on the plain of Boeotia is menaced by the League of Thebai! The Spartans under their two kings invade Attike but are harassed by Athenian cavalry, finely named the Hippeis Eskhata after our good city! The Athenians do our people great honour! The siege of Potidaea, Chalcidian revolting city of the Athenian, continues! Athenai punishes the city of Aegina and deports its population away, settling Athenians there!
News from the West! All is quiet in Syrakousai, with a new election of strategoi placing a new group in the pinnacle of power! Some strife in Leontini, between the people and the aristocrats, the former supported by the Sikeliotes! Kerkyra and Korinthos continue to do battle in the Ionian Sea, though no one is the winner! The Brutii have accomplished a mighty raid, and carried away fifty head of cattle from the city of Krotone! They grow ever more in strength! The esteemed Polis of Kymai complains of interior shepherds raiding far inside! They grow more confident! The Tarentines brawl among themselves for who shall be leader, after a ballot results in a tie! Perhaps they shall fall once more to stasis and civil strife!
News from the North! The merchant Isidoros asks any for the wherabouts of a Picentini slave run off during a trading mission, reward ample! The Illyrian pirates claim another ship bound for Eretria, caught ashore in Issa, now stolen with all its fine contents of wood! The Thracian King Sitalces aligns with Athenai and rallies his great clans together, according to rumors from Abdera!
The Augurs of the Ballot
There is no more sacred time in Eretria than the time of the elections. Every four years the city explodes into a phantasm of ceremony, celebration, ostentatious displays and excessive display of painted boulders for the sake of public speaking. This is a fine time for elections; there are few disturbances to the normal procedure from within and without, and although there are great dramas playing out across the sea, none have reached the city. With peace at home and peace on the frontier, the time holds well for the full display of ceremony and theater that the elections truly deserve.
For sixteen years the Demos Drakonia have dominated affairs in the city. During that time the city has grown ever wealthier and more connected. The timber of Illyria and the pottery of Athenai flow through its ports. Merchant come to and fro, and the city's aristocrats find themselves better and better understanding the power of money, to their fortune and the city's. But all is not well; the city's supremacy in the Adriatic requires a constant presence to maintain, and the pirates have grown bold once more, stealing ships and raiding coasts. At home, the Metic assembly's wish for another hearing of grievances is resisted by two of the three factions, who say that the granting of an assembly was enough. Among many citizens, there is fear that between the lack of respect shown to the Gods and the concession of an assembly to the Metics, the city may soon find disfavor and unhappiness in its augurs, and all eagerly await them.
The Grand Mantis is the city's chief augur and manager of its temples and sacred places, such as the Grove of Bare Road to the west where the city brawled in the year of the landing. In an election year, before the ballots are placed, under the administration of pious and religious officials drawn by lot and led by the elected Proboulos, it is traditional that the city makes a great offering of a fat ox, well fed and white as snow, dedicated to the Divine Marriage. For Zeus, the feather of the Thunderbird, the city's great flightless bird, is plucked and offered for the fire, and for Poseidon and Demeter a mixed offering of meat and fish is given. From the ox the city is delivered an augur for its prosperity and the good health of its citizens; from Poseidon and Demeter an augur for trade and agriculture, and from Zeus the city is delivered a judgment for the state of its faith and the religious well-being of its people.
The augurs commence with the ox, which is slaughtered and its entrails read for the city's good health and wealth.
d100 (No modifiers) = 72.
The news is auspicious! The city will experience no great change, but its prosperity and good health will continue. This is much relief to the citizens, some of whom who fear that the growing wealth of the city may disappear if the Gods are not pleased.
The augurs then proceed to the mixed meat and fish, which is burned, the colors of the flame observed by the priests.
d100 (No Modifiers) = 46
The news is mixed! There will be no great disruptions, but unless the city acts to improve the security of its trade and the fertility of its farms, it may face a potential drought or fall in trade, warn the augurs! The citizens are concerned for the sake of their grains, and hope that there will be no great cessation of rainfall, as some remember stories of the starvation of the founding years.
The augurs then proceed to the final offering to Zeus of the feather of the Thunderbird. The feather is burned and the smoke huffed so that the augur may see the visions of the city offered by the Gods.
d100 (No Modifiers) = 5
The news is catastrophic! Through the augur Zeus speaks and tells the city he is displeased by their respect for the Gods. He demands that they make expansive offerings in the years forward and do not call to him from a feather! He also demands that the city better respect the Gods and acknowledge their role in the city's prosperity, or else great ills will befall the city!
With the end of the augurs, the citizens depart towards the final speeches. The time of the election is coming near, before harvest time, and now the citizens will have the opportunity to hear the suggestions of each of the three factions and what they wish to do for the city. Hastily, all three promise they will better respect the Gods in the coming years, but only the citizens can determine if this is the truth, or merely the lies of pandering demagogues!
Platforms for 345 OL-349 OL
The policies and missions that the various Demoi seek to promote are the extent of their program for the following four years. Electing a Proboulos from that faction will signal the Ekklesia's approval in that Demos' domestic program, and they will seek to implement it (meaning there will be no further votes on these options unless something goes awry), Electing a Xenoparakletor from that faction will signal the Ekklesia's approval in that Demos' foreign program, and they will seek to implement it (meaning there will again, be no further votes, except to appoint a strategos in case there is a military mission involved or something goes awry). In effect, this is the platform, or executive program, of this faction, and the ekklesia can only "mix and match" between different domestic and foreign programs by electing a proboulos and xenoparakletor from separate factions. It cannot pick out individual policies from each faction it would prefer, even with a user motion, unless it is an emergency.
These goals provide guidelines for what, with assembly approval, the executive will attempt to accomplish in the next four years. It is not the sum total of what will happen, and it is possible that these goals could be derailed by foreign events preventing them from being accomplished. These goals and mission can be implemented at any time during their four years, though changes to military composition or building construction will generally start as soon as the new officials take power.
The cost for great works is spread out over the years of construction; a 500 talent great work with five year construction time will cost 100 talents a turn for five years.
Demos Drakonia
Current Goals at Home
Military Policy: With a larger navy the city will be able to better project its power in multiple directions, and even small improvements can aid in this endeavor. Expand the city's number of Triremes to 25 and train the crews to row them [+450 Rowers, -450 Land Manpower, +3 Triremes, 10.2 extra talents a turn, -9 talents to build the Triremes].
Commercial Policy: It is fast becoming outrageous that an Eretrian merchant departs the city in the third month of the year and arrives in Athenai in the first month of the festival year, third month of the State year, and the fifth month of the agricultural sidereal calendar, unable to know when he had departed and when he had arrived. Found a new Office of the Days and Months to keep track of the calendars of every major polis and Carthage. The Office of the Days and Months will be staffed by city mathematicians under the authority of the Agoranomoi to establish better standards for time and translations into different calendars [-2 talents per turn public salaries, +3% trade efficiency and other potential advantages].
Great Work: The city is running up against the limits of what the small Harbor of the Fifty Masts is able to handle in terms of trade volume, but Byssos Harbor is not sheltered enough to provide protection for as many ships as it could. Extend Byssos Harbour to provide a grand new commercial port for ships, more capacity for marinas and warehouses along the shore, and making the harbor more defensible from a sea attack. [-550 talent cost over 5 years, when finished, +2 Trade Routes, +10 trade route capacity]
Current Goals Abroad
Naval Mission: Wage war on Liburnian and Illyrian Pirates with a squadron of five triremes, take prisoners, and gain loot from raiding their coves and towns in order to cut their pirate activities down to a fraction of what it once was and bring terror to their families [Run a squadron of five triremes for one year and 52 talents in an attempt to purge the Adriatic of piracy for a ten year period with the potential for up to 30 talents in direct loot and slaves from the endeavor].
Xenoparakletor Mission: Dispatch the Xenoparakletor on a trading mission to the head of the Adriatic to convince the Enetoi to open up the Amber Road to Eretrian trade and gain a monopoly on amber exports to the rest of the Mediterranean [Mission success dependent on Xenoparakletor. If successful, Eretria will be then be able to construct a trading colony in the Venetian lagoon and a new luxury trade route].
Espionage Mission: Deploy emissaries to the Sikeliote League to receive special intelligence on the current situation in Syrakousai and whether the city is currently planning to attack the Sikeliote League; also use the opportunity to gauge the instability of the league cities [-10 talents for the mission, guaranteed success to gather information about Syrakousai and its current strength, allies, and plans].
Demos Antipatria
Current Goals at Home
Demographic Policy: Pursue an immigration drive in the rest of Hellas by dispatching emissaries to smaller Greek cities and seeking colonists willing to come to Eretria as metics while using the opportunity to gauge the mood in Greece on the impending war [-10 talents, increase in city's population growth in next census dependent on how well mission succeeds, will lower citizen ratio dependent on mission success, potential espionage information].
Metic Policy: The Metics are going restless as their assembly has not been called to present their grievances for almost seven years. Call the Metic Prytanis to present the assembled grievances of the Metics in order to review them and reform the current status of the Metics in the city [City will gain options to reform the current Metic situation and resolve tension that exists there, calming the Metics for some time].
Great Work: Completely reconstruct the Hill of the Marriage in order to raise the height of the hill in relation to the rest of the city, repair and refurbish its temples, and beautify the temple complex, along with expanding the Arkadion and Temple of the Divine Marriage. This will also make the hill a more defensible position [-480 talent cost to build over five years, will unite the city and greatly please many citizens, will raise the cultural influence of Eretria in the region].
Current Goals Abroad
Xenoparakletor Mission: Dispatch the Xenoparakletor on a special mission to Metapontion in order to try to flip the city's allegiances from neutral to a defensive alliance against the potential danger posed by Taras to Eretria. [Mission success dependent on Xenoparakletor, if mission successful, gain a new defensive alliance with the Metapontines and their friendship].
Military Mission: The Brutii, a new Lucanian tribe that has emerged in the toe of Italia, have been raiding and attacking their Hellene neighbors for some time now. They are too populous and widespread to be dislodged, but a punitive expedition with Eretrian and Thuriian arms will build goodwill with the other Italiotes and reduce their raids for several years [51.3 talent upkeep to support an army of of approximately 3,000 in Italy for a four month raiding campaign with up to 15 talents in potential loot, a reduction in Brutii raiding and the goodwill of the Italiote cities of Krotone and Thurii].
Diplomatic Mission: With the potential for war in Sicily within the next few years, it is necessary to once again build a coalition capable of withstanding the force of the Sicilian titan. Dispatch emissaries with gold to the cities of Selinous, Himera, and Rhegion to build a new coalition against the southern Sicilian states and maintain the fortunate peace [-15 talents, If mission successful, temporary coalition against Syrakousai aggression to prevent it from waging war].
Demos Exoria
Current Goals at Home
Land Policy: In recent years citizens have been falling into debt and losing their lands to larger landholders, pushing them into paupery. Leverage some of the public land the city owns and grant it to poorer citizens so that they may become smallholders capable of affording a basic Hoplite panoply [Raise the hoplite ratio as part of the total levy to 43%, lose 4 talents a turn in revenue, resolve frustration in the city over the lack of land for citizens].
Commercial Policy: For far too long the city has ignored the economic benefits that the Barbaroi could bring to the city with their herds of cattle. Create the Office of Barbarian Commerce under the command of the Proboulos in order to manage the Barbaroi as an economic unit, negotiating deals with chiefs to drive their herds towards the city in the spring and summer [-3 talent per turn cost for office salaries, +1 overland staple trade route after four years, better economic relations with the Barbaroi].
Great Work: Create the city's first sewer system and secure a water supply by building underwater tunnels from the nearby Murgia plateau leading into the city, with pressurized running water and cisterns in the city to reduce the spread of miasmas [-500 talents, takes 5 turns to build, will raise living standards, happiness, and cleanliness in the city and secure the city's water supply during a siege].
Current Goals Abroad
Tributary Mission: Tour the Epulian and Barbaroi tributary lands in order to review both the amount of tribute each pays, the Oscan frontier, and their current political and demographic situations [Depending on success, could raise the tribute provided by the Barbaroi and Epulians, the levies of the Peuketii, and uncover any potential dangers or plots against Eretria].
Xenoparakletor Mission: Secure a defensive alliance with the Messapii in order to ward off a potential threat from Taras and to began preparations to slowly subsume the Messapii into the Eretrian sphere by gauging which cities would prefer more permanent arrangements [Dispatch Xenoparakletor to the Messapii cities. Depending on mission success, could gain a defensive alliance with the Messapii Confederacy and even special agreements with some cities to become tributaries if the confederacy collapses].
Espionage Mission: Dispatch spies recruited from among loyal Illyrian metics in Eretria to the smaller Dauni cities to probe for areas of weakness in the Dauni confederacy, especially in Herdonia and Salapia in the hope of gathering information and either provoking a rebellion against King Ausculos' rule or creating the pretext for warfare [If mission successful, will have the opportunity to undermine the Dauni or at the least gain a casus belli against them, as well as gaining useful information].
Eretrian Elections of 345 OL
It has been tradition for some twenty years that the Proboulos is the younger of the two officials elected by the people. The proboulos is often a lieutenant or rising star in their faction who has been chosen by the leader to represent them in domestic affairs. They will be in charge of the domestic policies of the city, a relatively less high-stakes challenge, and will make their mark by the success of their administration.
Prominent young merchant in the Eretrian carrying trade. A man of much friendliness and moderate magnificence, he provides fair portions of his wealth to the city. He is not known for his courage or glory as either a captain or a businessman, but may yet grow into a man of much renown and esteem.
Son of Eretrian sea captains from Kymai who were granted citizenship in the early days of the city. Known for being one of few Antipatrids who are merchants, with an export of Byssos cloth, he is also a man of great magnificence, though some of his donations have been gaudy. moderate in lawfulness and friendly, he will surely seek to prove his worth in courage and glory as an orator and leader of men.
Descendant of Illyrian slaves granted citizenship by the city on landing, Theron Archippos is a cavalryman who served his time fighting the Dauni in cattle raids and gained some glory in that, but he is most known for his reputation for fairness and justice among his Peuketii serfs, dispensing both reward and discipline as was proper and good. Not known for his generosity for the city, victory in elections may improve that reputation.
The Xenoparakletor has, by a tradition formed some twenty years ago, the senior of the two positions, led by older men who are the most notable within their factions. Drawn from great factions or fine pedigress, the xenoparakletor has a much more difficult job, determining the city's policies with its neighbors in war and peace and implementing the goals of their faction abroad. The success of missions in which the Xenoparakletor is personally involved, dependent on their skill, can elevate them to the position of heroes or disgrace them utterly.
Pick one of three. Choice for Xenoparakletor does not have to be the same demos as proboulos.
Leader of the Demos Drakonia and member of the Drakonid family, called the "Golden Ram", a man of extraordinary magnificence who bestows his fantastic wealth to the city whenever possible, known for volunteering as a young man as a rower and once admiral of the city. Also known for his blunt speaking and propensity for strong statements, his practical and forthright way of speaking and thinking, and his moderate lawfulness and friendliness.
Leader of the Demos Antipatria and member of a branch of the Antipatrid Family, called the "Black Bull," a man of great lawfulness and wisdom who is known for his oratory on the nature of justice and the necessity of fairness. A modest smallholder, he has provided more words than wealth for the city but earned glory as a naval captain against Illyrian pirates. Known to give long and meandering speeches that sometimes provide great insight and other times bore.
Leader of the Demos Exoria, called the "Young Stallion", for his youth compared to the other leaders. Lacking in the glory that the others have accrued due to limited opportunities as a cavalryman, Mnemnon is known for both the boldness of his ideas and statements and the friendly manner in which he comports himself. A frontiersman, he has devoted decent portions of his wealth to the city and is known to speak practically and in terms of strength and power.
Control of the non-elected offices (Metic Prytanis, Grand Mantis, Agoranomos, Chief of Public Lands, Elder Ekdromos, Assembly of the Mint) is dependent on how well each faction does in the Proboulos election. The higher its share of the overall vote for Proboulos, the higher the chance a faction will take control of a lower office, which can influence what issues come up in the following years. Voting is now open. Vote for a Proboulos and a Xenoparakletor, like this:
[] Proboulos: Name (Faction)
[] Xenoparakletor: Name (Faction)
In the original game one particular bastard player who decided to be a smartass googled "weasels ancient greece" and then attempted to convince me that weasels were tamed and used as pets in Ancient Greece. Having dropped this nugget of insight, they subsequently demanded that I give players the option to democratically introduce weasels into the Eretrian household. Despite my many attempts to tell this player to stop informing me about the possibilities weasels could bring to the game, they did not let up, and in the end I believe we agreed to disagree about the use of weasels in antiquity.
In hindsight, the venom and viciousness of this argument was absolutely absurd, and amused me so much, that I decided that this was an in-character argument between citizens in the assembly that was so legendary that when one of the citizens violently chased the other out of the city through a half-finished gate of the wall, they named that gate after the weasels that had caused such a terrible fracas, immortalizing this stupid debate for all time, and forcing children many years later to wonder why precisely it was called the Gate of the Weasels.
Archidamos II, King of Lakedaimon, was an old man. In that dignified old age, he had come to prefer the constancy of the Gods. Helios rode his fiery chariot across the sky during the day, and as the blanket of night slipped over the world, Selene's chariot spilled moonlight across her brother's well-worn path. Zeus loomed down on all and called for sacrifice, and the effigy of Artemis Orthia stood eternal upon the Eurotas, demanding dances from boys and choruses from girls. All was as it had always been, and would be.
Men were far more inscrutable. Though the Fates controlled the strings that bound men's lives, why those strings were cut was the province of mortal decision. So too the life and death of cities. Even the heroes who seized Troy all fell in time, their kingdoms disappeared to dust and memory, a lesser race of men bound to rule the earth. Where once there was the men of Messene, now there were helots, fit only for the yoke. Where once there were Argives, boastful and strong, now they were fettered and broken, living in the shadow of their former glories.
Where once there was Athenai...
In time, Lakedaimon, too, could fall. But the greatest flaw of all cities that become over-mighty is hubris. It was not enough that the Athenians were victorious over the Persians; they must also be victorious over the other Hellenes. It is not enough that Athens accepts its place; it must rise above Sparta, surpass it. Spartans did not carry such pretensions of grandeur. The constitution of Lykurgus had imparted all Spartiates not just with a respect for tradition, and the law, and the Gods, but a modesty, and this is why they would triumph and Athenai would not. Spartans had become masters over all Hellas through the realities of strength and will, not overconfidence in their themselves.
He had not wanted war. He had counseled against it before the Ephors and King Pausanias, not because he had any great love for Athenai, but because he saw the folly in embarking too early. Sparta had needed more time, more allies; not because Sparta was weak but because Athenai was strong. The city brimmed with citizens, teeming masses ready to die for their city, as all honorable men should. She further had the boon of silver from her mines and tribute from her subjects, and a fleet besides. So if the Spartans should face the Athenians, it should be on Spartan terms.
After all, If every Spartiate were to die like Leoniadas at Thermopylae, stalling to the last man, they would be legends throughout all Hellas, and they would also be dead. Comforting for the heroes of battle, to be sure, but better to fight for the sake of glorious victory than legendary defeat. If all have died, then there will be no one left to honor them.
Admittedly, there was a certain modesty to the Athenian strategy as well. Perikles, the clever man that he was, had forced this conflict and was even now raiding the Peloponnese, hoping for some victory in the Argolis. Meanwhile, he avoided a fight outside the walls, letting the Spartiates burn the olive groves and farms, letting the cowardly stream into the city. If Archidamos was younger, he would have shut the gates in the Athenian position, barked at the cravens without thought. Now, he saw the strategy.
Here, then, was some constancy. This was the second spring where the Spartans had descended upon Attike and the Athenians had fled behind their walls, raiding all the while. The only trouble remained the Athenian feathered riders. It would have been an embarrassment to call these riders, as the Athenians did, after the men of Eretria. Now there was excellence. Where once they had been dregs, fled from their city with their tails between their legs, now they had made well for themselves, yoking the barbarians of Italia, and it was thanks in whole to the fineness of their cavalry, near in skill to great Taras. Archidamos could respect that, for he was no arch-traditionalist who did not see the value in cavalry, but it was not the Spartan way. It was not the way that glory had been won. Centaurs may ride in Makedon and furthest Eretria, but here? The lands of Hellas were no place for horses, and before the shields of Lakedaimon they would always break or die mangled by the spear.
But still, if he extended charity, he could see the utility. These Hippeis Eskhata harassed his supplies, stole from his camps. When particularly cocky they thought to attack attendants out to drink. They had made a muck out of the first spring of war, and now they had grown better, more experienced, ranging against Boeotia and her stallions. They could never stop the Spartiate levy from laying waste to Attike, but they could cordon it, force him to withdraw to Boeotia if the route from Megara became endangered. It was a tactic he had not encountered before, and although he could never respect it, he could understand it. Some smaller number of farmers would have to flee and crowd the city, making it easier to feed. A setback.
Nevertheless, the campaign would go on. A few riders could not stop him, especially if he were to call for aid from Boeotian cavalry. Perikles could beg for Bosporan grain and nibble at the Argolis like a gnat on an ox's tail, but dishonor would force the Athenians once more to negotiate. Even the willowy men of Attike would come to realize that to continue on with the fires burning through their fields would be the height of humiliation. The people upon which the strategos relied on would in time desert him, and with that would go the city's will to fight.
As he thought all this, gazing down at the city from the military camp upon the south slope of Mount Parnes, there was a peculiar sight. Archidemos strained his eyes to see, and spotted smoke streaming from all around the city, individual columns billowing up towards the sunlit summer sky. He had seen the fires going up for several days, and had wondered if this was some special festival, but at such volume and so spread out throughout the city, it was almost as if they were...
Funeral pyres.
Goings on from around the Mediterranean, presented by Xenoparakletor Mnemnon Keylonos of the Demos Exoria
MNEMNON: Greeting, citizens! I bid you good tidings and well wishes, for you have chosen wisely and elected myself as xenoparakletor of all Eretria Eskhata, responsible for the abroad both near and far, of both tributary and equal. You have not chosen me however, simply for my passive duties, but the missions that I have promised to embark upon. As wise Antipatros, son of Lysandros, said in the last year, there is a necesisty for clarity and decisiveness in our actions. The world is full of great dangers and we must move to secure our place.
In this year I will head immediately to our subjects, Messapii, Peuketii, and members of the Epulian League, to see how goes the tidings there, with a report delivered at the beginning of the next year. In the next year I will also embark to the Messapii and seek out alliance among them, as well as to observe who is strong and who is weak among their men, and to build the bonds of fraternity between Eretrian and Barbaroi, in the spirit that was broken by the accursed Daxtus, oathbreaker, liar to Artemis. We can hope that after the catastrophe visited upon them by ourselves and Taras that the Messapii have grown wiser, and will not soon disobey their oaths again. In the year following that, I will dispatch a mission to Dauni lands, and ascertain their power and whether we can spot any weakness among them. If it must come to war, so be it; the Dauni deserve subjugation and the destruction of the memory of their accursed kings, and little else. The cities of Daunia will be granted the liberty that comes with the protection of fair Eretria, and at last Ausculos will no longer be able to tyrannize his subjects.
Now there are a number of matters to attend to. The honorable Kyros Gennadios, elected proboulos, will follow after me and speak to the concerns of the city. There is also a major embassy which we have received that will need tending to, and which I will open to the discussion of all citizens, for the urgency and necessity of this embassy is such that if I were to take the decision on my own, it would be an insult to the city, which all shares in the news and potentialities opened by this mission. Aside from this, I read to you now the news received from across the seas!
News from Hellas! The Gods do not look kindly upon Athenian hubris, and have abandoned them! In their wake, a terrible plague strikes the city. All good citizens of Eretria are to avoid the city of Athenai in the spring and summer months, and to pursue trade with her only in the autumn, when the disturbance of the humors that have encouraged this calamity have calmed. So goes the advice of Kallistos Kallikrates, doctor of Eretria, acting on the advice of Hippokrates of Kos, and advice we would do well to respect! The strategos Perikles remains unscathed, but the plague has forced Lakedaimon out of Attike, and all watch now the extent of the horror of this affliction. In Northern Hellas, the battle of Potidaea has come and gone, with Athenian victory over Korinthos! Brave soldiers of Athenai forced back the Korinthians, and it seems now there is little stopping her from quelling the rebellious polis. In the southwest of Hellas, the island of Zakynthos falls to Sparta.
News from the West! The Brutii raid and loot the borders of Thurii, and Thurii strikes back with equal force! Another dispute emerges between Krotone and Lokri, this time over a matter of crime by a citizen of Lokri in Krotone! In Sicily, the Sikeliote League has warned Syrakousai to stay away from the border stones of Megara Hyblaea, a member of their league! Syrakousai claims there was no violation, but the Sikeliotes wish to fine their rivals or else meet them on the field of battle! Syrakousai, the cowards, look liable to pay, rather than meet the might of the best of Sicily in battle! In Taras, the proboulos has been elected, called Myron Aristeides. He is a man of much renown in Taras, from a family that won glory in battle against the Messapii. They may yet begin war again, which makes our mission all the more urgent!
News from the North! The Illyrian pirates remain a nuisance, though one sure to disappear ever-soon! A merchant claims a shadow of a ship chasing him through the Adriatic, but arrives at Eretria unscathed! Poseidon guides our ships forward, and the people remain resolute that no pentekontor can hope to challenge the might of great Eretria at sea! The King Sitalces gathers his forces and prepares for a grand invasion of Makedon!
Goings on from within the city, presented by Proboulos Kyros Gennadios of the Demos Antipatria
KYROS: Citizens! We stand at a precipice. Before us lies the chasm of unbelief that has been so encouraged by past leaders, a lack of respect for the Gods. The Gods are those who carry us forward, from birth to death, and yet we do not respect them! The Gods, who listen to our prayers and grant our city the prosperity we have come to know, and yet we do not respect them! The Antipatrids respect the Gods. I respect the Gods. That is why now we pursue the greatest honour to the Gods; dedicating great monuments and treasures to them! The plan for the reconstruction of the Hill of the Divine Marriage is as follows. We will bring out the treasures and statues from the hill, and transfer the temples on its top towards the ground. Then we shall raise the hill, so it looms more above the city, with dirt and stone collected and placed to elevate the structure further. Then we will rebuild the temples, one by one; first the temple of Zeus, then the temple of Poseidon & Demeter, and then finally the Temple of the Divine Marriage, which we shall reward with new name. In the process we shall also clean the hill and make it a place of beauty, with pools and stone-paved roads. This is what we shall do, because we honor the Gods!
There is further reason for this construction. Many of the citizens and metics of good Eretria have come in recent years to suffer from the debts and difficulties that have besotten those less prosperous in the city. The wealth that Demos Drakonia gave so freely to its friends and partners it did not share with the citizens, but now there will be wealth to go around, for it shall be citizens and metics who shall rebuild this hill, and give sanctity to their work! Some say the wage laborer, the man who relies on others for their work, is a man who cannot be truly free. But the man who receives his wages from the city is expressing his freedom beyond measure!
Now there are also other concerns. In the first place we must dispatch our agents to Hellas and search for more metics to bring glory to our city. For this we must choose among the regions where we wish to recuit from. Then there is also the metic assembly, which will now present its grievances, with the acceptance of the assembly and the Prytanis Timotaios Herais, a citizen of good standing and a friend of the Antipatrids, who has been appointed to represent them for the sake of this presentation to the assembly. This is all that will take place in the city as has been planned by Demos Antipatria, and with hope all shall be met with good fortune. The city's treasury grows, and our expenses shan't even place us into deficit, allowing us not to worry about the danger of paupery with our new constructions.
Further, here are the results of the elections and attendant offices chosen by lot!
Proboulos: Kyros Gennadios (Demos Antipatria) Xenoparakletor: Mnemnon Keylonos (Demos Exoria) Lead Strategos: Only appointed in times of war. Metic Prytanis: Timotaios Herais (Demos Antipatria), elected by the Metics.
Agoranomos: Arkadios Ambrosios (Demos Antipatria), chosen by lot. Assembly of the Mint: Paramonos Diokles (Demos Antipatria), chosen by lot. Chief of Public Lands: Arsenios Hermagoras (Demos Exoria), chosen by lot. Grand Mantis: Polykarpos Lykos (Demos Antipatria), chosen by lot. Elder Ekdromos: Alexandros Hilarion (Demos Exoria), chosen by lot.
Demography & Culture
Eretria Eskhata - 346 OL
Adult Freemen: 21,721 (Census of 345 OL) Citizen Ratio: 45.0% Adult Male Citizens: 9,774 Adult Male Metics: 11,947 Total Free Population: 75,683
Patron Gods: Divine Marriage of Athene & Apollon Other Major Gods: Poseidon & Demeter, Zeus, Ploutos, Artemis
Political Offices
Next Election is 349 OL.
Proboulos: Kyros Gennadios (Demos Antipatria) Xenoparakletor: Mnemnon Keylonos (Demos Exoria) Lead Strategos: Only appointed in times of war. Metic Prytanis: Timotaios Herais (Demos Antipatria).
Agoranomos: Arkadios Ambrosios (Demos Antipatria). Assembly of the Mint: Paramonos Diokles (Demos Antipatria). Chief of Public Lands: Arsenios Hermagoras (Demos Exoria). Grand Mantis: Polykarpos Lykos (Demos Antipatria). Elder Ekdromos: Alexandros Hilarion (Demos Exoria).
Great Works
Wide Walls: Proud stone walls that protect the city from enemies. Sea Wall: Protect the city from any sea-based attack. Arkadion: A small temple to Demeter & Poseidon (Under Renovation). Temple of the Divine Marriage: A modest temple to the Divine Marriage of Apollo and Athena. (Under Renovation). Naval Barracks: Where the city's rowers train. Hill of the Divine Marriage: Under Renovation. Done beginning of 351 OL.
Treasury & Income
Treasury in 346 OL: 367.8 Talents Income: 269.6 Talents Taxation: 168.3 Talents Commerce: 69.8 Talents League Income: 8.7 talents Tribute: 11.8 Talents Public Revenue: 11.0 Talents
Total Levy: 7,011 (50% of all Adult Freemen minus men in special units and navy)
2,804 Hoplites (40% of available levies)
526 Cavalry (7.5% of available levies)
3,861 Psilloi (all remaining available levies)
Deployed Levy
Standing Army (Eretria Eskhata)
500 Sacred Ekdromoi (deployed at all times for 38.5 talents a turn)
50 Kleos Exoria (deployed at all times for 5.5 talents a turn)
1 Staple Trade Route to Athenai (Grain)
1 Staple Trade Route to South Italy (Anchovies & Wine)
1 Staple Trade Route to Sicily (Olive Oil)
1 Staple Trade Route to Southeast Illyria (Olive Oil)
1 Staple Trade Route to Northeast Illyria (Wine)
1 Staple Trade Route to North Italy (Olive Oil)
1 Luxury Trade Route to Athenai (Byssos Cloth)
1 Luxury Trade Route to Etruria (Pottery)
Subjects & Subject Levies
Epulian League Members: Eretria Eskhata, Sipontion, Pylona, Garnae, Barletos, Ankon, Monopolis, and Aufidenos Tribute: 8.7 (10% of yearly income of each city) Epulian League Levies: 816 Hoplites
Peuketii Kingdom Ruler: King Gorgos (son of King Batavorta) Capital: Sannape Tribute: 9.8 Talents a turn Levies: 883 Peuketii Skirmishers, 196 Peuketii Cavalry
City of Thurii: Full alliance with the city of Thurii cultivated in opposition to potential ambitions by Taras or other Italiote powers like Krotone. Estimated Levy: 4,000 Men
Sikeliote League: Full alliance with the Sikeliote League cultivated in opposition to the main power in South Sicily, Syrakousai. Maximum Levy: 8,000 Men
Foreign Policy: The Epidamnian Emissaries
The city of Epidamnos had never had the greatest of luck. When the Eretrian trickster and deceitful exile Leontios left the city he had left in political chaos with a new demokratia ruling over it. However, the democratic factions in the city and the surviving oligarchs brawled and battled for control over decades, neither truly defeating the other. In the end, it was an uneasy peace that was suddenly broken by the intervention of Korinthos, its mother colony. With the aid of the oligarchs Korinthos seized the city of Epidamnos and killed many members of its democratic government. Those that survived fled to Lissos, while a few went to the Parthini and continued the fight in conjunction with Kerkyra against Korinthos' play for dominance in the Ionian sea. Now, the remainder of the Democrats have arrived in Eretria, and the city must make make a choice...
There is a debate between the leaders of the factions before the floor is opened to the assembly.
MNEMNON: Citizens of Eretria Eskhata! You are called to assembly for a special session for the sake of critical news. For four years the city of Korinthos has held its former colony of Epidamnos, once a free and prosperous place, under its grip, having seized it during a spat with Kerkyra, another former colony. The free citizens of Epidamnos who loved liberty and despised tyranny have fled, some to the Illyrians and others to neighboring cities. Among those who fled to Lissos, another Adriatic colony of Hellenes, was the proboulos of the city, whose powers were modeled on our constitution.
ATHENAGORAS: A fine constitution indeed!
MNEMNON: Aye. And so they have been there for the past four years, but now they come to us. With the war between Athenai and Lakedaimon in full swing, the Epidamnians hope to return home in time. They do not wish to foment revolution, but instead to seek refuge in Eretria Eskhata. They fear that the people of Lissos would turn them over to Korinthos, fearful as they are of the wrath of Korinthos, but believe that the city of Eretria is not fearful, and are they not correct? But yet, I fear in their good intentions and hopes for the liberty of their homes, they may yet turn the eyes of Hellas to us, and attract attention that we do not wish.
OBANDER: And further, use us as a shield for their own ambitions.
ATHENAGORAS: An uncharitable observation, citizen! An uncharitable observation indeed. Who are we to turn away those who seek refuge? Can we forget that once there was a time when we sought refuge, and the Epidamnians opened their harbor to us, desperate and begging that we were, and allowed us to survive?
OBANDER: I also recall, some time later, that an ambitious group of Epidamnians attempted to convince our citizens to help them in some petty takeover that they had planned. Beware an Epidamnian seeking aid, I say.
MNEMNON: They seem like men of good spirit and honesty.
OBANDER: But I do not know them. You do not know them either, Xenoparakletor, and who are you to say as well to their good intentions, Athenagoras? I do not trust men who come from the east bringing promises of alliance and friendship. Eretria Eskhata has not become the city that it is by turning east.
ATHENAGORAS: Indeed, except for its vast trading networks, which include those shipments of grain and other staples which we dispatch across the Adriatic Sea...
MNEMNON: Citizens, citizens, please. Let us not argue so much. Let us instead each state our case. I would say first of all that we should take them, but I should also caution that it is not in our best interest to become involved in Hellas. The reason we should take these Epidamnians is instead to extend a greeting to a fellow and to have the opportunity to develop a friend across the sea once more, and one not tainted by dishonor as Kerkyra was. Furthermore, it will send a strong warning to Korinthos that their recent behavior in the sea has been unacceptable, without cost to Eretria, so that we might not shoulder the cost of a war against half of Hellas, and instead use this as a boon to reveal our strength and interest in the unacceptable affairs of Korinthos. I think that, as the accountant Leukos, one of the citizens in the assembly said during a debate in the prior year, that it is wise to choose when to be passionate and when to be prudent, and here it is best we be prudent and without passion in how we choose.
OBANDER: You speak in terms of half-measures and a lack of cost. One would think a man of horses would understand that everything comes with a cost and that the first step to riding is to own a saddle. I would say instead that there is a great deal of assumption here, assumption which cannot be proven, that we will not be dragged into war. We must instead think to the fact that Eretria is not a city which has ever won by looking east. When we looked east in the Ionian revolt, we were thrown out of our country, and forced to arrive here in Italia. It is the west that has saved and the east which has harmed us. The Kerkyrans, which forced us to betray our ally, came from the east. All that is ill and unfortunate has come from Hellas and its neighbors, and we would be better off restricting ourselves and our activities to the upper Adriatic and to Italia, where we have become wealthy, strong, and respected, and could be moreso if only we did not entrust pampered merchants to safeguard our reputation and represent our farmers. Kyrillos, him who is sometimes called salt-lover, knows the truth of the matter; that we cannot sit and ponder trade when death itself walks near to our shores. Now is the time for decisiveness, not careful plotting.
ATHENAGORAS: There is a man among the citizenry. He speaks often and speaks well. But his name is odd, is it not? Hermesdora Eretriazenis. A most peculiar name. He is of Thracian stock. Was, at the least. No doubt the grandson of some emancipated slave, walking and talking among us like a normal Hellene. Extraordinary. And now he is Eretrian. He is honored! And yet where is Thrake? To the east. And where are we all from? To the east. To claim that from the east comes every ill thing would be terribly Exorian of you, Obander, for is that not the opinion of the Iapygian goat-men who believe that our arrival here was equivalent in catastrophe to the arrival of the Kalydonian boar in Aetolia? Perhaps they should begin worshipping an Atalanta to come and save them from us, to slay us all? It would suit their ways, I suppose, to seek rescue from a woman. Or perhaps we should instead accept that we are children of the east who have settled in the west, and we cannot divorce ourselves from the happenings of Hellas. No one is asking us to plunge deep into the bosom of our fellows, or even to make war against the Korinthians, though they to be sure deserve it. Instead, what is being asked, at this moment, is to secure one set of paltry exiles and allow them safe harbor at Eretria, from which we may yet receive immeasurable goodwill. Surely as a farmer, Obander, you understand the purpose of reaping what you sow?
MNEMNON: I thank you for your words, citizens. Now, as is customary, the assembly has the floor.
Should the city of Eretria Eskhata host the remnants of Epidamnos' rightful democratic government and give them sanctuary?
[] [Epidamnians] Eretria Eskhata should host them. They are the representatives of liberty, and do not wish to cause trouble besides. They have conducted themselves honorably, and present advantage to Eretria without creating a route to war.
[] [Epidamnians] Eretria Eskhata should send them away. Every step we take away from neutrality is a step we take to conflict. No matter the cost and no matter how simple it seems to be, we must not get involved under any circumstances in the squabbles of Hellas.
Immigration Policy: Sourcing Labour
Eretria's strength flows from her growing reserves of manpower. Whereas other cities, and even western colonies, are reliant on the natural increase of her citizens and the fickle bounty of Demeter to grow, Eretria has grown in large part thanks to the expansion of her population of metics. Where many Hellenes outright refuse the admission of foreigners into their boundaries, Eretria has provided them special legal guarantees and even, after pressure, an assembly, extraordinary among the Hellenes. However, all of this is not out of altruism. Eretria is dependent on metic labor in lieu of slaves, and indeed, Metics make up a far more complicated strata of her reserve of labor than in other cities. Where in Athenai, metics often fulfill specialized roles like those of artisans and craftsmen, in Eretria metics come from every single walk of life.
To achieve the meteoric growth the city has obtained, however, Demos Drakonia and the other Demoi did not simply sit and wait. Using Eretria's considerable financial resources, they instead toured the whole of Hellas and attracted immigrants that way. But there are different emissaries and strategies used to draw immigrants. In the past, Eretria has mainly recruited for manpower, to fill its territory and reduce the price of labor. But there could be other reasons to recruit immigrants; to gain unique talent from across Hellas, to secure the loyalty of the Metics already there, to strengthen the city's trade and manufacturing sectors, such as they are. As with the Athenians, the citizen service of Eretria is known to dabble in business and oikonomia from time to time, and a healthy respect for the realities of money have given the city great success in the past.
Now, with the war beginning, there are unparalleled opportunities to attract those fearful of war or hungry for peace. Eretria must not bring forward a generation of cravens, but certainly even the most brave man will from time to time be overcome with a lust for home and stability. If Eretria is to be that home, a metic's home, then all the better to the glory of the city, which cannot otherwise compete with its neighbors, the numerous Lucanians and the capable Tarentines, not to mention the states of Hellas. Why can the folly of the east not be the triumph of the west? Is that not what the city of Eretria was found upon?
Who can say, if not the assembly, and so the question turns to it.
What particular attribute should Eretria Eskhata's emissaries be looking for in immigrants?
[] [Immigration] Manpower. What the city needs above all is people, to work its fields and fight its wars. The emissaries of the city ought to look for healthy, hale, and strong men who would be willing to come to Eretria to work as tenant labourers for merchants and farmers. These men shall girdle the city and be the legs that carry it forward [If successful, higher number of low-skill immigrants with higher overall immigration].
[] [Immigration] Talent. The city cannot waste its time searching for the barest and most boorish men. If the city is to become one of glory and renown among all Hellenes, then it must attract those who are made of finer stuff; artisans, professionals, intellectuals and playwrights who can make Eretria a true hub of culture [If successful, lower number of high-skill immigrants with the chance to eventually produce another luxury trade route].
[] [Immigration] Loyalty. What good are fieldhands who plot against you, or artists who sing one song among citizens and another among metics? If the city is to grow, it needs those who are loyal and grateful. Look among the refugees of war, or those from old Euboaea, and those who embrace Eretria's vision and government [If successful, random assortment of immigrants grateful to the city with random effects].
Metic Policy: Presenting of the Grievances
The Metic Assembly is an irregularly called for body that may be requested by the ekklesia to speak from time to time and present the grievance of the Metics. In the past, the Demos Drakonia have let the assembly's voice lapse, and ignored the requests of Metics to renew it, but the Antipatrids are known to be friends of Metics and so are better suited to deal fairly with them. And so, Kyros Gennadios, Proboulos of the Antipatrid Deme, has called them to speak. They have accordingly elected an Eretrian citizen to lead them, the craftsman Timotaios. When he speaks, he does so from a rock covered in straw, representing the rock of the Metics. He is the last in a line going back to Kyriakos, who served as a permanent representative for some thirty-two years before the entire process was reformed, and permanent representatives no longer existed.
With it being so long since the previous assembly was called, it is likely that this particular ledger of grievances will be a lively one.
KYROS: The Prytanis has the floor. While he speaks, let no man interrupt him, or be beaten with sticks for a sacrilegious crime.
PRYTANIS TIMOTAIOS: I thank you. Thank you. I must admit, I am little more than the servant of the assembly of the people, and before the people do I bring bearing the grievances of the Metics, presented with their love and their compassion for the people to which they are subordinate to. I speak on behalf of them only as their mouthpiece; through my mouth their words are transmitted, and the sanctity of the assembly is upheld, to restrict it only to the people.
The Metics have met upon their assembly field outside the Gate of Feathers, and they have convened, and they have argued. Among themselves they have decided upon five grievances, of which they designate two as major of those that they hold, and three as minor, matters of honor or pride! Grievance the first, oh my, but this is-yes, yes, of course.
Grievance the first, is that the Metics are...embarassed, and humiliated, by the representation that they are given. For the city has thousands to speak for it, but the metics have none! That man who speaks for the metics, well, hmm, excuse me a moment- yes. That man who speaks for the metic is a fool, and I must repeat, I am only a mouthpiece, of course. Now, that man who speaks for the metics is a fool, for he is not a metic. How can a man who is not among the people speak for the people? Would the assembly have a metic speak for it? No! Then why should the assembly dispatch a citizen to speak for the Metics! As is only fair and just, the Metics understand their place, and know they are below the people. We are nothing if not loyal, but how can we express their loyalty when we are forced to speak through others? Allow the Metics to appoint our own representative when the assembly is called, and we will show you the deep extent of our loyalty and love for Eretria.
Grievance the second, is that the Metics are frustrated, confused, by the opportunities they are given to present their grievances. Some times they are called forward five times in just as many years, another time once after ten years. It is unfair to both Citizens and Metics that the Metics are given only such limited opportunities to speak, for the citizens who wish to hear them out must wait, and the Metics who wish to be heard must wait, also. Instead, would it not be fairer to all if the Metics were allowed to speak once every eight years, on a schedule, which both Citizen and Metic can follow? And then the Metic and the Citizen will understand each other better, and be without fear and confusion, for each will know the time of listening.
Grievance the third, is that Metic father have been rendered unmanly. In their own homes in Hellas the father had the powers of divorce over his beloved daughter as did any Hellene father, to divorce when the husband had been cruel, or when she had become an heiress, to ensure the prosperity of his children and grandchildren. But in Eretria the father has no such power, and so while citizen fathers hold their heads high and smile, for they know they can protect their daughters, Metic fathers hold their heads low and their manhoods shrivel, for they can do nothing but stand by as their own blood is subject to cruelty or robbery. It is an outrageous attack on us that heavenly Zeus can ensure the safety of his children but the earthly father is unable to act against the whims of the husband.
Grievance the fourth, is that Metics fight and die for the city, but the city gives them little recompense. For some of us who are heroes we are given equal rights, which is to say that our liabilities and burdens are lifted and we are taxed at lesser rates. But how can the city of Eretria imagine, the city that granted all of its citizens citizenship upon arrival and freed even the slaves, providing freemen who do acts of heroism with only petty privileges? The man who has carried for Eretria not just his spear and shield, but the burden of his status, should upon an act of herosim be granted freedom from that status, to know what it is to be among the people and to participate in true demokratia which all of we love. We do not ask to break the limit of citizen and Metic, but to allow us to aspire and ascend should we show ourselves to be of a stock that even fair Antipater and stalwart Herodion would have been proud of.
Grievance the fifth, that Metics are not treated fairly upon juries because the juries are staffed only by citizens. Many citizens in these juries are given the opportunity to insult or jeer at Metics who have been put before a stand, and yet despite our requests and pleas the city has always refused to allow us to have our own courts for our own offenses. And so, if the city is insistent on allowing a single court for all offenses, this is fair, but let us also be represented on the juries only in those cases where we are on trial. We need not be all the jurors, or even a majority, but if we are not able to plead our case not just as the guilty but the judging, then we are placed at a disadvantage before the law.
All of these are the grievances of the Metic Assembly in the first year of Kyros & Mnemnon, under the representation of the honored Prytanis Timotaios. It is now open to the assembly to debate the grievances.
In order for the presenting of the grievances to be considered a success by the Metic Assembly, at least one major reform and one minor reform must be granted. The more reforms granted, the more pleased the metics will be, but granting all the reforms may anger a minority of citizens who feel the assembly is capitulating and undermining their status.
Vote for as many or as few reforms as you like.
Major Reform: Should the city allow Metics to elect a Prytanis among themselves who will be able to speak at the assembly on their behalf, rather than relying on a citizen?
[] [Prytanis] Allow them to elect a Prytanis among themselves.
[] [Prytanis] The Prytanis will remain a chosen citizen.
Major Reform: Should the city allow Metics to present their grievances in a regular fashion, once every eight years?
[] [Standardization] Allow a standard presentation of grievances every eight years, counting from 346 OL.
[] [Standardization] The assembly should be called and grievances accepted only when the assembly decides.
Minor Reform: Should the city allow the same rights in marriage to the Metic father as to the citizen father?
[] [Marriage] Reform the laws so the Metic Father has the same rights in the marriage of his daughter.
[] [Marriage] To place the Metic father at the same level as his citizen counterpart as unacceptable.
Minor Reform: Should the city allow the occasional bestowal of citizenship in cases of heroism?
[] [Citizenship] If the city should bound citizenship grants by strict rules, then Metic heroes should be given it.
[] [Citizenship] Metic heroes should be celebrated by having their burdens and restrictions lifted, not a reward of citizenship.
Minor Reform: Should the city allow Metics to appear on juries where their peers are being prosecuted?
[] [Juries] Allow Metics to appear on the city's juries if the situation involves their peers as defendent.
[] [Juries] Citizens are just as good a judge as metics, and there is no need to involve them.
Voting is now open. Please be sure to maintain the bracketed title (e.g [Juries]) for each vote; they will allow me to separate votes by task, which will make keeping track of things much easier.
