Have you read what I have previously written? No, you just cherry picked the parts that offended you the most.
Have I read what you've written? Yes, I obviously have if I was able to cherry pick what I needed.
And saying this
When I offer to give you evidence of what I've said in the past, doesn't help your argument that
I'm the one taking what I want from what you say to make myself seem like the morally superior one.
Answer these questions? Why would Mnemmon have to do 40% of the work? Where did you obtain that percentage? Despite what you are saying, you clearly believe Obander is incompetent. The man is an Antipatrid who wishes more than anything else to preserve the traditions of the city, do you think he would undermine the office of the Xeno like you hysterically predicted?
Okay, let's go then.
40% of the work. Mnemnon has to ride out to the Messappi and then organise with their King a levy tax, Obander is not good with barbarians, he largely left it to Mnemnon with the Enetoi and hasn't majorly lived near, or dealt with them on the frontiers. So this is basically all Mnemnon, then Mnemnon has to ride to all their other cities, because they're all decentralised. This is trying to get the Messappi to go to a true vassal relationship without pissing them off too much, after they've lost territory to Taras and after we started to very loosely support a King unpopular in the cities who like us the most.
Note, Obander likely will get better at this as time moves on, but he's also going to be dealing with Kymai and the other trips, which will mean more pressure of Mnemnon.
Then, as well as this, Mnemnon has prior connections to the Enetoi and seemed to do decently with them, as well as generally being good with Barbaroi. So, though there may be a translator, remember the Enetoi has one of their own last time, and seemed to be able to communicate half decently, most of the work will be down by a Mnemnon who has negotiated with them twice, especially as Obander also didn't do much during this trip. The Enetoi diplomacy is one of the most major, and most difficult parts of the job, a major diplomatic mission.
So that's basically two missions where Obander has to rely on Mnemnon, one of which will take months (the Messappi mission) and the second will be highly sensitive.
Obander hasn't done the best with Naval focussed leaders, in the Enetoi or in Taras, he got the peace, but he wasn't able to connect on a personal level, his successes with other maritime cities have been to areas of low difficulty, such as Rhegion, who were already our long term allies and had a great deal of love for Eretria due to their history will Sicily. So here he may lean on the Drakonkids.
Obander will likely head up the annexations and Athenian trip solo. But essentially he is doing 40% of the job. Two and a third missions to Mnemnons flat out two and the rest picked up by whoever we need.
Maybe I'm underestimating him. But the dude focusses on subtle politics (I'm sure that he was working with the Antipatrid priest to help cause the religious stir that was responsible for the end of Drakonid dominance, I'm sure of it) and traditional Hellene's, not Naval polities and Barbaroi, there are several examples of this.
And finally, your claims that I am hysterical and that Obander would never harm the cities traditions. That's true, he wouldn't ever purposefully harm the cities traditions, in fact, he's rather conservative, he saw the Cemetery of Heroes and Reward Systems as a threat, and sought to keep them out. Which is impressive at least, in the form of his utter dedication to protecting the city.
However, you cannot tell me you do not see the danger of an informal deputisation process that leaves large chunks of foreign diplomacy in the hands of someone not our foreign diplomat? How a citizen wielding massive responsibilities and powers on the ground without being elected is not a potential problem? How such a person or tradition may not harm the city in the long run? Or undermine the positions strength and importance?
