NOVEL NEXT Chapter 226 Davos Crotocatax
"I saw him. He's very beautiful, just like you!"
"I haven't named the child yet. I'll wait for you to come back and choose one."
Davos had considered the child's name on the way back. He put one arm around his wife's shoulders, his chin supported by the other, and said thoughtfully, "I remember the first time I learned you were pregnant was right after we defeated the Crotones... And this time he was born, we defeated Crotone again, and the war with Crotone had just ended. This child has such a connection with Crotone. This is Hades' will! I think we should name our child... Crotocatax, what do you think?"
"Crotocatax... Crotocatax..." Christoya whispered several times, then looked up at her husband with a hint of concern. "Isn't this name too flashy (Crotocatax means conquer, and Crotocatax means the conqueror of Crotone)?"
Davos smiled. "With this name, when my child grows up, the people of Dionia will call him by his name, and they'll remember the hardships of founding the country and his father's contributions to the alliance, and will be more tolerant of him! At the same time, if my child has ambition, he will be inspired by this name to create his own glory!" Christoya, who
was not entirely satisfied with the name, thought about it and finally nodded. "Okay, let's call him Crotocatax." As
soon as she finished speaking, the crying of the child in the outer room stopped abruptly.
Christoya covered her mouth and looked at Davos in surprise. "Oh my God, this name has been blessed by Hera! The child has accepted it!"
At this moment, Assuna came in, holding the child.
Christoya took him and whispered, "Little...little baby, this is your father! Call daddy!"
The child shouted "Haha" and danced with joy.
"Look, he called you!" Christoya smiled gently, and then carefully placed the child in front of Davos.
Davos placed him in his arms carefully, fearing that if he exerted too much force, he would hurt the little guy.
This time, the child did not cry. He opened his bright eyes and looked at Davos curiously, scratching his face with his two chubby little hands.
Davos let him play. At this moment, he felt the surge of blood connection in his heart. He said excitedly: "Christoya, I will use my name as the family name and pass it on to my children. Then they will pass it on to future generations. I believe that the Davos family will become the most dazzling family in the Mediterranean!"
Davos' words made Christoya's eyes light up. Most Greeks had only given names, not surnames. To distinguish duplicates, they often prefixed their given names with their place of origin or other annotations, such as Socrates of Athens and Socrates, son of Asidatis. However, the nobles of the great Eastern power of Persia had both given and surnames. Christoia, a native of Miletus in Asia Minor, was well aware of this. She sensed her husband's ambition in Davos's words and recited their son's future name with great interest: "Davos Crotocatacus..."
At that moment, Davos glimpsed a small head popping up at the bedroom door.
"Cynthia, come in!" he beckoned.
Seven-year-old Cynthia, holding the almost five-year-old Adoris, hesitantly approached the bed.
"Come and see your brother!" Davos said happily to the siblings.
"You have a child... do you still want us?" Cynthia asked timidly.
Davos was stunned. He hadn't expected his adopted daughter to be so sensitive. He immediately handed the babies to Christoya, holding them both close to his chest. He exclaimed, "You will always be my Davos children. How could I ever abandon you?"
Christoya softly said, "And Mom hopes that when you grow up, you'll take good care of and protect your little brother!"
The two children, comforted by the couple, immediately lost their melancholy and looked curiously at the baby in Christoya's arms.
"Can I touch him?" Cynthia whispered.
"Of course," Christoya smiled gently.
Cynthia gently touched the baby's face. "What's your little brother's name?"
"Krotocatax, his nickname is... uh... Kro."
"He's so little." Adoris curiously squeezed the baby's tiny hand and said, like a little adult, "Little brother, I'll protect you."
............
"Hey, wake up! Wake up!!..." Korbus was nudged awake from his deep sleep. He opened his bleary eyes, but still feeling sleepy, he turned over, ready to resume his sweet dream.
Immediately, the wet whip lashed against his body, burning with pain. He jumped to his feet, and the demonic voice of the overseer echoed in his ears: "Get back to the quarry immediately! Master Lusimenes wants to lecture you!"
Klebus, already terrified by the overseer's whip, dragged his aching legs, endured hunger, and staggered out of the cave. He accidentally knocked over his companion. He instinctively reached out to help him, but his weakness dragged him down as well. He struggled for a while before getting up, and in the process, he received several more kicks from the overseer.
Crotone prisoners stumbled out of the various quarries like ants, converging on the circular quarry square.
Here, piles of freshly excavated marble lay everywhere. From the watchtower at the entrance, Lusimenes, the head of the Thurii mines, looked down impatiently at the scene below. "Too slow! Go and make these Crotone wimps hurry!" he ordered his men.
The Crotonites were then herded like lambs to the watchtowers by their overseers, clubbed and whipped.
Similar scenes unfolded at the Thurii Copper Mine and the construction site of the Temple of Hades.
"Men of Croton, for the crimes you once committed against Thurii, I wish I could imprison you here for a hundred years! I wish your filthy flesh would turn to slop, your fragile bones to powder!" Lysimenes cursed viciously. "But great Hades has shown mercy, granting us the Dionysian League an armistice with the damned Crotone, and we have become... allies. Now... you... may... return home..." Lysimenes
reluctantly finished his words. A sudden, dead silence fell, and the captives could hardly believe their ears.
"What... what did he say?" his companion asked, his voice trembling.
"He said... he said we can go home..." Klebus muttered, then seemed to react and suddenly grabbed his companion's shoulder: "Did you hear that?! We can go home! We are free!..."
After countless people confirmed that this news was true, they were so excited that they shed tears. They hugged each other, cheered, kissed the ground beneath their feet, closed their eyes and felt the warm sunshine... For the past few days, they have been mining like slaves in dark caves, enduring beatings from overseers, not having enough food to eat, and not being able to sleep well... This almost made these pampered Crotone citizens collapse. They had never felt the preciousness of freedom as they did today.
Lysimenes snorted coldly, not wanting to watch anymore: "Move the bread and cheese over there and let them have their fill."
"They're full, what if they rebel? We can't handle so many captives!" the men hesitated.
"That's perfect!" Lysimenes sneered. "They'll break the treaty first, so we can just wipe them out!"
"Got it."
"After they finish eating, let them bathe in the river and change their clothes, so the people from Crotone don't accuse us of mistreating the captives." "
That's not even mistreating them!
" the men muttered inwardly. With the arrival of the Crotone envoys, the captives were completely convinced that Dionysia and Crotone had allied and that they were returning home. Protected by heavily armed Dionysian soldiers, they marched in formation towards the port of Thurii...
Why protection? Because they feared that the radical Thurians would harm the unarmed and weak Crotone captives. Korbus had experienced this situation six months earlier, but this time, the Thurians didn't cause any trouble for the large group returning to Crotone, as he had feared. Even at the port, they saw very few Thurians.
Where had all the people of Thurii gone? The thought flashed through Korbus's mind for a moment, and now he was completely overwhelmed by joy: they could return home safely!
As the troop transports departed Thurii harbor, the captives finally felt relieved.
"I'll never come back to this place again!" one captive cried out, drawing nods of agreement from most of the soldiers, including Korbus. Two wars, two captives, the second especially, had been a nightmare they didn't even want to recall. Deep down, each of them harbored a degree of fear of the Dionysian Alliance!
In fact, the Dionysian treatment of Crotonite captives during the Second Crotonite War was forced upon them. After all, managing tens of thousands of captives was difficult, and most of Dionysian's own male citizens were away fighting. Meanwhile, the Crotone fleet periodically raided the coast of Thurici, and a riot among the captives would have been disastrous. That's why the Senate decided to imprison them like slaves in a mountain mining area far from the coast, crushing them with harsh conditions, hunger, and heavy labor...
---
The Dionysian people paid no attention to the Crotone captives who had left Thurii, because their heroes were about to return!
The Third Legion left 3,000 men under the leadership of Assistus to temporarily guard the city of Asprustum. The First Legion left 2,000 men under the leadership of Helos to temporarily manage Crimea. The rest of the troops all returned.