Read Novel Full Chapter 1105: Jason
Chapter 1105: Jason
During the Western Mediterranean War, the Daionian Army's prowess in siege warfare had caused Hasdrubal a great deal of trouble. They had only clashed once in a pitched battle—where the Daunian Allied Forces led by Leotychides were defeated—but on the right wing, where they faced the true Theonia Legion, Hasdrubal's highly valued Phoeno-Numidian Infantry had been beaten back step by step. This left him deeply interested in the Theonia Legion.
While the Ministry of Military Affairs was busy assembling the Border Legion, the Ministry of Finance was also hard at work. The new Taxation Act had been announced and was gradually gaining acceptance among the kingdom's people. Although the nationwide collection of direct taxes was still several months away, the new Minister of Finance, Akibides, had already urged the town tax offices to begin estimating their residents' incomes for the year. This would allow them to project the total expected tax revenue under the new rates, draft a new financial allocation plan based on those figures, and submit it to Davos for his review.
...
The new Immigration Act, the new Taxation Act, the formation of new legions, the establishment of new administrative districts... a series of new measures was being implemented methodically. They set the kingdom's development on a new track, promising more efficient governance, more prosperous finances, and greater military security.
That same year, the war on the Greek Mainland entered a new phase. Following the Battle of Tesia, the Thebans' prestige soared. Seizing the opportunity, they drove out the Spartan garrisons surrounding Thebes and gradually rallied the neighboring city-states of Boeotia to their side, further bolstering their power. They then deployed troops in an attempt to capture the City of Thisbe, a Spartan-aligned city situated north of the Gulf of Corinth in southern Boeotia, to prevent the Spartans from landing there again and directly threatening Thebes from the south.
Upon receiving the news, Sparta had no choice but to dispatch King Cleombrotus to lead their forces once more. They sailed across the Gulf of Corinth to aid the people of Thisbe and repel the invading Theban army.
Just as a new round of fighting erupted between the two sides, an envoy from the city-state of Pharsalus in Thessaly arrived in Sparta.
This envoy was Polydamas, a man of great prestige in Pharsalus. Whenever internal strife fractured the city, the populace would unanimously entrust the acropolis to his care and give him full control of the city-state's revenues and expenditures. Whether managing the finances for religious affairs or civic administration, he strictly adhered to the law and kept everything perfectly organized. At the end of each year, he would submit a detailed ledger of the city-state's finances, and if there was ever a deficit, he would cover it from his own pocket. As a result, he was not only deeply respected by the people of Pharsalus, but enjoyed a stellar reputation throughout Thessaly.
Naturally, the arrival of such a figure prompted a grand reception from the Council of Elders in Sparta. They agreed to his request and convened a special meeting specifically for him.
During this meeting, Polydamas brought up a particular matter.
Thessaly lay in the northern part of Central Greece. To the north, continuous mountain ranges separated it from Macedonia—among them stood Mount Olympus, revered by the Greeks as the divine home of Zeus. It bordered the mountainous region of Epirus to the west, the Aegean Sea to the east, and the Malian region to the south, where Thermopylae was located.
Geographically, Thessaly was surrounded by mountains on all sides. Countless streams cascaded down the slopes, converging into multiple rivers that washed soil from the valleys to form fertile plains, sustaining a large population. Besides its highly developed agriculture, Thessaly's many gentle slopes offered high-quality natural pastures for horse breeding, while the plains below provided vast open spaces for them to gallop. Consequently, Thessaly was renowned throughout Greece for its horses and cavalry. (Note: Historically, Alexander the Great's famous warhorse, Bucephalus, came from Macedonia, and the 5,000 cavalrymen he took on his Persian campaign largely hailed from Thessaly.)
Despite these excellent geographical conditions, the city-states of Thessaly were constantly mired in bitter rivalries and endless warfare. As a result, it had never become a major power on the Greek Mainland.
However, this fractured state of affairs had begun to change in recent years. Pherae was the only coastal city-state in Thessaly with a thriving port trade. Combined with its own developed agriculture and animal husbandry, it was the wealthiest city-state in all of Thessaly.
Within Pherae lived a citizen named Jason. At birth, his father had named him after the ancient hero (Jason being the protagonist of the Golden Fleece legend), hoping he would achieve greatness when he grew up. Jason did not disappoint his father's hopes. Through various means, he eventually became the tyrant of Pherae. Yet he did not stop there. Leveraging Pherae's wealth, he recruited 6,000 mercenaries and subjected them to rigorous training. He gave generous rewards to soldiers who fought bravely, provided good care and medical treatment for the wounded, and arranged grand funerals for those who died in battle. As a result, the mercenaries were loyal to him and willing to fight to the death for him.
Thessaly's cavalry enjoyed a great reputation, and its heavy infantry was also quite famous. Both were already part of his newly formed army, but Jason was still unsatisfied. By paying close attention to the Greek War occurring south of Thessaly over the years, he had realized the importance of peltasts (the Athenian general Iphicrates excelled at commanding Thracian peltasts and had repeatedly won distinguished merit). And the mountains surrounding Thessaly likewise produced excellent peltasts.
And so, commanding this well-trained and brave army, he successively conquered the Malians, the Dolopians (a tribe in the mountains north of Thessaly), and the Epirotes in the northwestern mountains of Thessaly, thereby expanding his mercenary forces.
Under his authoritarian rule, Pherae's power grew day by day. Taking advantage of the Greek hegemon Sparta being busy with the war against Thebes and Athens and unable to look north, he forced several northern Thessalian city-states near Pherae, such as Larissa and Crannon, to submit to him. He then turned his sights on Pharsalus.
Located in the center of the Thessaly Region, Pharsalus had long been a powerful state in this area, and many Thessalian city-states followed its lead. Conquering it would allow him to unify the entire Thessaly Region more smoothly.
And so, Jason led an army of over ten thousand men southward to march on Pharsalus in a massive display of force.
Pharsalus hastily summoned the armies of its other allied states to stand together against the invading enemy.
After winning the initial engagement, Jason did not immediately launch an attack on the city of Pharsalus. Instead, he sent an envoy into the city to urge their surrender, specifically seeking out Polydamas, who was serving as the commander of the allied forces at the time, to deliver a handwritten letter from Jason.
In the letter, Jason told Polydamas straightforwardly that with the powerful military force in his hands, he could completely annihilate Pharsalus and its allied armies in one fell swoop. The reason he had not done so was that he wanted the Thessalian city-states, led by Pharsalus, to willingly join the Thessalian Alliance he had established. Only then would they not constantly plot rebellion, but rather do everything in their power to jointly safeguard the interests of the alliance.
He also asked Polydamas to assist him fully in becoming the tagus of all Thessalians (the Thessalian title for the hegemon of all Thessaly). In return, he would give Polydamas a generous reward, making him second only to Jason himself and above all others.
In the letter, he also displayed his lofty ambitions to Polydamas: as long as Thessaly was under the rule of a single tagus, the years of war would be quelled. Abundant grain, a large population, and well-trained mercenaries... would allow him to dispatch an army of 6,000 cavalry and over 10,000 heavy infantry at any time. He could ally with the Boeotian city-states led by Thebes to the south; if he could liberate them from Spartan control, they would certainly obey his every word. At the same time, he could control Macedonia to the north. Because the Athenians obtained their shipbuilding timber from there, he could use it to build far more ships than the southern Greek city-states and form a powerful fleet... Yet his true goal was neither the barren lands of the south nor those tiny islands in the Aegean Sea, but Persia on the vast eastern continent. Since the Greek mercenaries of the past and the army of Agesilaus later on had been able to fight their way in and out of Persian territory, and he possessed an even stronger army, he had full confidence that he could conquer the kingdom of Persia, thereby attaining unprecedented glory and wealth!
Polydamas was completely astounded by the vigorous ambition revealed in the letter.
After Polydamas calmed down, he wrote a reply to Jason: he admitted that the various issues Jason raised in the letter were indeed worth considering. However, Pharsalus and the others were already allies of Sparta (after Sparta helped the Macedonian king defeat the Chalcidian League, it had increased its influence over Central Greece and Northern Greece, leading Pharsalus and many other Thessalian city-states to forge alliances with Sparta). To break away from the alliance without any excuse and defect to their enemies would be immoral, and they would not be protected by the gods.
Jason quickly provided a reply.
In the letter, he highly praised Polydamas, considering him a man who kept his promises, and stating that such a person was even more trustworthy.
Furthermore, he suggested that Polydamas could dispatch envoys to Sparta to request their aid.
At the end of the letter, he stated with immense confidence: "If the gods allow you to persuade Sparta to send an army powerful enough to fight me, then I can only wait and see, and accept whatever consequences this war brings. But if they cannot provide you with sufficient aid, then you had best do as I previously demanded, and all of Thessaly will unite under me—a new tagus!"