Chapter 658: The drought and the news about Rome
"Oh, also." Burkes warned, After specifically investigating the food storage in people's homes in the cities of Thurii, Crotone, Grumentum, Consentia and Locri, we found that their food would last only until November at best!"
"What about Sicily?" asked Androlis.
Burkes responded, "Sicily received plenty of rain this year that they wouldn't have a problem with the grain harvest in such cities as Catania and Naxos."
"What about Campania?"
"The farms in that region are in good shape." Upon Androlis' reminder, Burkes continued, "Carthage in Africa also didn't suffer any drought as only central Greece, and the Peloponnese experienced the same situation as we did. However, theirs was slightly less severe."
Davos tapped on the table with an unpleasant expression as he listened to his subordinate's report. But soon, his knitted brows relaxed as he slowly said, "Man's fate is as uncertain as the weather; they would suddenly have misfortunes and blessings. The gods cannot always take care of Theonia, and this impending drought is a test of our kingdom. But we have nothing to fear! We are prepared for it! At the previous Senate meetings, hasn't it been mentioned many times that except for occasionally supplying the legions for their battle, we just leave the grains sitting in the granaries, which is a complete waste? But this time, those seemingly wasted grains would save the lives of millions of our people!"
Davos' words made Lysias, Mersis, and the others feel ashamed.
After a slight tap, Davos continued asking, "Burkes, have you made the statistics on how long the grain in the kingdom's granaries can keep feeding the people in south Italia?"
Burkes, who had long prepared for that question, said in a low tone, "Your majesty, the kingdom has a total of nine granaries, which are located in Grumentum, Thurii, Consentia, Crotone, Terina, Locri, Catania, Rudiae and Sigeon(they correspond to the stronghold of the ten legions). The granaries have a total of about a hundred thousand tons of grains, while the population of south Italia is about 1.5 million. So if we only allow two meals daily for each person, we can guarantee the food supply for about six months."
"It's only six months! That's insufficient to feed the people until next year's autumn harvest!" Vespa sighed.
The other rotating speakers looked at him.
Marigi hurriedly explained to clear his confusion, "With the citizens making a lot of money from the sale of grain in previous years because of the successive good harvests, there are now only very few poor citizens. So instead of supplying them with grain in our granaries for free, we would sell it in the market at a lower price so that they can all afford it to tide them over this difficult time. It is also a way to stop the grain merchants from taking this opportunity to wildly raise the price of grain, thus causing panic among the people..."
Davos mused, "Hundred tons of grain is still not enough! We must have sufficient grain reserves to cope with the coming drought. Moreover, we also need to save enough wheat seed for next year's sowing, so you must use the treasury to buy large quantities of grain in Carthage, Cyrenaica and even Egypt before the news spreads."
"Alright, your majesty; I'll get to it immediately!" Mersis answered without hesitation or quibbling because he knew that this was the kingdom's top priority.
"Marigi, your Ministry of Commerce must strictly control the markets in the cities so that the grain merchants would sell the grains at the right price and must not disrupt the market recklessly by blindly raising the prices... And for the grain merchants who ignore our warnings and persist in their recklessness, allow the Ministry of Commerce, in conjunction with the courts, to impose severe penalties on them!
At the same time, you must work with the city praetors to verify the identity of the buyer when selling the grain from the granaries and only allow each person to buy a certain amount of grain per day, not more, to prevent them from selling the granaries' grain in large quantities and taking advantage of this drought to get rich. If found that they are behaving in such a despicable manner, you shall punish them heavily!"
"Understood, your majesty!" Marigi answered seriously.
"Burkes!" Davos faced the Minister of Agriculture again, "Now that the drought is upon us and the rivers have become shallow, the waterwheel's usefulness is greatly diminished. Instead, you must dig wells as it is a good solution to the problem of feeding the population. Thus you and the Department of Construction must work together on digging deep wells in the cities to solve the water shortage."
"Understood, your majesty. I will go to the Department of Construction at once!" Burkes answered with an exhausted expression.
Davos' gaze finally fell on the five rotating speakers, "Esteemed lords, we need to convene the Senate urgently to discuss a proposal to deal with the drought as soon as possible and to remind the people to save food and water in the coming time, and also to stock up on more water at their home...At the same time, we need to assure them that they don't need to panic and instead remain calm because, with Hades' blessing and the full support of the kingdom, we will definitely overcome this difficulty!"
"Your majesty, we will hold a meeting in the afternoon." Cornelius immediately replied.
Davos nodded and then swept his gaze at everyone present, making their expression tense again. Davos asked loudly, "Lysias, how did you deal with the drought in Magna Graecia twenty-five years ago?"
"Your majesty." Lysias recalled the situation with a pained expression, "Back then, the Crotonians raised money to buy grain in Carthage. But the cunning Carthaginians knew that we were in the middle of a drought, so they immediately increased the price of grain by several times. Since we failed to buy more grain, the council had no choice but to send some of our people to colonise Iberia by lottery. But all those who went out died by the attacks of the natives of Iberia..."
"The city-state is small and weak. Hence when encountering such a natural disaster, one can only endure the pain of relatives and friends separating and families being torn apart. But the kingdom of Theonia can spare every family in the kingdom from having to endure such suffering. Although drought is a terrible thing, it is also good! Because it will make those few people who are still drunk on the long history of city-states and those delusional about independence see clearly and understand that only by staying in such a powerful kingdom can they ensure their safety through every natural and man-made disaster and that their homes will have lasting peace!"
Davos' words invigorated the statesmen present and even aroused their compassion. After working hard for more than ten years in this kingdom with its unique government, even Lysias, who was the latest to join, increasingly identified himself with this powerful kingdom.
. . . . . . . . . . . .
After sending Cornelius away, Aristias came in before Davos could catch his breath, "Your majesty, the intelligence department has sent news about Rome from the north."
Upon hearing Rome, Davos immediately got interested and asked, "What's the situation?"
"Rome's rebellious ally, Praeneste, invited the Volsci to the south of Rome, together with Aequi to the east of Rome, and the Hernic to the south-east of Rome to invade the Roman territory and are known to have had a force of about twenty thousand men."
Praeneste? Davos thought for a moment but didn't have any impression about them. So he immediately turned to his clerk, Henipolis, and said, "Heni, go get the map of central Italia."
After laying out the map on the desk, Davos look at it closely and finally found the location of that Latin city-state. Praeneste was a prominent Latin city-state located over 30 kilometres southeast of Rome, near the mountains. It just so happens that they are at the entrance to the lowlands between the mountains, guarding the mountain path towards the Aequians and Hernicans. On the flip side, Praeneste's defection has allowed the Aequians and the Hernicans to easily invade Rome's Latin allies and threaten the city of Rome itself...
"Have all the Roman troops that went north to attack Etruria returned?" Davos asked again.
"I still haven't received any message about that yet," replied Aristias.
Davos stroked his chin as he was long in his thoughts.
In the third year of Theonia (390 B.C.) The Celtic King Brennus, who occupied the upper reaches of the Po River, united most Celtic tribes and invaded the Etruscans in the south.
After defeating many Etruscan forces and capturing many towns, they began sieging the city of Clusium. Then Rome, Clusium's ally, sent an army to rescue them, which resulted in a battle between the Celts and Roman armies near the Allia river, which ended in a crushing defeat for Rome.
But what Davos didn't know was that, without the temptation of the envoys sent by Dionysius(Dionysius died at the hands of Phoebidas two years earlier) in this life, the Celts didn't just leave the Etruscan towns along the way unattacked and advanced quickly towards Rome. Instead, they continued their slaughter and plunder all the way until they crossed the Tiber more than two months later.
At this time, the deteriorating walls of Rome couldn't even wholly encircle the city. In addition, half of the young people in the city were either killed or injured in battle, and most of the plebeians left the city of Rome in anger due to the conflicts between the nobles and the plebeians in previous years and settled in the city of Veii. As a result, this was a time when there were no longer enough troops to defend Rome. Apart from a few elderly who are weak and unwilling to leave their hometown, there are only a few people who are willing to stick to the city's Capitoline while the majority of the population evacuated the city.
Some went to Veii, while a few went to Ardea, a Latin city south of Rome. And it was here that the famous Roman general Camillus, who had once conquered Veii but had been expelled on false charges, lived in hiding.
Although the Celts occupied Rome easily and slaughtered the elderly, they still couldn't attack the dangerous Capitoline Hill. Instead, they encircle it and send other troops to the surrounding areas to collect provisions, thus ravaging the towns and villages in Latium.