To maintain friendship with Sparta, Dionysius was forced to relocate the Messenians from Messina city. He built the city of Tyndaris in an inconspicuous place not far from Messina to settle these Messenians.

The reconstruction of Messina and the establishment of Tyndaris made Rhegium, across the strait, feel like there were thorns in its back. The people of Rhegium sensed Dionysius’s covetous gaze on their city-state. They even felt that joining the South Italian League wasn’t very safe because, at this moment, Syracuse had not only unified the Greek city-states of eastern Sicily but also basically conquered the Sicels. Its strength was too astonishing. Whether other city-states in the South Italian League would be willing to fight the powerful Syracuse for Rhegium was a big question! Perhaps only Theonia, the hegemon of Southern Italy, had the strength to challenge Syracuse.

Thus, the people of Rhegium held a Citizen Assembly, discussing for days without result.

Just then, a Syracusan fleet sailed into the harbor of Messina. Originally, this fleet was to escort the Syracusan army continuing its western expedition along the northern coast of Sicily. Unexpectedly, it provoked the sensitive people of Rhegium. The Citizen Assembly quickly passed a resolution, and envoys were swiftly dispatched to Thurii.

In the Theonian Senate, when the Rhegium envoy proposed that “Rhegium is willing to join the Theonian League,” the senators, including Davos, were quite shocked.

In the Theonian League, Laos, Castellum, Metapontum, Elea, Heraclea, and Garaguso were all small to medium-sized city-states of Southern Italy. Although Potentia was a large state in the league, it had been forced to join by the situation and Theonia’s military might, and it wasn’t very obedient. Theonia had been busy consolidating and governing Bruttium and Pyxus for the past two years and hadn’t had time to deal with Potentia, far away on the edge of the northern mountains.

But now, Rhegium was voluntarily requesting to join the Theonian League! Rhegium was not only a powerful state in Magna Graecia but also ranked first among Magna Graecia city-states in maritime trade wealth. With Rhegium’s accession, Theonian merchant ships and fleets could pass smoothly through the Strait of Messina, making trade with Iberia, Gaul, and the far western Mediterranean much more convenient. At the same time, it would be more conducive for the navy to protect Theonia’s cities on the west coast of Italy—Clampetia and Pyxus—as well as the allied city-states of Laos and Elea, connecting Theonia’s territorial waters.

The Theonian senators were naturally overjoyed and prepared to accept Rhegium’s accession. However, the Rhegium envoy put forward a precondition: Theonian Archon Davos must take a Rhegium woman as his wife. Moreover, the people of Rhegium have already chosen this woman; her name is Agnes.

Who was Agnes? Praised as the “Rose of Rhegium,” she had blossomed into a great beauty at sixteen, even attracting a proposal from Dionysius, the tyrant of Syracuse. However, the wary people of Rhegium resolutely rejected him.

The angry Syracusan envoy left behind a sentence: “Our omnipotent General will watch with open eyes to see who is more qualified than he to marry Agnes!”

Then, Dionysius turned to seek a wife from Locri. He adorned the guest ship welcoming his Locrian bride with jewels, decorating it to shine with dazzling golden light, which became a hot topic in Magna Graecia at the time.

In Rhegium, due to the sentence left by the Syracusan envoy, Agnes remained unmarried. As Syracuse continued to expand and grow stronger, not only the men of Rhegium but the entire city-state didn’t want to provoke Dionysius, fearing Rhegium would become the target of the Syracusan tyrant’s wrath.

As a result, several years passed, and Agnes was already an older single woman of twenty-one (Greek women generally married after fourteen, i.e., after puberty). Still, no one dared to marry her, and she had to become a priestess of Artemis, the famous virgin goddess of Greek mythology.

Now facing the threat of Syracuse, the realistic and sophisticated people of Rhegium believed: Davos is the true power holder of Theonia. Therefore, we want to bind Davos and Rhegium together through Agnes to jointly deal with Dionysius.

Davos saw through the Rhegians’ intentions and immediately refused.

Unexpectedly, a few days later, the Rhegium envoy managed to persuade most of the Senate, including Mersis, Marigi, Kunogelata, Cornelius, and others. They visited Davos together, hoping he would agree to Rhegium’s request. They even refuted Davos’s argument about “abiding by Theonia’s monogamy law,” pointing out that Theonian law had no such mandatory provision; it was merely a customary practice. Even in Athens, which once explicitly stipulated “monogamy,” polygamy was advocated during the Great Plague before the Peloponnesian War due to a massive population decline.

At the same time, they emphasized: Dionysius of Syracuse and other tyrants of Sicilian city-states have taken multiple wives. Therefore, the Lifelong Archon of Theonia, the hegemon of Southern Italy, certainly can too.

They also refuted Davos’s concern that Theonia would be dragged by Rhegium into a war with Syracuse. Philesius, Antonios, and others believed: Despite Syracuse appearing powerful, the Carthaginians will always be its great enemy. How would Dionysius dare risk a two-front war by rashly offending the equally powerful Theonia?

In fact, news from Sicily seemed to prove this point: The Syracusan grand army swept west along the northern coast of Sicily and began approaching the city of Solus. This finally made the Carthaginian Senate, already angry at Dionysius for besieging Tauromenium, make up its mind. They appointed Masias, brother of Himilco, as commander, recruiting soldiers and preparing to lead an army to Sicily again to resist the Syracusan offensive.

For the senators responsible for government affairs in the Theonian Senate, accepting Rhegium carried little risk and offered great benefits. For the senators responsible for military affairs, Rhegium had a relatively strong naval fleet, which could perfectly make up for Theonia’s shortcomings.

Under everyone’s persuasion, Davos was somewhat hesitant. At this time, his wife Crystoia stepped forward. She expressed support for the Senate’s wish for Davos to take another wife from Rhegium and persuaded Davos to accept Agnes.

Crystoia, born in Miletus in Asia Minor, had been influenced by Persian culture since childhood and wasn’t very resistant to polygamy; Cyrus the Younger had had over a dozen favored concubines. Moreover, as a successful merchant, she knew better the importance of Rhegium’s submission for Theonia’s commerce.

Davos was finally persuaded. He married the 21-year-old Rhegium woman Agnes into the official residence of the Theonian Archon, and Rhegium successfully joined the Theonian League.

This event shocked the entirety of Magna Graecia.

When Dionysius learned the news, he was leading his army to besiege Solus. He had already ordered a retreat, but as a result, he issued a new order: Sound the attack bugle…

***

Over the past two years, the Greek coalition led by Agesipolis had caused significant trouble for Persia in the lands of Asia Minor.

Thus, in 396 BC, King Artaxerxes of Persia, at his mother’s suggestion, appointed Conon—an Athenian temporarily residing in Persia—as Admiral of the Persian Navy. (Conon was originally the commander of the Athenian navy. He suffered a disastrous defeat against Lysander of Sparta at the Battle of Aegospotami, which ultimately led to Athens’ surrender to Sparta.)

Fleeing to Persia, Conon never forgot his vengeance against Sparta. Therefore, he often curried favor with the Persian Queen Mother Parysatis. Now finally holding military power, he immediately led 300 Persian warships, actively cooperating with Persian land forces. He soon inflicted heavy casualties on the Spartan army and put them in a difficult position.

Consequently, Persia proposed a truce and peace talks, but Sparta refused.

Sparta, now the hegemon of Greece, was unwilling to accept peace talks while passive in the war. Not only would the terms be very unfavorable to Sparta, but it would also damage Sparta’s prestige among Greek city-states. Thus, the Council of Elders decided to send King Agesilaus to replace Agesipolis and launch a larger war in Asia Minor.

Agesilaus had always presented an approachable and modest side to the Spartan public. However, beneath the mask of abiding by Spartan tradition and law, he hid an ambition unknown to anyone. He craved immense glory, worshipped ancient heroes, and hoped to use unprecedented victories to make the world forget his lameness and remember only his achievements. So when he accepted the order from the Council of Elders, he already regarded himself as the Agamemnon of this era, setting out to conquer a new Troy—Persia.

Thus, he led a part of his army to the city of Aulis (located in the region of Boeotia, where the most famous city-state was Thebes). Just as Agamemnon, the King of Kings, had done before leading the entire Greek army across the sea to attack Troy, he offered sacrifices to the Temple of Artemis there.

However, during the solemn sacrificial ceremony, Thebans appeared. They claimed the Spartans’ actions had not been notified to Thebes and forcibly interrupted the ritual.

This incident cast a shadow over the already tense relationship between Sparta and Thebes. For the extremely proud Agesilaus, this was simply a humiliation! From then on, he remembered Thebes.

Finally, Agesilaus led an army of two thousand new Spartan citizens and a 30-man military council headed by Lysander, quietly crossing the sea to Asia Minor and stationing in Ephesus.

Lysander believed that Agesilaus, whom he had supported, would rely on him—the true “king” who had once conquered Asia Minor—after arriving there. He expected the mild-tempered king to hand over command of the Spartan army to him.