Chapter 42: Reminiscing the Ancient Capital

Several leaders couldn’t help but have their blood freezes after they rushed to rendezvous with Davos and seeing the tragedy in the valley. They look at Davos with a slight awe, and Xenophon said, “…Davos…you…you deserve to be…favored by…Hades!”

Davos was equally unsettled, as he repeatedly comfort himself in his mind, ‘This is war! This is war!’

“What to do with these Persians?” He noticed that the soldiers were collecting weapons and armors of the soldiers that surrendered. He suddenly felt slightly sympathetic, and asked Cheirisophus.

Cheirisophus mercilessly replied, “After collecting their weapons and armor, cut off the tendons in their hands and feet, and stab their thighs, then return them back and let Tissaphernes have a headache.”

Davos was silent, of course he understood Cheirisophus’ purpose. The mercenary doesn’t have extra food and people to look after them, and Tissaphernes will need to send out people to look after the injured Persians, which will naturally reduce the number of soldiers attacking them.

“Davos, you did a great job!” Cheirisophus looked around and said, “I think the Persians will be frightened by the sight in here!”

When Davos led his troops out of the valley, the soldiers that they passed by cheered at the bloody people as much as they could, because they know that it was this young leader that led a few people to block the path of a large number of Persians, and made the mercenary have a perfect victory.

The young Davos had won the recognition of the whole mercenary troops with his feat.

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

In the afternoon, Tissaphernes main force unhurriedly arrived at the valley.

When Tissaphernes saw the tragedy in the valley and the wounded soldiers lying on the ground and struggling, he angrily threw his helmet to the ground. He then sent a small group of troops that he trusted to deal with the aftermath, while the other troops were forbidden to enter the valley and took another path to bypassed the mountains.

Ariaeus, who followed Tissaphernes, stayed silent, he did not see Artaozus’ body, but it must have been among the numerous corpses. In these 3 days, the 2 generals that have fought him for power have died in battle one after another. At this time, he doesn’t have a trace of joy, but instead, his lips are gone and his teeth felt cold…(chinese idiom about having mutual dependency when confronted with a powerful and aggressive enemy)

In this battle, more than 3,000 Persians died and more than 3,000 were injured and no one manage to escape, while the casualties of the Greek mercenary were negligible.

Perhaps it was really like Cheirisophus had said, that the Persians got frightened so much that they didn’t show up for days. This made it easier for the Greek mercenaries to plunder and march all the way to Larissa^[1], a city on Tigris river.

This is a magnificent great city. The lower part of the city wall is made of stone and the upper part is made of earth bricks, the wall is about 30 meters high, 8 meters wide, and 10 miles long. Such a magnificent city wall made the Greek mercenaries have no interest in attacking it. Moreover, the city has fewer people compared to the cities that they had encountered along the Tigris river, and most of the fields and villages outside the city are deserted, which seems to be somewhat desolate.

“Larissa, it was said that its former name was Kalhu, it was first a great city under Assyria, then was taken by the Medes. The great king Cyrus defeated the Medes, but he wasn’t able to breach the city. Finally, Mithra, the sun god, covered the city of Kalhu’s light with dark clouds and made its day as dark as night, which terrified the residents and made them think that the gods had abandoned them, so they abandoned the city and fled. King Cyrus then seized the city…” Said Marigi.

Ever since Davos learned from Cheirisophus about “understanding the topography” being important for a qualified commander, he took Marigi as his guide and kept him at his side. Xenophon, as an adjutant of Hieronymus, was too busy that it was impossible for him to come and talk with Davos as easily as before. As a merchant, Marigi not only knew the surrounding terrain, but also knew many story about the history of Mesopotamia, which adds a lot of fun to Davos’ tense and tiring march. 

“Hey, you Persians have a sun god, we also have Apollo, who is more powerful?” Matonis, who was working as a guard, said.

Marigi glanced back beside Davos and disdainfully said, “Mithra is the master of nature, he ensure the abundance of vegetation, fertile land, and made people live and work in peace and contentment. Therefore, Mithra is worshipped by all! He is not a small god can compare!”

“What did you say?! How dare you insult Apollo!!” Matonis angrily wanted to beat up Marigi, but was pulled back by Hielos.

Marigi was scared and hid behind, but Davos snapped at him, “Matonis’ question did not offend you, but you insulted our gods that us Greeks respected! If you don’t apologize immediately, then I won’t stop them from beating you in anger!” The Persian’s sense of superiority that thoughtlessly came out made him have a headache, it was time to teach him a lesson.

Marigi looked back and saw the anger in the soldier’s gaze, he knew that he would have been torn to pieces if it hadn’t been for Davos. As a merchant, adaptability is his nature, so he quickly bowed down and sincerely apologized, and even gave himself a slap in the face.

It was only when he saw that Marigi was forgiven that Davos asked the questions that he had been wondering before, “Why does the city look so desolate?”

Marigi vaguely said, while clasping his red cheeks with one hand, “Because the inhabitants here are mainly Medes.” After that, he stayed quiet.

Davos thought it over and it dawned on him, “The Persian royal court does not attach importance to this area because it was the core area of the former Medes and Assyria for fear that their old fire might be rekindled, and so they even adopted a suppression policy, right?”

Davos see Marigi looking at himself in amazement, and knew that he had guessed the main point and he couldn’t help but somewhat proudly said, “Let me guess the methods they had used. For example, the people here are often conscripted to join the army to fight? Higher tax?…”

“Leader Davos, if you are really what they called favored by god, then you’re really quite different from the rest that only have muscles and no brains!” Marigi looked at Davos with amazement and sighed, for he had just suffered a loss and said in a low voice, “If you are a Persian, you would also have been successful as an official of Persia!”

Davos smiled and said, “Unfortunately, I don’t like Persia even though it is a big country.”

“Because you are Greek?”

Davos did not reply, he looked at Larissa not far away and was distracted, is he a Greek? In addition to this body, his soul and thoughts, from the bottom of his heart, considered himself to be a Chinese. Greek tradition and culture can not assimilate the people that came from the 21st century, even to the extent that it had little impact on him. Only the reality of his helplessness and sincere friendship in war that made himself acknowledge to be a part of this team. Don’t look at his usual tone, “We Greeks are what…” It is just to fool the Greeks in order to boost the morale and highlight his position as a leader, in a word – to survive! Therefore, if Persia who is superior than Greece, extended an olive branch to him, he would not hesitate to join Persia. However, he looked down on Persia, because the political system of most Greek city-states is more similar to countries in the 21st century, which naturally has an affinity with modern people that advocates freedom,  and even Athens is more democratic than modern society…

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

The next day, they marched to Mespila.

“This is Nineveh, the capital of the former Assyrian kingdom. Allegedly, Medea, the wife of the last king of Medes, took refuge in the city after us, Persians, seized the kingdom of Medes. The great king Cyrus led an army to besiege the city since it was the last castle of the Medes that had not been captured for a long time. Bahram, the god of war among the gods, saw that there are too many Persians that died and injured. Therefore, he sent out an earth-shaking thunder that made the whole city tremble, and it was then conquered….” Marigi still served as their guide and “narrator”.

“Haha, the Persian gods are really great that they even went to help.” Matonis mocked him at the back, and with the lesson of yesterday, Marigi ignored him.

Davos immediately looked at the city on the Tigris river. The height of the wall of the capital of the former Assyrian kingdom alone is about 17 meters high, Kalhu is already a magnificent city, but it seems that it is only a third of Nineveh. He could imagine the strength and prosperity of the Assyrian kingdom which was founded by military force, when it swept across the western kingdoms! At this time, the capital is desolate and ruined, the wild weeds and numerous thorns on the walls swayed in the river wind, it seems to be telling of its current miserable state.

A sense of vicissitudes of history came to his mind, and Davos naturally remembered the poem “Where, before me, are the ages that have gone? And where, behind me, are the coming generations? I think of heaven and earth, without limit, without end, and I am all alone and my tears fall down.^[2]” He sighed with regret, “No matter how powerful a country is, there is a time for its demise!”

[2] On a Gate-tower at youzhou is one of the 300 Tang Poems and was made by Chen Zi’ang, there is also this song.