[RS AAR] A dawn Syracuse

**Born To Folk** · June 19, 2008, 03:04 PM

A New Dawn – An Syracuse AAR

THE SYRACRUSE PLANS
A great noise could be heard in all of the great city of Syracuse, and it all came from one place. The royal palace, were all of the royal family of Syracuse and Epirus were celebrating their alliance of true Greeks.
This alliance had been natural, as the Greek influence in the world had lessened over the decades. Knowledge had been cast aside by colonies, who choose to follow their own rule, or that of an upstart city, called Rome.
Rome was the real reason of this alliance, lying close to both Syracuse and Epirus territories in Italy, it could and most likely would, become a great threat in the future.
So an alliance was declared, and festivities were held. The common people were given the day off, and the prices for food and drinks were halved for the day. But that was nothing compared to the banquet in the palace.
The most luxurious goods from Syracuse and Epirus had been brought to the palace, to be seen by all of the dignitaries and officials, so that all would realise the riches this alliance would bring.
The noise in the dining room was great, voices of hundreds of people, music, sounds of eating and drinking, it all came together in one gigantic voice that spoke of Greek prosperity.
A man stood up at the head table, clad in an ancient though well maintained suit of armour, with white hair and an ugly scar over his right eye.
Though old of age, he had the presence of a leader, and the aura of a murderer. This was Pyrrhus of Epirus, an old ally of Syracuse, one of their kings, Agathocles of Syracuse, had aided him in regaining his realm, and now he had pledged himself to Syracuse in return.
The people closest to the head table turned around and became silent. As more and more people saw him, they also became silent. Soon, the entire room was silent.
All because one man stood up. All of the people looked at one point, the mans face.
It was tanned and leathery from the sun, but cracked from old age. The man had the face of a soldier who had seen a thousand battlefields. And this was most apparent from his eyes.
The man had icy blue eyes. Eyes that were cold, and looked like they had never seen the light of joy or love. The eyes of a murderer, of a conqueror.
He made the king of Syracuse look small and simple, though the king carried that with dignity, since he was a politician not a general. His sons, who sat at his left side, were the best Syracuse had to offer, and they were both respected throughout the whole of Syracuse.
Pyrrhus spoke, “I have come here for an important event. The alliance between Syracuse and Epirus! I wish that it may last long, and may bring peace and prosperity to both our peoples. Peace and prosperity, after we have put our enemies to the sword!”, at that the Syracusians in the hall looked uncomfortable, they weren’t used to such warlike words, the Epiroths however knew their leader and hungered almost as much for war as he did.
The king stood up and also spoke, “Indeed this alliance will fortify the relations between our peoples. May it bring us victory and may it bring again the Greek age that once was. The gods are with us, and with both us and the gods together, what can possibly stop us!”
The people in the hall cheered and banged on the tables.
Both kings sat down and the feast continued. The king of Syracuse leaned over to Pyrrhus, and spoke into his ear, “I must apologize, but events have come up that force both me and my sons to meet all of the advisors for a meeting. I must leave you here for the banquet.”
Pyrrhus smiled, though to any man, it did not look like a smile but more like the grinning face of Hades. “Please king, go to your meeting; war must always take precedent to festivities.”
The Syracusians stood up and walked away. The feast continued and the sound reached up to the skies.
Where the future would bring these people, only the gods knew. But I am sure the events will come to us in due time.

Agathocles, his sons and his most trusted advisors went to a room next door to decide on the future of the empire.
There was still a feint noise of the celebration of the alliance between Syracuse and Epirus.
The meeting was just about to start so no one in the room took any real notice of the noise, this meeting was too important to be distracted by some drunken imbeciles.
Agathocles said in a calm, soft and gentle voice "please sit" as a slave pours some wine for everyone expect for Heiro who politely refused and asked for water instead. Everyone in the room looked at Heiro as if he has gone mad "It keeps me focused on the business at hand" Heiro answered
Agathocles smiled "go and tend to the guests" he told the slaves "I know and as all of you know, that one day we will be betrayed by that tyrant next door. This is one of the reasons I have called you to this meeting." Hiero glowing confidence; something he has never been short with, stood up "Father I will make you proud , I plan to start preparing for war by building the greatest army you will see, then I will use that army to conquer the neat by cities, this way we will have more power and income." After finishing he sat back down.
Dienokratis was inspecting a painting of a Syracuse. He turned to the table "That is a great plan but what of Rome?"
"My son that is why I and a lot of people have worked day and night to make this alliance with Epirus, we have had to sacrifice a lot to make this happen. Anyway I need to discuss our financial problems and it doesn’t look that good" Agathocles goes to the cupboard on the far left of the room he opens the cupboard and pulls out a big leather brown bag and slings it on the table and takes out a scroll

"This is our income." "This is going to be one of the hardest things I will ever do, to finance a war as well as trying to keep our income in the green but there is hope, I plan to send out several diplomats and get as many trade rights as I can"
Agathocles puts the scrolls away in his bag and leaves the bag on the table "I need you to listen very carefully on my instructions; Acrhideos I want to govern the city of Catana I need to you build markets, roads, clear some land for farming and other buildings that we can tax. This maybe unfair the people of the city but I need you to tax them as much as you can without them wanting riot and revolt we need to this because we are at war. One more thing I want you to start recruiting soldiers. Can you do this?" "Yes" "good, Heiro and Dienokatis I’m placing you two under command of two armies we will be sending you reinforcements." "Ok" said both of them "Now leave go back to the party and enjoy yourselves because tomorrow you will be leaving this city. All together they got up and left the room.