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Baltic's
Book
Zeus and Europa
How Balticos founded Thebes and rescued Europa
Chapter
1
Led by words of an oracle, heroes followed a cow for a long time,
until it finally decided to rest on a meadow, and Balticos with
his friends were happy that their journey is at end. But this end
was just a beginning of a new story.
Balticos
looked around to find where to build houses and how he could best
feed his people. His search revealed several large, fertile meadows
in the area... the one in West was quite far from the wolf paths,
so he decided to reserve it for sheep flocks. Wolves were quite
frequent in the woods, it wouldn't be too wise to rely on goats
- and when one of his friends reminded him that Mt. Pelion is willing
to buy surpluses of wheat, there was no doubt what will be the main
food source of Thebes. Balticos ordered to build the city halfway
between the western and northern meadow, so that both food and fleece
are at hand. At first the city concentrated on survival, only necessary
things were built: maintenance offices, infirmaries, some wheat
farms and one carding shed. Already the first harvest brought in
some wheat, but the food was stored first and distributed to people
only in the next year. Agave, leader of Mt. Cithaeron, who disliked
Balticos from their previous encounter, launched an invasion against
newly founded city - Thebes didn't have any defenses yet, but Balticos
succeeded in bribing the rival army to leave.
Balticos
soon realized that Thebes must attract more immigrants, and ordered
to build another housing block to the East of the first one. As
soon as the first food was distributed - in the original block only,
there wasn't enough food for everybody - everybody was granted access
to gymnasiums, and the city started its own philosopher college.
This costed some money, and as the fleece trade was just slowly
starting, city got into debt. Calydonian allies helped readily with
cash, and Argos sent some olive oil. Two years after the founding,
city counted over 900 residents, and Balticos ordered a palace to
be built - it was time to start collect taxes and build up city
defenses. Money from export and taxes was used to make life in the
city better; soon everybody could both exercise in a gymnasium or
listen to philosophers speaking from podiums, and most people had
the possibility to see the best classical plays in a theatre. All
this paid off, because contestants from Thebes quite surprisingly
won the Olympic games in this year - it is a big achievement if
a city of precisely 1000 inhabitants wins the great Games! Everybody,
allies and rivals alike, regarded Thebes and its leader Balticos
more highly after such success. It was the first, but by no means
last victory - throughout their history, competitors from Thebes
have won many panhellenic games of all kinds and thus spread the
glory of this city.
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