Chapter 557: What Makes A Dictator
"I know, your majesty."
Antonius went back to silence hiding his face behind the silk linens.
"Your majesty." Alexios could no longer resist himself. "I am against the idea of continuing our conquest on behalf of the treasury."
Antonius did not make a sound, but the two of them seated here can sense their political sovereign is not happy with the comment through his rapid breathing.
"We have already spent a year plus of our revenues preparing for this expedition, and our state needs money to make out plans to rebuild Epirus into a healthier pre-war state, maintain all the infrastructures, pay the welfare we promised to the people before the conquest, construct our administrative governance, we are yet to pay our soldiers for their reward too... I must tell you, your majesty, that we are now terribly in shortage of gold and copper to mint new coins for the circulation of our economy, all our coins have flown into the pockets of the Genoese merchants because of our imbalanced trade system, we have simply imported way too many things and exported too little to those Latins... I would suggest that we can only continue our next step of expedition when..."
"When the opportunity has arrived, in the fullness of time?" Antonius interrupted in a sarcastic tone. "Listen carefully Alexios, read my lips, the result of a war is never dependant on how much money you have! It is dependent on how much men you have, how courageous you are, how decisive you are, never, never has a war been associated with how much money you have! Look at the Venetians, they have never won a battle against me on land, never!"
Alexios kept his mouth shut, clenching his fist with veins popping up on his hands.
"Our messenger arrived incamp yesterday your majesty." Apostolos interrupted to avoid further conflict. "It seems like the Latin king of Epirus have fled to Sicily, and the city of Arta has yielded and surrendered the keys to the gates to Lord Julian, the fortresses of Neapoli, Vonitsa and Agrinio too have opened their gates in preparation to welcome our troops. Lord Julian has come to ask what he should do next, stand guard in his current positions and be ready to deter any possible Venetian assault, or march on to take the Venetian fortresses in the area?"
"I heard that the rightful owner for the city of Patras is... my old friend George Sphrantzes?"
"Yes, indeed your majesty, but from what the spies of Anjelo told us, it seems like George Sphrantzes, as the de facto head of the Roman court in Constantinople, has gotten his hands dirty and his legs tied up in the political struggles regarding the throne, he has left the governance of the city to the Despotate of Morea since a few years ago."
Antonius pondered for a while in his mind, then ordered. "Tell Julian that there is no need to worry for the Venetians, for I will stand guard near the coast together with Helios and will eliminate any Venetians who dare to cross the line, I want Julian his army to cross the Gulf of Corinth onto Achaia and force his way into the city, if anyone is to resist, tell them that he is here under the order from the Caesar of the Roman empire to come and persecute all the Venetian intruders, anyone who resists shall be declared as the enemy of the empire, the senate and the people."
"Yes, your majesty."
...
Apostolos and Alexios left the tent leaving their Caesar to another deep sleep after the meeting. The old man took out his bag full of wine, gulped it down, made a burp and looked at Alexios. "You did not say a thing just now."
"I am going to leave." Alexios replied with his eyes closed.
"Leave? Go where?"
"I am going to leave this army, go back to my hometown in Nikomedia, and then live the rest of my life there with all of my savings and my family together with me, save me the trouble of running around with all these men sleeping in a roofless tents, sing stupid marching songs, deal with all the messy affairs of state and wasting my life away with all of these nonsense, I need a break from all of these."
Apostolos seems to not be surprised by such speech of hate; he simply nodded his head. "Ok, I see, all the best to you then."
Now this is time for Alexios to be surprised. "You really believed all of my excuses, I mean, I do want to leave my service but..."
"Of course, I do know the true reason why you, out of all people in high ranks, want to leave the state!" Apostolos laughed out loud right in the face of Alexios. "Because you think that you have received mistreatments from a evil tyrant, dictator, and perhaps traitor due to the fact that you feel that he paid you no respect or what so ever on your proposal to develop the economy...."
Alexios is appalled upon hearing the first half of the lines, and immediately after that he jumped towards the old man to cover up his gibberish mouth and hissed beneath his breathe. "What are you talking about! Have you finally gone out of your mind! Are you trying to get the both of us killed!"
"What, what, what, get your dirty hands off me..." Apostolos struggled pushing off the hands of Alexios and gulped for air breathing in and out heavily. "I am just saying the things that you want to say but have no guts to say."
"But... But don’t you think the same way as me? You told me before that he is..."
"I don’t, my dear young man, because I have already expected all of these to happen long time ago since I first met him, haven’t I told you before? All these monarchs, no matter what title they carry and what crown they wear above their head, will slowly be transformed into the same species in the very end, that is the dictators, and together with it, it too brings along another thing that is the devour for power. Which is why he is so afraid of defeat, especially a defeat on a skill like this, you remember what I told you a few days back?"
"I know." Alexios murmured.
"Don’t let people look down on you for throwing a tantrum at such an inappropriate time, young man, how old are you?"
"Thirty-five this year."
"But what you said just now makes you look like a child." Apostolos’ words pounded upon Alexios’ heart without mercy. "And you will see a lot of things hidden in the mist when you reach my age. "If victory is the thing he wants, then we will simply give him that victory, and then carry on with the work we have in our hands... I need to focus on the rebuilding of Epirus, no matter what this is my hometown, I live here. And do you remember the Caesar mentioned that you shall be rewarded a while ago?"
"Yes, I do."
"There is a post right here available for you, and I really reckon that he will give it to you anyways."
"You mean... the governor of Epirus?"
Apostolos did not react to this question. "What the Caesar wants to give you shall land in your hands no matter what, but what the Caesar do not want to give you shall not become yours no matter how much you dreams about it, and after serving him for such a period of time, I can now see that he, as a ruler, shall pursue the goals that he is after no matter what is the cost, and will only turn to another approach if he comes crashing into something. Try wait for a week first before continuing with your decision and do come up with a proposal for the future governance of Epirus.
Alexios heeded this piece of advice and left, leaving the old Apostolos still standing there, with that same old wide grin on his face.
Julian’s troops went strictly according to the plans, first securing the southern borders eliminating all the Venetian and Latin outposts in the area, forced all the cities, towns, fortresses to hand over their keys, safeguarded all the valuable paper works, expelled all the Venetian colonisers then garrisoned his men there awaiting the arrival of new officers and courtiers to take up the posts to maintain law and stability in the region.
Within a week’s time all of the Venetian’s influence is successfully wiped clean from Southern Epirus, with all of their wealth confiscated, sealed in chests and brought back to Thessaloniki, Latin dominance in Epirus is now a no longer expect for the few islands off the shores, the entire strip of Mountainous land is now back under Roman control.
As for that Latin king of Epirus, no one cares about him by a bit now, since he is nothing but a coward who abandoned his people and fled at the times when his subjects needed him to act according to his chivalrous code of conduct as a king the most.
