I was a priest in the city-state era

Chapter 191 Treatment of Captives Digging Canals

Before night fell, Roy's large fleet returned to the port of Piraeus.

After asking Aries to stay in the port with 1000 soldiers to guard the warship, Roy took the rest of the soldiers and sent more than [-] prisoners to a prisoner-of-war camp outside Athens.

outside of Athens.

POW camp.

After two thousand prisoners of war gathered together, Roy couldn't help but feel tremendous pressure.

If Roy wanted to use these two thousand captives to dig the Corinth Canal, he had to feed them three catties of grain every day, and two thousand prisoners of war would consume six thousand catties of grain every day.

The two thousand captives not only brought huge food pressure to the city of Athens, but also a huge security risk.

If these two thousand captives unite to rebel, even without weapons, they can cause great damage to the city of Athens.

Now Roy couldn't even bear it anymore, and had the idea of ​​selling them all to slave traders.

Thinking that Crete would become his own territory in the future, and these captives would also become his own people, Roy suppressed the idea of ​​selling the captives to slave traders, walked into the prisoner-of-war camp and said loudly.

"Prisoners! I don't care whether you are from Crete or from the vassal islands of Knossos City. To me, your status is the same, so I will treat you the same. You have become mine. Prisoners, you should never blame me, but you should resent Deucalion and lead you to participate in a losing war. I could kill you to save food, or sell you to slave traders for food or Other stuff. But I don't want to kill you, I don't want to make you slaves, I want to give you a new option. If you are willing to work for me, you only need to work for five years, and you can redeem your freedom. Go to your hometown and your family. During these five years, I will provide you with food, clothing, housing and transportation. After the five years are over, I will not only send you home, but also give you property worth six thousand catties of grain as Your reward for working for me."

After listening to Roy's words, all the prisoners looked at each other, suspecting that they were dreaming.

Working for Roy for five years, not only can you redeem your freedom, but you can also get six thousand catties of grain as a reward for five years of work——

Will there really be such a good thing in the world?
Seeing the reactions of the captives, Roy continued.

"Captives! I can assure you in the name of Metis, the great goddess of the city of Athens, that I will never betray my promise to you. But at the same time, I cannot bear the defection of prisoners. So some of you defected , I will let the defectors get the cruelest punishment."

Someone among the captives asked.

"What kind of work do you want us to do for you? If the job you give us is very dangerous, then we might as well be slaves. After all, we may meet good masters even if we become slaves."

"The job I want to give you is to dig a canal that is 6000 meters long and six meters wide. In order to reduce your work pressure, I will give you five years to dig this canal. If you dig it in four years If you dig a canal, I will give you freedom in four years, and I will give you property worth six thousand catties of grain as a reward. If you spend three years digging this canal, you will be free in three years .”

After Roy finished speaking, the prisoners all breathed a sigh of relief.

Even if the ground depth of the canal Lowy wants to dig is 100 meters, on average, each captive only needs to dig [-] cubic meters.

It takes five years to dig [-] cubic meters, and on average, it only needs to dig one cubic meter per day.

Since the content of the job is so easy, and not only food and housing are included every month, but also a hundred catties of grain as compensation, the prisoners naturally have no reason to reject the choice given by Luo Yi.

"Great King of Athens, you are such a benevolent ruler. If we only took two and a half years to dig the canal, then our monthly salary would be two hundred catties of grain. We don't seem to be captives, let alone It's like finding a good job that includes food and housing, and the monthly salary is two hundred catties of grain."

"Even if we go back to our hometown, it will be difficult to find a good job that includes food and housing, and the monthly salary is two hundred catties of grain."

"The king of Athens gave us such a good job, only a fool would be a defecting captive."

"If the King of Athens can help me deliver a message to my family in my hometown, letting them know that I am still alive, I will swear never to defect."

Hearing the demands of the captives, Roy said immediately.

"After the wars in Athens and Knossos are over, I can arrange manpower to bring your message to your family in your hometown. If you do it for two months, I can also give your salary to your family , so that you don’t have to worry about your family’s life.”

Listening to Roy's promise to the captives, even some Athenian soldiers couldn't help complaining.

"Are they really captives? The kings of other city-states want captives to work, they just turn captives into slaves, and they are treated well if they are fed and clothed."

"These captives are really like a group of well-treated workers."

Hearing the complaints of the Athenian soldiers, Roy didn't get angry at all.

Because ordinary Athenian soldiers had no idea how much the excavation of the Corinth Canal would bring to Roy.

Compared with the benefits brought by the Corinth Canal, even if the remuneration for the captives is increased by a hundred times and a thousand times, it is still a very profitable deal for Roy.

Others couldn't understand Roy's approach, just because in this era, slaves don't need to pay anything.

In another world's myth, Odysseus, king of Ithaca, had a loyal slave, Omaeus the swine herd.

Omaios is a slave raised by Odysseus' parents since he was a child, and his position is Odysseus' pig herdsman. It can be seen that Odysseus is a slave with a high status around Odysseus.

But Eumaeus worked for Odysseus until he was 40 years old and still had no wife.

Eumaeus had no wife, so he naturally had no children. Without a wife and children, he didn't need his own property.

Even loyal slaves who are highly valued work for their master Odysseus all their lives without their own wives, children and property. This is the true portrayal of slaves in this era.

Roy could have turned the captives into slaves and squeezed out the value of their lives, but he wanted to give them freedom and pay them for their work. No wonder people in this era can't understand Roy.

In fact, Roy couldn't understand the cruel oppression of slaves by people in this era.

If Eumaeus is Roy's slave, Roy will make Eumaios a free man after he has worked faithfully for five years, allowing him to have a wife, children, and private property.

Eumaeus, who claimed to be the son of the king of Suria, was abducted by a Phoenician maid in the palace and made a slave.

If Omeus hadn't lied, Roy would have arranged for Omeus to return to his hometown to inherit the throne.

Odysseus knew the identity of Eumaeus, but he did not help Eumaeus return to his family, and even succeeded to the throne and became the king of Syria.

Maybe Odysseus didn't want to lose his loyal slave, or maybe he didn't want to see his slave become the king of an island with equal status to himself.

　I almost forgot again, thank you book friend Chenxi Yuhan for rewarding [-] coins! ! !
　　
　
(End of this chapter)