I was a priest in the city-state era

Chapter 424 The King and Nobles of Tyre
As a coastal city, Tire is like a mother city.

The main city of Tire City was built on the mainland, but the core area was built on an island facing the mainland across the sea.

Although the city's population is only about [-], the prosperity of the entire city is visible to the naked eye.

Not only the royal family and nobles living in the core area live a luxurious life and can enjoy the service of slaves, even most of the Phoenician civilians in the main city can wear clean white cotton clothes.

The reason why the city of Tire can be so prosperous is because the city has gathered a lot of wealth that the Phoenicians obtained from the backward civilizations along the Mediterranean coast through trade, plunder, and colonization.

The city has even become so rich that it does not need land and resources outside the city at all.

In the history of another world, the overlords from the east and the west have attacked the city.

In the sixth century BC, Nebuchadnezzar II of the Neo-Babylonian Kingdom waged a long-term siege of Tire, which ended in failure.

When Alexander attacked the city of Tire, he waged a seven-month siege of the city, but failed to let the city run out of food supplies.

Realizing that the city does not rely on land at all, its food and supplies are imported from the outside by sea ships, Alexander asked his soldiers to fill up the trench between the main city and the core area, and then used five to ten times The superiority of troops forcibly broke through the city of Tire.

For Alexander, Tire was clearly a city of nightmares.

Therefore, after Alexander occupied the city of Tire, he ordered the killing of 3 men in Tire, and degraded the remaining [-] men into slaves.

On the road of Alexander's expansion, if every city was like Tyre, which could resist for seven months in the face of Alexander's five to ten times superiority in strength, Alexander could only conquer three Ten cities.

The core area of ​​Tire city.

Inside the palace of King Hiram.

A great banquet is being held in the hall.

King Hiran and the nobles enjoyed all kinds of food, wine and beauties as if they were intoxicated.

High returns come with high risks.

Although the Phoenicians were able to plunder wealth from areas with backward civilization, all this was accompanied by various risks. They were undoubtedly using their lives to gain wealth.

Because they don't know when they will die in various risks, it is a matter of course for the Phoenicians to indulge in enjoyment.

When Hiran's envoy returned to the palace and told King Hiran and the nobles Roy's request, the young Hiran frowned dissatisfied and said.

"The emperor of Athens is really greedy. We are willing to give him all the land outside Tire, but he is still not satisfied."

A nobleman asked worriedly.

"Are we going to go to war with the Athenian Empire? The Athenian Empire has a huge navy. To go to war with the Athenian Empire, they can not only block them from land, but also block us from the sea, trapping us in the city of Tyre."

Another noble said without fear.

"Don't we Phoenicians have a navy? As long as our Phoenician city-states unite to form a fleet, the Athenian navy will be vulnerable to us."

Seeing that the nobles had different opinions, Hiran said with a smile.

"Whether war will break out between us and the Athenians is not decided by us, but by the Athenians. We Phoenicians are sea merchants, and I want to avoid war as much as possible. Since my envoys cannot persuade The Emperor of Athens, then let us communicate with the Emperor of Athens in person!"

After speaking, Hiran asked the messenger to invite Roy to the palace.

outside of Tyre.

The Phoenician envoy came to Roy again.

"King Hiram of Tyre and the nobles want to communicate with me personally?"

Knowing the purpose of the envoy's visit, Roy accepted the invitation without hesitation.

Roy followed the Phoenician envoy into the city of Tire alone, first walked through the streets of the main city to the west port of the city, and then took a boat from the port to the royal palace in the core area.

Palace hall.

Roy walked into this extravagant space, King Hiran and the nobles all stared at Roy with wide eyes.

Obviously they didn't expect that Roy actually dared to come to the palace alone.

After recovering from the surprise, Xilan left his throne, walked up to Roy with a smile on his face and said.

"Great Goddess Aphrodite, thank you for sending me the most distinguished guest in the world. Your Majesty the Emperor, thank you for being my guest. Please let me receive you with the highest standard."

After speaking, Xilan took Roy to the depths of the hall and asked Roy to sit on the throne with him.

Under Xilan's gaze, two beautiful palace maids threw themselves into Roy's arms, and the other hugged Roy from behind.

As the saying goes, cannibals have soft mouths and short hands.

Roy wanted to take the entire city of Tire as his own, so naturally he couldn't enjoy Hiran's hospitality.

After pushing the two palace maids away expressionlessly, Roy looked at Xilan and said.

"You are Hiran, King of Tire? Are you willing to accept or not to my request?"

Sheeran restrained her smile and said with a serious expression.

"Your Majesty the Emperor! If you want to conquer the Phoenician region, all the land outside the city of Tire will belong to you, and the city of Tire will also surrender under your feet. As long as you don't interfere with the autonomy of the city of Tire, we will follow your demanded payment of tribute."

"Give me all the land outside the city of Tire, you are really generous!"

Roy teased with a playful smile.

"I can leave the city of Tire to you, but I not only want all the land outside the city, but also all the sea outside the city. Whether you want to do business on land or at sea, you have to pay the Athenian Empire tax."

A noble immediately roared dissatisfied.

"Why should we pay you the money we earned through hard work and hard work?"

"Just relying on my Athens Navy to patrol the sea, I have always protected the safety of the waterway, and provided protection for your life and property safety. If you refuse to pay taxes, let alone a ship, even a piece of wood of yours cannot be in Athens. Sailing in waters controlled by the Navy."

Did the Athens navy patrol the sea to fight against pirates, did it protect the lives and properties of Phoenician merchants?

Of course the answer is yes.

But the taxation of the Athenian Empire was too much.

According to the income standards of these Phoenician nobles, they must use half of their profits to pay taxes.

And paying taxes to be first class citizens doesn't get them any privileges.

Now the Phoenician nobles are actually paying taxes in disguise, and the public construction of Tire City is funded by the nobles.

But it's not gratuitous.

The nobles provide funds for the construction of the city of Tyre, which will allow them to obtain higher status and greater privileges.

Tire was more of a company than a city-state.

The king is the major shareholder of the Tire company, and the nobles are the minority shareholders of the Tire company.

The king, the major shareholder, made the nobles dissatisfied. The nobles who are minor shareholders can unite and change a king to be the major shareholder.

If the city of Tyre were annexed by the Athenian Empire, paying taxes would become a duty and obligation rather than a transaction of status and privilege.

(End of this chapter)