Crusader Kings: Prisoners of War

Ivar's success had far-reaching influence, but was temporarily suppressed by Orville, who asked to rest for a while before making a second voyage. This time he would bring a small transport fleet and return with more spices.

To be honest, this was a very dangerous activity. You never know when you will encounter a ruthless storm or difficult-to-deal-with pirates. Even as strong as Ivar's father Ragnar, he would capsize in the North Sea, which he was most familiar with, and end up being buried in the sea without a complete body.

Not to mention that Ivar was now exploring a sea area that he was completely unfamiliar with. If he took a wrong step, it might cause big problems. It could be said that he was dancing on a tightrope, so Orville didn't blame him too much and gave him enough time to repair and replenish the lost crew.

He was very generous at this time. After receiving a huge sum of money from Orville's treasurer, he distributed most of it to his men, leaving only a small part of it for himself, and even distributed some as pensions to the relatives and friends of the dead sailors. In the end, the gold and silver that fell into his hands was not much more than that of ordinary sailors.

Orville was already arranging sailors and ships for him, because the matter was very important. He had some plans for India, because India at this time was indeed desirable - this place was not only rich in resources, but also had developed medicine, mathematics, astronomy, agriculture and other disciplines. In particular, medicine could be said to be completely ahead of the Romans of this era. Orville had to find a way to deal with the plague that might appear in the future. It was not realistic to find someone from the East thousands of miles away, but it was not impossible to find an Indian. He would try hard.

At the same time, once direct trade with India became frequent, the Arabs who lived by the sea on the Arabian Peninsula could not be unvigilant. They would most likely mobilize to prevent the Romans from exploring and expanding into the Indian Ocean, because this would rob people of their business and cut off their financial resources.

For this, a navy was needed anyway.

For a country of Egypt's size, shipbuilding was not difficult. Given a few years, it could at least build a batch of warships. Since it still had advantages in size and construction technology over the Arabs, it was a good idea to suppress the other side in terms of the number of warships.

The problem now is where to get so many sailors. Most of Orwell's soldiers are recruited from the Roman mainland. Among them, there are not many who can sail warships and know how to sail, otherwise they would not rely on Viking pirates.

Then there is actually only one choice in front of Orwell - use local people, specifically local Greeks.

Egyptians can barely do it, although they are more good at inland navigation, and the navy has been monopolized by the Greeks for hundreds of years, resulting in the slackening of martial virtues and not knowing how to fight, but Orwell thinks that they can be saved by high-intensity training and guidance. After all, they can sail, but they are not so proficient.

Using only Greeks is more of a need for power balance. Although he wants to suppress the status of Greeks and balance the power comparison between Greeks and Egyptians, he does not want to let the Greeks completely lose their advantage for the time being, which will cause the Egyptians to point the finger at the Romans when problems arise. The two maintain a state of parity, and a little open and secret fighting is a favorable situation for the Romans at this stage.

It would be good to give the Greeks a certain monopoly over the navy. They will have more say, and they can take the opportunity to make some money to maintain a certain economic advantage, so that the political balance will not be completely unbalanced and shattered. Not to mention that the Greeks are indeed better sailors than the Egyptians now. Judging from the standard of selecting the best from the best, Orville has done it perfectly.

After all, the Greek colonies are indeed spread all over the Mediterranean world. The Persian Empire and the Romans later also like to hire Greek sailors to fight. All signs show that the Greeks are indeed a seafaring nation and their naval warfare capabilities have always been good.

——

Just when he was busy preparing the navy, the newly appointed secretary Agricola came to his office and handed him a letter from Rome.

Seeing the name of the sender, Orville raised his eyebrows and was a little surprised.

Generally speaking, some business partners will ask about their well-being, but there are only a few people in Rome who will send him letters:

Nicanor, who runs the head office over there, will report to him on time every week and every month.

Emperor Vespa would occasionally write to him to talk about central politics, ask about Egypt and provide him with some experience and opinions from the older generation.

Tia would write to him regularly, and the content was more varied. Sometimes she would express her thoughts and greetings, and sometimes she would talk about government affairs. The ratio was 1:1 before, but now it has gradually reached 3:2, and there is a trend towards 2:1.

The person who is writing to Orwell now is not any of these people, but Ovid, who he has not contacted for some time.

When he was in Rome a while ago, he helped the other party publish the "Love Sutra". Because the grand prize was selected by popular voting, and Ovid's popularity and writing style were really good, he won the final prize, and Orwell gave him a bounty.

The good relationship between the two sides has always been maintained, but there is not much actual contact, mainly because Orwell really has nothing in common with this kind of romantic great writer, and I guess the other party is similar. He is very self-aware, obsessed with literature and art and will not ask about politics.

So unless it was something really big, Ovid would definitely not write to me. Now the matter in the letter was a big deal, so big that Ovid was almost dead.

The story should start with Greece itself. Modern people say that Greece believes in Greek polytheism, mainly the Olympian gods. In fact, it took a process for this set of beliefs to spread. For example, the twelve Titans before them obviously had more matriarchal mythology, and the status of female gods was likely to be higher than that of male gods.

In addition to the first generation of Titans, the beliefs of various city-states were not unified into a system. From each family worshipping their own local gods to each family worshipping the great god Zeus as the king of gods, there was also a process in between, and it is conceivable that this was a bloody process. The formation of cultural identity is not a simple thing, and it is difficult to change it after it is formed.

After this set of Olympian beliefs was formed, it was basically finalized within a period of time. The religious beliefs of the Greeks of this era or the Romans who were deeply influenced by Greek culture can be explored from the "Theogony" by the ancient Greek poet Hesiod.