In the vast and solemn assembly hall, the god-blood nobles sat in full rows upon circular marble tiers, arranged according to rank and bloodline. Clad in white robes and pampered by luxury, they were richly dressed, yet every last one of them showed the marks of age. The entire chamber was steeped in the stale air of decline.
"My husband, Leonidas, is at this very moment shedding blood against the Persians at Thermopylae. Outside stands a Persian army three hundred thousand strong. If that natural stronghold falls, the enemy will be able to drive straight through and reach the gates of Athens. At this moment, when the life or death of Greece hangs in the balance, I once again implore the Areopagus to sound the call to war, gather its forces at once, march north, and hold Thermopylae!"
Queen Gorgo of Sparta stood before those high and mighty god-blood nobles and delivered her appeal with ringing force.
Yet pairs of dim old eyes, roused from half-sleep with visible reluctance, looked down from above at the two lone women standing in the center of the open hall. Their gazes were cold and indifferent, utterly unmoved.
"Ridiculous! Since when has the fate of Greece been decided by some little Thermopylae, or by you Spartans?"
At the highest seat, the old man with the Gorgon emblem pinned to his chest frowned in displeasure, opened his eyes, and gave a cold snort.
"Besides, the Areopagus has never issued any order to hold Thermopylae at all costs..."
Queen Gorgo's breath caught, and her expression darkened.
That was the crux of the current deadlock.
In fact, from the very beginning of the Third Greco-Persian War, the Areopagus had already chosen the site of the decisive land battle: the rugged plains of Plataea near Corinth.
That choice would certainly make the Athenian line as solid as iron, but it would also leave many of the northern city-states exposed. Under the crushing advance of the Persian army, they would have no power left to resist.
Furthermore, nearly every Greek city followed the same layered pattern from the inside out: acropolis, city, walls, farmland. Once war reached the homeland, it meant the farmland and cash crops beyond the walls would be trampled, and citizens would suffer financial losses from both the destruction of their crops and their inability to farm. Crowding large numbers of people and livestock into the city also made contamination of food and water all too likely, which in turn led to disease.
So if most of the military force were pulled back to Plataea to secure Athens's foundation, while the city-states along the route bore the greater share of the risk, disagreement was inevitable.
For that very reason, the northern city-states led by Sparta had instead argued for pushing the defensive line up to the Vale of Tempe in Thessaly, and then to the Thermopylae pass behind it, using terrain that hindered large armies from deploying properly in order to block the enemy and protect as much of Greece as possible.
The more hardline Thessalians had even declared that if the Areopagus alliance refused to support their resistance and preserve the city-state's temple of the evil god, they would rather throw in their lot with Persia.
Those two opposing strategic positions had led to endless wrangling over how to arrange the land defenses.
Then the victory at Salamis caused the Persians to shift the main focus of their offensive to land warfare and speed up their advance.
With Macedon and Thrace fallen, and the Persians advancing like a blade through rotten wood, practically at the gates, King Leonidas of Sparta, Prince Alexander of Macedon, and the Roman Emperor Caesar, who had been forced to remain in Greece, made a swift decision. They rapidly contacted the surrounding city-states and rushed to establish defenses at the Vale of Tempe in Thessaly.
Although that move succeeded in slowing the Persian offensive, the Spartans' decision to act first and report later angered the Areopagus, which was accustomed to giving orders rather than receiving surprises.
Now, with the Athenian army still refusing to move, it was hard not to suspect that the Areopagus was deliberately using the opportunity to weaken Sparta and remind it of its place.
At the same time, the elderly men near the end of their days bent toward one another, whispering with disdain. Their low murmurs drifted through the chamber.
"What do they mean, the survival of Greece? The Spartans clearly just want to use Athens's army to defend their own territory!"
"Exactly. They only had to follow the plan we already laid down, but the Spartans insisted on doing as they pleased and defending Thermopylae. Since they refuse to obey the Areopagus, then they should bear the consequences themselves!"
"Indeed. Athens has already sacrificed enough for Greece in the two previous Greco-Persian Wars! There is no reason for us to send troops to support the interests of those barbarians. In the end, it will be Athenian citizens who die. Our own descendants, our own blood!"
"Besides, it is only a little Thermopylae. We already struck the Persians hard at Salamis. This war will be like the previous two. Lots of thunder, little rain. Let the Persians stir up all the noise they want. They will not make much of it."
...
Hearing the increasingly noisy and sour discussion, Queen Gorgo could hear the selfishness and arrogant complacency of those god-blood nobles laid bare, and she could not hold back her anger.
"My lords! Stop confining your eyes to the Areopagus, to Athens, and look outside! The divine ancestor of Rome has already fallen, and the City of Seven Hills nearly perished. Before this, Cyrus the Great had already linked up with the Egyptians and the Huns, making full preparations for a total war against Greece. This Greco-Persian War is absolutely not the same as the previous two!"
"And even though we won at Marathon, won at Salamis, and came out victorious in the previous two Greco-Persian Wars, that does not change the fact that we remain in a dangerously passive position. The Persians have launched war against us again and again. They will not stop until all of Greece has been swallowed whole!"
"At such a critical hour, are you still going to cling to Athens and refuse to set aside your pride and prejudice for the future of all Greece?!"
That forceful, well-reasoned rebuttal swept through the chamber like a storm, silencing the noise and causing quite a few of the god-blood nobles to fall briefly into thought.
But then a sturdy, thick-bearded man in white robes rose to his feet, spread his arms, and spoke in grave tones.
"Your Majesty, I understand your feelings well. King Leonidas personally led the force to the front, taking with him three hundred royal guards who carry god-blood in their veins. Behind each of them stands a Spartan family pushed to the brink of ruin. No doubt your own father, brothers, and kin are among them. For this war, Sparta has already given everything it has."
Theron? So it really was not him who leaked our movements? Did I truly misjudge him?
Looking at the man who seemed at first to be echoing her own arguments, the Queen of Sparta froze in a moment of confusion.
But in the next instant, the bearded man changed tone, and his gaze turned cold.
"But if we now mobilize a great army to fight the Persians at Thermopylae, how many Athenians will die for it? How many families will be shattered?
"Yes, the Spartans have sacrificed for this war. But the Athenians have sacrificed even more!
"The Areopagus bears responsibility to the citizens of Athens. And to all Greeks!
"According to the latest reports I have received, Thermopylae is nowhere near falling!
"You cannot, merely because you fear for your husband and the citizens of Sparta, demand that free Athenians bleed for nothing and drag all Greece onto Sparta's war chariot!"
Those cutting words, one after another, together with the frontline dispatches Theron drew from his robe and passed to the assembly, caused the eyes of the Athenian god-blood nobles, who had just begun to waver, to go cold once more.