As an actor and playwright, the bearded Greek Fanos the Younger was all too familiar with Alexandria's history.Nearly 300 years ago, Alexander entered Egypt, and within a few months of his stay, he first achieved pharaoh status in Memphis and then went to the oasis of Siwa to ask for an oracle.It is said that Alexander once saw the gray-haired Homer standing beside him in a dream and reciting verses: "Then there was an island in the midst of the raging sea, and in front of Egypt it was called Pharaos. ”At that time, Pharos was nothing more than a narrow stretch of sand between the Mediterranean Sea and Lake Mariutis in the western part of the delta of Lower Egypt, with only a small fishing village on the deserted coast.But Alexander and Aristotle took a fancy to this place, and thought it was very suitable for the construction of a large port, and the city in the shape of a war robe was carved out of barley flour on the black earth, and named it "Alexandria"!
This is the first and most famous Alexandria.The traditional rectangular city of Greece was planned by the architect Dino Kratis, and was connected by a long embankment from the island of Pharos, where the Great Lighthouse would later stand.The causeway has a port on the east and west, a canal connecting Lake Mariutis, and Via Arcino runs through the city in an east-west direction, with a width that can accommodate several cars in parallel.The city's theater is located on the north side of Arsinono Boulevard, under a dome roof, with 14 rows of white marble seats, with a capacity of 800 spectators, but now, in the midst of panic, there are only a few people present, all of them calmly, watching the little Fanos on the mosaic floor, performing the Iliad for them."
O goddess, sing of the wrath of Achilles, the son of Leus, which brought untold misery to the Greeks, and sent many of the able-bodied souls of the warriors to Hades, where their carcasses may be the food of wild dogs and of all kinds of birds."
This Greek version of the gods is very popular in Alexandria, but the current interpretation of the epic by Phanos the Younger has mixed feelings for onlookers, because their city, like Troy, is under siege!
Achillas's army had been defeated from the southwest of the city ten days earlier, bringing out 20,000 men, but less than 10,000 had returned, and the remaining half had been caught up and captured by the Seris, and some of the Nome chiefs had surrendered when they saw the situation.And there are countless rumors about how the army was defeated by the Seris, who were far inferior to them.One of the most widespread was spread among the low-ranking and uninformed Greek soldiers in the army: it was said that the queen and the Seris had received the help of Zeus, and the thunder slashed in the army, causing the elephants to turn around in terror, causing the heavenly fire to burn the cavalry and the phalanx to rout!
Legend has it that the thunder of Zeus The thunder of Zeus was made by a cyclops, and even the gods would be awe-inspiring to its power."
At that time, the dawn shook off its golden robe and scattered it all over the earth."
Little Phanos played out this scene, and he chanted with emotion: "Zeus, who loves to blow up thunder, summons all the gods to gather on the peaks of Olympus on the ridges.He was trained by the gods, and the latter listened to them all!
”"Listen, all gods and goddesses!
My words are inspired by my heart. ”"No one, whether God or goddess, shall contradict my commandments; On the contrary, you have to agree so that I can put an end to these matters quickly. ”"If I were to find any god carrying us on a separate set to help the army of Danai or the Trojans, then when he returns to Olympus, the whip of lightning will bring him to shame!"
Only the ignorant would believe that Zeus was helping the queen, although they made up a large part of the Greeks in the city, but the people gathered in the theater today were all wise men and nobles in the city, and they knew that it was just a mysterious weapon of the Serisians.But everyone here has one thing in common: in the dispute between Ptolemy XIII and the queen, these people are faintly on the queen's side, but unfortunately the coup d'état happened too suddenly, and they can only choose to hibernate, like the playwright Fanos the Younger, who was very dissatisfied with the policies of Ptolemy XIII and the three ministers, and believed that the wise queen could govern the country better.With the help of the Seris, the already defeated queen seemed to have the upper hand again, and defections and surrenders continued to occur, and there were rumors that Alexandria and the navy were still in the hands of Ptolemy XIII, and that the whole of Upper and Lower Egypt had surrendered to the queen, although the army outside the city to assist the Seris was not necessarily increased, and 10,000 men could surround a corner of the city.With a large lake as a shield and tall stone walls, Alexander was not easily attacked.But the weapons of the Seris people are obviously not only the "Katyusha" and "two kicks" in General Ren's mouth, although the counterweight trebuchet will not be able to be made for a while and a half, but the captured ballista cannon, plus another mysterious weapon, is enough to make the people of the entire city tremble.In the middle of the play, everyone heard the movement from the west again!
Even little Phanos stopped and looked out with them, and even indoors it was hard to ignore the thunderous noise, accompanied by the cries and screams of the defenders, who were indeed frightened, and some had already refused to go up the walls, and were beheaded by the angry Ptolemy XIII."
I've been near the walls to see it."
Speaking alone, he was also one of the nobles of the city: "The soldiers said that instead of ballistas, the Seris fired fires with barrel-shaped instruments, and with a loud bang, they threw round stone projectiles, which were more powerful than ballistas!"
”Little Fanos had also seen stone projectiles thrown into the city, not too big, but smashed into the roof of a wooden tower, deep into the ground.And I heard that if a stone projectile hits the city wall, it can smash a whole stone brick to pieces.When fired at night, the flaming fuse can be seen spewing out from the city walls, making the stone projectiles look like meteors dragging their tails in the night, which is terrifying.Fortunately, the walls were thick enough, and the accuracy of those weapons was obviously not as good as that of ballistas, and they could not always aim at the city gates, only taking advantage of the range.Only the thunderous sound is too scary, but as long as you get used to it, it is not a problem to rely on the number of people to defend the city.No one can disobey Zeus's will, even if he is very strong, and Zeus's bravery is unmatched by mortals.But the weapons of the Seris are really not so strong.So if you want to conquer this "Trojan City", you also need a Trojan horse.This is also the reason why little Fanos gathers the rich and noble people who are pro-queen today and sings this play.He said to the crowd: "Not all of them are as wise as the wise men in the library, and most people decide to surrender just by hearing the rumors of Zeus Thunder.The queen had already recruited the Noem chiefs around the city, and the food could only be brought in intermittently, and the price of bread was already rising, and the king and his ministers could be fed, but the civilians in Egypt could not. ”"The battle and the siege will cost Alexandria a lot, and if this continues, sooner or later, the thunder of the Seris will hit the theater and destroy Alexander like Troy.""
But who can guarantee that the Seris will not burn and loot when they enter the city?
The speaker recited another passage from the Iliad: "The son was killed, the daughter was taken away and captured; The houses where the treasures were hidden were looted, and the weak and helpless children were thrown to the ground and died in the brutal and merciless war.
The Achaeans will snatch my son's daughter-in-law with bloody hands!
”"I can guarantee it!
I've made a pact with the general of Seris!
”A female voice sounded, slowly revealing her figure from the back of the theater, and when she lifted her hood, it was actually Cleopatra herself, who had regained her firmness and self-confidence.The Trojan horse has entered the city.Alexander's walls were thicker than expected, and the Han army could not break through the walls by relying on the third weapon of the general: the original bronze mortar cannon.The black powder they brought from India was about to run out, and while they were preparing to dig tunnels to carry the coffin and blow down the city wall, they had to find a way to deal with it from the inside.Dozens of dead soldiers, including Zhang Cheng, sent by Ren Hong, entered the city on a ship carrying grain on the Nile, hidden in a pile of bags of oats and rye, and Ptolemy XIII had seventy or eighty warships, firmly in control of the sea.In fact, the queen of Upper and Lower Egypt was not able to surrender at all, and seeing that the capital could not be broken for a long time, the enemy from Upper Egypt was getting closer and closer, and they also gritted their teeth and decided to make this "Trojan horse" in person, infiltrate the city, contact their own people, and open Alexander from the inside.The queen scanned the crowd and accepted their worship: "I was driven away from the city by my stupid brother and fled in a hurry in a small boat, and now I will win her back in the same way!"
”After all, General Ren praised her like this: "Queen, your bravery is definitely no less than beauty and wisdom!"
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