CHAPTER 347: CHAPTER 226: THE DIVINE AND THE TEMPLE

Gaius, unusually excited, loudly said, "Although we come from all over the Mediterranean, everyone has lived in Italy for many years and should respect the deities of Rome. We should build temples for deities such as Jupiter and Juno!"

"Wrong, completely wrong! Roman deities only favor the Romans and have never shown us mercy, so I do not respect them at all. I revere Isis—the Egyptian goddess of life, and Osiris—the god of agriculture..." Acronis spoke just as excitedly.

"As everyone knows, the Romans revere Greek culture, and even their main deities are learned from Greece. Jupiter is Zeus, Juno is Hera... Greek deities are the most familiar to the people of all Mediterranean city-states. If a temple is to be built in the tribe, it is best to be of Greek deities, so that the vast majority of the tribesmen in the tribe can accept it."

Nexia, a Greek, softly said. She is the leader’s wife but is also the deputy officer of the Medical Department and naturally able to participate in the tribe’s grand meeting.

Although Nexia holds a distinguished position within the tribe, no one is willing to back down when it comes to matters of faith. Pigeris immediately stood up and said, "Leader, I hope you can seriously consider the Sun God Shamash and the Moon God Xin, who are extremely revered by the people of the Two River Valley..."

...

The officials stood up one after another, trying to persuade Maximus to build temples for the deities they revered, and even argued with each other, making the hall gradually noisy. The Cultivation Department officials tried in vain several times to stop them loudly.

Maximus motioned for him not to rush. After a while, when the arguments grew louder, he suddenly stood up and shouted, "Have you had enough of this quarrel!"

Instantly, everyone in the hall stopped quarreling and quietly sat back in their wooden chairs.

Maximus did not just stop there. With a serious expression, he glared at everyone and shouted, "Do you remember the promise you made when establishing the tribe?!

’From now on, there are no Romans, Celts, Greeks, Egyptians... we are all Nix people! We will unite to defend our homeland!’... Hmph, it’s pleasant to say!

But what I heard from your mouths just now was ’the Roman deities I revere’... ’the Greek deities I revere’... and Egyptian deities, deities of the Two Rivers... Today you quarrel over deities; tomorrow you may fight over deities! Our enemies will be very pleased to see this because without them sending troops, we may disintegrate due to internal strife!"

"Leader, it was our fault!" As the leader’s wife, Nexia felt that she should play a role at this moment, she said with shame, "We now have a new home, we are Nix people, yet we are arguing over the deities of other tribes, which indeed should not be!"

"Leader, I... I was wrong too. I got anxious earlier and forgot that I am already a Nix person, and as a result..." Acronis followed with a bowed head, admitting her mistake.

Gaius’s eyes turned a few times, and he immediately showed a regretful expression: Leader, you are right to criticize, it’s all my fault! I shouldn’t have mentioned building any Roman temples because here is our new home, and we are a new tribe. We should... we should build a temple for a deity that can truly protect our tribe."

"Well said!" Maximus approvingly looked at Gaius and loudly asked, "We should revere the deities who can protect our Nix tribe!

But which deities can protect our Nix tribe? Is it those foreign deities who have never shone their power on this land? Or is it the local deities who have been revered by the people here for hundreds or thousands of years?

You all should be clear that establishing the tribe here is not just to live peacefully. We need to root here, thrive here, and establish a powerful nation! Only in this way, when the Roman army harms our interests again, will we have enough strength to defeat them!

To achieve this, we must make the people here believe in us, join us, and be willing to become tribesmen of the Nix Tribe and fight with us... So how can we eliminate the locals’ resistance to us outsiders? How can we unite the new tribesmen from various tribes?!"

Although Maximus was posing a question, his inclination was very clear, and the hall was silent.

"Leader, I have an idea." The chief officer of the Cultivation Department, Kefisofon, spoke up: "According to my understanding, although each race has its deities, most of their deities are not unique, and some deities were even learned from other races.

For example, the deity Poseidon, revered by the Illyrians, was influenced by us... uh, Greeks, otherwise, how could the Illyrians who initially lived in the mountains worship the Sea God? It was only after they extensively engaged in piracy and began to have awe for the sea that they accepted Poseidon as their deity due to frequent interactions with the Greeks.

And one of the main gods revered by the Greeks, the war god Ares... uh, according to my research, was not initially a deity worshipped by the Greeks; he was a deity of the northern barbarians... uh, northerners at the time. Otherwise, you see Ares is reckless, impulsive, belligerent, cruel, yet simple-minded, often fooled by other deities, quite different from other Greek deities. It might be because the northerners often moved south and frequently waged war with the Greeks, which instilled some fear and led the Greeks to start worshipping Ares...

Also, as Nexia mentioned earlier, several main deities revered by the Romans were indeed transformed from Greek deities. This mainly happened because the early Greek colonists along the coasts of Italy significantly influenced the inland Latin people, and later the Romans greatly admired Greek culture... Such situations are not unusual among other city-states and forces in the Mediterranean..."

Upon hearing this, Maximus’s eyes lit up. What Kefisofon said was something he really wasn’t aware of, so he eagerly anticipated his next words.

Kefisofon emphasized, "Ladies and gentlemen, since originally, each race could assimilate and integrate other races’ deities for their people to revere, why can’t our Nix Tribe transform the deities revered by people from various places into deities that our entire tribe can accept and worship?!"

Just when some people were thoughtful and others wanted to refute, Maximus slammed the armrest of his chair and loudly praised, "Well said! Kefisofon, you are indeed the most learned person in our tribe, proposing a method that not only allows our tribesmen to accept but also unifies the tribe! I think we can try this. What do you all say?"

Everyone looked at one another.

After a brief silence, Gaius was the first to shout, "I also think this is a good idea!"

Although people living in the Mediterranean during this time were generally devout towards deities, for these tribal officials in the hall, calling on deities countless times in their plight as slaves or during their hardships, only to find no help forthcoming, greatly weakened their faith in the deities... At this moment, they clearly saw that Maximus was keen to support Kefisofon’s suggestion, and with Gaius and others leading, most of the officials eventually expressed agreement.

Maximus smiled and seized the opportunity to say, "Since everyone agrees, then let Emmerich and the nine department heads take the time to jointly discuss which deities our Nix Tribe should worship, which temples should be built, and how to manage these temples... Once they reach a unanimous agreement, I will conduct the final review and confirmation."

...............

Karsipengpas returned to Alde Tribe territory this time, originally just to inform Maximus of the major news that "the main force of the rebel army had been annihilated in Italy," but he heard en route that the Great Chief was seriously ill, so he first detoured to visit the Aldean Main Camp. There, persuaded by Cleobrotas, he had to take on the task of "persuading the Nix Tribe to send troops."

Maximus did not make things difficult for his old friend, saying that deploying troops to assist allies in such a significant matter must be decided at a tribal meeting.

But he also comforted him, saying that over the past year or so, the Alde Tribe and he had helped the Nix a lot, and both Maximus and tribesmen were very grateful, so this was a perfect opportunity to repay the favor.

After getting a reassuring answer, Karsipengpas started attending to his private affairs: he hadn’t seen his youngest son for more than half a year.

However, he never expected that his son, who was merely sent as a messenger, was arranged by Maximus to study at the Nix School.

Having traveled for years, Karsipengpas was quite knowledgeable and understood the benefit of literacy and learning, thus he was all the more eager to meet his son.

He even refused Maximus’s good intention to send someone to call his son over for a meeting and excitedly hurried to the school in Westeni.

The tribal school’s courtyard door was ajar and very quiet inside, with a warrior in leather armor and helmet standing at the door.

Originally, no soldiers stood guard at the Nix Tribe School’s gate, but intermittently, some children’s parents or idlers would intrude into the courtyard and disrupt teaching. Therefore, Kefisofon requested that Maximus station patrol soldiers at the school to ensure order in teaching, and Maximus agreed.

Accompanying Karsipengpas as a guide was Secretary Department member Valles, who took the initiative to inquire about the situation from the soldier on guard. He returned and softly said, "Chief Karsipengpas, Rogemnix is taking an exam right now; you’ll have to wait until he finishes before you can see him."