I was a priest in the city-state era

It is impossible for the Royal Opera House of Athens to perform opera performances every day.

After all, the residents of Athens, as spectators, also have to work and live normally.

In order to make full use of the Royal Opera House of Athens, Roy used the Royal Opera House of Athens as the venue for the citizens' assembly.

Citizens' Assembly -

In the history of another world, this was the nominal highest authority in the city-state of Athens.

In fact, the supreme power of the city-state of Athens was held by the king.

Later, after some reforms, the Citizens' Assembly actually became a meeting of nobles, and the highest power of the Athens city-state was controlled by the Citizens' Assembly [Aristocratic Assembly].

There were no aristocrats in Roy's Athenian empire, and the power of the citizens' assembly would certainly not be usurped by the aristocrats.

The day came when the city of Athens held a citizens' meeting.

Loy once again brought Procne, Philomela and Nefertiti to the Royal Opera House and went straight onto the stage.

Sitting in the auditorium of the Royal Opera House were members of thousands of citizen families in the city of Athens.

Seeing that the people attending the citizens' meeting had almost arrived, Roy stood in the center of the stage and said loudly.

"Dear citizens of Athens! The city of Athens is like the heart of the Athenian Empire. The policies implemented in the city of Athens will be extended to every city and village in the Athenian Empire in the future. I want to discuss the future of the Athenian Empire with you now. It is up to me. Let’s talk about the officials of the Athenian Empire. I encourage all of you to spend some time learning Chinese characters and arithmetic, and then become an official of the Athenian Empire through training and examination. This is not an exclusive ability that nobles are born with. I conquered countries and once saw an eight-year-old child from a noble family serving as an official in a city and holding power. I believe that none of you would think that a child from a noble family is born extraordinary and can manage others at the age of eight. In fact, that eight-year-old child. The aristocratic children who are officials only enjoy the power and treatment of officials in name, and their work is done by the civilians below. As long as you are willing to learn, everyone can be an official. If someone advocates that only certain people can excel. Being able to serve as an official or general means that he only wants to let the nobles or similar classes monopolize power."

After Roy finished speaking, a middle-aged man said.

"Your Majesty the Emperor! If you ask us all to study and take exams, can you guarantee that we can all become officials? If there are not so many positions for us to be officials, what is the use of the knowledge we have learned?"

"Good question!"

Roy said without hesitation.

"Of course there are not so many positions in the Athenian Empire for all of you to be officials. But everyone has the ability to be an official, so that the officials with power will not dare to act arbitrarily. Because these officials all understand that there is nothing special about them. , there are countless people who can replace them. If they can't do their job well, the emperor can ask them to resign at any time. If the qualifications for office are monopolized by one group, this group will be corrupt, arrogant, autocratic, and inherit power - power. This is how the hereditary aristocracy came about. In order to prevent the officials of the Athenian Empire from acting recklessly, you must sacrifice yourselves and everyone should learn the knowledge of being an official. "

After the middle-aged man sat down, an old man with a white beard stood up and said.

"Your Majesty, the great emperor! I have lived so long and have never seen or heard of a ruler as wise as you. Under your rule, the Athenians all lived a happier life than they had ever had before. We don't have to worry about not having enough to eat, let alone being oppressed by the nobles, but I think we can still live a better life. Why does His Majesty the Emperor have to tax us citizens when he is rich in the entire Athenian Empire? Can a fourth-class citizen be tax-free like a free citizen?”

After hearing what the old man said, Roy rolled his eyes and said.

"Old man, I believe your question must be the voice of many citizen families - you don't want to pay taxes. But I want to tell you that citizen families must pay taxes, and the Athenian Empire will also use laws to severely crack down on tax evasion. What do you think? The emperor and the Athenian royal family are rich in the entire Athenian empire, so who do you think pays for the salaries of Athenian soldiers and officials? Where do you think the money for building bridges and paving roads comes from? Who do you think provides for the security guards who maintain public security? Who pays for universal education?”

After issuing a series of questions, Roy continued.

"Although I will make you pay taxes, your money does not go into the emperor's treasury, but is all used to build the Athenian Empire. If you don't want to pay taxes - yes, I will deprive you of your citizenship and demote you to freedom Citizens, you are prohibited from enjoying all citizen benefits and benefits, so you don’t have to pay taxes.”

After Roy finished speaking, Procne said with some dissatisfaction.

"You are so shameless. Not only you citizens are paying taxes, but our royal family is also paying taxes. The taxes you pay are simply not enough to complete the construction of the Athenian Empire. The royal family uses private property to subsidize the Athenian Empire every year. financial."

"Don't think that this is the Athenian Empire of the royal family. It is natural for us to subsidize the finances of the Athenian Empire."

Loy added.

"The Empire of Athens belongs to each of us, and the emperor and citizens govern the world together. Since you enjoy the treatment and benefits of citizens, you must bear your responsibilities and obligations."

The white-bearded old man nodded hurriedly and said.

"His Majesty the Emperor is absolutely right. I will never have the stupid idea of ​​exempting myself from taxes in the future."

After the white-bearded old man sat down, a middle-aged woman stood up and said.

"Your Majesty, my son is a soldier of the Athenian Empire. I am proud of my son. But as a mother, I don't want my son to die on the battlefield. I heard that you are either fighting a war or on the way to the battlefield. I would like to ask you not to fight anymore. Please accept the advice of a mother."

"I refuse!"

Roy said without hesitation.

"I have said long ago that I am a peace-loving person who hates war. If possible, I don't want a war. I want to be with my beautiful and lovely wives every day. But our ideas cannot change other people's ideas. If we don't conquer the enemies around us, the enemies around us will come to attack us. We can only reduce the sacrifice to the minimum if we take the initiative to eliminate the enemy. Don't think that the enemies around us will not dare to attack us because the Athenian Empire is strong. There are millions of nomads living in the north and west of the Athenian Empire. These nomads who do not produce food do not produce enough to feed themselves. As the population increases, these nomads will definitely come to attack us. Even if they are killed when attacking the Athenian Empire, the result for them will not be worse than starving to death."

The middle-aged woman said with a painful face.

"Can't a great man like you come up with a way to make war disappear forever?"

"As long as the Athenian Empire has no borders, we can make war disappear."

Roy said with a smile.

"One day, the Iberian Peninsula in the west of Eurasia and the Shenzhou Continent in the east will become the territory of the Athenian Empire, and then war will disappear forever."