A medium-sized man with a grey beard stands up and, after catching the eyes of the rest of the Synedroi, speaks with a clear and loud voice:

Noble sympatriotai, I am happy to see you all here! My name is Antisthenes Pellinios, and some of you may already know me. I hail from a very old Makedonian family, with all of my ancestors having served as Synedroi in the past.

Certainly, the times are grim for little Makedonia, but seeing ourselves unified instead of divided at these times shows something very important: That we, the true heirs of Megas Alexandros, have withstood all those years of war and sivil strife successfully and are still standing. For the most important thing in life, at least from what I have understood, is not how hard you can hit, but how many hits you can sustain and still be able to get up every time.

Now, let me get into the main part of my speech. Namely, the problem we are currently facing. You see, as grim as our situation may seem, we can never lose ourselves. Even with those Epeirotai knocking at our doors just as we speak. The people are counting on us, their leaders, to get them out of this mess. And who are we to refuse that to our people? They, after all, are free people of the Basileion Makedonias and do not deserve to live under the tyranny of this Pyrrhos from Epeiros. For tyranny it will be, given the outrageous ambitions of this man. He even thinks he is going to be the next Megas Alexandros himself or, maybe in his wildest dreams, even greater!

Some laughter can be heard throughout the Synedrion and Antisthenes waits until the noise sunsides to continue.

To make things even better, we have lost most of the control in southern Hellas due to this unreasonable rebellion. And I am referring to this petty, though dangerous, alliance formed by Chremonides of Athenai. The southern Hellenes are not to be taken lightly, fellow Synedroi. They might not stand a chance against our military forces, but in the seas they are very dangerous. Furthermore, the fact that we are shifting our eyes to the north towards the invading force of Pyrrhos, is more than enough to incite them to attack our holdings in Peloponnesos. As you may know, our fellow Makedones, Krateros and Alexandros of the royal family, are left alone to protect Achaia. The only thing we can count upon right now, are the forces of Basileus Antigonos, who is campaigning in Attike.

If we want to effectively counter this crisis, we must grab every field that needs to be attended, isolate it and figure out how to fix the problem. Of course, the problem becomes more complicated as more fields eneter the problem, but all can be done with necessary organization, rationale and carefullness. Here are some points I have prepared and possible solutions:

1) The Pyrrhos matter. Since obviously the garrison present in Pella is too small to hold back the Epeirotai, we will have to reinforce the garrison. A good way to do that, in my oppinion, would be to stansfer troops from Demetrias to Pella as soon as possible. The fastest way, as I see it, would be to use our royal navy and ship the troops from Thessalia to the port of Thessalinike, then a quick march to Pella.

2) The southern poleis matter. Here, I believe our forces are strong enough to wipe out any remains of the Koinon Hellenon, as the Southrons call their alliance. Athenai lies before our Basileus like a ripe fruit ready to be picked, so I understand the temptation must be great. Though, in my oppinion, Antigonos should do the following: Take the bulk of his army and march back north, while leaving a portion behind so that Krateros and Alexandros can defend Achaia while the Epeirotai are being taken care of.

3) Economics. Since all this requires coins, something which we don't have an ambudance of, I believe the Basileus should consider announcing War Taxes to applied to all across the Basileion.

There is more I wish to say, but I believe I should let others speak before I end and, of course, listen to any criticism on my rationale.

And with that, Antisthenes sits back down and takes a gulp of water from a cup that is given to him by a nearby slave.