Chapter 213: Disagreement in Crotone
Just as the Theonian army arrived in Krimisa, the news that the “Crotonian army was defeated in battle and suffered heavy casualties, with only more than 5,000 men managed to flee to Krimisa” reached Crotone and shocked the whole city.
If their defeat in the first war was caused by the negligence of Melanseus and the shameless attack of the Amendolarans, then this time, even with Crotone forming a much stronger army than last time and having their trusted strategos, Milo, who is equally experienced and reliable, as the commander. The Crotonian army had still been defeated and the situation was much more grave than the last war, with more than 20,000 of their men couldn’t even escape. Did they die? Or were they captured? There has been no news so far.
This time, every family of the citizens of Crotone was worried about the life and death of their family members and wept. At the same time, the backlog of anger broke out under the guidance of the spies of Theonia, and the people gathered to protest at the city hall and demanded that the ecclesia be held immediately.
In the face of the angry crowd, the council of Crotone was forced to respond to their demand, and the ecclesia was held in a hurry.
At the ecclesia, the people angrily criticized the incompetence of the strategoi and the statesmen of the council that had led to the defeat of their army, who had a clear advantage and put their city-state in a dangerous situation. They proposed that Milo must be dismissed in his position as the polemarchos and be sent back to the city for a trial. At the same time, they should immediately start peace negotiation with Theonia and to redeem the captured citizen soldiers.
With the support of the majority of the citizens, the proposal was successfully passed.
At this time, a herald sent by Milo had arrived in Crotone and brought back his message, “Milo is asking for reinforcements because the army of Theonia has surrounded Krimisa.”
As long as one is not a fool, everyone knows that once Theonia captures Krimisa, they will then be able to enter the plains of Crotone, destroy their farmland, burn their villages and reach the city of Crotone. If the situation of the war really turns out to be like this, then it will be like the time Sybaris invaded them a hundred years ago. The plains of Crotone will once again be invaded by the enemy at the north and the peaceful life of the people of Crotone will be destroyed, which is unacceptable to the people.
“Reinforce Krimisa and hold on to it” has become the common opinion of the citizens of Crotone. However, they had already sent out the young and middle-aged citizens of Crotone, so if they wanted to send more soldiers, then they would need to loosen the age of military service, while recruiting freemen as well. Fortunately, they will only need to defend the city of Krimisa, so as long as they can shoot arrows and throw javelins, which is what the freemen and sailors are good at, it will not be a problem to piece together a considerable number of reinforcements. But the problem will be the one to lead them, because all the citizens who could fight and could go to war were already in the army of Milo, including Milo himself.
The citizens finally reached an agreement to select several candidates after arguing for a long time. However, the candidates that they had selected refused to accept the position, when everyone started condemning them, they immediately said, “Even Milo and Philederus, who are great strategoi, have been defeated. So how can we, who seldom go to battle, command an army who are lacking citizen soldiers to resist the attack of the Theonians? It’s not that we don’t want to take responsibility in fulfilling our obligations as citizens, but that we are afraid that we will not be competent enough for this crucial position and that our city-state will suffer another defeat!”
After they finished speaking, the ecclesia of thousands of people suddenly fell into a dead silence, and the combatants of Crotone were in the predicament of having no one to lead them.
Then Lysias stood up and said, “Citizens, you all know that Milo and I often have disputes over some issues and have a bad relationship. However, I also have to respect the contribution of Milo to the city-state. He had led us many times to repel the invasion of the Bruttians against our alliance, and had twice forced Locri to withdraw from the territory of Caulonia. This is the reason why you have selected him as the polemarchos many times! I have always been jealous of his military talent, but now that he has lost, Milo, who has alway won more than he loses, has been defeated miserably in the battle that decides the fate of the city-state. Do you believe that he was careless and had taken this important battle as a game?!”
The words of Lysias had made the impatient citizens ponder.
“Of course not, this only shows that the archon of Theonia, Davos, has stronger military talent! By now, this is a fact that any Crotonian has to admit and must now face!” Lysias sighed and said aloud again, “After our defeat half a year ago, I think you all should know that Davos has won all the battles that he had personally commanded since the time he led the mercenaries to Thurii, and had triumph multiple times over armies with numbers superior to them. This is why there is today’s Theonia Union! Now, are there any citizens of Crotone who are more capable than Milo and are capable of fighting against the archon of Theonia, Davos?!”
Although the pale-faced citizens whispered with each other under the stage, none of them stood up to recommend themselves or someone.
“If not, why not let Milo continue to lead the army?! I believe that Milo, who has suffered a defeat, has learned his lesson and will try his best to defend Krimisa for Crotone and for himself! Citizens, Crotone is now facing the biggest crisis! I hope that you can put aside your likes and dislikes, and choose the right person to defend our city-state out of the interest of the public!” Lysias cried out.
His words had obviously played a role. In the new round of election, Milo is still the commander of the army, but his position as the polemarchos was deprived, and he had to be tried once the war ended.
With a satisfactory result, Lysias still didn’t look relaxed, because he knew that he would soon meet with Davos again as an envoy. Just a few days after meeting with him, the whole situation has reversed, and Lysias still remembers what Davos had said when he left Thurii, and it has now become a reality.
In the early morning of the next day, the army of Theonia still did not attack, but had continued to improve their camp, not only were they setting traps in front of the camp, but some soldiers that were protecting the engineering camp had also begun to build wooden bridges on the river.
When Milo, who was on the city wall, witnessed all of this, he was surprised: The cunning Davos is still able to take his time and continue building their camp. Will he really siege Krimisa?
He hesitated again and again, but still did not dare to send his few troops to harass them.
In the afternoon, Milo was finally relieved. The 5,000 reinforcements of Crotone were transported to the city of Krimisa by ship, increasing the strength of the city to 10,000 men.
In the port, he also saw Lysias, who got off the ship with the soldiers, and his expression then changed, “Did the council send you to talk about peace negotiation?”
“No.” The answer of Lysias relieved Milo, but Lysias immediately added, “It’s the ecclesia that has sent me.”
When it comes to the ecclesia, the face of Milo became even more ugly, and seriously said, “I don’t think that the…Theonians who are in advantage will agree to a truce and negotiate peace at this time, and even if they agree, the conditions that they will put forward must be very harsh!”
“You are right, but the people of Crotone are now more eager to know the safety of their families. However, it’s necessary to first try to understand the requirements of the Theonians.” Lysias shrugged helplessly.
The face of Milo twitched at the words of Lysias, he then coughed a few times and said in a low voice, “I heard that at the ecclesia…it was your speech…that had saved me from being escorted back home now….”
“In fact, like the rest of the citizens, I wish I could put you on a trial, for those who had died in this battle! But Crotone urgently needs you now, so for the sake of the city and for yourself, I hope that you can win several times in the next battle and lay a good foundation for the future peace negotiation!” What Lysias said had made Milo feel ashamed, so he didn’t say anything else and just clenched his fist.
Then Lysias, accompanied by Milo, went up to the city wall, and looked at the enemy: Not far below the city wall is the camp of Theonia, from the east to the west there are continuous camps, which are not only orderly arranged, but also has trenches, walls, abatis and sentry towers…and so on.
Even Lysias, who did not know much about military matters, could feel the strict security of the camp of Theonia while standing on the city wall.
Milo saw the expression of Lysias and said, “I don’t think these Theonians are like your common Greeks. We Greeks like to fight, but we don’t like to do dirty and tiring work after a battle. But as soon as these Theonians arrived here, they were like rats, constantly digging holes to build their nests, and it had only taken them more than a day to build their current camp, which had also led me to lose my men when I sent hundreds of soldiers to attack them! Now that they are building a bridge over the river, they must also want to build a camp on the south bank and besiege Krimisa on all sides.”
Milo stopped for a moment and said loudly, “However, now that we have these reinforcements, I am going to teach these arrogant Theonians a lesson!”
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
The troops who were ordered to walk across the river to build bridges in the south bank were the second and third brigades of the first legion, and were under the command of Matonis. This is what Matonis had actively asked of Davos, as the strategos of the reserve brigade in the last battle, he almost didn’t manage to participate in the battle and had to hold back his strength, so this time, he must perform well.
So as soon as he led the troops to the bridge site on the south bank, he immediately used one brigade to stand guard and another brigade to dig trenches and to also build an earthen wall, even with all of these, he still did not see even a shadow of the enemy.