Chapter 218: Invasion of the Northern Plain of Crotone
“The freemen have run out of food?!” Asked Kunogelata in surprise.
“The war has broken out so suddenly that many freemen did not manage to stock up on grain in advance. Afterwards, when they wanted to buy grains, it had already been sold out.” Philesius looked at the other two men, because the union itself was the cause of it.
“Then pay them food as their salary and let the freemen fight for the union, instead of just always shortening the assessment period of the citizen as a reward and making the citizenship of the union less valuable! Philesius, if the freemen can make great achievements and defeat the regular army of Crotone under the leadership of the archon, then even without the leadership of the archon, you should have no problem dealing with the invasion of the ordinary sailors of the fleet of Crotone, right?” Kunogelata asked Philesius in a blunt tone.
Philesius didn’t take it to heart, and said seriously, “Of course it wouldn’t be a problem! My plan is to make every 100 freemen form a team and patrol all the coasts where they can land, and at the same time, a large brigade will be sent to the Thurii-Roscianum road, and a centuria of hoplites will be stationed every 2.5 kilometers, and have the scout cavalry to make contact between the patrol unit and the stationed centuria. In case of a small group of enemies, then the patrol should be able to repel them, but when they encounter a large number of enemies, the patrol unit must first block the enemy’s surprise attack, and the scout unit will then go inform the nearest centuria and then rushed to attack the enemy together….”
Kunogelata was a bit surprised and said, “That’s a great idea.”
“However, I am afraid that we will need to tighten our grain supply again. If we want to use the treasury’s money to buy more grains in Heraclea, Mersis will once again complain at us.” Cornelius said helplessly.
“How can war be cheap? But as long as the archon can win the final victory, we will get more money.” Since their victory in the battle of Trionto river, Kunogelata, who is afraid of war, has become more confident in Davos.
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Milo had thought that the Theonian army would attack the city with the help of the platform, but besides their exchange of arrows and stones the whole morning, there were no other movements. In the end, even the light infantry stopped their attack due to their hands losing strength.
Such an odd calm had puzzled Milo. Naturally, he wouldn’t know that the 5,000 soldiers of the third legion of Theonia and the 3,000 warriors of Laos had entered the northern plain of Crotone, and started destroying the farmland and villages, and did the same thing as what the Crotonian sailors had done, except that Davos had given a military order in advance that they are not allowed to kill the people of Crotone. So the soldiers were just intimidating and driving the Crotonians away.
As early as after their defeat in battle, the council of Crotone had advised the people in the villages on the northern plain to flee to the city to temporarily avoid the flames of war. Because of the spring sowing and the absence of any enemy for three days, the people of Crotone had thought that Milo had managed to block the Theonians in Krimisa, so most of them did not leave. But now, the army of Theonians had suddenly appeared in front of them, and made the Crotonians flee to the south in panic.
In southern Italy, the plains of Crotone is comparable to the Sybaris plain because of the two rivers. One is the Neto river, which originates from the mountains in the south of the Apennines Mountains and flows from the west to east into the gulf of Taranto. Due to the convergence of many tributaries, the width, depth and flow of this river is greater than that of the Crati river on the Sybaris plain. The other is the Esaro river, which also originates from the mountains in the southern Apennines and flows into the sea from north to south. These two rivers from east and south irrigates the plain of Crotone, and at the same time cuts the plains of Crotone. On the sea side of the core area is Crotone, a famous powerful city-state in Magna Graecia. As Crotone is close to the gulf of Taranto, it has one of the few deep-water ports among the Greek city-states in the Apennine Peninsula, and so, Crotone has both fertile plains and excellent ports. A hundred years ago, the main reason for the war between Sybaris and Crotone was that Sybaris wanted to destroy their potential rivals, while Crotone wanted to seize the trade dominance in southern Italy. Therefore, when a small part of the population of Sybaris fled to Crotone because of the dispute, it had then become the fuse of the war.
Between the rivers, mountains and the plains, is a city named Aprustum, which was founded by the people of Bruttii. To the west of the northern plain of Crotone is the continuous Apennine mountains, which is difficult to pass through. Trekking to the northwest by following the natural valley formed by the Arvo river, a tributary of the Neto river, one can reach the only plateau in southern Italy, Sila plateau. The Bruttians that were living there had come from the upper reaches of the Arvo river, and went all the way down to Aprustum following the river
However, After Crotone had become strong, they could not tolerate having an aborigine city which is only 10 kilometers away from them to control the upper reaches of the two rivers and the passage on the northern plain of Crotone, and threaten the safety of Crotone. Therefore, a hundred years ago, Crotone launched an army to attack the city of Aprustum, and after several struggles, they finally occupied the city and drove the Bruttians back to the Sila plateau. Aprustum has now completely become a Greek city-state. And as a colonial city of Crotone, Aprustum is now completely under their control, and has become their horns, guarding the safety of Crotone.
The news regarding the invasion of Theonia on the plains of Crotone had spread to the city of Crotone, and had frightened its people. In particular, the 3,000 soldiers of Laos had hurriedly advanced all the way and were now approaching the north bank of the Neto river.
The defenders on the south bank of the Neto river became flustered, so in order to not let the enemy cross the pontoon bridge and reach the city of Crotone, they had set the several pontoon bridges on the river on fire, which made many people who were fleeing south to be stranded on the northern bank of the river.
Just as Crotone was ferrying the people by boat, the army of Laos had reached the river bank, and so, the Crotonians cried and were forced to flee northwest along the river bank of the Neto river in panic.
When the Greeks first came to this plain, it had an abundant number of marshes due to the Neto river and its many tributaries and abundant rainfall. However, the Greeks had mature drainage technology, and after hundreds of years of management, there were basically no marshes left. But the people of Crotone are still in danger while escaping, because Laos had sent several units of soldiers to chase them.
The Crotonians were frightened and tired. Fortunately, before they knew it, there were more young men in their group, and they enthusiastically helped the women to carry their heavy loads, picked up the children, and helped the elderly, which allowed the fleeing group to not abandon the elderly and children. In the end, the soldiers of Laos stopped their chase, and the refugee could already see the city of Aprustum.
Strategos Phragris, a citizen of Crotone, opened the gate almost without hesitation, and nearly 900 refugees, covered with dust and panicked, entered the city.
But at this moment, a scout had urgently reported to him that 5,000 Theonian soldiers were coming to attack the city of Aprustum.
Phragris had immediately panicked once he heard it. In the two wars with Theonia, more than 6,000 men were drawn from Aprustum to join in the war, and were used as fodders and will never return again. And now, there are only more than 700 citizens in the city who can fight, so how can they stop the 5,000 Theonian soldiers who had managed to defeat the army of Crotone?!
Phragris, who lacks actual combat experience, has no confidence. But when his gaze fell on the frightened refugees in the city, he immediately changed his original idea of getting rewarded by the council of Crotone and gaining their favor by escorting the people out of the city.
“People of Crotone! People of Crotone!!” He stood on the stone stairs of the city wall and yelled, but there were loud clamors and only a few people paid attention to him. So the soldiers began to shout, and finally, the refugees calmed down and looked at the strategos of Aprustum.
“People of Crotone, there are 5,000 soldiers of Theonia that are coming to destroy this city!” As soon as Phragris said this, the crowd then became restless, “What?! The Theonians are coming?!”
“Why haven’t you opened the south gate yet? Let us leave here!!”
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The crowd clamored more loudly, and Phragris and the soldiers had to calm them down first.
“Naturally, you can go. But you should know that because Crotone had launched two wars against Theonia, most of the citizens of Aprustum has followed the army of Crotone and had failed to come back. As a result, there are not many citizen soldiers in the city, and I am afraid that we couldn’t stop the large number of Theonians! Aprustum is the northern barrier of Crotone, so once it is occupied by the Theonians, they will then be able to smoothly go south and easily cross the Neto river and enter the central plain of Crotone, which will be a disaster!….So I urge all of you who can take up the shield and spear to join us to defend Aprustum! To defend Crotone!”
The words of Phragris were the truth, although Aprustum is supposed to be a city, it is a special case(from the administrative division of Athens, several villages were put together and formed a town). Although it had its own council, there was only one strategos in charge of the city-state, and was elected by Crotone’s “Ten Strategoi” every year. So in an emergency, Phragris, who is also a strategos of Crotone, has the right to give orders to the Crotonians.
The refugees fell into silence, and everyone was thinking and weighing the benefits.