Chapter 411: Crisis: Allaro Rivers Defensive Line
“My brother is back?!” Pamot accidentally knocked his helmet to the ground. However, he didn’t care and continued to ask excitedly, “Where is he?!”
“Brother, I am back!” With a vigorous cry, Polet’s strong figure appeared in the hall.
Pamot hurried forward and held him tightly with both hands, “Brother, you are back! Wonderful, you are back!” Pamot choked from his excitement as he had never missed his ill-tempered brother so strongly as today. Pamot excels at balancing the interest of the various tribes and managing the cities and towns. However, when it comes to marching, fighting, and boosting morale, it was the work of his brother, who has been a troublemaker since childhood. But more importantly…
“Did Thurii send reinforcements?” Pamot asked urgently.
“They have come! Lord Davos himself led the army, and they are the two strongest legions in Theonia, with a total of 20,000 men!” Polet said with excitement.
“Wonderful! They have finally come! Thank Asinu!” Pamot placed his hand over his chest with relief, and his pale face began to brighten, “So where are they?”
“Instead of coming directly to Potentia, they went to Pyxous and are about to attack Poseidonia…” Seeing his brother’s excitement, Polet unconsciously lowered his voice.
“Attack Poseidonia?” The smile that had just appeared on Pamot’s face froze, followed by anger, “The Samnites are about to attack our city of Potentia, but that Davos instead ran with the reinforcements to a small coastal town hundreds of kilometres away from here that we don’t even care about! What kind of evil intentions does he have? Will he just watch us get wiped out and then come back to get more benefit?!…”
Polet rarely sees his big brother, who is always calm and gentle, get so angry. But at this moment, he isn’t in the mood to tease him, “Brother, listen to me! Listen to me! Lord Davos attacked Poseidonia in order to end the Samnite’s siege of Potentia and even defeat them!”
Pamot, who was was about to throw the wooden chair in the hall, heard his brother’s shouting. He then dropped the chair with a “bang” and asked suspiciously, “Is that true?”
“Yes.” Polet did not avoid his gaze and solemnly said, “After I received your letter, I immediately wanted to return from Thurii. However, I was stopped by Lord Davos because he wanted to lead the troops himself and needed a guide who knew Potentia and the Samnites, providing him with useful suggestions. Thus I set out with the reinforcements from Theonia… It was only after they finalised the Theonian army’s plan of action to repel the Samnites that Lord Davos asked me to rush back to Potentia as soon as possible so that I could cooperate with him in the future military actions. He even wanted to send a team to escort me back, but I refused.
After all, this is where I grew up playing, so I am very familiar with every hillside, every path, every cave and every boulder, and the Samnites are just tightly blockading the road, so I can easily sneak in. But if I were to take them, then we would be in danger…”
After listening to Polet’s story, especially after learning about Davos’ plan, Pamot gradually calmed down, “So the Theonians have begun marching into Poseidonia, and the only thing we have to do now is to pay close attention to the Samnites’ movements at the foot of the mountain…”
“Yes.” Polet nodded again.
Pamot let out a long breath of relief and relaxed his entire body, “Brother, since you have returned, I will leave the heavy responsibility of leading the Potentian warriors to fight against the Samnites!”
Polet shook his head, “Big brother, it’s still not the time.”
“Why?” Pamot asked, puzzled.
“Because there would then be too much commotion, and in case the Samnites found out that I, who should have been in Thurii, have returned, they might guess that the Theonian reinforcements might have arrived. Then the plan of Lord Davos might fail! Therefore I suggest that you hide the news of my return for the time being!”
Pamot thought for a while and said, “Brother, you are right! However, I didn’t expect that after going to Thurii, you have become cautious now!”
Polet became a bit embarrassed, “It’s all Lord Davos’ reminder.”
“Lord Davos…” Pamot felt the strange way Polet spoke, “I remember that you didn’t address him as such before.” Pamot said slowly.
In his mind, Polet recalled the days when he moved together with the Theonian legion and conversed with Davos many times. So he answered seriously, “He is indeed a remarkable man!”
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
Siprus also hoped that the Syracusans would rest the next day after a day’s rapid march to give Terina, Crotone and Scylletium some buffer time to do their job defending the north bank of the Allaro river.
But the city-states of Magna Graecia underestimated Dionysius’ determination because once he goes all out, his actions and wisdom become frightening. Back when the Carthaginian commander Himilco led his army to defeat the Syracusan army and forced his way into the city, Dionysius would have been ousted from his throne by the angry people if not for the support of the Spartans. But it was in this time of crisis that Dionysius developed his stratagems to the utmost: When the Carthaginian suffered from the plague, Dionysius led his troops out of the city in the dark of the night, advancing both by land and sea, hiding his main force from the west, causing the experienced Himilco to misjudge the situation, and finally suffered a disastrous defeat.
This time, in order to conquer Magna Graecia, Dionysius prepared a vast army and a massive amount of supplies. Syracuse had even paid a great price to win over some forces and cause trouble to Theonia. Therefore, if this expedition fails, it will shake Dionysius’ rule in Syracuse. So he had been mentally tense all these days since departing from Sicily. Furthermore, even though he seems to look down on Theonia, it was just to give the soldiers and officers confidence. But the truth is, he has always had a deep fear of Theonia in his heart.
For this reason, he certainly understood the importance of time for the Syracusan army. Before they marched yesterday, Dionysius had already made the Locrians give an urgent notice to the Hipponion in advance to construct a camp. Thus, after the army’s arrival, even though it was still chaotic, the order was still much better than when they landed in Locri. At least most of the soldiers manage to sleep. Early the following morning, Dionysius began assembling his troops and even though the soldiers kept complaining, they still had to advance north obediently under his authority. At the same time, he ordered the Syracusan fleet to sail north from the port of Hipponion into the Allaro river.
By noon, the huge army in irregular formation reached the middle part of the Allaro river and its tributary.
Terina had spies watching Hipponion day and night, while Hipponion likewise had someone watching the northern bank of the Allaro river. Thus, Dionysius naturally knew that a large section of the river could be crossed without many defensive forces. Therefore, the army turns south and goes straight to the middle reaches of the river.
The scouts on the other side of the river quickly reported back to the polemarchos of Terina, Siprus, who inwardly groaned when he learned of Syracuse’s actions. He, who had nearly 7,000 Terinian soldiers in control of the whole city, was anxious. Still, he did not dare to act rashly due to the report he received from the lighthouse that countless Syracusan warships appeared in the Gulf where Terina was located, and many soldiers could be seen onboard.
Siprus was worried that they would land on the northern coast of Terina, so he had to keep guard and did not dare to send troops to assist Scylletium.
Scylletium hastily increased their force on the river’s north bank to 12,000 men only this morning after receiving an urgent notice last night from the Terinians. But they didn’t expect that as soon as they stationed their troops, the army of Syracuse would arrive.
Asesias, the strategos of the Scylletium army, saw the increasing number of the Syracusan soldiers on the other side becoming massive, giving him chills. He could only keep cursing, ‘Why haven’t the Crotonians arrived yet?!!’ The troops in his hands were too thin if he were to spread them over this long stretch of riverbank, where the enemy could cross.
While Crotone, who he cursed, received the plea for help from a Terinian messenger last night, realising the gravity of the situation, they dispatch the soldiers late at night to notify all citizens of the right age both inside and outside the city.
Early this morning, the citizens came to the square to report one after another.
In the morning, 14,000 men gathered in the square, and more citizens arrived one after another.
But Lysias and the strategoi couldn’t wait, so they asked Ascamas to lead those that were here first, and the rest of the soldiers and the supplies would arrive later.
Just as Asesias began cursing the Crotonians, the Crotonian troops were anxiously rushing to Scylletium.
But Dionysius was clearly prepared not to give the South Italia Alliance a breathing space. At his urging, the Syracusan army quickly arrived on the river’s south bank and began lining up.
During this period, when the land forces were lining up, some of the Syracusans warships sailed into the Allaro river.
Unlike Thurii, which sits on both sides of the river, the Allaro river is split into two, with Terina is located on the river’s north bank while the south bank belongs to Hipponion. Therefore, the Allaro river is the boundary river between the two city-states. However, since the two cities were part of different alliances, with the Crotone Alliance and the Locri Alliance being mortal enemies, the two city-states have little to no communication, let alone building a pontoon bridge on the river. With Terina handing over most of their warship to Theonia*, they could only watch as the enemy warships sail one by one to the upper reaches of the Allaro river. Moreover, the gods were helping Syracuse as at this moment, a wind was blowing from the southwest, saving the Syracusan sailors a lot of effort from paddling against the current. (Of course, even if they are still there, they still wouldn’t be able to do anything as they are not a match against the powerful Syracusan navy.)