Chapter 413: Battle of Poseidonia (I)
At this moment, Tolek was staring at the Theonian camp in the distance.
In fact, the Samnites had arrived and planned to attack last night. However, they found that the Theonians built their camp to be well defended. As a veteran, Tolek knew that an attack of tens of thousands of men in the dark, especially without moonlight, could easily get out of control and cause unnecessary losses. Thus he restrained his impulse and postponed the attack until the next day. As a result, the Samnites spent the night in the mountains in early November, where the weather was cold, and even if the warriors slept in their leather clothes, they still felt a bit cold.
Tolek rubbed his frozen hands. He didn’t expect the Theonians to build a camp of such scale so quickly, but then he thought again that this was better as the Theonians wouldn’t be able to escape.
He then looked at Kinduk, the one leading the Caudini army and consulted him, “Leader Kinduk, my men would attack from the north and east, while your people attack from the west. What do you think?”
“I have no problem with that.” Kinduk nodded in agreement. Then he asked, “What about the south of the enemy’s camp? We should not let them run away.”
“South.” Tolek pointed to the city of Poseidonia in the distance and said confidently, “They wouldn’t be able to run!”
Kinduk understood what he meant and said excitedly, “It seems that the Theonians have become prey that fell into a pit, which is good as this will allow our warriors to vent their anger due to them being unable to sleep well last night.” Kinduk said, rubbing his hand over his cold body.
Tolek looked back at the warriors behind him and gave an order, “Blow the horn!”
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Through the early morning mist, a long and powerful sound of a horn reached Poseidonia two kilometres away, which was heard by Pisini and Mobuk standing a the top of the city wall, “Do you hear that! It’s our horn. Our reinforcements have arrived!”
The Samnite warriors on the wall became excited and began shouting.
“Warriors! Get ready to go out of the city to meet and destroy those detestable Theonians!” Pisini shouted with vigour and enthusiasm after sweeping away his despair.
“Roar! Roar!!…” The warriors roared at the same time.
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Alexius observed the approaching enemy outside the camp on the sentry tower and calmly said, “The enemy is about to attack. Have everyone prepare!”
“On my way.” The adjutant turned around and went down
“The next part will be up to you.” Alexius said expectantly to the ballista spotter – Stheponian, who was also on the sentry tower. Since the spotter was from the Akademia of Theonia, Alexius spoke to him in a rather polite manner.
“Legatus, there is nothing for you to worry about!” Stheponian answered confidently, but his heart was beating like a drum. Because of the morning fog, he could not see the markings they left outside the camp yesterday, so he could only rely on his visual judgment.
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Tolek began commanding the troops to attack the north of the camp.
Due to their haste, the Samnites rushed without carrying Syracuse’s ballistae or other large siege equipment. Thus they had to make an improvise long ladders during their rest last night. However, Tolek thought that that was enough because the scouts reported that there were no other defences outside the Theonian camp beside the trenches. So with their huge numbers, all they had to do was break through the not-so-high earthen wall in one fell swoop, and the Theonians would only be sitting ducks.
When those attacking the camp approached within 250 metres away from the camp, Tolek waved his spear forward and shouted, “Attack!”
More than a dozen horns resounded throughout the battlefield.
Some Samnite warriors carried long ladders, some held long shields, and some were only holding javelins and spears as they began to speed up their pace…
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“Elevation 40, full draw, small stone balls!” Stheponian shouted from the sentry tower.
“Ready the ballista!” The ballista captain ordered, “Elevation 40, full draw, small stone balls!”
Under the rapid operations of the soldiers, the ballista began making “creaking” noise.
“Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!…” Then the stone balls were ejected.
The ballista captain stared at the stone balls flying to the enemy. Even though he was excited, he also had some regrets due to several ballistae getting damaged at yesterday’s bombardment of Poseidonia. Otherwise, they would kill more enemies.
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
Tolek saw a dark shadow pass through his head. Then he shouted, “No!”
However, he was far less surprised than the strategos of Locri – Theophantes. After all, in the minds of the Samnites, the Greeks all possessed excellent skills. So if the Syracusans could make ballista, the Theonians undoubtedly could as well.
But instead of frightening Tolek, the ballista aroused his fierceness, “Everyone quickly run! Kill all the Greeks!”
The warriors around roared. And soon, the roar spread throughout the Samnites, completely covering up the noise caused by the stone balls. The morale of the Samnites became high as they took big steps and began accelerating towards the Theonian camp.
“One hundred metres!” A shout came from the sentry tower.
“Archers, ready!” Shouted Ibil, the light infantry’s senior centurion.
The archers, who had long been waiting behind the earthen wall, spread out in a fan shape, drew their bows and arrows.
Then hundreds of arrows rained on the Samnites’ formation, causing more screams than the one caused by the ballista.
The weak protection of the Samnites brought great results to the Theonian light infantry. Still, the repeated screams did not weaken the pace of the Samnites.
After two rounds of rain of arrows, the Samnites had rushed within 50 metres.
The soldiers of the third legion of Theonia could now clearly hear the rumbling footsteps of the enemy and felt the slight tremor of the ground they caused, and even their shouts had covered the whole camp. Although the soldiers were nervous, they did not panic. After all, they are the third legion of Theonia and had gotten many achievements: They participated in the second war with Crotone and captured the city of Aprustum alone; Raided the city of Grumentum; Use a legion to calm the rebellion in Lucania, wiping out Cincinnag’s troops, and take the city of Pyxous…the dazzling stars on the flag of the third legion symbolises their honour. And today’s battle will certainly add another honour for the third legion!
The centurion, Sitina, was a Greek slave of Nerulum and got freed after Theonia conquered Nerulum. He then chose to settle in Nerulum and finally joined the third legion of Theonia, and through his own effort, he became a middle-rank officer in command of 200 men. His past hatred of the Lucanians disappeared, and now he is fighting side by side with them, whom he once hated and is now his brother for his home, the Theonia Union.
“Javelin!” He shouted.
The soldiers who were standing on the wall threw their javelins, while the Samnites who rushed to the camp’s trench also threw their javelins.
For a time, countless javelins swish through the air. As the two sides have exchanged blows, they learned of each other’s tactics and have erected long shields for protection.
But compared with the Samnite warriors, who are more crowded and poorly equipped outside the camp, the Theonian soldiers are well protected by a wall and a long shield, suffering only a few casualties. But from time to time, a javelin would get stuck on their shield, making it inconvenient to use. However, they have no time to cut the javelin at the moment.
Although the casualties of the Samnites were large, the javelin rain continued. The Samnite warriors then rushed into the trench, jumped directly into it and set up some long ladders, while several men built a human wall and began climbing their way up.
The Theonian soldiers threw their javelins into the trenches, and at such a close distance, they became almost accurate, but even so, they could not stop the influx of Samnites.
“Pour the oil! Pour the oil quickly!” While shouting anxiously, Sitina bent down to lift the oil jar that had been prepared in advance and placed behind the wall. Then, he suddenly heard a soldier scream behind him as he got pierced through his left shoulder by a javelin and fell to the ground in pain.
Sitina then leaned down vigilantly, peeped out behind the wall when he happened to see a Samnite holding a javelin outside the trench, less than five metres away from him. When he was about to throw the javelin, someone in the camp struck the enemy.
Sitina quickly stood up and threw the oil jar down, hitting the head of a Samnite warrior in the trench, breaking it open and spilling the oil.
Many soldiers on the wall did the same thing as Sitina. Afterwards, they threw down torches on the trench, causing a fire wall to arise, where countless men howled until only silence remained…
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“Legatus, the enemy in the north has temporarily retreated. And from our initial statistics, we suffered 240 casualties.” Alexius’ adjutant rushed to report.
“We lost so many brothers before we even started engaging them.” Said Alexius with a frown. Although there were more Samnites that had fallen to the ground and were moaning outside the camp, as well as those who were burnt to a crisp inside the trenches, Alexius was still alarmed at the lethality of the Samnites’ javelins. He then pointed to the south of the camp and said, “Look, the enemy in Poseidonia has also come. This battle has just begun.”
“It’s unfortunate that we have too few oil jars! Otherwise, if we were to use it in several directions, the Samnites will lose a lot more!” Said the adjutant with regret.
“We can’t blame the logistics brigade. It’s not easy for them to load rations, camp building materials, weapons and equipment, and bring so many oil jars. It couldn’t help as our legion needed to act fast, and the enemy’s reinforcements came so quickly!” Alexius comforted him and continued, “Don’t worry, we will defeat them slowly. Anyway, they won’t be able to escape.”