Chapter 432: Battle of Allaro River (VIII)
Hence this resulted in the space for the retreat of the fifth legions to the north spacious. However, not long after the fifth legion began their retreat, the mercenary cavalries of Syracuse spotted them.
After the reprimand of Dionysius, the Numidians and the Celtics woke up as they rushed to chase down the soldiers wearing black armour. And due to the fewer fleeing soldiers along the way, it made their galloping convenient, allowing them to spot the fifth legion of Theonia’s retreat.
The fifth legion soldiers were still compact and are retreating orderly, which was obviously not beneficial to the impact of the cavalries. And the Celtic cavalries, even though they are fierce, were not stupid enough to directly clash with a thick heavy infantry formation. However, the crafty mercenaries had their own way. They lined up in columns, drove their horses close to the Theonian soldiers and shouted loudly, and would throw javelins continuously as they quickly passed by the fifth legion’s formation…
The rapid sounds of horses’ hooves and the strange screams and the shouting of their comrades…made the fifth legion’s soldiers, who were already demoralised to be more confused. Wanting to escape the terrible enemy behind them earlier, the soldiers sped up their pace…which caused the retreat of the fifth legion to become chaotic.
When Drakos saw the mess, he immediately made a decisive decision. He turned his horse around and shouted at the first brigade behind him, “Burim, take your first brigade and follow me to stop those damn cavalries! Allowing the rest of our brothers to be able to retreat safely!”
Burim, who was once a chieftain of Besidice, was an unyielding man among the Bruttians. And he is now serving as the senior centurion of the first brigade of the fifth legion. He then replied without hesitation, “Understood, lord legatus!”
As they were afraid it would affect the retreat of the other soldiers, the first brigade didn’t sound their salpinx and only pointed their flag towards the opposite direction of the retreat, followed by the centuria and platoon’s flag. Under the shouts of the officers, the soldiers of the first brigade turned around one after another…
As the other soldiers fled in panic, the first brigade of the fifth legion rose to the challenge!
At the forefront was the legion’s legatus, Drakos, who was fully armed and riding his horse, followed by the senior centurion of the first brigade, Burim.
Drakos turned around and looked at the flustered first brigade soldiers, yet they still decisively followed him. And his satisfaction was reflected in his words, “All of you are worthy of being a man of Besidice! My best soldiers! My best brigade!!” (the soldiers of the first brigade are all from the city of Besidice.)
“It’s the first brigade’s honour to fight together with you, milord!” Burim said as he straightened his chest.
Drakos nodded and gave the order loudly, “Form two rows! Stay in formation and retreat slowly! Never let even one enemy pass!!”
At this moment, Drakos didn’t even think about their survival as the only thing in his sight were the mercenaries roaring in front of him.
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Dionysius, who had studied the previous battles of Theonia, learned from Theonia well this time. He made use of the high mobility of the mercenary cavalries and the two reinforcements that had just joined the battlefield to continuously pursue the scattered soldiers of the South Italian Alliance’s army. So much so that he only withdrew his troops back to the camp when it became dusk.
The Allaro river blocked the defeated Terinian soldiers’ escape path towards the city. Furthermore, warships are waiting in the river, which forced most of the soldiers to retreat northward with the Theonian army under the dual pursuit of the Campanian mercenaries and the sailors of the Syracusan fleet.
The scout sent by Terina fled back in panic and reported the battle’s outcome to the soldiers stationed in the city, causing everyone to panic.
Strategos Phromelas had to make a painful decision in view of the fact that their main army could not return and the isolated city of Terina was unable to stop the incoming Syracusan army. Thus the soldiers abandoned the city of Terina and withdrew to the city of Clampetia of the Theonia Union.
The lookout of the Syracusan warship cruising in the river noticed the abnormality of Terina. So after the Terinians were gone, they sent the sailors to land and investigated the place. As a result, they easily occupied the empty city.
Hence at the dusk of the end of the battle on the Allaro River, Syracuse occupied Terina and gained an excellent foothold for their army in the central part of Magna Graecia. The materials needed by the Syracusan army can now enter the port of Terina by sea, which is much more convenient and safer.
But Dionysius was still not satisfied. His greedy eyes were now fixed on Scylletium, which is not far from the battlefield.
The Scylletian soldiers that participated in the battle were quite miserable. Due to fleeing eastward, they crowded together with the defeated Crotonian soldiers, consuming valuable time. And their retreat path was cut off by Phacipessas’ reinforcements, and behind them, Phidias led some Syracusan soldiers to persist in their pursuit despite their fatigue. As a result, some of the defeated Scylletian soldiers died, some surrendered, some followed the defeated Crotonian soldiers to the north, and only more than 3,000 managed to flee back to the city of Scylletium.
Because the fourth and fifth legion of Theonia were far away from the enemies’ reinforcements on the two flanks, and with the help of friendly foes(involuntary), they managed to retreat relatively smoothly. Except for some setbacks when crossing the Corace River, they did not suffer great losses.
However, Syracuse’s mercenary cavalries caused them the greatest loss. Although the first brigade of the fifth legion led by Drakos stopped most of the cavalries, it also delayed their retreat, resulting in the heavy siege of the pursuing troops of Syracuse and were unable to escape…
Still, Theonia’s greatest luck was that although the cautious Philesius agreed to the battle, he still kept an eye on the situation after discussing it with Ansitanos. As he already considered the possibility of defeat, he had made Ansitanos lead the two legion’s logistics, engineering, medical brigades…and the other legion’s auxiliary personnel out of the camp after they started forming up. They then marched north to retreat to a place between Aprustum and the battlefield.
Philesius’ intention was that: If they won the battle, Syracuse would be driven out of the Ophemia plain, and it would not be too late for the logistics brigade and other auxiliary forces to return. However, if they are defeated, they can no longer retreat back to the camp. Instead, they would retreat to the city of Aprustum and make new defensive arrangements as instructed by Davos before he left.
Thus when the Syracusan army pursued the defeated soldiers, the slow-moving auxiliary forces of Theonia were already on their way back to the city of Aprustum to avoid being captured by Syracuse because there were no longer any soldiers in the camp.
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Perhaps Apollo could no longer bear to see such a gruesome battle between the Greeks, so he let the sun fall into the mountains earlier, and darkness quickly occupied the whole world.
However, Artemis, Apollo’s sister and the goddess of hunting and the moon, was lazy and did not let the moon rise in the sky, so Hades took control of the night.
The alliance’s troops should be thankful for the protection of Hades that the Theonians worshipped. At least the arrogant mercenaries of Syracuse did not dare to come pursuing them in the dark night. Still, it also created many difficulties for the retreat of the alliance’s troops.
In the dark, the soldiers could not see the banner and the plume of the officers, so they could not reorganise. But besides the Theonian legion, the other troops were completely scattered. In fact, this area is the edge of the mountains; the ground is uneven and bumpy, so the exhausted, hungry, frightened, and demoralised soldiers are prone to falling. And if they couldn’t stand up in time, they would be trampled by the soldiers behind them, causing many soldiers to be injured.
The deaths of their comrades made the thousands of defeated soldiers. At the same time, they shouted the names of their officers while worrying about their own safety…
Trudging forward in the darkness, they felt for the first time that Aprustum and Crotone were surprisingly far away from Scylletium…
It was only late at night that the Praetor of Aprustum – Agassias learned of their defeat. Hence, he urgently sent cavalries and citizens holding torches to illuminate the way for the defeated soldiers. Then Crotone also made corresponding measures, which finally allowed the defeated soldiers to separate from the dark.
For the whole night, the two cities busily accommodated the defeated soldiers…
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The Scylletians were also sleepless that night.
As Scylletium’s distance to the battlefield was not far, they immediately received the news of the battle’s defeat, which spread all over the city and caused the people to panic.
At dusk, the more than 3,000 soldiers fled back to the city, after which only sporadic defeated soldiers managed to return. A huge troop of 14,000 men left the city in the morning, but not even a third of them returned in the evening, causing the whole city to mourn.
Phrytinas – the Scylletian polemarchos regretted that he should not have forced the Theonians to rush into battle.
But now, the crisis of Scylletium had just begun. In the South Italian Alliance, the city of Scylletium is also a huge city, which used to make the Scylletians proud. But it has become the cause of the Scylletians trouble as they now lack soldiers to defend the city. From what the defeated soldiers said, the sudden appearance of Syracuse’s reinforcements on the battlefield were the cause of their defeat, which means that the military strength of Syracuse on the battlefield may be more than 50,000. So with the momentum of their victory, who will be the next target of Dionysius?
Phrytinas and the statesmen of Scylletium believed that it would be Scylletium due to its close proximity. Now that Theonia and Crotone have just suffered disastrous defeats, they certainly would not be able to send troops to rescue them in such a short time. So if they wanted Scylletium to escape from Syracuse’s attack, they could only rely on themselves.
Thus an ecclesia was urgently held in the city of Scylletium. The citizens who had still not yet washed the dust and fear in their faces will make an important choice for the city’s survival…