Chapter 511: Battle of Crotone (IV)
At the approaching spear phalanx of Theonia, the Celts became irritated at the Numidians’ charge because they now faced the threat of the terrifying wall of spears. Thus some of their ill-tempered warriors wielded their great swords and slaughtered the Numidians who were on their way to escape, which naturally aroused anger and resistance from the Numidians, delaying the retreat of the entire cavalry unit.
The leader of the two ethnic groups, Acilita and Gaba, and their officers shouted loudly and kept sounding the retreat. However, their efforts were in vain on this dusty, noisy and chaotic battlefield…
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When a huge Celtic cavalry crashed into Tapirus’ group, Tapirus tensed his body up and tightly closed his eyes as he subconsciously clenched his sarissa, ready to withstand the massive impact.
After hearing the horse’s miserable neighing, a strong impact immediately transmitted to the sarissa’s shaft, making it almost impossible for him to hold the sarissa. At the same time, the soldiers in the first few rows were pushed back and bumped into him violently.
“Brothers, steady yourselves! Hold on tightly!…” The soldiers behind him tried to support him and give him strength while they loudly cheered for them.
The thickness of the 15-row sarissa brigade plus the light-armoured soldiers at their rear, increasing it to 20 rows, had given Tapirus and his men enough strength to hold their ground.
When Tapirus opened his eyes, he saw the horse’s hind hooves down and its front hooves up, with eight-nine sarissa piercing its neck and chest at the same time and holding it in mid-air. However, it still wasn’t dead yet, as it whined constantly. On the other hand, its rider, however, had two sarissas piercing its left and right chests and was lying dead on the ground, with the horse and human blood flowing down the sarissa’s shafts…
Then the soldiers pulled out their sarissas with great difficulty.
Tapirus then became surprised to find that even when the enemy cavalry crashed with great impact, the soldiers did not suffer any big casualties. Furthermore, their formation remained relatively intact, and only a few soldiers’ sarissas broke. After this collision, the enemy cavalry no longer continues fighting. Instead, they hurriedly stopped their horses as they wanted to flee in panic, resulting in their front being chaotic…
The cowardice of their enemy encouraged Tapirus and the other soldiers, relieving their nervousness.
“Brothers, keep moving!” Tapirus shouted, and the soldiers roared in response.
Then they stepped over the bodies of their enemies, bypassed the dying horses, and continued advancing.
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At the rear of the formation, Kapus was surprised to see that they had managed to stop the advance of the massive enemy cavalries. In addition, the chaotic situation of the enemy made him realise that it was too good to miss this opportunity, so he decisively ordered, “CHARGE!”
Besides the sarissa brigade just advancing steadily, they could also charge like heavy infantry even without wearing any armour, which is the tactics they focused on training these days.
And the rapid and continuous sound of the salpinx bolstered the soldiers’ morale.
“Everyone! We are going to charge!!…” Tapirus roared.
The soldiers of each centurias no longer stuck with each other so tightly but opened up some space. And even though they are still only taking small steps, their pace gradually increases…
With the increasing pace of the phalanx formation, the enemy cavalries began to get pierced one after another and scream to rang out.
At the same time, the whole phalanx formation was no longer continuous due to numerous gaps appearing, but the light-armoured soldiers quickly poured in. Then they pounced on the enemy, who just sat on their horses and didn’t move.
Unfortunately for the Theonian cavalry, a few had accidentally collided with the sarissa phalanx due to their nervousness while luring the enemy, with some cavalries getting wounded or killed by the chasing Celts… It was only after they suffered some casualties did the Theonian cavalries smoothly withdraw from both sides of the phalanx. But once the sarissa brigade charged, the Theonian cavalry immediately returned after a quick reorganisation and bravely blocked the passages on both sides.
“Revenge for Solikos!!” Ledes shouted and gave the order to attack.
While the infantry has the unyielding Drakos as their hero, the cavalry also has the deceased Solikos as their hero. At this time, the Theonian cavalry fought desperately with the enemy regardless of their casualties to wash away the humiliation of their defeat at the hands of Syracuse’s mercenary cavalries.
On a battlefield where the horses couldn’t gallop, the difference in horsemanship could not be fully displayed and used, making the Theonian cavalries equal to the Celts and Numidians. Furthermore, the compressing of the battlefield resulted in the enemy being unable to flee for a time and creating a condition for the sarissa brigade and the light-armoured soldiers to wipe out the enemy.
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“Your majesty, the sarissa brigade has blocked the enemy cavalry’s charge and is now counterattacking!” hearing the report of the excited Tolmides, Davos was relieved. However, his expression remained serious, “It’s now up to the first and second legion and Milo!”
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Phidias, who was in the middle of the formation, was so focused on leading Syracuse’s right-wing’s advance and only keeping an eye on the entire phalanx that he was unaware of his cavalries’ situation. And just like what he planned, the entire formation gradually tilted to the left.
The Spartan infantries were best at using “left rotation tactics”: It is to take advantage of the fact that heavy infantry held shields in their left hands, so they would lean to the right and gradually deviate to the left-wing of the enemy while moving. Furthermore, they would make the soldiers on the far right speed up and reach the enemy line, allowing their right-wing to attack the enemy’s left-wing’s flank. They would then attack the untrained enemy and crush them, which would result in the battle ending most of the time before the left and centre made direct contact.
Hence Phidias naturally chose the tactics he was most familiar with at such an important moment of this massive war. Unfortunately, the Syracusan army couldn’t achieve a neat and consistent left rotation attack in the battle like the Spartan warriors, who had been trained together since childhood, could. However, the Syracusan army’s advantage that the Spartan army doesn’t have is having a larger number of infantry and cavalries, which is much more than the Theonians. So after getting a rough idea of the Theonian formation, Phidias was delighted to find out that he could fully concentrate his troops on the right-wing and take the lead in crushing the enemy’s left-wing, laying the foundation for their victory!
Since the left end of the right-wing had connected with the centre at the start of the march (the cavalry at the right end had already rushed ahead), they instinctively slowed down their marching speed than the soldiers on the far right without friendly troops due to their previous habits. Furthermore, the right-wing of Syracuse, whose line was more than a kilometre long, had tilted significantly after advancing for a while.
In this regard, Phidias rejoiced as he was glad to see it and reckoned that once they made contact with Theonia’s left flank, the tilted formation should be able to cut into the enemy’s flank. By then, the cavalry should have already taken care of the Theonian cavalry and started attacking the rear of Theonia’s left flank. So with them attacking the three sides of Theonia’s left-wing, their heavy infantry wouldn’t be able to resist them even if they were stronger!
If Phidias could detect the unusualness of the formation, the veteran officers of the first and second legions of Theonia could also notice it. After receiving continuous reports, the two legati immediately realised that the situation wasn’t right, but the two armies were only less than 400 metres away from each other now.
So Antonios immediately sent a herald to Amintas, Milo and Siprus to convey his suggestions of stopping their advance immediately and reorganising their formation.
Soon after, Amintas, the legatus of the second legion, agreed.
However, Milo and Siprus remained hesitant, but Antonios could no longer wait for their response. Hence he decisively ordered his troops to stop, and then the second legion issued the same order.
As the first legions to be created, the first and second legions have the most veterans and the strongest among the legions, and it also means that they are the most capable of carrying out orders.
So despite their doubts, the officers and soldiers stop advancing at the sound of the salpinx and the waving of the flags.
With the two Theonian legions stopping their advance, it left the leftmost Crotone-Terina reinforcements at a loss and resulted in Milo and Siprus, who were still hesitating, to immediately order, ‘Halt!’
As a city-state that doesn’t have systematic military training and complicated military orders and formations like Theonia, they do not have a salpinx for halting at all. Hence they could only send a lot of heralds to loudly convey the orders before and after each phalanx, resulting in a slightly disordered formation. Fortunately, they were near the first legion. So with the first legion halting, the adjacent Crotone-Terina reinforcements were naturally affected and resulted in their soldiers quickly halting.
But as the first and second legions calmly changed direction, the Crotone-Terina troops could only follow suit with some difficulty: The Theonian army was in a checkerboard formation, with each centuria forming a small phalanx formation, resulting in better flexibility. Moreover, they have competent officers and well-trained soldiers, allowing the smooth change of direction and letting the forefront of the formation face the enemy again. On the other hand, the Crotone-Terina troops were in a dense formation, about 300 metres long and 15 rows thick, with each soldier wearing heavy helmets and armour. The thick and closed Corinthian helmets already made it much more difficult to hear the commands and turn around during training; What’s more, if it is on a battlefield and facing the rapidly approaching enemies. Thus the Crotone-Terina had a more difficult time completing such a complex tactical manoeuvre.