Chapter 514: Battle of Crotone (VII)
Previously, Dionysius wouldn’t be too much concerned about such a retreat because the right-wing was the key to Syracuse’s victory in this battle. Thus as long as the centre and the left-wing can hold down the enemy they are facing and maintain the balance of power during their enemy’s attack, the only thing they would do is wait for the news of victory on the right-wing.
However, after Dionysius learned from the scouts that “Syracuse’s greatest advantage – the cavalry was currently being held down by Theonia’s ambushed”, his initially relaxed mood soon became anxious and worried about the centre and left-wing’s continuous retreat. So he subsequently not only asked the bugler to blow the salpinx for an attack but also had the herald warn the officers and soldiers not to fall back any further and instead attack!
After receiving the order, the Syracusan soldiers behind the centre no longer retreated and even forced the Campanian mercenaries at the forefront to fight fiercely with the enemy; As for the soldiers on the left-wing, they could only slow down their retreat as they were really at a disadvantage in the confrontation.
Dionysius became annoyed as he had arranged the formation after the scout reported about Theonia’s right-wing, ‘Obviously Theonia’s right-wing isn’t the main force, and their number should be lesser than my left-wing, but why is the result different? Could it be that those Magna Graecians didn’t fight seriously at all? Or had they colluded with the enemy?…’
As Dionysius’ paranoia surfaces again, he begins suspecting his ally – Locri. However, he also knew that this wasn’t time to worry about this as Davos’ cunningness placed his cavalry in trouble. Now, he can only hope Phidias leads his right-wing to quickly defeat his opponent and lay a foundation for the entire battlefront’s victory!
So even when the other battlefront performed poorly, Dionysius remained confident because his right-wing’s performance was in line with his expectation before the battle.
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The elite Syracusan soldiers were vigilant against Theonia’s heavy infantry even when they had a bigger and denser phalanx formed by 25,000 men that pressed Theonia’s left-wing. Thus, they lined up closely to form a spear phalanx to make the Theonian soldiers vigilant in evading the forefront Syracusan soldiers and the thrusting of the soldiers at the rear. The Theonian soldiers struggled to resist Syracuse’s tremendous pushing force had significantly weakened Theonia’s heavy infantry’s offence.
However, the first and second legion soldiers are all battle-hardened veterans. Moreover, the officers had a general understanding of King Davos’ tactical arrangement, so they understood that in such a situation where they felt some pressure, the first thing they had to do was to ensure that the formation would not collapse. Afterwards, they would stall the enemy and wait for the arrival of reinforcements.
The Theonian soldiers would then take advantage of their formation’s flexibility to retreat orderly, alleviating the huge pressure caused by the enemy’s attack. At the same time, they would cover themselves with their long shiels and wait for an opportunity to show up, then stab the enemy with their short swords.
As a result, Phidias was almost seriously wounded twice: The first time was just after the charge when he collided with the enemy, shields against shields. He could only see his opponent’s long shield completely covering up his body, so he pushed his round shield with all his might, trying to break through the enemy’s defence to allow his spear to exert its strength. Unexpectedly, the enemy’s right hand, hidden behind the long shield, poked out from above and stabbed the short sword downward like lightning. However, it only struck his Corinthian helmet, causing him to feel dizzy.
The second time was after he stabbed the enemy in front of him. Due to his prior combat habits, he instinctively squeezed into the gap of the opponent’s formation. But then, two cold and shining short swords from the left and right stabbed towards his ribs simultaneously before he could take the next step. Although he reacted quickly, the sharp short sword cut through his linen armour and right waist.
This wound made him finally realise his opponent’s strength. So instead of easily taking risks, he went back in line with the Syracusan soldiers around him.
But compared to the stable defensive counterattack of the first and second legions of Theonia, the soldiers of the Crotone-Terina reinforcements at the far left end were much fiercer. Although their phalanx was not as dense as the Syracusans, they withstood Syracuse’s pressure and did not easily retreat. After all, their hatred made them glimmer with courage and strength, so even when they were seriously wounded, their spears did not stop thrusting. And even if they fall, they will hold their enemies’ feet as long as they have even a bit of strength, trying to pull them down or bite them with their teeth. Such a tragic sight happened many times on the battlefront of the Crotone-Terina reinforcements, which frightened the Syracusan soldiers that they would only move forward after making sure that their opponents were dead, resulting in their advance slowing down.
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Behind this battlefield is another battlefield. After the Theonian light infantry withdrew from the main battlefield, Cid and Arpenst led them to participate in the encirclement and suppression of the enemy cavalry. However, they encountered the Syracusan light infantry, who had the same purpose as them, leading to the battle between light infantry that had previously taken place in front of the massive phalanx formation to continue in the rear.
The soldiers of each side were mainly archers and peltast, with Theonia having slingers. They began their long-range battle after taking up a loose formation with the peltast at the front and the archers in the rear. Although their fight wasn’t as loud as the clash between heavy infantries, their fierceness wasn’t less because they had far less protection than the heavy infantry. As arrows and javelins rained down on the sky above the battlefield, the wounded and dead littered the ground.
Even though Theonia’s light infantry was more well-trained and had more tacit cooperation, Syracuse had a larger number of light infantry who had received Dionysius’ strict order. Hence it was difficult to distinguish the winner or loser of this battle.
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Naturally, the ones who suffered the most on the easternmost battlefield were the:
The Celts, who were caught in the middle and could not break away, could only listen to the wailing of their horses and the screams of their comrades while watching them fall. In the face of the sarissa phalanx, most of them did not dare to sit passively on their horses, so they forcefully jumped down, held their long swords and fought back.
But this is undoubtedly like a mantis in front of a carriage. First of all, they couldn’t even get close to the enemy’s sarissa phalanx with their long swords, and in their haste to fight back, they often fought separately and soon died under the piercing of the sarissa, just like the strong Celtic warrior in front of Tapirus, who could only roar while swinging his long sword continuously. Although he could cut the spearhead of two sarissas one after another, the dense phalanx still forced him to retreat. Then as soon as he slipped and revealed an opening, the sarissa would poke into the gap and stab his thigh. And the moment he instinctively bent over, three more spears pierced his head and chest at the same time.
The constant killing and wounding of the enemy also made the soldiers of the sarissa brigade more confident, which naturally increased the pace of their advance.
With Tapirus’ centuria no longer encountering any major obstacles, they advanced faster that they opened a considerable distance from the adjacent centuria.
Suddenly on the chaotic battlefield, a Celtic warrior rushed into the flank of the phalanx, which caught Tapirus’ centuria off guard as he slashed several soldiers in a row.
Fortunately, the light-armoured soldiers behind came forward in time to stop him. However, the Celtic warrior still did his best to slash a light-armoured soldier’s leather shield in half. And despite being surrounded, it took five light-armoured soldiers to finish him off. Yet he still manages to seriously wound two light-armoured soldiers as well.
An alarm sounded inside Tapirus, who had to shout to his soldiers not to advance fast and wait for the adjacent centuria.
Although the Celtic cavalries were fierce, they had no chance of winning against the dense sarissa phalanx on this crowded battlefield. Moreover, many of them directly crashed into the wall of spears even though they were already small in number, so it didn’t take long for Tapirus and his men to find that they were no longer facing the tall and strong Celts wearing thick-striped clothes, spiked helmets and wielding large swords. Instead, they now faced the dark-skinned, long and thinned Numidians who wore simple clothes and held javelins, whose courage was much worse than the Celts. Besides a few who tried throwing javelins at the Theonians, most of them quickly jumped off their horses’ backs, turned around and fled into the chaotic battlefield…
Although Kapus didn’t send scouts, he knew that his sarissa brigade was doing well because he was in the rear of the formation and followed the phalanx.
At this time, a cavalry came quickly, “Strategos Kapus, the enemy cavalry flank the cavalry led by strategos Ledes! So he hopes to get reinforcements…”
It seems that Astagoras led most of the thousand Sicilian cavalries, who were at the rear of the formation, out of the cramped and chaotic battlefield after noticing they weren’t advancing quickly.
Logically thinking, the cavalries are no longer suited to fight on the battlefield at this moment. However, Astagoras knew the importance of these foreign mercenaries to the whole battle, so he couldn’t leave them alone. Otherwise, Dionysius won’t spare him. Thus he tried his best to reorganise the Sicilian Greek cavalries that had fled from all directions and led the more than 800 cavalries that he hurriedly gathered to the left of the battlefield.
On the left, Ledes led half of the legion’s cavalry to block the outflanking of enemy cavalry while desperately pushing them towards the middle.
At first, the mercenary cavalries attacked fiercely, especially the Celts, who caused casualties to the Theonian cavalries. However, with the advance of the sarissa phalanx, the Celts suffered heavily. Although the Numidians were skilled in horsemanship and javelin throwing, they could only ride their horses and fight their opponents at close range without any protection after losing those two advantages. They were definitely not the opponents of the Theonian cavalries at all.
With the Numidians unable to resist, some cavalries began fleeing as they tried to squeeze into the middle of the chaos and retreat from the rear.
Suddenly, Astagoras and his cavalries attack with their focus of attack was Ledes’ direction*. After all, Ledes’ towering, purple and red plume on top of his helmet was so eye-catching that if the guards hadn’t fought to the death, Ledes would have been seriously wounded.