Chapter 544: Battle of the Sea Near Naxos
Hence only respect showed on Leotychides’ cold and arrogant face when facing Pamanius.
“Help him.” Leotychides said as he reached out his hand, gripped the end of the short spear and pulled it out.
But the force of the gastraphete was too strong that Leotychides couldn’t pull out the short spear.
“I need someone with greater strength to help!” Leotychides said while going on a horse stance, ready to use his whole body’s strength.
At this time, another platoon leader shouted, “Centurion! The enemy’s attack is coming again; you must wait until we have dodged this round and return to retrieve platoon leader Pamanius’ remain!”
Leotychides, however, ignored him.
So the platoon leader could only shout helplessly, “Shield formation!”
The soldiers quickly and skillfully stacked their long shields together to form a shield formation, protecting Leotychides in the centre.
“Centurion Hybaterus!” With this cry, Hybaterus, a centurion who had also been a soldier under Pamanius, squeezed in, stood next to Leotychides and gripped the short spear with both hands.
The two men laboriously pulled out the short spear under the booming sound of stone projectiles hitting the wooden wall. Fortunately, the gastraphete did not fire in this direction again; otherwise, the long shield would not be able to block it.
Leotychides then laid Pamanius’ body, took off his helmet, reached out his hand to close Pamanius’ pained eyes and whispered, “May the gates of Elysium open to you.”
Then he stood up and said, “Sitalses, you will replace Pamanius as the platoon leader and send two men to carry Pamanius’ body to the rear.”
“Understood!” Sitalses, who was once the superior of Leotychides, saluted and replied.
“Prosous*, we will use the blood of countless Syracusans as tributes to Pamanius!” Said Hybaterus with hatred. (Note: Leotychides’ alias in Theonia.)
Although Leotychides did not reply, his face was equally sombre and dreadful.
After this round of bombardment, the lookout ran forward to observe the enemy. The wooden wall had now basically collapsed, widening his line of sight, “Reporting, the enemy moved their ballista forward!”
As soon as he finished speaking, he heard a creaking and cracking loud noise as the crumbling sentry tower finally collapsed.
Leotychides glanced at the Syracusan army on the south bank of the Alcantara River and ordered, “All soldiers immediately withdraw!”
Not only his centuria but even the other centuria retreated.
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
Macias, who was on the south bank, ordered the ballista troops, “Push the ballista forward by another ten metres!…”
As the strategos Dionysius appointed to defend Syracuse and a former mercenary leader, Macias was experienced in combat and took great care in using his troops. From the detailed report of the messenger who had returned to ask for reinforcement, he learned about the battle situation of the Syracusan army in Magna Graecia, which allowed him to understand the combat characteristics of the Theonian army. Thus even though Philistus urged him to wipe out the invaders as soon as possible to ease the uneasiness of their allies in Sicily, he still decided to follow his plan and proceed step by step.
And from the information he got, Macias estimated the enemy had about 6,000 soldiers. If he added the exiles, their total strength might be more than 7,000. Yet he still did not intend to rashly attack even though he led more troops than the enemy by a lot. Rather, he followed Syracuse’s method compiled from their numerous siege battle by concentrating first on bombarding the enemy with ballista to weaken their defence and destroy the defenders’ morale before finally sending his troops to attack.
Megalos’ poor city defence had further demonstrated the might of Syracuse’s ballista by blasting away the southern wooden walls and towers. Yet Macias still did not send his troops to attack as he planned to continue the bombardment for a day and turn Megalos into complete ruin, consuming the Theonians and the Sicilian exiles’ energy in uneasiness and panic. Finally, wipe them out in one fell swoop once their reinforcements from allied city-states such as Gela and Kamarina from the south coast of Sicily arrived tomorrow. Thus the only words Macias said on this day were, “Move forward! Keep moving forward! Blast Megalos to pieces!…”
The Syracusans’ plan was beyond Antonios’ expectations. So instead of the Syracusan soldiers attacking, what awaited Antonios was the frequent complaints from the leaders of the exiles as it was not only the Theonian soldiers who kept retreating but also the exiles and their families. In addition, children’s cries and women’s screams filled the whole town amidst the rumbling tremors. Torilaus even hoped that Antonios could lead the army to take the initiative to attack the Syracusans.
But after being flatly rejected by Antonios, Torilaus became so angry that he cursed the Theonians for their cowardice.
Still, Antonios didn’t care even when Syracuse’s ballistae gave him a headache. After all, with the enemy soldiers not coming, it brought time for the first legion. Furthermore, Antrapolis’ suggestion made him understand the other’s plan and gave him hope. Still, he wouldn’t pin all his hopes on these intelligence officers hiding and snooping around in the shadows like rats.
However, Antonios was surprised at these Sicilian exiles: Besides the children and women, these young and middle-aged exiles could remain calm, maintain order, and not panic even in the face of the powerful ballista bombardment. Moreover, they even actively asked to go to battle and were commendable that they still carried out his orders despite rejecting them.
After Ladician’s explanation, Antonios learned that these exiles fled to the inland mountain and gradually built a settlement after the destruction of their homes. However, these surviving exiles faced the plunder of Syracuse’s allies and the occasional pillaging by the Sicels that they became daring, improved their fighting skills and developed the habit of obeying the majority as the years passed. After all, their fate would only be extermination if they did not unite when enemies surrounded them.
Fortunately, the exiles’ performance made Antonios more confident that only two things worried him now:
The first was food. Antonios stored the food they collected after capturing Megalos and the food transported by the Rhegian fleet in the storeroom near the centre of the town. But now that the stone projectiles’ landing point moved forward, the storeroom would soon enter its attack range. For this reason, he could only order Ladician and Lasiperatus to have the exiles urgently move the food to the north of Megalos.
The second is the Theonian fleet…
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
Unlike the start of the land battle, the naval battle had gotten intense.
Syracuse had 50 triremes at the start, but it increased to 65 triremes after gathering the ships of Taunis, Catania and other city-states on their way north, which was only a bit more than Theonia’s 60 triremes. In addition, the Syracusan navy also had 16 other small and medium-sized ships. Yet even after having 21 more ships than the Theonian fleet and should have given them the advantage, the two sides appeared to be evenly matched.
Although the Theonian fleet had fewer ships, their ships carried out frenzied attacks under the leadership of Seclian, making their speed and reaction much faster than that of the Syracusan fleet. In particular, the Syracusans’ ships seemed to be sluggish as they relied on their rich sailing experience in manoeuvring to deal with the enemy passively.
Seeing the situation, Paronisus became anxious but couldn’t do anything. Furthermore, the thing he worried about the most finally happened: The sailors’ morale was seriously affected by the resentment of the port’s people towards the city’s people!
But suddenly, the lookout on the mast shouted excitedly, “Milord, we hit the enemy flagship and would soon sink!”
“Excellent!” Paronisus shouted excitedly.
Due to the vast battlefield, the naval battle is different from land battles as it is more about fighting closely and sinking the enemy ship. So unlike a land battle where killing the commander would bring significant impact, sinking the enemy flagship only has some effect! Yet it might still be enough to turn the naval battle situation around! Thus Paronisus excitedly ordered, “Sound the salpinx and urge all warships to intensify their attack!”
The sound of salpinx pierced through the battlefield on the sea. Yet instead of it motivating the Syracusan warships and its allies, the Theonian sailors were stirred up as they saw the red battle flag flying high in front of them slowly fall…
‘Lord Seclian is in danger!’ Such thoughts resounded in the hearts of both captains and sailors.
As the hero of the Bruttian War and the first sailor to hold the flag in the triumphant return, Seclian could be said to be the pride of the navy and made all sailors proud! And later, Seclian became the navarch. Even though he was young and energetic and would often scold his men due to their bad performance, he was cheerful, straightforward and could get along with the sailors. Moreover, he would even dare talk back to Davos for the navy’s interest, winning the support of the sailors and officers.
Thus, each Theonian ship attacked more frantically as every sailor knew very well that it was impossible to immediately reach the flagship’s wreckage. And the only way to force the enemy to retreat and win this naval battle was to ram and sink the enemy ships in front of them as fast as possible, which would give them the chance to rescue Seclian, who fell into the sea!
With such stimulation, the sailors seemed to forget about their exhaustion that their rowing speed returned to its peak at the start of the battle and before dashing short distances, stopping sharply and circumnavigating… The Theonian sailors worked together and controlled the ship as if it were their own body.
Due to the Theonians’ sudden increase in speed and agility, the Syracusan ship’s reaction was delayed, “Bang!…Bang! Bang!…” And it resulted in either the Syracusan ship getting hit or their oars breaking one after another. So instead of the Syracusan fleet’s situation improving after sinking Theonia’s flagship, it became worse.
Paronisus became anxious. Suddenly, the lookout exclaimed, “Milord, a ship…there is a ship escaping!”
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
“Tethytes, turn the rudder around immediately! Otherwise, I will tell fleet commander Paronisus about you escaping the battlefield and be punished!” The captain roared loudly at Tethytes, the ship’s helmsman.