Chapter 545: Attack and Defense of the Camp in Scylletium (I)
Tethytes looked at him innocently and said solemnly, “It’s not that I want to run away; it’s just that the sailors don’t wanna fight. So even if I turn the rudder around, the sailors wouldn’t paddle, and this ship will just become a spoil for the Theonians instead!”
“Don’t be short-sighted! Turn the helm and go back and defeat Theonia with all our might! Else, Syracuse will be doomed!” The captain shouted with hatred.
“That would be better! If Syracuse lost, we don’t need to be sent to Magna Graecia to fight, let alone pay the war tax!” A voice sounded from behind.
The captain turned around and saw that it was the sailors’ leader. He instantly pointed at him and angrily threatened, “How dare you…do this! Are you not afraid of Lord Dionysius’ punishment?!”
The sailor smiled, “We are, of course, afraid. But with the navy’s defeat, can Dionysius come back?!”
The captain was tonguetied for a moment.
Tethytes, on the other hand, sighed.
The ship’s deserting triggered a chain reaction. Under the fierce attacks of the Theonians, the Syracusan warships followed suit one after another, which eventually led to the withdrawal of Syracuse’s joint fleet…
“Lord Seclian!!”
“Navarch Seclian!!”
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
Several Theonian ships rushed to the area where the flagship sank and where many fallen sailors floated on the sea.
“Lord Seclian is here!” Someone waved and shouted from the sea.
Seclian was lying on a broken plank without moving, bleeding from an arrow in his shoulder that an archer fired on the enemy ship’s deck.
Soon, the sailors carefully carried him onto a ship.
After simply treating the wound, Seclian woke up from the pain. But the first sentence he said was, “…are we winning or losing?”
“We are victorious, milord!”
“…wonderful.” Seclian was relieved of his worry. He then weakly said, “…I’ll temporarily leave…the command of the fleet to Phrangos…after you clean up the battlefield…and rescue our men…immediately return to Rhegium…” and with that, he fell into a deep sleep.
The Battle of the sea near Naxos(the curved gulf was still known locally as the Gulf of Naxos, despite Naxos’ destruction) resulted in the sinking of 15 triremes on the Theonian side while 18 triremes and four other ships on the Syracusan side. Although the difference in losses was not too great, the Syracusan navy still failed in its strategic attempt to defeat the Theonian fleet and dominate the waters of Sicily to encircle the Theonian army in the town of Megalos completely.
The worse part is that the Theonian fleet defeated the Syracusan navy, which had numerical superiority even without the corvus, greatly encouraging the Theonian sailors and seriously damaging the Syracusan Navy’s morale.
Macias, who was on the land, hadn’t even expected to witness the defeat of the superior Syracusan navy for the second time in five years. He was speechless at the Syracusan navy’s incompetence that he became warier of the Theonian army and determined to continue his bombardment on Megalos. And once the reinforcements arrived tomorrow, he would go all on their attack.
As the Syracusan ballista kept advancing, the first legion had counterattacked with their six ballistae, but it was only a small episode. Without the protection of a tall stone wall and facing 100 Syracusan ballistae bombardment, they were like stones thrown into a torrent that had only made a splash and disappeared in a flash.
The Syracusan army pushed their ballistae all the way to the Alcantara river. Although it has only been a few years since the town of Megalos was made, it wasn’t a small town. Rather, it was even larger than the city of Sikuri. And with the Alcantara river and its bank on both sides, even if the Syracusan ballistae uses 5 kilogram stone projectiles to shoot at its maximum range, it would still only cover 1/2 area of Megalos. Therefore, Antonios ordered the first legion and the exiles to retreat to the northern part of Megalos to avoid the ballistae’s range and preserve their strength. At the same time, he also ordered the engineering camp to lead everyone to urgently build an earthen wall to defend the south of the town with bricks and soil from the destroyed houses.
Macias saw the range of the ballista‘s limit and that they couldn’t completely destroy Megalos, so he became determined to replace the stone projectiles with flaming jars and shoot them into the town, set fire to it and sap the enemy’s strength while demoralising them to the point of driving them out of Megalos altogether, making it easier for the Syracusan army’s attack.
Fortunately, the first legion’s soldiers and the exiles dug a trench from east to west to make collecting soil easier while building the earthen wall, which prevented the fire from spreading and preserving the residential area in the north of the town.
For a day, Syracuse’s ballista units continuously bombarded Megalos with stone projectiles, short spears and flaming jars. As nearly half of the ballistae were damaged, half of the Megalos became ruins. But because the fire continued to burn until late at night, it had helped the lookouts of the first legion to observe the enemy’s movements and prevent sneak attacks.
However, the 10,000 or so exiles and their families were physically and mentally exhausted by the booming sound and the flames that had been going on the whole day. The soldiers of the first legion were similarly exhausted, so even though they had fewer losses, the long-range attacks made the brave soldiers of the first legion feel powerless, which increased their worries about tomorrow’s battle.
In today’s bombardment, the most tragic were the hundreds of young and middle-aged citizens of Sikuri who had been captured but hadn’t been released. Because everyone was busy dealing with Syracuse’s ballista bombardment, no one took care of the prisoners, resulting in them being burned alive.
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
At dawn the next day, a squad of the fourth legion was patrolling the wooden walls of the Theonian camp outside Scylletium.
In early spring, there is often heavy fog in the southern Italian region as it is still warm and cold with rain beginning to fall, which usually does not dissipate until late morning.
In such a weather, the soldiers did not slack off. On the contrary, they became more vigilant.
Their squad leader, Appian, even repeatedly reminded his men to focus and listen to movements outside the camp. Before Syracuse invaded Magna Graecia, Appian was only a legion soldier, but after the Battle of Crotone, his squadmates elected him to take over the position after their squad leader was wounded. Examples like this are common in the Theonian army, where wars claim countless lives and make true warriors stand out in the face of danger.
Suddenly, a soldier said, “Captain, there seems to be a sound outside!”
Appian was surprised, so he hurriedly motioned the soldiers to keep quiet. He then grabbed the battlement and leaned out to listen carefully.
The other soldiers followed suit.
Although there seemed to be a muffled noise ahead, the dense fog made it hard to hear it, so they were unsure.
‘Sound the alarm or not?’ As the soldiers gazed at him, Appian became slightly nervous. After all, the whole Theonian camp and its tens of thousands of soldiers would have to crawl out of their warm blankets in the early cold hours of the morning, put on their armour, take out their shields and spears, and quickly gather towards their legions, brigades, centuria and platoons and into their designated defensive positions once he gave the warning. That was the case during normal times, but such a massive emergency preparation would inevitably cause some confusion on a foggy day such as today. And if they later determined that there was no enemy attack, Appian could only imagine the responsibility his squad would face.
Appian swallowed his saliva and said to his men, “Immediately inform the archers in the sentry towers and ask them to shoot an arrow at the front. While the rest would listen carefully to the movement outside the camp!”
His orders were then quickly carried out.
Appian turned around and looked at the archers in the sentry towers behind him. Soon after the archers fired the arrows, the thick fog quickly swallowed them.
As Appian listened attentively, there were still no abnormal movements outside the camp. Although he was relieved, he felt a slight loss in his heart.
But suddenly, a sharp scream cut through the thick fog, followed by another.
“Captain, there’s an enemy!” The soldiers not far away shouted.
Appian immediately became nervous and excited at the same time, “Immediately inform the camp!”
As the high-pitched salpinx rang throughout the Theonian camp, the silent camp suddenly became lively…
The noise had also awakened Davos. And as soon as he got up, Henipolis hurried in and said, “Your majesty, the Syracusans are attacking the camp!”
When Davos heard the news, he unhurriedly lifted the leather robe covering his body, and the servant brought him his clothes and armour. While changing, Davos said, “Dionysius finally got out! How many enemies have come?”
“There is a heavy fog outside, so we don’t know how many enemies left the city.”
“Oh, fog! Dionysius chose a good time.” With the help of his servant, Davos put on his thick armour and patted it with his hand. Feeling the tightness was just right, he said, “How are the left and right camp?”
“There has been no news so far, could it be-” Henipolis tried to guess and said, “Dionysius concentrated his forces to attack the central camp where you are, your majesty?”
Davos smiled, “That’s a good guess. However, don’t jump to conclusions yet. We just need to follow our prior arrangements, defend the camp and take our time to observe the enemy’s movements.”
“Should I call the various officers such as Amintas and Matonis? So you can give their mission and your orders, your majesty?!” Henipolis asked again.