Chapter 550: Battle of Megalos (I)
Believing the rebels’ strength would now be greater, and with the disappearance of the officials loyal to Dionysius, such as Philistus, Hipparinus decided to choose conservative measures.
But on the contrary, the Syracusan rebels could only retreat slowly under the fierce offensive of the mercenaries.
Even though Herolis excelled at organising and instigating, he wasn’t a good strategos. Instead of decisively taking measures to reorganise the command and organisation of this new army and divide his troops around the streets to encircle the enemy, he went to the frontline, which resulted in the soldiers becoming disorganised. Seeing their comrades getting killed and wounded, the vicious image left by Dionysius’ mercenaries becomes vivid once again in the soldiers’ hearts.
Unfortunately, Hipparinus was too cautious, wanting to protect his daughter and grandson first. Thus he missed the opportunity to send the mercenaries to defeat the civilians.
Initially, Dionysius still had few supporters among the nobles and citizens in the city, but after Philistus’ imprisonment, no one came out to gather them and help the mercenaries. As a result, although the 1,000 mercenaries had the upper hand in the scuffles, the lack of support made them unable to defeat the opponent.
As Herolis led and supported the civilians, the Theonian informers paying close attention to the city’s movement hurriedly informed the poor and freemen in the port area. After quickly organising, they entered through the unguarded gate in front of Epipolae, quickly passed through the Epipolae, rushed to the main city and launched an attack around the rear of the mercenaries.
As the mercenaries suffered a pincer attack, their formation became disordered. After a struggling battle, they wiped out most of the mercenaries, with only a few escaping to the island of Ortygia.
Herolis, however, did not chase them as he realised the problem of the army he was leading, which would end the rebellion he led. Thus he ordered his troops to halt and, with the help of the other rebel leaders, appointed officers for the massive army of more than 14,000 citizens, consisting of citizens, poor people and freemen. At the same time, he let his close friend and experienced democrat, Kias, assist in reorganising the army and discussing their plan of attack.
Kias advised him that taking the island of Ortygia, whose walls and fortress are high and sturdy, would not be easy. And with Macias possibly returning at any time, they should not attack the island with all their strength. Instead, they should send troops to take control of Syracuse’s gates and walls. At the same time, they should purge the forces supporting Dionysius and unite the city’s people to fight against Dionysius’ mercenaries…
Herolis and the others agreed with Kias’ proposal. So they sent him to lead a team to the isthmus of the island of Ortygia, to hurriedly build a wall and completely blockade the island. Afterwards, Herolis began to clear the city.
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
During the same time as the rebellion, Theonia’s intelligence officer hiding in the port sent people to sail north from the port and arrived at Catania more than two hours later.
In the port of Catania, the head of Theonia’s intelligence department in charge of Sicily, Antrapolis, was here. Apart from not participating in the rebellion in Syracuse, he also ordered his men not to enter the city of Syracuse during the uprising so as not to associate it with them.
But in Catania, Antrapolis did not have such misgivings. With Macias conscripting most of the mercenaries and rulers of the city and leaving it defenceless, Antrapolis could blatantly gather the freemen and slaves in the port to overthrow the mercenaries.
After Dionysius destroyed Catania, he bestowed the lands to some mercenaries who fought with him. But they only knew how to fight and didn’t know how to tend the fields. Moreover, Catania was too vast to handle with their number, so they had to rely on the slaves and freemen. The slaves were mainly from the city-states captured by Dionysius after conquering the east coast of Sicily. But besides them, the mercenaries would often go to the western mountains to grab exiles and the Sicels, turning them into slaves; The freemen, on the other hand, were also citizens of the east coast and had now lost their homes. Thus the slaves and freemen of Catania far outnumbered the mercenaries who ruled over them. However, Syracuse’s might and the viciousness of the mercenaries forced them to obey by crushing the slaves’ resistance many times.
Several years later, Antrapolis, a Catanian exile, returned to his home and was like a fish in water. He was familiar with countless slaves and freemen that he could even name them and soon gathered up a group in the port. With the help of his former compatriots, he sent more men to Syracuse, Leontinoi, Sikuri, Taunis and other neighbouring city-states to spread rumours, find allies and wait for an opportunity.
Now, the opportunity came. The Syracusan army suffered a heavy defeat in Magna Graecia, and the Syracusans even drafted most of its troops and its southern allies to besiege the Theonian army in Megalos. Yet Antrapolis did not immediately start a rebellion even after the Catanians had urged him many times as he was afraid of alarming Dionysius’ supporters in Syracuse.
But now that the Syracusan rebellion came, Antrapolis immediately announced, ‘Operation begins!’
After bursting into cheers, the Catanians gathered their troops and launched an attack on the city of Catania.
At the same time, the Catanian slaves in the city launched a fierce attack on the mercenaries on the city wall to avenge their deceased loved ones.
With only a few mercenaries remaining, the mercenaries were soon defeated by the sudden pincer attack on the front and back.
But after leading the uprising to capture the city of Catania, Antrapolis did not participate in the victory celebrations as he immediately sent his men to the three city-states of Leontinoi, Taunis and Sikuri. He told his subordinates lurking in those cities that their uprising in Syracuse and Catania succeeded, boosting their confidence and urging them to act immediately.
Antrapolis believed that these three city-states had only succumbed to Syracuse’s powerful army. But with Dionysius setting up a puppet tyrant government that pressured the people with heavy tribute and military taxes, he could imagine their resentment toward Syracuse that would only need a kindle to ignite a raging flame. The news about the rebellion in Catania and Syracuse would undoubtedly increase their morale and make them confident. And as long as the rebellion in the three city-states was also successful, it would be difficult for Macias and the army he led to return to Syracuse.
With that in mind, Antrapolis sent his men to take a penteconter to hurriedly head north to the port of Megalos to inform the legatus of the first legion, Antonios, about the success of the rebellion in Syracuse and Catania so that he could mentally prepare himself.
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
In the early morning of the same day, there was a heavy fog in Scylletium but only a mist in Megalos.
Macias received a report from his scouts that more than 5,000 reinforcements from the city-states in the south, Gela and Kamarina, were coming.
For that reason, the cautious Macias stopped the ballista bombardment on the south bank of the Alcantara river, but he did not lead a direct attack to cross the river. Instead, Macias led his 12,000 soldiers and more than 50 ballistae to the west along the river bank to cross the Alcantara river from a flat area far away from Megalos and close to Mount Etna, which turned the traps in the river near Megalos useless.
Antonios, on the other hand, did not send troops to intercept them because the mercenaries of Tauromenium had also arrived at the same time. To avoid getting pincered, Antonios chose to continue hiding in the ruined town of Megalos. He even called back the 200 soldiers from the new temporary outpost in the north built the day before while sending men to the western mountains to inform the exiles not to head east for the time being.
Macias’ army then easily joined up with the mercenaries in Tauromenium, increasing their soldiers to 13,000.
Still, Macias chose a safe tactic by placing the remaining ballistae in front of the formation and continued firing stone projectiles at the western part of Megalos while waiting for the arrival of their reinforcements.
For some time, stone projectiles roared in the air and town continuously.
Yet the Theonain soldiers and the exiles could only repeatedly retreat to the east to avoid being accidentally injured by the rubble and wooden chips.
In contrast, Macias leisurely asked his men to clear the traps and obstacles that the Theonians had placed outside the town.
The soldiers of the first legion felt suffocated. Since the first legion’s establishment, they had been victorious and invincible; they were the hero praised and yearned for by the Theonians. But they had never experienced such a battle where they could only constantly retreat while avoiding the ballista.
The soldiers protested to their officers, demanding they be allowed to engage the enemy in a clash outside the town.
Apart from the soldiers’ protest, the exiles were dissatisfied as they were trapped in the town with their wives and children. But without any river in the west, the enemy could push the ballistae completely, placing the whole of Megalos in their range.
With everyone conveying their protest and dissatisfaction to Antonios through the officers and the exile leaders, the pressure he was in could be imagined.
“Legatus, we can no longer stay passive anymore! We must go out and destroy their ballistae!” Tagetinos suggested loudly.
“Go out?! That’s what the enemy wanted!” Thratyllus immediately objected, “We only have a combined troop of 5,000 legionaries and over 3,00 exiles, not 8,00 legionaries! So if we were to fight on the plains, we would be vulnerable to the enemies’ encirclement as they outnumbered us! Furthermore, these exiles were not like us, who could still fight bravely even when surrounded!!”