Chapter 555: Winning Series of Battles
Antonios could only hear a few booms before pieces of debris pierced his legs. He then shouted with concern, “Is everyone okay?!”
But just as the guards reported their safety, they could hear the light infantries responsible for the long-range attack on the enemy on the roof shouting, “Strategos! Strategos! Wake up!…”
“Strategos?!” Antonios was shocked.
A stone projectile struck the building, resulting in a large stone blasting away and hitting Cid, who was ordering the light infantry, on the head and immediately falling to the ground.
As his comrade in the Persian expedition and a colleague of the Senate, Antonios had a good relationship with Cid. Seeing that he was unconscious, he became worried and angry. After sending the guards to call the medical camp, he decisively ordered, “Sound the attack, don’t let the enemy flee!!!”
Yet when the Theonian salpinx sounded, the Syracusan allied troops also sounded their retreat.
Even though Macias wanted to lead the troops to retreat safely and smoothly, the situation became out of control when the Syracusan allied army’s soldiers saw the situation turn bad and followed their allies to escape. Now that the entire formation was already in pieces, it would likely be that the enemy would surround the soldiers that remained if they did not take decisive actions. Thus, Macias ordered the retreat, preferring to let the soldiers escape like scattered sand than be captured by the enemy in groups.
The sound of retreat awoke Antonios from his grief, so he loudly said to the light infantry in anger, “Brothers, it’s not the time for grieving but the time to avenge Lord Cid! Let’s chase those fleeing enemies and slaughter them!”
As the light infantry roared, they immediately ran downstairs to join their comrades in chasing the enemy. Antonios was convinced that: Besides being one of the physically fit among the first legion, the light infantry didn’t wear heavy helmets and armour, so their pursuit would cause great trouble to the retreating enemy.
Since the Syracusan allied army surrounded the first legion in a circular formation, and the first legion, who were in the inner circle, attacked them on all sides, the allied army could not retreat in the same direction.
Still, many Syracusan soldiers chose to flee south in order to quickly escape from Megalos and avoid encountering the traps set up by the Theonians in the town. Everything was smooth when passing the area bombarded by the ballistae for the whole day yesterday until they crossed the almost nonexistent wooden wall and jumped into the river. The useless wooden stakes and iron spikes that the first legion had previously buried in the silt at the bottom of the river had pierced into their feet, resulting in the enemy soldiers falling into the river one after another and drowning amidst their miserable screams. Although that had deterred those behind them, it had resulted in them either dying or surrendering under the spear and short swords wielded by the chasing Theonian soldiers.
On the other hand, the small number of soldiers who chose to flee to the north, mainly the mercenaries from Tauromenium, kept rushing north due to the pursuit of the Theonians. But just as they were about to reach the mountains that were not far from the city of Tauromenium, they found that nearly a thousand sailors holding wooden oars and bows blocked their way ahead.
The Theonian fleet apparently did not leave the port after loading the families of the exiles and had instead watched the war. After seeing the enemy start to retreat, the eager Theonian fleet took advantage of the sandy beach of the Naxos bay and quickly rowed their ship to the mountain path and landed in front of the enemy.
So after seeing enemies in the front and pursuers in the rear, the already exhausted mercenaries chose to surrender.
While most of the Syracusan soldiers who fled west from the town of Megalos with their allies, Turned south and waded through the river.
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
Planning to gather the defeated soldiers before leading the army to make further plans, Macias rode to the south bank of the Alcantara River early. But to his surprise, the Theonians did not stop after their victory and continued chasing the Syracusan allied army.
Thus the fleeing soldiers continued to rush across the Alcantara river like a tide without listening to Macias’ cries. Instead, the fleeing tide scattered Macias and the several hundred cavalries as they carried them southward.
Due to the Theonians expertise in chasing defeated enemies and having trained in running while armed, the Syracusan soldiers suffered a lot. Although the enemy soldiers were exhausted after a fierce battle, the screams coming from their comrades who fell behind and got caught by the Theonians were like whips that pushed the Syracusan allied soldiers to continue running…
After three or so kilometres of running, only the light infantry still chased the enemy angrily. In contrast, most Theonian soldiers stopped their chase and turned around to catch the enemies crouching by the roadside who had raised their hands in surrender.
Even though most of the soldiers under Hibagris scattered during the retreat, he still tried to lead his troops back to Sikuri. But he no longer dared to stay after rushing to the city and seeing that the four gates were closed and the rebels would fire arrows from the city. Instead, he followed the Syracusan soldiers bypassing Sikuri and continued to flee south.
The Theonian light infantry, on the other hand, stopped their pursuit once they arrived near the city of Sikuri. After they identified themselves, the rebels in Sikuri welcomed them into the city with joy.
When fleeing toward Catania, Macias gathered the defeated soldiers along the way. But when he was painfully deciding what to do next, the tyrants of Catania and Sikuri came looking for him to ask for his help to recapture their city.
However, a messenger from Syracuse came to find him: He told him about the revolt and that they were urgently waiting for Macias to lead his army back to rescue Syracuse.
After being shocked, Macias could no longer care about other things. He then led his men to gather the defeated soldiers and return to rescue Syracuse.
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
When Dionysius led his army to attack the Theonian camp, a small ship came to the port of Scylletium. But even when faced with the Theonian fleet’s blockade, it did not back down and had instead played a game of hide and seek with the Theonian warships. In the end, the flexible and small ship easily broke into the port after shuttling between the gaps of numerous ships.
At this time, Dionysius, who had invaded the empty left camp but was blocked by the wooden walls and trenches outside the Theonian central camp, had finally decided to retreat.
Unfortunately, his order came late.
Inside the central camp, Davos arranged the soldiers of the first, fifth and sixth legions in a ring formation behind the wooden wall. Afterwards, he deliberately let the Syracusan soldiers break through the wall and poured into the central camp to fight a frontal battle.
But the Syracusan soldiers and freemen, who were exhausted and lacked armour after fighting for so long, were no match for the heavily armed Theonian legion, who were lying in wait. But for safety, Davos hadn’t let his men chase the enemy down to the city of Scylletium due to the threat of the troops led by Dionysius,
When Dionysius learned the troops attacking the central camp had lost, he did not dare to stay any longer as he hurriedly led his troops back. But wanting to vent his anger, Dionysius burnt down Theonia’s left camp on their way back.
After returning to Scylletium, a flustered Leptines came looking for Dionysius before he could even catch his breath.
Hearing his brother’s report, Dionysius was shocked as he never thought Davos would dare send troops to Sicily while encircling Scylletium and attacking the Locrian Alliance!
Despite Leptines reporting that only a few thousand soldiers landed in Sicily, Dionysius couldn’t remain calm as Philistus. After suffering another defeat, Dionysius was now fully vigilant toward the young archon of Theonia. And he even highly suspected that Davos’ willingness to negotiate peace with him wasn’t just to cover up his attack on Hipponion and Medma but to hold him here while sending his soldiers to land in Sicily. That is probably Davos’ real finishing move!
As the tyrant of Syracuse and the hegemon of the Greek city-state of Sicily, Dionysius certainly knew how the people of each city-state felt about him. Just the thought of that had made him anxious and restless. Still, he tried to pretend to be composed as he bid farewell to everyone and returned to his temporary residence.
After Phacipessas reorganised his defeated troops and came to report their losses to Dionysius, what he saw inside was a haggard-looking supreme commander.
Dionysius absentmindedly listened to Phacipessas’ report, remaining indifferent about suffering more than 2,000 deaths and nearly 6,000 wounded. Instead, he said, “Syracuse had sent a messenger to report that more than 3,000 Theonian soldiers have landed in Naxos…”
Wanting to lessen the impact and avoid causing too much panic, Dionysius only said a lesser number of Theonian soldiers. Yet it still surprised Phacipessas that he forgot to address Dionysius respectfully, “What?! The Theonians actually dared to attack Sicily?! When did this happen?!!”
Dionysius feigned his smile as he looked at him, “It was two days ago. The Theonians tried to cause some trouble, but their numbers were just too small. Don’t worry; Macias had already led a force of 10,000 men northward. Furthermore, he had gotten the support from the city-states of Taunis, Leontinoi, and Catania, so I believe that they should have now wiped out all the Theonians!”