Mediterranean Hegemon of Ancient Greece

Chapter 205: Battle of Trionto River (I)

It wasn't only the soldiers, but at the moment when the army of Theonia appeared, the mind of Milo had also gone blank, his body trembled and his face became pale, ‘He was deceived! Deceived by these cunning Theonians!’ It was a very wrong military action for any qualified strategos to rashly let his army cross the river in front of an equally huge number of enemies, while thinking that there are only a few enemies! However, it's already too late for him to retreat. Retreating in front of the enemy and going back to cross the river is a taboo, because for the soldiers of the city-state who do training at peace time, this means that they have been defeated without a fight. And the Theonians can easily attack them and turn the seemingly gentle Trionto river into the tomb of the Crotonians.

Milo did not expect that the battle between Crotone and Theonia would unfold at this time and place. However, in the face of the decisive battle related to the life and death of a city-state, he could only try to force himself to calm down, and put his guilt and fear behind him, and instead to focus on the battle that is in front of him, “Blow all the salpinx! Beat all the drums! Let the soldiers rush forward! Cross the river bravely! We can only now hope for victory!!” Milo waved his arm anxiously.

The herald directly jumped into the river and shouted.

The sudden increase of salpinx and drums urged the army to advance forward, and the officers in the formation were also aware of the danger and had taken the lead.

The army of Crotone then began to increase their pace, but the formation of the army of Theonia was rapidly reorganized. Because of all the pebbles, neither side charged like what they usually do in the past, and instead approached each other slowly….

When the distance between the two sides was only more than 20 meters, Kelebus saw that amidst the shouting of the officers, the enemy on the opposite side suddenly stopped moving, then the frontline of the enemy slightly squatted and countless cold gleaming light appeared in the rear of the formation of the enemy. The actions of the enemy had let him immediately understand what was going to happen, so he immediately squatted, and he didn't even have the time to shout the word “Javelin”.

Listening to the continuous “Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!….” sound like a gust of wind, accompanied with the incessant screams, the frontline of Crotone's whole army fell down in a blink of an eye, which had not only interrupted the pace of the Crotonian soldiers, but had also made the phalanx formation at the front to be somewhat fragmented.

The Theonians did not stop, as another round of javelin was thrown. At such a close distance, the lethality of the heavy javelin is quite frightening.

Just as the soldiers of Crotone were in a hurry to avoid the javelins and rescue their companions, the Theonians took this opportunity to march forward, bashing the frightened Crotonians with their round shield and thrusting their spears at the enemy who had just survive under the rain of javelin….

Had it not been for the rear row to make it in time, then the frontline of Crotone would have collapsed already. However, it had also kept the troops of Crotone to not be able to retreat back to the bank of the river, and Milo's well prepared formation is now in trouble. In addition to their frontal clash, another effective way of attack is to push each other with the thickness of their formation to achieve a breakthrough. However, the current situation of the Crotonians is not only unable to form a unified joint attack, but they could only slowly retreat under the strong push of the enemy.

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

When the javelin that covered the sky flew into the formation of Crotone, Milo felt that his heart was about to stop beating.

‘The hoplites of Theonia can also throw javelins!’ Milo regretted that he was too careless and that he didn't go to learn more about the tactical characteristics of the army of Theonia. Looking at their light infantry and their hoplites, it is obvious that they are a well-trained force with unique tactics!

Just as Milo was grieving over the death and injury of his soldiers and regretting his negligence, his men watched the fight on the other side and anxiously shouted, “These damned Theonians have so many infantry! It must be their reinforcements from Nerulum and Laos!”

Indeed, according to the heralds that have come from the left and right wing, the Theonian formation has almost the same length as them and can even force their own formation to fall back. Although they have the advantage in terrain, he fears that the thickness of their formation is not thinner than their own. ‘Does the current Theonia have about 20,000 soldiers?’ Listening to the report of his subordinate, it was just like a flash of lightning striking the mind of Milo. Due to his determination to take his revenge, he had always carefully studied the confidential reports that have come from Thurii, so he knew something about the Theonia Union.

He remembered the report saying that it will take at least three days to reach Nerulum from Thurii and it will take the same amount of time to get to Laos, so even if the mobilization order have reach Nerulum and Laos, it would take at least 6 more days to gather the troops then depart and reach Thurii. After all, the construction of the Thurii-Nerulum-Laos road was only recently started, and it has only been four days since the declaration of war, unless the Theonian has called up their troops in advance. However, three days ago, the mercenaries had not yet attacked Krimisa, he had even tortured the several prisoners, including Cleanor and Toras, and they had all said that they had concealed their invasion of Krimisa to Davos. Therefore, the reinforcements of Nerulum and Laos should still be on their way to Thurii. Where did Theonia get so many infantries?

Thurii and Amendolara don't have so many citizens. Milo can be sure of this, he then suddenly remembered something, ‘….freemen?! It is those so-called registered freemen of Theonia!!’

Milo suddenly remembered that in the previous reports, Theonia have frequently organized their freemen for military training. Milo still remembers that many of the statesmen of Crotone have ridiculed Theonia for their hunger that they even turned those vulgar freemen into city-state citizens! But the present situation shows that the method of Theonia is effective, and the armour and spears of these former poor freemen are all from the soldiers of Crotone who had died or have been captured in the previous war!

Despite his resentment, Milo understood it more clearly that Thurii had even sent these freemen to the battlefield, so it means that they should've sent all the people that they can send and that they might not even have any extra troops left!!

Milo watched the battlefield and got spirited, “Eurydemos!”

“Strategos, what is the matter?” A subordinate of his responded.

“Immediately lead these two thousand soldiers to the east and give the command to Philederus.”

“What?! Strategos, didn't you want them to step forward to strengthen the center?!” Eurydemos asked with doubt.

“Follow my order!” Milo glared at him, his friend's son is indeed a hard working man, but he talked too much, “Tell strategos Philederus that there will not be too many enemies on his side, so he should take this chance to cross the river as soon as possible, regardless of casualties. After he defeats the enemy, he will need to rush here to attack the Theonian army! Victory or defeat of this battle will depend on his action!” Milo said with seriousness.

“Understood!” Eurydemos, reminded by Milo, rushed to carry out the order excitedly after seeing an opportunity to win.

Milo jumped down from his horse, armed with spears and shields, as he led his escort guards to traverse the river and join the battle. He then shouted in order to make the soldiers fight more bravely.

Since most of the hoplites of the Theonian are preparatory citizens, he does not believe that these novices who were freemen half a year ago and have never had any combat experience could grasp the combat essence of a hoplite in just half a year! This is where his confidence lies in, he firmly believed that even though the soldiers of Crotone were in disadvantage, they could still hold on until the arrival of Philederus.

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In the center of the Theonian army, a big flag stands tall and the top of the flag is the statue of Hades, and the flag is obviously larger than the flag of the legions, and it is only embroidered with large golden characters “Davos”.

There are three legions in the Theonian Union, naturally, Davos has to abdicate and return to his original position. But according to the old tradition, the archon is also the highest commander of the city-state. Therefore, the position of Davos in the union is the highest, the Grand Legatus of the Theonia Union army (Grand Marshal).

Currently, Davos was watching the enemy on the other side.

“Grand Legatus, the troops of the enemies are now stepping into the river!” Aristocrates reminded him loudly, as a talent that pique the interest of Davos, he had the intention to train him like what he did to Asistes, so he was allowed to follow him in this war. However, he is still a freeman, so Davos could only temporarily make him his assistant.

Davos had been waiting for this moment, so he then called out, “Tolmides!”

“Milord, please give your orders!” The reply of Tolmides was his sincere respect of Davos.

The rapid march of Crotone was greatly beyond their expectation. In the case that the troops of Nerulum and Laos could not arrive in time, then there would be a big difference between the forces of both sides. During their military discussion, many people proposed to abandon Roscianum and instead defend Thurii while waiting for the reinforcements to arrive before doing the decisive battle. However, Davos insisted on making Roscianum the battleground. Out of his long established prestige, he finally managed to persuade everyone.

He then recruited all the citizens and preparatory citizens of Thurii and Amendolara who have participated in the military training and were able to fight, he even included some of the freemen who had just arrived in Thurii. He really had taken a great risk, by fully concentrating all the army of Theonia in Roscianum, and leaving Thurii and Amendolara with almost no defense except for a few troops that were left in the port. If the fleet of Crotone were to land on the shores of the Sybaris plain, Theonia wouldn't be able to resist them for a while, but Davos had still dared to take such a bold move.