Mediterranean Hegemon of Ancient Greece

Chapter 274: Another Huge Blow

The battle lasted for four hours, in the end, Taranto lost fifteen ships, including four triremes and four transport ships, while the Messapi-Peuceti fleet lost twenty-three ships, including seven triremes, which caused the Messapi-Peuceti fleet to take the initiative to retreat, while the Tarantine navy, who was busy saving the drowning soldiers had no intention of pursuing them, as they just wanted to leave this strange area on the sea as soon as possible and arrive at Brindisi to complete their task of reinforcing it.

Simultaneously as the fierce sea battle, the Messapi-Peuceti alliance learned the plan of Taranto to reinforce Brindisi from the sea. Therefore, despite the fatigue of the twenty thousand Messapi-Peuceti soldiers, they have launched their biggest siege and begun carrying ladders, pushing siege equipment and storming Brindisi…

After two days of hard fighting, only a few hundred defenders left on Brindisi. It is only with the help of the freemen in the city that they could still support even today, but facing the flood of enemies, the inexperienced freemen panicked…

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Once the navy of Taranto arrived at the port of Brindisi, the soldiers began to go ashore. However, before they could assemble and form up, the city of Brindisi was breached. The defeated soldiers, freemen and their families ran to the port in panic, trying to find a ship to get out of the city that has fallen as quickly as possible. And the soldiers who had come to reinforce them also began to feel the grave situation and asked to get reboarded and leave. Everyone rushed to the ship, followed by the cry for help from the defeated soldiers and their families, and the whole port was then filled with people and had made the order to be chaotic, causing people to fall into the sea from the pushing…

In the face of such a situation, the nauarch was at a loss for a while and could only command the ships under his command to save the people. However, the Messapi-Peuceti allied force's pursuit made the men scramble for their lives, pushing each other and scrambling to climb aboard, causing the two ships to capsize from being overloaded.

The nauarch felt the situation to be grim, so he urgently ordered the fleet to leave the port, but due to the soldiers and sailors fighting, several ships were unable to get out of the port.

At this time, the warriors of the Messapi-Peuceti alliance had already managed to get in, they were like hungry wolves rushing to the people of Taranto, who were trembling with fear, and started killing them wantonly even those who had already raised their hands and surrendered, and soon, the blood that is flowing on the port dyed the sea red…

The soldiers, sailors, and survivors who managed to board the Tarantine fleet could not bear to witness such a tragic sight, so they fled the port in haste. However, the disaster was far from over, and they were soon intercepted by the defeated fleet of the Messapi-Peuceti navy. Although the Tarantine fleet has many ships, the ships were now filled with people, which has caused them to lose their speed and flexibility and became a sitting duck for the Messapi-Peuceti ships.

During the fierce battle, the ships of Taranto were overturned, but there were no ships to rescue the people who fell into the water, and the sailors who were terrified by the tragic sight in the port had only one thing they wanted, and that is, to return to their home. And now, both sides changed positions, with Taranto only having 45 ships remaining, with only some transport ships managing to leave the battlefield.

However, the Messapi-Peuceti fleet who had won was still in hot pursuit…

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On the fourth day after Polidorus asked Theonia for help, the Messapi-Peuceti, who managed to recapture Brindisi, marched westward after a short rest. In the afternoon, they started to surround Manduria once again, which caused the whole city of Taranto to panic, and so they sent envoys to Theonia to ask for help one after another…

In the early morning of the fifth day, the Theonian reinforcements finally set out.

It was early September, and the morning started to become cooler.

After saying goodbye to their families, the first and second legion's soldiers began to form a line in Nike Square.

After counting their numbers, the Grand Legatus – Davos, announced their departure.

The whole army first marched to the northwest of the city, then arrived at the hill of the Temple of Hades, and knelt to pray devoutly.

The bronze bells in the temple rang, and the priest in charge – Plesinas, led dozens of priests and priestesses of the Temple of Hades to sing the ode of Hades for the soldiers and give them blessings.

If it was in other city-states, it would be even necessary to make divination before going to war, but Davos had cancelled this practice. War is a matter of life and death for a city-state, and victory depends on strength, strict training and careful planning and not on the illusory thing called divine luck, and Davos does not want his soldiers to develop this bad habit.

At the end of the prayer, the whole army headed east and went out of the gate then to the port of Thurii. The families of the soldiers and the people who came to see them off were on both sides of the roads.

What made Polidorus lament was that only a few family members cried and refused to let the soldiers go out, some wished for the soldiers’ safety and encouraged them to obtain military achievements at the same time, while some were envious of the good luck of the soldiers and were not convinced and thought that they would perform better if they were the one chosen.

“The Theonians love war!” Polidorus had forgotten who had said this to him in the first place. He couldn't help but look at Davos, the commander of this army who was beside him, a young man at the age of 20 who at the moment was showing a compose and serious expression beyond his age, ‘The fact that the Theonians have such a commander who is good at war, is the reason why they have risen to prominence today!’

But under the pressure of the enemy army, the strength of the Theonian army had made Polidorus feel a bit relieved because the Theonian army can be relied on.

Hundreds of transport ships, including those that are from Theonia, Taranto, Metapontum, Heraclea and even Roscianum are docked in the port…

Under the guidance of the port management, the troops entered each dock in an orderly manner, and under the command of their officers, they began to orderly board the ships in turn.

Polidorus' transport ship was the first to leave the port because he had to go back to Taranto to inform the council to prepare to welcome the Theonian reinforcements.

Along with him was Antonios, who needed to coordinate with Taranto on many matters, such as the entry of the Theonian army into the port, settling the army, provision of the military and so on., originally, this task should be left to Philesius, but with Davos leaving Theonia, someone needed to defend Thurii in case of accidents. Philesius, as the second-in-command of the army, was naturally the most suitable person. With Philesius unable to go, and the two legatus – Kapus and Drakos, only knew how to fight and are unsociable people, Davos can only let Antonios, the senior centurion of the first legion to be in charge of the communication. In fact, Alexius, the second senior centurion of the first legion, is also a suitable person, but Davos thinks that Antonios is more tactful than Alexius.

There are also some special personnel on the Theonian army on board this ship, such as the engineering brigade of the legion. Because the place to settle the Theonian army in Taranto has been determined in advance, the engineers will go to the site first to investigate the terrain, plan how to build the camp, the size of the camp, the layout of the tent, the width of the trench and so on., so that the army can start building the camp as soon as they arrived at Taranto.

The soldiers stepped on the rickety deck and put their helmets, linen armour, round shields, shin protector, spears and javelins close to the side of the ship as they waved goodbye to their families and friends on the shore.

And so, the ships began to leave the port one after another.

In the morning, with a strong northeast wind blowing in the Gulf of Taranto, all the ships began to lower their sails and took advantage of the wind to head straight east, with waves occasionally lapping at their hulls from the side and rear, splashing and wetting the clothes of the soldiers, but it could not dampen their spirits in any way.

“I heard that the people of Taranto are very rich, with us helping them to defeat those aborigines this time, will they give us enough silver coins to thank us?” One of the recruits said excitedly.

“Fool, do you know how many soldiers are going to Taranto this time? It's 14,000! This does not even include the Cavalry Brigade, Engineering Brigade, Medical Camp…so even if Taranto gives us dozens of Talents, how much of those coins can be distributed to each man after handing over some for the legion’s fund?!” Another soldier admonished him in disbelief, “You might as well kill a few more aborigines and accumulate more war achievements so that the union can allocate a few more square metres of land to you!”

“Speaking about war, I get angry just by thinking about it! The third legion is too lucky, they captured Aprustum, and then Grumentum, why do they always get picked?! Just because they are mostly Lucanians! And when we finally go out to rescue the city-states in the south, but before we could even start fighting, the Locrians are already begging for peace. Tell me, wouldn't this make you angry? I just hope that this time, those aborigines won't copy the Locrians and make us go on an expedition in vain!” The words of another soldier resonated with the soldiers around him, which stirred up their worries.

“Don't worry, the Messapians wouldn't be like the weak Locrians. I heard that they are very fierce and Taranto couldn't even take advantage of them. Otherwise, Taranto would have already established several sub-cities nearby, and what's more, this time, the Messapians have allied with the Peucetians and have defeated Taranto one battle after another. Their morale is increasing, and they might even try to destroy Taranto, so how could they negotiate peace with us?!” Said a soldier who knew something about Taranto.

“That would be wonderful! Only by defeating the Messapians can we show the power of Theonia and we will then become heroes that have saved Taranto!” One of the soldiers declared it in a loud voice, which aroused the excited cheers of everyone.

“I heard that all the women in Taranto are beautiful. Then, if we become heroes, can we marry one back?” Someone poked fun at the idea and was immediately shoved by another person, “Pesias, stop dreaming! The citizens of Taranto are arrogant, and they always looked down on the people of other city-states in Magna Graecia. Do you think that they would marry their daughter to us who they only see as “farmers”?!”

“Is that true, Sitares?” Asked Pesias curiously.