Mediterranean Hegemon of Ancient Greece

Chapter 402: Choice

Kunogelata stood in front of the stairs of the Grand Senate Hall as he looked at the sight before him; the harmony and peace of the square made him remember the painful memories in his heart. His expression then gradually became firm, “It was not easy to get Theonia Union to where it is today, so we must not allow Syracuse to destroy it!”

Cornelius, who also had painful memories, was not his usual gentle self at the moment, “We must win this war, even if we donate all our money! Only then will the people of Theonia have a future!”

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

These days, Seclian was very busy. On the one hand, he wants to reorganise the mixed fleet from various allies that have just gathered in Thurii, establish the fleet's squadron, arrange the accommodation and food for the sailors, the warship's maintenance, and install the “Corvus” and so on. On the other hand, he also had to participate in and guide the construction of the dry docks, the naval ports and placing barricades to prevent anyone from approaching and watching the naval training so as not to leak the secret.

Presently, the river from the port to the Temple of Hera has become a giant construction site where thousands of Theonians are building and expanding the naval base in full swing. But with the assistance of the Ministry of Military and the city hall of Thurii, Seclian became more relaxed. Still, he is more worried that the two new military legions have not yet been established, and they couldn't practice their new tactics at all.

Therefore, when the news came that the Syracusan army landed in Locri and a fleet of nearly 500 warships was positioned in the sea north of Locri to escort the Syracusan transport fleet, Seclian himself did not have the slightest hint of going to war.

At the base of the South Italia Alliance in Scylletium, the representatives of the city-states led by Ansitanos put aside their unnecessary quarrels and quickly reached an agreement that: Each city-state in the South Italia Alliance would do its best to send as many troops as possible to form an allied army, the commander of which would be Philesius for now. If Davos did not lead the army, he would naturally be the commander, but he was not there. And due to the representatives of the various city-states thinking that Philesius' prestige was not enough to lead the strategoi of the other city-states, thus they made him the temporary commander. Furthermore, Philesius had to discuss with the strategoi of other city-states before deciding on any important decision. In addition, the allied troops could march, stay and camp freely in any city-state and territory of the South Italia Alliance, and each city-state would provide food in proportion to their strength. Of course, Theonia gave the most, followed by Crotone and Rhegium. Fortunately, it is only the end of October, and the autumn harvest has just ended, so the citizens of each city-state have sufficient surplus grain. The granary set up by the Theonia Union a few years ago were also filled, so there is no shortage of food for the time being.

After reaching an agreement, the representatives of each city-state immediately returned to their cities to urge the dispatching of the troops, except for two, who remained.

One of them is Ansitanos. After all, Davos had already made a plan for Theonia before he left, and the only thing he needed to do was sit in Scylletium and wait for the arrival of the fourth and fifth legions.

The other one was Eulipatos, the envoy of Caulonia. Since Caulonia is already at the forefront of the battlefield, the whole city of Caulonia had already begun war mobilisation to prepare for Syracuse's attack. As an envoy, he has a great responsibility and must stay here and urge the reinforcements of other city-states to rush to Caulonia as soon as possible.

“Lord Ansitanos, are you certain that Theonia's army had already departed?!” He eagerly asked again.

“Before I came here from the city of Aprustum, our fourth legion had already begun gathering its soldiers in the square. And from what I know about our army, they should already be on their way now.”

“That's good! That's good!” Said Eulipatos with his whole body fidgeting. He then asked, “So then, has that fifth legion of yours departed as well?!”

“The legatus of the first legion of Theonia has no other hobbies besides fighting, so as soon as he received the order, he immediately summoned the army. I even think that the fifth legion had departed earlier than the fourth legion.” Ansitanos said seriously.

Hearing this, Eulipatos calmed down a bit.

Seeing that he kept stamping his feet and tapping the table with his right hand, Ansitanos couldn't help but remind him, “I suggest that you go to the city hall of Scylletium and urge them to mobilise the soldiers.”

‘Scylletium?’ Eulipatos had some doubts as they had just decided that Scylletium's army would not go to Caulonia.

Ansitanos then explained to him seriously, “Although Scylletium, Terina and Crotone are responsible for defending the river's north bank, if we allow the Syracusan to rush across the river and circle to the north of Caulonia, then the South Italia Alliance's plan to block Syracuse and its allies in Locri would fail!”

After this reminder, Eulipatos immediately woke up. He then stood up and said, “You are right. I will now go to Lord Phrytinas.”

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

On this day, Dionysius encountered difficulties in Locri.

His original plan was that the whole fleet would sail north from Syracuse early in the morning, reach Locri in one day and complete the landing. So he specially chose the most experienced sailors and a day where the main force of Theonia went on an expedition to Potentia.

The huge fleet did arrive at Locri smoothly. However, they encountered great trouble when entering the port.

Unlike Syracuse, Locri does not have a natural harbour nor a large port that can easily accommodate thousands of ships to dock temporarily. Its limit is to accommodate 500~600 ships at one time. At the same time, Locri has limited manpower and has never handled a series of landing procedures for nearly 10,000 ships at the port, such as arrival, unloading, transportation, boarding and rotation, which requires sufficient labour, orderly organisation, strong management and abundant experience, all of which Locri does not have.

Moreover, in order to keep it a secret to achieve the purpose of a surprise attack, Dionysius had only sent a fast ship to inform Locri only the day before, so Locri was not well prepared.

As a result, many supplies onboard were unloaded and could not be cleaned up in time, piling up at the port, blocking the soldiers' access to the shore, so the Syracusan soldiers had to clean it up themselves. However, the soldiers were exhausted and were eager to rest after drifting at sea for almost a day. Still, they had to hold down their anger as a single word might cause a clash with the port labourers.

The Locrian official that was dispatch had to take care of so many ships, resulting in the collisions of ships due to their eagerness to leave the clusters of ships after unloading and the ships that were eager to get on the port to unload. There is even a tragedy where several ships were damaged and flooded after their hulls struck each other and finally capsized.

Outside the port, thousands of ships had to stay on the sea. Both the soldiers and sailors are eager to go ashore early to rest, while the ship owners anxiously expect to complete the task quickly and leave. They are worried that although the sea conditions are now good, the Mediterranean climate is constantly changing, so in case of a sudden storm, it would strike all these ships towards the coast. And without a place to hide, they would all crash together.

Dionysius was the first to go ashore. After seeing that the Locrian port was in chaos, he became very anxious and even got angry at his brother-in-law, Demodokas, who had come to welcome him.

Still, there is no use in getting angry, as the problem is still there and must be solved as soon as possible. Therefore, Dionysius had to strictly order his men who had landed to act as labours and obey the command of the Locrian port personnel, help carry goods, clear the port and mediate conflicts. At the same time, he reluctantly issued an order to let all transport ships outside the port to land on the beach near Locri and let the soldiers ashore.

After issuing these instructions, Dionysius knew that even though the bad situation in Locri would be greatly improved, a myriad of problems would still follow, and without two~three days to deal and resolve them, Syracuse's army wouldn’t be able to set out.

In order to stop worrying, Dionysius left several strategoi and ministers to be responsible for coordinating and directing the landing. On the other hand, Dionysius, Phidias and his party left the port and entered the city of Locri.

For Phidias, this was the first time he went to Locri. As he carefully glanced at the buildings in the city, Dionysius softly asked, “Phidias, where do you think our first target of attack should be?”

Phidias glanced at him, then the others who fell far behind them and were separated by guards. He then wondered in his mind as he had already expressed his opinion to the tyrant when they were still in Syracuse, ‘Why has he not yet made up his mind by now?’

So he once again said, “I would still choose Caulonia first.”

When he heard this, Dionysius fell silent as he understood the intention of Phidias of taking advantage of the fact that the various city-states in the South Italia Alliance were still not yet ready for war and were unable to achieve unity. However, the reason why he hesitated was not due to Syracuse landing in Magna Graecia like wolves into a flock of sheep where there are too many fat sheep, not knowing which one to eat first, making him suffer from a choice disorder. But because he already had a target in mind, and that was – Rhegium.

Rhegium opposed him and even humiliated him. For example, they refused his marriage proposal and married the woman he proposed to, to the enemy of Syracuse – the archon of Theonia. However, these were only secondary reasons as the most crucial thing is Rhegium's wealth and geographical location.