Mediterranean Hegemon of Ancient Greece

Chapter 453: Siege of Crotone (III)

Thinking of this, he calmed himself down by taking a deep breath. After quickly calculating it in his mind, he said in a determined tone, “The elevation angle remains unchanged, aim its body once to the left, reduce the range by a unit, and the stone projectile to use is the same weight as the previous one.”

The artillerist immediately acted.

“Fire!”

The stone projectile whistled away. Afterwards, one stone projectile after another flew out of the city immediately…

However, a lot more stone projectiles came flying from the outside the city, “Bang! Bang! Bang!….” the banging sound then mixed with the screams and shouts. One of the stone projectiles even landed near Kurdorus' catapult, splashing stone debris with its momentum. But due to this period of experience, Kurdorus remained unmoved. He was no longer the Scholar(his nickname given by the legion soldiers) that had just left the Institute but a qualified soldier.

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The siege towers that the Syracusans are now using were far from the ones the Theonians used during their conquest of Clampetita. These siege towers were 20 metres long, 10 metres wide and 12 metres high with a trapezoidal shape with seven floors. The topmost layer is a circular wooden dish with five archers inside to fire arrows at the enemies at the top of the city wall from a height. The bottom layer has a battering ram, which can directly strike the wall. The second highest floor was almost as high as the city wall, allowing for a drawbridge to be lowered to let the soldiers entering the tower rush up to the city. The third highest layer was slightly below the top of the city wall, and it houses another terrible weapon invented by the Syracusans – the ballista*… Hence this super siege tower requires hundreds of men to push it from behind and on both sides of the tower. (T/N: The character use ??, which means belly bow aka gastraphetes, but its description is basically an oxybeles.)

However, the Theonian stone projectiles kept falling around it, causing mud and stones to splash everywhere and hit the people around. And those who got hit by the stone projectiles died horribly, scaring the surrounding soldiers to dodge. In the case of the soldiers advancing densely under the city wall, only a large area was left vacated – it was near the siege towers.

Feeling a sense of danger, the commanding officer of the siege towers urged the labourers behind the tower to push it harder. After all, once they reached the wall, there would be nothing that could threaten them.

At this moment, the outer wooden board of the third-highest layer on the siege tower opened, revealing two gastraphetes. Its construction was similar to that of a composite bow, except the device used for firing was a huge bow fixed flat on a stand. The operator turned the pulley hard, pulled the thick bowstring, locked it, and put in an equally huge iron arrow.

Thirty metres was a reasonable distance for the Gastraphetes* to aim, and the Gastraphetes on the right even aimed at the strategos at the top of the city wall whose helmet had a colourful plume. (T/N: Gastraphetes = its wielder, gastraphetes = the weapon.)

“Thwang!!…” along with the huge bowstring sound, the iron arrow whistled through the air and rushed to the top of the wall.

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When Ascamas saw the “opening of the door” of the siege tower, his years of battlefield experience made him feel uneasy, so he subconsciously sat down towards the battlement. Then, he heard two piercing screams. When he looked behind him, he saw a soldier holding a round shield to shield from the attack from the earthen ramp and siege tower's archers. However, there was an iron arrow through his chest, and the arrow's momentum also struck the soldier behind him. It has caused the soldiers around them, including Ascamas, to be horrified looking at them.

The giant siege tower of Syracuse, which played a crucial role in Sicily's attack on the Carthage's Motya, revealed its terrifying form as it slowly approached the walls like a giant beast baring its teeth and claw. As the siege tower gets closer, the soldiers defending the city become terrified, unable to do anything…

In this critical situation, a black dot flew over the wall and smashed into the topmost layer of the siege tower like a meteor. It easily broke a hole in the hard and thick wooden planks, and the wood splinter splashed like steel needles to the face and body of the Syracusan archers inside the tower, causing them to scream miserably. However, it has still not ended. The stone projectile that fell into the tower slammed down the wooden ladder and landed on the feet of a soldier who was pulling his gastraphetes.

“It hit! It hit! Our catapult hit!!!…” The soldiers defending the city cheered as if they had won the battle. With such a move, it dispelled the fear in their hearts.

Ascamas then let out a sigh of relief even though the stone projectile was just a drop in the bucket compared to the enormous siege tower, not enough to cause significant damage to it.

But just as Ascamas sighed, he saw one stone projectile after another flying and smashing into the siege tower.

The soldiers felt regret that they missed; some even began to pray to Apollo. Then, their prayers seemed to have worked.

A stone projectile flew from the side and hit the side of the siege tower's centre, causing the enemy to cry out in alarm.

Then another stone projectile flew into the opened layer of the siege tower where the Gastraphetes were about to launch another attack. The gastraphetes broke with a crisp, and the various parts and wooden splinters flew around in the narrow space, causing the soldiers to scream and bleed.

Afterwards, another stone projectile hit the lower part of the siege tower.

Despite the cheerings of the defenders, the siege tower, riddled with large holes, continued to approach the wall slowly. But the tower's movement began to shake, and the loose planks kept falling, causing the struggling labourers to scatter in panic. Then the siege tower began to collapse from top to bottom…

On the earthen ramp outside the city, Dionysius watched the situation with a grimace as he knew that Phacipessas had gathered nearly 10,000 people to intensify the construction of the siege towers under the command of the engineers. Even though they managed to make three siege towers in just a few days, their haste made it so they were not sturdy. Thus the violent impact of the stone projectile must have damaged the internal structure of the siege tower…

“Milord, look! A siege tower has crossed the moat!” Damocles shouted excitedly to divert Dionysius' attention.

“And our battering rams have reached the city wall. It will surely make Crotone's wall tremble under its impact!” Said another follower who was unwilling to lose.

Currently, countless Syracusan soldiers were like ants climbing Crotone's wall, drawing most of the defenders' attack, which allowed the siege towers, battering rams and siege wagons…these large siege engines to reach the city smoothly. Although they managed to knock one siege tower down, it did not affect the battle situation at all, so once the Syracusans used these siege engines together, it would cause great trouble to Crotone's wall.

However, Dionysius anxiously looked at the sky: The dark clouds in the sky became denser and denser, causing the rain to get stronger, making him almost unable to open his eyes, ‘If the rain continues in this way, it would…’

As if in response to his worry, a “Crack!!!…Boom!!!…” sounded as a dazzling bright light flashed across the sky, followed by the rumbling of thunder shrouding all the noise on the battlefield. It startled the soldiers on both sides and made them look up at the sky.

As the wind blew stronger…

The rain got worse and soon turned into a downpour…

Now, lightning, thunder, wind and rain have become the protagonist of this world.

The soldiers stopped fighting and cower to hide under the city wall or in the towers because a bolt of lightning had pierced the sky and split a huge siege tower in half as it struck the ground.

Those who saw the tragedy were stricken dumb with fear.

‘This is the wrath of the king of the gods – Zeus!’ The soldiers on both sides trembled in their hearts as they began to pray to Zeus.

“Milord, we should go down as it is too dangerous to stay here!” All of the attendants of Dionysius came to persuade him.

Dionysius stared ahead with reluctance. However, the rain became denser, and only the white mist entered his field of vision…

Then, Dionysius ordered with reluctance, ‘Retreat, immediately!’

In such extreme weather, the salpinx could not be heard. Fortunately, the Syracusan soldiers did not need the order as they had already begun to retreat consciously. The Crotonians, on the other hand, did not dare to go out of the city to pursue the enemy in such terrible weather. A grand siege battle had just started but was stopped due to the interference of nature…

Just as Dionysius descended from the earthen ramp that had taken several thousand men two days to build, it had slowly collapsed under the fierce rush of rain. Dionysius could only curse helplessly, “Count themselves lucky!!”

“It seems that Zeus protected them this time.” one of his entourage said casually.

Dionysius immediately glared at him fiercely, “Shut your mouth! This is just a coincidence and has nothing to do with Zeus.”

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Ascamas, on the other hand, prayed piously to Zeus.

During winter, Crotone doesn't have many rainy days, and such a heavy rain like today could be said to be a rare sight within the past few years. Thus the Crotonians consider this a blessing from the gods, so even though the wind and rain are battering them, it had still increased everyone's morale.

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Many forces paid attention to the war between Syracuse and the South Italian Alliance, as this was related to the hegemony of the Greek city-states in the western Mediterranean.

Not to mention Carthage, who hated Syracuse and fought with them for a hundred years. But the reality is, they are in a predicament that made the Carthaginian Senate refuse Theonia's request for an alliance. Naturally, they hoped that the Syracusan army would suffer setbacks and even heavy losses in their war with Magna Graecia, but the news came that Syracuse was winning, and even Crotone and Theonia were in danger under the fierce attack led by Dionysius.

Mago, who was in charge of Sicily's defence, wrote several times and asked the Senate for instructions to launch small attacks on Syracuse's allies in order to divert Syracuse's attention and slow down Dionysius' attacks on the north and prevent him from conquering and integrating Magna Graecia into a more powerful Syracuse.

However, the Senate led by Hanno rejected his proposal. And in order to prevent some troubles from arising, the senate had sent someone to Lilybaeum to supervise the movement of their army in Sicily.

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While the Carthaginian Senate watched the war progress in Magna Graecia with fear and trepidation, the Battle of Corinth on the Peloponnesian continued.

However, Agesilaus, who was physically ill, had returned to Sparta and handed over the command of the Spartan allied army at Corinth to Praxitas, the uncle of Agesipolis, the new Spartan king. On the other hand, the army brought back by Agesilaus from Asia Minor stayed in Corinth.