Mediterranean Hegemon of Ancient Greece

Chapter 468: Battle of the Gulf of Taranto (VII)

Davos finally became relieved. When they were making the crazy plan of using himself as bait, Seclian and he made detailed arrangements by arranging more ships around Davos' ship to protect his safety while fighting the decisive battle.

“Ships are rushing to the left!”

“Ships on the starboard!”

“Enemy ship on the right side of the stern!”

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

The alarmed shouts of the three lookouts continued as the Syracusans made a frenzied attack on Davos' ship, straining the nerves of everyone in the ship.

“We pulled out the drawbridge! We pulled out the drawbridge!” At that moment, the sailors at the bow shouted.

After breathing a sigh of relief, Miltias shouted, “Back away!”

At this time, ships connected with each other littered the sea around their ship, and only in the rear where there is a large space left.

Just as the rowers hurriedly rowed backwards and as soon as the ship sped up, they heard the lookout at the stern shouting, “Enemy ships on the rear! Enemy ship on the rear!”

This one Syracusan ship was quite cunning as they relied on their superb ship-handling skills, and by using the surrounding ships to block the line of sight, it nimbly shuttled through between the gaps in the ships as it quickly approached Davos' ship. Therefore when the lookout finally found them, their distance was only around 40 metres.

And because Davos' ship was rowing backwards, the distance rapidly closed. So Miltias could only shout, “Steer to the right of the stern! Steer to the right of the stern!” He wanted the ship to turn around so that they could use the corvus. However, it seemed that it was too late.

“Row forward! Row forward!…” Miltias shouted again.

Although the rowers did not know what was happening outside, their captain's frequent change of orders and nervous voice gave them a hunch that their situation was not good. For a while, they became a bit flustered that some even fell into the sea.

At this moment, Davos' heart leapt through his throat after seeing the enemy ship's bronze ram rushing in that he could even clearly see the appearance of the enemy in the enemy ship's bow. Fortunately, Martius rushed up with his soldiers and urgently took off Davos' armour so that they could take him and jump into the sea in case the ship was sunk and wait until they got rescued.

In a flash, a ship came out diagonally in the narrow gap between the ships (a trireme can not pass) and blocked the enemy ships – It is Theonia's Penteconter (A ship with 50 oars). During naval battles, the role of a penteconter was mostly for scouting, sending messages, rescuing, assisting in ship boarding operations and so on., and mostly as scouting ships. However, when the Theonian fleet implemented a new naval tactic and because of the trireme's weaknesses(it became inflexible and slow after equipping a corvus), Seclian gave a new role to the penteconter, which was to use its small and nimble* characteristics to block the attacking route of enemy ships, so that the main ships could escape. (the fastest speed it can reach is 15-16 knots.)

Naturally, several such ships roam around Davos' ship to protect his safety. At this moment, the enemy ship was simply too late to turn as the bronze ram directly struck the penteconter, only to hear a loud “bang”, followed by the sound of wood breaking and the screaming of the sailors, as a large hole appeared on the ship's body. Then the seawater immediately gushed in and washed away the blood of the wounded…

Under the impact of a trireme, the penteconter sank rapidly…

However, it significantly weakened the forward momentum of the enemy ship and eventually stopped.

“Row backwards quickly!” At the panicking shout of the captain, Davos' ship turned around and quickly approached the enemy ship. And the corvus came crashing down.

Davos then shouted angrily, “Avenge our brothers!”

He then led the guards on the enemy ship's deck and began their massacre…

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

The Syracusans hope to use their skill and experience in naval warfare to fight the strange Theonian ships. However, they found that even though the Theonian ships were less flexible, their strange thing was so flexible that they could fall in all directions and turn in various ways. So if any ships came close to them, they would eventually get hooked and captured.

The Syracusans were now completely frightened.

Due to Leptines' willful action to assault Davos' ship, Theonia captured more than 30 Syracusan ships around Davos’ ships, causing the Syracusan fleet to be unable to keep going…

And for Leptines to cry out, “Rush up! Rush up! Allow me to die here! Let go of me and let me drown! AHHHH…..”

The ship's captain naturally didn't dare to let anything happen to Leptines. So during the previous assault, he secretly told the rowers to slow down their speed and let the flagship stray outside the encirclement. Due to this disastrous defeat, he must ensure that the navarch returns to Scylletium safely. Otherwise, they wouldn't be able to bear the wrath of the supreme military commander.

Although the few remaining Syracusan ships fled south, the Theonian fleet did not chase after them, for their ships could not catch up with the enemy ships who were bent on escaping. Most importantly, they had to rescue the soldiers who fell overboard and take care of the aftermath.

“Your majesty, the Syracusan navy is re…retreating! We…we are victorious!!” Amidst the cheers of the rowers and the guards, Miltias rushed to him and reported with an excited expression.

As Davos gazed at the fading enemy, he suppressed the excitement he felt. He then slightly said in a trembling voice, “This victory…is just the beginning!”

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

The large-scale Battle of Taranto Gulf, which influenced the direction of the war and had lasted for more than two hours, had finally come to an end.

The Syracusan navy lost 223 ships, the vast majority of which were triremes, while the Theonian fleet lost more than 40 ships, half of which were penteconter. The Theonian fleet, which was at an absolute disadvantage, defeated the Syracusan navy and surpassed many outsiders’ expectations.

In this war, a very different result had come out from other naval battles. Even though the Syracusan navy has lost so many ships, only a few ships were rammed and sunk, and large numbers of sailors floated on the surface and called out with their anguished cries. The Theonians, however, captured a total of 157 triremes intact, with them only needing a little repair, and together with their own sailors, they could once again go to sea and fight. Hence the Theonian fleet suddenly has its strength doubled.

This has indeed become a strange thing and unheard of for a battle resulting in acquiring more ships, in the history of Greek naval warfare where the ships became lesser every fight.

While the sailors and soldiers of the Theonia fleet cheered at their victory, the shore also became lively.

The people of Roscianum also cheered as they knew that after witnessing such a thrilling naval battle, the powerful Syracusans would never ravage their homeland again.

‘This is a miracle!’ After seeing the Syracusan ships retreat, Amikles was so surprised that he didn't come back to his senses. Although he had been hoping beforehand, it was, after all, just a wish. However, the Theonians had really turned it into reality! Due to this, it took Amikles a long time to draw a conclusion, “Hades' oracle was fulfilled! After they elected Davos as their king, Theonia had gotten the blessing of Hades!”

His words were approved by the officials of Roscianum surrounding him. Then one council member hurriedly asked, “Then everyone…do we still need to meet the messenger of Syracuse?”

“No!” Amikles then decisively said, “Immediately kill him!”

“Isn’t that…too drastic?” Someone asked with concern, “In case it angered the tyrant of Syracuse…”

“But you aren't afraid of angering our neighbours, the Theonians?!” Amikles reminded them. Then he said, “We are too close to Thurii that sooner or later, the Theonians would know about the entry of Syracuse's envoy into our city. So what would Davos and the Theonian Senate would think by then?! Theonia, with the blessing of Hades' oracle, had already won a naval battle with a numerical disadvantage, so they are bound to be the final winner. Just as Athens defeated the Persians decades before with the famous wooden wall that the Oracle of Delphi blessed. Therefore, we can only take such drastic measures to make up for our mistake and show our determination to stay with Theonia!”

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

The Theonians cheers for victory had come a little earlier.

So when each of the captured triremes was forced to sail north along the coast and into the estuary of the Crati River, every Theonians watching the naval battle from the shore cheered and waved desperately to the legionaries on the deck. And this cheering continues as the captured Syracusan ships kept sailing to the coast.

While the other Syracusan ships did not take advantage of the captured ship's slow speed to crash them: on the one hand, the fierce attack of the Theonian fleet gave them no spare time. On the other hand, they knew that those sailing these captured ships were their fellow Syracusan sailors. Hence no one was willing to make such a crazy decision to send their comrades, who they had spent a lot of time together and trained together, to their deaths. Once they did, they would face the interrogation of the city-state people. Moreover, Leptines, their benevolent navarch, wouldn't give such a cruel order.

So, as the captured Syracusan ships sailed past in front of the Theonians one after another, everyone understood that victory was not far away. It might be due to the fear of scaring away this hard-earned victory, as everyone did not dare to let loose to celebrate. But once the Syracusan fleet retreated, the joy in the hearts of the Theonians broke free.