Mediterranean Hegemon of Ancient Greece

Chapter 605: Battle of Ofanto

“He is right. Although his majesty bears the title of a king, he always shares his weal and woes with us. That is also why he won our respect!” A senior centurion said sincerely.

“Anyway, Xethippus, do you still need Patroclus' help? You could have become the legatus in Sicily, Messapi and even Peuceti a few years ago. Yet you just had to hog the position of the senior centurion of the first brigade of the first legion as you didn't want us to experience what it was like to be the senior centurion of the first legion!” Another senior centurion said jokingly and dissatisfiedly, and the other few also felt the same.

“Isn't that better since I gave way for someone else to become a legatus? How ungrateful!” said Xethippus while pretending to be angry. He then looked at Patroclus again and said, “Don’t forget to invite me once you held your wedding!”

“I will invite all our brothers to the wedding and bring Cynthia to have toast with you!” Patroclus said curtly, only to receive the unanimous appreciation from several other senior centurions.

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

In the quarter of the fourth legion, Olivos made the senior centurion of the fourth brigade, Alciendas, stay behind after their briefing.

Alciendas was from Crotone, and since Crotone voluntarily merged into the kingdom of Theonia, the fourth legion now held jurisdiction over Crotone. In addition, the headquarters of the fourth legion was moved from Aprustum to Crotone. And since the Crotonians received competitive training since childhood, they also began to stand out once they became familiar with Theonia's tactics. Thus significantly improving the combat strength of the fourth legion that wasn't very outstanding before, which resulted in many Crotonians filling the various officer position in the fourth legion.

“How is Adoris' performance in your brigade?” Olivos asked with a smile.

Alciendas already expected to discuss ‘him’ after Olivos made him stay, “He is unexpected! To be honest, I thought he would be trouble, so I didn't expect that besides having outstanding military skills and performance, he didn’t act as if he was special. Hence he could get close to his squadmates, and the other soldiers also liked staying with him. Also, he sent a message to me through his centurion, hoping to have his squad be in the first line of battle…”

Olivos listened to him carefully and smiled as if Alciendas praised his son, “Adoris receive excellent results in the Military Athletic Examination in Thurii's school every year. Although he is a bit impatient, he has a good personality that could easily make friends. Moreover, since his majesty was strict with his demands, Adoris and his siblings were no different from the other children in the school. Their teacher could even punish them for being late, being noisy and getting involved in school fighting, and Adoris would often get punished in those regards.”

Olivos smiled while remembering the past, “His majesty had specially assigned Adoris to the fourth legion so that he won't receive special care, however-” Olivos then turned serious, “His majesty might not care, but the swords and spears on the battlefield don't have eyes. So even if his majesty won't blame us in case Adoris got wounded or even die, the people of the whole kingdom will accuse us, the Fourth Legion, of incompetence for not being able to protect his majesty's child! In this way, even if our Fourth Legion made more achievements, it is still not comparable to the safety of Adoris! Do you understand?”

“Understood.” Replied Alciendas with slight frustration in his tone.

“I understand that it is not only Adoris, but you also hope your brigade can fight in the forefront. That’s why you are dissatisfied with my deployment just now, right?” the shrewd Olivos saw through his subordinate's mind and reminded, “Fool! Expand your view as you can also make contributions in the rear! Do you see where I arranged your fourth brigade?!”

“At the left rear of the formation, next to the cavalry.” Alciendas blurted.

“Yes, right beside the cavalry! Once our cavalry legion defeats the enemy's cavalry and the third brigade in front of you resists the enemy, your fourth brigade could then-” Olivos flattened his palm and made a circular gesture.

“Go around the enemy…” Alciendas' eyes brightened.

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

“…O great ruler of the underworld; the fair and strict judge!

O Hades, the king of the gods, the guardian deity of the kingdom of Theonia!

Under your shining light, we, the people of your kingdom, would don our armour, pick up our shields and spears, and rush to the battlefield…”

Every time Adoris sang the hymn of Hades made by the Temple of Hades for the soldiers of the legion who were going to battle, he could feel a sense of sacred pride in his heart. After all, his father, Davos, was recognised as Hades’ descendant. But the situation today is different from before, as he is now standing in the middle of a military formation of tens of thousands of people, singing this magnificent song that united him and all the other soldiers.

Although his comrades blocked his sight, he knew that on the other side of the river were tens of thousands of enemies on standby. However, even if this was the first time he went to war, there was no fear in his heart. On the contrary, his body was trembling due to excitement.

Once the sound of salpinx rang from the rear and he saw the military flags pointing forward, his blood boiled even more.

“Forward!” Once the voice of the officers sounded in their ears, the massive military formation began moving forward slowly.

Then the drums in the rear sounded at the right time with the drum beats were neither fast nor slow as if imitating each soldier’s steps.

As soon as Adoris stepped into the Ofanto river after following the soldiers in front of him, the Daunian archers on the other side began shooting their arrows.

“Raise your shield!” The officer shouted.

Then the soldiers began raising their long shields. If it were the old-fashioned Greek equipment more than ten years ago, the legion soldiers wouldn't even need to raise their shields to defend themselves as they were not afraid of arrows. But now that they are wearing open-faced helmets, there is nothing that protects their face.

Amidst the Daunian’s rain of arrows, the light infantry brigade of the various legions on the river bank began to respond. What's more, the ballista units placed in the rear also began showing their might as they launched one stone projectile after another. Accompanied by the whistling wind, the stone projectile crossed the Ofanto river and fell into the Daunian army, which resulted in the enemy falling over and screaming for a time.

While watching the stone projectile pass over his head, Adoris became even more enthusiastic when he vaguely heard the scream from the other side of the river.

On their left side, the thousands of Theonian cavalry, led by Ledes, rode across the river and rushed to the opposite bank first and fought the Daunian cavalry.

Although the Daunian infantry was afraid of getting struck by the ballista, their generals forced them to quickly rush to the riverbank to narrow the distance with the Theonians so that the ballista won't dare attack them wantonly.

“Javelin!” Then the officers' shouts rang out in the military formation.

Adoris and his squadmates quickly stopped, reached for a javelin in their backs, raised it over their head and threw it. Without even checking the result, they immediately threw another javelin.

At this time, Adoris heard the officer shout, “Attack!”

Suddenly, the legion burst out with a trembling roar, “HADES!!!…”

Although the formation in the front began accelerating forward, they didn't rush as usual during their training because the riverbed was somewhat slippery.

After following for a while, the formation in front of Adoris and the others suddenly stopped as the sound of fighting spread throughout the river.

Adoris knew that the two armies had started fighting each other head-on, so he subconsciously tightened his grip on the spear. But unfortunately, they were in the rear of the formation, so they couldn't do anything besides supporting the body of their comrades. They couldn't even do the conventional phalanx tactical action of pushing forward as they were in the river. And since they couldn't fully control their body, they would definitely fall once they slipped. Thus the only thing they could do was to stand firm in place so that they could stabilise the formation in case the enemy pushed back the frontline.

But as the battle continued, anxiety began showing on Adoris and his squadmates' expressions. And their current situation of being unable to participate in the battle and could only stay in the rear made Adoris complain about his uncle Olivos in his heart many times.

The Daunians firmly defended the riverbank by taking advantage of the fact that the Theonian army was in the river and couldn't fully exert their power to suppress the Theonian army.

Suddenly, Adoris heard the sound of salpinx behind him. He then turned around in shock and saw his centuria's flag pointing to the left.

“All soldiers, turn left!” The squad captain's voice made him doubt more. However, they couldn't disobey the military orders. Moreover, the nearby squads have already begun turning left and advanced.

As the voices of the squad captains sounded one after another in the phalanx of the fourth brigade, the entire columns began moving towards the left. At the same time, the phalanx in the rear of the right flank made similar manoeuvres. As a result, it seemed someone had simultaneously cut off the lower left corner and the lower right corner of the entire Theonian army.

Although they planned it in advance, to be able to carry out such fine mobilisation fully shows the advantages of the organisational system of the Theonian legion and the capability of the middle and low-ranking officers.

Once Adoris and his squadmates turned right once more, his line of sight became wide open except for a few comrades across the field.

With his love of military matters, Adoris received many years of military training and would courageously consult his adoptive father, who had a distinguished record, on military matters from time to time at home. Thus he managed to understand the purpose of the current mobilisation, which made him eager to carry it out.

“Speed up!” The officer's command made the young soldiers excited and rush forward as they'd been feeling stifled for some time.

Alexius, who was in the middle of the formation, finally showed his fangs at this moment. He took advantage of the flexibility and numerous troops of the Theonian army and divided his troops into two wings during the middle of the battle and made them go around the flank of the Daunians.