Mediterranean Hegemon of Ancient Greece

Chapter 659: The Current Rome

Camillus was saddened once he learned about the fall of Rome, so he gathered up the Romans who had fled to Ardea to form an army while persuading the Ardeans to join him. He then found the right moment to attack the Celtic tribes, who came to gather provisions at night carelessly, winning a great victory.

Soon after, the news of their victory spread throughout Latium and made Camillus famous. Now, all Latins who hated the Celts for their invasion came to join him, and the Romans in the city of Veii asked to be under his command.

After the Roman Senate, who was still holding the Capitoline Hill, took a risk by appointing Camillus as the military dictator, Camillus assembled a much more massive army while attacking the Celts who were looking for provision in the various Latin towns.

Because of the lack of provisions and the fear of Camillus' army, the Celts no longer dared to plunder around, which caused their situation to become direr as time passed. Furthermore, an epidemic happened since there was no one to clean and bury the mass of corpses piled up in Rome, coupled with the need for them to adapt to the new place had caused the Celts to fall ill and die in battle. Thus their morale was extremely low.

After staying in Rome for half a year, the Celtic King Brennus could no longer resist the persuasion of many tribal chieftains and decided to make peace with the Romans. Unfortunately, the Romans defending the Capitoline Hill had learned that Camillus was coming to Rome with a massive army and had refused to make peace.

Although Brennus was angry, he was helpless. Still, he was unwilling to leave the place empty-handed. But while he was hesitating, Brennus heard of Camillus and his massive army’s arrival to rescue Rome. Seeing the low morale of the Celts, Brennus dared not lead the army to fight Camillus and instead ordered a retreat.

But after leaving Rome for about five kilometres, the Latium coalition led by Camillus caught up, and the two sides started a fierce battle.

In the end, the Celts suffered a disastrous defeat, with pursuers surrounding most of them and only a small number managing to flee to various places. As a result, all the people in the neighbouring villages and towns went out to search and capture them, almost killing them all. The only ones to escape were dozens of people, including Brennus and his close aides.

That battle had caused the Celts in the upper reaches of the Po River to suffer heavy losses and significantly reduce their strength.

Although the Romans also suffered in the war with the Celts, the contradiction between the nobles and plebeians eased. Afterwards, the people who had moved to Veii returned to Rome and worked together to rebuild the city. The Senate also enacted some laws in favour of the reconciliation between the nobles and the plebeians. At the same time, they took the initiative to incorporate many exiles who had lost their homes in this war with the Celts as Roman citizens.

After gaining the support of the Senate, Camillus learned from Rome's defeat at the Battle of the Allia, combined with his own battle experience, introduced reforms to the Roman army. In the meantime, Rome unexpectedly gained the strong support of a powerful state in the western Mediterranean. Thus in the second year after the war with the Celts, Rome began to recover its strength and started attacking the surrounding Latium city-states that had left the Latin league and turned their backs on Rome because of the war. After several years of arduous battles, Rome brought most Latin cities back under its control and rebuilt the Latin league.

Meanwhile, the Etruscans in the north took advantage of the favourable opportunity of the Roman army being stuck in the Latin area to send a large army to encircle the important city-state of the Etruscans that Rome spent many years to capture more than a decade ago and had now completely become a colonial city of Rome, and attempt to force its surrender.

However, the Romans defending the fortified city refused to surrender. After repelling the enemy's attacks, they would send people to ask for help.

Thus as soon as the Latin War ended, Camillus led the Roman army to launch an attack on the Etruscan army that surrounded Veii on the north bank of the Tiber river.

While the Roman army had just completed Camillus’ military reform and was full of morale, the Etruscans had just been ravaged by the Celts and hadn’t yet recovered their strength, allowing Rome to win several battles between them.

After repelling the Etruscan army, the Romans didn't rest. After learning how the Etruscans had weakened through the war, they seized the chance to launch a prolonged attack on the Etruscan territories that had been threatening Rome for a century.

In just a few years, Rome captured Tarchna, Velch, Novi, Volsinii and other important city-sate of the Etruscans, bringing most of the southern territory of the Etruscans under Rome's control.

During this period, the Volscians and Hernicans in the south of Rome feared the rise of a powerful Rome that would threaten their territories. Thus they joined up with the other forces around Rome to invade Rome's territory and its allies.

Davos gazed at Rome and its colonial cities on the map and their subordinate allies that covered a large area.

Although he didn't know how much trouble Rome's growth would cause to Theonia, Theonia didn't have extra strength to interfere with Rome in central Italia as they had been devoting much of their manpower and material to integrate and unify south Italia and eastern Sicily. Moreover, central Italia was unfamiliar to the Theonians, so sending large-scale troops would be too costly for the kingdom. At the same time, they could easily wipe out a small unit.

Hence Davos hoped to see if the Volscians' attack could threaten Rome. Unfortunately, in his previous life, he only knew more about the history of Rome from the Punic Wars and knew very little about the early rise of Rome besides Camillus. After reading the information collected by the intelligence department and combining the little knowledge he had gathered in his previous life, he realised that Camillus, who was quite famous in the Latium region, was the same Camillus known as the ‘Father of Rome’ in his previous life.

“Where is Camillus now?” He asked immediately.

That startled Aristias, who then immediately understood that Davos was talking about the very person he had asked them to keep focused on, “Camillus cited his old age and frailty, so he did not serve as the commander of the expedition to Etruria and had been staying in the city of Rome. Currently, there is no new news about him yet.”

“It seems the Romans will also make him the commander of the resistance against the Volscians.” Davos sighed lightly, “Watch this battle closely and keep me updated.”

“Yes, your majesty.” Replied Aristias.

After pondering for a while, Davos remembered another thing. Thus he hurriedly said to his clerk, Henipolis, “Heni, quickly write the praetors of the Sicilian cities of Catania, Naxos, Sikuri, Herbita, and Henna…tell them that they should try persuading the people to sell their surplus grain to the city hall at an appropriate price after the autumn harvest to help the people in the south Italian region…”

“Understood, your majesty. I will finish the letter and submit it to you for approval.”

Davos stared at the symbol of Rome on the map again and sighed, ‘This drought came at the wrong time…’

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

Two days later, Davos met the Delphic priest Crataemenes, who hurriedly came to the palace.

But in response to the invitation offered by Delphi, Davos didn't show delight. On the contrary, he only politely expressed his gratitude but proposed that Theonia would only act if Delphi openly invited the kingdom of Theonia to join the Amphictyonic league. Otherwise, Theonia would never take the initiative to join!

Crataemenes was startled as he had thought that Theonia would be grateful for Delphi's favour, so he didn't expect Davos to be so cold and arrogant.

In fact, if Crataemenes had a deep understanding of Theonia's condition, he would certainly understand why Davos did that.

Besides being the king of the kingdom of Theonia, Davos is also the chief priest of the Temple of Hades and the descendant of the king of the underworld. So how could he take the initiative to worship another god and goddess even if the two gods control different aspects? And how would he explain it to the priests of Hades as well as the vast number of believers? But if the other party took the initiative to invite them, Davos would feel it easier to accept. On the surface, this is just a matter of attitude, but the reality is that it is an important issue to decide which of the two deities should be at the top.

Thus no one gave in, and both sides were stuck at this critical junction.

Crataemenes then changed the topic by inviting Theonia to participate in the next Pythian Games, which they would hold in two years (the summer of 379 B.C.)

Davos thanked him again for the invitation but reminded him, “Theonia is a multi-racial mixed kingdom, so as long as the Pythian Games allow Theonian citizens of foreign races to participate, Theonia would certainly form a team.”

But that condition is exactly what Delphi couldn't accept independently, as such actions that violate tradition must receive the approvals of the members of the Amphictyonic league. Similarly, Delphi could not risk angering Sparta by publicly inviting Theonia to join the Amphictyonic league.

Crataemenes, who thought he came with sincerity but got nothing besides Davos' arrogance, left angrily. Thus they put the matter regarding Theonia's joining the Amphictyonic league on hold.

However, after Crataemenes returned to Delphi, he spread rumours of the king of Theonia's insolence to Delphi.

For the Delphic priest's angry departure, Davos remained unconcerned as he didn't think it was the right time to intervene in the affairs of Greece. As for the Delphic's willingness to support Theonia in Greece, Davos could only laugh at it. For more than ten years, Theonia continuously attracted Greek freemen from the Greek city-state in the eastern Mediterranean and has long formed several stable channels even without the help of Delphi.