Mediterranean Hegemon of Ancient Greece

Chapter 692: Theonia v Rome (VI)

The slingers placed the lead ball in the centre of the sling and began to turn their arms. As they spun the sling faster and faster, a whistling sound of the wind could be heard.

The Romans grew nervous as they saw new enemies appearing through the dust cloud hundreds of metres away. Still, they had no choice but to advance.

Suddenly, hundreds of lead balls fell from the sky like hail and spread out precisely in the dense Roman formation, followed by loud screams.

Except for the heavy infantry in the centre, which was slightly wounded, the lead ball smashed the heads of the Roman light infantry, who had less protection, and even affected the cavalry on both flanks. The struck horses neighed and jumped wildly, throwing their riders and almost causing the Roman formation to collapse.

The Romans were petrified as this was the first time they had faced slingers, catching them off guard.

The Theonian cavalry, however, were prepared for the momentary chaos in the Roman formation, so they immediately rode their horses towards the enemy and threw their remaining javelins, which caused another scream. And the fallen soldiers were far from being lightly wounded.

As the Roman light infantry took their bows and javelins and prepared to attack the Theonian cavalry at a distance, another rain of lead balls came.

The constant onslaught caused the Roman light infantry to cry grievance as these soldiers, mainly from the Latin league, were thrown into chaos, and their morale plummeted.

However, the Roman heavy infantry in the centre kept calm as they shouted simultaneously, “Attack! Kill them all!!”

The first to act was the Roman cavalry, who hastily gathered hundreds of horsemen and charged forward in desperation. As the horses' hooves pounded the ground, there was a rumbling sound as if the earth were shaking.

The still coolheaded Satirus raised his right hand and said, “The second centuria, prepare!”

Then the archers on either flank of the wild goose formation drew their bows and nocked their arrows. At the same time, the Theonian cavalry followed the desperate Roman cavalry in parallel.

Once the Roman cavalry was less than a hundred metres away from the seventh brigade, the three hundred and fifty Theonian archers simultaneously fired their arrows.

The arrows fired from both flanks towards the centre formed a crossfire, making it difficult for the fast-moving Roman cavalry to defend, even after holding their shields high. At the screaming of the riders and the neighing of the horses, both rider and horse rolled across the ground, hindering the cavalry behind them.

At this time, the second round of arrow rain struck again, causing more significant damage to the Roman cavalry.

The few Roman cavalries who had managed to charge ahead and dodge the archer's attack found themselves almost within range of the Theonian slingers. But they were suddenly struck by the javelins of the Third Century, leaving few survivors.

Then the Theonian cavalry took the opportunity to charge at the Roman cavalry, which had been thrown into chaos by the archers.

And this skillfully coordinated series of attacks had nearly wiped out the charging Roman cavalry.

Meanwhile, the Roman heavy infantry who was still escorting the light infantry lost their hope once they saw the tragedy in front of them. But suddenly, they heard an unfamiliar salpinx sound in the distance.

The enemy reinforcements are coming again! And so the morale of the Romans plummeted.

Suddenly, a much louder horn sound came from afar.

“Our reinforcements have arrived! Our reinforcements have arrived!!…” The Romans finally became excited once they heard the familiar horn.

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

“Report to the legatus! The Roman army has left its camp with more than eight thousand soldiers!” The mounted cavalry rushed to report to Amintas.

“So fast?!” The quick reaction of the Romans surprised Amintas, as he had initially thought to let the seventh and eighth brigades and the cavalry continue their attack without destroying this enemy centuriae to lure the Romans out of their camp. At the same time, it would allow the six heavy infantry brigades that had just arrived to rest for a while and regain some strength. Unexpectedly, however, the Roman army came out with a large force that the Theonian light infantry, light-armoured and cavalry couldn't stop.

Amintas glanced at the sweaty Theonian soldiers in front of him, but despite their exhaustion, only a few sat and lay down while the rest put down their weapons as they gathered in groups of twos and threes, walking slowly and chatting. Knowing they were about to go into battle, lying down would only increase their muscle aches and make their bodies sluggish.

Amintas immediately called the senior centurions of the six heavy infantries. He then gravely said, “With the enemy's main troops leaving their camp, our plan in luring the enemy succeeded! So I hope you can overcome your fatigue so that we can capture and defeat the enemy!”

“Feel at ease, legatus! Now that the Romans had come out, they shouldn't think of running back again!” The other senior centurions echoed the words of Xethippus, the senior centurion of the first brigade.

“Then get ready to depart!” Amintas immediately ordered.

Shortly after the senior centurions had gathered their soldiers, Amintas ordered the herald, “Inform the Volscians in Setia and Privernum that Rome's main force has left their camp! Invite them to join the battle.”

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

Having guessed the Theonians' intentions, Camillus summoned his nine thousand infantry without hesitation, leaving just over three thousand men to defend the camp.

Initially, Furius wanted to lead the troops while Camillus guarded the camp.

But Camillus refused him this time, as they would only rescue the soldiers outside the camp, not fight the Theonians. But if the young and energetic Furius were to lead the troops, they would probably end up fighting the Theonians.

Camillus led the Roman heavy infantry towards the west, where the scouts had checked. Knowing that the Theonian troops would also be coming in that direction, he needed to pick up the trapped soldiers as quickly as possible and then quickly return to camp.

Camillus only knew a little about the Theonian army. In his mind, the nearby forces and even the Greeks in Campania fight in a bloated phalanx, which they couldn’t compare to the reformed Roman army he led, where he made the maniple the main force, making them more flexible both in formation and combat. Thus he thought that even if Theonia's main force arrived, they would need to rearrange their formation, giving him plenty of time to organise a retreat.

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

By the time Camillus arrived on the battlefield, the Theonian seventh and eighth brigades and cavalry had retreated. Still, the sight before him astonished him, as dead bodies, dead horses and wounded soldiers, groaning and struggling, littered the ground. And the nearly three thousand men (cavalry and light infantry) he had ordered as a rescue force had lost almost a third of their numbers, while those who remained were dishevelled and dispirited, some with bruised noses, swollen faces and bloodied heads…

After listening to Cadmus' brief report, Camillus learned of the entire battle situation. But what amazed him was the lethality and close coordination of the Theonian light infantry and cavalry.

‘The Theonians are a well-trained army!’ Camillus labelled the Theonian in his heart. He then urged the soldiers to take the wounded and withdraw immediately.

“What about our deceased men?” The light infantry general of the allied army asked, wanting to retrieve their dead.

Camillus, who loved his soldiers like his son, said with a hardened heart, “We will leave them for now and get them back later. What we have to do now is make use of the time and return to camp immediately!”

But just as the dissatisfied allied general wanted to say more, a scout suddenly came in a hurry, “Military tribune, Camillus! About seven thousand black armoured soldiers are coming from the south!”

Camillus' heart tightened, causing him to ride his horse* out of the army and look at the south, where he saw dust billowing in the distance. (According to Roman military tradition, a leading Roman general must march like the soldiers to show that there is no difference between them and that they share the good and the bad. But as Camillus is too old and has limited strength, the Roman Senate gave him special permission to ride a horse.)

Based on his experience, the enemy should be a kilometre away.

Camillus immediately returned to the army and ordered, “Form up according to the pre-enemy engagement, and start retreating!”

The pre-enemy engagement formation, as he called it, was a large formation of one hundred twenty men in small platoons of Roman soldiers in a fish-scale formation, allowing for flexible movement and quicker retreat because of the large gap between their ranks. In addition, this would allow him to switch to an attacking formation once retreat was impossible. Camillus had taken this prudent approach because of the slight uneasiness he felt.

But how could the nearby Theonian light infantry allow the Romans to retreat so easily? So the slingers had once again begun to turn their arms and hurl lead balls at the Romans, while the archers were even bold enough to approach the Roman army and then take up a shooting position…

As a result, Camillus was forced to move the Roman light infantry to defend.

But then, the Theonian cavalry started galloping near the Roman army and, from time to time, would rush less than twenty metres away from the Roman soldiers and go into a charging posture.

Camillus then sent several heralds to repeatedly warn the Roman soldiers to ignore the Theonians' harassment, but it still resulted in the entire Roman formation slowing down.

Meanwhile, the Theonian army was marching fast, approaching within three hundred metres of the Roman army. Now the Roman soldiers could see the Theonian flag in the grey dust and even hear the sound of military drums and the rows of black soldiers that seemed to cover the sky and ground, moving towards them at a relatively orderly pace…

While the Roman soldiers were intimidated by the Theonian army's momentum, Camillus was even more surprised to see that the formation the Theonians were using was similar to the reformed tactical formation of the Roman army. And that made him realise with a jolt that the Theonians wouldn't need to spend much time changing formation, allowing them to attack immediately. So if he forced a retreat here, they would likely only be pursued by the enemy and cause confusion in the ranks, resulting in a disastrous defeat.