Mediterranean Hegemon of Ancient Greece

Chapter 70: Reconnaissance (III)

After crossing the river Saraceno, Davos obviously felt that the terrain was rising. The mountains and the coast were parallel to each other to the north, but the distance between was shortening a lot. The narrow space increased the safety of Davos' trip, but he didn't take it lightly. Asistes and Ledes served as the scouts of the team, paying close attention to the situation in the mountains in order to prevent the enemy from detouring and following their way back.

On the way to the next place, Davos did not see the coast with soft beach. Instead, it was steep rocky walls and craggy rocks. The sea beat the coast rhythmically, with a quite amazing momentum.

‘It seems that there couldn't be any port in Amendolara’. Thought Davos, a loss rose from the bottom of his heart.

At this moment, the guide shouted, “Look, that's Amendolara.”

Following the direction of the guide's finger, a city appeared in the distance.

The spirit of Davos lifted up, clamping the belly of his horse, and rushed forward for a while, and then the soldiers quickly catch up.

Now he can clearly see that Amendolara is actually a mountain city, which is not in line with the Greek's tradition! It was built on a mountain and the height seems not low, as it face the east and overlook the Gulf of Taranto. The morning mist among the mountains and forest pervaded around it, it looks faint and graceful.

Davos move forward in order to see clearly.

The guide cautiously followed, because less than a few hundred meters away is Amendolara. Although he could not see any Lucanians, it doesn't mean that the Lucanians would not come out to ‘welcome’ them after someone had arrived at their door!

At this time, another river blocked their way. The width of the river is less than 10 meters, and the bottom of the river can clearly be seen. There is no problem to walk through it.

“This is the river Sisno, and there is another river called river Burano not far to the north. Amendolara is between these two rivers. That's all, we can't cross the river anymore.” The guide begged.

Davos couldn't help exclaim: The Apennine Peninsula is so rich on water resources! No wonder the citizens of Magna Graecia are more nourished than the aborigines, the snow in the Apennine melts and finally formed rivers. The rivers wash the earth and rocks on the mountains to the lowlands year after year, this is why the lands can be fertile! It's heaven and earth when compared with barren land of Greece!

During war, the mountain cities are generally easy to defend and hard to attack, but they need to solve two problems: Food and water. Since Amendolara is surrounded by rivers, water won't be a problem… Thought Davos as he watched the city of Amendolara not far away. It seemed to be a small city, at least 100 meters from the ground, but the slope was gentle, with a stone walls around the city's periphery…

When the guide saw that Davos did not cross the river, but also did not leave and repeatedly looked at Amendolara as he stood by the river. Therefore, the guide started getting anxious and wanted to urge him once more.

Davos asked, “What is the relationship between Amendolara and Thurii? A city that was built by immigrants of Thurii?”

This guide is not an ordinary slave. As a domestic slave, he accompanied Burkes in studying and playing together when they were young. When he grew up, he followed Burkes to travel around and do business. As an important assistant of Burkes, he was also knowledgeable. In fact, the reason why Burkes send him to act as their guide was because of his guilt in breaking his promise, and so the guide told Davos a very extensive historical answer. After he thinking for a bit, he answered, “It was said that the city of Amendolara was built by the aborigines here a long time ago, and was later occupied by Sybaris. After Crotone destroyed Sybaris, they did not bother taking over it…and after the establishment of Thurii, Amendolara took the initiative to form an alliance with Thurii. And together with Thurii, it once resisted the attack of Taranto in the north…”

Alliance? Looking at the small city of Amendolara, and considering the scale of Thurii, it is obvious that the two cities are not of the same size. If they want to have an equal right to speak, it will be very difficult and so Amendolara is actually a vassal in a nominal alliance. However, Davos was secretly relieved as long as it Amendolara is not a colonial city of Thurii.

He has come to this era for more than half a year, and he specially learned a lot about the actual situation of the Greek city-state, completely reversing the concept of the city-states about it being just a city that he had known in his previous life. After the Greeks established the city, they would try to expand outward, establishing villages and towns, and bringing the surrounding land under its control. When the land is beyond the direct control of the city due to its distance, they would establish a colonial city or capture other cities. One of the reason is to maintain the momentum of expansion, and the other is to provide protection for the surrounding area of the main city.

At first, this kind of colonial city obeyed the orders of its mother state. After all, the citizens of the colonial city had migrated from the mother state, and even the governor might have been appointed by the mother state. With the passage of time, the Greek's nature of loving independence and freedom has come into play. In addition, the Greek city-state's politics is a closed political management, which naturally rejected unity, and why they go independent. However, due to the proximity of geography, as long as the mother state maintains their advantage in strength, and does not bully their neighbors excessively, they will form a natural alliance with the mother state. However, if the colonial city and the mother state are separated by the sea or too far away, just like in the past decades, because of the estrangement of relationship, it is likely that they will become two different city-states, or even become enemies of each other, such as Corinth and Korkyra(Corfu).

It is obvious that Amendolara was the colonial city of Sybaris, and it was only an affiliated ally to Thurii. Therefore, the land here does not belong to Thurii… Davos pondered, and once more asked, “How did the Lucanians manage to capture this city?”

“I don't know about that. It seems that few of the citizens of Amendolara have escaped…at that time, Thurii was in a state of mourning for the defeat of the whole army and the killing of countless citizens. Thurii was also busy defending the attack of the Lucanians and had ignored the citizens of Amendolara that came to request help. Later, we did not know where they went?…” The guide said without care, but Davos kept it in mind.

At this time, Asistes said, “Boss, someone had come out of the city!”

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

Vespa, the leader of the Lucanians in the city of Amendolara, has been fretting for some time, because the city of Grumentum had sent messengers asking him to lead the tribe and participate in the second invasion on Thurii that will be started by the tribal alliance of the Lucanians.

The tribe of Vespa had originally lived on the bank of the upper reaches of the river Agri in the southeast of the city of Grumentum. There are many tribal settlements there, and the tribe of Vespa is one of the larger ones. They have been living by grazing and simple farming, for decades, they did not have anything to do with the surrounding tribes. But the year before last, after the marriage and alliance between the city of Grumentum and Pyxous, the powerful city of Grumentum became more powerful and they no longer need to consider the balance of the equally powerful city of Potentia in the northwest. And so they began their expansion by attacking the settlements and villages of the surrounding small tribes. Under the pressure of the army of Grumentum, Vespa who did not want to get swallowed by them, fled to the southeast and hid in the forest at the junction of the western mountains of Amendolara and Heraclea. Because of their suffering from hunger and disease, some of them died, which included the two sons of Vespa. Just as Vespa could hardly hold on and wanted to surrender to Grumentum in order to survive, heard a message.

Since the expansion of Grumentum, the population and military strength have greatly increased, but at the same time, there came a problem – food. Originally, the mountain area of Lucania was not rich in grain production, and it relied more on grazing, which also depended on the nature of food. The winter of the previous year was much colder than that of previous years, and a large number of livestock were frozen to death, which made food a big problem for Grumentum in maintaining its hegemony in the south of Lucania. Therefore, last winter, Grumentum joined forces with Pyxous and led the army together with Nerulum, who recognized their status as the leader of this alliance.

Laus…waited for the troops of the Tribal city to join in and prepare to attack Thurii.

Vespa began to think of wanting to fish in troubled waters when the two sides were fighting, so that his tribe could escape from the danger of destruction. Therefore, he mobilize his whole tribe in building rafts, storing food, and preparing to plunder the east.

Just then, he heard a good news: Thurii had attacked Laus with 10,000 troops and the whole army was wiped out.

Vespa was overjoyed and thought that the good opportunity had arrived. Therefore, he immediately ordered his whole tribe to take a raft, go down the river and forcefully cross the dangerous river, and finally enter the territory of Amendolara.

Note: Grumentum

Pyxous

Nerulum

Laus

Potentia(Potenza)