Mediterranean Hegemon of Ancient Greece

Chapter 740: The Naval Battle of Cephaloedium (I)

The Iberian infantry, on Hasdrubal's orders, began to cross the mountains to the south, carrying rations and weapons. Meanwhile, Hasdrubal continued attacking the city of Cephaloedium to draw the defenders' attention.

After crossing the mountains, the Iberian infantry made a huge circle and appeared at the pass behind the city of Cephaloedium early on the third day. And because the Cephaloedian’s defensive camp in the mountain pass wasn’t prepared, they quickly fell to the swift attack of the Iberian infantry, who then promptly approached the city's eastern side.

The Cephaloedians began to panic when they heard the enemy approaching from behind since, even after being reminded by the Theonians, they still concentrated only on reinforcing the defences of the western wall because of the limited time available. While on the eastern wall, they only had time to make a simple repair. Worst of all, the wall is small and hardly has any defensive capability. Nevertheless, the Cephaloedians gambled, thinking that the Carthaginians wouldn't attack in that direction since the area was already under the influence of the friendly city-states of Theonia, and it was possible to get reinforcements from the Theonians at any time. Also, the Carthaginians would be taking a considerable risk by trying to land here since they would have to climb high mountains that were hard to climb. In addition, the Carthaginians were not good at mountain climbing, so it didn't occur to Cephaloedians that it was precisely what they dreaded the most to happen would come true.

Meanwhile, Hasdrubal's army launched a fierce attack on the western wall of Cephaloedium, quickly outnumbering the Cephaloedian defenders. Sensing the situation's urgency, they hastily organised all the citizens who could fight to defend the city while sending men to the port to take a fast sailing ship to Messina to ask for help. Finally, they also began to organise the people in the city to retreat to the port.

In fact, the Theonians' fast sailing ships were already patrolling the sea near Cephaloedium daily to monitor the war situation. Once they saw the Carthaginian army appearing to the east of the city of Cephaloedium, they immediately realised the problem and returned to Messina. So when the messenger from Cephaloedium came to ask for help, Amikles, the Praetor of Messina, had already organised a fleet of ships ready to leave for the rescue.

With them was the Third Fleet. After the Carthaginians split their army in two, one attacking from the north and the other from the south, Seclian also split their fleet into two: The First Fleet in Catania and the Third Fleet in Messina. But as the war progressed, most of the First Fleet's ships were later stationed in Gela so they could prevent the Carthaginian fleet from supporting their army on either coast or going around the friendly city-states of Theonia and land in the rear. Finally, they could protect the caravans carrying supplies and refugees in time. And the Third Fleet's deployment this time is for the latter purpose.

By the time Theonia's fleet reached the sea near Cephaloedium, the Iberian infantry had already broken through the defences of the eastern wall, and the citizens had abandoned it, some retreating to the Acropolis, others to the port.

Fortunately, they integrated the port within the city when they first built Cephaloedium, and a wall only separated it. The wall’s original purpose was to prevent the slaves and freemen of the port from wandering in and out of the city at will, disrupting the city's order, and now it plays a key role.

The Cephaloedian soldiers then positioned themselves on the port walls while destroying the stone ladder to the wall, blocking the entrance to and from the port. Although this wall is mainly there to prevent the enemy from entering the city, they still hope it could buy enough time for the people to escape from the port.

As soon as the ship stationed in the port loaded the Cephaloedians and began to leave one after another, the Theonian fleet sailed into the port and picked up the frightened people stranded on the docks. Apart from them, some ships from Tyndaris, Caleacte and Haluntium also came to help. Although there was chaos and confusion, with some ships colliding and capsizing, all the sailors of the Greek city-states on the northern coast worked together to rescue them with one thing in mind: To get the people of Cephaloedium out as quickly as possible before the Carthaginians slaughter them.

Fortunately, Cephaloedium isn't a big city and only has a small population, so they soon loaded all the elderly, the young, the women and the children on the ship. Afterwards, they began loading the citizen soldiers who had arrived at the docks…

On the other hand, the Third Fleet’s ships were placed in the sea to the west of the port to guard against a sudden attack by the Carthaginian fleet. The fast ship then came in and reported to the Navarch of the Third Fleet, Fulalios, “All the Cephaloedians in the port have boarded.”

Fulalios just nodded in agreement, for such a risk-free escort mission didn't exactly excite him. It wasn't that he hadn't considered sending the fleet's infantry to disembark; it was just that he had given up on that idea after learning of the actual battle situation. He thinks the fleet’s four thousand infantry couldn't withstand the attack of twenty thousand enemies who were about to breach the city's weakened walls. Besides, losing the fleet infantry that they had trained so hard in this unimportant place wasn't worth losing.

“We will return as soon as the fleet has left.”

Suddenly, the lookout on the mast shouted, “Navarch, there is an enemy situation ahead!”

Fulalios' heart tightened as he looked into the distance. Through the gap between the many warships, he saw two yellow flags flying from the mast of their westernmost warship.

‘A Carthaginian fleet, with about the same number of ships as ours…’ Fulalios immediately judged based on the flags. (A raised yellow flag signalled there was an enemy. One yellow flag implies the enemy fleet is smaller than theirs, two yellow flags indicate both sides are about equal in numbers, three yellow flags signify the enemy ships are more than theirs, and four yellow flags mean the enemy ships are far more numerous).

Fulalios became excited that he immediately changed his orders, “Sound the salpinx and raise our black flag!”

Then the five buglers on the flagship simultaneously sounded their curved brass salpinxes, which echoed across the sea. Then black flags flew high from their mast.

“There must be stars beneath the night!” The Starry Night was the most typical tactic of the Theonian Navy, as it maximised the strength of the Corvus warships, which was why the newly built Theonian Navy managed to defeat the mighty Syracusan Navy. But after a decade of development, the Starry Night tactic had undergone new changes due to the new composition of the fleet and warships, and a battle was needed to prove its effectiveness.

The captains and crews of all the warships immediately became excited when they received the instructions. The deck workers started to lift the corvus that was lying on the deck and put it in front of the mast; the helmsman adjusted the direction of the warship and began to arrange the formation; the sailors started to swallow their rations and put oil on their seats; then the infantry sitting in the corridor at the bottom of the deck began to put on their armour… all of them rubbing their hands as they anxiously waited for the sea battle to begin.

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

The fleet coming from the west is from Iberia, under the control of Mago, the Iberian governor.

Since the African coast was flat and devoid of tall, sturdy trees, a famous maritime race like Carthage had long regarded the Iberian Peninsula as an important resource base, not only for its rich gold and silver mines but also for its abundant timber resources. And so, most of Carthage's ship timber came from Iberia.

When Mago became Iberia’s governor, he couldn’t use the fleet most of the time when conquering southern Iberia since he didn't have the right to control the fleet. But after considering that he would have great difficulty transporting troops by sea without the protection of a fleet when his army went to fight elsewhere and that if he wanted to mobilise the Carthaginian fleet to Iberia, the elders led by Hanno would inevitably obstruct him, he decided to build his own fleet with the money he earned in Iberia and the Iberian timber.

A few years later, he formed an Iberian fleet consisting of one hundred and twenty triremes, plus some small and medium-sized ships, for a total of one hundred and eighty warships. Its commander was Adhimilk of the Magonids, and half of the fleet's sailors came from the Phoenician city-states, the rest from Numidians and Mauritanians, none of whom were Carthaginians. This fleet soon crossed the Iberian coast and around the Pillar of Hercules.

When Hanno learned of this, he became so frightened that when the fleet was escorting Hasdrubal's army to Lilybaeum, Hanno ordered the commander of the Carthaginian fleet, Anibal, to integrate the Iberian fleet.

Adhimilk strongly disagreed, saying, “Lord Mago only agreed for the army to accept Muntebaal's command and didn't talk about the fleet also accepting the command of the Carthaginian navy.”

But Anibal retorted, “Since they are all Carthaginian troops, they should naturally be under a unified command, which would be to Carthage's advantage in this war!”

Adhimilk continued to refuse, resulting in the two sides almost coming to blows.

Eventually, the case reached the Senate, prompting the Elders to send someone to talk to Mago again, setting off another round of complicated negotiations. Meanwhile, the two fleets, one stationed in Carthage and the other in Lilybaeum, were at a standstill, which is why Muntebaal hadn't seen any Carthaginian fleet appear in the sea off the southern coast of Sicily to escort his troops.

When Hasdrubal learned of this, he requested the fleet’s help by claiming that he was about to capture Cephaloedium and needed them to prevent the enemy from escaping by sea, which is why the Iberian fleet happened to be here.