Mediterranean Hegemon of Ancient Greece

Chapter 785: The Siege of Rome (III)

The older Scipio and the soldiers were startled and thought it was a miracle.

However, the older Scipio soon understood its mechanism. Thus he ordered his guards to shout, “There's someone in the wagon!! There's someone inside the wagon!!!…” which managed to dispel the panic of the soldiers. Still, the older Scipio and his soldiers could only watch as the hundred siege wagons came within range of the arrows without being able to do anything about it.

After a while, the foremost wagons stopped in front of the trench and were followed by the rest and linked to each other. Before long, they had formed a five-column wagon stretching a hundred metres just before the trench and extending beyond the defenders' range.

Something like this

Numerous carts loaded with sacks filled with soil were at the rear of the column, made by Theonian soldiers the previous day. Behind them, countless Theonian soldiers without armour formed a line and passed the sacks to the soldiers inside the wagons. Then the soldiers in the wagons quickly began throwing the sacks one after another into the trench.

This unique way of filling the trenches surprised the Roman soldiers and made them even more nervous.

Although the older Scipio initially did not know what these wagons were for, he still ordered his men to shoot flaming arrows out of instinct. However, the Theonians had covered the foremost wagons with a thin layer of soil and wrapped them in soaked linen, so igniting them would take a lot of work.

At the same time, a line of arrow-blocking carts with wide boards advanced towards the city wall, and the ones to push them were the light infantry of Theonia's Second Legion. With the wooden board shielding the light infantry, the enemy arrows became ineffective against them.

like this

Once they pushed the arrow-blocking carts before the trench and formed a disjointed wall, the Theonian light infantry began shooting arrows at the Roman soldiers at the top of the city wall through the gaps between the boards.

Adoris is in one of the wagons, and just like his comrades, he doesn’t wear any armour to save his energy and perform his tasks faster.

Although Adoris had lost count of how many sacks he had passed, he still felt energetic. Suddenly, the platoon leader at the front shouted, “Brothers, push the wagon forward while paying attention to your steps!”

Because the officers already told them the strategy before the siege, Adoris knew they had already filled the trench in front. Then the next step would be to push the wagon over the trench, tamped on the ground and then place a plank so the siege engines could pass through the trench.

Although the wagon is large, it isn't heavy because the interior is hollow. In addition, the wheel was attached to the side of the wagon, rather than connecting the wheels through a long axle, ensuring unimpeded movement of people and goods inside.

After Adoris and his comrades pushed the wagon forward and linked with the wagon in the front, long planks were quickly passed from the rear through Adoris and his companions' hands and finally placed across the filled trench. Then the officers began organising the soldiers in the wagon to retreat quickly and orderly.

Hearing that Adoris was safe and had retreated with the other soldiers from his subordinates, Matonis, who was at the front of the army, felt relieved and ordered his adjutant, “You can now order the heavy infantry to attack!”

“You've worked hard, brothers! It's now our turn to go!” The legionaries who passed by Adoris and his comrades said cheerfully.

“May Hades bless you all!” After offering their blessings, Adoris and his comrades began to don their armour while casting envious glances at the heavily armed legionaries. With some carrying ladders while others wielded shields and spears, the legionaries formed two lines and swiftly entered the passage in the wagons, emerging at the base of the city wall where the siege battle commenced.

When Matonis saw the ladders erected all along the city wall and the soldiers of the Second Legion gathered below, he immediately gave the order, “Let the siege tower forward!”

Upon the heralds' shouts, more soldiers rushed forward to push the wagons further, allowing the succeeding troops to cross the trench and clearing the path for the large siege engines to move towards the base of the city wall.

As some of the wagons were set on fire by the flaming arrows, the soldiers had to exert more effort in pushing them away. And after the wagons got pushed away, a smooth road that led all the way to the base of the city wall opened up.

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The older Scipio was busy commanding his soldiers to attack the Theonian heavy infantry, who were climbing up the walls like ants, and the Theonian light infantry, who were hiding behind the arrow-blocking carts at the front of the trench and had no force left to stop the Theonians from pushing the wagons away. As a result, he was somewhat puzzled by the Theonians' seemingly unnecessary actions.

Soon after, the older Scipio and the soldiers around him were shocked by seeing five towering siege towers in the distance, which seemed even taller than the city wall and were slowly heading towards them.

In his long military career, he had participated in many sieges, and the most difficult one was undoubtedly the attack on Veii, which lasted for almost ten years. Although it was a difficult battle, it enriched his experience of attacking and defending cities. But today, he felt unsettled about the Theonians' novel way of attacking the city and became utterly shocked by the appearance of the siege towers. After all, the neighbouring forces they had fought against in the past had either lagged behind Rome in military strength or were on par with them.

In contrast, the kingdom of Theonia had clearly crushed Rome in this aspect, which reflected the gap in their civilisation that created a sense of powerlessness in the older Scipio's mind. However, he still pulled himself together and shouted, “Prepare the flaming arrows! Burn those things with fire!”

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Theonia's engineering team was able to create five siege towers in one day, not only because they had many men but also because Davos had taken into account the needs of the siege before their departure, so he asked them to prefabricate some crucial parts of the siege equipment in advance and carried them with the army, such as the wheels, axles, pulleys, and the L-shaped angles… As a result, the engineers and carpenters saved time and completed their tasks in just a day and a half.

Furthermore, compared to Syracuse's siege tower, Theonia’s siege tower’s width was less than three metres wide, just equal to the width of the wagons, allowing it to pass smoothly through the levelled passage in the trench. Its rear runs diagonally downwards, with wooden ladders built on the outside so that the soldiers could have smooth and quick access to the various floors of the tower.

As the Theonian soldiers pushed the siege tower, the door to the second to the last floor opened, revealing a gastraphete with its bowstring fully drawn and loaded with iron stakes. The soldiers then fired the gastraphete, causing the iron stake to whizz through the air. In a flash, the iron stakes flew atop the city wall and pierced several Roman soldiers' chests; its force was strong enough to push several Roman soldiers to fall behind the wall.

The power of the gastraphete frightened the Roman soldiers that faced the siege tower. They became so distracted from guarding against this terrible killing weapon that they failed to attack the Theonian soldiers climbing the wall. Fortunately, the older Scipio managed to send troops in time, or else the Theonian soldiers would have already reached the top of the city wall.

Before the Roman soldiers could catch their breath, the Theonian light infantry at the top of the siege tower began shooting arrows at the defenders once they were in range.

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At the same time as the Second Legion's siege, the soldiers of the Sixth Legion on the east side of the Second Legion, led by legatus Trotidis, had adopted the same strategy as the First Legion to force the defenders at the east section of the southern wall of Rome to cope with the situation with all their strength, so that they wouldn't dare divide their forces to assist the older Scipio.

In the western section of the southern wall, the Fifth Legion, led by Giorgris, and the Fourth Legion, led by Olivos, focused on attacking the wall’s protruding southwestern corner.

Dozens of ballistae had been bombarding this section of the city wall since yesterday afternoon. And as of today, a fifth of the ballista has been destroyed, but the two legates still didn't hesitate to continue the bombardment since early morning, concentrating most of the attack on the lower part of the city wall.

After getting hit by stone projectiles continuously, the stones on the outer part of the city wall shattered, revealing a thick layer of compacted soil inside as large areas of the wall fell.

Then the ballistae began focusing their bombardment on top of the city wall. Although some of the stone projectiles whizzed past the wall, those that managed to hit the wall would cause shards of stones to splatter everywhere, posing a danger to the defenders at the top of the city wall and forcing them to retreat.

Meanwhile, Theonia's heavy infantry took the opportunity that the defenders couldn’t do anything to carry thickened long and wide planks and lay them on the trench. Then the subsequent heavy infantry carrying ladders would step on the planks and cross the trench. Once they began attacking the city, the ballistae also stopped the attack.

In the midst of the offensive wave, the soldiers also carefully pushed other siege engines over the planks and towards the rammed soil exposed in the walls…

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High walls surrounded the city of Rome, except Rome's bridge to the north, the Pons Aemilius. However, the wide Tiber served as the protection, with steep embankments seven to eight metres high as barriers. As a result, the Romans considered this place as the safest.

In both wars against the Veientes, Rome's greatest enemy in the Tiber decades earlier, the Romans managed to repulse the enemy just by defending Pons Aemilius.

So when the Theonians occupied the other side of the bridge this time, the former praetorian prefect, Titus Cassius, who was responsible for defending the north of Rome, still adopted the same tactics.