Mediterranean Hegemon of Ancient Greece

Chapter 790: The Siege of Rome (VIII)

“If only our tens of thousands of young and middle-aged citizens hadn't left, the Theonians wouldn’t be able to attack the city. Instead, we would have fought them in the open field-” Apuleius just said that when Maluginensis interrupted him, “What's done is done; There's no need to mention it again as we need to focus all our energy on how to defend the city of Rome!”

Potitus nodded at him approvingly. Although they usually argued and disagreed with each other over power and interests, the interests of the major clans would align when Rome faced danger.

“So much time has passed; I wonder if our reinforcements have already arrived?” After Maluginensis' criticism, Apuleius embarrassedly changed the subject.

“Paulus, Maegius and Pantheus wouldn’t sit idly by and watch Rome fall into danger, and the same goes for Veii. Perhaps they might have already engaged the Theonians into battle, but we just have no way of knowing.” Ambustus spoke loudly with confidence, which reassured many senators. After all, everyone understood that, given the current offensive of the Theonians, the reinforcements were their only hope of defending the city of Rome!

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

While the senators on the Roman Forum were worried about the safety of the city of Rome, the Roman populace was busy treating the wounded soldiers, with the blood of the wounded trickling into a small stream and into the gutter and then converging into the wide sewer…

If the officials in charge of the sewers had lifted the slabs and entered, walking along the narrow pathways on either side, following the sewage flow, they would be surprised to find crouching figures filling the sewers beneath the residential houses behind the embankment to the north of Rome.

Two hundred soldiers from the Mountain Reconnaissance Brigade worked hard all night to finally enter the Cloaca Maxima.

After battling the waters of the Tiber and manoeuvring through the sewage, even the most skilled and rigorously trained scouts were left exhausted. Some of the first to arrive had sat in the dark and damp sewers amidst the debris, falling asleep while awaiting their companions, enduring the unpleasant stench.

But Izam, the leader of this covert operation, could not allow them to rest right now. So he immediately had them woken up, ordered them to take off their soaked linen, wring it out and then wipe their bodies to avoid catching a cold.

And for those members who got wounded on the way in, he and the last few soldiers who came in had carried a parcel wrapped in several layers of fur, containing clean linen and some herbs prepared to wipe and dress the wounds to prevent infection.

At the same time, he had also sent someone to cover the sawn railings to prevent the Roman soldiers from accidentally noticing it the next day.

In addition, he also arranged for his men to take turns on duty. Their main task was not to detect the enemies but to chase off mice and possibly even snakes in the sewers, to stop them from biting their sleeping comrades. At the same time, they would immediately wake up some of their comrades who had fallen asleep and began snoring loudly. After all, the sewers, although covered with stone slabs, are not sealed tightly, and there are still several gaps, large and small. So it is necessary to be always cautious to prevent the enemy from detecting them.

Under the tremendous pressure of bearing the weight of two hundred lives on his shoulders and a daunting mission ahead of him, Izam found it difficult to sleep. Throughout the night, his mind raced with various thoughts, unable to rest until exhaustion finally overcame him, and he succumbed to sleep at dawn.

Izam didn't know how long he slept until he was pushed awake. After opening his eyes in a daze, he was immediately dazzled by a beam of sunlight that shone on his face through the cracks in the slabs. He then placed his hand over his head, turned his head to look around and saw pairs of worried eyes focusing on him: They were all the soldiers he had personally trained! He then felt a slight warmth rising in his heart.

‘I am getting older, and my health is no longer as good as before!’ He inwardly sighed while struggling to sit up. Then he had his men do a roll call in low voices one by one, with the sound of counting coming from one side of the sewer and back from the other, and the number was no more, no less than two hundred.

“Has anyone begun to feel unwell?” Izam asked worriedly in a low voice.

Everyone then expressed they were all well.

Izam naturally knew some had lied, but it at least meant that his men didn't suffer from significant wounds.

Finally, a smile appeared on his face as he continued to ask, “What's the situation outside?”

The one to answer him was Kadouleos, a squad leader from Campania who knew Latin. After struggling to squeeze over to Izam, he pointed his finger up and whispered, “Leader, the Third Legion has begun attacking. First, they used the ballistae to bombard the enemy above us, resulting in the Romans retreating. After listening to their panicking chatters, we learned that our fleet had built a pontoon bridge with the corvus warship on the Tiber. Then the soldiers of the Third Legion launched an attack on the embankment, prompting the Roman soldiers to hastily rushed to defend the place. And by now, approximately…”

Kadouleos' eyes wandered around with uncertainty, then some of his comrades wrote a number in the air, and some wrote another.

“…approximately an hour or so had passed,” he eventually concluded.

Izam didn't expect the siege to start while he was sleeping, frightening him when he thought about it. Fortunately, it still wasn't the best time for them to act.

Just as Izam was about to say something, they suddenly could hear disordered footsteps and the voices of the Romans on top of them. The sewers had amplified and echoed their voices, making them tense. So while the dust and dirt continued to fall from the ceiling, the crew immediately stopped making any noises and acted as if they were wooden statues and just stared at each other.

After a while, the sound above them completely disappeared, and the sewers became quiet again. As a result, they finally took a deep breath, even though the foul smell was much more terrible than the excruciating sound.

“What did they say?” Izam immediately asked Kadouleos.

Although dirt and dust covered his face, Kadouleos laughed silently, which looked comical, as he said in a low voice, “Leader, I heard the Roman say that he had grown up with his master, taking care of him and serving as his scribe…and he had never even killed a sheep nor even a chicken, and now they told him to kill the enemy.

While another person mocked him and said, ‘Continue crying, kid, but don't piss yourself in fear later when you face the enemy.’

Afterwards, another one, probably their officer, scolded them to stop talking, urging them to go to Pons Aemilius. Else they would be like livestock that would be killed at will if they let the Theonians break through the blockade in the embankment…”

The people around him understood what he meant, causing excitement to appear in each of their eyes, “Leader, it seems the Third Legion attack was so fierce that the enemy could no longer persist. So shouldn't we act as well?!”

Before Izam could speak, someone at the front exclaimed, “Look at the sewage!”

Through the rays of sunlight passing through the cracks of the stone slab, they managed to see that the dirty water, which was initially coloured black and yellow, with various kinds of filth, had gradually been dyed red…

“Has our army already breached the city from other places?!” exclaimed an officer.

“Silence!” Izam made a hush gesture. Then facing the eager gaze of his men, he finally had to make a decision.

He looked at the red blood in the sewers and listened to the sound of the streets above him. After thinking for a moment, he finally said in a low voice, “Whatever the situation in the other places, the task His Majesty has given us is to assist the Third Legion and the Third Fleet to breach through the defences of the embankment and storm the city of Rome. Now that the enemy reinforcements have just passed and the street above is still quiet, it is clear that the Third Legion is still fighting them fiercely, so we need to wait a little longer!”

Seeing they were reluctant to speak, Izam immediately continued, “However, since the Romans had even sent out slaves who couldn't fight, it shows that they no longer have reserve troops. Thus we only had to wait a little longer until these Roman reinforcements were all gone into battle and could no longer stop us that we would go out and attack their rear! But now, we need first to find a way out!”

“Leader, we already found our way out in the early morning.” Terentus raised his sheathed short sword and pointed at the tip, “As long as we use our short sword to remove the mortar between the stone slabs, we can forcefully push them apart and climb out.”

“Excellent!” Izam trusted his men's judgment and said in a low voice, “We need to fill our stomachs first, then start moving when I give the order!” With that, he opened the pouch at his waist and took out a strip of dried beef.

Then his men also began taking out their dried rations. Although the beef jerky had a strange taste from getting soaked in river water, everyone still chewed it hard and ate it.

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

In the middle section of the southern wall, not far from the old Roman Forum, the sound of battle was still deafening as the soldiers from both sides were engaged in a fierce battle.

A defender at the top of the city wall pushed down a ladder, causing the Theonian soldiers climbing the ladder to fall to the base of the wall. But not long after, another soldier from afar had carried a new ladder, crossed the trench, rushed to the bottom of the city wall, and placed it on the vacant section.

And from time to time, the Romans set the arrow-blocking cart in front of the trenches on fire using their flaming arrows. However, that didn't stop the Theonian light infantry from hiding behind the burning carts and continue shooting their arrows at the top of the city wall. Furthermore, their accurate shooting posed a greater threat to the defenders at the top that the defenders would have been powerless to stop the Theonian soldiers from climbing the top of the city wall if it weren't because most of those fighting in the battlement were heavy infantry. After all, if the light infantry couldn't hit unprotected areas, their arrows wouldn't even cause significant damage. Otherwise, the defenders couldn't stop the Theonian soldiers from reaching the top.