Mediterranean Hegemon of Ancient Greece

Chapter 795: The Siege of Rome (XIII)

While the two cavalry legates busily gathered their cavalry, commander Tolmides at the rear had learned about the changes in the enemy formation with the help of the mounted scouts, so he naturally made some arrangements accordingly.

After pondering for a moment, he began issuing orders: The Fourth and Fifth Legions’ light-armoured brigades behind the left and right flank would move forward quickly and spread towards both wings to block the enemy's attempt to encircle them. Meanwhile, the light-armoured brigade of the Second Legion, located in the centre, would split into two to be ready to support both flanks at any time.

Tolmides felt helpless since it was challenging to have the light-armoured soldiers confront the enemy's heavy infantry head-on, so his only choice was to delay the enemy.

As the Theonian soldiers stirred up dust and dirt, obeying the orders, the tenseTolmides suddenly widened his eyes and looked ahead, exclaiming, "What's that kid doing?!"

Through the swirling clouds of dust and dirt, Tolmides caught sight of Crotokatax and the forty palace guards stationed in front, abruptly heading to the right.

“We don’t know, my lord! No one issued additional orders to His Highness the Prince!”

“Quickly!… Send someone to tell His Highness to obey orders and stay where he is!” said Tolmides anxiously.

When Crotokatax saw the heralds shouting at the rear of the formation, he immediately realised that the situation had changed. Thus he took the liberty to order the palace guard to follow the Fifth Legion's light-armoured brigade to move to the right flank. Initially, the concerned palace guards tried to prevent him from going. However, as the temporary leader of the palace guard and as they are too a Theonian citizen, they also desired to contribute to the battle. Having guarded King Davos in the city of Thurii for a long time, they couldn't resist the temptation to join the fight against the enemy, easily allowing Crotokatax to persuade them to join him.

Then once the herald arrived and relayed the order for Crotokatax to obey the order and stay still, Crotokatax replied angrily, “Please tell Lord Tolmides that now that the army is in danger and all the other soldiers are fighting with all their might, does he want us to become a joke to the entire kingdom by sheltering us like cowards?!”

Crotokatax's words immediately made the wavering palace guards become firm and no longer listened to the herald's dissuasion and followed Crotokatax.

After receiving the herald's response, Tolmides, known for his skill in coordinating and managing complex relationships, found himself at a loss. On the one hand, he acknowledged the truth in the young prince's words about the prince receiving ridicule by the people if he didn’t do anything in the battle upon his return to Thurii after the war, which would lead to Crotokatax resenting him and King Davos and Queen Cheiristoya’s displeasure. However, allowing the prince to join the fight against the formidable enemy posed its own risks. If he were to get injured, Tolmides would bear the blame. And if he were to perish in battle, then…

Just as he was hesitating, the mounted scouts came over and said, “Report! Lord Epiphanes has arrived with his army!”

“At last!” Tolmides heaved a long sigh, easing his tense mood. He then turned around and said, “Immediately draw a centuria from the Second Legion's light-armoured brigade to accompany His Highness to the right flank!”

With Epiphanes' reinforcements, he no longer had to worry about the safety of Crotokatax since it's only a matter of time till they defeat the Roman reinforcements.

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

Davos deemed ‘Leading an army to land in Latium and attack Rome’ as one of his most important strategic plans to this day. Since he knew how mighty Rome was in his previous life, he had gone all out by sending not only the First, Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Legions, as well as the First and Second Cavalry Legions, but also sent Epiphanes, who had just resigned from his position as praetor and remained idle at his home, to Lucania.

At the request of the Campanians, the Third Legion had stayed in Atella. Later, the Ministry of Military ordered Xanticles to form a new reserve legion in Lucania to replace the Third Legion in defending the whole of Lucania. Since the soldiers of the Third Legion not only came from Lucania but also from Compsa and the coastal city-states such as Irna, Poseidonia, Elea and also Laos, so there was an abundant supply of soldiers that allowed Xanticles to form an entirely new legion.

Afterwards, Davos ordered Epiphanes to lead half of the newly formed legion to sail to Ostia on the second day after the army landed in Latium and occupied Ostia.

Davos had made them as backup reserves to be used depending on the development of the war situation.

Since the Latin coastal city-states were paying attention to the Theonian army's siege of Rome, they did not notice another relatively small group of Theonian troops entering the port of Ostia mixed with the convoy of ships transporting supplies.

Then once Davos learned about the previously defeated Roman army regrouping and marching eastward to rescue the city of Rome yesterday evening, he immediately dispatched a messenger to rush to Ostia and inform Epiphanes to lead his army eastward today to assist the main force in defeating the Roman reinforcements, ensuring the successful siege on the city.

Even after leaving the army for several years, Epiphanes, known for his flexible use of troops, hadn't blindly urged the soldiers to rush when leading the army this morning. Instead, he has them march slowly while sending many scouts and cavalries to the main camp to understand the siege deployment, the enemy situation outside the city of Rome and keeping track of the war's progress to find opportunities from it.

So when he learned that his friend's army had intercepted a large Roman reinforcement to the west of Rome, he immediately decided they would be their first target.

Then he ordered the entire army to increase their pace towards the direction he pointed.

Just as they were about to reach the battlefield, Epiphanes ran into the four hundred cavalries hidden in the rear by the two cavalry legates. Once he learned Ledes and Kurcius' plan, he immediately said with confidence, “Tell your legates to stop wasting your warhorses and leave the rest of the battle to me!”

After saying that, he ordered the troops to halt and start forming while making his soldiers adjust their equipment.

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

Learning of the arrival of reinforcements, Ledes could finally breathe a sigh of relief. Still, he didn’t want to abandon his previous plan completely. So after reaching an agreement with Kurcius, they would still carry out the plan as usual, only changing the initial charge on both enemy flanks to a feint attack while the surprise attack on the centre of the Roman army remained unchanged.

Once the salpinx sounded, Ledes clamped his legs on the horse's belly and ordered it to move forward, followed by the more than a thousand cavalry soldiers from behind.

On the other side, Kurcius, with over a thousand cavalry, followed suit.

Because of their movements, the alert Roman army reacted to the Theonian cavalry’s movement. Paulus, who was in the rear of the army formation, naturally wouldn't allow the Theonian cavalry to disrupt the charge of the heavy infantry on the two flanks. Thus, he immediately ordered the twelve Roman centuriae remaining in the rear to immediately rush to both flanks and intercept the enemy cavalry's attack.

Paulus felt relieved seeing the Theonian cavalry was still a hundred metres away when the Roman soldiers arrived on both flanks.

Meanwhile, the Theonian cavalry, changing from a brisk pace to a gallop, raised clouds of dirt and dust into the air as the earth trembled under the thunderous gallop of thousands of hooves on both flanks…

From a distance, two massive arrow-shaped formations emerged through the grey dust created by the two black cavalry legions. Within the advancing black tide, occasional flashes of bright red colours could be seen, representing the banners of the cavalry legions. The largest banner, held high next to the legatus positioned at the forefront of the formation, fluttered against the wind, signalling the direction in which the entire army would advance.

At this moment, the cavalry at the forefront was less than seventy metres away from the Roman army when Ledes suddenly shouted, “Turn left! Turn left!!…”

The pegasus banner held high immediately pointed to the left, and the flagmen of each brigade and centuriae who had been paying attention to the legion banner also changed direction. Led by the leading cavalry, the rest of the cavalry began to turn…until the entire cavalry legion passed by the Roman army.

When the Roman soldiers saw the dust raised by the enemy cavalry was only twenty to thirty metres away, rushing parallel to their own formation, they breathed a sigh of relief even though they were still nervous. After all, the momentum caused by countless enemy cavalry rushing towards them was truly terrifying!

Although the Roman soldiers on the flank relaxed, the Roman light infantry behind the centre formation became nervous as they began pointing to the rear and exclaiming in fear, “Cavalry! The Theonian cavalry!! They are charging towards us!!!…”

A cloud of dust and dirt is rising a few hundred metres behind them and rushing towards them.

Paulus, who was behind the light infantry, turned around and saw the terrifying sight and felt panicked, ‘Damn it! The Theonians deceived me!’

“Hurry! Hurry up! Notify the centuriae that had gone to both flanks to return quickly! Hurry up!!….”

Unlike the Theonian cavalry, who were attacking both flanks, these four hundred cavalry units charging at the centre were already galloping at an accelerated pace, covering several hundred meters in mere moments.

Since most of the light infantry were not Roman citizens and were instead Latin allies, they didn't have the same determination as the Roman citizens to defend their homeland and fight to the death. So when they saw the rapidly approaching enemy cavalry, the light infantry scattered and fled in disorder while shouting, “Run away!”