Mediterranean Hegemon of Ancient Greece

Chapter 81: The Battle of Thurii (III)

“Oh, these brothers are amazing! They are indeed worthy of being a hero who killed their way through Persia and return to Greece!”

“Look at those slingers, they are all my fellow Rhodians!”

“And those Thracians, see how accurate they throw their javelins! I really want to remove this heavy armor and pick a javelin and join them!”

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

When Drakos heard the admiration and envy of the soldiers around him, he firmly squeezed the belt behind his shield and said with a blazing intent for battle, “Come savages, come and taste our strength!”

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The confident leader of Pixous, Cincinnag, had never thought that his troops will suffer loses even before the battle start, and what made him even more depressed is that the traditional weapons of the Lucanians were javelins, spears and daggers, while the javelin were also their main strengths. In order to better attack the Greeks, most of them have equipped heavy equipment, and only a few warriors in the rear formation have a javelin, while the enemy's arrows and stones could even reached their rear, while only a few of their warriors that have javelin were able to fight back and they try to avoid the enemy's attack. However, they couldn't see the enemy, and their numbers are few and scattered, which naturally made their results bad. Fortunately, the peltast of the enemy is not a lot, and the two ends of the right-wing's formation are not affected. Therefore, under the helplessness of Cincinnag, he could only urge both ends to advance forward toward the middle in order to try encircle or disperse these damned and terrible enemies…

The Lucanians at the center and left wing saw the tragic experience of the right wing, fearing that they would also suffer the same situations, both the warriors and the leaders subconsciously accelerated their progress, hoping to clash with the Greek's as soon as possible.

Tens of thousands of warriors took huge step and charge forward, which shook the earth.

All stragoi and leaders such as Archytas, Friis, Drakos and so on., started shouting, “Shield, DEFENSE!”

The soldiers on the front row of the phalanx formation took a slight stepped forward with their left foot, and step firmly on the ground with their right foot, with the round shield guarding their left while raising their spears and pointing it forward. The soldiers in the rear then stacked one by one against the back of the soldiers that are in front, while stabbing their spears forward, connecting with the shields…The whole phalanx is like a huge metal monster with long thorns.

A hundred meter charge on a slightly higher terrain (though the plain of Sybaris is flat, but the terrain gradually increase to the west), the Lucanian warriors directly crashed into the Greek hoplites' phalanx with a strong momentum,

With a loud bang at the end of April of 399 BC, the battle between Thurii and Lucania officially started…

This war is a life and death for both sides, but in the eyes of powerful city-states in the Mediterranean, it is simply insignificant. Carthage and Syracuse will not pay attention to it because both sides are gathering their strength in order to fight for the dominance of Sicily, as they are about to start a new round of war. Rome won't pay attention to it because they are busy besieging and attacking the Etruscan city, Veii, on the upper reaches of the river Tiber. Sparta and Persia will not pay attention to it, because both sides are preparing for the coming war in Asia Minor. Athens will not pay attention to it, because they are more focused on how to recover their strength as soon as possible, while enduring the overbearing behavior of Sparta. Macedonia will not pay attention it as its kingdom is divided and its kings are frequently getting changed, and the Macedonians who are suffering from internal and external troubles may be yearning for a powerful monarch to save them in this deep water… Hundreds of kingdoms, city-states and races in the Mediterranean are busy trying to survive or conquering, and they have no idea or ability to understand the fight between two unknown forces in the southern part of the Italian peninsula. However, this war (It's later called the Battle of Thurii) opened a new chapter in the magnificent ancient history of the Mediterranean.

The Lucanians are a mountain tribe, they are enthusiastic and impulsive, and during their rapid charge, their fighting spirit continue to rise. Therefore, when they saw the spear shield formation that are in front them, some of the warriors didn't even take into consideration the impact of the shield that their leaders have emphasized before, as their brains have already been filled with their high morale and so they leap straight to it. Specially Grumentum that have produced a large number of brave men due to long-term war, and so the number of people adopting this “reckless” action were not the minority. Although they are more likely to get stabbed, but they will disturb the defensive formation of the Greeks.

In particular, the soldiers of Thurii and the mercenaries of Drakos in the center did not even trained together before, and so their cooperation is lacking. The connection between rows in their phalanx is not very tight, and in addition, Drakos has never seen this kind of charging from the mountain people and so he lacks the means to deal with it. Thus, the center of the Greek army fell into a hard battle from the very beginning…

The soldiers of Tarantum on the right-wing are obviously much more experienced in dealing with the charging of the Lucanian warriors, and also considering that the warriors of Nerulum and Laus are far less fiercer than those of Grumentum, as they have not caused too much impact on the right wing of the Greek army. The shields of both sides collided with each other, and the spears has come and gone as they began pushing and fighting… 200 cavalries also galloped forward and occasionally hitting the left flank of the Lucanians, and they will immediately withdraw as long as the warriors of Lucania tried to block them. The Greek cavalry's are like a flower that are raised in a greenhouse as their skill in riding is far from the superb skill of the Numidians, and they are not as fierce as the Gaul and the Germanic, and the only thing they could do is just to harass. But even so, the Lucanians on the left wing was on guard and they dare not go all out in their offense. Therefore, even though they have more people than the right wing of the Greek army and their phalanx formation is more solid, both sides remained in a stalemate…

When both the left and the center of the Lucanians had begun their battle, but the right wing of Lucania could only advance slowly due to the peltast attacking them as the peltast retreat, which slowed down the progress of the Lucanians, and the distance between the two armies were kept close to 50 meters. The Peltast then withdrew from the front and partially retreated to the rear through the special gap on the phalanx formation.

At this time, the formation of the right wing of the Lucanian has become a crescent moon, with both ends protruding and the center sunken. Cincinnag has lost control of his troops and he is no longer able to reorganize the formation and the only thing he can do is to command the bugler to blow the order to charge. There is only a 50 meter distance left for the final sprint, but when their horn is blown, there is also another bronze bugle that rang out from the opposite side, which made Cincinnag alert and nervous trying to guess the next step of the fierce enemy on the opposite side. Gennat, who is at the forefront on the front line has suffered many injuries, when he notice the Greek hoplites on the opposite side raising their right arm and their bodies titling back, and their legs lunging forward, this action…made Gennat, who was like a frightened bird, hid his whole body under his shield with great speed.

Thousands of javelines flew tens of meters in an instant and fell into the formation of the Lucanian who are just about to charge. What was set off was no longer a drizzle like before, but a heavy rain of death. In an instant, it resulted in hundreds of casualties and has almost hindered the advance of the Lucanians…

And just then, the horrible bronze bugle rang out again, and the Greek mercenaries immediately shouted, “Hades!!!” As they charged forward armed with shield and spears.

The mercenaries did not charge at the same, as the soldiers at their right end didn't advance forward because of the connection with the center, and only the soldiers at the middle and left end had rushed towards the enemy without considering the thinness of their own formation nor the large number of enemies, just like a dragon swinging its tail.

The front line of the Lucanians have not yet recovered from the javelin attack and their whole formation was in chaos. But at this moment, the mercenaries charge came one after another. The soldiers skillfully used the kinetic energy that was converted from their charging speed and strike the opponents with their fitted shields in order to open up the opponent's defense, then the spears in their right hand strike like a viper to stab the throat or the face of the enemy quickly and accurate. This made the front row of the Lucanians collapsed at the same time…

The Lucanians at the rear got frightened by such horrible efficiency in attacking and threatening momentum. Even though they boasted their bravery earlier they can't help but flinch now…the mercenaries are chasing, while the Lucanians are retreating…the collapse of the right wing of the Lucanian is just around the corner.

Note: Vergae is the northernmost town of the Brutti and it borders Laos.