Chapter 509: Battle of Crotone (II)
Chapter 509: Battle of Crotone (II)
Obviously, Davos didn’t wait for their enemy to finish praying, so he immediately gave the order, “Attack!”
Then dozens of buglers evenly arranged at the rear of the massive formation sounded their salpinx one after another.
“Rhaaaa!!!…” The powerful salpinx sound shot up into the sky.
“Avenge legatus Drakos and our brothers who died in battle!” The fourth and fifth legion soldiers, located in the centre of the vast phalanx formation, were the first to shout. Then the rest of the soldiers soon followed, and the cries of revenge replaced the ode to Hades. Hence when the voice bound by a common hatred combined, the morale of the Theonian soldiers reached its peak.
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“Cunning Davos! Damned Davos!” Dionysius cursed angrily as the Theonians kept taking the initiative against the dominant Syracusan army, again and again, making him feel stifled after his smooth sailing on their land battle since landing on Magna Graecia. The Syracusan soldiers hadn’t yet finished their prayers when the enemy suddenly began attacking, so he could no longer wait for them to complete their prayer before advancing, which inevitably affected their morale. Hence he could only comfort himself by saying, ‘That young man only knows how to play tricks. However, one still needs to depend on strength to win a war!’
“Attack!” Dionysius shouted angrily with a terrifying expression on his face.
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On the afternoon of the last day of 394 B.C., a massive battle to determine the hegemon of the Greek city-states in the Mediterranean began on the Crotone plain.
On the Theonia Union side: 5,000 men of the first legion, 7,000 men of the second legion, 12,000 in the fourth and fifth legion, 14,000 in the sixth and seventh legion, 6,000 in the sarissa brigade, 5,000 Bruttian warriors conscripted by Hieronymus, 5,000 reinforcements from Crotone and Terina, plus about 1,500 cavalries, 1,000 men from the mountain reconnaissance brigade, and 300 personal guards, giving Theonia a total strength of more than 58,000 men.
Davos placed the seventh legion led by Matonis on the far right, close to the Targines River. Then from right to left: Olivos’ sixth legion, Hieronymus’ Bruttian warriors, Epiphanes’ fourth legion, Philesius’ fifth legion, Amintas’ second legion, Antonios’ first legion, the reinforcements from Crotone and Terina, with Ledes’ cavalries on the far left, and Kapus’ sarissa brigade behind the Crotone-Terina reinforcements. The left flank consisting of Crotone-Terina reinforcements and the first and second legions formed a horizontal line with a thickness of 15 columns per Davos’ special instructions, while the formation of the other troops was only 8-10 columns thick.
On the other hand, the cavalry legion was spread to the left and rear in a loose formation, trying to occupy a large area to obscure the enemy’s scouting of their own sarissa brigade while achieving another purpose before the clash.
On the Syracusan side: At their landing in Magna Gracia, they had 80,000 infantry, 2,000 Numidian cavalries, 800 Celtic cavalries, and a thousand cavalries from allied Sicilian city-states. Although they lost about 4,000 men in the Battle of Allaro River, the subsequent surrender of Caulonia had provided them with 4,000 soldiers more, plus some troops from the city-state of Locrian Alliance joining one after another, resulting in Syracuse’s land force to instead exceed 90,000 men.
However, they needed to leave defenders for the two newly conquered city-states of Scylletium and Terina, especially Scylletium, where they placed their logistic supplies to prevent the Theonians attack from the direction of Bruttii and their navy’s raid from the sea. They also need to leave manpower on the camp facing Aprustum to prevent the enemy from attacking their rear during the battle. Thus in this way, a total of nearly 13,000 men were separated.
When the Syracusan army captured the city of Crotone, they suffered about 7,000 deceased and seriously wounded soldiers. In the battle against the Theonian navy on the sea near Crotone, Leptines sent 9,000 elite soldiers to fight on the warship per Dionysius’ advice, which resulted in their miserable defeat and losing about 7,000 soldiers. Thus the total number of Syracusan infantry participating in the battle was now 62,000, plus 3500 cavalries (they lost some in the Battle of Allaro River and trying to plunder on Theonia’s land), a total of 65,500 men, which is only 7,500 more soldiers than Theonia, with their cavalry more than twice as many as the Theonian cavalry.
Thus after having a preliminary understanding of Theonia’s military arrangement, Phidias went to discuss with Dionysius: They would place the weaker allied troops of the Sicilian city-states and the army of the Locrian alliance, totalling about 18,000 men under the command of Phacipessas, on the left-wing; Dionysius, himself, would lead 10,000 Campanian mercenaries and 9,000 Syracusan soldiers in the centre; On the right-wing, Phidias would lead the 15,000 elite soldiers who had followed Dionysius in his campaigns throughout the years (mainly mercenaries who were later given citizenships and land in Syracuse by Dionysius and were most loyal to him) and 10,000 Syracusan soldiers; On the far right-wing would be the 3,500 cavalries, but since the mercenary cavalries did not follow the prior plan in the previous battle, not only did Dionysius warn the two leaders again and again before this battle but also made the irritable and violent Astagoras act as the temporary commander of the cavalry from three different forces to oversee the implementation of the plan.
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As the salpinx sounded, the left, centre and the right-wing of Theonia simultaneously advanced steadily. At the same time, each legion’s seventh brigade hurriedly went to the forefront of the formation through the spaces between the small phalanxes and rushed towards the enemy formation. Another reason they needed to advance so fast was to force the enemy cavalries galloping at the front to retreat, so they could not observe the subsequent movements of the Theonian army. And just like they wished, the mercenary cavalries retreated to the far right of the Syracusan army and took a break to prepare for the next attack.
On the other hand, the Syracusan light infantry had long been arranged in front of the formation and met the Theonian light infantries without showing any weaknesses.
While the heavy infantry on both sides was still 500 metres away, the more than 10,000 light infantries on both sides began their battle. For a time, from west to east, rain of arrows and javelins of hails showered on the horizontal line about 4 kilometres long, colliding with each other intermittently in mid-air and then piercing the soldiers’ bodies and taking their lives.
The left, centre and right wings of the Theonian military formation advanced at almost the same speed. In contrast, Syracuse’s situation is different with their centre and left-wing advances slowly while their right-wing advances with great strides.
Phidias was the front-line leader on the right-wing. This powerful right-wing, with a thickness of 25 rows, was composed of 25,000 Syracuse’s elite soldiers but gradually broke away from the centre by advancing twice the pace of the centre’s soldiers to meet the enemy ahead, while the cavalry on the far right-wing was even faster. So when the salpinx sounded, the more than 3,500 cavalries advanced in a wide front about half kilometres long with their horses’ hooves soon increasing their speed.
The 800 Celtic cavalries were in the forefront: This fierce race from the foot of the Alps and living on the plains of the Po River had different cavalry tactics from the swift and flashy Numidian cavalries; They looked down on killing the enemy through luring, harassment and throwing javelins to kill the enemy as they are more adept at a frontal charge, especially when using chariots to attack the enemy’s tight military formation. But because Syracuse was far away, they didn’t carry the chariots as it was inconvenient to transport them. Still, the charge of the Celtic cavalry is terrifying even without a chariot, and most of them held long swords instead of spears, making it easier to cut enemy cavalrymen’s necks in a mounted battle. Thus, Astagoras placed them at the forefront, using their powerful and lethal charge to disrupt the enemy cavalries’ formation.
The following 1,800 Numidian cavalries would be under the leadership of Astagoras: Their duty was not to pursue the enemy but to clean up the mess left and restrain these mercenary cavalries. Together, they would attack the rear of the enemy’s left-wing. As thousands of horses gallop, it once again set off the dust to rise in the air, and the repeated hundreds of war drums were like thunder roaring in the sky, and the earth shook constantly.
On the other hand, the 1,500 or so Theonian cavalries were also advancing but not as fast as the enemy, especially since their horses were dragging branches, making it easier for them to stir up the dust on the ground.
When they were only more than two hundred metres away from the enemy cavalries, Ledes looked back at the dust that had risen behind them and shouted with slight nervousness to the few cavalrymen who were close behind him, “Retreat!”
Due to the several salpinxes sounding out simultaneously and the thunderous hooves on the battlefield, there was no guarantee that the Theonian cavalry, with a loose formation and nearly 500 metres long front, could hear their comrades at all. Fortunately, after numerous training, the cavalry always paid attention to the movements of their nearby comrades.
But just as the Theonian cavalry turned around, the Syracusan cavalry had managed to close within a hundred metres, and the roaring of hooves behind them struck Ledes’ restless heart, which resulted in him spurring his horse forward while keeping his eyes on the front. So when he suddenly saw the wall of men, his heart almost leapt as he shouted, “Turn!” and pivoted his horse to the left.
There was no need for him to shout as all the Theonian cavalry who saw the situation quickly separated to both sides according to their previous training.
The cavalry on the rear kept their eyes on the situation in the front, so they immediately followed as soon as they saw their comrades changing direction.
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When Theonia’s offensive salpinx sounded, the sarissa brigade did not immediately advance with the other soldiers but quickly stretched out the column. Once they reached the previous position of the cavalry, they began forming a phalanx formation about 500 metres long and ten rows thick, which was left alone in the rear of the whole army.
Even as a battle-hardened veteran, Kapus was currently nervous:
Although the current tactics against enemy cavalries were similar to the Battle of Trionto River, the scale of the battle was several times larger with stronger enemy cavalry. At the same time, the quality of the soldiers he led was not as good as the soldiers from the Persian mercenary army, ‘Could we resist the frontal charge of several thousand enemy cavalries?!’