The Battle of Thurii (Part 2)

The Lucanian tribal alliance halted their advance when they were still two stades from the Greek forces and began to form their battle lines.

The Greek forces merely waited quietly, not taking the opportunity to attack. This was not surprising, because Thurii hoped to use this battle to change its passive situation of being repeatedly attacked, while the Lucanians also wanted to use this battle to completely eliminate Thurii's remaining strength. Thus, a pitched battle was the common will of both sides.

If the Greek forces attacked at this moment, the Lucanian tribal alliance, having not yet completed their formation, would have no choice but to retreat. It is very difficult for infantry to catch up with retreating infantry over a distance of a thousand meters, and the result would only postpone the battle. For the generals of Thurii, who had prepared carefully, this was unacceptable. The citizens also could not accept it, because it meant they would have to endure fear and anxiety for a longer time.

The Greek forces gave the Lucanian tribal alliance ample time to form their lines, and the Lucanians made full use of this time. Since scouts had reported the general situation of the Greek formation to the leaders of the tribal alliance, the leaders held an urgent consultation and quickly decided on the positions of each unit in the line: Acipirus, the great leader of the city of Grumentum, led six thousand of his tribal warriors in the center; the warriors from the cities of Nerulum and Laüs, totaling forty-five hundred, formed the left wing; and the main ally of Grumentum—another powerful tribe in the Lucanian region, combined with the great leader Sicinag of the city of Pyxous, led four thousand men, plus fifteen hundred warriors from the city of Vegium in the Bruttian region, totaling fifty-five hundred men, formed the right wing. The Lucanian tribal alliance had a total force of sixteen thousand men, with no cavalry.

The city of Grumentum had been engaged in warfare for the past two years, and its great leader Acipirus was experienced in military matters. Before the battle began, he had sent many spies disguised into the port of Thurii (a place with the most freemen, a mix of all sorts, not easily discovered) and obtained a great deal of information. Combined with the reports from today's scouts, he had already formed a plan in his mind: the Thurii citizen soldiers in the center of the Greek line, though some were older, were numerous and not to be underestimated, so he would handle them personally; the right wing of the Greek line consisted of the Tarentine reinforcements, and having heard that this force had repeatedly repelled the Messapians in Tarentum, their combat effectiveness was likely not poor. Nerulum and Laüs were sister cities, and their coordination would not be a problem; forty-five hundred men were more than enough to deal with them. As for the Greek left wing, it had the fewest men; the scouts could almost see at a glance the difference in numbers compared to the other two wings, because its numbers were simply too small. This Greek mercenary army was said to have once campaigned in Persia, but Acipirus, having heard tales about them, believed the stories about this force were greatly exaggerated—they had merely been defeated in Persia and fled back. Greek merchants always loved to boast about themselves. He had no concept of the distant great eastern kingdom of Persia and thought that a force of two thousand men, no matter how strong, was limited. The warriors of Pyxous were no less brave than those of Grumentum, and their great leader Sicinag was not weak in ability. Moreover, his son Grenatus (also Acipirus's son-in-law) was the bravest in the entire tribe. Four thousand warriors, plus fifteen hundred Bruttian warriors, were almost three times the enemy's numbers, fully capable of annihilating the Greek left wing in one strike. Therefore, he pinned his hope of victory on his own right wing.

The Lucanians formed their battle lines relatively quickly, because their array was not as dense as that of the Greek forces; the loose formation made the already large force appear even larger.

With the sound of several long, deep horn calls, this astonishingly large army began to slowly press toward the Greek forces like a tidal wave...

The battle was about to begin! Feris, with his somewhat clouded old eyes, could already see the shadows of the enemy ahead. He took a deep breath, puffed out his somewhat sunken chest, dismounted from his horse, and ordered his personal slave, "Bring me my weapons and helmet!"

Just then, he heard a commotion among the soldiers in front.

"What happened?" he asked in confusion. Those around him were also perplexed. He had no choice but to mount his horse again and look intently ahead. There was no change in the front. But following the direction of the soldiers' agitation, he saw several hundred soldiers from the left wing rushing out of the phalanx, running toward the Lucanians opposite...

What were they doing? Were they surrendering to the enemy? ... The moment this possibility crossed Feris's mind, a chill ran down his spine: Could it be true, as some said, that 'mercenaries without a sense of belonging are unreliable'!

...

Epithenis and Tsipet led over six hundred light infantrymen out of the formation, charging straight toward the dense mass of the Lucanian tribal alliance's right wing. They were certainly not going to surrender; they were executing a new tactic that had been drilled repeatedly under the orders of the leader Davos: before the two armies clashed, use light infantry to inflict long-range casualties on the enemy first, to blunt their edge and disrupt their formation.

Facing an overwhelmingly large enemy force, a solitary few hundred soldiers were like small trees in a gale, in constant danger of being snapped. This psychological pressure and fear would break a coward, but these soldiers, tempered by hundreds or thousands of battles during the Persian campaign, had become extremely resilient in spirit. Their formation was loose but not chaotic, and their forward speed was actually increasing.

When they were less than four hundred meters from the enemy, Epithenis and Tsipet shouted almost simultaneously, "Slingers, prepare!"

The slingers halted and began to untie the slings wound around their waists; the rest of the soldiers continued forward. When they were close to one hundred meters from the enemy, the archers stopped; and the four hundred peltasts kept running forward...

Why was Grenatus of Pyxous loved by the tribal warriors? Because he always led from the front, charging into the first line of battle. Seeing these Greeks in leather armor forming two very loose skirmish lines and charging straight at them, he was initially puzzled. To the north of Pyxous was the Greek city-state of Elea; Pyxous had repeatedly invaded its territory, and the two sides fought frequently. Grenatus was familiar with the Greek way of fighting, but he had never seen such strange behavior. But soon, when the Greeks raised their glittering javelin heads and took long strides in a throwing motion, he was shocked: "Beware of javelins!! Defend!!"

Several hundred javelins howled through the air. The experienced peltasts did not throw in a straight line but lobbed them diagonally forward. Although the Lucanians were fully equipped as Greek heavy infantry, they had not learned the Greek heavy infantry principle of "I protect my neighbor, my neighbor protects me." Hastily, they hugged their round shields tightly to protect themselves, leaving relatively large gaps in the already somewhat loose line. These javelins, whose heads Davos had specially weighted, passed diagonally through the gaps between shields, mostly piercing the ribs of the tribal warriors protected by their multi-layered glued linen armor. Cries of pain arose, and a row fell.

Grenatus reacted quickly and blocked the incoming javelin with his shield. The javelin actually pierced the bronze skin covering the round shield and stuck in it. Just as he was about to pull the javelin out, someone beside him shouted, "Beware of arrows!!"

Arrows and stones rained down like hail...

One stone hit Grenatus on the head. Although protected by his helmet, it still stunned him and nearly made him fall.

This wave of mercenary arrows and thrown stones did not cause heavy losses to the Lucanians, but it threw the front several ranks of the center of the Lucanian right wing into chaos. However, the Greek peltasts took the opportunity to throw a second volley of javelins, greatly increasing the lethality of the javelin attacks...

Feris and Kynogoratas, watching from horseback, were dumbfounded. They had speculated about the combat effectiveness of Davos's mercenaries, but they absolutely had not expected such novel tactics, with effects so astonishing!

Seeing part of the front line of the enemy's right wing shattered, Kynogoratas exclaimed excitedly, "If we had known these mercenaries were so formidable, we should have learned from them earlier and adopted these tactics!"

Feris shook his head. "Our light infantry would never dare to be so bold, to break away from the phalanx by several hundred meters to actively attack a huge enemy force. Only these battle-hardened mercenaries would dare use such a tactic. I'm afraid they learned it from Persia." Even as he said this, Feris felt a hint of regret: Even before the formal engagement, the combat effectiveness of Davos's mercenaries had exceeded his expectations. Perhaps he should have followed the young mercenary leader's suggestion and allocated the other two thousand mercenaries to him...

Feris suppressed this thought. Since the original plan was already being executed, it was best to see it through to the end! That was what he had learned from many years of military service.

"Prepare for battle! The enemy is about to attack!" he shouted, reminding the soldiers around him as he dismounted and began to put on his helmet.