The enemy’s thrown stones were all blocked by the round shields, doing little harm. The soldiers were relieved to have found the right method. After advancing another ten meters, they were less than fifty meters from the camp gate.
At that moment, the four watchtowers behind the western palisade of the mercenary camp began shooting arrows at them. Arrows pouring in from different angles were not so easy to block; shifting the round shields to defend against arrows from the sides left their heads exposed to stones. Worse, they were packed tightly in the center, allowing the mercenaries’ archers and slingers to concentrate fire. Arrows and stones rained down like hail from all directions, instantly killing or wounding dozens. The front ranks of the Vergaeans were almost wiped out. Panic-stricken, the rest forgot the lesson of Pyxous and scattered in flight, only to give the mercenaries’ traps another chance to succeed. In a short time, the Vergaeans suffered over a hundred casualties.
No matter how Sicinag urged, Sedorum refused to attack any further.
The mercenaries cheered at the enemy’s disgraceful retreat, but soon grew dissatisfied when the enemy halted their assault. After all, repelling the attack had relied mainly on the light infantry company and the traps; they hadn’t even touched a single enemy hair. Dissatisfied, they began shouting insults...
Seeing this, Davos nodded to himself: The army’s morale was good!
He hadn’t expected the enemy’s relentless, ferocious assault to be halted so abruptly before even breaking through the ditch in front of the camp. After thinking it over, he understood: Having fought a major battle earlier, the Lucanians’ strength and energy were already depleted. It was only the stimulation of victory and revenge that had kept their fighting spirit relatively high. In truth, these mountain tribal people were lacking in siege tactics. Faced with setbacks against Davos’s well-fortified mercenary camp, they naturally calmed down.
Davos analyzed the situation, gaining experience for future defensive operations. At the same time, he sent Asiastes through the passageway to the camps of Drakos and the others to inspect the battle situation.
The report that came back was also reassuring: Influenced by the enthusiasm of the expeditionary soldiers in building the camp, Drakos, Adrianx, and Sestas had led their men to dig deeper ditches outside the camp and reinforce the palisade. Although they hadn’t set up the elaborate and complex traps (which required technical skill and experience), it was still enough to give the pursuing enemies a hard time. After all, the Tarentine reinforcements had also retreated into their camps, helping the routed mercenaries regain their morale quickly.
The warriors of Nerulum and Laüs attacked for a while, suffered some casualties, and found the mercenary defenses impenetrable. Unable to carry the camp in one rush, they naturally gave up the assault—clearly smarter than the Pyxous, who were bent on revenge.
With safety assured, Davos no longer focused on the gradually quieting battlefield. He needed to think calmly: What should the mercenaries do next?
The battle was lost. It would be quite difficult for the Lucanians to capture Thurii city. Davos had inspected it many times: a six-meter-wide moat and ten-meter-high walls were already formidable for the Lucanians, who lacked siege equipment and experience. Moreover, they had no boats to freely cross the Crati River.
The Lucanians had not gathered such a massive force just to win one battle. Their aim must be to occupy the Sybaris Plain, to build camps, graze cattle, and plant wheat on that flat, fertile land...
The Thurians had suffered heavy losses in the two engagements. Clearly, they were temporarily unable to counterattack the Lucanian invasion. But they still had the plain south of the Crati River; they could bide their time, gather strength, recruit more soldiers, and plan a counterattack...
But for Davos’s mercenaries on the north bank of the Crati, the situation was grim. The defeat in the main battle not only affected his subsequent plans but also made the mercenaries a prime target for the Lucanians. Moreover, Davos was unwilling to become a pawn for Thurii, tying down Lucanian attacks on the north bank. But leading his army away from here, away from Magna Graecia, was unacceptable. His newly born hopes, his dreams, his ambitions—all lay here! Davos could not bear to leave with nothing accomplished, only to fight bloodily for survival again... What should he do? What should he do?...
...
Meanwhile, Vespa, the Lucanian chief occupying Amendolara, was also troubled about what to do. Having harbored a hope of avoiding involvement, he had ultimately not responded to Grumentum’s order to send troops. He had waited for the outcome of the battle to decide his course. So when he learned that the Lucanian tribal coalition had over fifteen thousand men and had easily defeated Thurii, he panicked. He hastily summoned several elders to discuss a plan and asked the priest to divine the omens. The divination result was: danger but no harm. This somewhat calmed Vespa, who had already formed a preliminary plan after intense discussion.
He sent an envoy and a squad of warriors driving a pack train laden with wine and food toward the Sybaris Plain. He hoped that by using this friendly gesture of rewarding the Lucanian tribal coalition, he might earn some leniency from the great leader of Grumentum, laying a foundation for his subsequent plea for forgiveness. If the envoy found the situation unfavorable, they would have to flee back to the mountains under cover of night.
Sicinag, still unwilling to accept defeat after the setback, sent men to reconnoiter the east, south, and north sides of the mercenary camp. The results were discouraging: All sides were equipped with traps, ditches, watchtowers, and abatis. Moreover, the north side had a passageway connecting to the neighboring camp, allowing immediate reinforcement.
Only then did he give up and withdraw his tribesmen to await Acipirus’s arrival.
After a long wait, Acipirus finally arrived with his army. After all, scattering six thousand troops to pursue Thurian fugitives and reassembling those battle-roused warriors was no easy task.
The Grumentum fighters had killed every last fugitive outside Thurii. Some, in their bloodlust, even forded the moat and reached the city walls, only to be met with a rain of arrows, javelins, and stones from the enraged Thurian citizens on the walls. They fled back in disgrace, which sobered them a little.
Seeing this, Acipirus temporarily abandoned any hope of capturing Thurii city in one stroke. He reorganized his men and hurried to join the other units. But when he saw the Pyxous warriors—most wounded and disheartened—he was shocked and asked what had happened.
Sicinag recounted how his tribesmen had fought bravely while the mercenaries opposing them were treacherous and cunning... and so on. He also bitterly accused the Vergaeans of passive fighting and even of killing Lucanians during the battle.
Sedorum, the great leader of Vergae, had not expected Sicinag to lodge a false accusation first. Alarmed, he loudly protested his innocence and argued with equal bitterness: “Great leader Acipirus, you should know that it was not that I was unwilling to fight with all my strength. It was that Great Leader Sicinag was too confident. He believed the bravery of the Pyxous warriors alone was enough to defeat the Greek left wing, and he placed the Vergae warriors in the rear. The right wing was under his command; I had no say. On the contrary, when the Pyxous front line was on the verge of collapse, it was our Vergae warriors who charged forward bravely, stabilized the battle situation, and saved our right wing. Therefore, our Vergae warriors made a great contribution to the victory of this battle! As for the killing of Pyxous warriors—it was because Pyxous fugitives were disrupting the formation of the right wing. To prevent a rout and force them back into the fight, we had no choice but to take that extreme measure. In fact, not many Pyxous warriors were actually wounded. By adopting this emergency method, the right wing finally repelled the enemy. And during the attack on the Greek camp, our Vergae warriors also suffered hundreds of casualties...”
“You lie! You lie! If you Bruttians hadn’t been reluctant to fight from the start, we wouldn’t have had such a hard time! Just now, when attacking the Greek camp, your Vergae were the last to arrive!” Sicinag roared angrily. “Grenatus, tell everyone how many of our warriors the Vergae killed!”
Grenatus hesitated. Under his father’s glare, he stammered, “About... about a hundred and fifty, all stabbed from behind... with spears.”
When Grenatus finished, both the Pyxous warriors and the Vergae warriors were glaring at each other, the atmosphere extremely tense...
Contradictions