The Battle of the Great Riverbank (Part 3)

At once, chaos erupted in the camp. Grenatus and his men could not gather enough warriors to repel the uprising launched by the Vegium people, driven by a thirst for vengeance.

“Captain, look!” one of the mercenary cavalrymen on watch outside the Lucanian camp shouted excitedly.

Laedes had been furious that he hadn’t managed to intercept all the Lucanian messengers, but now he saw the enemy camp ablaze and its soldiers turning on each other—he could hardly believe his eyes.

“Captain, it’s a mutiny! The enemy is fighting among themselves!” another cavalryman yelled, still thrilled.

Suppressing his own excitement, Laedes observed a while longer, confirmed the situation, and said, “Quick! Go tell Commander Davos that the enemy camp is in serious disarray and cannot send reinforcements anytime soon!”

…

Davos had no idea that a mutiny had broken out in the Lucanian camp. He was preoccupied with the stalemate before him.

Although the Lucanian warriors were poorly equipped, exhausted, and struggling for footing on the muddy riverbank (trampled into a slush by constant movement), they surged forward like ocean waves, one after another crashing against the Greek line. Their ferocity was stoked by the screams of their fallen countrymen: even when pierced by a spear, they clung to the shaft; when knocked down by a round shield, they scrambled to grab a Greek soldier’s ankle before sliding down the slope…

The northern section of the Greek line was on the verge of collapse.

“Report! Commander Drakos has fallen!”

“What?!” Davos was startled. From behind the heavy infantry line, he could feel the agitation spreading among the mercenaries at the front.

“Have Archytas send three hundred men to reinforce the north!” Davos said impatiently.

“Commander, you gave that order before. Tarentum has no men to spare—they’re hard-pressed too!” Asiastes reminded him.

“Right.” Davos rubbed his face. This was the first large battle he had commanded independently, and it involved the future of both himself and his soldiers—he was on edge. He took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down, then decisively ordered, “Commit the slave troops and the peltasts to battle!”

Then he turned to look at Martius: “Our turn!”

“Hah!” Martius excitedly banged his saber against his round shield. The guards also lowered their spears, drew their sabers, and roared. Experience had taught them that long weapons were useless in such a cramped battlefield.

Davos charged forward first, with Martius’s guard close behind, quickly forming up on his flanks. Asiastes raised the standard high, following Davos.

The fluttering standard made the faltering mercenaries hesitate, while the rampaging Lucanians turned toward it, easing the pressure on other parts of the line but concentrating the assault on Davos…

Then the bronze trumpet kept sounding.

Though their arms were numb from constant javelin throwing, the peltasts charged without hesitation under Epithenis and Tsipet, their leather shields and long-handled reverse-blade polearms plugging the gaps in the mercenary line.

The slave troops, eager and impatient—Davos had promised them freedom if they won—shouted, “For freedom!”

Driven by abundant stamina and high morale, even without combat skills, they bulled through the broken line, pushing the enemy back down the slope, and shoving some mercenaries along with them…

Also shouting “For freedom!” were the troops led by Mesis. Guided by veteran mercenaries, these thousand slaves not only reached Philistos quickly but also skirted the chaotic front line, hammering the enemy’s flank and rear like a battering ram.

Acipirus and the other two great leaders, who had been worrying about the battle from the rear, were caught off guard. Their small escort could not withstand the frenzied assault of the slaves.

“Why?! Why hasn’t Sicinag arrived yet?!” Acipirus shouted in fury.

“Great leader, retreat now! It’ll be too late!” his men urged anxiously.

Retreat? Abandon nearly ten thousand warriors here? Acipirus couldn’t bear it. He wanted to hold out, but then he heard wails nearby: “Great leader! Great leader!”

It was Udele, the great leader of Nerulum, struck by several spears and gravely wounded.

Acipirus hesitated no longer. Under the desperate protection of his men, he and Tura, the great leader of Laüs, fled westward with just a few dozen men. The remaining five hundred-odd Lucanian warriors were completely encircled.

Just then, Laedes’s cavalry returned to the battlefield, shouting, “The enemy camp is in a mutiny! No reinforcements will come!”

This good news boosted the mercenaries’ morale. The Lucanians who understood Greek—many did, given trade and proximity to Greek city-states—were shocked. With their leaders deserting, their morale plummeted…

The mercenary soldiers and slave troops attacked from front and back; the five hundred Lucanian warriors were either killed or routed. Without resting, the combined force under Philistos ordered Mesis’s slave soldiers and the mercenaries to immediately reinforce the western line.

The western line was in even worse shape than the north. Capus had too few men, and the thin defensive line was breached in multiple places by the surging enemy.

Capus, Antonios, and Alexis fought alongside their soldiers with shields and spears (according to Davos’s military code, company commanders were not to engage in personal combat unless absolutely necessary, to avoid losing command).

At this critical moment, Philistos arrived with his men. The addition of nearly two thousand soldiers finally stabilized the line…

The battle had raged for over an hour, and the Lucanian tribal coalition’s assaults began to weaken…

The entire riverbank was strewn with soldiers wounded by spears, javelins, arrows, sling stones, or trampled by their own countrymen. Groans, wails, and cries filled the air, growing louder even as the number of fighting tribal warriors dwindled…

Seeing no hope of breaking through, more and more warriors waded into the Tino River, heading toward the hot spring swamp. Some were swept away by the current; others sank into the mire and couldn’t move…

Now Davos, sensing the moment was ripe, resolutely gave the order to attack.

The bronze trumpet sounded high and urgent. The exhausted Greek soldiers, spurred by the imminent victory, charged from the east, west, and north under the leadership of Davos, Archytas, and Philistos, pouncing on the nearly helpless enemy below. The Lucanian warriors could not resist and retreated step by step… In the end, aside from a handful who surrendered, the rest were killed or driven into the Tino River and the hot spring swamp, where they perished under arrow and javelin fire.

Thus ended the first large-scale battle Davos had commanded independently in his long military career: the Riverbank Battle (later known as the Hot Spring Swamp Encirclement Battle). With about 7,500 mixed troops (including slaves), he faced over 9,000 Lucanian tribal coalition fighters. The result: over 1,000 Greek casualties (half of them slaves), and of the Lucanian coalition, more than 9,000 men annihilated apart from just over 400 prisoners. Davos won a great victory.

The whole riverbank was piled with corpses and flowed with blood…

Sicinag and Grenatus’s efforts were in vain. Pyxous’s defeat was irreversible. With barely over two hundred men, they fled their camp in disgrace, watching helplessly as the fire consumed miles of tents, leaving nothing but ash…

Meanwhile, their blood enemies, the Vegium people, intact under Sedorum’s leadership, entered the westward mountain path and began their journey home.