Volume 5: The Hegemon of Southern Italy, Chapter 16: Invasion of the Northern Plains of Croton

"The freemen have no grain?!" Kynogoratas asked in surprise.

"The war broke out too suddenly. Many freemen had not stored grain in advance. By the time they wanted to buy grain, the market had already sold out." Philistos glanced at the two men—wasn't the alliance itself the instigator?

"Then use grain as payment and continue to let the freemen fight for the alliance. Instead of always using the shortening of the probation period for citizenship as a reward, making the alliance's citizenship less valuable! Philistos, since the freemen were able to achieve great feats under the leadership of the magistrate and defeat Croton's regular army, even without the magistrate's leadership, they should have no problem dealing with the harassment of Croton's fleet's common sailors, right?" Kynogoratas asked Philistos stiffly.

Philistos was not offended and replied earnestly, "Of course there is no problem! My plan is to organize the freemen into groups of one hundred each, to patrol the entire coastline where landings are possible, uninterrupted throughout the day. At the same time, send a battalion to the Thurii–Castron road, stationing a company every five stades. Between the patrols and the heavy infantry companies, use scouts to maintain communication. If they encounter a small enemy force, the patrol should be able to repulse them; if they encounter a large enemy force, the patrol will first delay the enemy's raid, and the scouts will notify the nearest heavy infantry company, which will then rush over to attack the enemy together..."

Kynogoratas's expression softened slightly. "This idea is not bad."

"It's just that our grain supply is bound to get tight again. We'll have to use the treasury's money to buy grain from Heraclea, and Mesis will complain about us again," Cornelius said helplessly.

"How can war be waged without spending money? As long as the magistrate achieves final victory, the money will come." Since the victory at the Battle of the Trimentus River, Kynogoratas, who had once feared war, now had more confidence in Davos.

...

Myron originally thought that the Daonian army would take advantage of the siege towers and launch an assault on the city, but the Daonian troops and the Croton soldiers on the walls faced off for the entire morning. Apart from the light infantry on the siege towers firing arrows and stones at the walls, there was no movement. In the end, even the light infantry stopped attacking because their hands were sore and their muscles cramped.

Such an eerie calm left Myron deeply puzzled. He certainly did not know that the Daonian Third Army Corps of 5,000 men and the 3,000 soldiers from Laüs had already entered the northern plain of Croton and were now destroying farmland and ravaging villages, doing exactly the same thing as the Croton sailors who had been landing. However, Davos had issued a prior order: they were not allowed to kill Croton citizens. So the soldiers only intimidated and drove them away.

After the defeat in the battle, the Croton Council had advised the villagers in the northern plain to temporarily flee to the city to avoid the war. But because of the spring planting and the fact that the enemy had not appeared for two or three days, the Croton citizens thought Myron had stopped the Daonians at Crimissa, so most had not evacuated. Now, a large group of Daonian soldiers suddenly appeared before them, savage and menacing, and the Croton citizens fled south in panic.

In southern Italy, the Croton Plain was comparable to the Sybaris Plain thanks to two rivers: one was the Neto River, which rose in the southern Apennine mountains and flowed from west to east into the Gulf of Taranto. With the influx of many tributaries, its width, depth, and volume were greater than the Crati River of the Sybaris Plain. The other river was the Tacchinardi River, which also originated in the southern Apennines but flowed from north to south into the sea. These two rivers—one to the east, one to the south—irrigated the Croton Plain while also cutting out a roughly square area. On the coastward side of this core area lay Croton, the famous powerful city-state of Magna Graecia. Because Croton faced the Gulf of Taranto, it possessed one of the few deep-water harbors among the Greek city-states of the Apennine Peninsula. Croton had fertile plains and an excellent harbor. A hundred years ago, the root cause of the war between Sybaris and Croton was that Sybaris wanted to eliminate a potential rival, while Croton sought to seize dominance in the trade of southern Italy. A small dispute between some Sybarite citizens who had fled to Croton was merely the spark.

Strangely, these two rivers emerged from the mountains very close to each other. Between them, where the mountains met the plain, stood a city called Asperustum, founded by the Bruttians. To the west of the northern Croton Plain stretched the continuous Apennine Mountains, impassable except by following the natural valley formed by the Arvo River, a tributary of the Neto. By trekking northwest through that valley, one could reach the only plateau in southern Italy—the Cosenza Plateau. The Bruttians living there had originally descended from the upper Arvo River, following the valley downstream to reach Asperustum.

But when Croton grew powerful, it would not allow a foreign city only over 20 stades to its northwest to control the upper reaches of the two rivers, to control a passage from the northern Croton Plain that allowed travel south without crossing the Neto River, and to threaten Croton's safety from a vantage point. So a hundred years ago, Croton launched a great army, attacked Asperustum, and after several struggles finally captured the city, driving the Bruttians back to the Cosenza Plateau. By now, Asperustum had become thoroughly a Greek city, a colony of Croton, completely under Croton's control, serving as a supporting point to guard Croton's safety.

The news of the Daonians' invasion of the Croton Plain reached Croton, causing great panic among the citizens. In particular, the 3,000 soldiers from Laüs, advancing at breakneck speed, were soon about to reach the northern bank of the Neto River.

The defenders on the southern bank of the Neto panicked. To prevent the enemy from crossing the pontoon bridges and arriving directly at Croton's walls, they set fire to several pontoon bridges over the river, leaving many fleeing citizens stranded on the northern bank.

While Croton used boats to ferry them across, the Laüs army had already reached the Neto River. The Croton citizens cried out in panic and were forced to flee northwest along the riverbank.

When the Greeks first came to this plain, because of the Neto River and its many tributaries, and the abundant rainfall, the area was once covered with marshes. But the Greeks had mature drainage techniques, and after centuries of management, there were basically no marshes left. Yet the fleeing Croton citizens still faced danger, because the Laüs soldiers sent several squads in hot pursuit.

The Croton citizens were both terrified and exhausted. Fortunately, without their noticing, some young men had joined their group, enthusiastically helping women carry loads, picking up children, and supporting the elderly, so that no old, young, or female member was left behind. Eventually, the Laüs soldiers stopped their pursuit, and the city of Asperustum appeared before the fleeing crowd.

Fagris, the general of Asperustum, who was a Croton citizen by birth, hardly hesitated to open the city gates, letting the nearly nine hundred dust-covered, panicked refugees into the city.

Just then, a scout reported urgently: Five thousand Daonian soldiers were attacking Asperustum!

The moment Fagris heard this, he panicked. In the two wars with Daonia, over 6,000 Asperustum citizens had been conscripted and sent to battle—almost like throwing meat to the dogs, never to return. The city now had only about 700 citizens capable of fighting. How could they possibly withstand five thousand Daonian soldiers who had defeated the Croton army in battle?!

Lacking combat experience, Fagris had no confidence. His gaze fell on the terrified refugees inside the city, and his idea of immediately escorting them out of the city back to Croton to curry favor with the Croton Council changed in an instant.

"Croton citizens! Croton citizens!" he shouted loudly from the stone steps of the city wall. But the crowd below was in chaos, and only a few paid attention. So the soldiers also began to shout, and finally the refugees quieted down, all looking up at the general of Asperustum.

"Croton citizens, five thousand Daonians are attacking this city!" No sooner had Fagris spoken than the crowd below stirred: "What! The Daonians are coming!"

"Open the south gate and let us leave this place!!"

The citizens clamored loudly, and Fagris and the soldiers had difficulty calming them down again.

"Of course you can leave. But you must know, because Croton launched two wars against Thurii, most of the citizens of Asperustum followed the Croton army on campaign and did not return, leaving the city with few citizen soldiers. It may be unable to withstand the numerous Daonians! Asperustum is Croton's northern shield. Once the Daonians occupy it, they can easily march south, cross the fordable Tacchinardi River, and enter the central plain of Croton—that will be a disaster! ... I implore those among you who can lift a shield and spear to join our ranks and defend Asperustum! That is to defend Croton!"

Fagris spoke with sincerity. His own home was outside Croton. Asperustum, though called a city, was more like a special deme (an administrative division from Athens, a collection of villages, equivalent to a town). It had its own council, but only one general was responsible for managing the city-state, chosen annually from among Croton's elected "ten generals." Therefore, in an emergency, Fagris, also a Croton general, had the authority to give orders to Croton citizens.

The refugees fell silent, everyone pondering and weighing the pros and cons.