Volume 5: The Hegemon of Southern Italy, Chapter 18: The City Falls

Myron had not yet received the Crotonian envoys when a message arrived from the warship patrolling the coast near Crimissa: the Daonians had invaded the Crotonian plain!

Myron was stunned. He cursed inwardly: *Fooled by the Daonians! No wonder they never attacked the city—they were just distracting me. The Daonians in the southern camp slipped south long ago!*

But he hesitated to attack the Daonian southern camp. After all, the Daonian army was right before the city, watching his every move from the high platforms. If he shifted his forces, they would see it clearly and might seize the chance to attack, costing him Crimissa—and then the trouble would be far worse.

…

The siege of Asperustum raged fiercely. Fagris had not expected the Daonians to assault with such reckless fury from the start.

Scaling ladders were pushed aside by poles, only to be re-erected immediately. Soldiers climbed one after another—the first was struck down, the next sped up without hesitation. Light infantry battalions pressed close to the walls, defying arrows as they hurled javelins and bolts at the defenders above.

The Daonians’ savage onslaught soon proved effective. The wall’s defenses were breached multiple times. When Daonian soldiers climbed onto the ramparts, the defenders realized these men—wearing Greek-style armor but tall, muscular, long-haired, and bellowing in strange tongues—were clearly not Greeks. They fought ferociously and possessed enormous strength. To kill or drive off a single one, the defenders had to sacrifice several of their own.

Fagris was forced to commit his reserves repeatedly to help the frontline troops push the enemies off the walls, especially on the far right section, where the Daonian assault was most intense.

Fagris, a general with some experience in siege defense, knew that the Daonians could not sustain such violent momentum forever. If they could just weather this onslaught, the Daonians would be spent. So he sent all his reserves into the fight while shouting encouragement to his men, urging them to hold on bravely.

But he did not know that, at the most critical moment of the battle, Hieronymus, the third legion commander, gave a single order. His personal guard lined up and collectively shook their round shields toward the left side of the wall.

The defenders on the far left were fully focused on repelling the enemy’s attack when a great shout erupted behind them: **“Attack!!!”**

Their supposed comrades—the “Crotonians”—thrust spears and swords into them, easily cutting them down. Before the Third Legion soldiers could even ascend, these dozens of reconnaissance troops immediately turned on the neighboring defenders…

By the time Fagris, still commanding on the right section, received the news, Daonian soldiers had already seized the left wall. A flood of men quickly mounted the battlements, poured into the walkway, and charged ferociously toward the center.

The Crotonians, already low on morale, saw the situation was hopeless and immediately abandoned their shields and spears, fleeing desperately into the city.

This retreat triggered a domino effect. Under the relentless assault of Daonian soldiers from the front and flank, the defenders finally collapsed. They scrambled to escape the walls, clogging the descent passageways so tightly that panicked soldiers began jumping directly from the seven-meter-high walls into the city, breaking legs and cracking heads, wailing in agony on the ground.

The civilians inside were equally terrified, shrieking in panic: “The enemy is in the city! The enemy has broken in!!!”

They grabbed the old and the young and rushed frantically toward the South Gate, hoping to flee to Croton.

Halfway there, the Crotonian reinforcements ran headlong into the fleeing crowds. Learning that Asperustum had actually fallen, they were shocked, dared not advance further, and immediately turned back.

The Crotonian envoy reached Crimissa, carrying the Council’s order to attack.

Myron, no longer chief general but now a man under charges, finally ended his hesitation. He dispatched 7,000 soldiers—including over 2,000 heavy infantry—to attack the Daonian camp on the south bank of the Umbria River.

From the high platform, Davos observed the enemy’s movements and immediately ordered Adrianx, commander of the Second Army Corps’ First Battalion, to lead 2,000 heavy infantry and 500 light infantry across the river to reinforce the southern camp, which was currently held by Matonis’s battalion of 2,000 soldiers from the First Army Corps—relieving the Third Legion. With a sturdy camp and support from the northern camp at a moment’s notice, Matonis was confident he could repel this numerically superior foe.

But the Crotonian attack was a storm in a teacup. After suffering a few minor casualties from traps like caltrops and flesh hooks in front of the camp, they immediately withdrew back to the city. Myron had no intention of throwing Croton’s only remaining effective force against the Daonians’ well-fortified camp, and the soldiers themselves lacked the will to attack. As soon as they saw the enemy’s tight defenses inside the camp, Myron sounded the retreat.

The Crotonian envoy, furious at the easy withdrawal, forcibly ordered Myron to continue the attack, threatening to relieve him of command. But the soldiers rallied behind Myron. Alone and powerless, the envoy had no choice but to leave Crimissa and return to Croton to report to the Council.

By then, the Crotonian Council was in chaos. The shocking news that “Daonia has taken Asperustum” struck like a thunderbolt, leaving all council members dumbfounded. Outside the Council Chamber, citizens gathered in the square, clamoring for the Council to quickly produce a solution to the crisis.

This time, calls for peace negotiations far outweighed previous ones. Some even said they would accept Daonia’s terms, as long as the northern Crotonian plain was restored to peace.

While the Council was still debating the peace proposal, two successive events pushed them to a decision. First, 500 soldiers of the Daonian Third Legion, pursuing fleeing enemies, crossed the Tachinati River and entered the core area of the Crotonian plain. They even briefly approached Croton itself before quickly withdrawing back to Asperustum. But that fleeting glimpse still terrified the city’s defenders and citizens. Just as the whole city fell into panic, a passenger ship from Caulonia entered Croton’s harbor. The Caulonian envoy who disembarked brought even worse news—Locri had declared war on Caulonia! Its army was already marching on Caulonia, and the envoy had come to Croton for help.

The Crotonian Council’s worst fear had come true: their bitter enemy Locri, seizing the moment while Croton was mired in war, had audaciously attacked Croton’s ally. As the hegemon, Croton was duty-bound to send reinforcements. But just dealing with the Daonian offensive had already stretched Croton’s manpower to its limit. There were no spare troops to aid Caulonia. Without Croton’s support, Caulonia could not withstand the Locrian coalition’s attack. This meant Croton would face the worst possible war scenario—fighting on two fronts—and risked destruction.

All council members immediately stopped arguing and quickly reached a unanimous decision: make peace with Daonia as soon as possible!

Lysias had to set off north once again. To prevent him from being too stubborn and causing negotiations to fail, he was accompanied by another envoy—Council member Sisprontius (the same one who had earlier said, “No matter what terms Daonia proposes, as long as it restores peace to the Crotonian plain, we should agree”).

Meanwhile, in the Daonian camp’s command tent, a joyful atmosphere prevailed. The news that “the Third Legion has captured the city of Asperustum” lifted every officer’s spirits.

“Commander,” Drax said eagerly, “we should seize this moment while the Crotonians are panicked and confused after the fall of Asperustum and attack Crimissa. We’ll surely take it smoothly!” As legion commander of the Second Army Corps, he didn’t want his unit’s achievements to lag behind the Third Legion’s.

“Asperustum is already ours,” Capus said cautiously. “Holding Crimissa no longer has much significance for the Crotonians. They’ll probably abandon it soon. We can take it easily without sacrificing soldiers’ lives in a frontal assault.”

“But letting these ten thousand Crotonians retreat will only make it harder for us to attack Croton itself!” Drax retorted loudly.

Capus faltered. Indeed, Croton was a large city—vast in area, densely populated, with walls ten meters high and a moat six meters wide. By conventional tactics, it would be a prolonged siege. And since the sea was not under Daonian control, they could not completely blockade Croton. That left only direct assault. But against such a formidable city, how many soldiers would die? Could it even be taken? Almost every officer had doubts. If the defending forces were reinforced, the odds grew even slimmer.

Davos, however, remained calm. He turned and asked, “Lord Avinogis, what do you think our next move should be?”

Avinogis, who had been silently observing since entering the tent except for congratulating Davos on his victory, did not decline to speak when Drax and Capus turned their attention to him. He said directly, “Why must we attack Croton at all? Since we hold such an advantage, why not force the Crotonians into peace negotiations?”

“The Crotonians are already on their last legs. Letting them negotiate is too easy on them!” Drax immediately objected.

Capus fell into contemplation.

A faint smile played on Davos’s lips. *The magistrate’s perspective is indeed different from a mere general’s.*

He was about to speak when his guard captain Martius requested entry, bringing two letters.

One was from Philistos. After reading it, Davos frowned deeply, lost in thought. Then he read the second letter, which bore a special mark—it was from Aristilas. His brow soon relaxed.