Volume 5: The Hegemon of Southern Italy, Chapter 51: Raid on Grumentum

Thinking about Davos's possible future strategic plans, Xanthiparis drew in a sharp breath. "Tolmides, it looks like I won't be leaving the battlefield for the rest of my life!"

"At least you don't have to worry about not having a chance to become a legion commander, or even a senator in the Senate!" Tolmides replied, his tone excited instead.

...

Grumentum was a mountain city, unlike Amendolara, which occupied a hill less than two hundred meters high. Grumentum's hill rose about three hundred meters.

Initially, the wooden city wall of Grumentum was built at the foot of the hill. Later, during Acipirus's tenure as Great Chief, the city expanded greatly. He swallowed up and absorbed the surrounding small tribes, moving people into Grumentum. But because the city could not accommodate them all, he had to expand the urban area outward again, doubling Grumentum's footprint and dividing the entire city into three parts: the bulk of the outer city was settled by the newly absorbed tribes; the inner city was inhabited by the tribes originally belonging to Grumentum; and the core area was the hilltop, also fortified with a wooden wall, where the Great Chief's own tribe lived. At its peak, Grumentum had nearly thirty thousand residents within the city alone.

However, after Davos's mercenary army crushed the Lucanian tribal alliance and Acipirus lay gravely wounded and unconscious, Lussau lacked the prestige to unite Grumentum's tribes. Moreover, with the outbreak of war against Pyxous, some tribes within Grumentum's territory began to flee. By the time Sicinag seized Grumentum, in order to control the entire city, he used trickery to kill the tribal leaders within the city and those who would not submit to him, which only made everyone fear for their lives and become disaffected. People inside the city steadily slipped away, so much so that the population dropped drastically, leaving too few to defend the large city. Thus, when Potentia declared war, Sicinag moved all residents into the inner city and burned the outer walls and houses.

After the Potentians became the new masters of Grumentum, they did not rebuild the outer city. The inner city now had three gates—east, west, and south—while its north side was a cliff.

Pollet's initial deployment was as follows: five hundred Potentian warriors were stationed at each of the three gate districts. Behind them lived the scattered tribes of former Grumentum, and further up were Lussau's men, serving not only as a reserve force in case of war but also as watchdogs over the movements of these tribes. Should any sign of rebellion arise, they could strike from above and below, easily quelling the unrest. The hilltop core area was commanded by Pollet himself, with five hundred Potentian elite warriors, overseeing from on high.

But this deployment did not last long before it was disrupted. The disruptor was Lussau. His power strengthened, he no longer wanted to obey Pollet's orders. In particular, having suffered a bitter defeat at Sicinag's hands and nearly being trapped inside the city and captured alive, he insisted on guarding one of the gate districts.

Pollet was forced to give in and let Lussau hold the South Gate. Furthermore, because Lussau oppressed the city's populace, the various tribes refused to live in the southern district, instead concentrating even more in the East Gate district.

Pollet was well aware of the situation inside the city and deeply uneasy, but his prestige and strength were insufficient to intimidate the increasingly arrogant Lussau. Moreover, Lussau's misconduct roused discontent among the Potentians, who began to imitate his ways, gradually making it impossible for Pollet to control his own warriors, who came from various Potentian tribes. The anger of Grumentum's residents grew by the day. Pollet felt as if he were sitting on a volcano. This sense of crisis eventually drove him to send a man back to Potentia to report his predicament to his elder brother Puamote, requesting Lussau's removal and the dispatch of more Potentian warriors to stabilize Grumentum's situation.

After finally making this decision, Pollet seemed to relax a little. The past two days he had actively patrolled the city, and because of the lax alertness at the East Gate, he had reprimanded its commander.

That day, Pollet returned to his hilltop residence near dusk. Feeling hungry, he had his guards roast a leg of lamb and brought a jug of wine, planning to eat and drink.

Just then, he faintly heard the clamor of battle from the foot of the mountain. Remember, this mountain city was several hundred meters high; to hear sounds from below at the summit meant the commotion was considerable.

Pollet's expression changed abruptly. He dashed out of his residence and met a scout rushing up with a message: "Chief! The enemy is attacking the city! The Grumentum people inside are assaulting our warriors!"

"What?!" The scout's words hit Pollet like a thunderbolt, staggering him.

Dusk was precisely the warriors' mealtime. The Potentians, eating cheese and beef or mutton, vented their dissatisfaction with Chief Pollet, who had worn them out these past two days.

When they were sated and in a relaxed mood, war horns suddenly blared. As the tribal leaders and officers frantically drove the warriors out of the camp, many still could not believe that war had arrived so abruptly, without any warning.

They hurriedly grabbed their weapons and formed ranks.

The enemy's assault, however, was swift. The moment they burst out of the dense forest and came into view of the sentries inside the city, they rushed toward Grumentum's east, west, and south gates at top speed...

The sentries on the East Gate's wooden wall watched helplessly as the enemy, covering the hills and fields ahead, were forced by the uneven terrain, dense palisades, and abatis to converge into a few narrow paths leading to each gate.

If a volley of arrows and javelins were thrown now, the densely packed enemy would surely suffer heavy casualties. Yet only a dozen or so arrows landed among the enemy ranks, barely making a ripple.

"Hurry! Hurry! Faster!! The enemy is closing in!!" The warriors on the wall turned back frantically, urging their comrades who were still dawdling below. Suddenly, their shouts stopped short: above the Potentian camp, a force of several hundred men, holding long spears and formed in columns, charged straight down.

Reinforcements from the Grumentum people! The warriors on the wall felt a moment of relief, but then they were stunned by what happened next.

This force slammed straight into the rear of the Potentian troops who were hastening to ascend the wall, shouting, "Die, you damned Potentian pigs!..." They thrust their long spears into the bewildered Potentian warriors...

Cries of pain and battle shouts mingled in chaos within the city...

Taking advantage of the turmoil, the enemy outside the city reached the walls. They dumped the sacks of earth they carried into the ditch, quickly filling a path, then swarmed under the wooden walls and set up long ladders...

The Potentian warriors resisted tenaciously, but most of their force was already locked in fierce combat with the Grumentum tribal warriors inside the city. Few warriors remained on the walls. The enemy, undaunted by death, kept up a relentless assault. Soon, some enemies fought their way onto the wall...

From the watchtower on the hilltop, Pollet saw the east wall below constantly being overrun by enemies; the defense line was in critical danger. In great anxiety, he said, "Take my wolf-fang token. Go immediately to Lussau and tell him the East Gate is in crisis. Have him send some of his warriors to help defend the East Gate, or if the enemy breaks into the city, none of us will escape!"

"Yes, Chief!" The guard took the command token with a tense expression.

Watching the guard race down the hill, Pollet was still uneasy. He sent another order for the five hundred Potentian warriors stationed on the mountainside to rush to the East Gate.

After issuing these commands, Pollet caught his breath and had time to think calmly: Where did the enemy come from?

Were they Pyxousians? After their recent heavy defeat, could they still field so many warriors?

Were they Daonians? The mere thought of that powerful Greek city-state alliance to the south made Pollet's breathing tighten. Even though Potentia did not border Daonia, the past year had constantly brought pressure from the south. It wasn't just Daonia's strength, but more importantly, the Lucanians did not reject this predominantly Greek alliance—that was the most terrifying thing! This terrible situation made it impossible for the Lucanians to unite against this outsider! That was also why the steady Puamote had finally made up his mind to take Grumentum: only by strengthening himself could he counter this expansionist force. Therefore, when Puamote left, he repeatedly urged Pollet to keep a close eye on the Daonia Alliance's movements. Pollet certainly took this seriously. He dispatched two hundred warriors from his own tribe to hold the defile and sent scouts south to monitor Nerulum's movements. But because Nerulum was heavily fortified, with multiple checkpoints blocking the northern routes, the scouts returned empty-handed.

Now, no unusual news had come from the camp holding the defile, and the attacking enemies were all dressed as Lucanians. So Pollet's suspicion lingered on Daonia only briefly before shifting to the last suspect—Garagusus. As one of the most traditional groups of tribes in Lucania, they preferred to live on high mountains rather than the plains, far from the central region of Lucania. Amid the rugged mountains in the northeast, they had built Garagusus city. For decades, they had rarely participated in conflicts among other tribal confederations and refused to ally with other tribes, staying aloof from several Lucanian tribal alliances. Even when Acipirus unified southern Lucania, he did not covet their territory. Could it be that this time the conservative Garagusans had changed their tradition?

Meanwhile, the eastern wall had already been taken by Daonian soldiers. They did not rest but pressed forward into the city.

At the very front were the five hundred mercenaries led by Xanthiparis. Another five hundred mercenaries, under Tolmides, were holding Nerulum.

Right behind the mercenaries were fifteen hundred Lucanian soldiers led by Litoru, one of the battalion commanders of the Third Army Corps. Attacking the West Gate were two thousand soldiers led by Kxima, while at the South Gate, twenty-five hundred soldiers under Bacule himself were fiercely engaged. Bacule had almost evenly divided his forces. This was unavoidable: Grumentum city was built on the mountainside, with crowded dwellings and narrow paths. Concentrating too many troops in one place would not only fail to display their full power but also easily cause congestion, hampering the assault.