Volume 6: The Meeting of Two Heroes, Chapter 59: Plans Cannot Keep Up with Changes

Antistanos frankly stated his conjecture: “Perhaps in their eyes, Daonia’s chances of victory are not great. In fact, Carthage doesn’t think much of our Daonia either. The ruler Hanno didn’t even receive me…”

Davos indeed hadn’t expected that Carthage, which in his previous life could fight on equal terms with Rome, would be so timid. But thinking about it, it was a hundred years later when Carthage vied with Rome; the Carthage of a hundred years later naturally couldn’t be compared to its current state. Remembering that the Carthage he rather liked in his previous life—mainly due to Hannibal’s influence—actually looked down on Daonia made him somewhat depressed. He said to himself: “One day, you will regret your neglect of Daonia!”

“Lord Antistanos, do you think the Samnites’ invasion of Potentia was instigated by Dionysius?” Davos wanted to confirm his judgment again.

“I heard the news as soon as I returned.” Antistanos took a sip of watered wine and murmured: “Hmm… I think it’s very likely. You know, Syracuse and Campania have been close since Gelon’s time, with frequent trade, and Syracuse even sent troops several times to help the Greek city-states in Campania defend against Samnite attacks… It is said that most of Dionysius’s mercenaries come from Campania, so Dionysius should be quite familiar with the Samnites in the Campanian mountains. As long as he is willing to pay the price, it’s not impossible to persuade the Samnites. Moreover, the Samnites have probably been worried about Daonia’s growing power.”

Reminded by Antistanos, Davos suddenly realized: since Potentia joined the Daonia Alliance, the Samnites’ raids into Lucania had ceased completely, evidently showing their fear of Daonia…

Davos secretly regretted that in the past few years he had only focused on stabilizing the internal affairs, putting too little effort into understanding the surrounding situation and the situation across the Mediterranean.

This is a lesson! He admonished himself, then humbly asked Antistanos for advice: “In what other places do you think Dionysius might use similar schemes against Daonia, like the Samnites?”

Antistanos stroked his gray beard and began to ponder. After a long while, he suddenly opened his eyes and said: “Tarentum! Tarentum is very likely!”

Davos was startled: That’s right, Tarentum is very likely! Although Syracuse had little contact with Tarentum, Sparta, Syracuse’s ally, was Tarentum’s mother city, and the two had good relations, so they could easily act as intermediaries… And in recent years, because Daonia had taken Heraclea and Metapontum from Tarentum—as many Tarentines believed—their relationship had become somewhat strained. Despite the alliance agreement, there were occasional minor frictions. This time, since Daonia declared war on Locri, Tarentum, as an ally, had neither expressed support nor opposition, remaining completely silent. Too calm—that was abnormal!

…

The next day, at Davos’s request, the Daonia Senate immediately sent envoys to Tarentum.

The Tarentum Senate, when asked by the Daonia envoy about their opinion on the declaration of war against Locri, showed great impatience, saying that it had nothing to do with Tarentum whether Daonia went to war with anyone; Tarentum needed to recover and heal the wounds from the last war.

The envoy returned to Thurii and reported Tarentum’s attitude to the Senate in detail. Most senators breathed a sigh of relief, but Davos did not let down his guard. He sent people to remind the magistrates of Metapontum and Heraclea to increase their vigilance against Tarentum, and also had Aristelas strengthen his attention on Tarentum… That was all he could do, since Tarentum had shown no unusual actions so far.

At this time, Davos focused more on the Lucania region to the north.

The next day, an urgent report from the Third Army Corps arrived in Thurii.

Compared to Potentia’s spies, the scout soldiers of the Third Army Corps were far superior; they had all undergone rigorous training in Izam’s scout battalion. With Davos’s guidance and his own years of reconnaissance experience, Izam had developed a relatively complete set of training methods for reconnaissance: climbing mountains, fording rivers, ambushes, camouflage, reconnaissance… and many other training items. Especially in estimating enemy strength, the scout battalion had many methods, such as inferring from the size of the enemy camp, the number of tents, and the amount of supplies. Of course, the most direct method was to count the number of people. Therefore, most of the scout battalion’s soldiers came from citizens engaged in occupations requiring strong arithmetic skills, such as accounting, banking, and trade.

In the military reform two years ago, Davos had pulled personnel from Izam’s scout battalion to equip each army corps with a hundred-man scout squad, thereby perfecting the ‘eyes and ears’ of each corps, since Italy is a mountainous region and scout cavalry were often not very useful.

This military report from the Third Army Corps was much more detailed in its description of the Samnites: … Based on the intelligence from scout soldiers, the Samnite army assembled at Copia is likely composed of the entire Hirpini, Pentri, and part of the Caudini warriors, with current strength exceeding 40,000 men. Given that the Samnite camp has not expanded further in the past few days and the number of Samnites entering Copia city from the north has clearly decreased, it is very likely that the Samnite attack will come within the next two or three days! The situation is urgent! The Third Army Corps requests the exercise of ‘emergency command authority’—i.e., under emergency conditions, the battle situation is complex and rapidly changing. If every major military action requires repeated requests to the Daonia Senate, it would only delay opportunities and even put the corps in danger. Therefore, after the expansion of Daonia’s territory, Davos realized that he could not personally oversee the entire Daonia Alliance’s territory at all times, so he established this important military regulation to grant battlefield legion commanders autonomy in military actions, avoiding sluggish and rigid command and stifling the combat desire and initiative of corps commanders and soldiers—and earnestly requests the Senate to send reinforcements! —Signed: Alexis, Legion Commander of the Third Army Corps.

Forty thousand people?! The senators of the Senate were shocked by the Samnite strength, but they still argued over whether to send reinforcements. However, Davos finally made up his mind. He stood up and said firmly: “Gentlemen, the military situation in Potentia is urgent and does not allow us to waste any more time! The Samnites’ massive force of over 40,000 men cannot be withstood by the Third Army Corps and Puamot’s army alone! To prevent the Samnites from defeating them, occupying Potentia, and taking advantage of the situation to enter our Lucania territory, I have decided to lead the First and Second Army Corps to reinforce Potentia, and to drive back the enemy in the shortest possible time!”

“I support the magistrate’s decision!” As soon as Davos finished speaking, Vespa jumped up happily, and Hemon also loudly expressed support, but the others fell into temporary silence.

Of course, Davos’s identity did not allow the senators to remain silent for long. Soon Cornelius stood up and asked: “Should the attack on Locri still proceed?”

“Suspended for now! The Fourth and Fifth Army Corps will return to their stations and await orders. At the same time, send envoys to allied city-states such as Croton and Scylletium to explain, trusting that they will understand our situation. However—” Before Davos could finish, Kynogoratas interjected anxiously: “But Syracuse might take advantage of our main force moving north to attack Magna Graecia!”

Kynogoratas’s words sparked discussion among the senators.

Amyntas shouted: “It’s best if the Syracusans come; then we don’t have to go to Sicily. We can smash them right here in Magna Graecia!”

“But by the time they come, Lord Amyntas, you and the bravest and strongest citizens of Daonia will probably still be playing hide-and-seek with the Samnites in the Lucanian mountains!” Scombrus immediately retorted.

“We will defeat the Samnites quickly and return soon!” Amyntas argued loudly.

“That’s not certain. In the mountains, we Greeks cannot catch up with the Samnites, who are good at climbing. If you can’t even catch them, how can you drive them back?!” Scombrus retorted without backing down.

“Old man, you need to understand that it’s the Samnites who are attacking us. We don’t need to chase them at all; they will come to fight us on their own!” Amyntas was so anxious he was starting to say things without thinking.

“Alright, gentlemen, please be quiet!” Davos said loudly. “The situation is clear now: if we do not act, the Syracusans will likely only watch from Sicily and wait for an opportunity. Then we will suffer, because the threat of the Samnites is right in front of us. If we sit idly by, the situation in Lucania may become unimaginable…” Davos paused for a moment to give the senators time to think, then continued: “Therefore, we must seize every minute and every second, concentrate our forces, and prioritize striking the enemy we can hit! No matter how many routes the enemy comes from, we must concentrate our forces to attack in one direction, so as to ensure the greatest victory!”

The senators murmured again.

Kynogoratas once again voiced the senators’ concerns: “Lord Magistrate, what if, after you leave, Syracuse truly launches a large-scale attack on Magna Graecia? What should we do?!”

Davos had prepared for this. He calmed down and slowly explained his reasoning and plan to the senators: “With our Daonia holding Magna Graecia, for Syracuse to attack Magna Graecia, Dionysius cannot even think of it without at least fifty to sixty thousand men. But to safely land such a massive force and supplies on Magna Graecia’s shores will take a considerable amount of time…”