Volume 6: The Meeting of Two Heroes, Chapter 74: The Dionian March and the Syracusan Advance

When the trumpeters blew their heart-stopping high-pitched calls, and the Spartan warriors sang their chilling hymns to ancient heroes as they charged in perfect unison, the soldiers of those Greek city-states would often collapse psychologically, turning to flee before even engaging, unwilling to risk confronting the Spartans. For a century, the Spartans had terrorized other city-states on the Greek mainland through this battlefield atmosphere of collective unity and the bloody slaughter it created.

The Syracusan army was vast in numbers, but that had never unsettled Phoebidas before. Yet now, the disciplined obedience and uniform equipment of the Daonian army stirred a deep fear within him. It was as if he were seeing another Spartan army—except they wore black instead of red, and their soldiers far outnumbered those of Sparta...

The Mediterranean needed only one Sparta! Phoebidas thought fiercely.

...

The Third Army Corps, led by Alexis, had only just arrived at Pyxous when Davos, with no time for pleasantries, laid out his battle plan directly. After securing Alexis’s agreement, he immediately ordered the Third Army Corps to march north and attack Poseidonia.

The coastal region from Pyxous to Poseidonia was unlike the flat eastern coast of southern Italy, which ran from Thurii to Croton and then to Locri. It was rugged and uneven, dominated by mountains and hills.

On its arduous march, the Third Army Corps had to pass through Elea.

As a member state of the Daonia Alliance, Elea’s chief general, Canios, did not hesitate upon receiving the news. He personally mustered 1,500 citizen soldiers and joined the Third Army Corps. After all, with the Samnites occupying Poseidonia, Elea now lay directly under the fierce blades of those savage Samnites. The Eleans hoped that Daonia could drive this wolf from the north back and restore peace to their city.

Half a day after the Third Army Corps departed, Davos led the First and Second Army Corps northward as well.

Antaoris, the chief magistrate of Pyxous, was not idle either. He had to help prepare supplies for these thirty thousand soldiers. The food needed for such a massive army was staggering; Pyxous alone could not possibly meet the demand. Fortunately, Daonia had reserve granaries at Grumentum that could temporarily feed such a force for a short campaign. If the fighting dragged on, they would have to draw from the granaries at Cosentia as well—one more reason Davos wanted to press forward quickly. Antaoris also had to arrange wagons and manpower to transport food and supplies to Davos’s forward camp under the command and guidance of the army’s baggage camp. It was a complex, labor-intensive task, but with the experienced baggage camp handling operations, the capable Antaoris assisting, and the active cooperation of Bacule, the chief magistrate of Grumentum, everything proceeded smoothly.

By afternoon, after joining forces with the Elean army, the Third Army Corps turned northeast, preparing to bypass a broad stretch of hills along the coast directly north of Elea. Poseidonia lay on the far side of those hills.

Midway, the Third Army Corps halted and began to build a camp.

The noise they made was considerable and was easily detected by Samnite scouts.

“What did you say?! Daonians have appeared south of Mount Stella and are camping along the River Alento?!” Pishini, the Pentri chief, had been feasting on fine food in the Poseidonia governor’s mansion, and he was stunned.

“Yes, Chief. There are more than ten thousand of them! And when we crept close to their camp, we saw a large banner raised inside reading ‘Third Army Corps’!” the scout reported, his urgent tone mixed with a hint of pride.

“The Daonian Third Army Corps! Weren’t they supposed to be at Grumentum?! How did they get here?!” Pishini had lost his appetite. He tossed aside the mutton he had been gnawing, wiped the greasy stains from his mouth onto his already filthy leather robe, and lowered his head.

“I think the Daonians heard that Poseidonia had fallen to us and hurried here to try and take it back,” another chief, Mobuke, speculated.

“But there are ten thousand of them, and we have only three thousand warriors! And they came so fast—we haven’t even had time to repair the breach in Poseidonia’s walls from our ballistae! How can we hold off their attack?!” Pishini paced irritably around the room.

“Then we must send word to Potentia immediately and ask the Great Chief for reinforcements!” Mobuke reminded him.

“Of course! And... you go notify the warriors right now—no matter how late it gets tonight, they damn well better seal up those gaps in the walls!” Pishini slammed his fist hard on the wooden table.

At dusk, Alexis sent out all his reconnaissance squads to drive off and hunt down Samnite scouts in the area.

That night, Davos’s twenty-thousand-strong army quietly slipped into Elea. The Eleans, forewarned by Alexis, had already cleared space for the Daonian troops to quarter.

On that same day at Locri, the Syracusan army finally assembled. Reports from their scout cavalry shocked Dionysius and his officers: in just a day and a half, the Daonian camp had already taken shape.

This news only strengthened Dionysius’s resolve to execute his new plan: split the army into two parts. One force of over twenty thousand, under the command of Fasipesus, would join with Locri’s ten thousand soldiers to form a combined army of forty thousand. They would attempt to attack the Daonian camp and pin them down. Meanwhile, he himself would lead over fifty thousand troops westward through the ancient passes among the mountains, reach the west coast of Magna Graecia, then turn north and march...

To avoid slowing the advance, Dionysius’s army did not carry a large baggage train. Instead, the Syracusan fleet at Locri loaded supplies and sailed from the port, heading south around the Strait of Messina, then north along the western coast of Magna Graecia, keeping pace with the land forces.

When the Rhegians saw one Syracusan ship after another sailing past without pause on the distant sea, their terror was understandable. Some even cried out in panic: “The Syracusans are coming! They’re going to land!!...”

In the end, it proved a false alarm, but it did cause great panic among the people of Rhegium at the time. Several senators in the Council even demanded that the troops at Tauriana be recalled to defend against a potential Syracusan landing.

Atillikrus was at a loss for a moment and immediately sent messengers to Tauriana.

At Tauriana, Philon first received reports from the scout cavalry: the Syracusan army had been spotted crossing the ancient mountain passes and heading toward Medma. The vanguard cavalry had already passed Medma and was continuing forward.

Then came an urgent report from the harbor lighthouse: a Syracusan fleet of over a thousand cargo ships had been seen passing Tauriana, sailing north.

An hour later, a Rhegian merchant ship that had rushed into Tauriana’s harbor from the north brought word: The Syracusan fleet had not entered Medma but had continued north.

“It seems Syracuse intends to attack Trina to the north. For now, we are safe,” said Krilotas, the general commanding the forces at Tauriana.

Philon’s expression remained grim. He said darkly, “If the allied army in the north is defeated, it’s only a matter of time before Rhegium and Tauriana are attacked.”

“Then it depends on whether our allies can withstand Syracuse’s attack—or even defeat them…” Krilotas let Philon’s words sink in. He spoke with a trace of hope, then sighed, as if he felt the hope was slim. “What a pity that Davos, the magistrate of Daonia, has led his main force to fight the Samnites! If he could bring them back in time, our allies’ chances would be much better!”

“Then we cannot let the Syracusans attack so easily!” Philon said loudly, his face set with determination.

Krilotas was startled.

That afternoon, Rhegium’s messenger arrived at Tauriana, demanding sternly that Philon return with his troops.

Philon deliberately stalled for time while urgently sending his own men back to Rhegium.

By dusk, Philon still could not muster his soldiers, and so he postponed until the next day, citing “too dark to march.”

The next morning, when Atillikrus learned that the Syracusan fleet had already left Tauriana without attacking Rhegium, he withdrew the order to recall the army, at the request of Philon’s men. Philon’s messenger then sped back to Tauriana with his urgent letter, halting the pointless back-and-forth march of the Rhegian army—but that is a story for later.

On this day, to speed up the march of his vast, mixed army, Dionysius came up with many ideas. The most effective was to send word to each unit: whoever reached Hipponion first would be allowed to enter the captured enemy city first, while the last to arrive would have no right to share in the spoils.

Dionysius’s troops were not as disciplined as the Daonian army. Since they had many mercenaries, to maintain high morale his soldiers often indulged in wholesale slaughter and looting after breaching a city’s walls—as they had at Motya, and at the Sicilian Greek cities of Catana and Naxos. In fact, Syracuse’s devastation of the Greek city-states in Sicily was no less than that of the Carthaginians. That was why the Sicilian Greeks both feared and hated Dionysius.

Dionysius’s words indeed had the desired effect. Each unit vied to press forward faster, with the Numidian cavalry and Celtic cavalry charging ahead at the forefront.