Volume 6: The Meeting of Two Heroes, Chapter 80: The Battle of Poseidonia (Part 1)

At this moment, Torek was gazing at the Daonian camp in the distance.

In fact, the Samnite reinforcements had arrived the night before and had originally planned a night raid, but they discovered that the Daonians had already built a camp and it was heavily guarded. Torek was a battle-hardened leader who knew that in the darkness—especially without moonlight—an attack by tens of thousands of men could easily spiral out of control and cause unnecessary losses. So he suppressed his impulse and postponed the assault until the next day. That was how the Samnite reinforcements ended up spending the night in the mountains. It was already early November; the weather in the mountain region had turned cold, and though the warriors slept wrapped in leather robes, they still felt a bit chilly.

Torek rubbed his half-frozen hands. He truly hadn’t expected the Daonians to set up a camp that looked so substantial so quickly. But then he reconsidered: this was actually better. The Daonians probably wouldn’t be able to escape now!

He turned his gaze to the Caudini commander and said in a consultative tone, “Chief Quintuk, my people will attack from the north and east. Your men will attack from the west. What do you think?”

“No objections.” Quintuk nodded in agreement, then asked, “What about the south side of the enemy camp? Don’t let them slip away.”

“The south side.” Torek pointed toward the distant city of Poseidonia and said confidently, “They won’t escape!”

Quintuk understood. Excited, he said, “It seems the Daonians have become prey that’s fallen into a pit. Perfect—let the warriors vent their anger from not sleeping well last night!” As he spoke, Quintuk rubbed his chilled body with his hands.

Torek looked back at the dense throng of warriors behind him, all rubbing their hands and eager for action, and gave the order: “Sound the war horn!”

...

The long, resonant sound of the war horn pierced through the morning mist and traveled two miles to Poseidonia. Pixini and Mobuke, who were standing on the city walls and craning their necks in anticipation, heard it and immediately perked up: “Did you hear that! That’s our horn! Our reinforcements have arrived!”

The Samnite warriors on the wall began shouting excitedly.

“Warriors, prepare to go out of the city at any moment to assist and wipe out those hateful Daonians!” Pixini swept aside the dejection of the previous day and shouted with high spirits.

“Roar! Roar!!…” The warriors roared in unison.

From the watchtower, Alexis observed the enemy slowly approaching outside the camp and said unhurriedly, “The enemy is about to attack. Have the battalions prepare!”

“I’ll go right away.” The adjutant turned and went downstairs.

“Then it’s your turn to shine first,” Alexis said to the ballista spotter, Sterponian, who was also in the watchtower, with an expectant tone. Because the spotter came from the Daonian Academy, Alexis spoke to him quite politely.

“Legion Commander, rest assured!” Sterponian replied confidently, though his heart was thumping. The morning mist made it impossible for him to clearly see the markers he had measured and set outside the camp the day before, so he would have to rely on his eyes to judge.

Torek commanded the forces attacking the north side of the camp.

Because time had been short when the troops had rushed to rescue, they had not brought along Syracuse’s ballistae or large siege equipment. They had only hastily made several dozen long ladders before resting the previous night. Still, Torek believed that was enough. According to the scouts’ reports, aside from the ditch, there were no other defensive works outside the Daonian camp. So with such a huge relief force, they only needed to break through the camp’s low earthen wall in one surge, and the Daonians would be left trapped inside, waiting for death.

When the attacking formation gradually closed to about 250 meters from the camp, Torek thrust his spear forward: “Attack!”

A dozen trumpeters simultaneously blew their ox-horn bugles. “Woo! Woo!! Woo!!!…” The sound echoed across the battlefield.

Some Samnite warriors carried long ladders, some raised large shields, and others held only javelins and spears as they began to speed up their pace…

“Angle 40, full draw, small stone!” Sterponian shouted from the watchtower.

“Ballista ready!” the ballista captain ordered. “Angle 40, full draw, small stone!”

Under the soldiers’ quick operation, the ballistae emitted a creaking noise.

“Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!…” One stone projectile after another was launched with a strong whistling wind.

The ballista captain watched the stones flying toward the enemy, feeling both excitement and regret: the previous day’s prolonged bombardment of Poseidonia city had damaged several ballistae, or else they would kill more enemies.

When Torek saw the dark shadows passing overhead, he cursed under his breath: Not good!

But he was far less shocked than the Locrian general Diopantos had been earlier. After all, in the Samnites’ view, the Greeks possessed superior skills. If Syracuse could build ballistae, of course Daonia could too.

The ballistae did not frighten Torek; instead, they stirred his ferocity. He brandished his short sword again and shouted, “Charge quickly! Kill all the Greeks!”

The warriors around him let out roars in response, and the shouts quickly spread through the whole army. The few screams caused by the falling stone projectiles were completely drowned out. The Samnites’ morale soared, and they took great strides, accelerating toward the Daonian camp.

“One hundred meters!” came the shout from the watchtower.

“Archers, prepare!” the light infantry battalion commander, Ibiru, called out.

The archers had been waiting behind the earthen wall. They fanned out, drew their bows, and nocked their arrows.

Hundreds of arrows rained down like drops onto the dense, black assault formation of the Samnites, causing far more than the few screams the stone projectiles had produced.

The Samnites’ weak protection gave the Daonian light infantry considerable results, but the cries of pain rising one after another could not slow the Samnites’ advance.

After only two volleys of arrows, the Samnites had already closed to within 50 meters.

The soldiers of the Daonian Third Army Corps could now clearly hear the rumbling footsteps of the enemy advance and feel the slight tremors in the ground from the many feet stomping hard. Even the enemy’s shouts enveloped the entire camp. Though the soldiers were somewhat tense, they were not panicked. Because they were the Daonian Third Army Corps, which had earned many military merits for Daonia: they had participated in the Second Croton War, taken the city of Asperustum on their own; they had launched a surprise attack on Grumentum City; they had pacified the Lucanian rebellion with a single army corps, annihilated Sicinag’s forces, and captured the city of Pyxous… The shining stars on the Third Army Corps’ high-flying military banner symbolized their honor! And today’s battle would surely add more glory to the Third Army Corps!

Company Commander Hitinaote had once been a Greek slave in Nerulum. After Daonia captured Nerulum, he gained his freedom, chose to settle in Nerulum, and eventually joined the Daonian Third Army Corps. Through his own efforts, he became a mid-level officer commanding 200 men. The hatred of the past had faded, and now he fought shoulder-to-shoulder with Lucanian soldiers—people he had once despised but who were now like brothers—for their home, the Daonia Alliance.

“Javelins!” he shouted.

The soldiers standing on the earthen wall, already prepared, hurled their javelins with all their might, while the Samnites who had charged to the ditch in front of the camp threw their javelins as well.

For a moment, countless javelins crisscrossed in the air. As opponents who had fought before, each side understood the other’s tactics and raised their large shields for protection.

Compared to the densely packed and poorly equipped Samnite warriors outside the camp, the Daonian soldiers were on higher ground and protected by the earthen wall and large shields, so their casualties were light. Still, javelins kept sticking into the shields, making them awkward to use, but there was no time to cut them off.

Though the Samnites suffered heavy losses, the rain of javelins continued. Under its cover, the Samnite warriors reached the ditch, jumped straight into it, set up some long ladders, formed human walls in other places, and began climbing up with all their strength.

The Daonian soldiers hurled javelins into the ditch. At such close range, almost every throw found its mark, but even that could not stem the tide of Samnites swarming in to attack.

“Oil! Pour the oil quickly!” Hitinaote shouted anxiously, bending down to lift a tung oil jar that had been prepared and placed behind the wall. He heard a scream of pain behind him—a soldier had taken a javelin through his left shoulder and fallen to the ground in agony.

Hitinaote crouched warily, raised his head just a little above the earthen wall, and peered outside. He spotted a Samnite javelin thrower less than five meters away on the other side of the ditch, ready to hurl. But a sharpshooter on the camp’s watchtower shot him down.

Hitinaote quickly straightened up and hurled the oil jar downward with force. It smashed against the head of a Samnite warrior in the ditch, the jar shattered, and oil splattered everywhere.

Many soldiers on the earthen wall did the same as Hitinaote: they dropped torches into the ditch. A wall of fire rose instantly in the ditch. Countless human torches writhed and screamed in the flames until they fell silent…

“Legion Commander, the enemy on the north side has temporarily retreated. According to preliminary counts, we have 240 casualties,” the adjutant reported as he came up.

“We’ve lost so many brothers before we’ve even started hand-to-hand fighting.” Although there were far more Samnites groaning on the ground outside the camp and charred corpses in the ditch, Alexis still frowned, somewhat wary of the killing power of the Samnite javelins. He pointed to the south side of the camp and said, “Look, the enemy from Poseidonia city has also come out. This battle has only just begun.”

“Too bad we brought so few oil jars! If we could use them on all sides at once, the Samnite losses would be much greater!” the adjutant said regretfully.

“We can’t blame the baggage camp. They had to load food, carry materials to build the camp, plus weapons and equipment. To bring this many oil jars is already quite an achievement. Not to mention our army corps’ actions were so urgent, and the enemy’s reinforcements arrived so quickly!” Alexis comforted him. “Don’t rush. Let’s fight them slowly. In the end, none of them will escape anyway.”