Volume 6: The Meeting of Two Heroes, Chapter 100: The Victors' Vigilance

In war, for every defeat there is victory, and for every pain there is joy. While the allied soldiers tasted the bitter fruit of defeat, the Syracusans reveled in the sweetness of triumph.

Inside Dionysius’s large tent, torches blazed brightly. All the commanders gathered, dining and eagerly discussing the day’s great battle.

“Stop your bickering, all of you! The reason we won today—the most important credit—goes to Phoebidas!” Dionysius, seated at the head, looked around and pointed at Phoebidas, raising his voice. “I truly didn’t expect that the Daonian general had stationed so many soldiers on their left wing. If Phoebidas hadn’t reacted correctly, our right wing would have been broken before reinforcements even arrived!”

“The lord speaks truly!” Phasipesas chimed in at once. “When I led my troops to attack the enemy flank, I was absolutely astonished. The depth of their formation… in some places it reached over fifty ranks! I’ve never seen anything like it… the packed length was… it was—” Phasipesas struggled for the right word, gesturing with his hands. “Longer than this tent! Yet for all that force pressing against our right wing, not only did they fail to crush it, they wore themselves out! So when I led my men in just a small charge, the enemy collapsed easily!”

The others could not help murmuring in admiration.

Though Phoebidas felt a certain pride, he did not boast openly. Such shallow behavior was not the Spartan way. Moreover, he was merely fighting for the Syracusans; glory or lack thereof meant little. He simply enjoyed the thrill of a great battle, and having been on the very front line, he was now too weary to speak much.

“Leptines, your performance this time exceeded my expectations!” Dionysius looked at his brother and declared with satisfaction. “When the mercenaries led by Endimennas met resistance in their advance, you did not flee. You bravely took responsibility, drove back the enemy who came to intercept, and ensured our attack on the enemy’s right-rear flank went smoothly. Our victory in this battle owes much to you! Furthermore, your fleet made a bold sortie and seized our first prize after the victory—Trina!”

Dionysius did not stint on praise for Leptines, not only because of his brother’s performance, but also to demonstrate to those who criticized his nepotism that his appointments were sound.

“Lord, we owe much to General Leptines’s assistance!” Endimennas seized the chance to flatter Leptines while also trying to excuse his own error. “I did not expect that, with the battle raging so fiercely, the Greeks had kept a reserve force, not committing it, only to launch a sudden attack on us…”

“This shows we did not win this battle easily. That Daonian commander is no simple man!” Dionysius sighed. He had witnessed from behind the center formation his elite troops being steadily driven back by the Daonian army corps. Moreover, the post-battle count showed over a thousand casualties in the center, which shocked him and rankled. “Pity we couldn’t capture more of those Daonian soldiers…”

At these words, the two mercenary cavalry leaders felt somewhat ashamed. Gaba, the more forthright Celtic chieftain, spoke up in broken Greek to defend himself: “We did our utmost, but those Daonian soldiers simply wouldn’t flee; they formed ranks and tangled with us. We lost… many of our kin…”

“Those Daonians extended their line and held the riverbank, forcing us to fight them head-on. It’s very difficult for cavalry to engage heavy infantry in frontal combat…” Achilita added in his own defense.

Dionysius glanced at them both. He only intended to rein in these two unruly foreign leaders, not to break with them entirely. “Regardless, you pinned down over a thousand Daonian soldiers and ultimately killed or captured them, including one of their legion commanders. I believe this is the greatest military loss the Daonia Alliance has suffered since its founding!”

“Lord, that’s only because Daonia hasn’t been around as long as my youngest son!” another Syracusan general, Astagoras, sneered. “We’ll give them more defeats until this alliance is utterly destroyed!”

Astagoras’s words drew laughter from the company.

Amid the laughter, a cold voice rang out from the seat to Dionysius’s left: “I examined the weapons the Daonians left on the battlefield. To speak frankly, I think even if you engage the Daonian legion infantry again, you won’t have any real advantage.”

These words stirred dissatisfaction among those in the tent.

“Spartan, you overestimate the Daonians!” Astagoras shouted rudely.

“I speak the truth,” Phoebidas said, ignoring the disapproval. He strode out of his seat, disregarding the strange looks, and assumed a heavy infantry attacking stance. Speaking earnestly, he continued: “According to traditional heavy infantry combat practice, the round shield in the left hand is used both for defense and for shoving; the spear in the right hand can be raised high to stab over the shield at the opponent; once the spear breaks, you draw the curved sword for slashing… But the Daonian legion soldiers fight differently. I brought back a Daonian long shield and short sword, but the guards forced me to leave them outside the tent.”

At this, Phoebidas did not miss the chance to subtly mock Dionysius, who was skilled in assassination and perpetually wary of being killed himself. Having survived several assassination attempts, Dionysius was extremely cautious, decreeing that anyone who came to see him or discuss matters must be searched by guards, and weapons were not permitted. On one occasion, another of his brothers (whom he had installed as tyrant over a neighboring subject state) came to the palace to see him. While discussing an important matter, he casually asked a guard for a spear to draw a map on the ground. Dionysius flew into a rage and immediately had the guard executed.

At this moment, Dionysius ignored the barb. He was more interested in what Phoebidas would say next and magnanimously ordered: “Bring in the Daonian short sword and long shield.”

When the short sword and long shield were placed before Phoebidas, he picked up the long shield with his left hand and held it in front of his chest, explaining: “The Daonian long shield is long enough to better protect the soldier’s body. Thus the soldier need not divert energy to worrying about defense and can focus entirely on killing the enemy.”

As he spoke, Phoebidas made stabbing motions with the short sword. After several thrusts, he drove the sword into the wooden table. With a *thwack*, the entire blade sank in.

“What a sharp short sword!” Leptines, sitting beside Phoebidas, exclaimed in surprise. Curious, he pulled the sword out and examined it closely: the edge already had some small nicks, and the tip was slightly bent from repeated weapon clashes, yet it still felt chillingly sharp.

“This sword is far too short! Before a Daonian could use it to wound my soldiers, we’d have already run him through with our spears!” Astagoras argued stubbornly.

“Yes, it is relatively short. But with that long shield protecting him, a spear may not necessarily wound the Daonian soldier. And once the two sides are in close contact, shoving, the spear becomes unwieldy, whereas this short sword can easily stab the opponent…” Holding the long shield, Phoebidas looked at the short sword in Leptines’s hand, his mind unsettled. The Greek phalanx, with its round shield and spear—this set of heavy infantry tactics had been passed down for centuries and proven so effective that few other nations in the Mediterranean could match it. Yet a city-state alliance founded just a few years had managed to develop an entirely new set of heavy infantry equipment and tactics in such a short time, and could stand against the traditional approach. This was truly alarming!

So it came down to weapons and equipment! Dionysius felt a surge of excitement. He had been genuinely disheartened that even his most elite troops were no match for the newly raised Daonian legions. Now, hearing Phoebidas’s analysis, he suddenly understood: as long as the issue was not with the quality of the soldiers, it could be remedied.

“Phoebidas, if we encounter Daonian legion infantry again, what do you think we should do?” Dionysius asked the Spartan humbly for advice.

“Judging by these weapons, at medium range, when they are locked in a standoff with our heavy infantry, they have no particular advantage. But once the two sides close in for hand-to-hand combat, the short sword and long shield come into their own. This requires that when we engage in phalanx battles, we avoid the tactic of shoving. Instead, we should leave some distance for the front-rank soldiers, using dense spear formations to keep the Daonian legion infantry from getting too close. That way, Syracusan soldiers can use their superior spear technique to gain the upper hand in the exchange of thrusts…” After carefully reviewing the battlefield, Phoebidas had been pondering how to counter this new heavy infantry. After all, he had never faced the Daonian legions directly, only made deductions based on his many years of combat experience.

But this was enough to put Dionysius at ease. He said to his commanders: “Did you all hear that! Next time we fight the Daonian soldiers, we’ll use Phoebidas’s method to deal with them!”

Phasipesas, Astagoras, and the other Syracusan generals assented one after another—though mostly just going through the motions.