Mediterranean Hegemon of Ancient Greece

“Who told you that I am unwilling to send my troops?!” Teriphias hastily changed his tone. He then grabbed him, “The messenger said to wait for the news of the naval battle's victory. But see…”

Teriphias patiently told Matonis what he thought and said, “Once Davos won the naval battle, sending letters by land would be out of the question as the Tarantine cavalries roam just to the south during the day. Thus your messenger will definitely not be able to come over…that's why we should only send our troops once we see the Theonian fleet coming from the sea.” The overall situation would have been decided by then, so why would Teriphias not be happy about it.

Unfortunately, Matonis shook his head and said, “Your suggestion would take too long, so we can't follow it! The Tarantine fleet currently blocks the port of Heraclea, so they will definitely get the news first. And if we wait until our fleet arrives, the Tarantines outside the city would have already run away! Therefore-”

Matonis stared at Teriphias and said, “We will closely monitor the enemy camp outside the city, so once the Tarantines tried to retreat, we would immediately attack them!”

“Ah?!”

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

After convincing Teriphias, Matonis returned to the square and immediately instructed his adjutant to summon the senior centurions of the seventh legion for a meeting. (They set up the seventh legion’s camp on Heraclea's square.)

After a while, all the seven senior centurions had come.

But just before they could sit down, Matonis immediately said, “Time is very tight, so I'll make the long story short. His majesty Davos had led the first and second legions back to Thurii-”

“Ah?! Lord Davos is back!”

“Great, Amendolara is now safe!”

“Not only will Amendolara be safe, but the Tarantines are going to die! Lord Davos will lead us to defeat them!”

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

The several senior centurions shouted and moved about with excitement.

“Silence!” Matonis roared, causing them to shudder with fright, “A few of you are veterans, so you should know Theonia's military law! What is the punishment given to subordinates who kept talking while their superiors were speaking?!”

At Matonis' vicious glare, the senior centurions subconsciously touched their asses, “I'll write down the caning for now, and it would be up to your performance to make up for it. His majesty Davos ordered that he would lead the army today by sea and land on the coast between Heraclea and Metapontum. So he asked us to do our best to stall the enemy outside the city so that the main force could arrive in time to join forces and surround the Tarantines! Do you all understand?!!”

“Understood!” They no longer dared to talk randomly, but the excitement in their expression was beyond words.

Matonis paced back and forth in front of them. Afterwards, he stomped his foot hard, “I know that due to my strict orders that forbid the soldiers to go out of the city to expel the enemy that came to Amendolara these past two days, many soldiers in the legion had privately cursed me by saying that I am timid like a rabbit and weak like a lamb, not worthy of being a legatus! And some of them even cursed my parents!…”

The roaring of Matonis had silenced them, “I know there are some soldiers in the legion that had come from Amendolara, but that should still not be a reason for them to insult their officers! ‘The soldiers' duty is to obey orders’; this is the basic rule in Theonia's Military Law. And I have already taken note of those soldiers who had cursed me in private, so you all should go back and tell them that in this attack, if they have not performed as bravely and charged as fast as I did, then what qualification do they have to curse me?!”

Matonis widened his eyes and gasped like an angry bull, “After the war ends, I will have them stand in the square and let the whole legion go up and scold their family in turn! Do you understand?!”

“U…understood.”

“You can now go back and prepare!”

“Yes!”

After the senior centurions left, his adjutant cautiously said, “Legatus, will you really-”

“Will what?!” Matonis glared at him and grunted, “This legion is just newly established. They have no good equipment and no strict discipline. If I don't provoke them like this, how would they perform well?!”

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

In the afternoon, a fast boat sped up to the Agri River.

“What did you say?! The Syracusan navy lost?! How is that possible?!!” The two Tarantine archons exclaimed in disbelief.

“Did a fleet from another city-state join the battle and help the Theonians?!” Umakas hurriedly asked again.

“No, it was just the Theonian fleet fighting independently from beginning to end. They had placed a kind of wooden bridge on their ship that would hook the Syracusan ships. Afterwards, they would then send a large number of soldiers to rush onto Syracuse's deck…” The boat captain recalled what he saw, and even now, he still felt like it was a dream. After all, the Theonian fleet's way of fighting had completely overturned the traditional naval warfare taught to him since childhood.

Diaomilas was in a daze for a while when he suddenly thought of an important question, “Did the Theonian fleet suffer heavy losses?”

The captain shook his head and said, “It seems that their fleet suffered little to no loss.”

“Could Hades have truly blessed these savage and crude Theonians?!” With an astonished and dejected look on his face, Diaomilas looked at Umakas in a daze, and Umakas looked back at him.

Both men had fear in their eyes, for they both knew that once Syracuse's naval superiority was broken and the Theonian fleet took control of the Gulf of Taranto, the Tarantine fleet's strength alone would not be able to match them. And the Tarantine coastline would be threatened by the Theonian fleet, while their army, which was far away from the city of Taranto, would be in danger.

Then both of them shouted at almost the same time, “We must immediately retreat!”

. . . . . . . . . . . .

The two of them quietly summoned the army officers in order not to attract the attention of the Heracleans. Then they gave them the order to retreat.

Afterwards, the Tarantine soldiers began packing their belongings and their bags.

However, the two archons had a headache about the mountains of grain piled up in the camp. At first, in order to ensure the convenience of food supply, the Tarantines transported the food through ships and piled it up in the camp for their huge army of 20,000 people to use for ten days, but it now became a problem as they had to retreat suddenly.

Furthermore, Taranto didn't have a special group responsible for logistics and transportation. They didn’t even consider hiring labourers to transport from land as this battle was near the sea, so they all transported the supplies by ship. But now, it would consume too much time if they were to send the fast boat to rush back to inform Taranto's port to send transport ship. But with this many rations and supplies, they didn't dare to burn or discard them because arbitrary wasting of city-state belongings would undoubtedly get them impeached by the council.

Diaomilas then came up with an idea to have some of the soldiers carry the supplies on their backs and transport them to Metapontum by land. At the same time, they would call back the Tarantine fleet that was still sailing in the sea near Heraclea, load the supplies in the ship's cabin and transport it back to Taranto.

“What if those in the city come out and attack us?” Umakas was a bit worried.

“Those timid Heraclean and Theonian soldiers have been cowering inside the city these days. They definitely wouldn't have the guts to take the initiative to come out of the city and attack us, and by the time they learn of the victory of the Theonian fleet, we would already be back in Metapontum.” In fact, based on the traditional combat experience of the Greeks, Diaomilas didn't even consider the Theonian army rescuing Heraclea immediately after the end of a fierce naval battle.

But Diaomilas was impressed by the performance of the Theonian army in the battle with the Messapi-Peuceti Alliance that he had to be careful. After all, he could not afford to make any mistakes as they had almost gathered all the young and strong citizens of Taranto for this army. Hence Diaomilas still arranged for 4,000 soldiers to act as a rearguard even though he didn't think the Tarantine army would be in danger while retreating.

And in order to not stand out, the Tarantine army did not even dismantle their tents.

But even so, the Tarnatine army's withdrawal was not only delayed but also slow. After all, the Tarantines with little training couldn't be like the Theonian who made “army retreat” a special training program. They even trained every seven days, allowing them to be fast, quick, with a clear division of order and orderly when retreating.

The Tarantines thought they could hide from Heraclea, but they didn't expect the seventh legion of Theonia to have long expected they would retreat and that they were monitoring them from the city. Soon, the Theonians discovered some signs, such as the cavalry that roamed and patrolled in front of the camp no longer appeared, the camp becoming noisier, ships frequently entered the Agri River…and so on.

“Legatus Matonis!” Teriphias excitedly asked at this moment, “It seems the enemy is really retreating, could it…could it be that your fleet has defeated Syracuse?!”

“I had said that his majesty Davos always do whatever he said!” Matonis glanced at him and replied coldly.

“You're right!” Teriphias ignored Matonis' attitude as he continued to ask with excitement, “Isn't it the time for us to attack them now?”

With his hands on the battlement, Matonis calmly said, “Don't worry and just wait a little longer.”

“Wait?”

“Yes, when the Tarantine soldiers are about to leave and begin crossing the river…” Matonis' eyes gleamed coldly like a wolf about to pounce.

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

While Diaomilas watched the soldiers pass through the pontoon bridge, a voice in his heart kept urging, ‘Faster! Faster!…’

But after he saw a group of soldiers reach the other side through these pontoon bridges and other soldiers following up quickly, Diaomilas became relieved a bit.

Yet at that moment, his heart suddenly sank as an earth-shattering cry erupted outside the camp, ‘Crap, it must be the enemy troops that have left the city of Heraclea!’