ancient greece mediterranean ruler

Chapter 1164 In Megalopolis

And at this moment, an astonishing news came: a large Spartan army entered the Arcadia region from the north!
The councilors of the city-states of the Arcadian League were shocked, especially the Mantinians led by Lycomedes.

Isn't Sparta located southeast of Arcadia? Why would its army appear in the north?

It turned out that Sparta had used the gold and silver provided by Persia to hire many soldiers in Northern Greece, Ionia and Asia Minor. Persia also provided ships to transport them to Greece, but they did not land on the coast of Sparta. , because it had been blockaded by the Dionysian fleet, but with the acquiescence of Athens and Corinth, it entered the Saron Gulf to the east of the isthmus and entered the harbor of Corinth.After the mercenaries were assembled ashore, they were led south by Archidamus.

Lycomedes was anxious because Mantinia was located in the northeast of the Arcadian region and was on the path that the Spartan army must pass through, and as an advocate of the Arcadian Alliance, Mantinia It was a thorn in the side and a thorn in the flesh of the Spartans.

Lycomedes loudly shouted in the alliance: "The army formed by the Spartans with the help of Persia entered the territory of Arcadia without permission. They were by no means for peace. They came to destroy what Sparta regarded as For the threatening Arcadian Alliance, they will re-enslave the Arcadians to fight for the interests of Sparta! If the Arcadian Alliance does not form an alliance with Dionia as soon as possible, let the Dionia army If we try to stop the brutal Spartan mercenary army, then the alliance that has just been established will soon perish, and everyone who supports the establishment of the alliance will become the wronged souls under the Spartan stick!"

The councilors were moved by Lycomedes' words, and then they received news that the Spartan army soldiers who invaded Arcadia wreaked havoc and ravaged the land of Frios.

Finally, the Arcadian Alliance passed the agreement with a slight advantage.

In the early spring of 370 BC (No. 20 of the Kingdom of Dionia), the Arcadian Alliance and Dionia formed an alliance, and then Clotocathax led the first, fourth, and sixth legions. , the Mountain Reconnaissance Group, the 3000st Cavalry Corps, and half of the 32th Corps (000 soldiers stationed in Messenia), a total of about [-] soldiers marched north and entered the Arcadian region.

At this time, the Spartan mercenaries led by Archiedamus were already attacking Mantinia, and the Spartan Council of Elders had learned from the pro-Spartan faction among the neighbors to the north that the "Arcadian Alliance The news that they will form an alliance with Dionia” hates Mantinia, the leader of the alliance, and because the timely arrival of the mercenary army boosted their confidence, they decided to preemptively damage Mandinia and deter the Arcadia Alliance. Forcing it to fall back to Sparta.

The reason why the Spartans dared to make such a decision was that this army, which was formed at a huge cost, had 8000 heavy infantry, mainly hired from Miletus, Ephesus, Samos, Chios, and Lesbos. , Aeoria and other Greek city-states belonging to the western coastal areas of Asia Minor in Persia; 4500 Thracian peltasts, mainly employed from various Thracian states located north of the Kingdom of Macedonia, close to the Aegean Sea, and near the Rhodope Mountains tribe; 1500 cavalry mainly hired from the Kingdom of Macedonia; 1200 archers and slingers from Crete and Rhodes, in addition to more than 4000 light armored soldiers from the Ionian islands in the Aegean Sea...a total of More than 2 soldiers need to pay at least 1 Dalek gold coins every month and consume countless amounts of food. Of course, these are all provided by the Persians.

It was the first time that Archidamus led such a large and well-equipped army, and he was full of confidence in capturing Mantinia in a short time.

But when he led his army into the territory of Mandinia, all the people of Mandinia had already taken refuge in the city, so Archidamus began to attack the city of Mandinia.He originally thought that with the superior force he had, he should be able to capture the city of Mantinnia quickly, but unexpectedly he hit a hard nail.

The former city of Mantinia was destroyed by Spartan floods. After the Mantinians, who had been in exile for many years, returned home, they would never let their city be captured by the Spartans again, so they attacked the new city. Ingenious design.

The Mandinians chose a high-lying place on the Orpheus River as the site for building the city, and then dug a new river channel nearby to split the Orpheus River into two upstream of the city site and bypass the new city site. , meeting downstream, the river that was originally a huge threat has been transformed into a natural moat for the city.

They also laid a solid stone foundation for the entire city, and the city walls were all made of bricks. However, the city walls were not complete and continuous, because the entire city was divided into 10 separate parts, and the walls of each part were connected to the other parts. They are not connected, but they overlap with each other. There are city gates in these overlapping places, so the new city of Mantinha has 10 city gates.

For such a unique and irregular city, the Spartan army had to capture each city district one by one to completely occupy the entire city.The Mantinian city walls are independent according to the height of the terrain, which not only prevents the Spartans from fully deploying their superior forces, but also exposes the siege soldiers to long-range attacks from multiple sides of the defending side, not to mention the There is a river Orpheus as a barrier.

Archidamus launched several attacks on the city of Mantinea using traditional Greek siege methods. Not only did he fail to make any progress, but he also suffered some casualties, forcing him to change the attack to a siege and send a messenger back to the city. Bada reports on the war situation.

At the same time, Clotokatax has led his army into the southwest of Arcadia. This area belongs to the rare hilly area in Arcadia. The Hellison River runs through the entire area from south to north.In the mountains to the east of its center, there is Lycaon, the main holy mountain where the Acadians hold religious sacrifices, and the central town of Megalopolis, which is being built by the Acadian Alliance, is located on the Helison River. between the east coast of the sage and the holy mountain of Lycaon.

Due to the outbreak of the war with the Spartans, the construction of the new city of Megalopolis has stopped, the city wall as the outline of the city is only half built, and the most important temple of Zeus to the Arcadians has just been erected. A colonnade... Scaffolding and piled stones can be seen everywhere in the city. There is only one building, which is simple but has already been completed, and that is the meeting hall of the Arcadia Alliance. It is the basis for the existence of the entire alliance. The three councilors elected by the people of the city-state live here for a long time, and in accordance with the rules formulated by the alliance, they jointly discuss and decide the diplomatic and military affairs within the alliance.

At this moment, dozens of members of the alliance walked out of the city of Megalopolis, standing on a high place and looking south: I saw countless Dionian soldiers in the distance wearing uniform and sophisticated armor and weapons, arranged neatly. The column crossed the pontoon bridge they quickly built on the Helison River. Although the footsteps and the clash of armor were quite noisy, and the dust and fog were flying, few people complained loudly. The entire army was like a silent black dragon, Swimming forward without stopping...

The Councilors of Arcadia stood and looked at it for a long time, unable to see either the head or the tail of this long dragon, and they felt a little shocked in their hearts.

At this time, the long dragon branched off again and headed straight north.When they were about to approach them, the young general riding a tall horse and wearing a golden crown at the front raised his right hand and waved it down again. Then the army behind him stopped advancing in an instant, and the soldiers stood silently... This scene once again made people sad. MPs were surprised.

Lycomedes immediately descended from the heights to greet him, followed closely by the other councilors.

Clotokatax also dismounted and led Printoles, Muklu and the palace guards forward to meet him.

"General Clotokatax, thank you very much for your timely assistance!" Lycomedes solemnly bowed and saluted Prince Dionia.

Clotokatax quickly supported him and said sincerely: "Lord Lycomedes, now that the Arcadian Alliance and Dionia are allies, this is what we should do! Please rest assured , according to Dionia’s military law, our soldiers will not do anything on the land of our allies to damage the friendship between the two peoples! If there are soldiers who violate it, they will be severely punished! "

As soon as these words came out, many Arcadia MPs breathed a sigh of relief.

Suddenly, someone among the congressmen asked loudly: "How many soldiers have you sent?"

Printors took over the conversation: "Considering that Arcadia has many mountains and it is difficult to deploy our troops, we only brought more than 3 soldiers, and there are still more than 1 soldiers stationed in Messenia (Printhos Thors counts both the Messenians and the fleet infantry of the First Fleet).

Most of the congressmen gasped, and then sighed: More than 4 soldiers with complete equipment!They have never seen such a huge army in their lives!No wonder Dionia's marching troops were so long that the head and tail could not be seen at all!

We must know that the last time such a large number of troops appeared in mainland Greece was during the Greco-Persian War a hundred years ago. More than 10 soldiers from various Greek city-states (heavy infantry accounted for two-fifths of the total number) were gathered in Plataea and The Persians fought decisively; the other time was the Peloponnesian War decades ago. It is said that Athens sent an army of about 3 people to expedition to Syracuse in Sicily, and finally suffered a disastrous defeat.

But these two times have been so long ago that they have not witnessed it with their own eyes. The only thing a few MPs have personally experienced is the Battle of Leuctra that happened not long ago. The Peloponnesian coalition led by Sparta had more than 1 people. There were a total of about 2 people on both sides of the war. In their eyes, it was already a large-scale battle.

(End of this chapter)