ancient greece mediterranean ruler

Chapter 1229 Athens surrenders ([-])

With the siege platform closer to the city and higher up, the attack distance of all ballistae was greatly increased, covering almost half of the area of ​​Athens. The ballistae not only fired stone projectiles, but also threw burning oil cans into the city. As a result, fires broke out all over the city of Athens, causing chaos.

Immediately afterwards, the Dionian army launched nine super siege towers. They were guarded by siege equipment such as arrow-blocking vehicles and wooden box trucks, as well as light and heavy infantry following closely behind, and slowly moved toward the west of Athens. The wall advances.

The garrison soldiers at the top of the city were very panicked when they saw these behemoths that were taller than the city wall approaching them.Iphicrates and Cabrias, who arrived after hearing the news, were also stunned.

At this moment, the super siege tower, which was still 50 meters away from the city wall, stopped advancing. The light infantry on the top floor began to fire arrows at the defenders at the top of the city, and the next floor of the siege tower also opened. The baffle revealed the ferocious appearance of the abdominal bow, and the huge iron arrows roared towards the city head, like piercing meat skewers, and could knock down several soldiers at a time, and the death was terrifying.

If the guards had not rescued him in time, Iphicrates would have almost been stabbed by an iron arrow and died.He looked at the towering siege platform not far away and the huge siege equipment in front of him with lingering fear, and a strong sense of helplessness suddenly rose in his heart...

For several days, Patroclus launched attacks on the city of Athens in this way. Although he had not launched a full-scale siege, he had already caused a lot of damage to the defenders at the top of the city, and even caused a lot of damage to the city. Panic and confusion.He not only showed the Athenians the terrifying siege capabilities of the Dionysian army, but also implicitly told the top officials of Athens: The Holy Kingdom of Dionysia is strong and has enough capabilities to guarantee the huge consumption of an army of 10, and it is completely possible to carry out the task. The siege continued.

For Athens, these days were a complete disaster. One-fifth of the city was attacked by Dionysian ballistae, and a small half was burned to ruins. Even the Civic Assembly Hall on Pnyx Hill was destroyed. By the time of the destruction (Prix hill was very close to the south wall, just off the road leading to the port of Piraeus, it was completely within the range of the ballistae on the nearest siege platform outside the city, and Patrok The target mentioned by Ross did not cause too much damage because Clotoka Tax specifically asked for mercy). Nearly a thousand families lost their homes and cried day and night, begging the city hall for assistance, and also gave others This caused a great shock to the people of Athens.

The Athens government sent a large number of manpower to deal with the aftermath of these attacked cities. At the same time, it also strengthened the defense of the city walls to prevent the Dionian army from taking advantage of the turmoil in the city to launch an siege.However, the vastness of the city of Athens, coupled with the long wall and the port of Piraeus, required a large number of citizen soldiers, which greatly reduced the number of patrols to maintain order in the city.Unexpectedly, the damage caused by ballistae to urban areas has made food supply and water more tense, and the contradiction between urban residents and refugees outside the city has been intensified, triggering many conflicts.

When the patrol team was exhausted, more than 2000 mining slaves took advantage of the unrest in the city and the weakening of supervision to communicate secretly, suddenly launched a riot, killed the foreman and guards who supervised them, broke out of the prison-like slave camp, collected weapons, and Destroy the mine owner's estate.Then on the way to the city gate, they killed the Athenian people in the houses along the way and liberated the slaves. By the time they arrived at the west gate, the number of slaves increased to more than 6000.

After receiving the news, Iphicrates urgently mobilized his troops to promptly block the group of slaves trying to escape at the gate of the Western City, and the two sides started a fierce battle.

Although Iphicrates had few soldiers, his soldiers were well armed and had plenty of physical strength.Although the slave team had a large number of people, it was poorly equipped and many of them were even unarmed. Moreover, due to the mistreatment of the mine owners, most of the slaves were physically weak. Coupled with the narrow streets, they were unable to take full advantage of the large number of people. It didn't take long for the slave team to collapse. Some could not withstand the attack of the Athenian soldiers.

At this time, Cabrias led another army and arrived from the rear. Under attack from both front and rear, the slave team quickly collapsed and fled in all directions.

Since the Dionian coalition forces outside the city still used siege equipment to attack the defenders from a distance as before, the light infantry on the siege tower discovered something strange in the city and rushed to notify the commander in the rear camp.

Patroclus made a quick decision: launch a formal attack on the western wall.

But just as the Dionian soldiers gathered in formation and blew the bugle call to attack, the riot inside the West City Gate had subsided. After receiving the news, Patroclus hesitated for a moment, and finally canceled the order to attack. It can be said that A great opportunity to capture the city of Athens was missed.

But this slave riot had a great impact on the city of Athens.Although the rioting slaves only killed less than 300 Athenian people in two blocks, they caused panic among many Athenians, especially those citizens who had more slaves at home. They either asked the city hall to send patrols to help guard them. Slaves, or simply give male slaves to the city-state for free. A few Athenian citizens even killed their slaves out of excessive fear. Naturally, they were met with desperate resistance by the slaves, so scenes of family tragedies were staged from time to time in the city of Athens. , the conflict between slaves and slave owners was extremely intensified...

Besieged by enemy forces outside and full of internal conflicts, the city of Athens seemed to be sitting on a crater about to erupt, with the possibility of being wiped out at any time.Finally, at the 500-member assembly held urgently in the city hall, most members rushed to propose: accept Dionia's request and negotiate a truce with it.

The next citizens' meeting had to be temporarily transferred to the Dionysus Theater because Mount Pnyx was threatened by the Dionysian ballistae.

The citizens of Athens, who once unanimously expressed indignation that "they would rather die with the city than surrender to Dionia", have endured a lack of water and food, compatriots turning into enemies, slave riots, fires, and facing Dionia every day. After all the hardships, including threats from bows, arrows and stone bullets, and extreme mental pressure, most of them felt relieved when they heard Callistratus announce the proposal of a 500-member council.

Only a few citizens, led by Isocrates, expressed firm opposition. Isocrates even gave an impassioned speech on the rostrum. He shouted in his hoarse voice: "...descendants of Theseus, your ancestors You were once the best and bravest citizens in the world. When hundreds of thousands of Persian troops invaded Greece and other city-states were afraid and retreated, your ancestors bravely stood up and defeated a small number of people in Salamiga and suffered heavy losses. They defeated the powerful navy of Persia and finally won the Greco-Persian War. Through this great victory, other city-states saw the greatness of Athens and regarded Athens as their savior. Since then, Athens has created great glory! You still have Remember what Pericles said, 'Athens is the school of all Greeks!' Yes, that was the golden age that all of us here yearn for!
And today history is repeating itself, another powerful invader invaded Greece, and they even reached the gates of Athens!Citizens, it's time!It's time to be like our ancestors. When other Greek city-states are afraid of surrender, we should stand up bravely and fight unyieldingly against the Dionysian army for your freedom and dignity!

Athena prefers heroes. She will only protect us who fight unyieldingly. In the end, we will repel the Dionysian army. By then, we will be the savior of the entire Greece. Without Sparta’s restraint, we will create a world better than before. A more glorious future in the golden age! …

And if you choose to surrender to these barbarians who can't even speak Greek fluently, you will have to abandon the democracy that once made us proud and let a king give orders; those wise and humorous dramas you like will They will be replaced by their seemingly grand but actually ridiculous square dances; the competitive sports full of strength and beauty of skills that you admire will be replaced by horrific games of brutal collisions; more importantly, we cannot be the same as before. They sacrificed to the beautiful and wise Athena and other Greek gods, but had to kneel down to worship the heretics they believed in; in the end, the glorious culture and history of Athens will be forcibly erased, and only their conquests will be shown off to future generations. history!
Citizens, by then great Athens will perish!Just die! …”

At the end of the story, Isocrates burst into tears and burst into tears.

The deathly silence in the theater gradually became filled with choking sounds, and finally there was a burst of crying.

However, the ideal is beautiful, but the reality is cruel. When it came time to vote, the resolution was still passed by an absolute majority.

Athens surrendered! ! !When the Athenian envoy walked into the camp of the Dionian army with a lost and depressed look, the good news quickly spread throughout the Dionian coalition, and there was thunderous joy everywhere.

Patroclus repeatedly asked Crotocactus to preside over the surrender ceremony of Athens, but Crotocactus could not postpone it and had to accept.The two army commanders showed humility and cooperation with each other throughout the Greek war, and it became a legend for a while.

And when the Athenian envoy painfully signed the armistice contract, a fishing boat took advantage of the Dionysian people to celebrate and the blockade outside the port became relaxed, quietly rowed out of the port, and flexibly turned west into Sara. Mega Bay.

At this moment, a tall and burly man emerged from the simple boat shed.

"Hey, what are you doing out here? Hurry up and hide in. If you are hit by Dionia's patrol boat, you will be in trouble!" The captain shouted eagerly.

"Don't worry, you Athens has surrendered. The Dionians are probably celebrating. Who cares about your little fishing boat." The man said nonchalantly.

(End of this chapter)