ancient greece mediterranean ruler

Chapter 437 Bad News 2
The terms of surrender that Dionysius gave Silitium were quite generous: Coronia would provide supplies and troops to fight with the Syracuse army, and in exchange, Syracuse would not garrison the city of Coronia.

Of course, what the Coronians didn't know was that Dionysius also wrote a special letter to his brother-in-law, Demodocus, the chief general of Locle, for their surrender.

Because while Locri fully supported Dionysius in his invasion of Magna Graecia, he once made a request: He hoped that Dionysius would hand over the city of Coronia to them after defeating the South Italian League.Dionysius agreed.

For this reason, Dionysius had to reassure the Locrians: now, the treatment of Colonia is only temporary, and everything is expedient in order to defeat Crotone and Dionia as soon as possible. plan.After these city-states are truly conquered, Colonia will be handed over to Locri as promised.

The Locrians accepted Dionysius' explanation.

Of course, the Coronians did not know that their fate was already sealed. They thought they had escaped the disaster and were eager to show their obedience to Dionysius. They quickly sent 5000 soldiers and a large amount of baggage to the Silitium.

The surrender of Coronia freed up Locri's army, which originally besieged Coronia, and they quickly turned south and crossed the mountain pass.

Although Feidun was wary of the east side because the person he sent to report the news never returned, for the sake of safety, he sent a small force to guard the entrance of the mountain road.But after the news from the north was completely blocked by the people of Syracuse, he was completely blind. He never expected that the situation in southern Magna Greece had changed drastically in just a few days.

There were so many Locris (15000 people) and so fast that they attacked quickly. The less than [-] Lijim troops defending the mountain pass were quickly defeated.

Fei Dunzheng led his army to besiege Medema. He was shocked when he received the news. He had no time to organize his troops to fight, and the Locri troops rushed into the camp...

By the time Feidun and countless defeated troops fled across the Maro River in haste and into the city of Taurina, there were only less than 7000 troops left out of an original force of [-].

Dionysius was overjoyed when he learned of the surrender of Columnia and the defeat of Ligium, because at this time, except for Ligium, the southern part of Great Greece had been pacified, and he could safely attack the north with all his strength, while the lingering Ligium Lockley alone is enough to deal with, and he doesn't need to worry about it.

So he ordered Leptinius: Except for leaving a few warships to garrison Trina Port and continuing to cut off the maritime connections between Dionia and Lijim on the west coast, all the other warships participating in the war turned to the Siliting Port and concentrated there.

He also asked all troops to complete their rest and recuperation as soon as possible and prepare to advance north.

The war between the South Italian League and Syracuse was not only a matter between Magna Graecia and the Greek city-states of Sicily, it also attracted the attention of many forces throughout the Mediterranean.

Not long after the Battle of the Ramato River ended, news of Syracuse's victory quickly spread throughout the Western Mediterranean. The city-states and forces related to it were pondering the impact of this war on themselves, and even began to start small fights. abacus……

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On this day, the Dionysian Senate was having a regular meeting, mainly discussing two issues: one was that the Sixth Army Corps that had just gone to Crimesa had added logistical pressure to the Ministry of Military Affairs, resulting in a shortage of personnel to transport food and baggage; the other was that It was a proposal forwarded by Naval Commander Cykolian to Hieronymus. The departure of the Sixth Legion resulted in a shortage of combat soldiers on the warships, and he requested the formation of a new legion.At the same time, the Dionia United Fleet only has enough sailors. Once there is a loss in a naval battle, it will be difficult to supplement. He hopes to recruit sailors from allies as a backup.

"I think...it's very simple to solve the problem of insufficient personnel for the Ministry of Military Affairs to transport supplies." Cunogorata, the chief executive of Turui, thought about it and said: "Since the sea route was attacked by the Syracuse Navy, merchant ships The porters, storekeepers, ship repairers, coachmen and many other laborers in the port have no work to do, and they have nothing to do all day, which has added a lot of trouble to the law and order. The Ministry of Military Affairs can definitely go to the port to recruit some laborers, and even There is no need to pay, as long as their food supply is ensured, they will do a good job, and it will also reduce the pressure on the harbor patrol..."

"This is indeed a good idea!" Mariji praised it and reminded: "However, even if you use food as payment, you must pay attention to controlling the supply. As the war progresses, grain will only become more valuable than drachma. precious."

Hieronymus nodded in understanding.

At this time, Kunogorata asked: "I don't understand why Sekerian has to summon allied sailors?! There are so many spare men in our port, why not use them?!"

Seclian was not a senator and was not present at the meeting. Hieronymus, the only remaining commander of the Ministry of Military Affairs, could only answer, although he was not good at this: "Well... time is very tight now... um... Syracuse Zha's fleet will attack at any time, and what Sekerian needs are skilled sailors who don't need to spend too much time training..."

"The fleet in charge of Sekerian has taken up a lot of Thurii's manpower, but has always been hiding in the Craty River. What on earth is he doing?! He should be leading the fleet to drive away those Syracuse warriors who are tyrannizing in the Gulf of Taranto. Ship, even if it allows us to resume navigation for a day or two!" Marij complained.

"I don't know much about the situation in the Navy, but I know that Lord Davos asked him to do this."

As soon as Hieronymus finished speaking, Mariji laughed dryly twice and said, "Since Lord Davos has already made arrangements, it seems that we don't have to worry too much about the Syracuse fleet."

In the Senate, there are many senators like Mariji who blindly believe in Davos. However, after the South Italian coalition suffered a disastrous defeat in Siliting, Petalu, who has been in a daze for the past two days, feels that Mariji's flattering face makes him sick. .

He sneered a few times in his heart, and then turned his gaze to Kadurk, who was also a little absent-minded.

"Let's do this. Let's send people to discuss with Castellon and Heraclea and recruit some sailors..." Cornerus stood up and just as he made his suggestion, the door of the venue was suddenly pushed open.

The captain of the guard in charge of the defense of the Senate rushed in.

Seeing his flustered expression, the rotating chairman Kunogorata hurriedly asked, "What happened?"

"My lords, I just received an urgent message that Metapontum has been captured by Tarantum!"

"what?!!"

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Diomelas, the consul of Tarantum, stood at the top of the city of Metapontum, proudly overlooking the soldiers of Tarantum who poured into the already opened gate, strangled in various neighborhoods in the city, and were still trying. The resisting people of Metapontum...

The attack of Tarantum's army went very smoothly, and they quickly advanced towards the square in the center of the city.

The sounds of fighting gradually became sparse in Diomelas's ears.

"Let's go to the Acropolis!" Diomelas couldn't wait to pick the fruits of victory.

Diomelas got out of the city, got on his horse, and went straight forward with his followers. The corpses of Metapontum and the wounded struggling for help could be seen everywhere on the street, but he ignored them: these are flowing Talantu Since the descendant of Mu blood has chosen to betray, he can no longer hope to be forgiven by Tarantum.

As soon as Diomelas arrived at the square, his subordinates rushed to report the good news to him: "The Acropolis of Metapontum has been captured!"

"So fast?!" Although Diomiras was confident that the quality of Tarantum's soldiers was far better than that of the Metapontum people, he did not expect that the defense of the Acropolis, the core fortress of a city-state, was also so good. weak.

"Itsalocas and the others persuaded the soldiers stationed in the city to surrender." his subordinates explained.

"So that's it." Diomelas relieved his doubts.

After all, Metapontum was once a sub-state of Tarantum. Although after hundreds of years of development, the blood of the two sides has weakened and the politics tended to be independent, but they are in an alliance and have been under the protection of Tarantum for many years. There are many people in Metapontum who are close to and fond of Tarantum, but because of Tarantum's wrong and aggressive policies in the past few years, Metapontum suffered huge losses, but Tarantum is even more expensive. Only by insisting on acting recklessly did Metapontum turn to a more powerful neighbor than Tarantum, the Dionian Alliance, to avoid greater losses.

Dionia's more tolerant policy towards its allies reassured Metapontum, but this did not mean that Metapontum would completely cut off relations with Tarantum.On the contrary, once the crisis passed, the Metapontum people began to miss their mother state again. Coupled with the deliberate promotion of the pro-Tarantum faction headed by Isalocas, the relationship between the two sides returned to normal. It recovered quickly and contacts increased (and of course there were conflicts).After all, Metapontum is closer to Tarantum. It can be seen from the fact that the number of pro-Dionysians and pro-Tarantum factions elected in the annual Metapontum consuls and members of the Senate is similar. come out.

In every Senate meeting, the two groups tend to argue fiercely, and sometimes even conflict, over which side is more favored by a bill designed to include Dionia and Tarantum.In fact, the strength of the pro-Dionysian faction headed by Tudeples is weaker than that of the pro-Tarantum faction. After all, Dionysia has only been its ally for a short time, but Dionysia is expanding rapidly. But their strength gave them the confidence, so that at every critical moment, Isalocas and the others took the initiative to give in because they were afraid of angering Dionia.

The Dionysian Senate is also very aware of Metapontum's situation. Considering its relationship with Tarantum and the alliance treaty signed with Metapontum, it is not easy to interfere in its internal affairs.But they firmly believe that as Dionia becomes stronger and stronger, Metapontum will naturally follow more and more closely.

(End of this chapter)