ancient greece mediterranean ruler

Chapter 487 The Fall of Crotone
"Well, you are the commander, you have the final say." Epithenis shrugged at Felicius again, turned to Agasia and complained: "I said, Chief Administrator, can you get some for the brothers?" Wheat flour, even if you don’t have oats, you can at least make porridge. The brothers have been eating dried beef for two days, and now it’s a little difficult to even poop.”

"As the commander of the Fourth Army, you don't know that half of the soldiers of the Fourth Army are from here. How can the people here treat their relatives badly? But Asprostum is a small town with a small population. It’s not rich in wheat, and all the people’s excess grain reserves have been eaten up by you in the past few days, so where is the food?” Agcia said helplessly.

"Please bear with it a little longer. The cavalry of Syracuse has cut off our food transportation channel. I have asked the reconnaissance team to bring the news of 'our food supply difficulties' to Your Majesty. I believe it won't be long before His Majesty leads the army to arrive. The food problem will be solved." Felicius also comforted him.

"Wait! Wait! Wait!..." Epithenis became more and more anxious since Dracos died. He did not want to stay in the official residence and said loudly: "I will go to the city to see the situation. "

With that said, he strode out.

Agalia looked at Felicius who was sitting in a daze. He deeply felt that Dracos' death had a great impact on both of them, and he himself was not the same.At first, he invited his former comrades-in-arms such as Timazon and Cleander to come to Dionia. However, these people attacked Crimesa without authorization, triggering the second Crotone War. Although Crotone was ultimately defeated, Dionia's power expanded, and Davos never blamed him, but he himself blamed himself extremely.From then on, Agarcia devoted a lot of energy to political affairs to forget the guilt in his heart.After several years of hard work, he became the second person among this group of former mercenary veterans to be appointed chief executive (the first was Hilos) because of his good administrative abilities.

With the accumulation of political experience, he was in Asprostum and had long-term dealings with Crotone. He knew very well how unwilling the Crotone people were to lose their southern Italian hegemony, especially in these few years. After their strength recovered in [-], they often played against Dionia in the South Italian League. Therefore, he had another speculation about King Daves's order of "not to attack rashly": His Majesty seemed to have allowed Si Lacusa weakened Crotone's intention.But in this case, does Dionia have the ability to defeat Syracuse independently? !

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The siege of Crotone continued fiercely.

The Syracuseans used the archers on the top of the towering siege tower and the belly bows in the tower to clear out the defenders at the top of the city while slowly approaching the city wall.

In the past two or three days, the Crotones also discussed some ways to defend the siege tower, such as using long-range ballistas to focus attacks and rocket attacks; when the siege tower got close, they would throw oil cans. Burn it with fire; at the same time, they also made a long square log covered with iron sheets to push up the siege tower to prevent it from getting close to the city wall...

Even after such efforts, several siege towers approached the city wall and the wooden bridges were lowered. Syracuse soldiers rushed to the top of the city through the siege towers and fought fiercely with the defenders.

Lysias urgently sent troops for reinforcements, and after a fierce battle, the enemies were driven off the city one by one.

While the Crotones focused their main efforts on defending the siege tower, Syracuse soldiers climbed to the top of the city through ladders many times and launched fierce battles with the defenders.

The allied forces of Crotone, Trina, and Siritin have been defending tenaciously.

In the afternoon of the battle, the siege city of Syracuse shattered the northern gate of Crotone, but the Crotones had already sealed the doorway with stones and wood.

However, the combined use of several other siege engines and Zhoushi chariots eventually caused a section of the city wall to collapse, causing heavy casualties to the defenders on the city.

The Syracuse soldiers took the opportunity to quickly climb up the collapsed slope, trying to rush into the city.

Fortunately, the reserve team organized by Lysias arrived in time. This team, composed of free people, old people and teenagers, relied on its large number and fighting spirit to defend their homeland, and barely resisted the fierce attack of the experienced Syracuse soldiers. .

It was already dusk and the sky was getting dark. Lysias, Sipulos and other coalition leaders all looked happy, thinking that the day's battle had finally come to an end.

However, Dionysius had no intention of withdrawing his troops and returning to the camp. He asked the slaves to push wooden carts filled with wood, asphalt, resin, and piled with oiled linen. They were pushed to the moat and ignited with fire, which immediately ignited piles of fire and illuminated the entire city wall.

Dionysius immediately ordered: Sound the attack bugle, beat the war drum, and continue to attack the city!

The defenders, who were struggling to hold on and thought the battle should be over, saw the Syracuseans retreating in waves and attacking again without stopping, and the morale of the defenders was depressed.

The Syracuseans' unremitting siege efforts finally paid off.Under the urging of the soldiers, and after sacrificing countless lives, the prisoners built the ramp up to the city and finally put sandbags on the city wall due to the weakening of the garrison.

The Syracuse soldiers who had been waiting for a long time rushed to the top of the city and fought with the defenders who came to intercept them.Dionysius, who was anxious, even asked the guards around him to join the battle at the top of the city.

The defenders could no longer hold on and began to retreat, allowing the Syracuseans to gain a foothold at the top of the city and quickly expand in other directions.

"Quick! Go find Lysias! Tell him to send reinforcements quickly, otherwise the North City cannot be defended!" Askamas shouted angrily at the messenger.

However, at this moment, the city of Crotone is under attack on the north, west and south sides. The eastern port has to guard against the landing of a large number of enemy ships cruising in the offshore sea. The only reserve team is struggling to resist the enemy troops attacking from the gap in the city wall. Where? There are also extra reinforcements.

Just as the generals of Crotone were stretched thin and watched helplessly as the enemies swarmed onto the city and wreaked havoc, "Boom!...Boom!..." There were several more loud noises, and a section of the city wall was once again occupied by siege engines. Beat down.In the flying dust, accompanied by the roars of the Syracuseans, the Crotones fighting for their homeland finally showed fear. Under the cover of the night, they began to shout in panic: "Run away! The enemy is coming." ! The city is broken!..."

The reserve troops, whose morale was already low, retreated, and soon the defenders on the city began to retreat...

The people of Syracuse broke through the barriers of the city wall and rushed into the city. The entire northern city defense was completely breached.

Lysias, Sisprotus and other high-ranking officials saw with sadness that the panicked soldiers ignored their dissuasion and ran past them like a tide, escaping into the depths of the city; the people on both sides of the street also helped the elderly. Taking their children with them, they fled together; cries, screams, and screams resounded throughout the city...

Seeing that the enemy was clearing the garrison on the city wall and advancing towards the center of the city, Lysias, although anxious, was completely confused and did not know what to do.

At this time, long dragons composed of torches appeared from the depths of the city: "Go to the Temple of Apollo quickly!!! Go to the Temple of Apollo!!!..."

This neat shout reminded the panicked people of Crotone. Under the illumination of torches, they staggered towards the Temple of Apollo, the location of the Acropolis near the center of the city.

Lysias and his party also rushed over.

"Who told you to do this?!" Lysias asked the soldier holding the torch urgently.

"It's General Milon!" the soldier replied.

At this time, Milon was not a general at all. His task of defending the port was asked by Askamas, but this did not prevent the soldiers from respecting him.

Lysias had no intention of caring about this at this time. On the contrary, he was grateful to Milon in his heart. If he had not taken timely measures to guide the people to the Acropolis, the consequences would have been disastrous.

He looked back at the city wall, which was blazing with flames, and saw that some of the soldiers with heavy figures were still trying desperately to block the enemy's attack. Screams were heard one after another, and his heart was suddenly twisted.

He reminded the soldiers beside him with concern: "The enemy will come soon, so you must rush back to the Acropolis as soon as possible!" After speaking, he and others merged into the chaotic flow of people. They must rush to the Acropolis as soon as possible in order to comfort them. The panicked people must maintain order in the Acropolis, and at the same time organize the people to defend the last fortress of Crotone, the Acropolis.

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"Sir, we have won! We have conquered the city of Crotone!!" Damocles was extremely excited.

Dionysius could not conceal his joy. After receiving the blessings from his attendants, he immediately prayed devoutly to Apollo to express his gratitude.

Amidst the cheers, Phoebe Das, who was deep in thought, seemed a bit different.Today's siege battle gave him a great shock. Not only the ingeniously crafted and powerful siege equipment, but also the organization of the entire huge siege team was quite orderly. But what shocked him was that Dionysius Si's cruelty.

Dionysius actually killed the soldiers and troops who had failed to attack the city and fled the battlefield. This is simply incredible!In traditional Greek wars, deserters were never dealt with, and even Sparta did not have such a tradition. After all, the entire Spartan society's atmosphere of advocating battle honors would leave deserters with nowhere to go.But Dionysius not only did it, but he did it more than once, thus forcing the soldiers of Syracuse to risk their lives and attack desperately, and actually created the miracle of breaking through the city of Crotone, a powerful country in Magna Graecia, in one day.

This made Phoebidas look at Dionysius, who he thought was not good at field battles in the past, but such a victory was probably based on Dionysius not caring about the number of soldiers killed.

(End of this chapter)