ancient greece mediterranean ruler

Chapter 660 The Expansion of Rome

Chapter 660 The Expansion of Rome

In the Latium region of central Italy, Camillus, whom Davos was concerned about, received an order from the Roman Senate: Let him serve as the leading general and lead the troops remaining in Rome to repel the Volscian coalition.

Although he repeatedly declined, saying that he was too old and weak to lead an army, and hoped to give this task to a more suitable person, the Roman people strongly requested him to take up the task because they actually did not expect him to take the lead and charge the enemy. He has strong trust in his actual combat experience and military skills, and believes that he will definitely bring brilliant victory to Rome.

Camillus had no choice but to accept it.

Considering that Camillus was unable to go into battle to kill the enemy, the Senate also assigned him a young military and political officer named Lucius Phlius to serve as his partner.

The two men led the only two legions in the city, a total of 1 Roman citizen soldiers, and joined thousands of allied soldiers. Then they led the army to rush southeast, and soon arrived in Prenister.

About to encounter the Volscian coalition, Camillus ordered the army to stop and camp. He wanted to delay the battle with the enemy first.On the one hand, he did not want to fight the enemy with high morale at this moment, and wanted to wait for the enemy to slack off, or force the enemy to take the initiative to attack their camp; on the other hand, one of the reasons why he had postponed the appointment of the Senate before was that he was accepted by the Senate. He had a cold, still had a fever, and was weak. He wanted to wait for his body to get better before fighting against the enemy.

Unexpectedly, another young military and political officer, Phrius, was eager to achieve success and was eager to fight the enemy. Camillus was unable to fight due to illness, which allowed him to monopolize the military exploits.

So he privately urged the officers in the army to make everyone unanimously appeal to Camillus for a war. He had made great achievements and won honors, so he reluctantly agreed: Let Lucius Frius lead the army to fight, while he led a small number of soldiers to stay in the camp.

Out of concern about the war, he sent people to inquire about the progress of the battle and report to him at any time.But he himself was lying on the hospital bed, tossing and turning.

When he learned that the Roman army's formation was not yet complete, Frius launched an attack rashly, and was defeated by the enemy in one fell swoop. When the defeated troops were fleeing to the camp, he forgot about his illness, jumped up from the bed, and organized the remaining troops. The soldiers quickly prepared for defense.

He personally ran to the gate of the camp and kept loudly admonishing the soldiers who retreated from the battlefield, asking them to pick up their weapons again and repel the enemies who followed them.

When the defeated soldiers saw this prestigious, white-haired veteran nailed to the gate like a rock without taking a step back, they couldn't help but feel ashamed. They turned around to fight, cooperated with the defenders in the camp, and finally drove away enemy.

After all this ordeal, Camillus broke out in a cold sweat, and his cold was mostly cured. He couldn't help but thank Minerva for her blessing.

The depressed and guilty military officer Phrius came to plead guilty to Camillus.

Camillus did not severely criticize the young general for his reckless fighting, but patiently asked him about the entire battle process.

After thinking about it, he said to Frius: "Tomorrow we will lead the army out of the camp and fight a decisive battle with the enemy!"

Frius thought he heard wrongly: "We just experienced a defeat in the battle..."

"It is precisely because of this defeat that the Roman citizens who advocate honor urgently need a victory to wash away this shame!" Camillus said firmly.

Encouraged, Frius nodded in agreement.

Soon, the news of "the battle tomorrow morning" spread throughout the camp.

The soldiers heard that the respected general Camillus would lead them out of camp tomorrow morning for a decisive battle to wash away the shame of this defeat.Suddenly, everyone no longer looked downcast, but geared up and swore revenge to the gods.

The next day, after Camillus led his army one mile out of the camp, he stopped advancing and quickly began to form a formation.

The Volscian coalition forces were pleasantly surprised when they heard that the Romans who had failed in yesterday's battle actually walked out of the strong camp, and hurried over with their troops.

Before they could fully deploy their formation, Camillus gave the order: Attack with the entire army!
Roman soldiers eager for revenge launched an overwhelming attack on the Volscian coalition, and Camillus focused the attack on the weaker Hernigians.

After a fierce battle, the chaotic Volscian coalition forces were completely at a disadvantage. The Herniki were defeated first, which then led to the rout of the entire army.

Camillus ordered: The whole army continues to pursue, don't relax!

The Roman army took the opportunity to occupy the enemy's camp. Most of the Volscian soldiers were either killed or captured. The Roman soldiers celebrated their victory.

But after a day's rest, news came again that Bolae, another Latin ally of Rome, had been captured by the Hernicians.

Camillus immediately decided to send the heavy infantry back to Rome, and then led the light infantry to march all the way to Bonne and launched an assault on the Hernicians.

Unsuspecting, the Herniki, who had just taken the town, were quickly routed and most of their fighters killed.

Camillus returned to Rome with a large amount of booty and captured troops.

The Roman people cheered him.

At his suggestion, the Roman Senate turned the Roman army that had returned from the north to attack the Etruscans to attack the Aequi, Helnicians and other forces in the east.

Two months later, the Aequi, Herniki, and Masi people, who had suffered heavy losses in the previous war, were no longer able to resist after repeated attacks and chose to surrender.

After the Romans identified their main enemies in the east and southeast, they began to turn their attention to the Volscians in the south.

The Volscians are an ancient race in Italy. They lived in the upper reaches of the Ligus River valley in northeastern Italy hundreds of years ago. However, as the Celts continued to invade south, the Volscians could not compete with them. , were forced to continue to migrate to the southwest of Italy. Finally, they settled on the fertile land in southern Latium and thrived peacefully here for hundreds of years. However, with the rise and expansion of the Romans, the Volscians could not Not to start a constant armed conflict with the power that has become its close neighbor to the north.

In the past hundred years, the two sides have fought many wars.At the beginning, the Volscians still had the upper hand.However, as Rome conquered the surrounding Latin city-states and established the Latin League, its strength greatly increased, and the Volscians gradually found it difficult to attack Rome.

And in 358 years after the founding of Rome (i.e. 396 BC), the Roman general Camillus led his army to conquer Viai, a strong Etruscan state located in the northern area of ​​​​the upper reaches of the Tiber River. This conquest Not only did it completely occupy the surrounding land in the Taipei River Basin, but it also shocked the surrounding races and forces.

As a result, the Volscians signed a peace agreement with Rome.

But four years later, the Celts captured the city of Rome, and Rome's strength declined, leading to the dissolution of the Latin Confederation. The army led by Milus was completely defeated.

Before the Volscians, who had suffered heavy losses, could recover from their defeat, the Roman army invaded the Volscian territory and surrounded Vilitre, a powerful state in the northwest of Volsc. (velitrae).

While the Volscians gathered their troops to go to the rescue, they also considered asking for reinforcements from other forces. This was because the Romans had become stronger and stronger after they carried out military reforms in recent years. Several wars between the Volscians and the Romans were This ended in failure and they became fearful of the Romans.

In fact, the closer and more powerful force to Wolsey is the Samnite. Unfortunately, this powerful mountain race is always extremely aggressive towards surrounding forces.In the past years, there have been many wars between the Volscians and the Samnite people. Several Wolscian towns close to the Samnite mountains, such as Sora and Cepeatae, were also conquered by the Samnite people. Occupied by the Nei people, how could the Volscians dare to ask for help from this violent and hostile force.

Therefore, after discussion, the Wolscian Alliance agreed that only the powerful kingdom in the south, Dionia, was the most suitable target for help. However, Wolsey had no formal diplomatic contact with Dionia before and was afraid of being rejected. So the Volscians thought of a way.

The Wolsey League sent envoys to the south by boat and came to the Campania region. In the Campania area, there is a Campania League that the Wolsey people seem to be relatively strong. It has a good relationship with Wolsey. , the two sides often have trade exchanges.

The League of Campania was originally an alliance formed by the Greek colonial city-states in this region. Its purpose was to protect the security of the city-states and jointly resist foreign enemies. Its main enemies were the Samnites in the mountains to the east.Later, some Etruscan city-states in the eastern part of the Campania plain that were also invaded by the Samnites also joined in.

The Etruscans were once the most powerful force in Italy, occupying the entire northern part of Italy and most of central Italy. Later, due to the invasion of the Celts, their power was greatly weakened, and many territories were continuously occupied by other races. Occupied, its power began to retreat to the north.But in the eastern part of the Campania plain, there are still several Etruscan city-states headed by Capua and Suessla.

After joining the Campania League, Capua also competed with Naples for dominance of the alliance. However, after the Samnites captured Capua 20 years ago, the alliance has been dominated by Naples.

Therefore, the Volscian envoy came directly to the city of Naples, presented Wolscian's request for help to its council, and gently reminded the Naples that the Romans were aggressive, and once Wolsc was conquered by them, they would not be far away from Volsc. The fertile Campania region, which is not far west of El Salvador, may be its next target.

 Thanks to QuietRain and yyaJy2304 for the reward!Your support is my biggest motivation for writing! !

  
 
(End of this chapter)

Tap the screen to use advanced tools Tip: You can use left and right keyboard keys to browse between chapters.

You'll Also Like