ancient greece mediterranean ruler

Chapter 732 Dionia VS Carthage ([-])

At first, both parties were in peace, each enjoying the coolness and comfort brought by the river.

But in the upper reaches of the lower reaches of the Platala River, the river here is narrower, with the widest width being just over ten meters. However, those who draw water on the east bank are Agrigento's soldiers (their camp is nearby), and those on the other bank are drawing water. They were the soldiers of the Holy Order of Carthage (because the upper end of the Pletala River was close to the mountains, the Sikelians often harassed the Carthage camp from the north, and the Numibian troops originally stationed in the north There was an attack that caused chaos, and in the end Monte Adeno had no choice but to transfer his most reliable Holy Order troops here).

The full name of the Holy Legion is "The Holy Legion of Carthage", and it is called the "Hammer of Baal" by the people of Carthage. Most of its soldiers are elites selected from the oldest and most famous families in the Carthage city-state. The training they received was outstanding. These noble sons of heaven wiped their strong bodies with clean white cloth, and asked the Numibian slaves accompanying them to go further upstream to absorb pure water. He came to drink from the river. At the same time, he looked at the Greek soldiers on the other side of the river, some of whom were soaking in the river water and some lying directly on the river to drink. He suddenly showed contempt and laughed with his companions: the Greeks on the other side did not care about hygiene. They are all poor people! …

But what they didn't know was that the Greek soldiers on the other side of the river were citizens from Agrigento.

Agrigento was once the second largest Greek power in Sicily after Syracuse, and their history is even older than Syracuse.The reason why Syracuse was able to develop and grow decades ago was due to the support and immigrants from Agrigento. Even Dillon, who made a huge contribution to the prosperity of Syracuse, was also from Agrigento. With the help of Agrigento's power, he sat on the throne of Syracuse tyrant.

But nearly 20 years ago, Athens' Sicilian expedition weakened the power of the Greek city-states on the island. The Carthaginians took the opportunity to let Hannibal, the patriarch of the Magonides family, serve as commander and launched an attack on eastern Sicily. Hannibal was bloody. He killed Himera to avenge his ancestors, but Hermocrates, the father-in-law of Dionysius and the general of Syracuse, led the Sicilian Greek city-state coalition to repel the Carthaginian army.But it didn't take long for him to be killed by the democrats of Syracuse who incited the people to kill him on the grounds that he wanted to be a dictator.

Not long after, the Carthaginians launched another attack.This time, Himilco, the newly appointed patriarch of the Magonides family and Hannibal's cousin, was the commander. This was his first time as the commander of the Carthaginian army. He first targeted the second Sicilian army. The Magna Greek city-state of Agrigento.

Agrigento faced the attack of Himilco's army. Although the number of soldiers was far less than that of the opponent, they were not afraid because the people of Agrigento have always respected Sparta, and their citizens' daily military training also required It was much stricter than the citizens of ordinary Greek city-states, and a Spartan army was hired in the city.

The siege of Carthage lasted for more than eight months, during which Agrigento also won several small victories. However, the Carthaginians had too much advantage, and Himilko used money to bribe and threaten, which led to Agrigento's defeat. Grigento's reinforcements and mercenaries gave up rescue or defected, including Syracuse and Sparta.

The people of Agrigento finally despaired, and most of the people fled to Gela during the night. The Carthaginians invaded the city, killed everyone who stayed in the city, plundered the entire city, and burned it He even decided to completely destroy the temple and rebuild a Carthaginian city, but the subsequent failure of the war prevented Himilko from doing so.

When Dionysius led the army to attack western Sicily, these exiles from Agrigento were finally able to return to their hometown. It took 20 years for the former generation of escaped children to grow into the pillars of the city-state. Not only did hatred not fade away because of time, disappeared, but became increasingly intense. Although they could not understand the Carthaginian spoken on the other side, they could not understand from the other side's wanton laughter and contemptuous eyes that the other side was humiliating themselves, so the anger burned in their hearts.

When an Agrigento soldier picked up pebbles in the river and threw them hard at the Carthaginian soldiers on the other side, the surrounding Agrigento people also followed suit.

The Carthaginians, who were attacked, immediately retaliated with stones.

Although the stone does not cause fatal injuries, it still hurts when it hits the body, and most of them are only wearing inner lining or naked. The severe pain further arouses the anger of these young and energetic soldiers. So some people did not throw stones at all, but rushed across the river, clenched their fists, and punched each other... The conflict between the two sides quickly changed from throwing stones to physical fighting, and the scope of the conflict was also rapidly expanding. Soldiers on both sides were also affected by it and joined the battle one after another.

At this time, the clever Numibian slaves ran back to the camp, asked other Holy Order soldiers for help, and even carried the weapons and equipment left by their masters in the tent to the river.

The addition of heavily armed Carthaginian soldiers pushed the expanding conflict to a new stage.

The few Agrigento soldiers who were watching by the river and did not join the battle group saw the arrival of the heavily armed enemies. Although their hearts were burning with anger, they were unarmed and would not be stupid enough to resist the heavily armed Carthaginians. , so they shouted loudly for their comrades to evacuate quickly, but the scene was too chaotic and no one listened for a while.

However, the conflict was started by Agrigento soldiers, and it was not so easy to end it.

The arrogant soldiers of the Holy Order of Carthage refused to give up. Moreover, they had sharp weapons in their hands, but the enemy was not far away like lambs waiting to be slaughtered. This was simply the fat meat they had obtained, how could they not eat it!They waved their shields and spears and stepped into the Praitala River.

The comrades who had been fighting fiercely took the initiative to make way for them, and they squeezed to the front and thrust their spears at the Agrigento soldiers who wanted to escape...

At this time, on this stretch of river in the upper reaches of the Pretala River, nearly a thousand soldiers from both sides were piled up for a group fight. The Agrigento soldiers at the front saw that the situation was not good and wanted to escape. But he didn't know what was going on, and he didn't get out of the way in time. The Carthaginian soldier's spear easily penetrated the body of the almost naked Agrigento soldier.

When screams continued to sound, blood dyed the surface of the Pretala River red, and panic overwhelmed the anger in their hearts, Agrigento soldiers began to flee back in panic. While pushing each other, some people stumbled and fell. , either stabbed to death or drowned.

At this time, Milephio had just reported to Monte Adeno what he had learned in the past two days in the Chinese army's tent about "why the Carthaginian fleet failed to escort". On the way back to his camp, Only then did he learn what happened on the Praitala River from the adjutant who arrived.

He immediately rode to the Pletara River, just in time to see that the heavily armed Holy Order soldiers had rushed to the opposite bank and were killing the fleeing Greeks along the river bank.

The young and passionate Milephio did not blow the retreat horn and ordered the soldiers under his command who had violated military orders and provoked the battle to immediately retreat to the west bank. Instead, he sent messengers to notify the remaining Holy Legion soldiers and Holy Legion cavalry in the camp. He immediately rushed to the Preetala River and ordered the naked soldiers on the river bank to immediately put on their armor, pick up their weapons, and get into formation.

After everything was arranged, Milephio said to the messenger next to him: "Go to the Chinese army camp and inform Lord Monte Adeno that the Greeks took the initiative to provoke our Holy Order soldiers, and what happened was Fight, now the entire Holy Legion army and cavalry have fully engaged the Greeks!"

The messenger turned around to leave, but he stopped him again and emphasized: "Slow down, don't rush there too quickly!"

The messenger immediately expressed his understanding and then slowly advanced towards the camp.

The young and energetic Milephio lied about the military situation because he was dissatisfied with Monte Adeno's conservative cowardice. At such a young age, he became the leading general of Carthage's most elite holy legion. He did not want others to Thinking that this was the credit of his father-in-law Hanno, he needed to prove his ability with brilliant military exploits, and now he thought this was a good fighter.

The Holy Legion soldiers who crossed the river pursued and killed the fleeing Agrigento soldiers along the river bank.

The Agrigento people who had noticed that the situation was not good had already run back to the camp to call for reinforcements.Not long after, heavily armed Agrigento soldiers arrived, along with some soldiers from other city-states.

The killing action of the Carthaginian Holy Order soldiers was stopped, and even with the arrival of more Greek soldiers, the Carthaginians fighting on the east bank quickly changed from offense to defense because of the small number of people, and began to gradually move towards step back.

Although the soldiers of the Carthaginian Holy Order were proud because of their origin, they were indeed well-trained. Not long after Milephio issued the order, they had already formed a line on the west bank that was more than a mile long and seven meters thick. A square array of eight columns.

They wore open helmets similar to those of the Dionysian heavy infantry, with no face armor and only cheek guards. The crown was a bunch of long red or white tassels, and they wore thick linen chests. Armor, originally they could put on fine chain armor on the outside, but these soldiers would rather put on a layer of leather armor with brilliant colors and beautiful patterns on the linen breastplate, rather than wearing dark chain armor that ruins the appearance. .The polished bronze armor is worn on the calf, and the feet are wearing fine leather sandals. The right hand is holding a sharp spear more than two meters long, and the left hand is carrying a large copper shield with a diameter of more than one meter. Each round The shields are painted with exquisite lace and patterns, and soldiers often use them to show off or compare their beauty.In addition, these soldiers had enough property to provide them with rich nutrition to keep their bodies strong. They were all tall and strong, and the square array they formed was both majestic and colorful.

On the right wing of the infantry square is a thousand holy regiment cavalry. Its real name is the Carthage Noble Cavalry. It is also composed of children of famous Carthage families. These cavalry are also wearing the best armor and holding three weapons. An extra-long lance over a meter long, a high-quality dagger on his waist, and a mount selected from the toughest war horses in Iberia.

"Attack!" Milephio impatiently gave the order.

(End of this chapter)