ancient greece mediterranean ruler

Chapter 793: Attacking the City of Rome ([-])

"Great!" Lizaru punched Midorades in the chest and said sincerely, "Thank you for your trust, Midorades!"

"This is all for Dionia!" Midorades responded seriously.

"Don't worry, I won't let the fleet infantry suffer heavy losses!" Lizaru also made a promise, and then said to the adjutant: "Go and call Uraza quickly!"

He planned to let Urazza command the entire Third Army to attack the south bank of Rome in his place, and he himself would lead the two infantry brigades and two thousand Third Fleet infantry remaining in the camp to go out to meet the Roman reinforcements. After all, as the commander of the legion, It was easier for the fleet infantry to accept his command.

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Viai is a town built by the Etruscans. It is located on the north bank of the middle reaches of the Tiber River, northeast of Rome, about forty miles away. It is one of the twelve alliance city-states of Etruria.Since the founding of Rome, it has been the Romans' great enemy. The two sides have fought for control of the land on both sides of the middle reaches of the Tiber River, and many wars have occurred over the past century.

From being passively beaten at the beginning, to winning and losing, and then gaining the upper hand, the Romans can be said to have gone through many ups and downs. Finally, more than 20 years ago, after ten years of siege, Camillus led an army to break through the city of Viai. Based on hatred, and interests, the Romans killed all the Viai people who could resist, captured women and children as slaves, completely occupied the land of Viai, and used it as a colonial town in Rome.

Soon afterwards, due to fierce conflicts between the nobles and civilians in Rome, most of the civilians left Rome and settled in Viai.Then the Celts invaded and the city of Rome was occupied. After Camillus gathered the Romans and Latins to drive away the Celts, the Roman aristocrats and civilians once again bridged the contradictions and rebuilt the city of Rome. Many people who settled in Viai The Roman commoners also returned.

In order to prevent Viai from once again becoming a refuge after conflicts between Roman civilians and nobles, thereby weakening the strength of the city of Rome itself, the Senate passed a bill to classify the fertile land near the Tiber River in the south of Viai as public land in the city of Rome. , thus turning this large Etruscan city with a population similar to that of Rome and even higher prosperity than Rome into a medium-sized colonial city in Rome.

Since the residents of the city of Viai are all Roman citizens, after they vigorously responded to Rome's first call (that is, to follow Camillus to attack the Hernicians), they heard that the city of Rome was under attack, and again More than 500 people were squeezed out to come to the rescue.

In addition to Viai sending troops to rescue Rome, there was also Caisra, which was also one of the twelve Etruscan league city-states. It was located on a hill about fourteen miles away from the sea. The north bank of the Tiber River estuary is nearly sixty miles away. Because it has iron ore and produces high-quality pottery pots, it enjoys a high reputation in central and northern Italy, and the city has always been prosperous.

Moreover, this city-state is very good at getting along well with other forces. When most Etruscan city-states had tense relations with Rome, it maintained good relations with Rome, and when the Celts invaded and their own cities Even though it was also defeated, the Casreira people also sheltered many Roman people who fled from the fall of the Roman city in various mountain villages within the territory. Therefore, when Rome's strength recovered, it began to attack the Etruscan territory northward. , they were grateful for the kindness of the Casreira people and did not invade their territory, but invited Casrela to join the Roman Alliance.

At the same time, the relationship between the Keslera people and the Greeks is also very good. It is one of the few non-Greek cities that has a holy treasury in Delphi (Delphi generally does not allow non-Greek city-states to have a holy treasury). It's amazing.

This time, Keslera also sent more than 500 soldiers to rescue the alliance leader Rome.

There are also two reinforcements from the Etruscan League city-states. They are Volch and Tarchna. These are also two cities close to the coast but built their cities on the mountains. City-states with Etruscan characteristics are rich in mineral resources, and they also have large ports and prosperous maritime trade.

Volci, in particular, became the center of maritime trade on the entire west coast of the Italian peninsula a hundred years ago. Its pottery, bronzes and wine were even sold as far as the Eastern Mediterranean. Not only was it once a maritime power, but it also controlled land There are many Etruscan tribes and small towns in the surrounding area.

And Tarchuna, like Viai, had a feud with Rome.As early as a hundred years ago, it supported the overthrown Roman king Tajivan against Rome.However, these two powerful city-states have declined due to the continuous southward invasion of the Celts and the harassment of the Romans in the past few decades. When the damage was severe, the city fell, and the people were plundered...

Before they could recover from the war, Rome, which had driven away the Celts and received strong support from Carthage, once again invaded their territory.After suffering defeats in successive battles, the people of these two cities had no choice but to surrender.

Rome divided some of the land in the territories of these two cities and established two colonial cities - Sutrium and Cosa. They served as Roman fortresses to control southern Etruria. The movements of these two cities were monitored, so this time Rome sent messengers to ask for help, and the two cities also sent reinforcements.

Of course, Sutrium and Xhosa were also followed by reinforcements, adding up to more than 2000 people, and counting the soldiers sent by other Etrulian tribes and towns who surrendered to Rome, there were more than 4000 people in total.

Reinforcements from towns such as Viai, Casrela, and Volch gathered together one after another. Scattered soldiers arrived later, but they received the spy's reward: "The Dionians are in a hurry to attack the city of Rome." , the situation no longer allowed them to wait here slowly, especially the Roman citizens in Weiai who had been clamoring to rush for rescue, so the leading generals from the Roman colonial city and the Etruscan city-state quickly reached an agreement, respectively. They led their respective citizen soldiers and slowly advanced towards the Roman Vertebral Bridge.

When they were still two or three miles away from the Dionian camp, they once again received a report from the spies: about 4000 Dionian soldiers were marching quickly and must pass by them!
After hearing this, several generals were as surprised as Paulus' reaction: Aren't the Dionians attacking the city with all their strength? !How come there are still enough soldiers left to fight with us in the field? !
But time was running out and they could no longer think too much, so they hurriedly began to set up their formation.

These more than 4000 Roman reinforcements came from multiple Etruscan city-states, tribes and Roman colonial cities. Just to determine the affiliation of each army and arrange the position of the array would take a lot of effort, so the entire army Before the formation was launched, the Dionian army appeared in their sight.

The army led by Lizaru had two thousand fleet infantry and a light armored infantry brigade, so it moved relatively quickly, with only a heavy infantry brigade lagging slightly behind.

After arriving at the battlefield, Lizaru found that the Roman reinforcements were just as he had envisioned in advance. He did not expect the Dionysian army to attack, so there was no preparation in advance. The entire army was still huddled together. With such a great fighter opportunity, he again How could he let it go? Before the heavy infantry group arrived, he issued the order to attack: the fleet infantry attacked the enemy's left side, and the light armored group attacked the enemy's right side, leaving the frontal gap for the heavy infantry group that arrived later. .

Although neither of these two troops was heavy infantry, according to the reports of the scout cavalry: the number of heavy infantry in the Roman reinforcements was far less than half (the elite citizen soldiers had been recruited to attack the Herniqi before).Therefore, Lizaru firmly believed that the two well-trained troops could completely suppress the enemy by attacking and persist until the arrival of the heavy infantry brigade.

The attack bugle sounded, and the two troops that were originally arranged in a battle column quickly turned the entire long column over and turned it into a horizontal column while slowing down their advance. There was no need to change their positions anymore. , began to accelerate forward.

The weapons and equipment of fleet infantry and light armored soldiers are actually the same, including leather helmets, leather armor, leather shields, and short swords. The biggest difference is the size of the leather shields and javelins: since light armored soldiers fight on land, they hold smaller leather shields. Large, like the heavy infantry, they carry two javelins; because the fleet infantry has to fight on the sea, in order to better maintain balance, the leather shield is smaller and does not carry javelins.

However, this time, because the heavy infantry of the Third Army had to climb up the embankment through the crow warship to attack, they were unable to throw javelins and stayed in the camp. Before Lizaru summoned the troops to go out of camp to meet the enemy, he asked the fleet infantry to carry the javelins. , although they do not use javelins in sea battles, they are often trained in daily training, because javelin throwing is one of the four enemy-killing skills that Dionysian infantry must master (the other three are unarmed Fighting, shield sword fighting, shield spear stabbing).

The rapid approach of the Dionian army forced the Roman reinforcements to no longer deploy their formation smoothly. Of course, they could not huddle together and be beaten passively, so the offensive bugle was forced to sound, and the generals of the reinforcements led their city-state armies in a hurry Killing towards the Dionian army approaching him.

The original distance of several hundred meters between the two sides was quickly shortened amidst the shouts of killing.

"Javelin! Javelin! Javelin!..." Amidst the shouts of the team officers, Dionia's two fleet infantry and light armored troops quickly stopped and quickly threw two rounds of javelins to kill the enemy. The momentum of the charge was interrupted, causing the enemy's formation to become more chaotic. Then they shouted the name of Hades and rushed over...

(End of this chapter)