ancient greece mediterranean ruler

Chapter 838 Burning Ostia

But after fighting in the battlefield all his life, he quickly adjusted his mentality, because he knew that the difficulties faced by the Roman army did not allow him to be too depressed.

Quintus, Phrius, Licinius, Aulus, Titus, Servius and other generals had gathered in the tent.

"My lord dictator!" Seeing Camillus staggering into the big tent, everyone quickly saluted respectfully.

"How is the situation in Ostia City?" Camillus asked Servius directly without being polite to them.

Servius, who was responsible for preparing for the enemy's surprise attack out of the city today, hurriedly replied: "The Dionysians stationed many soldiers on the top of the city. They may have seen our troops deployed outside the city. They did not dare to go out of the city to destroy our troops." There is an earthen fortress, but they are seizing the time to repair the gaps in the city wall!"

"So we must seize the time, regroup the troops, and launch another attack!" Camillus was slightly anxious when he heard this. He looked at Licinius: "How is the progress of the construction of Tulei?"

"It must be closed before dark!" Licinius said affirmatively: "This is thanks to Adi, Antius and Saturnicum who sent a lot of people to help us build it!"

"Good! Good!..." Camillus praised repeatedly, and the solemn expression on his face relaxed a lot: "Licinius, you did a good job. On behalf of all the soldiers, I thank you! As long as we build The earthen fortress can completely surround the city of Ostia. Not only do we not have to worry about the enemy coming out of the city to attack, but we can also send a large number of light infantry, and even imitate the Dionians, move the crossbows up and attack the city from a long distance. and the enemies in the city, to provide the greatest help to our heavy infantry attack and reduce their casualties... The Etruscan allied armies of Caislera, Volci, and Tarchuna no longer clamored for Let’s go?”

These last words of Camillus were addressed to Titus, whom he had previously sent to pacify the Etruscans.

"Master Dictator, these Etruscans are just talking, if they are really let go, do they dare to go alone?!" Titus sneered disdainfully: "There is Dionia's fleet at sea , the Tiber River can only pass through the upper reaches and reach the north bank, but with their army of less than 1 people and their courage, without our company, they dare to march seventy or eighty miles alone, bypassing Dio The heavily fortified Roman city of Nea?! However, they said that if they want to attack the city of Ostia like this in the next battle, they refuse to participate in the battle again!"

"Refuse to participate in the battle?! Do these Etruscans think they join our team just to share the spoils?!" Quintus said angrily: "Your Excellency, the next time we attack the city, We must put them at the front of the attacking team, I want to see if these Etruscans who were conquered by us dare to fight hard!"

"Quintus, don't get too excited. Doing so will only completely frustrate the relationship between us and the Etruscans, and it will also affect the perception of us by the Latin Allies." Olus reminded road.

"If we don't do this, will our soldiers be allowed to rush to the front?! The ones with the most casualties in the past few days are our Roman citizens! So far, nearly 5000 civilian soldiers have fled the camp and surrendered to the enemy! The remaining Can we trust thousands of civilian soldiers! Now we have no more than 15000 citizen soldiers who can actually fight. Many Roman citizens of noble birth died heroically under the city with a deep hatred for the Dionians! We won't let the armies of the Etruscans and Latin allies attack us. Even if Ostia is recaptured, I'm afraid all the citizen soldiers in Rome will be dead!" Quintus's sad and angry words made everyone in the tent look sad. , fell into silence for a while.

"We have retaken Ostia. Are the Dionians really willing to... negotiate peace with us?" Titus was the first to break the silence. He said hesitantly: "You must know what the Dionians are doing in Rome. What they are doing... is to turn us nobles into slaves!"

His words expressed the doubts and anxiety in the hearts of the generals, and everyone focused their attention on Camillus.

Camillus did not answer immediately, because the defection of Roman civilian soldiers and the tenacious defense in Ostia in the past few days had shaken his confidence, making him unable to give a positive answer.

Instead, his son Lucius said loudly: "We can only force them to make peace with us if we hurt the Dionia people and threaten their safety with our bravery and determination! After all, Dionia The Nians are not only fighting against our Rome, but also our allies, the Carthaginians, Dionia's army has lost too much here, so what can they use to fight the Carthaginians?!"

"Don't trust Carthage too much! If they really use their full strength to attack Dionia, how can the Dionia send so many troops to attack us!" When mentioning Carthage, Quintus Full of resentment.

"Besides recapturing Ostia, we have no better way..." Aulus sighed, and these words made the other generals look sad.

"Everyone, don't think about the future in advance. Let's do the things in front of us first." At this time, Camillus spoke: "Judging from yesterday's battle, our siege has achieved great results. Progress, the soldiers have broken into the city and engaged in melee with the Dionysians, which has put a lot of pressure and damage on the enemy. Next, we only need to..."

Camillus detailed some new ideas for the next attack and some improvements to the siege tactics. This is the result of his careful observation of the battle situation and hard thinking over the past few days.

His tone was calm, but it contained a kind of power that could make everyone calm down and listen carefully.

Seeing that everyone was listening carefully, Camillus glanced at Quintus and emphasized again: "In order to ensure the next successful siege, we must unite our allied forces!..."

Including Quintus, everyone finally agreed with Camillus's opinion and discussed and improved the siege plan together.

After sending everyone away, Camillus relaxed a little and suddenly felt weak all over.These days, I have been worried about the war, eating less, sleeping less, and feeling anxious. Even a young man's body can't bear it, let alone an old man in his 60s. He has to lie down and rest.

I slept through the dusk until I was woken up.

"All the sentries at the head of Ostia suddenly disappeared?!" Camillus, who had just woken up, patted his still confused head, thinking about the meaning behind the Dionian's move.

At this time, the curtain was opened again, and Lucius broke in: "Father, there is a fire burning in the city of Ostia!"

"What?!" Camillus was shocked. With the help of his servants, he hurried out of the tent.

The camp was already full of soldiers walking out of their tents. They looked at the city of Ostia with flames in the distance in astonishment. Noises and discussions filled the entire camp.

Camillus saw this scene, stayed for a moment, and suddenly shouted: "No, the Ostians are running away! Quick! Send troops quickly! Rush into the city, put out the fire, and capture the Dionians!" quick!……"

In the dark night, Roman soldiers were organized and rushed towards the burning city of Ostia.

But they still got there late.

After receiving the "retreat" order from Davos, Tellis ordered his officials to contact the cargo ships of the chambers of commerce in the port and the Dionysian fleet cruising in the nearby sea, and gradually began an orderly retreat.

Since most of the evacuation operations were carried out in small ports directly facing the sea in the west, the Roman army monitoring the mouth of the Tiber River did not notice anything unusual.

Finally, when the Dionian soldiers at the head of the city began to evacuate, Tellis had people set fire to the tarred city and port.

When Camillus learned that "the army failed to put out the fire, the city of Ostia and the port were burned, but he did not see a Dionian", he felt depressed and could not speak a word.

He already understood at this time: The Dionysians would rather burn the city than let them occupy it, which has shown their determination not to compromise!
"Father, what's wrong with you?!" Amidst Lucius's exclamation, Camillus was seen clutching his chest and slowly falling to the ground.

.......................................

Michaelius was a captain. Although he was a Roman civilian, his home was not in Rome, but in Viai, where he owned his own land and family.

In the past few days, news about the "Dionysians' special treatment of Roman civilians" spread in the camp. Civilian soldiers living in Rome began to flee the camp. Mykelius and many who originally moved to areas beyond the Tiber River Although the Roman civilians in the Northern Colony City were a little moved, they did not leave.After all, in the colonial city that was built less than ten years ago, the conflicts between the nobles and the common people were not serious, and their lives were pretty good.Under such circumstances, abandoning the mother country where they had lived for decades and joining a strange kingdom was a difficult choice for them, who were born as farmers.

However, their loyalty to Rome did not receive the rewards they deserved. Instead, they were hated by the Roman noble soldiers in the camp.

These nobles and diners learned from the news that "their families in Rome were imprisoned, the land was divided among the common people, the homes were occupied by the common people, and the family wealth was robbed by the common people (this is a rumor)" , coupled with the continuous rebellion of civilians in the past few days... Of course, they don't have a good look on the civilian soldiers who are still in the camp. Suspicion, ridicule, and insults are considered light.During the siege, they blatantly used their power to place civilian soldiers in the most dangerous offensive positions, but did not allow them to retreat or provide assistance. This happened not once or twice.

(End of this chapter)