Rome must fall.

Chapter 397: Pannoni's Destruction

But people soon discovered that Catiline did not flee abroad, but joined up with his right-hand man Manlius and the army he had formed.

The fact of Catiline's rebellion was established, and he and Manlius were declared public enemies of Rome by the Senate.

In view of the fact that many of Catiline's supporters were still fanning the flames in Rome, the Senate held an emergency meeting and asked Cicero to identify the leaders of Catiline's conspiracy group and arrest them.

As Catiline's conspirators were captured one after another, including senators who had served as consuls, the atmosphere in the whole city of Rome became extremely tense. The senators were suspicious of each other and acted with extreme caution.

One of the arrested conspirators was brought before the Senate, claiming that he had been sent by Crassus to inform Catiline, an accusation that put Crassus in danger, as Crassus had twice publicly supported Catiline's candidacy for consul.

However, many senators owed Crassus debts, and they all cried out that this was a false accusation against Crassus. Other senators thought that it was better to win over a powerful figure like Crassus at this critical moment, rather than alienate him, so the senators voted that Crassus was innocent.

Caesar, who had also supported Catiline's campaign for consul, was also accused, instigated by Catullus, who was still resentful of losing the election for high priest to Caesar.

But Cicero refused to arrest Caesar, perhaps because he had a good relationship with Caesar, or perhaps because he did not want to push Caesar, who had great prestige among the Roman civilians, into the arms of the rebels, making the situation difficult to control, so he claimed to believe in Caesar's loyalty to the Republic.

Eventually, five of the main conspirators close to Catiline were arrested, including two well-known senators.

The Senate held a meeting in the Temple of Harmony, chaired by Cicero, to discuss how to deal with these criminals.

Some senators were in favor of the death penalty, while others murmured their agreement. Crassus was absent, and Caesar, the next magistrate, expressed his own opinion, pointing out that the death penalty was not in line with Roman customs and suggested life imprisonment.

Cato severely criticized Caesar's suggestion and insisted on their execution.

Ultimately, the majority of the senators agreed with Cato, believing that the safety of Rome was more important than the rights of individual citizens.

So Cicero hanged the five prisoners. When he announced the death sentence to the public, the vast majority of the people congratulated him with thunderous cheers, and some even cheered him as the savior of Rome.

This stranger from the small town of Alpinum would never have dreamed that he would have such a glorious day.

Order was restored in Rome, but the danger was not over. Catiline and his followers were launching a rebellion in the north, threatening the security of Rome.

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The first half of 63 BC (the ninth year after the establishment of the Nix tribe) was relatively peaceful within the Nix tribe, but considering the tense situation in the north, the Nix people stepped up their digestion and absorption of the newly occupied territories.

After the autumn harvest, bad news came that the Boyi people launched a large-scale attack on the south bank of the Drao River. Through fierce fighting, they defeated the defense of the joint army of the Pannoni tribes and began to pour into the land on the south bank.

The envoys of the three major Pannonian tribes hurried to the Nyx tribe and made a request to Maximus: as long as the Nyx tribe was willing to send troops to help the Pannonians repel the Boyi army and drive them back to the north bank, the three major Pannonian tribes were willing to rely on the Nyx tribe, regard Maximus as their master, and obey his orders.

Maximus' answer was that unless the Pannoni joined the Nyx tribe, he could not convince his people to risk their lives to provoke the powerful Boii for their former enemies.

The Pannoni chieftains naturally could not agree to such an unreasonable request, and the envoys returned empty-handed, but the situation of the Pannoni people was rapidly deteriorating...

After the Boyi gained a foothold on the south bank of the Drao River, they continued to advance southward and once again defeated the coalition forces organized by the three major Pannonian tribes through fierce fighting, thus dividing the territories of the three major Pannonian tribes into two and making it impossible for them to unite again.

Naturally, the Boyi army also approached the former Mazii territory newly occupied by the Nix tribe, but the Boyi people obviously did not want to waste time and effort marching towards the mountains, so they divided their troops into two groups and attacked to the east and west.

The Pannoni could no longer organize an effective resistance, and the people fled in panic. Their destination was the same - the territory of the Nix tribe.

Maximus accepted all of them and ordered his men to take the initiative to accept them and properly settle them.

This move by the Nix tribe further eliminated the concerns of the Pannoni people, so more Pannoni people rushed to the Nix territory, including the Perustai chief Pachilas.

Perustai is located in the middle of the three large Pannonian tribes in the north, and is the focus of the Boii's crossing the river attack. Pachiras organized a coalition twice to resist, but failed both times. The Boii took advantage of the victory to attack, and Pachiras did not even have time to gather the defeated soldiers and escape back to the main camp, which was surrounded by the Boii cavalry. He could only flee south to the main camp of Disione in the east to ask Demicus for help.

Demicus himself could not even be saved, so how could he send reinforcements? Nearly desperate, Pachilas could only follow the fleeing tribesmen into the former Andizeti territory and urgently ask to see Maximus.

After meeting Maximus, he pleaded in tears: as long as the Nyx tribe was willing to send troops to repel the Boii and save the Perustian people in distress, the Perustian tribe was willing to become a part of the Nyx tribe as Maximus requested.

After the two sides reached an agreement, although Maximus had launched military mobilization more than a month ago in view of the seriousness of the situation, he did not send troops immediately. Instead, he first asked the staff priest Aymeric to persuade the druid Podamoch of the Noriki tribe to go to the Boyi army together to meet the Boyi King and the Archdruid.

They tried to persuade them to withdraw their troops to the north bank on the grounds that "Peruste is now the territory of the Nix tribe."

How could he spit out the fat meat that was already in his mouth? King Boy ignored the fact that both Emmerich and the other were Celts and Druids, and scolded them for being shameless. He also threatened that after the Pannoni were destroyed, it would be the Knicks' turn.

The druid Podamochi, who had only come to the tribe to repay a favor, was furious at King Boy's humiliation. In the following battle, he persuaded the tribe to stand on the side of the Nyx tribe and provide more iron ore.

When Emmerich returned to the tribe, he exaggerated King Boy's words and told them to his fellow tribesmen, which immediately aroused the anger of the Nyx people and the calls for war grew louder.

Maximus responded to the call of his people and declared war on the Boii in January 62 BC (the eleventh year after the establishment of the Nix tribe), and then led the two assembled legions and cavalry and quickly marched westward.

At this time, the Boyi army on the south bank of the Drao River was divided into three parts: one part swept the territory of Desitiate in the west, one part besieged the main camp of Disione in the east, and a small part stayed in the territory of Peruste.

King Boyi was at odds with the Nyx, so naturally he expected that the other side would come to cause trouble, but he did not expect that the Nyx would come so soon and bring so many soldiers.

He hastily assembled an eastern army of less than 10,000 people and rushed to fight.

The strength of the Nix infantry was beyond King Boyi's expectations. Although the Boyi cavalry had a large number of cavalry, when they launched the charge they were shot by crossbowmen hiding behind the Nix cavalry, resulting in heavy casualties.

The Boyi army was defeated, and King Boyi led the remaining troops to retreat to the territory of Disione. He urgently summoned the troops in the west to return for defense, and at the same time sent people back to the north bank to ask the tribes to send reinforcements.

Before the reinforcements arrived, King Boyi discovered that Nyx's huge fleet appeared on the Drao River.

Unlike the Pannoni, who had been independent for only a dozen years, the Boii, who had lived on this river plain for hundreds of years, had a large fleet. Otherwise, after being defeated by the Dacians, they would not have been able to successfully withdraw the people who originally lived on the east bank of the Danube to the west bank. They relied on the fleet to carry warriors across the Drau River to defeat the Pannoni...

Seeing the appearance of the Knicks fleet, the Boyi fleet, which was originally docked on the north shore and responsible for transporting supplies and wounded soldiers, quickly came to meet them.

The first large-scale water war since the establishment of the Nix tribe began.

The ships of both sides were basically shuttle-shaped clippers of the same style, except that most of the ships on the Knicks side had sails, while the Boyi naval warships did not.

The covered boats were rather clumsy, but with more than 400 ships gathered on the Drao River, which was less than 200 meters wide, the flexibility of the Boyne warships could not be demonstrated. On the contrary, the ships of both sides were crowded together and fought in close combat, relying mainly on boarding.

Unfortunately, the Nyx ships had sails, making boarding difficult, and each ship was equipped with crossbowmen. Often, before the Boyi ships could get close to the enemy, most of their own sailors would be killed by crossbow arrows.

In this battle, the Nix fleet won a great victory, and the Boyi warships were either captured or destroyed. From then on, the Drao River was under the control of the Nix navy, and the Boyi army on the south bank was cut off from retreating and became a turtle in a jar.

Maximus took the opportunity to lead his army to attack.

King Boyi fought desperately, but was ultimately defeated and captured.

At this time, the territories of the three major Pannoni tribes had been trampled by the Boyi army, and there were displaced people everywhere. After suffering so much, they hated the incompetence of their own leaders and envied the strength of the Nix. There were also many Pannoni prospective tribesmen who spread the benefits of joining the Nix tribe, so the Pannoni people joined the Nix tribe one after another.

Compared with the time and energy spent on conquering the territory of Segestica, this time Maximus, after completely defeating the Boyi army on the south bank, easily took over the territories and people of the three major tribes of Pannoni without any further fighting.

From then on, the Pannoni tribe was destroyed.

(End of this chapter)