Chapter 437: Another Bad News

Chapter 437: Another Bad News

Dionysius’ condition was much more bearable than what he gave to Scylletium: In exchange for Syracuse not stationing their troops in Caulonia, Caulonia must provide supplies and troops to fight together with the Syracusan army.

But what the Caulonians didn’t know was that Dionysius wrote to his brother-in-law, the polemarchos of Locri – Demodokas.

While Locri fully supported Dionysius’ invasion of Magna Graecia, they once put forward a request hoping that Dionysius would hand over the city of Caulonia to them after defeating the South Italian Alliance, to which Dionysius agreed.

Therefore, Dionysius had to reassure the Locrians that it was just a temporary measure to defeat Crotone and Theonia as soon as possible. So after conquering these city-states, they would hand Caulonia to Locri as promised.

The Locrian accepted Dionysius’ explanation.

Of course, the Caulonians didn’t know that their fate was already doomed. Thinking that they had already escaped a great disaster, they were now eager to show Dionysius their obedience by quickly sending 5,000 soldiers and a large number of supplies to Scylletium.

And the surrender of Caulonia had freed the Locrian troops that were besieging them, who then quickly headed south and crossed the mountain path.

Although Pheidon was wary of the east because the people he sent to report had not returned, he still sent a small force to guard the entrance to the mountain path for insurance purposes. But after the news from the north was completely blocked by the Syracusans, he was completely in the dark, never expecting that the situation in southern Magna Graecia had changed drastically in just a few days.

Then 15,000 Locrians suddenly came. They were so fast that the Rhegian troops with less than a thousand men guarding the mountain path were quickly defeated.

Pheidon led his men to besiege Medma when he received the emergency report, surprising him. When the roaring Locrian troops rushed into their camp, he didn’t even have enough time to organise the troops for the battle.

When Pheidon and countless defeated soldiers hurriedly fled across the river and into the city of Taurania, the original 10,000 troops only had less than 7,000 left.

Learning of the surrender of Caulonia and the defeat of Rhegium, Dionysius became overjoyed because at this time, except for Rhegium, he had completely conquered the southern part of Magna Graecia. Thus he could now safely attack north with all their strength, while Locri alone was enough to deal with Rhegium without him having to worry.

So he ordered Leptines for all the ships participating in the war to go to the port of Scylletium, besides leaving few ships to station at the port of Terina to continue cutting off the maritime links between Theonia and Rhegium on the west coast.

At the same time, he asked all the troops to complete their rest as soon as possible and prepare to advance north.

Even though the war between the South Italian Alliance and Syracuse was only between the city-states of Magna Graecia and Sicily, it also attracted the attention of many forces in the whole Mediterranean.

Not long after the end of the Battle of Allaro River, the news of Syracuse’s victory quickly spread all over the western Mediterranean, which made all the city-states and forces think about the impact of the war on themselves and even begin making some small movements.

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

On this day, the Theonian Senate held a regular meeting to discuss two topics: One is that the sixth legion, which had just arrived in Krimisa, has increased the logistical pressure on the Ministry of Military, resulting in a shortage of personnel to transport food and equipment; The other is the proposal submitted by the navarch, Seclian, to Hieronymus that with the departure of the sixth legion, it led to a shortage of soldiers on the warships, so he asked to form a new legion. At the same time, the sailors of the Theonian joint fleet were just enough, so once they incurred losses in the naval battle, it would be difficult to supplement them. Thus he hoped to call sailors from our allies as a backup.

“I think…it’s very simple to solve the problem of insufficient personnel for the Ministry of Military in transporting the supplies.” The Praetor of Thurii, Kunogelata, thought and continued, “Since the time Syracuse’s navy attacked our maritime route, the number of merchant ships coming has decreased significantly. It has caused a lot of the port’s labour forces such as the porters, warehouse keepers, ship repairers and coachmen to have no work and do nothing all day. On the contrary, they have added a lot of trouble to public security. So I suggest that the Ministry of Military go to the port to recruit some workers. Even if you don’t pay them, but as long as you can guarantee their food, they will do their work well, and this would also reduce the pressure of the port’s patrols…”

“This is indeed a great idea!” Marigi praised. Then he reminded, “However, even if we reward them with food, we should still pay attention to controlling the supply as the grain will only become more precious than drachmae as the war progresses.”

Hieronymus nodded to show his understanding.

At this time, Kunogelata asked, “What I don’t understand is why Seclian still needed to call for our allies’ sailors?! We have so many spare men in the port, so why not use them?!”

As he was not a statesman, Seclian was not in the meeting. And as the only one left in the Ministry of Military, Hieronymus, although he is not good at talking, answered, “Well…time is tight now…uh…that Syracuse’s fleet could attack at any time. Seclian needs skilled sailors so that he wouldn’t spend so much time training them…”

“The fleet that Seclian is in charge of is taking up a lot of manpower in Thurii, yet he just hides in the Crati River. What is he doing?! We should lead a fleet to expel those Syracusan ships that are rampant in the Gulf of Taranto, even if we could only resume our maritime route for a day or two!” Marigi complained.

“Although I don’t know much about the navy, I still know that it was Lord Davos who asked him to do so.”

As soon as Hieronymus finished speaking, Marigi laughed twice and said, “Since this is Lord Davos’ arrangements, it seems that we don’t have to worry too much about the Syracusan fleet.”

In the Senate, there are not a few statesmen like Marigi who blindly believes in Davos. However, after the disastrous defeat of the South Italian Alliance in Scylletium, Petaru, who has been in a daze for the past two days, felt sick seeing Marigi’s flattering appearance.

He grunted a few times and then turned his gaze to Kaduk, who was also somewhat in a daze.

“Anyway, we will send someone to discuss with Roscianum and Heraclea about the recruitment of some sailors…” Cornelius stood up, and just as he was saying his suggestion, the door of the Senate hall was suddenly pushed open.

The guard captain in charge of the Senate’s defence rushed in.

Kunogelata, the rotating chairperson, saw his flustered appearance, and he hurriedly asked, “What happened?”

“Milords, I just received an urgent report that Taranto captured Metapontum!”

“WHAT?!!”

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

Diaomilas, the archon of Taranto, stood at the top of the city wall of Metapontum and watched with satisfaction as the Tarantine soldiers poured into the already opened gate and hanged the people of Metapontum who were still trying to resist…

The Tarantine army’s attack was smooth as they quickly advanced to the square in the city’s centre.

The sound of fighting gradually became sparse in the ears of Diaomilas.

“Hurry, hurry to the acropolis! Diaomilas couldn’t wait to reap the fruits of victory.

Diaomilas went down the city wall, got on his horse and advanced forward with his entourage. The bodies of the people of Metapontum and the wounded struggling for help scattered everywhere in the street, but he disregarded them as if he didn’t see them, ‘Since these descendants with Tarantine blood running in their veins have chosen to betray them, it’s just their delusion to get Taranto’s forgiveness.’

As soon as the Diaomilas arrived at the square, his subordinates came to report the good news to him, “We have taken the acropolis of Metapontum!”

“So fast?!” Although Diaomilas was confident that the quality of Tarantine soldiers was much better than that of Metapontum, he still did not expect that the defence of Acropolis, the fortress at the core of a city-state, was so weak.

“Isalokas and the others persuaded the soldiers stationed in the city to surrender.” The man explained.

“So that’s what happened.” Diaomilas’ doubts were cleared.

After all, Metapontum was once the child of Taranto. Although the blood of both sides has weakened and their politics became independent after a hundred years of development, there are still many people of Metapontum that are close and admired the Tarantines as they were in an alliance and Taranto protecting them for many years. However, Taranto’s reckless policy in the previous year had led to Metapontum’s great losses and their insistence to still act recklessly made Metapontum join the Theonian Alliance, a much more powerful neighbour than Taranto, in order to avoid greater losses.

And the more lenient policy of Theonia towards its allies reassured Metapontum, but this did not mean that they would completely cut off their relations with Taranto. On the contrary, once the crisis had passed, the people of Metapontum began to miss their mother-state again. In addition to the intentional advocacy of the pro-Tarantine faction led by Isalokas, the relations between the two sides have recovered rapidly, and exchanges are increasing (there are still conflicts). After all, Metapontum is closer to Taranto, as evidenced by the similar number of pro-Theonian and pro-Tarantine factions elected to the archonship of Metapontum and the council each year.

At every council meeting, the two factions often fiercely argue, where they would even clash on whether they should favour Theonia or Taranto. In fact, the strength of the pro-Theonian faction led by Taudeles has gotten weaker than that of the pro-Tarantine faction. After all, their time of being allied with Theonia is still short. Still, the rapid expansion of the Theonia Union gave them confidence so that every critical time, Isalokas and the others could only give way because they were afraid of provoking Theonia.

The Theonian Senate was also well aware of the situation of Metapontum. But it is not easy for them to interfere in its internal affairs due to the alliance treaty they signed with Metapontum. Still, they firmly believe that as Theonia becomes stronger, Metapontum will naturally get closer to them.