This time, he went out to follow Melanseus to battle, but he didn’t expect that it would be so smooth. They easily manage to capture the city of Thurii, and Kelebus had also managed to seized a lot of spoils. ‘No wonder that many people had said that Melanseus was favored by the Goddess of Fortune.’ Moreover, he heard that the city hall of Crotone are preparing for the immigration to the Sybaris plain. After returning to Crotone, he would first cash in his spoils, saved money, marry a wife and then joined the immigration team of Crotone. The land in the Sybaris plain is more flat and vast than that of Crotone, so he should be able to get a share of land.
That night, Kelebus had a beautiful dream, but was awakened due to pain. He opened his eyes and saw his comrades running out of the tent like a hornet who had their nest destroyed. He was trampled by several feet by the entrance of the tent.
“Watch it!” He roared angrily.
“Enemy attack! Come out and fight!” His comrades shouted while they rushed out of the tent.
“Enemy attack? Where is the enemy?” Kelebus was still a bit confused.
At this time, he heard screams one after another, so he roused his spirit and used his hands to push on the ground and reluctantly stood up. He drank a lot of wine last night without mixing it with water. So he was a bit dizzy, and he couldn’t fully control his body, and almost fell down, because of that, he had no time to wear his helmet and armor. He grabbed his spear from the ground and staggered out of the tent. He could see the well-armed hoplites lining up in a tight formation, then they quickly approached them. His two companions rushed up with their spears, but were soon stabbed by the enemy. The tacit cooperation, concise and skillful skill had completely awakened Kelebus, and fear instantly coursed through his whole body in an instant, and so, he threw away his spear and ran away..
“Run away! Get out of the way!” With a strong desire to survive, Kelebus looked at the direction of the sun in the sky as he run. He decided to flee to the east, because the city of Roscianum is in the east.
After running for a while, he saw some people running towards him, but they shouted out in horror, “There are enemies, run quickly!…”
‘There are enemies in the east as well?!’ When he heard it, it made Kelebus flustered and end up following them.
Next, he ran around like a headless fly, and more and more people started following him, many animals had even fled together with them, which had injured many people, but still couldn’t escape.
By this time, Kelebus became more flustered and understood that they were surrounded, and the encirclement was shrinking.
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
The Legion headquarters of Davos is just behind the second brigade, between the camp of Crotone and the city of Roscianum. Thirty guards were waiting, and their attention were focused on the east, and captain Martius raised the Legion flag. While Davos was carefully listening to the report of Ledes on the latest situation of the battle from his cavalry team.
“The first brigade had started their offense!”
“The second brigade had also started their offense!”
“The third brigade had also started their offense!”
“The seventh brigade and the Lucanian brigade had also started their offense!”
“The first brigade manage to break in and the enemy did not resist!”
“The second brigade is smoothly advancing!”
“The first brigade crossed the logistic area and continued to advance!”
“So quickly?!” Davos was somewhat surprised and asked, “How did they do it?”
Ledes replied, “All the freeman and slaves who had taken refuge in Crotone were all around the logistic area. When they saw our troops, they all ran away. Kapus and his troops bypass the area and just left some troops to clear the area, while the rest of the troops advanced.”
“Hmm, Kapus made the right decision!” Davos nodded approvingly.
At this time, another cavalry report came, “The second brigade has turned into two rows!”
“The brigade has become two rows!”
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
“Legatus, our offense went smooth and the encirclement is shrinking rapidly!” Asistes was excited.
“Yes, it went smoothly beyond my expectation!” Davos breathed and his nervousness was relieved, and then he asked Ledes, “Is there no movement in the city of Roscianum?”
“No.”
“It seems that the vigilance of the enemy and their reaction to danger is very low, seems like Arpenst won’t be able to fight this time.” Davos was in the mood to joke around, “When that champion wakes up from his sleep, he would be confused and ask, ‘Where did my troops go?’”
There was a burst of laughter from the people around.
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
In fact, Davos’ judgment was still wrong. The sentry of Roscianum did not fail to notice that there was something amiss in the camp of Crotone. Although the Crotonian camp is few kilo-meters away from the city, and due to the covering of the woods and rivers, even the outline of the camp cannot be seen even when standing on the city wall. However, the sentries can still vaguely hear the huge sound with a mix of screaming of tens of thousands of soldiers.
And so, the sentries reported this abnormal situation to the captain, but the captain had thought that the camp of the Crotonians should be very safe! The Bruttians in the west were cut off by the mountains, to the north, while Thurii has been burned, and the Trionto river protects them, and in the south, Krimisa has also joined Crotone, and Roscianum is in the northeast, and so, Crotone doesn’t have any enemy at the moment. Is it the arrogant Crotonians who got up early in the morning and started partying again?
Out of habit of his profession, he still symbolically sent some cavalry to see what happened. As a result, just as they are passing through the woods, they were all annihilated by the archers of Arpenst who stayed there for an ambush.
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
With the further reduction of the encirclement, some centuria had even changed into three rows because the line of attack is shrinking. While the army of Crotone who are surrounded became more and more crowded due to the reduction of space.
Even though Melanseus and the other senior officers were invited to the city for a party and failed to return, the captains were still there. In particular, as soon as the officers who were sleeping in the middle of the camp realized that the situation was not right, they began to ask their men to put on their armor, take up weapons (because most of them were drunk) and to get ready to fight. It was just that the attack of the Amendolarans were so fast that there were fleeing soldiers everywhere, which disrupted their hastily organized troops. But now, when the space is so compressed and the deserters couldn’t run around anymore, the captain with a bright crest on their helmet became their backbone.
“We are surrounded. We can only survive if we break out through the east! Go east!…” The captains yelled in unison to attract the attention of the people around them. Under their leadership, they began to rush towards the sun, and the army of Amendolara has also faced the most severe test since their surprise attack.
Drakos did not panic at all when he saw the dense enemy coming. This is not the first time that his second brigade has encountered this situation. The last time, they had blocked the vicious Lucanian’s attack, and after several months of training, they are now more confident in blocking these poorly armed, without any armor and even naked enemies.
“Defend on the spot!” Drakos ordered the drummers. (note: each brigade is equipped with five drummers, who can not only convey instructions, but also adjust the pace of the soldiers with the sound of drums during the march in order to keep the formation consistent and to also boost morale.) 𝚍ｎ𝚘ｖ𝚕．𝚘𝚛𝚐
The rhythmic sound of the drums sounded, and the flag bearers of each centuria waved their flags. In fact, according to the judgment of the centurion, they have already began telling their soldiers to stop and defend.
The charge of Crotone is like a row of big waves, even though it is impressive, its power is scattered. The defense of the second brigade was like an iron wall, thin but strong.
The two armies collided. One has maintained their offensive, and consumed a lot of stamina, while the other had fled from the very start and are exhausted. One is fully armed, while the other is not fully equipped. One has lesser number, while the other one has more. The outcome of a clash between the two sides is obvious, however, the Crotonians have finally showed their bravery at this critical moment. Without weapons, they hit them with their bodies and feet, when they got stabbed by the spears, they will grabbed it tightly with their bare hands.
For a moment, the second brigade is in a arduous struggle.
When Davos learned about it, he immediately ordered, “The rest of the brigade speed up their attack and bring down the enemy!”
At the same time, he ordered Ledes to send Arpenst back with the peltast to assist in the attack of the second brigade, while Davos had also led his guards forward.
When the Legion flag appeared behind the defense line of the second group, and the bronze statue of Hades shone in the morning light, the soldiers of the second brigade who had been struggling had their morale boosted greatly.
“Drakos, can you still hold on?” Davos asked the senior centurion of the second brigade, who was commanding in the rear.
“Legatus, we will soon be able to defeat the enemy!” Drakos clenched his teeth and turned to the drummers and yelled, “Beat the drums to signal the attack! We must attack!”
Under the gaze of the commander and the sound of the drums that signals attack, the soldiers became full of energy. Although they only have three rows in their formation and were relatively thin compared to the enemy, they still manage to start their counterattack. They vigorously waved their round shield and strike forward, and the spears in their hand penetrates into the exposed gap. If the enemy grabbed their spears, they will pull out their kopis and then slashed them. Originally, the confrontation between Greek hoplite was very taxing. The metal rattled when their shields collided with each other, and the clattering sounds of the spears on the armor, and the sound of the kopis slashing at each other. It was impossible to defeat the opponent in just a short time, but now, with every swing, every stab, and every slash, you can hear the enemy groaning in pain, the tearing sound of metal stabbing into the bones and flesh of the enemy, and the string of blood brought by the kopis…
The rapid counterattack of the second brigade resisted the impact of the enemy, and the courage of the majority of the Crotonians, who were unarmed and didn’t even have an armor, were quickly weakened before the iron wall.
The peltast who arrived soon rained arrows and stones at the rear off the Crotonians’ formation, making their subsequent forces unable to keep up to form a concentrated force.
The last weight on the scale of the war was the fierce attack of the other three brigades. The encirclement was shrinking rapidly, and the Crotonian army in the center was almost crowded with people, making it difficult for them to turn around, let alone break through.
Nearly ten thousand of men were tightly surrounded in this big circle less than 500 meters round. The arrows and stones in the sky kept on falling, and the shouts of ‘surrender and you won’t be killed’ rang around, and with people constantly screaming and falling down, the panic and fear quickly permeated the enemy…
The freeman and the slaves were the first to kneel on their knees.
Followed by the soldiers of Scylletium, Krimisa and Roscianum.
Then finally, the exhausted Crotonians lowered their proud head…