Dionysius's terms of surrender to Syracuse were quite lenient: Corunya would provide supplies and troops, and cooperate with Syracuse's army in the battle. In exchange, Syracuse would not be stationed in Corunya.
Of course, what the Corunyans did not know was that for their surrender, Dionysius had even written a letter to his brother-in-law, the chief general of Rockley, Demodorcas.
This was because when Rockley fully supported Dionysius's invasion of Greece, he had made a request: he hoped that after Dionysius defeated the Southern Alliance, he would hand over Corunya to them. Dionysius had agreed.
Because of this, Dionysius had to reassure the Rockley people that the punishment for Corunya was only temporary. Everything was done to defeat Crotone and Diónia as soon as possible. After conquering these cities, Corunya would still be handed over to Rockley as promised.
The Rockley people accepted Dionysius's explanation.
Of course, the Corunyans did not know that their fate was already sealed. They thought that they had escaped and were eager to show their obedience to Dionysius. Very quickly, they sent 5,000 soldiers and a large number of supplies to Syracuse.
Corunya's surrender freed up the Rockley army that had been besieging Corunya. They quickly turned south and passed through the mountain pass.
Fedun had been wary of the east because the messenger he sent to deliver the news had not returned. To be on the safe side, he sent a small force to guard the entrance of the mountain pass. However, after the news from the north was completely blocked by Syracuse, he was completely in the dark. He did not expect that the situation in the southern part of Greece would change so drastically in just a few days.
There were so many Rocklees (15000 of them), and they were so fast that the less than a thousand Lijem troops defending the mountain pass were quickly defeated.
Fedun was leading his army to besiege Medma. When he received the news, he was shocked. Before he could organize his troops to fight, the Rockley army rushed into the camp …
By the time Fei Dun and countless defeated soldiers fled across the Maro River and into Taurina City, there were less than 7,000 soldiers left from the original 10,000 soldiers.
Dionysius was overjoyed when he learned that Corunia had surrendered and Lijim had been defeated. Apart from Lijim, the southern part of Greece had been completely pacified. He could now focus on attacking the north with all his might. As for the struggling Lijim, Rockley was more than enough to deal with. There was no need for him to worry.
He then ordered Leptinus that, with the exception of a few galleys that were to remain at the port of Triene, which continued to cut off the western coast of Diónia from Liguim, all the galleys which were to take part in the war were to be concentrated in the port of Sirius.
At the same time, he asked the troops to quickly rest and reorganize and prepare to advance north.
The war between the Southern Alliance and Syracuse was not only a matter between Great Greece and the Greek city-states of Sicily, it also attracted the attention of many forces in the Mediterranean Sea.
Not long after the Battle of the Ramator River, news of Syracuse's victory quickly spread throughout the Western Mediterranean. The city-states and forces involved were all thinking about the impact of the war on themselves, and even began to make small calculations …
… …
On this day, the Senate of Diónia was in a regular meeting, mainly discussing two topics: one was that the Legio VI, which had just gone to Crimissa, had increased the logistical pressure on the Ministry of Military Affairs, resulting in a lack of personnel to transport food supplies; the other was the proposal that the Navy Commander, Sykerian, had asked Hieronymus to submit. The departure of the Legio VI had caused a shortage of combat soldiers on the galleys, and he requested the formation of a new legion. At the same time, the sailors of the Allied Fleet of Diónia were just enough. If there were losses in the naval battle, it would be difficult to replenish them. He hoped to gather sailors from the Alliance as a backup.
"I think … it's easy to solve the problem of the lack of personnel to transport supplies in the Ministry of Military Affairs." The governor of Turií, Cunogorata, pondered and said, "Since the maritime routes were attacked by the Navy of Syracuse, the number of merchant ships has decreased significantly. The porters, warehouse managers, ship repairers, coachmen, and many other laborers at the port have lost their jobs. They have nothing to do all day, which has caused a lot of trouble for public security. The Ministry of Military Affairs can recruit some laborers at the port, and they don't even need to pay them. As long as they are guaranteed food supply, they will do a good job, and it will also reduce the pressure on the port patrol … "
"That's a good idea!" Marigi praised, then reminded, "However, even if you use food as payment, you must pay attention to control the supply. As the war progresses, grains will only be more precious than drachmas."
Hieronymus nodded, indicating that he understood.
At this time, Cunogorata questioned, "I don't understand why Sykerian has to gather the sailors of the Alliance?! We have so many spare people at the port, why don't we use them?! "
Sykerian was not an elder, so he was not present. Only the governor of the Ministry of Military Affairs, Hieronymus, could answer, even though he was not good at it. "Hmm … Time is tight … Hmm … Syracuse's fleet will attack at any time. Sykerian needs skilled sailors, so he doesn't need to spend too much time training …"
"The fleet that Sykerian is in charge of is taking up a lot of the manpower of Turií, but he is still hiding in the Krati River. What is he doing?! He should be leading the fleet to chase away the Syracusan warships that are running amok in Taranto Bay, even if it's just for a day or two! "Marigi complained.
"I don't know much about the situation of the navy, but I know that Sir Devers asked him to do this."
As soon as Hieronymus finished speaking, Marigi immediately laughed dryly and said, "Since Sir Devers has already made arrangements, it seems that we don't have to worry too much about the Syracuse fleet."
In the Senate, there were many elders like Marigi who blindly believed in Devers. However, after learning that the Southern Alliance had suffered a crushing defeat in Siletina, Petaru, who had been absent-minded for the past two days, felt that Marigi's flattery was disgusting.
He sneered in his heart, then turned his gaze to the equally absent-minded Cadulc.
"How about this, we will send someone to discuss with Castellón and Heraclea to recruit some sailors …" Cornelus stood up. Just as he voiced his suggestion, the door to the hall was suddenly pushed open.
The captain of the guards in charge of the defense of the Senate rushed in.
The rotating chairman, Kunogorata, saw his flustered expression and hurriedly asked, "What happened?"
"Sirs, we have just received an urgent message. Metalapontum has been captured by Tarantum!"
"What?!"
… …
Diomiras, the Consul of Tarantum, stood at the top of the city wall of Metapontum, proudly looking down at the soldiers of Tarantum pouring into the gate that had long been opened. They were killing the citizens of Metapontum who were still trying to resist in the various streets of the city.
The Tarantum army's attack was very successful, and they quickly advanced to the square in the center of the city.
The sounds of fighting gradually became sparse when they reached Diomiras' ears.
"Let's go to the citadel!" Diomiras could not wait to reap the fruits of victory.
Diomiras descended the city, mounted his horse, and marched straight ahead with his entourage. The streets were littered with the corpses of the Metalapontum people and the wounded who were struggling for help, but he ignored them all. These descendants of Tarantum had chosen to betray Tarantum, so they could no longer hope to be forgiven by Tarantum.
When Diomiras reached the square, his subordinates rushed to him with good news. "The citadel of Metalapontum has been captured!"
"So fast?!" Although Diomiras was confident that the quality of the soldiers of Tarantum was far better than that of the Metalapontum people, he did not expect that the citadel, the citadel's core fortress, would have such a weak defense.
"Isarokas and the others persuaded the soldiers stationed in the citadel to surrender," explained his subordinate.
"So that's how it is." Diomiras cleared his doubts.
After all, Metalapontum was once a sub-state of Tarantum. Although after hundreds of years of development, the bloodline of both sides had thinned, and their politics tended to be independent, they were still in an alliance and had been sheltered by Tarantum for many years. There were many Metalapontum people who were close to and admired Tarantum. It was only because Tarantum's wrong and rash policy in the past few years had caused Metalapontum to suffer huge losses. However, Tarantum insisted on acting rashly, so in order to avoid greater losses, Metalapontum turned to a neighboring state that was stronger than Tarantum – the Diónia Alliance.
Diónia's more lenient policy towards its allies made Metalapontum feel relieved, but this did not mean that Metalapontum would completely cut off relations with Tarantum. On the contrary, once the crisis had passed, the people of Metalapontum began to miss their mother state again. Coupled with the deliberate promotion of the pro-Tarantum faction led by Isarokas, the relationship between the two sides quickly recovered, and the exchanges between them increased (of course, there were also conflicts). After all, Metalapontum was closer to Tarantum. This could be seen from the fact that the number of pro-Tarantum members and pro-Tarantum members who were elected to the Metalapontum Consul and the Senate was similar every year.
In every Senate meeting, these two factions would often argue fiercely over a bill that was designed to favor Diónia and Tarantum more. There were even conflicts. In fact, the pro-Tarantum faction led by Tudepres was weaker in strength than the pro-Tarantum faction. After all, Diónia had only become their ally for a short period of time. However, the rapid expansion of Diónia's power gave them confidence, so at every critical moment, Isarokas and the others took the initiative to retreat for fear of angering Diónia.
You've already exceeded your reading limit for today. If you want to read more, please log in.
Login
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
