Chapter 330

Gazing at the enemy surging toward them like a tide, Pangeru wore a grim expression. The look of fear on the faces of the soldiers around him worried him. Suddenly, he drew his sword and shouted, “Warriors of Clampetia! You have successfully blocked a powerful enemy for nearly a month. Now, the greatest test has come! Think of your parents, wives, and children; they are right behind us, needing our protection. Summon your courage! With Brutus’s protection, we will surely repel these cowardly enemies! We warriors of Bruttium will never be slaves!”

“The Great Chief is right! We cannot lose! We will never be slaves!”

“Fight the Greeks to the death!!”

Encouraged by Pangeru, the Clampetia warriors’ morale rose, and they began drawing their bowstrings against the enemies approaching the trench…

***

Dioridas, a member of the Croton Council of One Hundred, had come to Terina as a representative of Croton, bringing several tons of grain and dozens of sheep. Under the name of the South Italian League, he was there to comfort the Theonian Fourth Legion, but his primary purpose was to observe the progress of Theonia’s war against Bruttium. He happened to witness this siege battle with his own eyes.

Later, upon returning to Croton, he described the events of that day to the Council with a face full of astonishment: “…The Theonians have invented a terrifying siege weapon they call a ballista. Like a bow and arrow, it can shoot stone shots weighing over ten pounds hundreds of meters away, hitting the city walls with relative accuracy. After several days of continuous bombardment by this new siege engine, a large breach appeared in Clampetia’s stone wall.

“The Theonians also built something called a siege tower. It looks like a movable wooden tower, taller than Clampetia’s walls. As the Theonians pushed it toward the city, archers atop the tower continuously fired arrows at the enemies on the wall. When it neared the wall, a heavy drawbridge on the siege tower was immediately lowered onto the ramparts, and Theonian soldiers stormed Clampetia’s walls via the tower’s bridge.

“The Theonians didn’t just use ballistae and siege towers; they also used scaling ladders in large numbers to climb the walls, just like us. I saw every soldier fighting to be the first to attack, rarely retreating because a teammate fell from the wall. Their courage is no less than that of our Croton citizens. However, the Clampetia warriors were not as fierce as when they faced us in the past. Perhaps their numbers were too few, or perhaps they were frightened by Theonia’s terrifying siege engines… In short, the battle only lasted until the afternoon before the Theonian Fourth Legion stormed into Clampetia city, and Great Chief Pangeru of Clampetia died in battle…”

After Dioridas finished speaking, the Council fell into silence.

Not long ago, they had received news of Theonia capturing Besidiae. Now Clampetia had also been breached… Since when had the Bruttians, who gave Croton such headaches, become so weak?! Or had the Theonian army become so powerful that Croton’s citizen soldiers couldn’t compare?!

The Crotoniates felt a collective sense of being lost. Originally, seeing the war break out, they had hoped Theonia would stumble badly before the Bruttians, allowing Croton to take some advantage. But now it seemed this was merely Croton’s beautiful fantasy. The strength displayed by Theonia sent a chill down the spines of everyone present.

“This is a good thing!” General Thesprotes stood up and shouted loudly. “The nightmare that has plagued the people of Croton and other city-states for a hundred years finally has hope of ending! The people of Croton will be very happy when they know!”

Thesprotes’s words made those harboring other thoughts realize: even if they wanted to hinder Theonia, their proposals likely wouldn’t pass the Citizen Assembly.

At this moment, Lysias, the leading general, stood up and said, “As a member of the South Italian League, we should be happy for Theonia’s victory! Although Theonia did not invite Croton to join the war, being in the same league, Croton should unite with other allies to gift Theonia sufficient military supplies to show our support!”

***

On the very day the Fourth Legion launched its massive siege, the army led by Davos remained in the camp on the banks of the Punat River.

Soldiers were busy sending the wounded and sick back to Besidiae city, while the baggage train transported the military grain sent from Thurii to Besidiae back to the camp.

Inside his tent, Davos stared intently at the map of the Bruttian mountains, pondering his next move.

Just then, Tolmides entered. “Lord, many Bruttians have arrived outside the camp. Their leader, a man named Hegesitus, requests to see you.”

Davos’s heart stirred, and he immediately said, “Quick, let him in!”

It turned out the previous riot in Consentia had been incited by Hegesitus. As Pianlun’s grand army returned from attacking the fortress, these rebel tribes, knowing they were no match, fled Consentia in panic. At the time, Pianlun was busy dealing with the Theonian grand army and had no energy to suppress them. However, these tribes had dragged their families along and brought little food. Fleeing into the mountains, they suffered greatly, and within two days, their food was nearly exhausted.

Thus, these tribes began to complain about Hegesitus, and their gazes toward him became increasingly unfriendly.

Just at that moment, tribesmen sent out to scout brought back shocking news: The Bruttian League and Theonia had fought a great battle by the Punat River. The Bruttians were utterly defeated, and Pianlun’s massive army, which had set out from Consentia, had almost nothing left upon its return.

This news immediately changed the tribes’ attitude toward Hegesitus.

Hegesitus made a prompt decision: lead these tribes to seek protection from the Theonian army.

Davos didn’t care much about suddenly adding over two thousand mouths to feed. What interested him was Hegesitus. This had originally been a casual move born of a sudden idea; he hadn’t expected the first result Hegesitus delivered to exceed his expectations.

Looking at this man with a Greek face but a stature unlike a Greek’s and messy long hair, he asked curiously, “How did you persuade them?”

“Lord Archon,” Hegesitus knew his opportunity had come and explained in detail. “Before the establishment of the Bruttian Tribal League, the great tribe of Consentia, led by Pianlun, was constantly forcibly annexing surrounding weak tribes. Since the establishment of the Bruttian League, to avoid antagonizing the Great Chiefs of Vergae, Besidiae, and others, Pianlun proposed establishing a ‘Chiefs’ League’ within the League. It gathered all tribal chiefs who submitted, voluntarily or by force, claiming that they would unifiedly manage and decide League affairs. In reality, these tribal chiefs had no power at all. League affairs were decided by the Council of Elders composed of several Great Chiefs and the High Priest (the Council of Seven Elders). Meanwhile, the tribesmen of these tribes were completely broken up, forced into individual households managed directly by the League, and of course, paying taxes directly to the League annually.

“Having lost all rights, the tribal chiefs naturally wouldn’t be resigned to it. And the warriors of the tribes were also very unaccustomed to it. Lord, you should know that each of these native tribes is basically of the same bloodline, multiplied over hundreds of years. They are related by blood and usually help each other in times of difficulty. Now, suddenly separated from the tribe’s reliance and forced to live independently, many warriors’ lives are worse than before. Moreover, inside Consentia city, they are easily bullied by warriors of the great tribes. Therefore, whether chiefs or warriors, they naturally harbored dissatisfaction…”

Davos listened intently, nodding occasionally. He felt that, in fact, this set of measures by the Bruttian Tribal League went even further than the system of the Lucanian Tribal League back then. It was prepared to completely dismantle the old tribal system and highly concentrate power in the League’s upper echelons. If they had truly succeeded, they would have been a formidable enemy for Theonia.

“Lord, to protect the Xilu tribe, you did not hesitate to go to war with the Bruttian Tribal League!” Hegesitus flattered Davos slightly, then continued, “To meet the war, the Bruttian League had to pause the disposal of these tribes that surrendered later. So after sneaking into Consentia, I told them, ‘Theonia will defeat the Bruttian League and restore your tribes’ rights and freedom!’” At this point, Hegesitus glanced carefully at Davos, a bit worried that his unauthorized promise would meet with criticism.

“You did the right thing!” Davos praised. Deep down, he also wished to confiscate the power of various tribes and place all Bruttians directly under Theonian rule, just like the Bruttian League. However, his rationality told him that such brute force would only intensify the conflict between Greeks and Bruttians and destroy the stability of the region, doing more harm than good for Theonia. Even the Bruttian League, as an organization of the same race with power far exceeding other tribes, faced passive resistance and even rebellion from these small tribes. If Greeks, who had always had enmity with Bruttians, were to push this centralization measure, the result would likely be even worse. Therefore, after conquering Bruttium, Davos still decided to implement the same strategy as in Lucania: the method of boiling a frog in warm water. Superficially promising tribal privileges, while secretly exerting subtle influence on Bruttian warriors through the army and culture, eventually causing them to break away from tribal control.

“These tribes were initially somewhat moved by my proposal but were hesitant. It wasn’t until your army suddenly captured Besidiae city, shaking all of Consentia, that they made up their minds!” Hegesitus said excitedly. “Now that your army has inflicted heavy losses on the Bruttian grand army again, I think this victory will have a huge impact on the situation inside Consentia city!”