Chapter 574: Agesilaus Hopeful Wish
Chapter 574: Agesilaus Hopeful Wish
Dionysius’ heart turned cold when he saw the enemy in black helmets and armours rushing up. Seeing that the situation turned worse, he immediately sounded the retreat.
But instead of ordering the soldiers to pursue, Antonios told them to rest on the spot as he considered the soldiers hadn’t recovered their strength from marching here.
After escaping a catastrophe, Herolis had mixed feelings as he watched the Theonian soldiers take off their armour, eat their rations and rest on Syracuse’s land.
Yet no matter what he thought, he could only show a smiling face as he gratefully said to Antonios, “Thank Apollo! Thank you, Theonians, for your timely assistance! Without you, it would be a small matter for us to sacrifice our lives. But the vicious Dionysius would reoccupy Syracuse and become a disaster for the people of Syracuse and Theonia, which are fighting against Dionysius!”
Instead of fussing about the implication of Herolis’ words, Antonios seriously replied, “Dionysius is the cause of war, and the peace-loving people of Theonia and Syracuse naturally don’t want him to hold power and continue waging wars. Thus, I have brought my troops here for one purpose: to expel him from Syracuse. For that, we will follow your opinions on what to do next.”
Antonios’ restraint relieved Herolis and the others, so Herolis’ response became more straightforward, “Strategos, I hope you can lead your troops and help us recapture the city’s centre occupied by Dionysius.”
After agreeing to Herolis’ request and letting the soldiers rest for a while, Antonios immediately set out to the southeast.
But by this time, Dionysius had already led the mercenaries back to the island of Ortygia. In fact, after seeing the legion soldiers appearing in Syracuse, he knew that his army couldn’t resist them.
With the unexpected reinforcements of the Theonians, Dionysius began to regret wasting valuable time by organising the slave soldiers and dividing Herolis’ forces out of caution after learning that Herolis and the others defeated his pursuit troops in the Epipolae. Instead, he should have immediately led all the mercenaries to Epipolae and completely wiped out Herolis and the others, occupied the northern wall of Syracuse and blocked the path of the Theonians to the south!
But now, it was too late for Dionysius to regret as his cautious character had led to his ultimate failure, with remorse filling his heart as his imminent victory turned to nothing in a blink of an eye.
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When Antonios quickly led his troops forward, he soon realised the vastness of the city of Syracuse. Naturally, Dionysius’ dispatch of a massive number of citizens, sailors and auxiliary personnel to his expedition to Magna Graecia resulted in the lack of population.
It took the Theonians nearly an hour to arrive in the city’s central area. However, once the mercenaries who were lashing and plundering the people saw their arrival, they hurriedly fled to the island of Ortygia.
Afterwards, Herolis and the others, who arrived later, howled as the entire square was covered with corpses and wounded people, mostly families of the rebels and the people who supported them the most.
On the other hand, Antonios continued to lead his army towards the isthmus of the island of Ortygia, where he saw the towering fortress and the tall and solid wall behind it. But to prevent too many casualties, Antonios decided to give up the attack and retreated behind the new wall.
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The same melancholy also covered Sparta.
Sparta has been fighting on two fronts. While Achilleidas led the allied armies and mercenaries in Asia Minor fighting the Persians, the battle in the isthmus of Corinth in the Peloponnese continued. Even though the main force of the war was either their allies’ army or mercenaries, Sparta itself suffered many casualties among its citizens.
The Gerousia even needed to order the citizens over the age of fifty to put on armour, take up shields and spears and serve as patrols in Sparta to stop the Helots’ unusual actions. They even decided to hold an early ‘hunting game’ (a planned killing of Helots to reduce their population, ensuring the safety of Sparta’s territory.)
With the shadow of war shrouding Sparta, the people were in high tension.
At this moment, Phidias went to meet Agesilaus at the king’s residence after returning to Sparta.
Now, the Spartan king had made a great name for himself in Asia Minor, Central Greece and the Isthmus of Corinth, earning the respect of the Spartan citizens. Some even began calling him ‘Sparta’s hero after Lysander’.
However, the wooden chairs they sat in were close to each other, which just showed that Agesilaus attached importance to Phidias. Although there was no banquet of fruits and drinks (in Syracuse, Phidias often enjoyed such treatment), Phidias felt more comfortable in such a simple environment.
After Phidias finished narrating the entire War of Magna Graecia from a neutral perspective, he picked up the crude clay jar beside him, which contained cool river water. He then took a large sip, which immediately moistened his dry throat.
As he recalled Phidias’ story, Agesilaus imagined the battle after battle waged by thousands of soldiers on both sides of the land of Magna Graecia. He then sighed and said, “I didn’t expect that the massive war in Magna Graecia would soon come to an end in less than half a year. Yet the result was completely beyond our expectations!”
“Yes, no one thought that the weak Theonia would become the ultimate victor!” Phidias also lamented. After all, the Syracusan army was unstoppable since the time they landed in Magna Graecia. At that time, the Gerousia were even worried that Syracuse would win too easily, including himself. But who knew the result would be the opposite, resulting in many Spartans’ jaws to drop.
“In your judgment, do you think it is still possible for Syracuse to reverse the situation?” Agesilaus asked again with hope in his heart. After all, Syracuse was Sparta’s ally for many years, and its defeat would mean wasting Sparta’s western Mediterranean strategy, which might lead to a complete change in Sparta’s foreign strategy. Thus, for this reason, Agesilaus had to be cautious.
“It’s basically impossible.” Phidias answered immediately. After hesitating, he said, “Unless…the gods bless them and cause a plague to spread on the Theonian army…”
In the years after Dionysius became a tyrant, Carthage invaded close to Syracuse twice*(the first time wasn’t long after Dionysius became the supreme commander, about 406 BC). But both times, the Carthaginians caught a plague that resulted in their defeat. Hence from an outsider’s perspective, it seemed Dionysius had divine protection, but in fact, Syracuse’s port area was near a large number of swamps near the Anapo river. So every time the Carthaginians camped there, countless mosquitoes would find many hosts to spread the bacteria.
But for the Theonian army, the likelihood of plague happening is extremely low because the Theonian Military Law requires the army to not camp near mosquitoes’ breeding grounds. And after a battle, they would cremate and bury the bodies of both enemies and allies. Moreover, the soldiers would boil the water they would drink, and the logistics camp would carry lime (from Thurii’s quarry) which they would sprinkle on unclean areas in and around the camp…
Davos, who came from the future, certainly knew the cause of the plague, so he took many measures to minimise the possibility of it happening.
Although Agesilaus naturally doesn’t know it, he would never place his hopes on the ‘unpredictability of the gods’ as a qualified commander. Thus Phidias’ words basically concluded the outcome of the war on Magna Graecia.
With a serious expression, Agesilaus tapped his left leg a few times with his left hand and asked, “Do you think Dionysius can defeat those rebels and take back Syracuse?”
“It would be hard!” Despite spending months with Dionysius and meeting the rebels only once, Phidias said, “Dionysius has lost his powerful and loyal mercenary force, his large navy, and has deserted his army. And apart from the people of Syracuse turning their backs on him, most of Syracuse’s allies also abandoned him. Moreover, the Theonians stationed their armies in the city-states around Syracuse. So now, Dionysius was isolated and surrounded by enemies unless we send reinforcements to support him!”
“Sparta has no reinforcements to send.” Agesilaus said without mincing his words. While Phidias already expected that.
“Unfortunately, we have supported Dionysius for many years, yet the result…” Agesilaus sighed as his face showed a trace of regret.
“We can instead support the Syracusan rebels. Their leaders even promised me that they were willing to continue allying with Sparta and send reinforcements to us once the war in Magna Graecia ends and help us defeat those who resist Sparta.”
Unfortunately, Phidias’ words didn’t make Agesilaus happy. Instead, he said, “For us, that would be the last resort. However… I am afraid this new Syracusan government would implement a democratic system.”
Phidias then thought about the almost ‘ten strategoi’ he had seen in Syracuse’s city hall. He nodded and said, “That should be.”
“Democratic government has great uncertainty. Those with schemes could easily incite the ignorants to suddenly force the leadership of Syracuse to tear up the agreement with us…hence why the Gerousia was willing to cooperate with Dionysius, who is a tyrant.” Agesilaus expressed his concern.