Chapter 691: Theonia v Rome (V)
Chapter 691: Theonia v Rome (V)
“Re…reporting to the legatus! All members of…the seventh brigade have arrived and are awaiting your order!” Satirus, the senior centurion of the seventh brigade, saluted at Amintas while panting.
Amintas already expected the light infantry brigade of the First Legion to be the first to arrive. After all, their armour and weapons are light, allowing them to move quickly. In fact, they were only about seven kilometres from Amintas when they received the order to march, so arriving here after more than an hour meant their speed wasn’t fast. But they did so to maintain the integrity of their formations and preserve their stamina so they could join the battle as soon as they arrived.
Amintas swept a glance at the sweat-drenched soldiers. Seeing they were still in high spirits, he nodded in satisfaction and shouted, “Brothers, you’ve come just in time! The enemy is just ahead, waiting for us to eat them up and make a name for our Theonia’s First Legion here! Do you have that confidence?!”
“Yes!!!” The soldiers shouted simultaneously.
“Staff Officer, start making the arrangement,” said Amintas.
Phryntor didn’t refuse and began to look at the slate full of details. Then, pointing to the southwest, he said to Satirus, the senior centurion of the seventh brigade, “Two kilometres from here, there are more than three hundred Roman heavy infantry, seven hundred cavalries and nearly two thousand Roman light infantry. At the moment, the First Cavalry Legion is under tremendous pressure just to stop them retreating, so take the seventh brigade there immediately and help the First Cavalry Legion to hold off the enemy until the follow-up troops arrive and then wipe them out!”
“Roger!” Satirus turned around and shouted, “Brothers, keep running with me!”
The seventh brigade’s soldiers rushed to the southwest with the scout’s guidance.
“Phryntor, your previous suggestion is correct. As long as we capture these enemies, I don’t think the Romans will just abandon them!” The seventh brigade’s arrival eased Amintas a bit, so he began praising Phryntor, who had advised him to “stop intercepting all the Roman plundering provisions and concentrate their cavalry on the Roman centuriae closest to them!” Though this caused Amintas to hesitate for a while, he now not only held off the Romans’ more than three hundred heavy infantry but also attracted their light infantry and cavalry. So once they successfully pinned down these three thousand Romans, he would no longer be worried about whether the main Roman army would leave their camp.
Phryntor just smiled without saying anything more.
At this time, Aristonos shouted again, “Legatus, another unit has arrived!”
After the rising dust from the south cleared, what he saw this time was the eighth brigade(namely the light-armoured Brigade)…
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Initially, the various centuriae of the Cavalry Legion managed to stop the Romans and also gave them some casualties, which can be said to be great results. But the arrival of Rome’s light infantry and cavalry turned the situation of the Roman soldiers.
The Roman light infantry were mainly archers and javelin throwers, which had a longer range and were more accurate than the javelins of the Theonian cavalry. At the same time, the Roman cavalry had restricted the speed of the Theonian cavalry. So although the Theonian cavalry wanted to charge into the enemy, it would only result in failure, as the Romans had mixed their infantry into their ranks, making it easy for them to fall into the enemy’s encirclement.
Using a combination of heavy infantry, cavalry and light infantry, the Romans inflicted more casualties on the Theonian cavalry, who were far better in terms of equestrian. Although cavalry is no longer as valuable as it once was in the Kingdom of Theonia*, how can Ledes, as legatus, not feel the loss of his hard-trained cavalry! And since they are in a foreign land, it would take more work to make up for their losses. (The cavalry of the First Legion comes mainly from Bruttii, where the people are excellent at rearing and riding horses, so much so that the reserve cavalry of the First Cavalry Legion alone would be enough to form another legion.)
Faced with such a terrible situation, Ledes began to hesitate about whether to stop his order to intercept the Roman soldiers from returning to their camp.
Fortunately, Amintas’ orders had arrived in time. So Ledes gathered all his cavalry and concentrated on the three Roman centuriae in the southwest.
In addition, Ledes had the cavalry gather the three Roman centuriae in one place, making them easier to intercept.
With nearly two thousand Theonian cavalries galloping about, the Roman soldiers dared not act rashly.
But the Roman soldiers didn’t have to wait long, as large numbers of Roman light infantry and cavalry had arrived to change the situation.
The Romans began to form up, placing the heavy infantry in the centre, the light infantry on the outskirts and the cavalry to the side, ready to intercept the approaching Theonian cavalry. With this formation, the Romans began to advance slowly towards the camp.
Under the javelins and arrows of the Roman light infantry, the Theonian cavalry in front couldn’t throw their javelins because they had to come into range of the Roman light infantry. But while the flying arrows were firing at the Theonian cavalry, the Roman cavalry would also take advantage of the situation to charge over, hold off the enemy for a while, and then quickly return to avoid being heavily besieged by the Theonian cavalry.
The Romans’ repeated use of this tactic had caused considerable losses to Theonia’s First Cavalry Legion. So Ledes no longer dared to have the cavalry stop them at the front. Instead, he had them harass the enemy’s rear. But with the tight formation of the Romans, the Theonian cavalry didn’t dare to get too close.
At the sight of the dusty battlefield and the neighing of the horses, Ledes once again became indecisive. Suddenly, Ledes saw a wounded rider moving towards his rear with the help of another cavalry.
Feeling that the wounded man’s face was familiar, Ledes urged his horse forward to take a closer look, and he recognised the person as one of the centurions of the First Cavalry Legion, Pebareus. His full name was Pebareus Solikos, the eldest son of Solikos*, a former subordinate of Ledes and a hero of the kingdom. (Since Davos named his son Crotokatax Davos, this practice gradually became so popular in the kingdom that most citizens abandoned the Greek tradition of having only a first name and no surname. And so they began to use their name as the surname of their descendants.) (Note: Solikos is a former coachman who joined Theonia’s first cavalry and died in the battle against the Syracusans.)
At that moment, the young man was unconscious with his eyes closed.
“Legatus, an arrow struck the captain’s horse, causing him to fall over and fall into a coma,” said the cavalryman who brought Pebareus back.
“Take care of him!” Ledes finally made up his mind after saying that. With a determined look, Ledes took a deep breath and said, “We will stop intercepting the Romans-”
But suddenly, a loud salpinx rang out.
“Legatus, it’s the First Legion! The First Legion has arrived!!” The cavalryman beside him shouted excitedly.
Hearing the familiar sound, Ledes looked to the front and vaguely saw golden light flashing on the top of Theonia’s flag through the scattering dust.
Then the herald of Amintas arrived, “Reporting to legatus Ledes! The seventh brigade of the First Legion has arrived and is now approaching the enemy.”
“Only the seventh brigade?!” Ledes felt disappointed.
The herald said emphatically, “The other brigades would soon come!”
Ledes thought for a moment and then ordered, “Have each of our brigades stop harassing the enemy and open up a gap. Then have them slow down their horses to observe the enemy’s action, and at the same time, keep them away from the east so as not to be accidentally wounded by the First Legion’s long-range attack..”
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When the soldiers of the seventh brigade saw the dusty battlefield and the cavalries, they forgot their exhaustion as they became even more excited and picked up the pace.
Once they got close to the battlefield, senior centurion Satirus ordered them to stop the advance and ordered, “Wild goose formation!”
At the sight of the waving flag and the sound of the salpinx, the soldiers immediately distanced themselves from each other, and the whole brigade spread out to either side. Soon the entire military formation became a concave arch.
Then a cavalry of the First Cavalry Legion came and said, “Brothers of the First Legion, we have moved out of the way.”
The senior centurion of the light infantry immediately ordered, “The first centuria, get ready!”
The light infantry of each legion had a somewhat unique structure. All have only four centurias: The first and second centurias are all archers, and the third and fourth centurias are all peltasts, with each centuria having two hundred and fifty men under them consisting of five platoons. However, the light infantry brigade of the First Legion was much more special, as it only had three centurias: the second centuria were archers, the third centuria were peltasts, and the first centuria were slingers, which was the only unique type of soldier left in Theonia, with three hundred fifty men and all of them were born from Rhodes and were good at slinging stones.
After untying the slings at their waist, the first centuria advanced to the forefront in a loose formation.
Satirus, on the other hand, kept his eyes to the front as he judged the distance between his brigade and the enemy, an essential skill for Theonia’s light infantry’s senior centurion.
Satirus was part of the expedition to Persia. He was a Thracian peltast with great experience and outstanding in battle, which allowed him to take the position of the senior centurion of the light infantry brigade of the First Legion.
Although the Romans saw the Theonian cavalry move out of the way, they still didn’t speed up because the Theonian cavalry was still around, forcing them to maintain a tight formation.
Seeing the Romans were only three hundred metres away from them, Satirus raised his right hand and shouted, “The first centuria, attack!”
The slingers then took out an egg-sized lead ball from their leather bags. Unlike ten years ago when they were still using rocks, the slingers now replaced their projectiles with a lead ball that allowed it to fly farther while also being more lethal.