Chapter 713: Disagreement in the Roman Senate (I)
Chapter 713: Disagreement in the Roman Senate (I)
Thus Antium became an important target for the Third Legion’s raid. They wanted to attack the city of Astura first because they needed a port to unload the siege equipment on board safely.
Before dawn, Litom left only two thousand soldiers in the city of Atella while leading six thousand to the port of Neapolis, took the prepared ship and landed on the coast near Astura in the early morning under the escort of the Third Fleet, commanded by Mithridates.
With more than six thousand soldiers attacking the small town of Astura, they quickly captured the town since it only had one hundred twenty defenders.
The Third Legion then marched north almost continuously, reaching the city of Antium in just over half an hour.
In Antium, the four Roman centuriae plus the supply unit, totalling about seven hundred men, wasn’t enough to defend the small city.
Litom began deploying a complete siege outside the city with his five thousand and five hundred soldiers. After the siege equipment arrived, the soldiers immediately carried the ladder, pushed the siege wagons, the arrow-blocking wagons… and launched a full-scale attack from the south, north and east of Antium.
As the Roman defenders struggled to hold their ground, the Third Fleet, led by Mithridates, burst into the port from the south. Then the five hundred soldiers of the Third Legion aboard the warship landed at the dock.
Since the Romans had never seen such a combination of land and sea tactics before, they didn’t set up any defences in the port. Of course, they didn’t even have the manpower to do so. But this was a military training the legions of the kingdom of Theonia trained in their camp from time to time, so they were highly skilled in its use.
After landing, the Theonian soldiers rushed south and soon occupied the almost defenceless southern wall connected to the port.
Now, the Roman defenders are in great danger…
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By the time Quintus and Furius arrived at dusk, only an empty city remained because the Third Legion and the Third Fleet had loaded all the food and supplies in the city onto the transport ships they had already prepared.
Meanwhile, Camillus and Licinius led the remaining troops to dismantle the camp and start retreating north…
That evening, the populations of Privernum and Setia cheered for victory after learning about the Roman army’s retreat. Then the high-ranking officials of the Volscian Alliance hosted a banquet in Privernum for Theonia’s officers, including Amintas and Phryntor, thanking them for their contribution to the rescue of Volsci. At the same time, they hoped the Theonian army would continue helping them reclaim the territories the Romans occupied.
After being criticised by Davos in his letter, Amintas learned his lesson and replied cautiously this time, “Theonia is more than willing to assist the Volscians in regaining your lost territories. But if the Romans have heavily garrisoned the cities they have occupied, we will need more soldiers if we are to take them back. And you should all be aware of the situation in the Kingdom of Theonia. Due to the drought and food shortage, we cannot send more troops, so we can only do our best now!”
The Volscians could only express their understanding.
Despite this slight interruption, the banquet was lively, and everyone went home happy.
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The next day, the troops led by Camillus and Licinius arrived at Antium.
Here the four military tribunes had another minor disagreement.
For yesterday and today, Quintus and Furius have received constant reports about the Theonian fleet patrolling the sea outside the port, preventing their transport ship from entering.
This made the two military tribunes, who had never experienced this aspect, feel helpless and nervous. Since the only thing they could do was stand on the southern wall and watch as the massive fleet of hundreds of Theonian warships covered the sea, putting unprecedented pressure on them. Then they began thinking that Antium, far from Rome and at the same time under constant threat from the Theonian fleet and the landing of Theonian soldiers, was unneeded and would only tie up too many of Rome’s soldiers! Instead, it would be better to abandon Antium and concentrate on defending the cities of Velitrae and Satricum to its east, thus freeing them from Theonia’s naval threat and allowing the city of Rome to provide support at any time…
On the other hand, Licinius disagreed, arguing that the Senate had decided Antium, Velitrae and Satricum be considered colonies of Rome. And since they announced that the landless plebeians were to move to these three cities and that all the land was to be given to these citizens, except a part to be used as public land of Rome, the Roman citizens would accuse and denounce them if they left Antium without permission.
Camillus also said that the Senate must approve the matter first, and as a military tribune, they shouldn’t make any decisions without authorisation.
In the end, they put the matter on hold, and the four agreed that Licinius would defend Antium with ten thousand men while the other three military tribunes would lead the rest of the soldiers back to Satricum.
However, due to the Volscians’ lack of strength, they could not attack the former Volscian cities, which were heavily guarded by the Romans, resulting in the war between Rome and Volsci to regain its calm temporarily.
But in Rome, things began to heat up.
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The deaths of tens of thousands of Roman citizens and allied soldiers shocked the city’s population, as the last time there had been such a large number of casualties was ten years earlier at the Battle of Allia with the Celts. A decade later, the Romans, accustomed to victory, were almost in mourning as they saw the cremated remains of their dead citizens brought back to Rome.
Some relatives of the deceased citizens condemn the military tribunes for incompetence in commanding the army and causing Rome to suffer such a disastrous defeat when they had the absolute advantage.
Some, who knew something about the situation, loudly complained that they shouldn’t have provoked the mighty kingdom of Theonia. If not, they wouldn’t have paid such a great sacrifice!
Of course, there were also the arrogant ones who cried that they shouldn’t have let go of the Theonian envoys in the first place so that they could use their heads as a tribute to the now-deceased soldiers. Then they began demanding Rome to raise a mighty army to attack Volsci again and wipe out the Volscians and Theonians to avenge the deaths of their citizens!
But compared to the angry and grieving citizens in the urban areas, the landless citizens are relieved to learn that they have managed to retake Antium and that the Volscians have stopped attacking. After all, they have been eagerly awaiting the implementation of the proposal announced by the Senate to distribute the conquered Volscian lands among them.
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The Roman Senate was in session, and all the senators were present except Licinus, who remained at Antium, listening attentively to the three military tribunes, Camillus, Quintus and Furius, who had returned to Rome to report on the whole war situation.
The first to speak was Camillus, who begins by recounting how the Senate ordered him to lead an army to put down the rebellion in Tusculum. But the people of Tusculum had no intention of rebelling and had instead taken the initiative to offer hundreds of hostages and re-sign the alliance treaty with Rome. And on his way back, he received another order from the Senate to head south to help Quintus speed up the conquest of the Volscian territory. So he and Furius led the army to speed up the march, successfully capture the city of Antium, and quickly attack the south until they reached Setia. However, the arrival of Volscian reinforcements forced them to halt and camp, waiting to join up with Quintus and his troops. But, unaware of the arrival of the Theonian army, he failed to withdraw his troops that went out to gather provisions in time. What’s more, he didn’t expect the Theonians to attack the troops outside the camp dozens of kilometres away, forcing him to lead his army out of the camp to meet them and ultimately suffering a tragic defeat under the combined attack of the Volscians and Theonians…
On the other hand, Quintus recounted how he and Licinius led the army to capture Velitrae, defeat the Volscian reinforcements, capture the city of Satricum and then head south to join up with Camillus’army. They then stormed Setia several times, only to fail when the Volscians crossed the marshes, avoided the scouts and suddenly appeared on the battlefield. Then, just as they were about to launch another attack on Setia, the Theonians took a ship, sneaked around their rear, and captured the defenceless Antium. Without any other choice, the Roman army was forced to retreat because of the threat to their transport route and the fear that the Theonians would attack Rome and the surrounding allied territories.
Furius’ story is more of a confirmation and addition to the facts given by the two military tribunes. For example, he recounted how Camillus had opposed the siege of Setia and proposed an alternative plan. He also mentioned that it was Camillus who first suggested the withdrawal of the army…
As the three of them recount the progress of the war, the Senators were first excited by the successive victories, then shocked and depressed when the war situation suddenly reversed, with most of them unable to keep their composure and begin discussing with each other.
Suddenly, a senator named Apuleius stood up and shouted accusingly, “Camillus is the first and foremost cause of our defeat in this war! He had rashly led his army out of camp and failed to defeat the Theonians in time, despite having superior strength, leading to our crushing defeat! We had lost so many brave citizens, which affected our remaining soldiers’ morale. Meanwhile, the morale of the Volscians soared, giving them the courage to resist our army’s attacks in the ensuing battle, which resulted in yet another defeat for us… Therefore, given Camillus’ error in command and the great damage he has done to Rome in this war, I believe the Senate should severely punish Camillus. At the same time, we should consider whether he is still fit to serve as military tribune.”