Chapter 82: The Battle of Thurii (IV)
Chapter 82: The Battle of Thurii (IV)
Although Cincinnag, who is at the back of the phalanx formation, couldn’t understand the situation of the battle in details, but it’s an indisputable fact that his troops are retreating while screams can be heard from time to time. Looking on both sides, there are even soldiers running away in the distance…Cincinnag was very anxious and angry, but at this moment, he had no time to think about why such situation happened, and the most urgent thing he needs to do now is to stop this disadvantage or else the right-wing would be defeated, which will then lead to the defeat of the whole Lucanian tribal alliance! Although he is related as an in law to the Great Chieftain of Grumentum, but Cincinnag does not think that the tyrant will easily forgive Pyxous. Now, the soldiers of Pyxous are at the midst of the battle and he could no longer command them as the only one left who he can commands are the warriors that have not yet joined the battle.
“Go and call the Vergaens to help! Tell their chieftain that if we lose this battle, then Lucania will not forgive Vergae!” Shouted Cincinnag to his guard.
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
“Great chief, the Lucanians are going too far! It’s clearly Cincinnag who had thought that they could easily beat the Greeks without us, but now he is saying that their failure is our fault!” The young Salu said angrily.
Sedrum looked at the situation on the battlefield not far away and did not respond.
“These Greeks are so powerful that they are beating the Lucanians with their small number!” Salu looked ahead and said excitedly and hesitantly added, “Great chief, the Luanians are going to lose! Otherwise…we should stop fighting and leave! Maybe…maybe we can break away from their alliance!”
At this time, Sedrum said, “Even if the Lucanians are defeated, how many of their people will die? Will the Greeks dare enter the mountains?…As long as the Lucanians still maintain their strength, they will still have the final say, unless we, like our fellow tribesmen move south, and fight Crotone for their land.” Exclaimed Sedrum, “Command our warriors to go in formation and push forward from the right end!”
2,000 Brutians, clad in leather armour and armed with wooden shields and spears, formed a much solid phalanx than the Lucanians, and joined at the right-end of the Pyxous’ formation that is about to collapse.
The Lucanians that are about to collapse could not push the battle formation of the Brutti, and they instead got pushed forward. In order to survive, most of the Lucanian warriors had no choice but to turn around and fight. After all, the Lucanian formation is thick and it is only due to them panicking that led them to flee, rather than the mercenaries slaughtering them. Once their reinforcements arrived, they gradually stabilized their emotions and positions, and their formation began to recover…
The casualties of the Lucanians are still increasing, but the mercenaries are gradually retreating…the pushing force that was generated by the extra-thick formation of the Lucanians and the Brutians which obviously can’t be compared to the thin formation of the mercenaries. Once the gap between the two sides became narrow, their superb fighting skill will no longer play a great role. Fortunately, the experienced mercenaries took the initiative to slowly retreat in order to relieve the pressure exerted by the other side…
Davos is not like the other strategoi that personally go in battle, and so once the battle begun, he fully focused in watching the development of the battle. He rode on his horse from left to right and right to left at the rear of the phalanx formation and paid close attention to the progress of the battle, and giving commands at any time through his heralds. Prior to this, it made him excited when the right end of the Lucanian formation was about to collapse. However, his disappointment could be imagined when the battle situation reversed, but he didn’t urge his soldiers to attack again, because he knew that, in addition to the factors of the arrival of the enemy’s reinforcements, it is also related to the stamina of the soldiers. It is impossible for them to maintain such a fierce attack for too long, and as long one is a human, there will be a limit to their stamina, not to mention that they were heavy infantry. Even at this critical moment, Davos ordered the peltast who had retreated to the rear to join in the attack on the rightmost end of the enemy. Unfortunately…
If he had those 2,000 mercenaries and 200 cavalry under his own command, then his soldiers are now chasing a defeated army! He can only blame himself for being too confident and not insisting on getting more troops from Thurii… as soon as this thought of regret came out of his mind, Davos nipped it out. In war, any unexpected situation may happen, the commanders can’t foresee them, and the only thing he can do at this moment is to keep a cool head and try not to let his excessive emotions affect his judgment.
The front of the mercenaries was originally an “arc”, but now it has gradually flattened. As the phalanx move backward, Davos realized that the soldiers, while competing with the enemy’s powerful pushing force, should not only prevent the thin formation from being broken, but also kill as much enemy as they could in this battle. The consumption of their stamina and energy is quite huge, it’s already very good that they could maintain such situation! Unless there is a major accident, the left wing of the Thurii alliance will not improve, as for the center, the return of Asistes told him that it is not optimistic, and it is even worse than the left wing. The only one that are currently in an advantage is the right wing, but it isn’t much (this is the judgment of Asistes, who went to scout on a horseback, and based it on the fact that Taranto’s front only moved forward a bit). After learning that the overall situation of the battle is not favorable, Davos removed the luck from his mind and he considered to withdraw his troops once the battle is lost.
5 kilo-meters in the plain of Sybaris, nearly 30,000 soldiers are fighting for their life and death. Dust swirls in the air and the noise of battle rose to the skies as the conflict intensify, and bloods splattering…after more than an hour of fierce fighting, the Greek army gradually felt restless.
The number of the Lucanian alliance is more than 6,500, but according to the observation of the scouts of Thurii and Davos, they estimated that there were about 13,000 Lucanians. In fact, the cunning Akpir hid some of his troops in the back of the mountain of their camp, while 2,000 men of Vergae joined at the last moment, which caused the Greek to make a mistake in their judgment, and the impression of Friis of the Lucanians remained a few years ago (he did not participate in the battle last year). In fact, in recent years, the Lucanians developed very fast, specially Grumentum, which has begun to break away from the tribal alliance tradition and started to develop towards a kingdom. In the recent 2 years of tribal annexation war, the warriors of Grumentum have become more brave and tenacious due to their frequent baptism of blood.
In the old concept of the stragoi of Thurii, as long as they kept on fighting head-on, the loosely organized Lucanians are bound to be crushed by the strength of the Greek hoplites. However, the facts prove how ridiculous their ideas are, specially the center of the Greek army with the mercenaries in the front row and the citizen soldiers in the middle, and the free men at the back. The three forces can never be effectively combined as one, and under the fierce charge of the warriors of Grumentum, the center of the Greek army begun to retreat…as the battle went on, the three different groups of soldiers begun starting to have their own ideas: The mercenaries fought for money, in the case of a hopeless victory, they of course will think of what they need to do, which is to save their lives first. The citizen soldiers of Thurii did indeed fought as hard as they can, but half of them are middle-aged, whose stamina has reached their limit, but they still continued in their struggle, because Thurii is their home and must not be trampled by the savages. And the free men have a just try attitude in joining the war, winning will get them their citizenship, and if they lose they will just flee Thurii and go to another city-states to live a new life.
As the center of the Greek army retreated faster and faster, the gap between them and the left and right wings widened. And when the warriors of Grumentum rushed into the gap on both sides and started attacking the center of the Greek army from the sides, the whole center formation broke up and the soldiers fled everywhere…
Davos, who has been paying close attention to the situation, sighed. He suppressed his disappointment and decisively ordered their retreat, the command to signal their retreat is quite special as it was designed by Davos, which is quite different compared to the general Greek army. First, it’s a long sound, followed by the same sound that signals a charge. The soldier repeatedly sounded the salpinx three times, and most of the Lucanian warriors thought that the mercenaries would charge again. In this daze moment, the mercenaries widened the distance up a bit, and the peltast in the rear formation threw their javelins once more (this is really the courage of skilled men, without any strict training, it would easy for them to accidentally hurt their comrades by mistake). While the Lucanians were busy defending, the mercenaries quickly completed a series of retreating actions, such as turning, running, and so on…
Note: Cosentia, the central town of the Brutti region.