Mediterranean Hegemon of Ancient Greece Chapter 1004: Battle at the Tower Gates

"Hurry and send someone to check!" Imisere's unease deepened. He shouted, "Send another three hundred light infantry! Get them to the opposite wall immediately!"

"Yes, my lord!"

...

While Tarentus led ten mountain scouts in a rush toward the lighthouse, the rest of the Mountain Scout Detachment charged toward the small military camp near the temple. They ran straight into a Carthaginian officer stepping out to investigate the commotion.

Night alarm bells had never once rung in the decade since Lilybaeum's founding. The awakened Carthaginian officer assumed the lighthouse keeper had made a mistake, leaving him completely defenseless when the scouts ran him through.

As more mountain scouts flooded into the camp, they found the Carthaginian soldiers in various states of undress—some scrambling into their armor, others rolling out of bed, and a few still fast asleep. It was a one-sided massacre.

After making quick work of the garrison, the scouts sprinted for the lighthouse.

Davos had originally stationed this five-hundred-man Mountain Scout Detachment in Catana. After suffering over a hundred casualties during the surprise attack on Syracuse, only three hundred and sixty scouts remained for this operation. One hundred and sixty were currently wreaking havoc across the Port District, while the remaining two hundred scaled the breakwater one after another to converge on the lighthouse.

Watching his comrades gather around him inside the tower, Tarentus felt a surge of pride. He had led the Mountain Scout Corps across the Tiber River and through the sewers to secure the City of Rome. During the surprise attack on Caisrela, he had spearheaded the vanguard and been the first to breach the walls. At the siege of Syracuse, he had commanded the assault that seized the Euryalus Fortress, opening the door to the city's conquest. Capturing the lighthouse and opening the water gates completed his assigned mission—yet he found himself thirsting for more.

Leaving ten men behind to guard the lighthouse, he led over a hundred scouts through the structure and out onto the wall's walkway.

The group sprinted down the walkway, slamming directly into the Carthaginian light infantry rushing to meet them.

In the pitch-black night, the Carthaginians had assumed the chaotic footsteps ahead belonged to their own men from the small camp. Caught entirely off guard, they did not realize they were facing the enemy until the two sides collided.

Armed with nothing but Bows and Arrows, javelins, and daggers, the Carthaginian light infantry were no match for mountain scouts wielding short swords and leather shields. They were swiftly slaughtered and routed.

As they fled, they screamed in terror, "The enemy is on the walls! The Theonians have broken in!"

As the routed soldiers closed in on the tower gates, their screams drifted clearly into Imisere's ears. Panic gripped him. This meant the Theonians had captured the natural breakwater and the lighthouse. They now controlled the water gates, which meant Daonian Warships could sail straight into the port and unload the Daionian Army!

Imisere had no time to wonder how the Theonians had taken the lighthouse; he could only think of the imminent arrival of their fleet and troops. Lacking extensive combat experience, he inevitably lost his composure. Only one thought hammered in his mind: he absolutely could not let the Theonians breach the city!

"Close the tower gates!" he shrieked in a panic. "Don't let the Theonians through! Do not open the port's city gates without my explicit orders! Close them, hurry!"

The Carthaginians had been quite thorough when constructing Lilybaeum Port. Where the natural breakwater met the mainland, they had completely sealed the gap with a solid wall, leaving the city's ramparts as the only path across. They had also erected two towers—the tallest in all of Lilybaeum, standing four meters higher than the walls themselves—flanking the ramparts. Thus, the only way onto the natural breakwater was via the wall's walkway. Using the walkway as a threshold and the two towers as a frame, the Carthaginians had installed a massive set of gates to control access to the breakwater and serve as a failsafe against just such a crisis.

In truth, Carthaginian soldiers had already garrisoned these two towers. Upon hearing the sudden clash of battle and the ensuing chorus of screams from the opposite wall, a cautious officer swiftly ordered his men to shut the tower gates until they could figure out what was happening.

Hearing that the tower gates were secure, Imisere caught his breath and hurried to issue a new string of orders. "Go inform General Sakarzidon of Lilybaeum at the southeast military camp! Tell him to dispatch two thousand soldiers here immediately!"

"And send another messenger to Lagnaca! Tell him to hurry up and bring his troops!"

Even after issuing these commands, his unease lingered. After a moment's hesitation, he turned to his most trusted subordinate and lowered his voice. "Take a fast horse and go straight to Lord Mago. Tell him that Lilybaeum Port has suffered an amphibious assault from the Theonians, and request that he send an army to reinforce us at once!"

The Carthaginians kept the tower gates firmly shut, turning a deaf ear to their routed comrades desperately pounding on the wood. Instead, they lit torches all along the towers and positioned their light infantry at the vantage points, raining down projectiles on the Theonians pursuing the routed soldiers along the walkway.

For this mission, the mountain scouts had forgone their leather armor and helmets to make it easier to hide aboard the cargo ships and scale the walls. Aside from their leather shields, they had no protection whatsoever. Bunched together on the narrow walkway, they made perfect targets. After just a few volleys of Bows and Arrows, the scouts at the front sustained heavy casualties. Even Tarentus caught an arrow in his left arm.

The sharp pain snapped Tarentus out of his battle frenzy. He immediately ordered his men to fall back and hold the lighthouse.

Even as the Theonians retreated, the Carthaginian defenders refused to open the tower gates, fearing a trick. Only after their heavy infantry arrived from the city below did Imisere finally order the gates opened.

The walls along the natural breakwater were over five meters high, and the only way down to the shoreline was through the lighthouse itself. If the Carthaginians wanted to retake the lighthouse, they had to push through the narrow wall walkway, completely neutralizing their numerical advantage. Although there was no door at the juncture between the wall and the lighthouse, the lighthouse stood more than twice as tall as the ramparts. Tarentus positioned a group of his men to choke off the entrance while sending others to loot javelins and Bows and Arrows from the enemy's small camp. These archers then manned the upper stone windows of the tower, raining fire down on the advancing Carthaginian infantry to relieve the pressure on the scouts defending the entrance.

A pang of regret struck Tarentus. Unlike the defenders at Caisrela and Syracuse, these Carthaginians in Lilybaeum reacted swiftly to night raids. Had he known, he would not have rushed to capture the tower gates. Instead, he should have used the precious time to barricade the entrance between the wall and the lighthouse with doors or debris.

Now both sides were locked in a brutal stalemate, a situation heavily skewed against the Mountain Scout Corps. Stripped of any room to maneuver, the lightly armored scouts were forced into a head-on clash against heavy infantry, naturally resulting in severe casualties. Yet, no matter how many men fell, the scouts could not yield a single inch. Letting the Carthaginians breach the lighthouse would spell disaster. And so, at the bloody chokepoint between the wall and the lighthouse, the scouts gritted their teeth and held the line, stepping over their fallen brothers to take their place in the fray.

Imisere was equally frantic. The soldiers stationed at the artificial breakwater's tower had just sent a runner back with a dire report: a massive fleet of Warships was approaching the port!

The main Daionian Army was arriving! Panic gnawed at Imisere's heart. He knew full well that if those Warships breached the harbor, Lilybaeum would be in grave peril.

He immediately issued an absolute, non-negotiable order to Lagnaca, who had just arrived on the walls: retake the lighthouse and close the water gates at all costs!

Despite the deafening shouts and utter chaos consuming the Port District, the true focal point of the battle for both sides rested entirely on the lighthouse.

Lagnaca received his orders but did not blindly throw his five thousand men into the fray. The Carthaginian soldiers already engaged were backed up in a long bottleneck along the natural breakwater's walkway; sending more men from the rear would do nothing to threaten the enemy inside the lighthouse. Instead, he hurriedly ordered his men to scavenge for ropes so they could rappel down the walls to the shoreline. This would allow them to attack the lighthouse from below and simultaneously prevent any more Theonians from landing on the breakwater.

...

Because the Sicilian Fleet patrolled the western waters daily, the crew of every Daonian Warship was intimately familiar with the sea conditions around Lilybaeum. Guided by the lighthouse's beacon, they pushed their speed to the absolute limit. Only when they closed in on the water gates did they finally decelerate, sliding through the entrance one after another, hugging the side of the lighthouse.

At that moment, Carthaginian archers stationed in the tower on the opposite side of the water gates rained flaming arrows down upon the entering Daonian Warships. In the pitch-black night, the scattered embers drifted down onto the dark waters—a beautiful spectacle.

The crews aboard the Daonian Warships, however, were tense. Soldiers on the decks raised their long shields to deflect the flaming arrows, scrambling to sweep them into the sea to keep the ships from catching fire. Down below, the rowers pulled harder at their oars, surging the Warships forward to escape the archers' range.

According to the original plan, the first Warship through the gates was supposed to sail as deep into the harbor as possible, docking at the very far end of the natural breakwater. The rest of the fleet would then line up behind it, allowing the legionaries to disembark onto the shoreline simultaneously. Straphacus, the squadron leader, commanded the flagship entrusted with navigating this path.

But as he watched the fierce battle raging on the wall before the lighthouse, his lookout suddenly shouted a warning: Carthaginians were rappelling down the walls ahead.

Instantly realizing the urgency, Straphacus ordered his ship steered straight toward the breakwater and rotated the bow's drawbridge. The twelve-meter wooden bridge crashed heavily onto the shoreline. Just as the Third Fleet had assaulted the western banks of the City of Rome via the Tiber River several months ago, fifty soldiers of the Second Legion swiftly swarmed across the drawbridge. They poured onto the shoreline, intercepting the Carthaginians sliding down the walls.