Mediterranean Hegemon of Ancient Greece Chapter 1008: The Reason

"Of course not." Secilian cast a disdainful look at the two gagged Carthaginian captives nearby. "This is the masterpiece of greedy Carthaginian merchants!"

Himilco originally built Lilybaeum, and Mago later expanded it. Carthage had intended to use the city as the center of a military defense network to repel Syracusan attacks. To their surprise, Daionia soon defeated Syracuse and stripped away its hegemony. Carthage and Daionia promptly signed a peace treaty that restored tranquility to Sicily, rendering the original defense plan obsolete.

Out of a natural wariness toward the rising Greek kingdom of Daionia, however, Lilybaeum retained its status as a major military stronghold in Sicily. The city kept its garrison, though the number of Citizen Soldiers was drastically reduced.

During this period, the Magonid family left Carthage for Iberia, leaving the Senate under Hanno's control. Driven by his aggressive expansion, the Carthaginians pushed inland and seized vast swaths of Numidian land. Busy dividing the spoils of war, no Carthaginian citizen wanted to be drafted to guard Lilybaeum, even on a rotational basis. To ensure the men fulfilled their duties, Carthage provided the Lilybaeum Garrison with abundant logistical support and extra pay. Even so, Carthaginian citizens still considered a deployment to Lilybaeum a miserable chore.

Seven years ago, a member of the Hanno family was appointed as the garrison commander of Lilybaeum. Reluctant to go, he begged Hanno for a reprieve, to no avail. The post of garrison commander had become a major headache because no Carthaginian noble wanted the job, and Hanno, as the man in power, had to set an example. The new commander arrived in Lilybaeum full of resentment. A few days later, however, Lampcuba visited him from the Port District. After a secret discussion, the commander's grievances vanished entirely, and he began to carry out his duties in earnest.

Since the peace treaty with Daionia, maritime trade in Lilybaeum had flourished, bringing a surge of new residents. Because the requirements to settle inside the city proper were exceptionally high, many people from Carthage and the Phoenician Allied States had to live in the Port District. Lilybaeum had cultivated very few fields outside its walls and was completely unable to support itself. With demand soaring, the city relied entirely on the maritime grain trade to survive, primarily importing from Carthage. Although the Carthaginians enjoyed bountiful harvests every year thanks to the vast lands of Numidia, the cost of shipping grain across the sea kept prices in Lilybaeum relatively high and competition fierce.

Lampcuba, also a member of the Hanno family, had settled around the Port of Lilybaeum ten years prior to focus on the grain trade. After years of struggling to profit in such a competitive market, he racked his brain for other ways to make money. Eventually, he noticed that the military camps inside the city received an excessive supply of grain, leaving massive surpluses at the end of every year. As luck would have it, the newly appointed garrison commander belonged to the Hanno family and was an old acquaintance. Lampcuba quickly sought him out to secretly discuss a partnership.

To the commercially minded Carthaginians, using power for financial gain was nothing to be ashamed of. The garrison commander readily agreed, but they faced an obvious problem: transporting military grain from the city to the port meant passing through heavily guarded checkpoints at the gates, which would expose the entire operation. Smuggling military supplies violated Carthaginian law, and the city lord of Lilybaeum at the time belonged to the Magonid faction. If he caught wind of the scheme, he would surely blow the scandal out of proportion, resulting in harsh punishment from the Senate for both the commander and Lampcuba. After some deliberation, they decided on a completely untraceable method—digging a tunnel.

In truth, because foreigners found it exceedingly difficult to enter the city proper, several tunnels already existed in the port area to meet various demands. People were secretly smuggled inside to work as servants for officials and wealthy families, or as temporary laborers.

The commander falsified soldier rosters, inflated troop numbers, and generously approved extended leave for drafted citizens who loathed serving in Lilybaeum. Through these methods, he siphoned off a massive amount of surplus grain. Lampcuba then filled his warehouses with this completely free grain, drastically undercutting the prices of every other grain merchant in the port. Unable to compete, the others were driven out of business, allowing him to monopolize the grain market and become the wealthiest man in Lilybaeum.

Having made a fortune, the garrison commander naturally refused to leave, volunteering to extend his term on multiple occasions. Some Carthaginian senators suspected foul play, but many had accepted his bribes. Furthermore, finding a replacement for the post remained incredibly difficult, so the Senate simply turned a blind eye.

Thus, the commander remained in Lilybaeum for four or five years, right up until the previous year, when tensions with Daionia spiked. As the shadow of war loomed, the Senate strictly ordered all cities in Western Sicily to raise their alert levels, reorganize their armaments, intensify training, and prepare for battle.

The new city lord of Lilybaeum, Imisere, dispatched patrols to completely seal off the long-standing tunnels that everyone knew about. He also issued a public decree: anyone caught digging a tunnel would be executed for treason.

Sensing that the situation was taking a turn for the worse, the garrison commander consulted with Lampcuba. He ordered his trusted aides to block the tunnel entrance inside the military camp, then spent heavily to bribe the senators into transferring him back to Carthage, smoothly avoiding becoming a casualty in the impending war.

Lampcuba, however, preserved his end of the tunnel, waiting to resume operations once the war ended.

"So the other end of the tunnel has already been blocked?" Leotychides asked after hearing the story.

Secilian pointed at the two captives. "According to them, only the exit over there was blocked, and not very deeply. I've already sent soldiers in to investigate."

Just then, footsteps echoed from the tunnel, and several members of the Mountain Scout Detachment quickly appeared before them.

"My lord, about a hundred and fifty meters down the tunnel, you can see where it's blocked. Just as the captives said, it's sealed with packed earth. I don't think it will take long to dig through and reach the exit."

The scout's report thrilled Secilian. He smiled and said, "Lord Prosous, you can bring your army over now and charge into the city through this tunnel!"

Prosous, however, remained calm. "Don't be in a rush. We need to make some arrangements first to divert the Carthaginian garrison's attention."

...

"My lord, look! The Theonians are preparing to attack the city!" an officer shouted, pointing down at the base of the wall.

Imisere had already noticed without the warning. Ahead and to his right, thousands of Theonian soldiers clad in Black Helmets and Black Armor stepped into the range of the wall's torchlight. They were forming ranks, and the men at the front carried long scaling ladders, clearly preparing to swarm the walls.

He leaned out to get a closer look, only to hear a subordinate beside him yell, "Watch out, my lord!" The man yanked him back behind the parapet just as a deafening crash shook the air. Several stone projectiles slammed into the wall a short distance away, sending sharp fragments flying that wounded a few soldiers in the garrison.

Badly startled, Imisere immediately shouted, "Go get Lagnaca! The Theonians are attacking the walls!"

When Lagnaca was forcibly dragged over, he felt a surge of anger. The Theonian assault on the tower gates was incredibly fierce; the heavy wooden doors had already been warped by a battering ram. If not for the massive pile of rocks blocking the gates from behind, the enemy would have likely breached them by now. Furthermore, the Theonian light infantry had unleashed devastating ranged attacks, inflicting heavy casualties on the Carthaginian archers stationed behind the tower gates. They had even brought ballistas into the gatehouse corridor, firing them to pose a massive threat to the javelin throwers on the twin flanking towers. The defending light infantry had already been rotated out several times. Operating under extreme tension as he directed an all-out defense, Lagnaca simply had no spare energy to worry about anything else.

So, upon seeing the enemy movement below the walls, he snapped angrily, "The enemy is right on top of us! Why aren't you attacking with Bows and Arrows?!"

Imisere replied coldly, "You pulled all the light infantry away to the tower gates. Where am I supposed to find archers over here?!"

Only then did Lagnaca remember the troop adjustments he had made earlier. Seeing the city lord's displeasure, he coughed dryly and softened his tone. "It doesn't matter if we lack light infantry. The Theonian ballistas might look terrifying, but they can't break our thick, towering walls. To scale the ramparts, they still have to rely on those wooden ladders. Once they reach the base of the wall, we can attack them with logs, rocks, and boiling pitch to inflict heavy casualties. However—"

Lagnaca glanced toward the spot more than a hundred meters to his left, where countless civilians were huddled together. That was exactly where the city gates stood. He warned, "We need to be careful that the Theonians don't scatter the civilians and use a battering ram to smash through the gates. We must reinforce the defenses there. It would be best to send men to barricade the city gates entirely."

Although Imisere was somewhat worried, he thought for a moment and shook his head in refusal. "We can't block the gates. If we do, Mago won't be able to quickly launch an attack against the Theonians once he arrives with his army."

"Then leave a unit stationed at the base of the wall. If the enemy breaches the gates, they can intercept them." After setting up the defensive measures here, Lagnaca rushed frantically back toward the tower gates.