Mediterranean Hegemon of Ancient Greece Chapter 1164: In Megalopolis

Just then, shocking news arrived: a massive Spartan army had entered the Arcadia Region from the north!

The councilors from the Arcadian League's various city-states were horrified, none more so than the Mantineans led by Lycomedes.

Wasn't Sparta to the southeast? How could its army suddenly appear in the north?

Sparta had used Persian gold and silver to hire numerous mercenaries from Northern Greece, Ionia, and Asia Minor, and Persia had even provided the ships to transport them. However, rather than landing on the Spartan coast—which was under strict blockade by the Daonian Fleet—they sailed into the Saronic Gulf east of the Isthmus with the tacit consent of Athens and Corinth, docking at the Corinthian harbor. Once the mercenaries had disembarked and assembled, Archidamus led them south.

This left Lycomedes fraught with anxiety. Mantinea sat in the northeast of the Arcadia Region, squarely in the Spartan army's inevitable path. Furthermore, as the principal architect of the Arcadian League, the city was a persistent thorn in Sparta's side.

Lycomedes made an impassioned plea before the League: "This massive army, assembled with Persian aid, has crossed into Arcadian territory without permission. They certainly do not come in peace! They are here to destroy the Arcadian League, which they view as a threat! They want to enslave the Arcadians once more, forcing us to bleed for Spartan interests! If we do not immediately forge an alliance with Daionia and allow the Daionian Army to halt these vicious mercenaries, our newly formed league will be annihilated. Everyone who supported its creation will become nothing more than a resentful ghost beneath a Spartan club!"

His words moved the councilors, and their resolve hardened when further reports arrived: the invading Spartan soldiers were already ravaging the lands of Phlius.

At last, the Arcadian League passed the alliance agreement by a narrow margin.

In the early spring of 370 BC (the twenty-fourth year of the Kingdom of Daunia), the Arcadian League and Daionia officially formed an alliance. Subsequently, Crotokatax marched north with the First, Fourth, and Sixth Legions, the Mountain Scout Corps, the First Cavalry Legion, and half of the Seventh Legion—leaving 3,000 soldiers behind to garrison Messenia. In total, approximately 32,000 troops advanced into the Arcadia Region.

The Spartans dared to make such a bold move because this exorbitantly expensive army boasted 8,000 heavy infantry, primarily hired from Miletus, Ephesus, Samos, Chios, Lesbos, Aeolia, and other Greek city-states along the western coast of Asia Minor under Persian control. They also had 4,500 Thracian peltasts recruited from the tribes near the Rhodope Mountains and the Aegean Sea, just north of the Kingdom of Macedon. The force further included 1,500 cavalry mostly hired from Macedonia, 1,200 archers and slingers from Crete and Rhodes, and over 4,000 light infantry from the various Ionian islands in the Aegean. Numbering more than 20,000 soldiers in total, the army required a monthly expenditure of at least 10,000 daric gold coins and consumed an inexhaustible amount of provisions—all supplied by the Persians.

This was Archidamus's first time commanding such a massive and comprehensive army, and he was brimming with confidence that he could capture Mantinea in short order.

However, upon marching into Mantinean territory, he found the populace had long since retreated behind their walls. Archidamus immediately launched an assault. He had assumed his overwhelming numbers would make quick work of the city, but he unexpectedly hit a brick wall.

The former city of Mantinea had been destroyed when Sparta flooded it. After years of exile, the returning citizens were determined never to let their home fall to the Spartans again, and to that end, they had implemented an ingenious design for their new city.

They chose a high-elevation site along the Ophis River. They then excavated a new channel nearby, splitting the river upstream so it bypassed the city before converging again downstream. Through this modification, a river that was once a grave threat became a natural moat.

They also laid a solid stone foundation for the entire city and constructed the walls entirely out of brick. However, these walls were not continuous. The urban area was divided into ten independent sections, and the walls of each section did not connect. Instead, they overlapped, and city gates were installed at these overlaps, giving the new city of Mantinea ten gates in total.

For the Spartan army, taking such a unique and irregular fortress meant conquering it section by section. The independent nature of the walls, tailored to the varying elevations, prevented the Spartans from effectively deploying their numerical advantage. Moreover, it exposed the besieging soldiers to ranged attacks from multiple angles—not to mention the sheer barrier of the Ophis River itself.

Archidamus launched several assaults using traditional Greek siege methods, but he failed to make any progress and only suffered casualties. Forced to abandon direct assaults in favor of a protracted siege, he dispatched a messenger back to Sparta to report the situation.

Meanwhile, Crotokatax had led his army into southwestern Arcadia. This area was a rare hilly expanse within the region, with the Helisson River running straight through it from south to north. Nestled in the mountains toward the mid-east was Lykaion, the sacred mountain where the Arcadians held their religious rites. Megalopolis, the central town currently being constructed by the Arcadian League, was situated right between the eastern bank of the Helisson River and Lykaion.

Due to the outbreak of war, construction on Megalopolis had ground to a halt. The walls outlining the city were only half-finished, and the temple of Zeus—the most important sanctuary for the Arcadians—had barely erected a dozen colonnades. Scaffolding and scattered piles of stone littered the area. Only one building, despite its crude appearance, had been fully completed: the council hall of the Arcadian League. Serving as the foundation of the alliance, it was where three councilors elected by the citizens of each city-state lived. There, they gathered to debate and decide on the league's diplomatic and military affairs in accordance with their established rules.

At this moment, dozens of league councilors walked out of Megalopolis and stood on a high vantage point, gazing south. In the distance, they saw countless Daionian soldiers clad in superb, uniform armor and weaponry. Arranged in neat columns, they marched across the pontoon bridges they had swiftly erected over the Helisson River. Despite the clamor of footfalls and clashing armor, and the thick dust billowing into the air, scarcely a single soldier shouted or complained. The entire army resembled a silent, endless black dragon slithering forward without pause...

The Arcadian councilors watched for quite a while. Unable to see either the head or the tail of this massive dragon, they were struck with profound awe.

At that moment, a detachment split off from the formation and headed straight north toward them. As they drew near, a young general at the very front—riding a tall steed and wearing a golden-crested helmet—raised his right hand and swept it downward. Instantly, the army behind him halted. The soldiers stood in total silence... This flawless discipline left the councilors astonished all over again.

Lycomedes immediately descended from the high ground to welcome them, and the other councilors followed closely behind.

Crotokatax also dismounted. Leading Plintors, Muklu, and his royal guards, he stepped forward to meet them.

"General Crotokatax, we are incredibly grateful for your timely reinforcement!" Lycomedes bowed solemnly to the Daionian prince.

Crotokatax hurried to support him, speaking with absolute sincerity. "Lord Lycomedes, the Arcadian League and Daionia are now allies. This is our duty! Please rest assured that, in accordance with Daionian Military Law, our soldiers will not do anything on allied soil to damage the friendship between our peoples. Any soldier who dares to violate this rule will face the harshest punishment!"

Upon hearing this, many of the Arcadian councilors breathed a sigh of relief.

Suddenly, someone among the councilors asked loudly, "How many soldiers have you brought?"

Plintors took over the conversation. "Considering that Arcadia is highly mountainous and difficult for large forces to deploy, we only brought a little over 30,000 soldiers. More than 10,000 troops remain stationed in Messenia." (Plintors was including the Messenians and the fleet infantry of the First Fleet in his tally).

The majority of the councilors gasped in shock, followed by murmurs of awe. Over 40,000 fully equipped soldiers! In all their lives, they had never laid eyes on such an immense army. No wonder the Daionian march stretched on so endlessly that neither head nor tail could be seen!

The last time an army of this magnitude had appeared on the Greek Mainland was a century ago during the Greco-Persian Wars, when the various Greek city-states had amassed over 100,000 soldiers—two-fifths of them heavy infantry—for the decisive battle against the Persians at Plataea. Another instance was decades ago during the Peloponnesian War, when Athens reportedly dispatched an army of about 30,000 men on a distant expedition to Syracuse in Sicily, only to suffer a disastrous defeat.

However, both of those events were long past, and none of the councilors had witnessed those armies with their own eyes. The only major conflict a few of them had personally experienced was the recent Battle of Leuctra. The Peloponnesian coalition army led by Sparta had numbered a little over 10,000 men, and the total forces on both sides had amounted to around 20,000—yet in their eyes, that had already been an immensely grand battle.