Mediterranean Hegemon of Ancient Greece Chapter 1215: The Brutal Polyphron

Agyrrhius's words left the other generals in deep thought.

"But even if we keep the news from the Greek expeditionary army, Thessaly will dispatch messengers to the Peloponnese to inform that tyrant. The Phocians to the north will as well..." someone objected.

"I think Agyrrhius's suggestion makes perfect sense," Chabrias said, the first to agree. "We can quietly send a messenger to inform Iphicrates, urging him to press the Greek expeditionary army to intensify their attacks on Messenia and Sparta immediately. As for the messengers sent by Thessaly, whether they travel by sea or land, they must pass through our sphere of influence. We only need to reinforce our patrols in the Saronic Gulf and along the Isthmus. The Thessalian messengers won't slip through our fingers. All we have to do is—" Chabrias extended his right hand in a downward chopping motion. Everyone understood.

"As for the Phocians, they fear the Thessalians even more than they fear Daionia. We only need to send troops to support them, and they will agree to our approach."

A brief silence followed Chabrias's words before someone quickly spoke up. "I think Chabrias's proposal is viable. Even if that tyrant ultimately receives the news, we will have bought ourselves time. Perhaps in that window, we will have already recaptured Sparta."

"I agree."

...

The Athenian generals voiced their agreement one after another. Only Callistratus remained somewhat hesitant, but the matter was already settled.

His father, Agyrrhius, calmly closed his eyes once more to rest.

Ever since the army departed by ship that morning, Crotokatax, Plintors, and the other generals stationed in the Peloponnese had been anxiously awaiting the outcome of this critical operation: the landing in Thessaly. They waited until late into the night. Only when the Fleet returned in succession did they receive definitive news and finally celebrate the successful landing.

However, this was only the beginning. Starting the next day, the city-states in Thessaly, Central Greece, and even the Peloponnese would likely learn of the Daionian Army's surprise attack on Thessaly, and they would inevitably take corresponding countermeasures. Furthermore, Daionia could not regularly dispatch such a massive Fleet to transport supplies to Thessaly. After all, the ship owners and crews were not soldiers and should not bear such immense risks on a regular basis. The nearly 100,000 troops in the Peloponnese consumed a staggering amount of rations each day. They needed to conquer Thessaly as quickly as possible to secure all its resources and sustain the army's continued operations. Therefore, the coming days would be crucial for both sides.

...

After Polyphron murdered his brother Polydorus, he immediately ordered his trusted troops to surround the central command tent. Under the pretext that "Polydorus was assassinated by the Theonians due to the negligence of his personal guards," he arrested all the soldiers in Polydorus's retinue. He then summoned the army's generals to the main tent for an emergency council.

Before dawn broke, the Thessalian generals gathered in the tent. Upon hearing that Polydorus had been assassinated by the Theonians, they were shocked, though they inevitably harbored their own suspicions.

But Polyphron gave them no time to think. Ignoring their protests, he declared that the "negligent" guards would all be dragged outside the tent and beheaded as a public warning.

In an instant, heads rolled through the camp amid screams of agony.

This bloody spectacle terrified the generals inside the tent. Faced with Polyphron's blade-wielding loyalists, they quickly acknowledged Polyphron as Polydorus's successor and the temporary military commander of Thessaly.

Having seized command of the camp, Polyphron first locked the grounds down completely, forbidding anyone from leaving. He then dispatched messengers into the city of Pherae. Under Polydorus's name, he falsely claimed that there were "crucial military matters to discuss with Acidamas and the other stay-behind ministers," requesting their presence at the camp.

Acidamas had been up all night, fraught with worry over the Daionian Army's sudden landing in Thessaly. Hearing the words of Polyphron's messenger, he assumed the situation on the battlefield had shifted again. In his haste, he didn't think twice before rushing to the military camp outside the city with several other ministers.

The moment they entered the camp, Polyphron's soldiers seized them.

Immediately following that, Polyphron sentenced Acidamas and the others to death on charges of "colluding with the Daionian Army and plotting treason." The generals pleaded desperately to stop him, but Polyphron refused to listen, forcibly executing Acidamas and the five other ministers.

When the soldiers brought the six severed heads into the tent, Polyphron pointed at Acidamas's head and unleashed a torrent of curses. As it turned out, he believed Acidamas had always looked down on him, and that the reason Jason had never entrusted him with independent responsibilities was due to Acidamas and the others meddling from the shadows.

Of course, venting his resentment was only one of Polyphron's motives. More importantly, Acidamas and the others controlled the administrative power of the Thessalian City-State League. As long as they lived, Polyphron knew they would obstruct his ambition to act freely across the region.

By then, the sky was just beginning to lighten. Polyphron quickly assembled the army and marched into Pherae.

At first, the citizens of Pherae were thrilled, believing the army's arrival guaranteed their safety.

To their surprise, after gathering Pherae's officials, Polyphron demanded they initiate a full military mobilization within the city. They were to assemble all the citizen soldiers to follow his army and repel the Daionian forces entrenched near Larissa.

Upon hearing this, the officials immediately refused, stating, "We only take orders from Lord Acidamas."

In response, Polyphron raised Acidamas's severed head for all to see. He then executed the two most vocal opponents on the spot, condemning them for "colluding with the Theonians to incite rebellion."

Polyphron's sheer brutality terrified the officials of Pherae, leaving them trembling as they obeyed his commands.

Previously, when Jason had initiated a military mobilization across Thessaly to march south, he drew as many troops as possible from the other city-states. However, he had drafted fewer than 1,000 soldiers from Pherae. As the foundation of his rise to power, Pherae needed to retain enough strength to act as a stabilizing pillar for Thessaly after he led the main army away.

Because Pherae was already on high alert, it took only half a day to assemble over 6,000 citizen soldiers. Added to the 2,000 soldiers originally garrisoned in the city, the total number of troops under Polyphron's command swelled to nearly 30,000.

Believing he now possessed overwhelming military might, Polyphron remained supremely confident that he could drive out the Daionian Army, even after receiving scout reports that they had captured Larissa. Ignoring the pleas of Pherae's officials, he swiftly led his army out of the city and marched toward Larissa.

...

Early that same morning, Patroclus summoned Ephialtes, commander of the Eleventh Legion, and issued his orders: the Eleventh Legion was to garrison Lamia and Heraclea, capture Thermopylae as quickly as possible, and block any Thessalian reinforcements coming from the south.

Accepting this order meant the Eleventh Legion would no longer participate in the campaign to conquer Thessaly. After a brief moment of hesitation, Ephialtes accepted the command, but he also made a request: if a tactical opportunity arose, could the Eleventh Legion press south to attack Greek towns?

Knowing Ephialtes was a seasoned veteran whose tactical approach was steady and reliable, Patroclus approved his request. However, he emphasized that no matter what military actions Ephialtes undertook, securing Lamia, Heraclea, and Thermopylae must remain his top priority.

Upon receiving his orders, Ephialtes immediately began preparing for the operation to seize Thermopylae. According to the confessions of Thessalian soldiers captured in Heraclea, Thermopylae was guarded by a mere 200 mercenaries. Nevertheless, its treacherous terrain and legendary history prompted Ephialtes to take a cautious approach. Leaving 2,000 soldiers to garrison Lamia and 1,000 to hold Heraclea, he personally led 5,000 soldiers and the Engineering Brigade, bringing along several Lamian guides.

Though that legendary tale demonstrated the sheer difficulty of taking Thermopylae, it also revealed to the world that there were hidden mountain trails that bypassed to the south of the pass. Thus, Ephialtes decided to employ a tactic of pinning the enemy down with his main force from the front while dispatching a surprise detachment through the mountain paths to flank them. To achieve this, he drew the Samnite Soldiers from the light armor and light infantry battalions to form this special detachment. (The Eleventh Legion's camp was situated in Lusenia, and its recruits hailed from the Dauni region. Over the years, many Samnites had proactively migrated from the mountains to voluntarily apply as Daionian Citizens; most of them now lived in the Eastern Campania Plain Region and the Dauni region.) Led by the Lamian guides, these troops would leverage their outstanding mountain warfare skills to execute a flanking maneuver on Thermopylae.

Just as the Eleventh Legion prepared its assault on Thermopylae, Patroclus had already begun leading the other legions over the mountains north of Lamia to enter the southern plains of Thessaly. To prevent being ambushed by the Thessalian Army in the mountains, he divided his forces into three groups. Guided by the Lamians, they advanced into Thessalian territory along three separate routes.

...

That same morning, Hylos arrived in Larissa, bringing with him a large group of low-to-mid-ranking officials from various departments of the kingdom. (These officials had been carefully selected by the Kingdom Administrative Office and ordered to govern the soon-to-be-conquered Thessaly Region; more than half of them were originally Thessalian refugees themselves.)

Note: According to historical records, the very first thing Polyphron did upon succeeding as the tagus was to arrest and execute the eight most outstanding administrative ministers who had assisted Jason in governing Thessaly—led by Acidamas—without any justification. He also exiled numerous officials and proceeded to rule Thessaly with absolute brutality, inciting immense resentment among the Thessalian people.

Less than a year later, his subordinate general Alexander would launch a rebellion under the banner of "avenging Polydorus," assassinating him and becoming the new tagus. But this Alexander was equally tyrannical. Under his rule, Thessaly's national strength steadily declined until it collapsed into turmoil, and it was ultimately conquered by the rising Macedonia.