Mediterranean Hegemon of Ancient Greece Chapter 909: Adding Insult to Injury

"Yes!" Muklu directed the messengers to scatter, shouting orders to the retreating legionaries.

Leotychides had already led his guard toward the North Gate. He needed to reach the city first and make swift preparations with the Geloans, taking in the routed soldiers and preventing the enemy from storming the walls in the chaos.

The guard's standard-bearer held the legion's great banner high. Fluttering in the wind, it pointed the way for the retreating Eighth Legion soldiers.

The enemy's rout seemed to inject a surge of vitality into Hasdrubal's exhausted body. He joined the Lusitanian Warriors in hunting down the fleeing troops.

The Lusitanians' renowned running speed was put on full display. Weighed down by their cumbersome armor, the Greek Heavy Infantry were easily overtaken.

Hasdrubal led his warriors on a slaughterous pursuit, cutting down foes until every last man was drenched in blood.

By the time they reached the base of the walls and tried to storm the city in the chaos, a torrent of javelins and arrows rained down from the ramparts, inflicting heavy casualties on their unprepared ranks.

Seeing the numerous black-helmed, black-armored defenders lining the walls, Hasdrubal did not dare press the attack against the routed troops crowded beneath the ramparts. Instead, he turned to hunt down stragglers fleeing in other directions...

Only at dusk did the Carthaginian army finally withdraw and return to camp.

In this battle, the Daunian 4th Cavalry Legion lost half of its cavalry. The Eighth Legion suffered roughly 1,300 casualties, with both the peltast and light infantry battalions losing over half their numbers. The Geloan army saw over 2,000 killed or wounded. The Camarinans suffered the most: of the 3,000 soldiers originally deployed, only a little over 300 made it back alive. The entire Daunian Allied Forces suffered nearly 7,000 casualties. On the other side, the Carthaginian army suffered over 2,000 casualties, with the Balearic Slingers taking the heaviest hit, losing more than half their men.

Due to the Daunian Allied Forces' rout, more than half of their wounded failed to escape.

The battle heavily crippled the citizen soldiers of Gela and Camarina, stretching Leotychides's available forces even thinner. More importantly, the news that "the Carthaginians have defeated the previously undefeated Daionian Army" smashed into the seemingly calm political landscape of Sicily like a thrown stone, sending violent ripples through certain city-states.

Following the battle, despite repeated pleas for aid from the Minoans, Leotychides remained in Gela, resting his troops while fending off Carthaginian siege attempts. With his forces dwindling, he was unwilling to split them up to garrison various city-states—doing so would only allow the massive Carthaginian army to devour them piecemeal. Furthermore, he believed Gela's strategic position was far more crucial than Minoa's.

Of course, he could not completely ignore Minoa, so he dispatched his own messenger to travel alongside the Minoan envoy to Pachynos to request reinforcements.

...

On the fourth day after the Battle of Gela, Cyprolus, the governor of Sicily currently stationed in Catana, received an urgent report from Xelophanes, the head of the Kingdom's Intelligence Department in Sicily: Syracuse was undergoing a military mobilization for unknown reasons.

Exercising caution, Cyprolus immediately dispatched a messenger to the Seventh Legion—which had arrived in Catana and been ordered to head for Hena—telling them to return swiftly and garrison the new military camp near Leontini to prevent any unforeseen incidents.

But the unforeseen happened regardless. Pachynos had agreed to relieve Minoa and sent out 3,000 reinforcements. Shortly after their troopships left the port, they unexpectedly encountered the Syracusan fleet.

For years, the eastern waters of Sicily had been the domain of the Daunian 2nd Fleet. The Syracusan Navy, which had once dominated Sicily, had long lost its former glory, shrinking into a small fleet of merely thirty triremes and fifty warships in total. Normally, they only patrolled the waters near their own city-state. Yet now, they suddenly appeared off the coast of Pachynos and launched an attack on the troopship convoy.

Because the Daonian Sicilian Fleet had been stationed in Selinus during this period—guarding the western waters while keeping a close eye on the war around Selinus—they had not dispatched any warships for escort duty. Naturally, the Pachynians had not requested aid from Catana either. After all, their region was far from the battlefield, the nearby waters had always been safe, they maintained close ties with Daionia, and they were on relatively peaceful terms with their neighbor Syracuse. They believed the voyage from their city to Minoa would be perfectly safe. Thus, the Pachynians had only sent their city's meager five triremes as an escort, a purely symbolic gesture.

As a result, upon suffering this surprise attack by the Syracusan fleet, the Pachynian warships resisted tenaciously but were hopelessly outnumbered. Aside from four troopships that managed to flee back to port, the rest were rammed and sunk.

At the same time, Syracuse deployed an army of 12,000 men. Rather than marching north to attack the nearby city of Taunis, they turned south and rushed straight toward Camarina, publicly proclaiming that they were "going to help the Camarinans resist the Carthaginian invasion."

When the Camarinans refused to allow the Syracusan army into their city, the Syracusans instantly turned hostile and encircled Camarina. Posturing as if preparing to siege the city, they sent an envoy inside to threaten the Camarinans: Syracuse had already formed an alliance with Carthage. Camarina could either resubmit to Syracuse—thus ensuring their safety when the great Carthaginian army arrived—or they could refuse, in which case Syracuse would breach the city and hand its entire populace over to the Carthaginians.

Since Camarina had already dispatched the vast majority of its citizen soldiers to aid Gela, they were left with a meager 500 combat-ready citizen soldiers within the city. Vastly outmatched, they could only helplessly stall for time, claiming they needed time to consider.

The Syracusan envoy arrogantly granted them a single day.

Once the envoy returned, the Syracusan army instantly blockaded the road connecting Camarina to Gela, while Syracusan warships sealed off its port.

Meanwhile, having secured victory in the field, the Carthaginian army shifted its camp eastward, intensifying its siege on Gela. Busy fending off Carthaginian assaults, Leotychides remained completely oblivious to the sudden crisis in Camarina.

It was not until half a day later that a Daonian Merchant Ship bravely slipped into the port, bringing grim news: the Syracusan fleet had attacked Pachynos's troopship convoy and blockaded the ports of both Pachynos and Camarina.

When Leotychides heard this, he was deeply shocked. Syracuse had finally entered the war!

Syracuse's entry into the conflict undeniably added insult to injury for Daionia's dire situation in Sicily. Along the Southern Coast in particular, the Daunian Allied Forces were not only put at an even steeper numerical disadvantage, but they were also thrust into the perilous strategic position of being pincered from two sides.

Even if Leotychides wanted to reinforce Camarina, he was entirely powerless to do so at the moment. The land route was threatened by the Carthaginian army, and the sea route was blocked by the Syracusan fleet. Without a fleet to escort them, his ships would end up as fish food before they even reached Camarina's port.

Leotychides dispatched the Daonian Fast Ships docked in Gela's port, ordering them to rush to Selinus to notify Secilian immediately.

A day later, the helpless and terrified Camarinans stood on their walls, watching a dense black tide of Syracusan soldiers approaching with scaling ladders and towering siege weapons. Terrified of suffering the same tragic fate as Agrigento, the Camarinans ultimately chose to surrender.

Over the past ten-odd years, due to the dominance of the Kingdom of Daunia and its long-term friendly relations with the Camarinans, virtually no pro-Syracuse citizens remained in Camarina. This meant the Syracusans who captured the city could not immediately prop up a puppet government. To prevent rebellion, they issued a stern demand: the Camarinans must hand over numerous hostages and allow 3,000 Syracusan soldiers to garrison the city—sugarcoating the occupation by claiming it would effectively prevent the great Carthaginian army from destroying Camarina when it arrived.

Furthermore, the Syracusans demanded that Camarina's remaining 500 soldiers be drafted into the Syracusan army to fight alongside them.

Now reduced to meat on the chopping block, the Camarinans eventually agreed to these terms.

After securing Camarina's submission, the Syracusan army did not march west to join the Carthaginian forces besieging Gela. Instead, they entered Camarina, left behind 3,000 soldiers as a garrison, and loaded the rest onto ships to land near the coast of Pachynos. They swiftly encircled Pachynos and sent an envoy inside, demanding the city submit to Syracuse.

The Syracusan envoy issued a threat: if Pachynos refused, Syracuse would not only immediately execute the 2,000-plus Pachynian citizens they currently held—after sinking the troopships, the Syracusan fleet had lingered to fish the drowning Pachynian citizen soldiers from the water and take them captive—they would also assault the city. Once the walls fell, every civilian inside would be sold to the Carthaginians as slaves.

Syracuse's threat terrified the people of Pachynos. Their city was surrounded by the Syracusan army, their port blockaded by Syracusan warships. Standing on the ramparts with tear-filled eyes, the citizens gazed down at thousands of their exhausted, haggard relatives bound to their knees below the walls. Panic-stricken and at a loss for what to do, the Pachynians hastily convened an ecclesia and swiftly reached a unanimous consensus. Pachynos—which had been a vassal of Syracuse long before the Daionians ever set foot on the Island of Sicily—once again submitted to Syracusan rule.

Within a matter of days, Syracuse absorbed both Pachynos and Camarina into its alliance. In the blink of an eye, the entire southeastern corner of the Island of Sicily had reverted to Syracuse's sphere of influence. The citizens who had long dreamed of reliving Syracuse's past glory were utterly overjoyed.

Theagenes, the chief general of Syracuse who had proposed this plan and forcefully pushed it through despite his colleagues' objections, received immense praise from the public, his prestige soaring overnight.

However, there were also those who expressed dissatisfaction with Theagenes's methods. General Hicetas, for instance, publicly questioned the decision: "Just to acquire two minor city-states, Syracuse has taken a massive risk to enrage mighty Daionia. This is incredibly dangerous! Theagenes, don't you forget that the Carthaginians are far away in Africa, while our Syracuse is right next door to Daionia!"