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Chapter 710 – Phryntor’s Suggestion
Siprus then looked at everyone and asked, “Commander Prosous has already explained his battle plan. Do any of you have any questions? If not, we will follow this plan and discuss increasing military rations, recruiting citizens to help build defensive camps and fortresses, and solving the problem of spring planting in the lack of labour.”
“Lord Siprus, I have a question!” Said Trius, the polemarchos of Taunis.
Although he was interrupted, Siprus didn’t express dissatisfaction and calmly asked, “Please speak, Lord Trius.”
“Commander Prosous only spoke of defending against the Carthaginian attack, but when will Theonia send a large army to drive them out? Especially once the Carthaginians send an army of over seventy thousand, which we obviously cannot repel with the number of troops we have now?!” Trius asked with concern.
Leotychides glanced at him and said, “As long as we could hold on long enough, we would be able to defeat the enemy even without sending more troops.”
“Hold on long enough? But how long?!” Trius exclaimed with dissatisfaction, “From what you have said, Commander, it is clear that Taunis will be the centre of defence against the Carthaginian attack. But I don’t want to see the Carthaginians repulsed just to leave Taunis in ruins!”
Leotychides’ expression turned ugly.
“Lord Trius.” Philesius quickly said, “You can feel at ease. His Majesty Davos had already sent several caravans to Egypt and the Black Sea to buy food. And as long as we had enough food, the several legions in south Italia will come to reinforce Sicily as soon as the Carthaginian army started their attack… His Majesty will never sit back and watch the Carthaginians ravage Theonia’s territory and its allies in Sicily!”
Trius and the polemarchos of Leontinoi, Hippogreias, expressed their satisfaction.
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
After dealing a heavy blow to the Roman army, Theonia’s First Legion spent the next few days resting in Privernum, having suffered considerable losses. On the fifth day, they began preparing to build their camp, only to be informed by the scouts that “The Roman army has captured Satricum and are now already marching south towards the Volscian territories!”
At average marching speed, the Roman army would take at most two days to arrive at Setia from Satricum, which is not enough time for the First Legion to build a well-defended camp. Furthermore, since the First Legion dealt such a blow to the Romans, they would indeed focus their attack on the First Legion’s camp. But could the battered First Legion stand up to a vengeful Roman attack?
So after a deliberation, Amintas and Phryntor decided to ask the Volscians to have the First Legion stay in the city of Privernum, which the Volscians welcomed.
On the sixth day after the battle, Amintas received Davos’ letter.
In his letter, Davos praised Amintas for actively seeking opportunities to fight once he arrived in the Volscian region and for winning a brilliant victory despite being outnumbered, thus making a name for the Theonian army in the Latium region that would facilitate further operations of the Theonian army in central Italia in the future…
But at the end of his letter, Davos politely warned, “…I have heard that the First Legion has suffered many casualties in the battle, so I hope you will treat the wounded soldiers well and let them recover. Seeing the damage to the First Legion’s strength, I suggest you don’t undertake any new military operations for some time to allow the soldiers to recover properly. And even though we are fulfilling the covenant by helping the Volscians defend themselves against the Romans, you must remember that we are not defending our home, so there is no need for you to fight the Romans to the death…”
Davos finally said with concern, “…From this battle, we can see how strong the Romans are. So I sent someone to inform Litom, the legatus of the Third Legion stationed in the Campanian League, to strengthen your ties so that you could call on the Third Legion for help once you encounter difficulties in future battles! But remember, the Third Legion can only fight for a short period and cannot stay in Volsci with the First Legion for long, as they are still needed to defend Campania!…”
Amintas became silent after reading the letter. In his opinion, He felt that Davos’ last sentence was criticising him. In particular, Davos’ suggestion that the First Legion passively avoid fighting in the subsequent battles was hard for him to accept.
So when Phryntor came in, he almost didn’t want to show this letter to him. However, the beginning of the letter clearly stated that it should be handed over to legatus Amintas to read with Phryntor.
Hence all he could do was hand the letter to Phryntor in silence.
After reading the letter, Phryntor understood the unhappiness on Amintas’ face. In the last few days, he had seen the Volscians flatter Amintas, with Amintas agreeing to their request by saying, “Once Setia is in danger, I will lead the First Legion and the rest of the Volscian troops out of the city to save them.”
To that, Phryntor opposed firmly: Once the Roman army had assembled, they would have over forty thousand troops, so even if they attacked the city with all their might, they would still have enough troops to intercept them. At the same time, the fleeing people of Setia are likely to disrupt the rescuing troops’ formation while they are getting pursued by the Romans.
But Amintas didn’t listen to his advice.
At the same time as he read the letters several times, Phryntor inwardly applauded at His Majesty’s wise decision. Then an idea came to his mind, and he tentatively asked, “Legatus, His Majesty is afraid that our First Legion will suffer heavy losses, so he doesn’t want us to fight the Romans head-on?”
“His Majesty is far away in Thurii and doesn’t quite understand the situation here.” Amintas then sternly continued, “If we let the Romans attack Setia with all their might, without rescuing them, Privernum would be their next target once Setia falls. After that, the Romans could simply surround Privernum without a fight while splitting their forces to attack the undefended cities of Cerseii and Terracina… By then, we would truly be trapped in this land!”
Phryntor laughed and said, “Legatus, you didn’t understand what His Majesty meant. He didn’t want us to recklessly fight the enemies because he had already told us how to repel the Romans.”
Amintas was stunned, took the letter and reread it carefully. However, he still couldn’t understand it and said impatiently, “Stop beating around the bush! How do we repel the Romans?”
After taking back his smile, Phryntor said straightforwardly, “You see, Rome’s army now numbers over forty thousand men, all of them outside the city of Setia…which means they probably don’t have enough troops to defend the Volscian territories they’ve just taken. His Majesty had also asked the Third Legion to cooperate with us, as they are stationed in the Campanian region, not far from here. Moreover, we have the Third Fleet, under the command of Mithridates, which controls this part of the sea, so we are perfectly capable of…”
“We could launch a surprise attack on the Romans’ rear! Just like when His Majesty besieged Dionysius but sent Antonios with the First Legion to attack Sicily!” Amintas sprang to his feet, interrupting Phryntor.
“That’s right, legatus.” Glancing at the excited Amintas, Phryntor knew he had already accepted his suggestion. So he instead cautioned him, “Legatus, you should lead our troops and our allies out of the city from time to time, pretending to send reinforcements so that the Romans are forced to deal with them with all their might and dare not divide their forces, stopping them from turning around.”
Amintas thought for a moment and said, “Your suggestion is right. So we must immediately send a messenger to inform that boy, Litom in Campania, to be ready at all times!”
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
Another Roman army under the command of two military tribunes, Quintus and Licinius, arrived at the Roman camp and joined forces with Camillus and Furius, bringing their number to nearly forty-five thousand.
Hearing that Camillus’ army had suffered defeat due to the Theonians’ involvement in the war, the two new military tribunes were shocked. But far from being discouraged, the pair’s successive victories, coupled with news from the Senate that their ally, Carthage, would be increasing its support and would soon be launching an attack on Theonia in Sicily, had boosted their morale.
Quintus was a nobleman whose full name was Quintus Claudius Crassus Sabinus, from the patrician clan of the Claudii, one of the noblest clans in Rome. Under the patriarch Appius Claudius, their entire clan moved to Rome after its founding. However, the men of this clan have always been unfriendly to the plebeians, most of them being arrogant, stubborn, uncompromising, determined, with a strong sense of responsibility and also physically strong, and Quintus was no exception.
The other military tribune, Licinius, was no less important. His full name was Publius Licinius Calvus, and although he was the son of a wealthy plebeian, he was the first to become a military tribune in the struggle between Rome’s plebeian class and the aristocracy over the past few decades. And as this is his third year as a military tribune, he would never allow his reputation to get damaged by backing down in the face of a powerful enemy.
Then the two military tribunes propose to rebuild the camp between the two towns of Volsci, cutting off the connection between Setia and Privernum, which Camillus had agreed to.