Mediterranean Hegemon of Ancient Greece
chapter-198

“So there is no need for us to worry about Crotone, and the most important thing to worry about is whether Theonia will accept our occupation of Krimisa and become their ally!” This is what concerned Cleanor the most.

“I don't know….” Timasion thought about it, but he was still not sure, “I am afraid that the other city-states would not accept our occupation like this. After all, they are all Greeks of Magna Graecia, and they are all full of vigilance against us, mercenaries. If we want to succeed, we can only gamble and take a risk! If we want to be safe, then it would be better to stay in Theonia Union!”

At this moment, Timasion cheered himself up, while Cleanor, seeing that success is in sight was a bit worried about his gains and losses, “I hope that Agasias and the others can persuade Davos!”

“If Crotone does indeed send reinforcements, then tomorrow, we can only pretend to be soldiers of Theonia and try to delay them for a while!” Timasion gritted his teeth fiercely. They had already deceived Theonia once anyway, so he didn't mind doing it again for a second time. He then pointed to the chaotic sight in front of him and said anxiously, “No matter what the decision of Theonia is, and whether Crotone will send reinforcements, we must first attend to our own matter. We need to take over the whole city as soon as possible, and imprison the Krimisians, and then send some scouts to check the south, so that our brothers can be prepared for defense! Things like this must end as soon as possible, otherwise, we will always be anxious!”

“Forcibly issuing an order to prohibit looting and murder, otherwise they will be punished according to military law….” Cleanor then added with a wry smile, “That is pretty much what Davos would do, that's what he did when we were in Persia. We must not copy him…moreover, during the siege, more than 200 of our brothers had died and many were injured. So we need to let them vent their anger. Timasion, don't irritate them. We should instead take our time….”

“To tell you the truth, when we were in Persia, we laughed at Davos and said that he was a fool…and it is only until today, that I realized that we were really the stupid one!…I…I have to admire Davos, because he always thinks in the long term…once we settle down, we must rectify our military discipline!!” Timasion exclaimed and made up his mind.

He then immediately sent heralds to each officer and told them to try their best to gather their troops. While he and Cleanor rushed to the acropolis of Krimisa with their own soldiers and sent someone to persuade the Krimisians to surrender.

And their answer was, “NEVER!!!”

Due to that, the two sides confronted each other until the afternoon.

Seeing that more and more enemies are now besieging the acropolis, and have even begun to prepare siege equipment, the gaze of the Krimisians that were trapped became more and more desperate. They realized that the attack of the enemy was imminent, and many people began to wail. Androlis, with a grave expression, is ready to live and die with the acropolis.

But at this moment, there was a disturbance in the still quiet camp of the enemy.

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

“The army of Crotone is approaching the north gate?! How can this be possible?!” Cleanor felt like getting struck by lightning, he was too alarmed that he didn't want to believe that the information they got was real.

Toras was both flustered and puzzled, “Our scouts in the south…they really did not see any sign of the Crotonians in the south?!”

“Leader, it…it is real! The Crotonians are already forming up their ranks outside the city, and they…will soon start attacking!!” The guard captain of Timasion, who was in charge of guarding the northern wall, anxiously shouted.

Timasion barely managed to keep his composure. How could he not believe his trusted subordinate? After thinking for a bit, his expression changed, “Damn! This is our negligence. They might have come by boat just like us!”

“How…how many soldiers are there?” Cleanor asked nervously, hoping that the guard captain would say a small number.

“I am afraid that they numbered at least 5,000….” The words of the guard captain destroyed the hope of everyone. They then gaze at Timasion.

And in this desperate situation, Timasion asked, “Brothers, shall we withdraw?”

“I…I…” Cleanor, while looking at the acropolis that was in front of him, struggled inwardly, with unwillingness, he shouted, “We are not like the Krimisians! We can block them with the help of the wall! As long as we can hold on until tomorrow! As long as we can hold on until tomorrow!…Timasion, you have said it yourself that if we want to be the rulers of Krimisa, we can only take a risk! Then we will risk our life in this gamble! Even if I die, I don't want to go back to Theonia Union and have them laugh at me!!”

“Me as well. What is there to be afraid of death?! With the help of the city wall, we can block the Crotonians!” With fierceness in his expression, Toras spoke what most officers and soldiers wanted to say.

“Agree, we will fight Crotone!” Everyone immediately echoed.

Timasion no longer hesitated, he gazed at the mercenaries that are still present, and gave his order in a powerful tone, “Cleanor! Toras! Quickly gather all our brothers who are still scattered in the city and quickly lead them to the city wall!”

“Roger!”

“Parthax! Lead 200 men and keep an eye on the acropolis! If those Krimisians dare to come out, then kill all of them!”

“Leave it to me leader!”

“The rest will follow me to the northern gate, and make the Crotonians taste our strength! And ensure that they will never take our city!” Timasion clenched his fist and shouted.

“Alala*!!!” The mercenaries roared and their morale soared. (T/N: Battle cry)

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

Timasion was an excellent commander, he was able to command the mercenaries calmly and ingeniously make the enemy move to another place in order to break in into the city of Krimisa in the shortest possible time. However, as a warrior, he was blinded by jealousy and impatience. The only thing he could see is that the strength of Krimisa, a small and neutral city-state in Magna Graecia, could be captured with just their strength. He lacked the quality of a politician to consider the relationship between the city-states of Magna Graecia, especially the attitude of Crotone towards its neighbor, Krimisa.

Prior to the creation of Theonia, Crotone did not attach much importance to Krimisa, on the one hand, it is because of their agreement with Athens, and on the other, Thurii did not pose a threat to Crotone. However, after they were defeated by Theonia Union, the situation changed greatly. Theonia had captured Nerulum, while Laos joined the Theonia alliance, and Theonia had opened up the land trade routes between the east and west…and so on. Theonia is rapidly becoming stronger and prosperous, which made the Crotonians restless, and they started to feel the threat of this emerging power in the north. The strategic position of Krimisa as a buffer zone has become extremely important. Therefore, in the past six months, Crotone has stepped up their efforts to win over Krimisa.

This is why the first thought of Krimisa when they heard of an attack was to seek help from Crotone. At the same time, when Crotone heard that Krimisa was attacked by an enemy from the north, their first reaction was that “The Theonians have finally begun their attack!”, and so, the council of Crotone had almost immediately approved the proposal to send reinforcements. At the same time, considering that it might be the Theonians, because the herald of Krimisa only said, “There are only two thousand enemies”, for caution's sake, they dispatched an army of 10,000 men.

The reason Timasion thought that the reinforcements of Crotone were all in the north was because 5,000 men were already quite large for only reinforcements between city-states. Therefore, he had sent almost all his troops to defend the northern wall, and also taking both the east and the west into consideration, but he never thought that another fleet would enter the estuary of the river in the south, and break into the almost empty port and forcibly land 5,000 Crotonians. The soldiers then immediately occupied the south gate and easily defeated the two hundred men of Parthax. After meeting with the Krimisians in the acropolis, they continued to go north.

Not only the strength of both sides vastly differs, but the mercenaries are also in a dangerous situation of being sandwiched. After learning that “A large number of Crotonian soldiers broke into the city from the south”, the mercenaries lost their morale, and Timasion and Cleanor felt helpless at this moment.

When the Crotonians from the south had arrived, the mercenaries just resisted them for a bit and then fled in all directions.

Timasion, who was in the city, saw the fleeing mercenaries being driven away and slaughtered by the Crotonians like livestock, just as what they had done to the Krimisians before. The wrath of the goddess of Vengeance had quickly fallen on the mercenaries so quickly, which made him feel empty.

“Timasion, go! Let's go to the north!” Cleanor cried anxiously.

Timasion just shook his head. His gaze then landed to the north with a relieved smile, ‘Davos, in the end, I lost….’

Without hesitation, Timasion drew out his kopis and slit his neck.

Cleanor didn't have the time to grieve. He took the few people with him to get out of the city with a grappling hook.

The Krimisians hated them for burning, slaughtering and looting their city, and the Crotonians meddled till the end, as they continued their pursuit. In the end, except for a few who had managed to escape, most of them were either killed or captured. Cleanor and Toras finally surrendered, but they were beheaded by the angry Krimisians….

By interrogating the captured mercenaries, Crotone and Krimisa learned that these vicious enemies were mercenaries from Asia Minor and Ionia, and that they had fought together with the archon of Theonia, Davos, and they had even live in Theonia for more than two months before. Their attack on Krimisa was a premeditated independent action of these mercenaries.

Although Theonia is seemingly unrelated, the strategoi of Crotone and its statesmen thought that they had found the best excuse. Unless Crotone is willing to maintain peace with Theonia for a long time, they are undoubtedly a great threat to Crotone to allow them to develop. Only now that Theonia is currently a fledgling can Crotone wage war and destroy this emerging union!

With the vast majority of the warring faction, this proposal was smoothly passed. Even Lysias, who was someone from the moderate function, did not firmly oppose it. He is obviously aware of the threat of Theonia.