The Peucetian warrior screamed; he lost his balance and rolled down the hill shrieking.
Cid then avoided the incoming spear swiftly by rolling to the left…
Such a situation frequently played on the Peucetian defensive line, forcing the Peucetians to retreat involuntarily, which naturally reduced the javelin thrown to the Theonian soldiers.
“7th Brigade, good job!” Behind Leotychides, some soldiers praised loudly.
“Speed up the climbing!…” Taking advantage of this opportunity, the platoon captain – Pamanius, who was in the centre of the small phalanx, urged loudly.
And the flag bearers began waving the flag forward continuously.
Leotychides and his teammates saw the peltasts being alone, so how could they be willing to lag. They cooperated with each other and tried to climb upwards, and soon they reach the 30-metres height. The peltasts then retreated to both sides of the small phalanx, leaving only the enemy in front of them.
“Hades!!!” The soldiers shouted out the name of the union’s patron god. They then raised their shields and met the enemy…
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
The troops of Teriphias and Taudeles finally arrived at their pre-determined position on the right-wing. Usually, it would have taken them longer to re-organise before they could launch an attack. However, since the Theonian army was already engaged in battle, it had stimulated them to increase their pace.
As there was no enemy in front of them, Teriphias and Taudeles mixed the light infantry into the phalanx to increase its thickness and began climbing up the hill in a more scattered formation.
Without an enemy, they quickly went up the gentle slope more than 20 metres high, and they would then be able to attack the enemy’s flank and decide the victor of this battle.
But when they stepped onto the hill with confidence and ease, a large number of enemies suddenly appeared at the top of the hill.
‘Messapian cavalry!’ Teriphias was startled but then began to calm down. Although the Messapian cavalry is powerful, the terrain here is not flat, and there is not enough place for them to gallop. Do they even dare to fight the hoplites head-on?
And so, the Heraclea and Metapontum joint army continued their advance while the cavalry on the top of the slope began throwing their short javelins.
Just as the Greeks raised their shields in defence, many began to exclaim, “Cavalry! The Messapian cavalry is behind us!!”
Every soldier could only hear the rumbling cries behind them as a large group of Messapian cavalry came around the hill from a distance and began throwing javelins at the rear of the Greek soldiers who were climbing the hill.
With this sudden blow, it had caused confusion on Heraclea – Metapontum’s joint army for a while.
In fact, there are not only Messapian cavalry but also Peucetian cavalry, a full 1,300 cavalries. At this moment, the cavalrymen at the top of the hill began stroking the head of their mounts and began whispering something. In their eyes was reluctance, but soon their expression became firm.
“Lycaon!!!” The Peucetian cavalry raised their hands and shouted.
“Lycaon!!!” The Messapian cavalry also shouted one after another. King Lycaon had dared to test the Greek god Zeus, and though he was turned into a wolf, most of his descendants considered him a hero and would shout his name before a battle to boost their morale. The Messapians, who had gradually abandoned this tradition due to the influence of Hellenization, are now picking it up again.
The cavalry on the top of the hill clasp their hands tightly around the necks of their horses and their legs clamping down hard on their bellies, and soon, hundreds of horses began running down the hill in a loose formation, and their speed became increasingly faster. Although from time to time, a cavalryman rolled down to the ground together with his horse, it still did not affect the speed and morale of the cavalries.
“Rai…raise your shield…” Teriphias mind became blank for a moment from seeing this situation.
In the eyes of the Heracleaan-Metapontum soldiers, it was like facing a huge boulder rolling down the mountain, so who would dare to block it! Just as they tried to dodge in fear, the cavalry had already crashed head-on into the formation. Suddenly, horses and people screamed, cavalrymen flew, and the Greek soldiers tumbled to the ground; almost no one was standing.
In an instant, the Greek phalanx collapsed.
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
Davos soon received a report from Tolmides, ‘A large number of enemy cavalry suddenly appeared on the right-wing.’
He immediately felt a little uneasy and made a quick decision, “Izam, lead your brigade to reinforce Teriphias and Taudeles, and after you repel the enemy cavalry, continue attacking the enemy’s flank!”
“Roger!” Izam finally got the mission he was waiting for. He slammed his chest with his left fist and saluted to Davos. After that, he ran down to the hill and shouted to his men, “Brothers, follow me to slaughter the enemy!”
Amidst the cheers, the reconnaissance brigade’s soldiers, with a small leather shield in their left hand and a dagger in their right hand, rushed to the right-wing.
Even though Umakas could not understand why these Theonians were so eager to fight, he was amazed by their high morale. He secretly made up his mind for Taranto to try not to have a conflict with the battle-hungry Theonians unless they had no choice but to do so.
“Lord Davos, the Messapian cavalry could not defeat the Greek hoplites no matter how powerful they are. Besides, this is a hilly area, so there is no need for you to send more troops to reinforce them.” Umakas couldn’t help but advise.
“How could the Messapians, who are good cavalries, not know what we all know, and yet, they still sent their cavalry. So there is definitely something suspicious about that.” Davos said calmly.
Umakas became more worried when he heard the reasonable deduction of Davos.
Before this, the herald Tolmides had collected the information that was sent back by the heralds, who were on stand-by in the rear of the two legions and each brigade without interruption. He then gave their reports to Davos, “The brigade led by Amintas had forced the Messapian heavy infantry at the bottom of the central hill backwards…the first and second legions on the left and right-wings also had a slight advantage in fighting with the Peucetians who occupied the high grounds. And, after withdrawing from the frontline, the two light infantry brigades have joined forces and detoured to the left (because the Heraclean and Metapontum troops were on the right-wing) to attack the enemy’s flank…”
With having the advantage on all fronts, Davos has realised that the enemy had fewer troops than him, and for the first time since arriving in Magna Graecia and leading his army to battle, he had now the strength to send reinforcements to nip any possible disadvantage in the bud.
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
Telemani, the king of Peuceti, did not expect the battlefield’s current situation to be completely opposite of what he had imagined. Not only were the Messapian, who were heavily defended in the lower part of the hill, forced back, but even his proud Peucetian warriors, who had a clear geographical advantage, failed to repel the enemy.
Although they are now in a stalemate, judging from the situation of the battlefield, this stalemate won’t last because Telemani knows that his warriors are poorly equipped and have fewer men. Earlier, he had dispatched almost all his men to help the left-wing, just so that they could make their own formation and the enemy formation to be roughly equal in length and prevent their flank from being attacked. But when the geographical advantage and the bravery of his warriors are not enough to block and repel the enemy, the stalemate will only benefit the other side. Now, the only good news he received was that the cavalry had defeated the enemy on the far left-wing.
Telemani hoped that after quickly dispersing the defeated enemy, they would then assist the left-wing in defeating the enemy in front of them, so as to lay the foundation for the victory of the battle.
At this time, Telemani felt a bit uneasy after seeing one of his scouts galloping to the foot of the hill from a distance, dismounting and hurriedly ran up the hill.
“My king, more than a thousand enemies have reinforced the left-wing and our cavalry has fallen into a…hard battle!”
In fact, it is only an understatement to say that it was a hard battle. In reality, when the mixed cavalry of Messapi-Peuceti rushed down from the top of the hill and attacked the defeated Heraclea-Metapontum joint army and after pursuing the fleeing enemies, but due to the mountain path being narrow and the enemy and their allies are mixed together, it was somewhat tight, and so the speed advantage of the cavalry was completely lost, but the Greek soldiers who had lost their courage just continued to run away without even putting up a fight. But when Izam’s brigade bypassed the mountain path and surrounded them from both sides of the hill, the disaster of the Messapi-Peuceti cavalry came.
Riding on a horse without a saddle and fighting in place, the riders could not fight the Theonians with all their strength, and it was almost impossible for them to retreat immediately due to the crowded path. Under the protection of their leather shield, the soldiers of the mountain reconnaissance brigade could not only stab the riders with their short swords but also the horses. And the defeated Greek soldiers who finally had reinforcements gradually regained their morale and started to fight back…and the Messapi-Peuceti cavalry who had trapped themselves in a deadly situation was not far from being defeated.
“What?! How can the Greeks still have troops that they haven’t send to battle!!” Telemani glared at the scout. In this era, the city-states did not have the habit of having a reserve force during a war and would send all their troops to battle. Therefore, Telemani had dared to risk using cavalry attacks in such a terrain that was obviously unfavourable to cavalries, and now, his greatest hope of victory was extinguished.
He took a few steps forward and looked at the top of the opposite hill where a golden flag stand, and knew that the enemy’s commander was there.
“A military genius of South Italia…” Murmured Telemani in low spirits.
“My king, what shall we do now?” Pulo, seeing that Telemani’s mind was wandering, asked hastily.
‘What to do? Retreat?’ Now that the two armies are still entangled with each other, how can they easily retreat? It will only increase the casualties of the Peucetians. They had still underestimated the Theonians! He had heard that this is just a newly established city-state union, yet its combat strength is very strong. ‘If we could avoid fighting them in the future, then we should try our best to avoid them…’ There was a trace of fear in Telemani’s heart, regretting that he should not have played around and should have chosen to ambush the Tarantines instead and give the task of intercepting the Theonian reinforcements to the Messapians…
“…wait.” After a long time, Telemani could only spat out a word.
Pulo was startled, and soon understood what Telemani meant, it was to wait for the Messapians to defeat the Tarantines and come to reinforce them as soon as possible, that is to put their hope on others, which is not Telemani’s usual practice!
Pulo thought worriedly in his heart, ‘But what if the Messapians were late!’