The several men around Segobani kept on blowing their horns to signal retreat.
And Segobani, who is at the forefront of the army, led the tribal warriors beside him to speed up.
But once the Theonian cavalry saw the Samnites no longer fighting back, their hesitation disappeared as they galloped close to the enemy’s side and threw their javelins.
When the javelin flew straight into the dense group, the Samnites immediately started falling to the ground.
Yet that resulted in the Samnites fighting back by throwing their javelins at the Theonian cavalry.
As the screams of people and neighing of the horses rang out on both sides, the Caudini warriors began exclaiming, “Cavalry! Enemy cavalry!!…”
Then groups of Theonian and Campanian cavalry kept coming from the rear, trying to encircle this huge group of Caudini while stirring up dust all over the battlefield. Once the cavalry managed to rush near the enemy, they would throw their javelins to kill them and slow down their retreat. Once they saw the Samnites’ formation thinning at the rear, the cavalry directly charged towards them to break them apart, like cunning wolves attacking a giant beast, pressuring and wounding the Samnites to make them panic…
After the Theonian cavalry lost to the Numidians and Celts in the South-Italian War a decade ago, they learned from that bitter experience to develop a more severe and detailed training program while selecting the best riders to join their ranks.
Although Segobani could only feel grief watching the enemy cavalry, he still tried to fight back by throwing javelins and defending with his shield as he kept shouting at his men, “…Don’t stop! Keep moving! Keep moving!…”
Yet inwardly, he really wanted to order his men to stop, form up and teach these annoying enemies a lesson, as he believed that the Caudini’s warriors’ bravery and numbers could completely defeat the enemy. But the continuous increase of enemy cavalries means that they have become the enemy’s target, so once the enemy infantry arrives…
While Segobani was worrying about that, he saw a group of heavy infantry in black armour and helmet appearing on the dusty battlefield, shocking him, ‘How did the Theonian infantry appear in front?’
. . . . . . . . . . . .
Tagru, who was just a reserve soldier of the Third Legion more than a decade ago, had acted as a temporary officer of the Lao fortress, leading his soldiers to successfully block the attack of the Laosians’ rebels. After the battle, the Ministry of Military gave him a commendation for his merit and transferred him to the Third Legion. After a decade had passed, he was now a senior centurion of the Fourth Brigade of the Third Legion.
In this campaign against the Caudini, the Fourth Brigade Tagru led was responsible for the southern area between Suessula and Rola.
In this campaign, he first led two platoons, with the assistance of the cavalry, to rout one of the enemy tribes. Afterwards, he led them, in conjunction with another two platoons, to pincer another group with a larger number, which they also succeeded. But while interrogating the prisoners, Tagru learned that this tribe from Suessula had previously sacked a village and captured some Greek people while they were on their way to Suessula.
Hence Tagru immediately led his men in hot pursuit and cut the other side off before they could even reach Suessula. But on their way back, they bumped into a mounted scout looking for them, so Tagru then led his troops unhurriedly towards Atella, as they were already north of Atella.
At the same time as Segobani saw the Theonian heavy infantry ahead, Tagru likewise saw the oncoming, hastily rushing, scattered Caudini army and the Theonian cavalry galloping around them.
This vast number of enemies reminded Tagru of the Laos army that attacked the Lao fortress more than a decade ago. Back then, he only had so many men with him but had the sturdy defences of the fortress, whereas today, he had no walls for protection. Still, he was confident that as long as he could stop the enemy for a moment, his comrades would arrive in droves and wipe out this enemy that vastly outnumbered him.
After thinking that, he took a deep breath and felt himself becoming more courageous. And since they marched slowly towards here, they recovered from their fatigue.
When he looked around, he saw the soldiers around him looking at him with a mixture of tension and excitement in their eyes as they for their officer to give their orders, which they would carry out with determination.
So without any hesitation, Tagru shouted, “Brothers, the enemy our legion needs to destroy is just ahead! We must stop them here! Otherwise, our legion’s plan to encircle them would fail once they fled into the mountains. Hades gave us this great opportunity to make our mark! Brothers, show your courage and win this honour!”
Then the soldiers showed their determination by roaring loudly.
Tagru then gave the order, “All platoons line up; Form a shield phalanx and stop the enemy!”
Since Tagru only had four platoons, less than two hundred men, he had to lengthen his defensive line to ensure the phalanx could stop enough enemies. But that resulted in the phalanx only having five columns, which is too thin and easy to breach.
Yet without hesitation, his men quickly split into four smaller phalanxes and formed a single line. After throwing the javelins in their backs and the spears in their hands, they held the long shield and drew their short sword as they marched slowly forward to meet the enemy.
After seeing the few enemies in front who dared to show their intention to stop them, Segobani and the other Caudini warriors were surprised at first and then became furious.
“Hurry up and crush them!” shouted Segobani as he pointed his spear towards them.
Then the Caudini warriors roared as they began increasing their running speed.
Instead of getting surprised, Tagru was delighted seeing countless enemies rushing towards them. After all, what he feared the most was that the enemy would try to bypass them, resulting in his attempt to fail.
Seeing that, the Theonian soldiers immediately stopped.
“Shield up!…” each platoon leader shouted in succession.
The first row of soldiers erected their long shields with the bottom of the shields slightly slanted so that they could firmly place it into the ground to increase the shield formations’ defence. At the same time, the soldiers in the back row would then put their long shields over their heads and rest them on the shields of the soldiers in the first row.
And just like they expected: After completing their shield formation, the Samnites’ javelins came like raindrops. Yet even with that, some javelins still manage to pierce the shields and into soldiers’ arms, causing them to scream.
Tagru had to raise his shield while shouting, “Hold it! Hold it!…”
After the rain of javelin, the Samnite warriors roared and rushed out of the dispersing dust storm and fiercely crashed into the Theonian army, instantly bending the shield formation.
The Theonian soldiers, on the other hand, tried to advance forward using all their strength to resist the impact of hundreds of people.
The first row of soldiers crouched, placing their heads behind their long shield and their shoulder against them. After they felt the enemy’s spear stabbing into the shield, the Theonian soldiers would stab back their short sword out from the gap between the shields without even checking whether they hurt the enemy because the sound of fighting had completely covered their eardrums and couldn’t hear any screams.
Noticing that they couldn’t break the turtle-like defence for a moment, some of the Caudini warriors became impatient, threw away their weapons, and grabbed the shields with both hands to pry them open in desperation.
Suddenly, a sharp dagger cut off their fingers, causing their blood to splash on the soldiers.
The Caudinis in the rear rounded the front of the shield phalanx while attacking their flank and rear. Soon, they surrounded the Theonian soldiers in an instant.
On the other hand, the soldiers persisted in holding their shields to protect the whole phalanx completely, but they were like a boat in stormy water, which was in danger of capsizing at any moment.
The nearby Theonian cavalry also realised this, so they risked getting stabbed by javelins and tried to attack the Samnites more in an attempt to reduce their comrade’s pressure.
However, that only irritated the Samnites further. Thus under their fierce collision, the shield phalanx could no longer last and broke apart.
And Tagru, who saw the soldier beside him being pushed down and stabbed, became worried that he quickly stabbed out his short sword towards the enemy to protect his soldier’s safety.
Unexpectedly, the Caudini warrior he stabbed in the chest didn’t fall. On the contrary, the Caudini warrior used all his effort to lunge forward and knock down Tagru, who couldn’t escape in time, to the ground.
Then more enemies rushed into the formation.
Tagru, who got pinned on the ground, could only watch in despair as the enemy breached the soldiers’ line of protection. With more and more enemies surrounding them, the soldiers fell one after another…
At this critical moment, a high-pitched salpinx sound broke through the bustling battlefield…
Litom led the 2,500 reinforcements from the west and rushed to the battlefield first to attack the enemy’s rear.
Before long, the First Brigade of the Third Legion arrived from the northwest…
Then the other centurias of the Fourth Brigade…
Then the Second Brigade…
While the salpinx kept sounding around the Samnites, the Theonians began attacking the enemy from all directions.
Soon, the Theonian soldiers manage to beat the disordered Samnites. And once the Samnites noticed the enemies around them, they became so frightened that they no longer cared about the Theonian centuria they had beaten as they all fled in disorder.
But how could they outrun the cavalry?
And the battle soon ended. Except for a few Caudini who fled to Suessula, the Theonians managed to kill or capture most Caudini warriors.