Chapter 693: Theonia v Rome (VII)
Chapter 693: Theonia v Rome (VII)
After long deliberation, Camillus decided to defeat the enemy before them and retreat afterwards.
Having finally made up his mind, Camillus acted immediately by sending out his heralds to convey his orders: The Roman army was to form three lines to face the approaching enemy forces. A total of ten Roman centuriae, about 1,200 men, made up of young soldiers, formed the front line. Behind them were six Roman centuriae of experienced soldiers, a total of 660 men. And the last line was made up of six centuriae of veteran soldiers, also 660 men. So the centre of the Roman army alone had more than 2,500 infantry. Camillus had also arranged the left and right flanks in the same way.
After fighting with the new tactics for over a decade, the Romans were already quite familiar with it. Moreover, they had arranged their formation to meet the enemy based on the centuriae. This meant that the small phalanxes formed by each centuria could be interspersed, approached, and quickly merged into a massive line formation stretching half a kilometre long.
Camillus had brought nine thousand men, all heavy infantry, totalling seventy-five centuriae. Then there were also the three trapped centuriae, for a total of seventy-eight centuriae, comprised of forty centuriae of young soldiers, twenty-five centuriae of experienced soldiers and thirteen centuriae of veterans. Since they didn’t have enough veteran centuriae, Camillus replaced them with the experienced centuriae. After finally completing the formation, Camillus invested 7,600 Roman heavy infantry in this formation alone.
Camillus then placed the remaining twelve centuriae under his command, most of them young soldiers, in the rear as a reserve. Their task was to protect the wounded while taking care of the Theonian cavalry and light infantry moving nearby.
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He had also positioned the remaining five hundred Roman cavalries on both flanks in the rear. At the same time, he scatted the more than 1,500 light infantry among the reserves, mainly as a countermeasure against the other side’s cavalry and light infantry.
While the Romans arranged themselves, the marching speed of Theonia’s First Legion slowed down. Once they were only two hundred metres from the enemy, the whole legion stopped and quickly adjusted according to the enemy’s formation.
Amintas placed the first, second and third brigades in the front and the fourth, fifth and sixth brigades in the rear, so the length of the whole formation was almost the same as that of the Romans.
The two sides finished their formation almost at the same time.
At a distance of only two hundred metres, the soldiers of both sides stared at each other.
The average Theonian soldier wore black armour, a bowl-shaped helmet with a face guard, some with a plume on their helmet, some without, and some with more or less black plumes. (This is based on how long the legionary served. The longer they serve, the denser the plume is.) They also wore a single-layer black linen armour with a layer of chain armour over it*. (This is a gradual change after the kingdom’s establishment. Compared with the old multi-layer glued linen armour, the weight is almost the same but with increased defence. In addition, it is easy to remove when marching.) On their legs were black leather shin armour, leather sandals on their foot, their left hand holding a half-tall convex long shield, their right hand held a two-metre long spear, with a sharp short sword hanging on their waist and two javelins on their back,
The Roman soldiers, on the other hand, also wore a helmet with a face guard, but at the top of their helmet were two coloured feathers, and the middle was a horse mane-like red plume for the centurions. The soldiers wore red short-sleeved linen and scale armour while the centurions wore a bronze breastplate, bronze shin armour on their lower legs, leather sandals on their feet, a half-man tall convex shield on their left hand, a two-metre spear on their right hand and a gladius on their waist.
In the Roman formation, there were no other flags except for the flag standard bearers on the left, centre and right wings, each holding a red army flag with a winged eagle embroidered on it. While in the Theonian formation, the platoon, centuria and brigade flags were orderly distributed in the various small phalanxes, while the fluttering legion flag stood in the centre with the statue of the deities shining brightly on top of the flags, just like the stars in the night sky, appearing beautiful.
After both sides had taken their positions, black and red filled the whole battlefield with the soldiers of both sides standing as imposing statues with the spears in their hands arranged like a dense forest, and their erected shields formed a long majestic wall…
Although both sides remained silent, a thick, murderous atmosphere pervaded the battlefield, scattering the dust cloud…
Amintas, who usually bravely attack, didn’t immediately give the order to attack. On the one hand, he wanted his soldiers to catch their breath and regain their strength. On the other hand, he wanted to wait for the arrival of the Volscians. After all, the First Legion had several thousand less heavy infantry than the other side. And since the other side could quickly set up a formation similar to Theonia’s, he could sense that his opponent was much different from the previous enemies they had fought. So he acted more cautiously.
Though he could wait, Camillus could not, for he could guess why the Theonian army had halted its advance. So, after waiting for the Roman soldiers to regroup and stabilise, Camillus immediately ordered, “All troops, attack!”
Then the horn sounded.
The Roman soldiers carried their shields and spears as they advanced slowly, maintaining a neat formation as they pressed towards the Theonian army.
Camillus rode behind the centre of the formation, occasionally glancing back at the Theonian cavalry moving around the rear flank of the Roman army.
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
At the same time, Ledes rode his horse and reached Amintas.
“You’ve worked hard, my old friend!” Amintas gave his thanks.
“My army suffered over 300 casualties just to stop the Romans!” Ledes said with a sombre expression.
Amintas remained silent for a while and asked, “Can your cavalry still fight?”
Ledes shook his head, “Apart from running out of javelins, our horses are exhausted from running back and forth and would need to recover their strength. You will have to wait until we have routed the Romans before you can use them again. However…this enemy we are facing won’t be easy!”
“Don’t worry, it’s a joke for the Romans to try to defeat us, the teacher, with the tactics they stole from us!” Amintas said confidently, concentrating on the battle ahead. But Davos would have been embarrassed if he had heard what he said.
Ledes glanced at the other reserve unit behind them, composed of the light-armoured brigade. Although he felt slightly uneasy, he didn’t speak about it again.
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
Sthephilos(Amintas’ adopted son), the centurion leading a centuria at the front, stopped after seeing the Roman soldiers in front of them reach a distance of fifty metres from them. After squinting his eyes slightly, he shouted, “Brothers, javelins ready!”
“Javelin ready!…” Then the other centurions shouted as well.
After the Theonian soldiers prepared the javelins in their hands, the Roman army suddenly shouted an earth-shaking roar, “MARS!!!…” Then the young Roman soldiers in their twenties, who still had plenty of stamina even after running, took big strides and charged forward.
After looking at them carefully, Satirus sneered at the Romans for not tilting their long shields upwards, apparently not knowing the Theonian heavy infantry’s style of fighting.
As the Roman soldiers bravely advanced, the pace of their charge increased rapidly, creating a strong momentum.
On the other hand, the Theonian soldiers of the First Legion stood firmly, like an unmovable mountain.
But once the Romans were only thirty metres away, the centurions shouted, “Javelins!…” Then Theonia’s three frontmost lines threw their javelins simultaneously, like a hurricane storming down the battlefield and stopping the forward momentum of the charging Roman soldiers. Then the dense, heavy javelins leapt more than twenty metres into the ranks of the Roman soldiers, easily penetrating their scaled armour and shields, pinning them to the ground.
At this moment, most of the young inexperienced Roman soldiers didn’t continue charging. Instead, they subconsciously pulled up their struggling comrades or tried to pull the javelins off their long shields, which provided sufficient time for the Theonian soldiers to prepare the second round of javelin throw. Thus after the Theonians threw their second round of javelins, more Roman soldiers fell.
The wise Camillus, who usually remained calm in battle, cried out several times in pain as he saw the tragic sight. For he had never thought the Theonian heavy infantry could also throw javelins that would cause a considerable blow to the defenceless Roman soldiers. Naturally, he would never know that the “heavy infantry throwing javelins before engaging the enemy” was originally the Roman legions’ tactics used in their war against the Samnites. After suffering a lot from the Samnites’ javelins, the Romans learned from their opponents and improved it, giving the Roman heavy infantry a way to attack from a medium distance.
After suddenly attacking the Romans and causing them to plunge into chaos, the Theonians pointed all their flags forward, and the soldiers charged fiercely towards the enemy while shouting ‘Hades’.
“Attack! Attack!…” The uninjured Roman centurions and platoon leaders shouted as they led the charge to the forefront to fill the gaps in the collapsed lines, and the young soldiers in the back row didn’t hesitate to rush to the front as they sought revenge for their wounded comrades.
Yet before the Romans could fill them up, the charging Theonian soldiers had already arrived.
Then the front-row soldiers of both sides’ left, centre and right flanks collided. Although the frontmost line forces of both sides were ten ranks(rows) thick, the Roman’s younger soldiers had just suffered from the javelin attack, damaging their formation. Hence they couldn’t resist the assault of the fully equipped first, second, and third brigades of Theonia’s First Legion.