Chapter 1053
The Minoan army's defeat was actually caused by an unexpected incident. It was not a real battle. Besides, he looked down on Montenegro, who only knew how to enjoy himself. He did not even go to the frontline during the battle. It would be strange if he did not fail. As for the final defeat that determined the outcome of the war, according to the latest news he received, it was mainly due to the Carthage army's failure to conquer the city and the Numibians' sudden rebellion. It was not a direct battle with the Dionysian Army. The only real battle was the Battle of Gela. Hasdrubal led the army to defeat the Diónia coalition army and successfully captured Gela.
In addition, Samos had experience fighting against the Greeks. It was 20 years ago when he followed Himilco to fight against Syracuse in Sicily. At that time, he was still a young captain, and the army attacked all the way to the city of Syracuse. If it wasn't for the damn plague, the Carthaginian army wouldn't have suffered a crushing defeat, and it was even more likely that they would have conquered Syracuse.
Since the Kingdom of Diónia was founded by the Greeks, even if their army was stronger than the people of Syracuse, it was not by much. Now that the city of Carthage was facing a crisis, the soldiers were united against a common enemy. Naturally, they could exert more power than before. In a situation where the number of troops on both sides was roughly equal, they could completely defeat the Diónia. It was based on this judgment that Samos decided to take the initiative to send troops and change the situation through a battle.
But now that the battle had progressed, he found that he was wrong. At the beginning of the battle, the Diónia light infantry ran freely in that strange formation, and the Diónia's formation changed from scattered to united. He knew that it was difficult to achieve this without a long period of rigorous training. After that, the Carthage soldiers, motivated by the belief of defending the country, attacked the enemy bravely, but the soldiers of the Legion of Dionysia were as immovable as a rock. It was until the soldiers were exhausted and mentally tired that they gradually increased the intensity of their attacks. This was an offensive method that only an experienced and mature army would dare to adopt!
Samos was already regretting it now, but once the battle began, the situation would be out of his control.
Alexis's expression was much more relaxed. She said to Printos, "It's time for the infantry of the Third Fleet to attack."
As it turned out, the two of them had received news yesterday: Carthage had sent thousands more reinforcements to Ardis, and these reinforcements were either young or old.
Based on the current situation, they quickly deduced that Carthage's men were probably preparing to take the risk and attack.
Just as Alexis had said to the commanders, "This may be the last battle for Carthage's men. They will definitely give it their all. Although the Dionysian Army has the advantage now, they are still in a dangerous situation. If they lose the battle, their situation will be quite dangerous." Therefore, Alexis was also facing a lot of pressure. So, he took a safe approach and immediately sent a fast ship to inform the Third Fleet stationed at Khosla Island. After the Dionysian Army landed on Afrika, the Devers made a simple division of labor for the two fleets under their command. The Sicilian Fleet was responsible for the Afrika sea west of Carthage, and the Third Fleet was responsible for the sea east of Afrika.
When the Midolades received the news, they were overjoyed. The infantry of the Sicilian Fleet had already joined forces with the Tenth Legion to attack Carthage's Phoenician allies. How could the Third Fleet miss this important battle to defeat Carthage!
So, he immediately gathered the patrolling warships that night. The next morning, he led the fleet south and entered the port of Luspina. After the 3,000 infantry of the fleet went ashore, they quickly marched west. When they arrived at the Diónia camp, the Dionysian Army had already begun to line up outside the camp.
After receiving the news that the infantry of the Third Fleet had arrived, Alexis asked the orderly to inform them: rest well in the camp, wait for orders, and be ready to attack at any time.
And now, it was time for this new force to go out and kill the enemy!
When the Carthage Army was showing signs of decline, the energetic infantry of the Third Fleet appeared on the battlefield.
In the dusty and noisy battlefield, it was difficult to accurately understand the situation in time. So when Samos received the bad news, the infantry of the fleet had already launched an attack on the left flank of the Carthage Army.
Although the Carthage soldiers were still fighting tenaciously, defeat was a fact. In order to avoid too many casualties and leaving no one to defend the city of Carthage, Samos ordered: Immediately blow the bugle to retreat!
The physical strength and morale of the Carthage Coalition Army had fallen sharply. After the bugle sounded, they quickly fell into a full-scale retreat.
The soldiers of the Legion of Dionysia immediately gave chase. Alexis also sent someone to urge the Western Numibian cavalry, who had been watching from the sidelines for the second half of the battle, to join the pursuit.
This forced a large number of Carthage's defeated soldiers to flee into the mountains to get rid of the fierce pursuit of the Dionysian Army.
At dusk, Alexis withdrew her troops and returned to camp.
This battle, which involved more than 50,000 people and lasted nearly four hours, was very tragic. Just the frontal battle alone caused nearly 5,000 casualties on both sides (nearly 2,000 casualties for the Diónia soldiers, and more than 3,000 casualties for the Carthage soldiers). In addition, nearly 6,000 Carthage soldiers were captured.
When the news reached Carthage, the whole city was shocked. The people panicked and cried in pain for a long time...
On the second day, Samos did not care about the Adians' persuasion to stay, nor did he care about the defeated soldiers returning one after another. He gathered the remaining troops and fled back to the city of Carthage.
Because of grief and anger, the people of Carthage surrounded Samos who entered the city with his tail between his legs. First, they scolded him, then they beat him until he fell to the ground.
In order to appease the anger of the people, the Senate conducted a trial in absentia as soon as possible. The result of the trial: crucifixion.
This was perhaps the most tragic death of a leading general in the history of Carthage.
However, the execution of Samos did not change the situation of the war.
On the third day, Alexis led the rested army westward, and the city of Addis surrendered.
On the fourth day, the Dionysian Army met up with the Eastern Numibian Army northward in Addis.
On the fifth day, the Diónia Allied Army continued to advance westward. The city of Tunes surrendered, followed by the city of Megalopolis.
Finally, more than 40,000 Diónia Allied Army soldiers bypassed Lake Tunes (now known as Lake Tunis) and approached the city of Carthage.
The terrified people of Carthage stood on the western city wall, watching the densely packed Diónia soldiers wantonly destroy the crisscrossing ditches on the isthmus between Lake Biscay and Lake Tunes, uprooting plots of farmland one after another, and then began to build camps on it. It was obvious that they were preparing to completely seal off the people of Carthage in the city (the people of Carthage thought it was an isthmus, but in fact, the shortest distance between the two lakes was about 10 miles, and the terrain was very flat).
The terrified people of Carthage did not dare to attack. They could only hide within the tall and thick city wall, stepping up their defensive preparations. Men, women, old, and young were mobilized, equipped with weapons, ready to fight at any time. All the blacksmiths in the city worked 24 hours a day, urgently producing all kinds of weapons: daggers, javelins, spears, shields...
In fact, the panicking elders even went through the High Priest's suggestion to convince the citizens of the city to hold a sacrificial ceremony of unprecedented scale, praying for the protection of Dionia's Guardian God, Baal Harmon. This ceremony was once popular among the Phoenicians of the Western Mediterranean Sea, causing other races to pale in fear at the mention of it. In recent decades, this ceremony had been held less frequently.
However, at this time, the people of Carthage were already on the verge of despair. This was their last hope, so almost no one objected. After drawing lots, a total of 200 children under the age of six were chosen. Amidst the chanting of the people of the city, they were pushed alive into the fiery pit in front of the statue of Baal Harmon. Their mournful cries made the people of Carthage feel even more pain and confusion...
However, after the ceremony, Baal Harmon's protection did not appear. Instead, bad news kept coming: Dairetos had also surrendered to Diónia... Not long after, other than Carthage, the second largest Phoenician city-Utica had also chosen to surrender. Thus, the other Dionysian Army (Legio IV and the infantry of the Sicilian Fleet) was able to pass through the western coastal road, approaching Carthage City from the west. At the same time, some of the warships of the Sicilian Fleet and the Third Fleet sailed into Lake Biscay and Lake Tunes, anchored at the simple pier built by the Dionysian Army in the camp. The people of Carthage had long ago opened up the communication between the two lagoons and the sea, and had even built a port at the point where the lagoons extended into the city. At this point, the city of Carthage was completely surrounded, isolated and helpless.
The reason why the elders, led by Hanno, had not yet made up their minds and completely accepted Diónia's terms of negotiation was that they still had one last hope: interference from Persia.
In fact, Tyre had indeed responded to Carthage's request and sent an emissary to Babylon.
When the King of Persia, Artaxerxes, received the news that "Carthage was actually forced into a corner by Diónia", he was very surprised. After much consideration, he decided to send an emissary to the Western Mediterranean Sea to understand the process of the war in detail, to find out the actual situation of Diónia, and to understand the true attitude of the newly rising Greek Kingdom towards Persia.
Mediating the war was only a secondary goal. After all, he had been in power for more than 20 years, and he knew very well that Dionia had gone through a lot of hardships to force the enemy into a desperate situation. How could Dionia give up all its hard work just because of a few words from a thousand miles away? Not to mention that Persia had yet to show the newly established country its strength.
In mid-February, when the passenger ship of the Persia emissary entered the waters of Carthage, it was intercepted by the battleships of Diónia. Even though he claimed that he was the emissary sent by the King of Persia, he was still prohibited from entering Carthage City.
The Persia emissary had no choice but to seek an audience with the King of Diónia, and was taken to Lili.
The Devers did not treat the Persia emissary coldly, and the reception ceremony was quite grand.
But since the Corinth War, not only did Sparta, the local overlord of Greece, rely on the support of Persia, but the major Greek city-states such as Athens, Corinth, and Thebes also had to rely on Persia. Persia had become the de facto overlord of the Eastern Mediterranean. Therefore, every time the emissary of the Greek city-states came to Persia, in order to achieve his goal, he often bribed officials at all levels, while the emissary of Persia enjoyed a high standard of reception throughout Greece.
But when the emissary of Persia came to the Western Mediterranean complacently, he was hit in the head. Not only was his passenger ship hijacked, but his request was also rejected. Naturally, he was filled with anger. After seeing the Devers, he saw that the barbarian king was neither wearing a precious crown nor a gorgeous robe, and even received him in an ordinary living room. His heart was full of contempt. After saying a few words, he said to the Devers in a commanding tone, "Our holy and noble king is very concerned about the war between Diónia and Carthage. He hopes that both sides can immediately stop the war, return to the land they occupied, and return to the state before the war began! As long as both sides follow this, they will gain the friendship of Persia. Otherwise, the consequences will be so severe that Diónia will not be able to bear it! "
Facing the arrogance of the emissary of Persia, the Devers, who was almost fifty years old, became more shrewd. He did not ridicule the emissary of Persia like how he ridiculed the emissary of Sparta, Phoebidas. He said in a calm tone, "It's good enough that you Persia can manage the affairs of Asia well. You don't need to worry about the affairs of the Western Mediterranean."
Both sides parted on bad terms. Even the banquet that was to be held after the meeting was canceled.
The next day, the passenger ship of the emissary of Persia sailed away from Lili and was "escorted" all the way away from the Western Mediterranean.
When the emissary of Persia returned to Babylon, he told Artaxerxes about his "tragic experience" in the Western Mediterranean and the message that the king of Diónia wanted him to bring to the king of Persia. The king of Persia was furious and swore in public that one day, he would give the kingdom of Diónia the most severe punishment!
The elders of Carthage did not receive any news from the Persia, but the attack of Diónia had been making them nervous. The Dionysian Army had not sent any soldiers to attack the city, but their ballistae were bombarding the city walls every day. They even threw fire cans into the city to increase the panic of the people in the city. They had also built earth ramparts that were taller than the city walls. They even threw fire cans into the city to increase the panic of the people in the city. The army of Diónia was not only attacking the city on land, but their navy was also not idling. They put together several warships, laid planks on them, and installed ballistae and bows on them. They approached the ports in the two lakes and attacked the defensive facilities in the city. The Dionysian Army did not use their full strength. It was more like they were practicing the tactics of attacking the city by sea and land. However, the people of Carthage, who had never been in such a desperate situation, felt a little breathless.
The siege lasted for more than three months. The city walls were damaged, drinking water was scarce, most of the city was destroyed, and the morale of the people of Carthage was extremely low. Finally, they lowered their proud heads and were forced to sign an extremely harsh truce with the people of Diónia: Carthage admitted that Sicily, Corsica, and Sardinia would be under the rule of the Kingdom of Diónia;
All the colonial cities in Iberia were ceded to Diónia (excluding the new colonies that the Magonid family later conquered);
Carthage agreed to incorporate the territory of Hadrumentum into the Kingdom of Diónia;
Carthage was not allowed to infringe the interests of the Numibians, the allies of Diónia in the East and West;
Carthage and Diónia restored peace and resumed trade for a period of 20 years. Any disputes of interest during the period would be resolved by the two parties through consultation;
During the period, they were not allowed to infringe the alliance of the two parties …
…
Half a year later, the island of Ortygia also surrendered due to the exhaustion of food. At this point, the war between Diónia and Carthage ended.
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