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Chapter 1167

At this moment, a shocking piece of news came: a large Sparta army had entered the Arcadia Region from the north!

The councilors of the Arcadia Union were shocked, especially the Mandinians led by Lycomedes.

Wasn't Sparta in the southeast of Arcadia? Why did its army appear in the north?

It turned out that Sparta had hired many soldiers in Northern Greece, Ionia, and Asia Minor with the gold and silver provided by Persia. Persia also provided ships to transport them to Greece. However, they did not land on the coast of Sparta because the Dionysian fleet had blocked the coast. Instead, with the tacit consent of Athens and Corinth, they entered the Saron Bay on the east of the isthmus and docked at the port of Corinth. After the mercenaries had assembled, Archidamus led them to the south.

Lycomedes was anxious. Mandinia was located in the northeast of the Arcadia Region, which was the only route for the Sparta army. Moreover, as the initiator of the Arcadia Union, Mandinia was a thorn in Sparta's side.

Lycomedes shouted in the alliance, "The army that Sparta built with the help of Persia has entered Arcadia without permission. They are not here for peace. They are here to destroy the Arcadia Union, which is seen as a threat by Sparta. They want to enslave Arcadia and fight for the interests of Sparta again! If the Arcadia Union does not form an alliance with Diónia as soon as possible and let the Dionysian Army stop the ruthless mercenaries of Sparta, then the newly formed union will soon perish, and all those who support the establishment of the union will become ghosts under the club of Sparta! "

Lycomedes' words moved the councilors. Then they received news that the Sparta soldiers who invaded Arcadia had destroyed and ravaged the land of Frios.

Finally, the Arcadia Union passed the agreement with a slight advantage.

In the early spring of 370 BC (the 24th year of the Kingdom of Diónia), the Arcadia Union and Diónia formed an alliance. Then, Cloto Catax led the First, Fourth, Legio VI, the Mountain Reconnaissance Brigade, the First Cavalry Legion, and half of the Seventh Legion (3,000 soldiers were stationed in Messenia), with a total of about 32,000 of soldiers, to the north and entered Arcadia.

At this time, the Sparta mercenaries led by Archidamus were already attacking Mandinia. The Sparta Council of Elders had already learned from the pro-Spartan faction in the north that the Arcadia Union was going to form an alliance with Diónia. They hated the leader of the alliance, Mandinia. Because the timely arrival of the mercenaries boosted their confidence, they decided to deal a heavy blow to Mandinia first to intimidate the Arcadia Union and force it to side with Sparta again.

The reason why the Sparta people dared to make such a decision was that this army, which cost a lot of money to build, had 8,000 heavy infantry, mainly hired from Miletus, Ephesus, Samos, Chios, Lesbos, Aeolia, and other Greek city-states that belonged to the western coastal area of Persia; 4,500 Thracian light shield soldiers, mainly hired from the Thracian tribes that were located north of the Kingdom of Macedonia, near the Aegean Sea, and near the Rhodopi Mountains; 1,500 cavalrymen, mainly hired from the Kingdom of Macedonia; 1,200 archers and stone throwers from Crete and Rhodes Island, and more than 4,000 light armored soldiers from the various islands of Ionia in the Aegean Sea … In total, there were more than 20,000 soldiers, and at least 10,000 Dalek gold coins and countless food were consumed every month. Of course, these were all provided by the people of Persia.

This was the first time that Archidamus had led such a large and well-equipped army, and he was confident that he could take down Mandinia in a short time.

However, when he led his army into the territory of Mandinia, the people of Mandinia had already hidden in the city, so Archidamus began to attack Mandinia. He originally thought that with his superior forces, he should be able to take down Mandinia quickly, but he did not expect to run into a snag.

The former city of Mandinia was destroyed by Sparta with a flood. After the Mandinians returned to their home after many years of exile, they were determined not to let their city fall to the Sparta again, so they made a clever design for the new city.

The Mandinians chose a very high place on the bank of the Orpheus River as the place to build the city, and then they dug a new channel nearby, so that the Orpheus River was divided into two upstream of the city, bypassing the new city site and joining downstream. The river, which was originally a huge threat, became a natural moat for the city after such a transformation.

They also laid a solid stone foundation for the entire city, and the city walls were all made of bricks. However, the city walls were not completely continuous, because the entire city was divided into ten independent parts, and each part of the city wall was not connected to the other part, but there were places where the walls overlapped with each other, and these overlapped places had gates, so the new city of Mandinia had ten gates.

For such a unique and irregular city, for the Sparta army, they had to take down the city one by one in order to completely occupy the whole city. On the other hand, the city walls of Mandinia were independent of each other according to the height of the terrain. This prevented the Spartans from fully deploying their superior forces, and the soldiers attacking the city would also suffer long-range attacks from the defending side. Moreover, there was also the Orpheus River as a barrier.

Archidamus launched several attacks on Mandinia using the traditional Greek siege method, but not only did he not make any progress, but he also suffered some casualties, forcing him to change the attack to a siege, and then send messengers back to Sparta to report the situation.

At the same time, Cloto Catax had led his army into the southwest of Arcadia Region, which was a rare hilly area in the Arcadia Region. The Helison River ran through the entire area from the south to the north. In the mountains in the east of the central part of the area was the main sacred mountain of the Arcadians, Lycaon, and the new central town of the Arcadia Union, Megalopolis, was located between the east bank of the Helison River and the sacred mountain of Lycaon.

Due to the outbreak of the war with Sparta, the construction of the new city of Megalopolis had stopped. The city walls that formed the outline of the city were only half-built, and the Temple of Zeus, which was the most important to the Arcadians, had only a dozen pillars erected. Scaffolding and stones could be seen everywhere in the city. Only one building, though simple, had been completed a long time ago, and that was the council hall of the Arcadia Union. It was the foundation of the existence of the entire Arcadia Union. The three councilors elected by the people of each city-state lived here for a long time, and according to the rules set by the Arcadia Union, they discussed and decided the diplomatic and military affairs of the Arcadia Union.

At this moment, dozens of councilors of the Arcadia Union walked out of the city of Megalopolis and looked south. In the distance, they saw countless Diónia soldiers dressed in excellent armor and weapons, lined up in neat columns, crossing the pontoon bridge they quickly built on the Helison River. Although the sound of footsteps and armors colliding was quite noisy, and dust was flying everywhere, few people complained loudly. The whole army was like a silent black dragon, swimming forward without stopping.

The councilors of the Arcadia Union stood and looked for a while, but they could not see the head of the dragon, nor could they see its tail. They were a little surprised.

At this moment, another branch of the long dragon split off and headed straight north. When they were about to reach them, the young general who was riding a tall horse and wearing a golden crown on his head raised his right hand and waved it down. Then, the army behind him instantly stopped advancing, and the soldiers stood in silence … This scene once again shocked the councilors.

Lycomedes immediately went down from the high ground and went to greet them, and the other councilors followed closely behind.

Cloto Catax also dismounted and led Printos, Mukrou and the palace guards to greet them.

"General Cloto Catax, thank you very much for your timely help!" Lycomedes solemnly bowed to the Prince of Diónia.

Cloto Catax quickly held him up and said sincerely, "Sir Lycomedes, now that the Arcadia Union and Diónia are allies, this is what we should do! Please rest assured, according to the military law of Diónia, our soldiers will not do anything to destroy the friendship between the people of the two countries on the land of our allies! If there are soldiers who violate the law, they will be severely punished! "

As soon as this was said, many of the councilors of Arcadia breathed a sigh of relief.

Suddenly, one of the councilors asked loudly, "How many soldiers did you send?"

Printos continued, "Considering that Arcadia is mountainous, and it's not easy to spread out our forces, we only brought more than 30,000 soldiers, and there are still more than 10,000 soldiers stationed in Mersenia (Printos counted both the Mersenians and the First Fleet's infantrymen).

Most of the councilors sucked in a breath of cold air and exclaimed, "More than 40,000 fully equipped soldiers!" They had never seen such a large army in their lives! No wonder the marching army of Diónia was so long that they could not see the end of it!

The last time such a large army appeared in Greece was during the Greco-Persian War a hundred years ago. The Greek city-states had gathered more than 100,000 soldiers (two-fifths of the heavy infantry) to fight against the Persia in Plataea. The second time was during the Peloponnesus War a few decades ago. It was said that Athens had sent about 30,000 soldiers to attack Syracuse in Sicily, but suffered a crushing defeat in the end.

However, these two times had been so long ago that they did not see it with their own eyes. The few councilors had only experienced the recent Battle of Leuctra. The Peloponnesus Army led by Sparta had more than 10,000 soldiers, and the two sides had a total of about 20,000 soldiers. In their eyes, it was already a large-scale battle.