Chapter 1232
With the siege platforms that were closer to the city, the attack range of all the ballistae was greatly increased. They covered almost half of the area of the city of Athens. Not only did the ballistae fire stone bullets, but they also threw burning oil cans into the city, causing fire everywhere in the city of Athens. The city was in chaos.
Then, the Dionysian Army pushed out another nine super siege towers. They were protected by arrow-blocking carts, wooden carriages, and other siege weapons, as well as the light infantry that followed closely behind them. They slowly advanced towards the western wall of the city of Athens.
The defending soldiers at the top of the city wall panicked when they saw these behemoths that were taller than the city wall approaching them. Iphicrates and Cabrias, who rushed to the city after hearing the news, were also stunned.
At this time, the super siege towers that were still 50 meters away from the city wall stopped advancing. The light infantry on the top floor began to fire arrows at the defending soldiers at the top of the city wall. At the same time, the lower floor of the siege towers opened up, revealing the ferocious appearance of the archers. Huge iron arrows whistled towards the top of the city wall, like skewers piercing through meat. They were able to kill several soldiers at once, and they died horribly.
If it were not for the timely rescue of the guards, Iphicrates would have been pierced by the iron arrows and lost his life. He looked at the towering siege platforms not far away and the huge siege weapons in front of him with lingering fear. He suddenly felt a strong sense of helplessness …
For the next few days, Patroclus attacked the city of Athens in the same way. Although he had not launched an all-out attack, he had already caused a lot of casualties to the defending soldiers at the top of the city wall, and caused panic and chaos in the city. He showed the people of Athens the terrifying ability of the Dionysian Army to attack the city. At the same time, he vaguely told the leaders of Athens that the Holy Kingdom of Diónia was strong enough to ensure the huge consumption of 100,000 soldiers. It was completely possible for them to carry out a siege war.
For Athens, these days were a complete disaster. One-fifth of the city was attacked by Diónia's ballistae, and a small part of the city was burned to ruins. Even the Civic Hall on Prynix Hill was destroyed. (Prynix Hill was very close to the southern wall, near the road leading to the port of Piraeus. It was completely within the range of the ballistae on the nearest siege platforms outside the city. It was also the target that Patroclus had mentioned. The reason why there was not too much damage was because Cloto Catax specifically asked for mercy.) Nearly a thousand families lost their homes, and they cried day and night, asking for help from the city hall. This had also caused a great shock to the people of Athens.
The government of Athens sent a large number of people to deal with the aftermath of these attacks. At the same time, they had to strengthen the defense of the city wall to prevent the Dionysian Army from taking advantage of the turmoil in the city to launch an attack. However, the city of Athens was vast, and with the long wall and the port of Piraeus, they needed a large number of public militia. As a result, the number of patrols in the city to maintain order was greatly reduced. However, the damage caused by the ballistae to the city caused the food supply and water supply to become more tight. The conflict between the residents of the city and the refugees outside the city intensified, causing many conflicts.
When the patrols were exhausted, more than 2,000 slave miners took advantage of the turmoil in the city and the weakening of supervision. They secretly contacted each other and suddenly launched a riot. They killed the foremen and guards who supervised them, rushed out of the slave camp that was like a prison, collected weapons, and destroyed the mine owner's manor. Then, on the way to the city gate, they killed the people of Athens in the houses along the way and liberated the slaves. By the time they arrived at the west gate, the number of slaves had increased to more than 6,000.
Iphicrates, who received the news, urgently mobilized troops at the west gate to block the slaves who attempted to escape. The two sides then engaged in a fierce battle.
Although Iphicrates had a small number of soldiers, the soldiers were fully armed and full of energy. Although the slave team had a large number of people, their equipment was shabby, and many of them were even unarmed. Due to the abuse of the mine owner, most of the slave miners were sick and weak. Coupled with the narrow streets, they could not make full use of their advantage in numbers. It did not take long for the slave team to be unable to resist the attack of the soldiers of Athens.
At this time, Cabrias arrived from the rear with another force. Under the attack from the front and back, the slave team quickly collapsed and fled in all directions.
Because the Diónia coalition forces outside the city were still using siege weapons to attack the defenders from afar, the light infantry on the siege towers noticed the abnormality in the city and rushed to inform the commander in the rear camp.
Patroclus quickly made a decision: launch an official attack on the west wall.
But just as the Diónia soldiers gathered in formation and blew the bugle to attack, the riot at the west gate had subsided. Patroclus, who received the news, hesitated for a moment and finally canceled the attack order. It could be said that they missed a great opportunity to capture the city of Athens.
But this slave riot had a great impact on the city of Athens. Although the rioting slaves only killed less than 300 people in two blocks of Athens, it caused many people in Athens to panic, especially those citizens who had more slaves at home. They either asked the city hall to send patrols to help them guard the slaves, or simply gave the male slaves to the city for free. There were even a few citizens of Athens who killed the slaves at home because of excessive fear. Naturally, they were also met with desperate resistance from the slaves. As a result, scenes of family tragedies were staged in the city of Athens from time to time, and the contradictions between slaves and slave owners were intensified to the extreme.
Besieged by the enemy outside and full of internal contradictions, the city of Athens was like sitting on a crater that was about to erupt, and there was a possibility of it being destroyed at any time. Finally, at the emergency meeting of 500 people in the city hall, most of the members rushed to propose that they accept the request of Diónia and negotiate a truce and peace with it.
The citizens of Athens had to temporarily move to the Theatre of Dionysus due to the threat of Diónia's ballistae at Pnix Mountain.
The citizens of Athens, who had once expressed indignation that they would rather die with the city than surrender to Diónia, had suffered from lack of food and water, their compatriots becoming enemies, slave riots, fires, daily threats of arrows and stone bombs from Diónia, and great mental pressure. When most of them heard the proposal of the 500-member council announced by Callistratus, they were relieved as if they had been granted amnesty.
Only a few citizens, led by Aesocrates, expressed their firm opposition. Aesocrates even made an impassioned speech on the rostrum. He shouted in his hoarse voice, "Descendants of Theseus, your ancestors were once the best and bravest citizens in the world. When Persia's army of hundreds of thousands invaded Greece, and when the other city-states retreated in fear, your ancestors bravely stood up and defeated Persia's powerful navy at Salamis, and finally won the Persian War. Through this great victory, the other city-states saw the greatness of Athens, and thus saw Athens as their savior. Since then, Athens has created great glory! Do you still remember the words of Pericles, 'Athens is the school of all Greeks!' Yes, that was the golden age that all of us here yearned for!
And today, history is repeating itself. Another powerful invader has invaded Greece, and they have even killed their way to the city of Athens! Citizens, it's time! It's time to be like our ancestors. When the other Greek city-states were afraid to surrender, we should bravely stand up and fight against the Dionysian Army for your freedom and dignity!
Athens favors heroes, and she will only bless us who fight unyieldingly. In the end, we will defeat the Dionysian Army, and by then, we will be the savior of all Greece. Without Sparta restraining us, we will create a future even more glorious than the previous golden age! … …
But if you choose to surrender, to these barbarians who can't even speak Greek fluently, you will have to abandon the democracy that once made us proud and submit to a king. The wise and humorous plays that you loved will be replaced by their seemingly grand but actually ridiculous dances in the square. The athletic sports that you worshiped with the beauty of strength and skill will be replaced by the terrible games of brutal collisions. Most importantly, we will not be able to worship the beautiful and wise Athena and the other Greek gods as before, but will have to worship the heresy of their faith. In the end, the glorious culture and history of Athens will be forcibly erased, and the only thing left for posterity will be the history of their conquest!
Citizens, when that time comes, the great Athens will be gone! It will be gone! … … "
At the end of his speech, Aesocrates's tears flowed down his cheeks.
The theater was dead silent, and gradually, sounds of sobbing and crying could be heard.
However, ideals are beautiful, but reality is cruel. When it came time to vote, the resolution was passed by an absolute majority.
Athens has surrendered!!! When the envoy from Athens walked into the camp of the Dionysian Army with a dejected look, the good news quickly spread throughout the Diónia army, and everyone was cheering.
Patroclus repeatedly asked Cloto Catax to preside over the surrender ceremony of Athens, and Crotocatax had no choice but to accept it. The two military commanders cooperated and humbled each other throughout the war in Greece, and it became a legend for a time.
When the envoy from Athens signed the armistice agreement in agony, a fishing boat quietly sailed out of the port while the people of Diónia were celebrating, and the blockade outside the port was loosened. It turned nimbly west into Salamiga Bay.
At that moment, a tall and burly man came out of the shabby shed.
"Hey, what are you doing out here? Hurry up and hide inside. It'll be troublesome if the patrolling ships of Diónia bump into you!" the owner of the boat shouted anxiously.
"Don't worry, Athens has already surrendered. I'm afraid the people of Diónia are celebrating. Who would care about a small fishing boat like yours?" the man said indifferently.
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