Chapter 248
When the Locrians heard the news, they were shocked and in awe. For the past few decades, Rockley had never won a single victory against Crotone. On the other hand, the newly formed Diónia Alliance was able to defeat Crotone twice in a row.
Of course, to Rockley, the most important thing was that Crotone had suffered heavy losses and was in a tough battle with Diónia. This was the perfect opportunity! Rockley could not wait for news from the envoy, Metrofinis, and began to plan an attack on the Crotone Alliance. In order to defeat their mortal enemy in one fell swoop, they mobilized the Alliance for war. At the same time, the brother of Dionysius's wife, the chief general of Rockley, Demodorcas, sent a request for help from Syracuse. At this time, Syracuse had already started the war against Carthage. The powerful army was taking down towns after towns. Only the navy had not encountered the enemy yet. Other than some warships escorting the army along the coastline, the rest were on standby in Syracuse's port.
On one hand, it was out of friendship with Rockley, but on the other hand, it was to prepare for the future. Dionysius sent more than 20 three-oared warships to aid the Locrians.
With Syracuse as his backing, Rockley could not wait to start the war.
Unexpectedly, Diónia and Crotone came to an armistice. Not only did they sign a defensive alliance treaty, but they also released all the captives. Metrofinis felt that he had been fooled and returned to his country in anger.
The Locrians were furious. Diónia had repeatedly ignored Rockley's good intentions, intentionally or unintentionally obstructing Rockley's plans. It was only because they had to focus on dealing with their mortal enemy, Crotone, that they did not want to complicate matters. They temporarily swallowed their anger and would deal with them in the future. At the same time, Rockley began to be wary of Diónia.
Although they suffered a small setback in the battle with Crotone, the naval battle was won by Syracuse's reinforcements. Without the protection of the navy, Crotone's army did not have enough manpower. The Locrians mobilized their forces back and forth, forcing them into a passive position.
Just as Rockley saw hope for victory, news came: the envoy of the Crotone Alliance had gathered in Turií and requested reinforcements from Diónia!
What the Rockerrians feared the most had happened. Due to the unsatisfactory performance of Metamorpho Fenix, they immediately sent Panticapace, who was the most eloquent of them all. However, not only did his arrival fail to change Dionia's mind, but it also hastened the establishment of the Southern Alliance.
Before Panticapaeus left Turií, he angrily told the senators of the Diónia Senate, "Apollo can testify that we, the people of Locri, have always respected Diónia, but every time we offered an olive branch, we were met with malicious deceit and mockery from Diónia. From today onwards, Rockley and Diónia were enemies! The next time we come, there will be no more messengers of peace, but the wrath of Ares and a powerful army! "
The faces of the senators changed slightly. Devers calmly said, "Before the Crotone Alliance started the war, their envoy stood where you are now and said something similar. What about now?"
Although Devers appeared relaxed, he knew that the people of Locri were now dominating the sea. After Diónia declared war, it was likely that the Crotone Fleet would repeat what they did to Diónia. Therefore, he reassembled Ledes's cavalry and had them patrol along the coastline. At the same time, he reactivated the measures that Felicius had taken to deal with the Crotone Fleet's surprise attack. The Senate also suspended the immigration of Asprostum and Crimissa.
However, a few days passed and nothing happened.
… …
The First Legion arrived at the city of Asprostum. More than a thousand garrison soldiers joined the army, increasing the number of people participating in the battle to more than ten thousand.
Five days later, the army arrived at the city of Corunya. The journey was smooth, and there were no accidents. The reason why they arrived two days longer than the original plan was that they did not anticipate the harsh conditions of the roads in the south of Great Greece, and when they passed by Siletina, they were warmly welcomed by the people there.
After the reinforcements of Diónia arrived on the battlefield, the people of Corunya rejoiced. They were ready to wait for the Diónia Army to rest and immediately launch an attack on Rockley's camp in the south of the city. However, they did not expect that before this plan could be implemented, Rockley sent an envoy for peace talks …
A hundred years ago, Crotone defeated Gobaris and quickly became the strongest nation in Great Greece. It had the ambition to dominate the south and launched many attacks to the south. The most serious time, under its attack, Rockley and the surrounding city-states' armies were repeatedly defeated. In the end, in order to avoid repeating the mistakes of Gobaris, Rockley and Lijim joined forces and launched a counterattack when Crotone was careless, heavily damaging the Crotone army.
Crotone's strength was greatly damaged, and it was unable to attack the south for a while. In order to prevent Crotone from recovering its strength, Rockley and Lijim began a long-term counterattack against Crotone's alliance. They even joined forces with the indigenous Bruti people in the north of Crotone's alliance. For decades, Crotone had been trapped by the Bruti people in the north, and the threat of Rockley and Lijim in the south. They had always been tired of dealing with them, and could never regain their former glory. Therefore, when Athens wanted to build the city of Turií on the Gobaris Plain, it could only make concessions and sign an agreement.
However, the cooperation between Rockley and Lijim was not close. Once the threat of Crotone weakened, the conflict between the two began to show. The biggest conflict was that both city-states were coastal cities, and they were very close to each other, so the competition for port trade was inevitable. Because Lijim controlled half of the Strait of Messina, it had the upper hand in sea trade, while Rockley opened up trade routes from Rockley to Medmar and Hibernian (both cities on the west coast of Greece), so that Greek merchants could reach the west coast through land trade without paying high tariffs through the Strait of Messina. Therefore, they seized a lot of profits from Lijim as a transit port for trade in the western Mediterranean …
These conflicts accumulated and finally erupted a few years ago.
Dionysius, who had just become the General of Syracuse, wanted to remarry because his wife was killed by the angry people in the previous power struggle. At the same time, this was also a kind of political marriage to stabilize his power. Therefore, after he married the daughter of a famous noble in Syracuse who supported him, he wanted to marry another woman. His eyes were set on Lijim, which was only one strait away from Sicily. On one hand, Lijim's geographical location was too important, and on the other hand, there was a woman in Lijim who was famous.
However, the people of Lijim refused. They were wary of Dionysius, who had become the Tyrant of Syracuse. They did not forget that a few decades ago, when the Tyrant of Syracuse, Chieron, was in power, they coveted Lijim, which forced Lijim to form an alliance with Carthage to protect itself.
Dionysius had to propose to the people of Rockley, and Rockley agreed. This caused the alliance between Rockley and Lijim to completely break down.
As for why Dionysius did not look for Crotone and Crotone? This was because during the War of Peloponnesus, Crotone and Turií were on the side of Athens. They even provided assistance when Athens' army attacked Syracuse. Tarantum was a sub-state of Sparta and had always been close to Sparta. It did not mean much to Dionysius.
The departure of Lijim made it difficult for Rockley to cause trouble for Crotone. It was not until Diónia severely injured Crotone twice that he rekindled his hope.
When Rockley mobilized for war, he also sent messengers to the people of Bruti. The people of Bruti, who had always been positive about Rockley's invitations, rejected Rockley's request this time. The reason they gave was that the people of Bruti attacked Triene alone last year and suffered heavy losses, so they needed to rest and reorganize.
However, the messengers of Rockley found that the Bruti tribe near Cosenza seemed to be making some kind of change.
With the help of the navy of Syracuse, the people of Rockley attacked the people of Crotone. Reality proved that even though Crotone's strength was greatly damaged, a starving camel was still bigger than a horse. Although Rockley had the upper hand, he could not win quickly.
Now that Diónia had joined the war, the situation had taken a turn for the worse for Rockley.
After the diplomatic failure with Diónia, the people of Rockley immediately went to the players of Syracuse. Dionysius received the messengers of Rockley in the newly occupied city of Salinus.
After listening to the messengers' request, Dionysius frowned. He thought for a moment and said directly, "The war between Syracuse and Carthage is at a critical moment. I have no reinforcements to send! Sue for peace! Once I've conquered Sicily, I'll make Locke pay for this! "
The messengers returned to Rockley helplessly.
The people of Rockley were not fools. Without reinforcements, they had no chance of winning. Suing for peace was the only way out. In the decades of entanglement with Crotone, it was common for them to stop and stop. Lockley was already used to it. He would not insist on a hopeless battle for the sake of glory.
Therefore, the First Legion of Diónia came excitedly, but in the end, there was not a single battle. They were passively playing the role of mediator.
Fortunately, the Southern Alliance had a good impression of the Dionysian Army that appeared in central Southern Italy for the first time, especially the people of Correnia. They were surprised to find that the soldiers of Diónia who had set up camp outside Correnia City had been quietly staying in the camp during the negotiation. They did not disturb the people at all. In this regard, they did even better than the people of Crotone who had been allies of Correnia for decades.
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