Chapter 848
After summoning Publius, the Devers immediately held a military conference. After discussing with the generals, they decided on a strategy to attack the Latin region, which was to "attack from the east, then the west, and combine attack with negotiation".
Philippi was located on the upper reaches of the Tiber River, only about 13 miles away from Rome. However, it was a town built by the Etruscans. Although it was not large, it spanned across both sides of the Tiber River. During the gradual rise of Rome, it was the main bridge for the Etruscans to set foot on the south bank of the Tiber River. In particular, Venus was very close to Philippi, and it was used to invade Rome many times.
For this reason, for decades, the people of Rome and Venus repeatedly fought over this small city. In the end, the people of Rome turned Philippi into its colony and made it the forward base for Rome to attack Venus. Since then, Venus gradually fell into a defensive position and was finally occupied by Rome.
Since Philippi became a colony of Rome, because it was too close to Rome, most of its fertile land along the river was given to Rome, causing the population of this small city to be even smaller than before.
When Rome was captured by the people of Rome, the people of Rome living in Philippi were terrified. However, for several days, there was no movement in Rome. Coupled with the return of Camillus with his army, the people of Philippi breathed a sigh of relief. However, soon, the army of Rome moved west, and not long after, Venus suddenly fell. This caused the people of Philippi to panic again.
A few days later, the allied forces of the Etruscan Rome colony arrived. This included the citizens of Philippi who had been conscripted. Just when the people heaved a sigh of relief, the allied forces that crossed the river suffered a crushing defeat. The people of Pheidonia witnessed a large group of Diónia cavalry chasing the fleeing Roman soldiers along the river bank. Many of them knelt down and surrendered, while some jumped directly into the Tiber River and were swallowed by the river in the blink of an eye …
Although the victorious Dionysian Army did not take advantage of the situation to attack Feydenae, and peace was restored in the following days, the people of Feydenia, who were frightened by the tragedy that day, no longer believed that they were safe. Many people urged them to flee to the Latin Alliance in the south, or head west to find Camillus.
However, it was difficult to leave one's homeland. The whole city debated for several days, but still couldn't come to a decision.
Early in the morning, the sleepy sentries of Feydenai climbed up the city wall. They were shocked when they saw a cloud of dust in the distance, and a huge crowd was surging towards Feydenai.
"The enemy is here!! [The Diónia army is here!] Alarms were ringing in the city, and the people were panicking.
… …
On the second morning after the military meeting, the Devers sent out an army to attack Feydenae.
Most of the Legio III and the Rome Reserve Army moved east along the north bank of the Tiber River. The Second Legion, Legio VI, the Lucania Reserve Army, the Mountain Reconnaissance Army, the First Cavalry Legion, and a 500-man engineering team moved east along the south bank of the Tiber River. A total of more than 30,000 people attacked Feydenae from the south and the north.
The reason why Dyvers used such a huge army to attack a small city with less than a thousand soldiers was because he did not care if he was using a butcher's knife to kill a chicken. He hoped to use a swift and violent attack to defeat more enemies in a short period of time, intimidate Latin City, and create a more favorable situation for himself.
In order to stabilize the order in the city of Rome, the Devers did not lead the army personally, but appointed a temporary commander-in-chief. However, to the surprise of the generals, the candidate was Printos, the staff officer of the Ministry of Military Affairs.
When announcing the candidate, because the First Legion did not participate in the battle, the Legio III commander Lizaru had a good relationship with Printos. Only the commander of the Second Legion, Martonis, objected, "Printos has never personally commanded an army in battle. He has no experience as a commander …"
However, under the Devers' insistence, Martonis, who was used to obeying the Devers' orders, had no choice but to reluctantly accept it.
With 30,000 people attacking a small city with less than a thousand soldiers, and the location of the small city was flat, it seemed that it would be easy to capture it.
However, that was not the case. For decades, as a strategic point of contention between Rome and Venus, Philippi had evolved into a small military fortress. The city walls were tall and thick, and there was a moat. It was easy to defend, but not easy to attack. According to the attack plan, the expedition had to take the city as soon as possible, and they could not afford to be in a stalemate for a long time.
In order to repay the trust of the Devers and prove himself, Printos carefully studied the situation of Philippi and the surrounding terrain. He decided to adopt a similar tactic to the one used by the Devers to capture the city of Rome. He asked the engineering team to modify a number of pack wagons to carry five fast ships, with many pack beasts and a large number of laborers in charge of transporting them. By land, they avoided the attention of the defenders, bypassed Philippi, and arrived at the low land on the upper bank of the Tiber River …
In the face of the Diónia's persuasion to surrender, the people of Philippi neither agreed nor objected. They only said that they would consider it.
How could Printos allow them to delay? He immediately gave the order to attack the city.
Under the order, the army of Diónia launched a strong attack on Philippi from the south and north.
While the defenders of Philippi were resisting the Diónia's attack, more than 200 fully armed scouts rowed five fast ships and rushed down from the upper river. When they passed by Philippi, they were stopped by a pontoon bridge that spanned across the river. They almost broke the pontoon bridge.
The Tiber River to the east of Philippi was rapid. Not only was it impossible to swim, but it was also very difficult to drive a raft. In addition, the towns along the river to the east of Philippi, except for Crustuerium, which was a colonial city of Rome, were all the territories of the Sabines. This mountainous race had never seen the sea, nor did they know how to build ships. In fact, most of their people did not even know how to swim. Therefore, the Phaedonians had never encountered an attack from the upper reaches of the Tiber River. However, they had never dreamed that the Dionians would have the whimsical idea of spending a huge amount of manpower to transport ships from the land to the upper reaches of the Tiber River.
When the scouts climbed up the pontoon bridge and began to attack the southern city of Philippi, the panicked Philippi squeezed out less than a hundred soldiers from the top of the city wall and rushed to the bridge to stop them.
When they arrived, some of the scouts had already set foot on the land in the southern city. They immediately launched a fierce attack on the Philippi soldiers who had rushed over, causing chaos among the Philippi soldiers who were trying to get into formation.
In the chaotic battle, how could the citizens of Philippi be a match for the scouts who had gone through years of arduous training? Not long after they were defeated, the southern city was breached.
Soon, the isolated North City surrendered as well.
It was only in the afternoon when the Dionysian Army occupied the entire city of Philippi. From the beginning to the end of the attack, it had only lasted less than four hours. Printos's commanding ability had initially gained the recognition of the generals and soldiers.
The Dionysian Army had previously occupied Rome. Now that they had the passage to the upper river, they had completely cut off the communication between the people of Rome and the north bank of the Tiber River.
After resting for a day in Philippi, the Dionysian Army moved east again the next day. Their goal was Crustuerium, the last colonial city in the eastern part of Rome.
Crustuerium was originally a town established by the Sabines. However, its complicated relationship with Rome had been established not long after Rome was founded.
It was said that after Romulus established Rome, most of his followers were single men, which caused a lot of trouble. In order to solve their marriage problems and allow these energetic men to settle in Rome with peace of mind, Romulus thought of a way. He announced to the public that he would hold a celebration for the Festival of the Sea Goddess and invited the surrounding forces to participate.
Some of the Sabine tribesmen believed it and brought their wives and daughters to Rome. In the end, Romulus and his followers took away all the women of the Sabine tribesmen.
Half a year later, the Sabine tribesmen who had lost their loved ones gathered their troops to attack Rome. Just as the two sides were about to engage in a decisive battle, the Sabine women who had become the wives of the people of Rome appeared. They knelt down and begged for a truce. Under the influence of kinship, the two sides reached a reconciliation. Romulus even invited the Sabine tribesmen to migrate to Rome, and the two sides became one.
The town where the Sabine tribesmen lived was Crustuerium.
Regardless of whether the legend heard from the people of Rome was true or not, it was a fact that Crustuerium had been a colony of Rome during the reign of Rome. Many Latins were called upon by the king of Rome to migrate to this town, but decades later, it joined the Latin city-state in the war against Rome. After being defeated, it became a colony of Rome again. Soon, it became a frontier base for Rome to resist the invasion of the Sabines. The people of Rome defeated the Sabines several times here.
Crustuerium was less than ten miles away from Feydenae. It was built on a hill near the Tiber River, overlooking the long and narrow riverside flatland that had been washed out by the mixed silt of the Tiber River.
Printos led the army of Diónia and soon arrived at the city of Crustuerium. However, he did not attack immediately because Publius, who arrived later, said that he was confident that he could persuade the people of Crustuerium to surrender.
Sure enough, less than two hours after Publius entered the city, the people of Crustuerium opened the city gate.
Without the support of Rome, Crustuerium, which was adjacent to the Sabines, could hardly resist the invasion of the Sabines. Previously, the citizens who were sent to join the army of Rome came back and told the people the news of the collapse of the army of Rome, causing extreme anxiety in the city. Later, the people of Crustuerium were even more frightened when the people of Diónia broke through the neighboring city of Feydenae in less than a day. At this time, the people of Crustuerium, who they were familiar with and a former senator of Rome, entered the city to persuade them. Surrounded by two major forces, the people of Crustuerium could only surrender.
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