Mediterranean Hegemon of Ancient Greece Chapter 786: The Siege of Rome (IV)

Chapter 786: The Siege of Rome (IV)

But starting from early morning, the battle Cassius had imagined was quite different.
The Theonians kept firing their ten ballistae on the opposite bank, resulting in Roman casualties when the stone projectiles flew over the Tiber and fell into the Roman formation. Because of that, Cassius had to order the soldiers to disperse and retreat to the residential areas fifty metres away from the embankment, thinking they still had enough time to move out and intercept the enemy if the Theonians advanced through the bridge.
The Theonian ballistae finally stopped attacking the Roman soldiers hiding in residential houses. But they suddenly began bombarding the four towers on both sides of the bridge on the opposite bank.
Every time the stone projectiles wheezed through the air, two or three stone projectiles would hit the tower. As a result, Cassius became worried and had to order the archers stationed on the towers to retreat.
And his concerns were correct: After more than ten minutes of bombardment, the two towers closest to the bridge finally collapsed with a bang…then Theonia's ballistae began targeting the two outermost towers.
The powerlessness that Cassius and the soldiers felt as they watched the stone projectiles raining down on the towers, eventually causing all four structures to collapse with a tragic crash and rising dust, made them wish the Theonians would immediately attack and engage them in close combat, so that they no longer had to hear and see this terrible bombardment. It was only after the Theonians had destroyed the towers that they stopped.
The Romans felt puzzled by the sudden silence on the battlefield.
Meanwhile, Litom, the legatus of the Third Legion standing on the opposite bank, said to Miltiades, the navarch of the Third Fleet, “The other legions have already started their attacks, so we should start preparing as well.”
“There's no need to be in a hurry. I will soon build twenty pontoon bridges for your legion!” After that, Miltiades immediately rushed to the riverbank to the west of the bridge.
They have built a camp on the riverbank by digging trenches, making earthen walls and stockades, with rows of tents inside. And by the river were forty corvus warships neatly docked, with their bows facing the river.
After Miltiades gave the order, the crew of each warship quickly boarded the ship and took their positions.
Then, the soldiers of the Third Legion also rushed over and worked together to push the ships into the river.
But instead of rowing simultaneously, only the first ship, immediately south of Pons Aemilius, rowed with all its might towards the opposite bank.
On the other hand, the sailors of the second ship brought the warship to a horizontal position, exerting their utmost effort to anchor the stern to the shore firmly. And to achieve this, the engineering brigade had prepared numerous long wooden poles for the sailors on both sides of the ship. The sailors would use the poles to stick into the riverbed, stabilising the ship against the water's impact, ensuring that the bow faced the opposite bank while the stern faced the shore.
The trireme was so small in the sea but so big in the Tiber, with an average length of over fifty metres. So after the sailors paddled, the corvus warship soon reached the opposite bank.
The deck operator immediately lowered the anchor while the sailors on the ship's right side quickly pulled out the oars and took the long wooden poles at the bottom of the cabin. Then they inserted it out the oar ports and thrust it towards the riverbed.
Since this section of the Tiber was a hundred metres wide, there was naturally a gap between the two ships. With one of the ships having its stern on the north bank and one with its bow on the south bank, the sailors of the second ship did their best to bring the ship's bow as close to the stern of the first ship, and then the deck operator would lower the drawbridge.
The spikes at the head of the drawbridge pierced the stern of the first ship. Although that was painful for the captain and sailors, it still needed to be done to link the two ships together. Likewise, the third and fourth warships also did the same. The fifth and sixth warships…and before long, nearly twenty pontoon bridge was made on the Tiber to the west side of Rome's bridge. Now, they only need to lower the drawbridge of the warship on the opposite bank and connect it to the embankment, linking the north and south banks.
Litom, who observed the entire process from the north, expressed his loud and resounding approval of the Third Fleet for executing the plan smoothly. Especially since he knew that Miltiades had led a dozen warships through rigorous testing and training in the river section near the river port yesterday afternoon, contributing to today's success.
While observing a portion of the Third Legion's soldiers rapidly splitting into twenty teams and beginning to board the warship, Litom felt a sense of regret since the corvus warships couldn’t go under the bridge due to their tall masts. Otherwise, they could have constructed a pontoon bridge to the east of the bridge and forced the Roman army on the opposite side to spread their defence further, which would have eased Theonia’s Third Legion’s attack.
After sighing a bit, Litom immediately turned his attention to the battle that was about to start.
“Ulasa!” Litom looked at the senior centurion of the first brigade of the Third Legion and said sincerely, “My only demand is for you to lead the first brigade to cross Pons Aemilius and enter the city of Rome!”
Ulasa, the former chieftain of a small tribe of Lucania and a childhood friend of Bagul had managed to become a statesman a few years earlier, just like Kesima and Litom. However, he chose to stay in the army instead of serving in a local position. But unlike Bagul, who served multiple times as the praetor of main cities in Theonia, and Kesima, who had won praises from Davos and statesmen for his outstanding performance as the praetor of Compsa, and Litom, who had already served as a commander of the army and repeatedly won military achievements, Ulasa, who was only a senior centurion, was too inconspicuous. Despite that, he still chose to stay in this position because he liked to fight, which was the only thing he was good at.
After hearing Litom's order, Ulasa replied excitedly, “Legatus, just sit still and watch as the first brigade will open the gate of victory for the army!”
He then shouted to the soldiers of the first brigade who were already in formation, “Warriors of Lucania, it is time to show our courage and strength to all the legions here and His Majesty! Let's cross the bridge and wipe out the enemy!”
Most of the Third Legion soldiers had come from the Lucanian region, with Grumentum as the centre. However, the soldiers of the first brigade mainly had come from Nerulum, the first Lucanian town to come under Theonia and fought under Davos early on. Hence when Theonia established the Third Legion, most of its officers were Nerulans, which prompted more Nerulans to serve in the army actively. As a result, many veterans were Nerulans and had the richest combat experience. So the first brigade, as the strongest force of the Third Legion, naturally had gathered the best and strongest soldiers.
Under the command of the chieftain of Nerulum, these Nerulan soldiers radiated a strong desire to fight as they shouted the name of Hades and formed a dense five-column (The width of Pons Aemilius can only accommodate five people standing side by side), stepped onto the bridge and quickly charge towards the opposite bank.
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
Cassius received an emergency report from the scouts as soon as Theonia made a pontoon bridge using their corvus warships. Theonia's unusual offensive methods were far beyond his expectations, which meant that the Theonian army now had more ways to cross the river to attack Rome from the north. Because of that, he urgently summoned the retreating Roman centuriae and ordered them to rush to the embankment immediately.
But when the Roman centuriae left the cover of the residential area and headed to the Tiber, the ballistae team immediately began firing stone projectiles again once they stepped into the open space.
Although Cassius had anticipated this and had the army advance quickly in a loose checkerboard formation, there were still stones falling into the centre of the formation and causing considerable panic due to the terrifying death of the soldiers.
But at this moment, Cassius couldn't care about the casualties caused by the ballistae as he could already see the Theonian soldiers on the other side rushing towards them along the bridge like a black tide, prompting him to shout anxiously, “Faster! Run faster!!…”
In fact, he didn't need to warn the Roman soldiers because not only could they see the Theonian soldiers running on the bridge, but they also saw one enemy after another starting to appear on the embankment…‘our homeland is about to be invaded!’ Every Roman citizen, young and old, could now feel the crisis. So they quicked their pace, brace the whizzing stone projectiles and rushed forward to meet the soldiers of Theonia's first brigade who had just reached the bridge, as well as the other soldiers of Theonia's Third Legion who had just stepped onto the embankment and had barely formed a single row to intercept them on the bank of the Tiber.
At this moment, the ballistae team had to stop firing and just watch the soldiers of the two armies engage in a life-and-death struggle on the opposite bank…
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
The scouts and heralds of Theonia kept rushing in and out of the main camp, summarising the battle and enemy situation from all directions and conveying new orders…
“Report! The First Legion’s siege force has reached the base of the city wall and started the offensive!”
“Report! The five siege towers of the Second Legion have gotten over the trenches and are now carrying out long-range attacks to suppress the enemy at the top of the city wall. However, a flaming arrow ignited one of the siege towers, and the nearby soldiers are busy extinguishing the fire!”
“Report! The siege engines of the Fourth and Fifth Legion have reached the base of the city wall and have begun destroying the wall. At the same time, the soldiers of the Fourth and Fifth legions had managed to hold the enemy, so they so far have not done any effective damage to our siege engines!”
“Report! The soldiers of the Sixth Legion have crossed the trench and begun to climb the city wall!”
“Report! The Third Legion and Third Fleet have already….”