Mediterranean Hegemon of Ancient Greece Chapter 1: The expansion of Syracuse

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When the news of Dionia's conquest of Bruti reached Syracuse, Dionysius was accompanied by Massias to inspect the construction of the fortress of Syracuse.

Seeing that the project was nearly completed, he was happy when he heard the news suddenly, his face immediately became gloomy, and he blurted out: "Damn Carthaginians, hindering my plan!..."

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In the early spring of 397 BC, Carthage Sofitel Similko led a large army of 100,000. They set off from Carthage and landed smoothly after a small-scale battle with the Syracuse navy at sea. Sicily, and quickly sold the traitors, easily captured the city of Erlux, west of Sicily, and then stormed Motia and succeeded.

Syracuse’s army was forced to withdraw from the siege of Segesta. Hermiko did not take advantage of the victory, but destroyed the city of Motia and built a new city near the sea. The name is called Lili Bi.

When the Carthage's army stopped advancing, the cautious Dionysius stationed his troops in Syracuse.

Shortly after laying the foundation for Liliba’s new city, Hilmiko led his army to continue the eastward attack when February arrived. This time he did not follow the offensive route of Syracuse last year, but took a boat to the northeast corner of Sicily and easily took down the defenseless Messina.

The fall of Messina was a big stimulus to Lijim on the other side of the strait. This prosperous Great Greek city-state, which relied on a favorable geographical location and prosperous port transshipment trade, has been quietly communicating with Carthage for many years to prevent Syracuse from coveting the Strait of Messina. Suddenly, the friendly foreign city-state showed its fangs and took Lijim's sister city-Messi to capture it. Why is it a sister city? Because Messina was first established by the joint colonization of the Kumai and Karkis. It was originally called Zankeri, and later changed its name to Messina because of the arrival of Messian immigrants. The people of Messina realized early on that the other side of the strait must be in their own hands for security to be guaranteed, so they encouraged their mother-state Kuma and the Messianians to establish a friendly city of Lijim.

Li Jim felt panic, and they quickly made a decision to send an envoy to the headquarters of the South Italian League in Xiliting to request to join the league. So far, in addition to Lokri and its affiliated city-states, all other Greek city-states in Great Greece have covenants with Dionia.

After Hilmiko completely destroyed the city of Messina, in order to please the natives of eastern Sicily—the Westkels, he attacked Syracuse with Carthage, so he prepared on the coast south of Messina. Build a new city—Tauromenion, and give it to the Sikerians.

In March, Dionysius felt that he could no longer allow the Carthaginians to continue to attack its affiliated city-states, and if they did nothing, the allies might fall to Carthage. So he mobilized two armies of land and sea to advance north to the Catania Plain.

In the sea near Katane, a naval battle broke out between Syracuse and Carthage. Originally, the number of Greek warships was more than that of the Carthaginians, and they also had an advantage in equipment. However, Dionysius was nepotism and his brother Leptinius made a mistake in his command as the naval commander, which led to the defeat of the Syracuse Navy and heavy losses.

The Greek troops on the land watched the naval battle on the shore, but when they saw the navy's tragedy, they began to shake their minds.

Fortunately, the land army led by Hermiko did not reach the battlefield in time, because in those few days Mount Etna in the southwest of Tauromenan suddenly erupted, and the hot volcano spewed down and destroyed On the road to the south, the dark volcanic ash obscured the sky, making the Carthage army had to choose a detour.

The Syracuse army silently sang the hymn of Hephaestus, the **** of fire, in awe, and hurried back to the city of Syracuse. Katane and Leottini fell into the hands of Carthage one after another.

Simirko caught the aftermath of the victory of the naval battle, and finally led the army to Syracuse. The Carthage navy also sailed into the great port of Syracuse. Then they camped on the banks of the Araps River in an attempt to get from land. Siracusa was besieged on the sea.

At this time, Dionysius anxiously sent envoys to the city-states such as Campania in Italy, the mother state Corinth in Greece, and the overlord Sparta to seek emergency assistance from them. Although Great Greece is the closest place to Syracuse, Dionysius deliberately or unintentionally ignored this area and did not ask for help from the southern Italian hegemony, the Dionian League.

It is also impossible for Dionia to voluntarily send troops without being invited, as that would make Sicilians suspect that they have ulterior motives. Moreover, after frequent wars and rapid expansion, Dionians also need time to rest, consolidate, and integrate. Therefore, the Greek city-states in Sicily are facing a critical moment when they are completely occupied. The Greeks watched from the sea with complicated minds.

Greek reinforcements from all over the world came, especially Sparta sent a young general, Phoebe Das, led 30 warships and 500 Spartan fighters.

At this time, the people in Syracuse launched a riot at the instigation of people to oust Dionysius. Phoebe Das led the Greek coalition forces from various places to stop their riots, but they complained to Phoebe Das: it was because of Dionysius’ bad command that Syracuse was in trouble and the people Lost loved ones. At the same time, he also counted the brutal rule of Dionysius in the country, and begged the ally Sparta to help them get rid of the shackles of this tyrant.

Phoebe Das remembered Agcilius’s instructions before, and told them with a straight face: The Spartans’ mission in Syracuse was to help Dionysius against Carthage, not to help Tin. The Rakuza overthrew Dionysius! He hoped that the rioting people would calm down their anger and work together to drive out the Carthaginians who had already been under the city.

At the same time, he also asked Dionysius to make a guarantee: From now on, people who participated in the riots will not be retaliated, and the future rule will be more tolerant.

With the full support of the Spartans, Dionysius temporarily survived a difficult time.

After the Carthaginians outside the city settled down, they began to destroy all facilities outside Syracuse. They not only destroyed farmland, villages and towns, but also blasphemed God. Not only did they destroy the temple of Zeus on the Popikle Heights, but also robbed the temples of the two goddesses Demeter and Persephone.

This kind of blasphemy has angered the Syracuse people. The two sides have repeatedly engaged in small-scale land and sea battles outside the city and in the Dagang, with half-winners.

The war stalemate until the arrival of summer, as the temperature rises, the situation begins to benefit the Syracuse people, because the mosquitoes in the marshes near the Aspra River increase, and the bitten Carthage soldiers are affected. The plague has caused more and more deaths.

At this time, Dionysius, who was under the pressure of internal and external troubles, also inspired his own wisdom and formulated an ingenious offensive plan: After marching in the dark and using the tactics of mobilizing the enemy, the navy and the army attacked the enemy at the same time. The weak side of the fortress.

Because of the plague, the morale of the Carthaginians was low, and they were unable to counterattack the attacks of the Syracuse.

Dionysius paid the lives of thousands of mercenaries, and successively captured the two fortresses of Polygona built by the Carthaginians on the Alappos River and Dascon built on the coast. At the same time, the fortress defeated the Carthage navy. The Carthaginians suffered heavy casualties. Shimirko's Chinese army camp was surrounded, and the camp was in chaos, and the entire army was in danger of being wiped out.

At this moment, Dionysius ordered the attack to stop.

That night, the Carthage Barracks and Dionysius’ secret envoy had frequent exchanges.

For the next three days, the two sides remained calm and there was no fighting.

By the fourth night, Shimirko only led the remaining 30 three-tiered paddle warships to escape from Dagang in a hurry, abandoning most of the Carthaginian soldiers, Allied forces and mercenaries. Annihilation of Rakuza and his allies.

After the victory, Dionysius did not pursue the Carthaginians, completely regained Sicily and drove the Carthaginians out of the island. Because the previous incident of the people of Syracuse’s forcing the palace has made him deeply aware that only the Carthaginian forces continue to exist in Sicily, his tyrant status can be guaranteed, so he not only released the remnants of Similco. , Did not continue to crack down on the colonial towns of Carthage in Sicily, but began to focus on the forces of the Sicilian native West Kells in the eastern inland area, because in this war, the West Kells became Carthage’s The accomplice caused great trouble to Syracuse, and made him feel that it was not enough to unify the Greek city-states on the island. It was necessary to expand Syracuse’s sphere of influence in the Western Kyle settlements and completely turn eastern Sicily into One piece of iron.

Syracuse’s army began to conquer the towns of Western Kyle, such as Morgantina, Kefaro Idian, Hena, etc., and forced more Western Kyle forces to sign with him. Subsidiary agreement.

He also surrounded Tauromelion, the only seaside city built by Shimirko for the Westkels, but he was unable to capture it for a while.

By the second year (ie 396 BC), Siracusa’s power had expanded north to the northeast corner of Sicily.

On the ruins burned down by Carthage, Dionysius rebuilt Messina, and the residents of New Messina consisted of the colonists of Syracuse’s ally Lokri and Medema. This mainly wins over his allies in Great Greece, as well as the hundreds of Messenians who have just been driven out of their original homes by the Spartans and have no permanent homes. Such new inhabitants and Lijim have nothing to do. Kinship.

But soon, the Spartans sent messengers to express their dissatisfaction with Dionysius’s placement of Spartan’s enemies in such an important city.