Mediterranean Hegemon of Ancient Greece Chapter 114: In Megalopolis
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At this moment, an astonishing news came: a large number of Spartan troops entered the Arcadia region from the north!
The members of the city-states of the Arcadia Alliance were shocked, especially the Mandinians headed by Lucomides.
Isn’t Sparta in the southeast of Arcadia, why would its army appear in the north?
It turned out that Sparta had used the gold and silver provided by Persia to hire a lot of soldiers in North Greece, Ionia and Asia Minor. Persia also provided ships to transport them to Greece, but they did not go to Sparta. It landed on the coast of Corinth, because it had been blocked by the Dionian fleet, but entered the Saron Bay east of the Isthmus with the acquiescence of Athens and Corinth, and entered the harbor of Corinth. After the mercenaries came ashore and assembled, Archidamus led them to the south.
Lycomides is in a hurry, because Mandinia is located in the northeastern part of Arcadia, which is the only way for the Spartan army, and Mandinia is a member of the Arcadian Alliance. Advocates are a thorn in the eye and a thorn in the flesh of the Spartans.
Lycomides screamed in the alliance: "The army formed by the Spartans with the help of Persia entered Arcadia without permission. They did not come for peace. They came to destroy the enemy. The Arcadian Alliance, which Bada sees as a threat, must re-enable the Arcadians to fight for the benefit of Sparta! If the Arcadian Alliance does not form an alliance with Dionia as soon as possible, let Dio If the Nya army stops the ferocious Spartan mercenary army, the alliance that has not been formed soon will soon perish, and all those who support the formation of the alliance will become the evil spirits under the Spartan club!"
Lycomides' words moved the councilors, and then they got the news that the Spartan soldiers who invaded Arcadia wreaked havoc and ravaged the land of Frios.
Finally, the Arcadia Alliance passed this agreement with a small number of advantages.
In the early spring of 370 BC (the 24th year of the Kingdom of Dionian), the Arcadian Alliance and Dionian formed an alliance, and then Cloto Catax led the first, fourth, The Sixth Army, the Mountain Reconnaissance Group, the First Cavalry Army, and the half of the Seventh Army (with 3000 soldiers stationed in Messenia), a total of about 32,000 soldiers marched north and entered the Arcadian region.
At this time, the Spartan mercenaries led by Archidamus are already attacking Mandinia, and the Spartan Council of Elders has learned from the pro-Spartan faction in the neighbors to the north that "Aka The news that the Alliance of Dia will form an alliance with Dionia" hates Mandinia, the leader of the alliance. Since the timely arrival of the mercenary army has boosted their confidence, they decided to take the lead in hitting Mandinia and shocking Arcadia. The Asian League forced it to fall back to Sparta.
The reason why the Spartans dared to make such a decision was that this heavily-funded army had 8,000 heavy infantrymen, mainly hired from Miletus, Ephesus, Samos, Chios, and Lyceum. Spouses and Ioria belonged to the Greek city-states in the western coastal area of Persian Asia Minor; 4,500 Thracian light shield soldiers were mainly hired from the northern part of the Kingdom of Macedonia, near the Aegean Sea, and near the Rhodope Mountains. The tribes of Reis; 1,500 cavalry are mainly hired from the Kingdom of Macedonia; 1,200 archers and slingers are from Crete and Rhodes, and there are more than 4,000 light armoured soldiers from the Ionian islands in the Aegean Sea... …There are more than 20,000 soldiers in total, and at least 10,000 Dalik gold coins are required every month, and countless grains are consumed. Of course, these are all provided by the Persians.
For the first time, Archidamus has led such a large and complete army. He is full of confidence in taking Mandinia in a short time.
But when he led the army into the territory of Mandinia, the people of Mandinia had already hid in the city, so Azidamus began to storm the city of Mandinia. He originally thought that with the superior force he possessed, he should be able to quickly capture the city of Mandinia, but he did not expect to hit a hard nail.
The former city of Mandinia was washed away by the Spartans. After the Mandinians who had been in exile for many years returned to their homes, they would never allow their city to be captured by the Spartans again, so they Ingeniously designed the new city.
The Mandinians chose a high-lying place on the Orpheus River as the city’s construction site, and then dug a new river nearby to divide the Orpheus River into two at the upper reaches of the city’s construction site. After passing the new city site and meeting downstream, the river that was originally a huge threat has become the natural moat of the city after such a transformation.
They also laid a solid stone foundation for the entire city. The city walls are all made of bricks, but the city walls are not complete and continuous, because the entire city is divided into 10 separate parts, each part of the city wall It is not connected to the other part, but overlaps with each other. The overlapped area has gates. Therefore, New Town of Mandinia has 10 gates.
For the Spartan army, such a unique and irregular city must be captured one by one in order to completely occupy the entire city. The city walls of Mandinia are independent of the topography, which not only prevents the Spartans’ superior forces from fully deploying, but also exposes the siege soldiers to long-range attacks from multiple sides of the defensive side. There is an Orpheus River as a barrier.
Archidamus used the traditional Greek siege method to launch several attacks on the city of Mandinia. Not only did it fail to make any progress, but instead killed some soldiers, forcing him to change the attack into a siege and send The messenger returned to Sparta to report on the situation.
At the same time, Cloto Catax has led his army into the southwest of Arcadia. This area belongs to the rare hilly area of Arcadia. The Helison River runs through the entire area from south to north. area. In the mountains to the east of the central part is Lycaen, the main sacred mountain where the Arcadians held religious rituals, and Megalopolis, the central town being newly built by the Arcadian Alliance, is located on the Helison River. Between the east bank of the city and the sacred mountain of Lycaen.
Due to the outbreak of the war with the Spartans, the construction of the new city of Megalopolis has stopped. The city wall as the outline of the city has only been built halfway, and the temple of Zeus, the most important to the Arcadians, has just been erected. There are more than a dozen pillars... Scaffolding and stones piled all over the city can be seen everywhere. There is only one building that is simple but has been completed. That is the Chamber of the Arcadia Alliance, which is the existence of the entire Alliance. Basically, the three councillors elected by the people of various city-states have lived here for a long time, and in accordance with the rules set by the alliance, they discussed and decided on the diplomatic and military affairs of the alliance.
At this moment, dozens of Union councillors walked out of Megalopolis, standing on a high altitude and looking south: I saw countless Dionian soldiers in the distance wearing sophisticated armor and weapons, arranged in a row In a neat column, they crossed the pontoon bridge they quickly built on the Helison River. Although the sound of footsteps, armor collisions were quite noisy, and the dust was filled with dust, few people complained loudly. The whole army was like a silent line. The long black dragon is swimming forward...
The members of Arcadia stood and looked at it for a long time, unable to see the head or tail of the long dragon, and they felt a little impressive in their hearts.
At this moment, the long dragon separated another branch and went straight north. When approaching them, the young general riding a tall horse and wearing a golden crown raised his right hand and waved it down. Then the army behind him stopped advancing instantly, and the soldiers stood silently... The parliamentarians were surprised.
Lycomides immediately stepped down from a high place to greet him, and the other members of the Diet followed suit.
Klotokatax also dismounted, leading Printoles, Mukru and the court guards to the front.
"General Cloto Catacs, thank you very much for your timely assistance!" Lycomides solemnly bent over and saluted Prince Dionia.
Clotokatax hurriedly supported him, and said sincerely: "Master Lycomides, now the Arcadian Alliance and Dionia are allies, this is what we should do! Please rest assured that in accordance with Dionia's military law, our soldiers will not do anything to destroy the friendship between the people of the two countries on the land of our allies! If there are soldiers who violate, they will be severely punished!"
As soon as these words came out, many members of Arcadia were relieved.
Suddenly, some of the members asked loudly: "How many soldiers did you send?"
Plintors took the conversation: "Considering that there are many Arcadia mountains and the army is not easy to deploy, we only brought more than 30,000 soldiers, and there are still more than 10,000 garrisons in Messenia. (Plintors counts both the Messenians and the Fleet Infantry of the First Fleet).
Most of the lawmakers took a sigh of relief, and then let out a sigh: more than 40,000 soldiers with complete equipment! They have never seen such a large army in their lives! No wonder Dionia's marching troops meander so long, you can't see the beginning and the end at all!
It’s important to know that the last time such a large number of troops appeared on the mainland of Greece was during the Hippo War a hundred years ago. More than 100,000 soldiers (heavy infantry is two-fifths of the total number) gathered in Pula. Tia fought a decisive battle with the Persians; once again was the Peloponnesian War decades ago. It is said that Athens sent an army of about 30,000 people to expedition to Syracuse, Sicily, and suffered a crushing defeat.
But these two times are far away, and they have not seen it with their own eyes. A few members of the Council have personally experienced the Battle of Leuctra that only happened not long ago. The Peloponnesian coalition led by Sparta was 10,000. There are many people, and there are about 20,000 people on both sides of the war. In their eyes, it is already a large-scale battle.