For a while, no one responded and remained silent.
Demodokas was alarmed as he knew that those people harboured grudges against him and were ready to obstruct him once they found an opportunity. After all, due to Dionysius' encouragement and relying on the support of the powerful Syracusan army, he excluded the dissenters, attacked his political enemies in Locri and passed and implemented many laws without the Council's vote and the ecclesia, almost being considered as the sole authority of Locri.
Just as he inwardly regretted holding such a meeting, his confidant Phantepes finally stood up and said, “We could easily resolve this matter as long as we can bring back the troops stationed in Medma and repel the Caulonians!”
“That's easy to say. What about Medma?!” Metelophes retorted.
“Medma has more than 2,000 soldiers that could defend against the enemy's attack, so there is no need to worry about them for now.” Phantepes responded while pretending to be at ease.
“No need to worry?!” Metelophes sneered,
“The Medmaean messenger reported that the Theonians who defeated our army had more than 10,000 soldiers. If you include the Tauranians and the Rhegians, I fear that the enemy's soldiers would number more than 20,000! Tell me, could two thousand Medmaean soldiers withstand the attack of 20,000?! Moreover, the Theonian is not your common Greek army as they also have the powerful ballista!…”
Metelophes then anxiously and loudly reminded everyone, “Once Medma fall, we will be in danger as Theonia and Rhegium's massive army can come from the west and join force with Caulonia's army!”
After hearing Metelophes’ words, everyone became nervous that someone shouted, “I think…we'd better make peace with Theonia!”
Many members followed this remark.
“Idiots!” Demodokas finally couldn't stop himself from cursing, “Crotone, Terina, and Caulonia of the South Italian Alliance have been our sworn enemies. Moreover, they all suffered heavy losses in this war…use your pig of a brain to think about the price we have to pay to quell their anger!!”
“Then our clever polemarchos must have a way to repel the joint attacks of Caulonia, Theonia and Rhegium?!” Someone sarcastically said, which led many people to sneer and caused Demodokas to be livid. In the past, who would dare to talk to him like this?! But Syracuse's defeat had changed the thoughts of the Locrian council members!
Demodokas felt a chill in his heart, so he reminded loudly, “Syracuse had also suffered a much worse defeat than this in their war with Carthage. Yet they still became the victor! Currently, Syracuse still owns more than half of Sicily, abundant resources, wealth and sufficient population even if they lost this battle, which is far beyond the reach of city-states such as Theonia, Crotone and Terina. Thus the final victor will definitely be Syracuse! Yet now we are trying to make peace with the enemy independently? Think about it, will Dionysius forgive the traitor after they won?!”
Demodokas glared at the crowd. It was precisely because of Locri's close contact with Syracuse that they knew more about the horror of Dionysius, so even though what Demodokas said, “Syracuse winning”, was just a hypothesis, they avoided Demodokas' gaze as they didn't dare to take risks.
Seeing the crowd's performance, Demodokas became temporarily relieved. He then looked at Metelophes and firmly said, “The only thing we need to do now is to hold on! Hold on to the city of Locri! Until the final victory comes! At that time, we will own all of Caulonia's land and even Scylletium!”
In the end, Locri's Council decided to recall their army in Medma to defend their territory, achieving Demodokas' purpose of convening the Council to share responsibilities and avoiding the blame of “abandoning their allies” due to making the decision alone. However, the uncertain future made Demodokas uneasy, so he had to prepare more as Dionysius' relative.
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
When Hielos led his army to Hipponion, the first legion boarded Seclian's fleet and headed south.
In the afternoon, the ship entered Rhegium's port and was warmly welcomed by the Rhegians again.
The legatus of the first legion, Antonios, then met with Athelycus, the ruler of Rhegium and Davos' father-in-law. The wonderful news Antonios' brought about ‘Locri's main force suffered badly in Hipponion because of the joint attack by Rhegium and Theonia's army’ excites Athelycus and the council members that were present.
Many of them even repeatedly praised, “Well done, Pheidon!” forgetting that they were alarmed after learning that Pheidon had taken most of the troops in Taurania and sailed north and angrily complained, “Pheidon had placed Rhegium in danger by moving the troops without permission! We must bring him back to Rhegium and face a harsh trial!!”
Then, Antonios presented a letter from Davos to Athelycus. After reading it, Athelycus was so happy that he read it publicly at the meeting hall: The letter began with Davos' respectful greetings to his father-in-law and about Agnes' pregnancy.
Upon hearing this, the council members congratulated and complimented Athelycus, “You found a good son-in-law!” After all, as the war continued, the strength of the two powerful city-states of Magna Graecia, Crotone and Locri, had significantly weakened. Even Syracuse's invading army and navy had suffered greatly. Thus the Rhegians suddenly realised that Theonia's power would greatly expand after the war if no big accidents occurred. In addition, now that Davos has become the king of Theonia, Athelycus' ‘father-in-law’ status would become even more valuable!
Thus the Rhegians wouldn't miss this opportunity to flatter him.
Athelycus could not stop smiling as he was glad he made the right decision of marrying his daughter to the “upstart” Davos, who came from a lowly background.
In the letter, Davos went on to mention that, ‘…Although we had defeated Syracuse, the war was still far from over. Syracuse still had Sicily's rich resources and could send new troops for reinforcements. Therefore, to end this war early, we must bring the war to Sicily, disrupt the order there, destroy Syracuse's territory, capture their allies to weaken Syracuse's power, and force them to surrender voluntarily! For this reason, Theonia hopes to get Rhegium's full support as our ally…’
The council members who had just rushed to congratulate the polemarchos became silent when they heard this. They admitted that Davos was right that attacking Sicily was the best way to defeat Syracuse. Unfortunately, their mercantile habits of calculating the pros and cons had made them cautiously think because Rhegium had to give their full support. Full support meant providing fleets, troops, transportation, military rations… For Rhegium, who had to support their soldiers in fighting Locri, this would surely be another huge expenditure! Moreover, no one knew when the upcoming war in Sicily would even end!…
Athelycus smiled at the crowd's contrasting performance. He then continued, “…once the war with Syracuse ends, Theonia will seize Messina and jointly manage it with Rhegium! Due to Theonia's inexperience in managing an important city that monitors the strait, we need to rely on Rhegium's full assistance…”
“Did I hear it correctly?! Theonia wants to share Messina with us!!”
“Don't you understand?! It's mainly us who would manage Messina, allowing us to finally monopolise the strait completely!”
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
The council members discussed excitedly.
“Everyone, on the matter of our ally, Theonia's, needing our assistance…” The crowd no longer hesitated to voice their support when Athelycus mentioned the matter again.
“As long as Lord Davos fulfils his promise after the war ends, Rhegium should fully support Theonia's attack on Sicily!”
“To get Messina, defeating Syracuse is a must! Therefore, we will support Theonia!”
“The port and the maritime route is now opened, so as long as Theonia doesn't send too many troops to Sicily, I think we should be able to supply rations to last for two-three months…”
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
Athelycus sighed at seeing the situation. When his son advised him to give up his desire to have Messina to himself and to persuade Davos to take Messina from Syracuse instead, he had not expected Davos to have a greater appetite by exchanging Messina for Rhegium's support to allow Theonia set a foothold in Sicily!
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
At Scylletium the next day, Dionysius was angry at Davos' unreasonable demands. Still, he secretly sent his men to quietly dig up the bodies of the Numidians who died from their severe wounds and set aside their heads while urging the blacksmiths to speed up their forging. To continue the peace negotiation with Davos, Dionysius planned to have the envoy bring the heads to the Theonian camp.
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
In Hipponion, the Theonia-Rhegium joint army set out in full force towards Medma.
The Medmaeans, on the other hand, became angry and upset by the Locrian army's withdrawal. However, Locri's warning and reminder gave them false hopes about the Syracusans, so they decided to hold on until reinforcements came.
After failing to persuade them to surrender, Hielos decided to attack the city of Medma after consulting with Pheidon.
The troops began building their camp while the engineering brigade continued to construct siege engines.
