“Black armoured soldiers?! So the Theonian legion is here! I wonder which legion it is?!” Seraphinus thought inwardly while his eyes flashed with excitement. He then turned and ran to the south of the town, which was the gathering place of the freemen and slaves.
As the people from Megalos rushed into the town in panic, it resulted in the blockage of the town's narrow passage, the drawbridge unable to be pulled up, and the town gate being closed.
While the Sikurians anxiously made the people get inside the town, the centuria led by Leotychides had arrived outside. Seeing the situation, he ordered to attack immediately without waiting for the rest of the troops.
The soldiers rushed to the north gate and thrust their spears at the crowd outside the town.
As screams rang, the people about to enter the town became even more frightened. While some simply jumped into the moat, the others desperately tried to squeeze into the town that the soldiers at the town gate could not stop them.
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
When Melisander's platoon arrived, they saw Leotychides' centuria on the drawbridge at the northern gate of the town of Megalos, which had turned the outside of the town bloody and chaotic. After thinking that if his team were to go there, Melisander could only follow the madman's centuria into the town without even clashing with the enemy.
Melisander was naturally reluctant, but suddenly, he saw some people of Megalos running around the moat to the other side, so he immediately shouted, “Follow me to attack the other gate!”
The soldiers then chased the fleeing people to the east gate of Megalos. Unfortunately, they found that the enemy had pulled up the drawbridge, which caused Melisander to feel cold.
“Captain, what should we do?!” The soldiers anxiously asked.
Melisander was also very worried. He turned around to see the other platoon running to their place, but he didn't find the engineering brigade, who had the ladders and boards. Obviously, they must have fallen behind.
‘Should we wait?!’ Melisander turned around again and saw that only twenty or thirty enemies scattered around the wooden wall: Although a few were firing arrows at them, they posed no threat to the men in armour. However, he could not anticipate if they would hurl javelins once they got closer to the wall.
“Go into testudo formation!” Melisander immediately decided, “Approach the moat and swim across!”
Seeing that there were only a few enemies on the wooden wall and estimated that the wall was only more than three metres high, he thought it was perfectly possible to climb up by using each other like a ladder.
Upon receiving the orders, the fifty soldiers immediately surrounded Melisander to form a tight small phalanx, covering their heads with the long shields, just like a giant box wrapped in iron and walked slowly towards the moat.
The other platoon followed the same, with some platoon doing it farther from the town gate that they did not even use the testudo formation and quickly ran to the moat.
The Sikurians who could not enter the town fled in panic. However, the soldiers did not care.
But suddenly, a sound of fighting and screams rang behind the city gate, mixed with the frightened cry of “the freemen and slaves are rebelling!!…”
Soon, the Sikurians on the wooden wall no longer stared at the Theonian soldiers in front of the moat but turned to resist the mob who rushed upon the wooden ladder.
With the continuous rain of arrows on the wooden wall, the unprotected Sikurians could only fall with the arrows.
Melisander doesn't know the situation inside the town, but how could he not take advantage of such a good opportunity? So he immediately asked the soldiers to disperse the testudo formation, rushed to the moat, dropped the long shield and spear, only hung a short sword and then jumped into the moat one after another.
Although the armour made their body heavy, the occasional special training in this field during their military training and the moat's wideness was only three or four metres had easily allowed them to reach the other side.
As Melisander and the soldiers scrambled towards the shore to lean against the wooden wall, the drawbridge suddenly dropped down, and the wooden gate opened with someone shouting at the top of the wall, “I am Seraphinus, a preparatory Theonian citizen! We have repelled the Sikurians, and the legionaries could now enter the city!”
Melisander was astonished when he heard this. Then he suddenly heard the laughter of the other soldiers, “Captain Melisander dived again!”
The men beside him also complained to their captain, “Did the goddess of bad luck curse you? Even us became unlucky when we were with you!”
Watching the other platoon walk across the drawbridge and into the town of Megalo, Melisander could only order with annoyance, “Swim back with me!”
“Ah, we are going to dive again?!”
“Our long shields and spears are on the other side! Are you not going to take them?!”
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
In the afternoon, the first legion of Theonia completely occupied Megalos with only minor casualties.
Although Megalos was only a town, its area has exceeded the size of the city of Sikuri, which is worthy of its name. However, besides its sole archon's residence, where they decide the usual administration matter and decree making, it has no governing power such as Council, Senate or town hall.
The city of Sikuri was originally a democratic city-state. But after their surrender to Syracuse, Dionysius supported a Sikurian noble – Hibagres, who first surrendered to him as the supreme ruler of Sikuri and forced the Sikurians to submit to Dionysius' authority, turning the city-state of Sikuri under a tyrant’s rule. Then Hibagres appointed his own man to be the archon of Megalos to govern Megalos directly in his stead, thus stealing the jurisdiction of the former territory of Naxos for the tyrant of Sikuri.
But now, the one sitting on the highest seat of the administrative room in the archon's residence of Megalos is no longer Hibagres' people but Antonios, the legatus of Theonia's first legion.
“Legatus, we captured 3,653 Sikurians, of which more than half are the elderly, women and children. What should we do with them?” The senior centurion of the first brigade – Giorgris, asked with some reluctance. The achievement of the first to break through the town should have belonged to the fourth brigade. After all, Leotychides’ centuria, who had rushed ahead of the others, was part of the fourth brigade. But unexpectedly, a riot happened inside the town when the north gate was about to be breached. So instead, it was the several platoons of the first brigade with Melisander at the forefront who had rushed into the town from the east gate and won the credit of being the first to enter the town, giving Giorgris the right to deal with the prisoners.
“Lord Antonios, there's no need to pity those Sikurians! They were once allies of Naxos, but instead of fighting alongside us, they betrayed our treaty, took refuge in Syracuse and helped the wicked Dionysius in the sacking of our cities and occupying our lands. Furthermore, they would send their troops to the mountains west of Etna to search for our fleeing tribesmen every year, capturing both men and women as slaves… Now that the goddess of vengeance finally responded to our pious prayer by sending you Theonian warriors to bring down her wrath on the Sikurians, we must make sure to turn them into slaves and torture them till their death!…” Shouted Torilaus, the Naxosian standing beside Ladician and was one of the planners of the riot in the town in response to Theonia's attack.
Giorgris frowned as he looked at Antonios, wanting to say something. But Antonios stared at him and then sympathised, “Naxos is our, Theonia's, ally, and your suffering is just like that of our people…Thratyllus!”
“Yes!” Thratyllus – the senior centurion of the third brigade, responded loudly.
“Escort the Sikurians to the square and have the people of Naxos identify all the crimes they have committed and punish them according to their demand!” Antonios clearly copied Davos' method when he dealt with the Crotonian captives.
“Understood!” Thratyllus turned around and left.
“Lord Antonios, I'll go gather the people to the square!” Torilaus said happily.
Antonios nodded. Although Giorgris wanted to say more, the senior centurion of the second brigade – Xanticles, patted and signalled him to calm down.
Antonios gazed at them and said seriously, “Whether we have enough food is an important foundation for our legion and the people of Naxos to gain a firm foothold here! So, Giorgris, I'll send you to check the food reserves in this town while collecting the food at the Sikurians' houses for us to distribute it in a centralised way! Am I clear?!”
“Yes, legatus.” Giorgris understood that Antonios was somewhat displeased with his earlier performance, which was why Antonios transferred him from his task of guarding the prisoners and assigned him a new task to do, which he, who always obeyed the military law, complied.
Antonios slightly became relieved after seeing Giorgris leave. If Amintas were in charge, he would have gotten scolded after repeatedly resisting the orders. However, Antonios wasn't like that. Giorgris, as a member of the original ‘Hielos' Squad’, wasn't as close to Davos as Matonis, Olivos, Martius and Hielos, but it also wasn't bad either, so there was no need for him to scold Giorgris for such a trivial matter, which would affect Davos' opinion of him. Although Giorgris wasn't a talkative person, there was someone dangerous here…
Antonios then quickly glanced at Seraphinus, who was standing quietly in an inconspicuous corner. After quickly regaining his thoughts, Antonios continued to ask, “Has strategos Sarathus* taken over the port with his troops?” (Sarathus was the leader of the Rhegian army sent by Rhegium to cooperate with the first legion.)
“Yes, milord.” Ladician, the native of Naxos, replied, “Strategos Sarathus has also brought over 300 fit slaves to facilitate the smooth unloading of both the food and supplies once the Rhegian ships docked at the port.”
“I am now much more relieved that the port can still operate normally.” Said Antonios. Then he sighed, “Unfortunately, there are no military facilities in the port for our warships to dock, and their only choice is to go back to Rhegium to rest.”
