While Hielos slowed down the siege, he wantonly cut down trees to make siege engines.
As the Theonians were about to attack Medma, the Locrians confronting the Caulonian army wanted to rescue them but could not do so.
But what worried them more was that once Theonia captured Medma and the Theonia-Rhegium joint troops rushed out of the old path from the west to east, Locri's situation would become even more dangerous!
Thus Locri sent five penteconter and paid a heavy price of two ships sinking and two ships getting captured to take a huge risk to break through the blockade of the Theonian fleet and enter the port of Scylletium. It allowed Dionysius to realise that they weren't the only ones using the peace talks to delay the time, as Davos also did not stay idle. Davos had not only forced Caulonia to surrender but also dared to divide his troops to besiege him while defeating the Locrian army, capturing Terina and Hipponion. Now, even Medma was in danger! They had completely isolated Scylletium and Locri. From this, he could infer that Davos had no desire to make peace at all!
This discovery alarmed Dionysius, ‘Apparently, that young archon was not as politically naive as his age, but as insidious as his military command. While placing me in the dark, he rapidly devoured our allied forces in Magna Graecia with the expectation to eventually wipe out my army here once and for all!’
Now aware of Davos' real intention, Dionysius could no longer sit still and wait for his death. Thus he had to prepare first, regardless of when his reinforcements could arrive.
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
The following day, Antonios met the man that Antrapolis', the head of Davos' intelligence department in Sicily, sent. He brought with him Antrapolis' proposal to use Megalos as bait to lure Syracuse and its allies to attack in order to create a void in the internal defences of the city-states of Catania, Leontinoi and Syracuse to give a chance for Dionysius' opponents to riot.
After a rough understanding of Antrapolis' arrangement in several major city-states in the eastern and central Sicily, and to reduce the obstacles in their future attack, Antonios agreed.
So while waiting for the enemy’s attack, Antonios released the elderly, women and children of the Sikurians who they had previously imprisoned to partly reduce food consumption and partly to have these people carry words to the Sikurian populations: The Theonians had come to Sicily only to take revenge on the Syracusans who had invaded Magna Graecia. They had no intention of encroaching on the territory of any city-states or making enemies. On the contrary, they were willing to join the Sicilian city-states in overthrowing the tyrannical rule of Dionysius.
Antonios had also sent a brave Naxosian to Tauromenium in the north to convey the same message to them. But the messenger he sent did not return, which shows the hostility of these Campanian mercenaries towards Theonia. Fortunately, they did not rush out of the city and down the mountain to attack the crowds of exiles moving eastward along the Alcantara gorge.
As these exiles steadily entered Megalos, the first legion soldiers warmly welcomed them, and Antonios' available soldiers gradually became sufficient. After asking Ladician and Lasiperatus to settle the new arrivals, he issued leather shields and spears to the young and the physically fit men. Thus, Antonios had nearly 2,000 more soldiers available in reserve in just two days.
That afternoon when Antonios was delighted with the strength of his army, he received the report from the scouts saying that an army with a flag with a three-legged symbol and numerous soldiers had entered Sikuri.
Antonios now knew that Syracuse's army was coming.
Soon after, his few cavalry scouts were driven away by Syracuse's cavalry and had to return to the north bank of the Alcantara River. Then several strategoi wearing helmets with coloured plumes appeared on the south bank; under the protection of the guards, they gestured something in the direction of Megalos and stayed there for some time before leaving.
As it was already late today, Antonios knew that there would surely be a fierce battle in the town of Megalos tomorrow!
After suppressing the tension in his heart, Antonios carefully recalled in his mind the arrangement he had made in the past two days to find out if he had any oversights and negligence…
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
The next, the weather was clear and windless, a suitable day for combat. But for Antonios, this is not good news as he hopes it will rain heavily and increase the difficulty of Syracuse's attack on Megalos. Especially if the Alcantara river rise, which would give Syracuse a headache at thinking of how to even cross the river.
By morning, the lookout on the sentry tower could see the surging dust in the south.
However, the port was the first to discover the enemy as the Syracusan fleet appeared near the port.
But Antonios' expression did not change even after receiving the report. He knew inwardly that the Syracusans were advancing by land and sea to cut off the first legion's retreat, block their reinforcements and encircle them.
So he hurriedly asked, “How many triremes they have?!”
“Although we aren't clear about the specific quantity, it seems they have no less than our fleet!” The lookout on the port's lighthouse answered. Unlike the troops on land, the fleet on the sea can occupy more than 6 kilometres when sailing, which can not be scouted just by relying on the fixed sentry towers on the shore.
Antonios certainly knows about it and that he could only rely on Seclian.
“Tell the people and patrols in the port to immediately withdraw to the town!” Antonios immediately gave the order. The port was not within the town of Megalos, so the walls did not protect it. And with a large army pressing in, there was no need for him to waste limited manpower to protect a port that was impossible to defend, so he had to concentrate his force on the coming land enemy. At this moment, Antonios couldn't care even if the Syracusan fleet land on the coast nearby and burned the port where the supplies of the first legion were being transferred…
Despite that, the Syracusan fleet did not land at the port nor burn it as the Sicilian merchant ships that travelled this route in the past two days had informed them of their discovery: The Theonian fleet would depart from Rhegium every morning, arrive at the port of Megalos, patrol until the afternoon, and then return to Rhegium. Thus unless the Syracusan fleet commander were a fool, anchoring in the port at this time would only make their ships a target for the arriving Theonian fleet to practice their ramming.
The Syracusan fleet navarch was Paronisus, a Syracusan noble by birth and was one of the friends who supported Dionysius to the throne together with Herolis and had some talent in commanding ships. Hence after Carthage defeated the navy led by Leptines, the Syracusans called for him to be the new navarch.
However, Dionysius still appointed his brother as the navarch when they invaded Magna Graecia. It naturally displeased Paronisus, who thought it was Dionysius' way of helping his brother recover his reputation as everyone knew that the Theonian fleet was weak and that it would be an easy victory.
Unexpectedly, the news of the disastrous defeat of the Syracusan navy would come again and again, shocking Paronisus and making him angry. So this time, in order to eliminate the Theonians that landed, and in consideration of the commoners' and freemen's resentment against the city-state, Philistus deliberately chose Paronisus to be the fleet commander and use his prestige among the sailors to make their attack smoother. At the same time, Paronisus wanted to prove to Dionysius that he had made a wrong choice with a big victory.
Currently, the Syracusan ships were anchored outside the port, with the bow facing north as they waited for the arrival of the Theonian fleet.
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
The Theonian fleet headed south along the east coast of Sicily.
Day after day, the repeated task of escorting the Rhegian fleet and patrolling the sea near Megalos and other tasks had bored Seclian. Furthermore, Seclian felt helpless as he watched the Theonian army attack the enemy of Magna Graecia on a massive scale and achieve brilliant results. On the other hand, the navy that first laid the foundation for the Theonia Union's victory could only assist the army in escorting, patrolling and other irrelevant tasks. If not for the importance of this expedition to Sicily, he would rather stay in Rhegium and let his men do this boring task for him.
Just as he sat on the deck wondering if he should take the fleet south to explore the great port of Syracuse, the lookout on the mast suddenly shouted, “Fleet ahead! They have numerous warships!”
As soon as Seclian heard this, he immediately stood up, ‘the fleet that could appear in this sea can only be Syracuse!’
Seclian finally got excited, “Syracuse's fleet is coming! Blow the salpinx, and let's welcome them!!”
At this time, the ship captain said worriedly, “Navarch, the Syracusans are prepared. I am afraid they have more warships than us, and we don't even have the corvus on our ships. Do we…do we temporarily-”
“Shut up!” Seclian shouted, glaring at him angrily and reprimanded him, “I didn't realise you were a coward! Just because we don’t have the corvus, you are now afraid to fight a naval battle?! Do you still deserve to be a brave sailor?! If so, you can just go ahead and become a heavy infantry!
Decades ago, the weak Athenian navy could defeat the Persians. Then the inexperienced Spartan navy defeated the Athenians. Today, I, Seclian, can defeat the Syracusans with the most orthodox way of naval battle without relying on the infantry!”
Seclian looked proudly ahead while the captain bowed his head in shame.
