ancient greece mediterranean ruler

Chapter 334 Syracuse’s Expansion

When the news of Dionia's conquest of Bruti reached Syracuse, Dionysius, accompanied by Mathias, was inspecting the construction of the defensive fortress of Syracuse.

Seeing that the project was almost completed, he was in a happy mood when he suddenly heard the news. His face immediately turned gloomy, and he cursed: "Damn Carthaginians, hindering my plan!..."

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In the early spring of 397 BC, the Carthaginian Sophie Tehimilco led an army of 10 men, departing from the city of Carthage. After a small-scale battle with the Syracuse navy at sea, they successfully landed in Sicily, and He quickly betrayed the traitors and easily captured the city of Elyx in the west of Sicily. Then he stormed Mortia and succeeded.

The Syracuse army was forced to withdraw from the siege of Segesta. Hilmicus did not take advantage of the victory to pursue it, but destroyed the city of Mortia and built a new city near the seaside, named Lilibi.

When the Carthaginian army stopped advancing, the cautious Dionysius stationed his troops in the city of Syracuse.

Shortly after Hilmico laid the foundation stone for the new city of Lilibi, on the occasion of February, he led his army to continue attacking eastward.This time he did not follow the attack route of Syracuse last year, but took a boat around to the northeastern corner of Sicily and easily captured the unsuspecting Messina.

The fall of Messina was a major irritation to Lijim across the Channel.This Magna Greek city-state, which was wealthy thanks to its favorable geographical location and prosperous port transshipment trade, had been quietly communicating with Carthage for many years to prevent Syracuse from coveting the Strait of Messina.Suddenly, the friendly foreign city-states showed their fangs and captured Lijim's sister city-Messina.Why sister city-states?Because Messina was first founded by the joint colonization of the Cumaean and Chalcis peoples, it was originally called Zankle, and later changed its name to Messina due to the arrival of Messenian immigrants.The Messinians realized very early that the other side of the strait must be in the hands of their own people to ensure security, so they encouraged the mother state of Cumae and the Messenians to establish the friendly city of Lijim.

Lijim felt panic, and they quickly made a decision and sent envoys to the South Italian League headquarters in Xiliting to request to join the alliance.At this point, except for Locri and its affiliated city-states, other Greek city-states in Magna Graecia have made alliances with Dionia.

After Hilmicus completely destroyed the city of Messina, in order to please the indigenous people of eastern Sicily, the Sikels, he attacked Syracuse with Carthage, so he prepared to build a new city on the coast south of Messina. —Tau Romenion, gifted to the Cykels.

By March, Dionysius felt that he could no longer let the Carthaginians continue to attack its affiliated city-states. If nothing was done, the allies were likely to fall to Carthage.So he mobilized both land and sea armies and pushed northward to the plains of Catania.

A naval battle broke out between Syracuse and Carthage in the waters near Catanai.Originally, the number of Greek warships was greater than that of the Carthaginians, and they also had an advantage in equipment.However, Dionysius was nepotistic and his brother Leptines made mistakes as the naval commander, which led to the Syracuse Navy's defeat and heavy losses.

The Greek troops on land were all watching the naval battle on the shore. As a result, they saw the miserable state of the navy and their morale began to waver.

Fortunately, the land army led by Sirmico did not reach the battlefield in time, because in those few days the Mount Etna in the southwest of Tauromenian suddenly erupted, and the hot volcanic lava gushed down, destroying the southward march. The road was covered by black volcanic ash, so the Carthaginian army had to choose a detour.

The Syracuse army silently sang the hymn of Hephaestus, the god of fire, in awe, and hurriedly retreated to the city of Syracuse. Catanai and Leotini fell into the hands of Carthage one after another.

With the residual power of the victory in the naval battle, Himilko finally led the army to reach Syracuse smoothly. The Carthaginian navy also sailed into the port of Syracuse. Then they set up camp on the banks of the Alapus River in an attempt to fight by land and sea. Siege of Syracuse.

At this time, Dionysius anxiously sent envoys to Campania in Italy, Corinth, the overlord Sparta and other city-states in Greece to seek emergency assistance from them.Although Magna Graecia was the closest place to Syracuse, Dionysius intentionally or unintentionally ignored this area and did not seek help from the Dionysian Alliance, the overlord of southern Italy.

It is also impossible for Dionia to send troops without an invitation, which will make the Sicilians suspect that they have ulterior motives.Moreover, after frequent wars and rapid expansion, Dionia also needs time to rest, consolidate and integrate. Therefore, at the critical moment when the Greek city-states in Sicily faced the fall of all, the Dionia, as well as the South Italians, The Greeks watched from across the sea with mixed emotions.

Greek reinforcements from all over the country arrived one after another, especially Sparta, which sent its young general Phoebias to lead 30 warships and 500 Spartan warriors.

At this time, the people in Syracuse, instigated by thoughtful people, launched a riot to oust Dionysius.Phobidas led Greek coalition forces from all over the country to stop their rebellion, but they complained to Phobidas: It was precisely because of Dionysius's poor command that Syracuse was in trouble and the people were in trouble. Loss of loved ones.At the same time, he enumerated the brutal rule of Dionysius in the country and begged his ally Sparta to help them get rid of the yoke of this tyrant.

Phoebidas remembered Agesilaus's previous instructions and told them with a straight face: The mission of the Spartans coming to Syracuse was to help Dionysius fight against Carthage, not to help Syracuse. Men overthrow Dionysius!He hoped that the rioting people could calm down their anger and work together to drive away the Carthaginians who were already approaching the city.

At the same time, he also asked Dionysius to make a guarantee: From now on, there will be no retaliation against the people who participated in the riots, and the future rule will be more tolerant.

With the full support of the Spartans, Dionysius temporarily overcame a difficult situation.

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 the gods.Not only did they destroy the temple of Zeus on the heights of Popiclei, they also robbed the temples of the two goddesses Demeter and Persephone.

This blasphemous behavior angered the people of Syracuse, and the two sides had many small-scale land and sea battles outside the city and in the harbor, with half the winners and losers.

The war continued into the summer, and as the temperature rose, the situation began to benefit the Syracusans, because mosquitoes increased in the swamps near the Aspra River, and the bitten Carthaginian soldiers suffered from the plague. , the number of deaths is increasing.

At this time, Dionysius, who was under pressure from internal and external troubles, also stimulated his wisdom and formulated an ingenious attack plan: after marching in the dark and using the tactics of attacking from the east to the west to mobilize the enemy, the navy and army simultaneously attacked the enemy's weak fortress. side.

The Carthaginians were demoralized by the plague and were unable to counterattack the Syracusans' attack.

At the cost of the lives of thousands of mercenaries, Dionysius successively captured the two fortresses of Polycona built by the Carthaginians on the banks of the Arapus River and Dascon on the coast. The Carthaginian navy was defeated, and the Carthaginians suffered heavy casualties. Himilko's central camp was surrounded in the middle. The camp was in chaos, and the entire army was in danger of being annihilated.

At this moment, Dionysius ordered the attack to stop.

That night, there were frequent exchanges between the Carthaginian military camp and Dionysius's secret envoy.

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

By the evening of the fourth day, Himilko led only the remaining 30 triremes and fled the harbor in a panic, abandoning most of the Carthaginian soldiers, allies and mercenaries. They were eventually attacked by Syracuse. and the total annihilation of their allies.

After the great victory, Dionysius did not pursue the Carthaginians, completely recovered Sicily and drove the Carthaginians out of the island.Because the previous forced palace incident by the people of Syracuse had made him deeply aware that only if the Carthaginian power continued to exist in Sicily could his tyrant status be guaranteed, so he not only let go of Himilko's remnant army , did not continue to sweep away Carthage's colonial towns in Sicily, but began to focus on attacking the power of the Sicilian indigenous Sikels in the eastern interior, because in this war, the Sikels became Carthage's The accomplice created a lot of trouble for Syracuse, making him feel that it was not enough to unify the Greek city-states on the island. He must expand Syracuse's sphere of influence in the Sikel area and completely turn eastern Sicily into Monolithic.

Syracuse's army began to conquer Sikelian towns one after another, such as Morgantina, Cephaloidion, Hena, etc., and also forced more Sikelian forces to sign affiliation agreements with him.

He also besieged Tauromelion, the only seaside city built by Himilko for the Sikelians, but failed to capture it for a while.

By the next year (396 BC), Syracuse's power had expanded northward to the northeastern corner of Sicily.

Dionysius rebuilt Messina on the ruins of Carthage, and the population of the new city was composed of colonists from Locle and Medema, Syracuse's allies. His allies in Magna Graecia also included hundreds of Messenians who had just been driven out of their original habitat by the Spartans and had no fixed settlement. Such new residents had no kinship with the Ligems.

But soon the Spartans sent envoys to express their dissatisfaction with Dionysius for placing Sparta's enemies in such an important city.

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(End of this chapter)