Chapter 797: The Siege of Rome (XV)

Although the enemy numbered less than a thousand, the way they attacked left the light-armoured brigade in the main camp somewhat confused.

Due to the time constraint for the Theonian army yesterday, the soldiers only built a camp and dug a trench without setting up abatis and traps. As a result, the Latin reinforcements, divided into multiple units, managed to approach the camp from various directions and began firing flaming arrows into the camp by standing just outside the trench.

Since the camp was large enough to accommodate three infantry and two cavalry legions, it was impossible for the seven hundred light-armoured brigades to fully protect it. Thus from time to time, they would be forced to divide their men to run back and forth to put out the burning tents since it would affect the morale of the soldiers besieging the city once they let the fire become large enough to set part of the camp on fire.

As a result, the defensive manpower of the camp became even more insufficient. So Davos had to urgently mobilise the hundreds of labourers from the logistics camp to assist in putting out the fire. At the same time, he also dispatched a hundred palace guards as mobile troops to defend the camp, allowing them to barely cope with the current situation.

Although the siege had been going on for nearly four hours, they still failed to make breakthrough progress. Still, Davos continued to watch the staff officers update the map calmly.

Henipolis, who had been quietly taking notes from the sidelines, now appeared visibly anxious and began pacing back and forth inside the command tent.

Because of that, Davos had no choice but to say, "Heni, sit down and stop walking around since it's making me dizzy."

Henipolis said anxiously, "But, your majesty, the number of enemies attacking the camp is increasing and Roman reinforcements began appearing to the east of the city of Rome, threatening the camp of the First Legion... Yet even after getting surrounded by enemy reinforcements, we don't have spare troops to deploy, while the various legions are still hindered below the city wall, causing many casualties among the soldiers. If this continues and we cannot capture Rome before dark, I am afraid...I am afraid..."

Davos waited for him to vent his worries before slowly saying, "Apart from Thurii, Rome is arguably the largest city on this peninsula. So even if their main force were not here, capturing it would still not be easy.

Besides, you are wrong about our armies not making any progress. As you have heard just now, more than a hundred soldiers of the Second Legion have climbed the top of the city wall using the siege tower and have gained a firm foothold. On the other hand, the Third Legion soldiers have taken hold of Pons Aemilius and expanded their ground. While the Fourth Legion has used its siege engines to collapse the wall, its soldiers have stormed the breach but were only temporarily obstructed below the city wall...

We and the Romans are like playing a tug of war. Although the Romans fought with all their might to barely block us, such an outburst of strength cannot last. On the other hand, we are recovering our breath while pulling the rope over little by little until we completely overwhelm the Romans, by which they will inevitably collapse!"

Davos clenched his right fist and swung it down before confidently saying, "As for those Roman reinforcements-"

"Your Majesty, we received a piece of good news! Lord Epiphanes led four thousand soldiers to the battlefield and completely defeated the Roman reinforcements in the southwest by cooperating with Lord Tolmides. Currently, the First and Second Cavalry Legions are pursuing the fleeing enemies while Lord Tolmides and Epiphanes are on their way here, leading their troops!"

"Great!" The worried Henipolis finally delighted.

The staff officers in the command tent celebrated by applauding.

Davos also smiled and said, "Immediately notify Tolmides and Epiphanes to send a heavy infantry brigade to defend the camp while the other troops will go towards the Second Legion and await my order!"

"Yes, Your Majesty!"

Asinaros quickly wrote it down and notified the herald. Soon, he promptly returned to the command tent and said excitedly, "Your Majesty, the mounted scouts reported that some troops from the Sixth and First Legions have managed to climb the top of the city wall!"

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

Although the First and Sixth Legions appeared to adopt conventional siege methods, Davos suggested they try climbing the city wall with grappling hooks.

The grappling hook was one of the first siege methods invented by Davos, which he used to capture Amendolara and give the mercenaries a foothold in Magna Graecia. But after Theonia became more powerful, they started creating much more sophisticated siege equipment and the simple grappling hook that helped the mercenaries so much was long forgotten.

However, Davos hadn't forgotten about it. On the contrary, he specially sent people to take out dozens of grappling hooks gathering dust from the corner of the storage to repolish them and attach new ropes as he considered that there might be many siege battles after the army arrived in Latium.

And Amintas, who favoured offensive and enjoys taking risks, accepted Davos' advice without hesitation. Trotidis, the legatus of the Sixth Legion, was also a member of the mercenaries that went to Persia and followed Davos to Thurii, where he had grown from a common soldier to a legatus. Although his achievements were not outstanding, he had abundant combat experience and wouldn't allow his legion to perform mediocrely in this crucial siege.

Both of them were well aware that in order to succeed in climbing the wall with a grappling hook, they must first deceive the enemy's line of sight and launch a surprise attack. Otherwise, once discovered, it would only increase the number of casualties. Thus, both coincidentally set the location to climb the city wall at the southeast corner of Rome.

Similar to the southwest corner, the city wall in the southeast corner also jutted outwards. However, in contrast to the southwest corner, the southeast corner had several small sharp corners far enough from the Roman gates that the zigzagging wall was easily obscured from view and not easily spotted.

So to achieve their goal, Trotidis asked the soldiers of the Sixth Legion to concentrate on attacking the section between the Esquilinus Gate and Viminalis Gates, which is about four hundred metres away from the southeast corner. In contrast, Amintas was even fiercer by ordering the First Legion to storm the wall section between Mons Capitolinus and Collis Quirinalis, a kilometre from the southeast corner.

Trotidis entrusted this task to his light-armoured brigade since they could easily crawl with their light equipment and left two heavy infantry brigades in the camp.

On the other hand, despite the First Legion's camp distance from the main camp, Amintas daringly decided to leave only one heavy infantry brigade there while entrusting the task to the over seven hundred mountain reconnaissance troops stationed in the camp.

However, the attentive Trotidis noticed a problem after carefully observing the terrain: Although the southeast corner wall was more remote, the Roman walls were so tall that the soldiers at the top could see the bottom of the city wall and would definitely arouse suspicion from the enemy and be prepared even if they do not carry any siege equipment. So after thinking about it, he decided to let the soldiers do...

Davos gave his approval after understanding Trotidis' plan. Thus the Sixth Legion's plan to climb the city wall with a grappling hook was soon determined.

There were defenders on the southeast corner at the start. But over time, the continuous fierce attacks of the First and Second Legions overwhelmed the Roman generals responsible for defence. So they had to draw soldiers from other sections of the wall to bolster their defence and even drew in the idle defenders on the southeast corner.

Not long after, the defenders on the nearby wall to the southeast saw hundreds of Roman soldiers running in panic towards the city while getting chased by the Theonian soldiers. Although the enemy occasionally caught up to them and stabbed them down, most routed soldiers managed to crawl over the trenches with difficulty and reach the southeast corner of the wall. Meanwhile, the Theonian light infantry, perhaps fearing an attack by the city defenders, stopped their chase but were still unwilling to look away.

The defenders who saw the situation were all speculating about which Latin city-state these Roman soldiers had come from(most of the additional soldiers were citizens of the Latin Alliance.)

As the enemy was still attacking the city, the defenders naturally could not allow these defeated soldiers to enter the city. Moreover, the fierce battle did not give them excess energy to pay attention to whether their allies lived or died. Still, the appearance of these fleeing soldiers showed that the Roman reinforcements were fighting with the enemy in places they could not see, which somewhat boosted the morale of the defending army.

However, what the defenders did not know was that these Roman soldiers were Theonian soldiers in disguise, who had donned Rome's armour and equipment they had obtained from cleaning the battlefield after their victory in the battle two days ago. After managing to deceive the defenders and successfully arrive at the southeast corner, they hide from the defenders' sight and start connecting the hooks and ropes wrapped around their bodies, quickly making dozens of grappling hooks.

As the battle raged on, the Roman soldiers were so focused on resisting the enemy's relentless attacks that they gradually forgot about the presence of the routed soldiers. But occasionally, they would glance at the southeast corner of the city wall from the corner of their eyes and see the dozens of 'Roman soldiers' stationed there and thought the neighbouring defenders sent them and didn't pay much attention to them. And even after they saw continuous Theonian light infantry crawling through the trench and charging towards the southeast corner, it still did not arouse much vigilance since the enemy didn't carry any siege equipment. Moreover, there were defenders stationed in that part.

But soon after, they realised the situation wasn't right when more and more Theonian soldiers began appearing in the southeast corner of the wall, yet those 'Roman soldiers' unexpectedly didn't engage the enemy in combat!

Meanwhile, the defending generals, Magnus Atilius and Barbus Fabia, were taken aback when they learned about the dire situation. So despite their stretched manpower, they hurriedly assembled a rescue force and led them to rush from the west and south to the southeast corner of the city wall, pledging to take the enemy out of the city wall.