Chapter 898: To Gela

Only after the sun had set and nightfall arrived did the crippled Theonian fleet slowly sail into Selinus' port, accompanied by the ships and Phoenician sailors they had captured.

In this naval battle, only forty-three out of the one hundred thirty ships of the Eastern Phoenician fleet remained. In comparison, Theonia's fleet in Sicily only had thirty-one out of the one hundred fifty ships remaining (including the six damaged ships). However, they managed to capture twenty-three Phoenician ships. In addition, only two thousand of the six thousand soldiers the Theonian fleet had been transporting had returned safely to Selinus; most of them were from the reserve legion.

Despite achieving a crushing victory, the Theonian fleet suffered a strategic loss. On that very day, Hasdrubal led around seventeen thousand soldiers from the Iberian army to attack the city of Agrigento, using nothing but logs and ladders.

Facing the dire situation of running out of food and risking starvation if they failed to take the city, the Carthaginian soldiers bravely took the lead to fight to the death without retreat. Particularly notable were the fierce Lusitanian and Celtic warriors from the northern Iberian mountains, who had greatly troubled the defenders of Agrigento.

The soldiers of Agrigento had already incurred losses in the previous Battle of Minoa. Then, they had to send reinforcements due to the Carthaginian army besieging Selinus and Leotychides requesting aid, resulting in few defenders left in the city. Despite repelling the enemy's attack in yesterday's battle to defend the city, the soldiers of Agrigento also suffered heavy casualties. Eventually, with the long-awaited reinforcements failing to arrive and after a bloody battle lasting until the afternoon, the people of Agrigento could no longer withstand the enemy's assault and fell to the Carthaginians.

Hasdrubal indulged his soldiers in a spree of looting and slaughter. Except for some of the people of Agrigento, who managed to flee to the port and escape on ships, the rest were massacred.

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

On the morning of the following day, Seclian arrived at the lord's mansion in Selinus and saw Leotychides sitting in the hall waiting.

"Prosous, long time no see. I hope you called me this time not to borrow the marines or to use our temporarily idle sailors as light infantry." Seclian's statement clearly expresses his dissatisfaction with Leotychides' previous actions.

Leotychides didn't respond to his mockery and just looked at him indifferently before uttering, "Miltiades died in battle."

Upon hearing this, Seclian immediately expressed his displeasure and said, "Who did you hear this from?! We had spent a long time yesterday searching but couldn't find him. So, where did you hear-"

"Take a look," Leotychides interrupted him coldly and pushed the wooden box on the table.

Seclian's gaze immediately focused on the wooden box, which had a design that didn't resemble the Greek. Suddenly, a terrifying thought came to his mind. He walked forward with heavy steps and carefully opened the box lid.

"The Carthaginian commander Mago sent a messenger to say that when their army attacked our men who swam ashore on the beach, only Miltiades led his unarmed men bravely against them. He cut down two Carthaginian soldiers before dying in battle, earning the admiration of a Celtic chieftain from Iberia for his bravery. Thus, he cut off Miltiades' head and took it as a trophy for himself... Once Mago learnt of this, he took it upon himself to redeem the head, but they couldn't find the body any more, and thus he could only send his head to us..."

With the flat, lifeless voice of Leotychides, Seclian stared at the face in the wooden box that was still vaguely recognisable as that of his former colleague. After a moment, he cursed, "Miltiades, you idiot..." and then gently closed the lid.

After sitting back in the wooden chair, he could hardly repress the anger in his heart, "Only a few months had passed since the war of Sicily, and our Theonian navy hasn't only suffered heavy losses but also lost two navarchs, Fulalios and Miltiades...damn the Carthaginians! Damn that wretched Mago!"

Seclian cursed loudly to vent his grief.

"The Carthaginian envoy also asked a request," Leotychides ignored the venting Seclian and continued to say, "They have captured thousands of our sailors, hoping to exchange them with us for the Phoenician sailors we captured."

"In their dreams! I still haven't made those Phoenicians who sneak up on my fleet suffer enough!" Seclian said with hatred.

"So you want to reject the Carthaginian's proposal?"

"No, exchange with them!" Seclian's eyebrow raised, "The lives of our men are much more precious than these Phoenicians from Persia. You can let them go back, and I am sure it won't be more than a few days before we capture them as our prisoners again."

After the naval battle, the Theonian fleet brought the prisoners back to Selinus. Following the interrogation, Seclian felt relieved upon learning that this fleet was the reinforcements from the Phoenician city-states in the eastern Mediterranean like Tyre and Sidon, and it wasn't due to Carthage constructing warships faster than Theonia. Considering the situation of Carthage's mother city, it was evidently impractical for them to frequently dispatch a fleet from afar to aid Carthage.

"In a while, we will send personnel to negotiate with the Carthaginian envoys and complete the exchange of prisoners as soon as possible."

"Alright," Seclian answered decisively, then asked tactfully, "What happened that caused you to be in such a rush?"

"Siprus sent a messenger this morning and brought the terrible news that the Carthaginians had occupied Kephaloídion."

"Kephaloídion?" Seclian was puzzled. He had previously been stationed at the naval base in Taranto and had only arrived in Sicily a few months ago. Being occupied with fleet matters in Sicily, he wasn't familiar with some of the local situations, and the name of this town was entirely foreign to him.

"Kephaloídion is a town of the Sikeloi within the mountains of Sicily, northwest of Agrigento. It was originally on the borderline that divided the sphere of influence between the Kingdom and the Carthaginians and bordered the Sikeloi territory."

Hearing their discussion, Muklu, the adjutant at the lower end of the table, went to fetch the map of Sicily, laid it on the table beside Seclian and pointed out the town's position.

"This Sikeloi town is where the Tanikian tribe had once lived," this statement from Leotychides made an impression on Seclian. After all, the Ladician matter back then had caused a massive political storm within the kingdom.

"How did we lose it?" Seclian became interested now.

"From the messenger's report, just as the Carthaginian army encircled Selinus a few days ago, more than two thousand Sikanoi invaded the Sikeloi's territory. But since the Sikeloi have always had the upper hand against the Sikanoi, they gathered up four thousand warriors without hesitation to defeat them completely..." The corner of Leotychides' lips raised as if mocking the foolishness of the Sikeloi, "As a result, during the battle, the Carthaginian army suddenly appeared and inflicted a crushing defeat on the Sikeloi. Then, the Carthaginians took advantage of the victory to successfully occupy Kephaloídion.

Afterwards, the Carthaginians joined up with the Sikanoi and proceeded to attack the city of Enna to the east. Archonis, the chieftain of the Tanikian, who had sought refuge in the western part of Sicily, acted as a guide for the Carthaginians and aided in persuading the Sikeloi tribes to surrender, resulting in the Sikeloi tribe to change their mind. Despite already dispatching reinforcements to Enna, Praetor Kreru reported the situation in Enna remained grim.

...furthermore, since we failed to transport reinforcements to Agrigento yesterday, we are also worried about their situation. Once they captured Agrigento and the tens of thousands of Carthaginian soldiers managed to take a foothold in the centre of the south coast, they would threaten not only the security of the neighbouring city-states that were friendly to us but also ours..."

Seclian sat up straight and looked at Leotychides. He asked seriously, "Do you want our navy to transport reinforcements to Agrigento again?"

"Of course I do! Now that you are the highest ranking military officer of the Theonian fleet in Sicily(Although Seclian is not an officer of the Theonian fleet in Sicily, he naturally became the fleet's representative because he was the navarch of the First Fleet and held the highest position in Sicily after Miltiades' death in battle and there was no new fleet commander appointed.) Naturally, I would need to discuss it with you first. Is the Fleet, in its present condition, capable of carrying out the task of transporting reinforcements? " Leotychides asked with a serious expression.

"We certainly can!" Seclian simply replied, as he had always been able to tell the difference regarding military commands that concerned the kingdom's interest, "I can use the Phoenician ships we captured to carry the troops and use the Theonian fleet to escort. Moreover, since we managed to repulse the Phoenicians despite them having the upper hand yesterday, I believe they would be hiding in their port for the next few days and not dare to come out. But if they really dare to come, it would be for the best since we could wipe them all out! However, we can't transport so many soldiers this time."

"Even if you can transport many, I don't have that many reinforcements to spare. I can just send two thousand men," Although Leotychides said it plainly, Seclian could still feel the helplessness from his words. He looked at the army commander in Sicily, with whom he had little contact, before saying, "It is no problem to transport two thousand men. I'll then take my leave to hurry to start preparations and leave as soon as possible before noon."

Instead of expressing his thanks, Leotychides continued, "There is one more thing you need to know. Upon returning to Catania, I instructed the messenger to promptly inform Siprus to dispatch a fleet of ships as soon as possible to transport the troops from here to Gela. Therefore, you will need to escort them with your fleet when the time comes."