H12

In the end, King Geta's plea for terms did him little good. With almost half of the Labatae's warriors killed or enslaved in the aftermath of the Naval Battle, unrest quickly broke out among the remaining warriors in the city. A faction led by a noble named Artas who had been pro-Greek prior to the war revolted against Geta as I was considering the request. In the night, he led a contingent of hand-picked warriors to open the gates of Lissos for my forces. Ironically, at the same time, a faction led by another noble named Bato had decided that Geta was too weak to drive us off and lead the survivors of the Labatae fleet in a siege of Geta's palace. The situation devolved into a 3-way brawl between my forces, aided by some 2,000 Illyrian Warriors that Artas had managed to rally to our side, Geta's Loyalists barricaded in the Palace, and Bato's pirates besieging Geta. The fight was short and brutal, but the outcome was never in doubt. With the gates open, my army could pour through and annihilate any forces not belonging to Artas. We blew through Bato's small force and entered the palace via the use of a makeshift ram. Geta's forces stood little chance, he only had around 1,000 with him in the palace, the rest having disbursed amongst the populace before Bato put his coup in motion, visiting family before battle.

In the end, Geta traded Arcathagus for his life. The boy had come out of his imprisonment bruised and thin from meager rations, but alive and unmutilated. Thanks to Artas rallying a decent chunk of warriors to our side and the relatively few casualties we had sustained against the Labatae, I was even able to keep the looting to just a bit of Geta's Palace, most of what my men took were goods plundered in pirate raids. As for the Labatae Kingdom, it was divided into 4. The southern parts of their territory we gave over to Epidamnos and the Taulantii, strengthening our clients just enough to ease their recovery from the war with fresh farmland and resources. The northern part of the territory surrounded the Corinthian Colony of Nympaion on the Opposite side of the Gulf of Drin from Lissos in exchange for them becoming a client of Epirus, to which they agreed. The rest was a rump Labatae State centered on Lissos under the control of the Pro-Greek Faction led by Artas. With this, my Illyrian Campaign was officially over.

I left a small garrison in Lissos to help Artas maintain order and began my march south to winter Quarters near Tirkanos in the Taulantii lands. As we passed through Epidamnos, the army the City Fathers sent me returned to their homes and barracks, and another small Epirote Garrison was installed in the City of Epidamnos itself, per my agreement with the City Fathers there. I was even treated to a feast in the home of Neoptolemus the Younger, one of the City Fathers of Epidamnos. Neoptolemus' family was in the salt trade and thus, he was one of the wealthiest men in the city. The spread he put out was quite rich, though his insistence on spicing most of the dishes with Garum was something I could have done without. At dinner, he tried to sound me out on policy, but I told him I was content to let Epidamnos run itself unless something drastic happened. I came away with the notion that Neoptolemus was trying to sell me something with the feast. I hoped it wouldn't bode poorly for the future.

By the last week of November, we had finally made it back to Tirkanos. Astios headed further south to the Byllones lands and took his troops with him. Leaving just me and Epulon to arrange lodgings for the rest of the army. Epulon's forces were easy, they could simply disperse to their homes. My forces on the other hand could not. We busied ourselves with building wooden bivouacs and pitching tents, gathering firewood buying supplies from Tirkanos. Fetching water and digging latrines. Essentially creating a semi-permanent military camp outside the city where we could billet troops that could not be quartered in Tirkanos. The camp wouldn't be as good as the city for winter quarters, but even with us having saved the Taulantii from conquest and Epulon being a close personal friend, there were limits to how many troops he could quarter in the city. Thankfully, there were fewer of my troops after the first day, when I detached a Garrison for the newly vassalized Penestae and sent them to their own quarters in Bolkospelsos. All told, some 18,400 Epirote troops were with me in Taulantii territory, only around half of them would be quartered inside Tirkanos and the surrounding settlements, the rest were stuck in the camp.

Thankfully, we were in Southern Illyria in the Classical Warm Period. Outside the mountain passes, it rarely snowed. Tirkanos and its surroundings were inside one of those pockets of mild weather. As November turned into December, the camp was decently warm, if not through the warmness of the climate, then through the fires made with the plentiful firewood on colder days.

As the months went on, I had to decide whether to give technology to my new clients and if so, which to give to whom. It would only prove advantageous to be able to have trusted clients decently supplied and equipped, but there were two I had picked up that I could not trust with Military Technology at all right now. The Labatae and Penestae had actually fought against me before being subdued. The Penestae even retained a decent amount of warriors by the time they had submitted. Artas of the Labatae might be pro-Greek and decently Hellenized, but not all his men were and they still outnumbered the garrison by 400 men. Agron of the Penestae was borderline untrustworthy at this point. I didn't doubt his desire for peace, but that could change if he felt he ever had a chance to successfully revolt. Plus he had around 10 times the men of my garrison, albeit they were inferior tribal style units. I could afford to give him access to my military technology even less than I could Artas. My course was decided. I would give the Taulantii, Byllones, Epidamnos, and Nymphaion both agricultural and military technology. The rump Labatae and the Penestae would only get Agricultural technology.

Of course, this exchange would serve another purpose, to grow trade routes between Epirus and my new clients. Routes that could carry steel and heavy plows could also carry trade goods, after all. It would help to bind the economies of my clients to Epirus and promote growth across the board. I would need my economy and those of my clients to be strong enough to finance successful wars with Rome and Carthage in the future, after all.

As I wrote letters to my client kings and back home to my government and set up all the trades and agreements, the months turned again and again. December turned into January and January turned into February. Soon March was upon us and the snows blocking the passes south through the Pindus mountains began to melt. The first caravans of technology began to arrive by the last week of March and were swiftly followed by the first caravans of trade goods not days later. I gathered my army and broke down the camp. We began to march home in the first week of April as the passes were fully bereft of snow. We arrived back in Ambracia at the start of the second week of April to a Hero's welcome.

Just in time to dismiss the troops for the harvest. . .

XXXX

AN: Thus ends Pyrrhus' Illyrian adventure. Already he's dividing his clients into trustworthy and non-trustworthy clients. Basically, if you are greek or Hellenized, and joined him without a fight, you get the full tech package. If not, you only get agricultural tech.

We'll see what comes of this later.

Next up is an interlude chapter of events around the world for the end of 295 BC. Pyrrhus isn't the only one who has been busy, after all.