H35

News of the Peace of Alba Longa was received in some places with an air of hopelessness. This was more pronounced in Samnium, but the Frentani, Marsi, and Marricini also had reason to despair. The Samnites were not the only rebels who had risen against Rome, after all, and many had cause to give in to fatalism at the news of the treaty. Of course, it was necessary for me to agree to the terms I had negotiated, as things in Sicily were not going well in the absence of a strong central figure. Still, every time we entered a town on our trek south, the Elders seemed quite angry, full of spiteful words, rage, or if not that, filled with melancholy.

I had but a small amount of comfort to give them. As my army withdrew south, I let it be known that anyone who wished to leave for Magna Graecia or elsewhere in my Kingdom would be welcome to travel with my Army. I even redirected ships from various Italiote League Fleets to serve as transport for goods and people. Many took me up on my offer, several thousand of whom had been prisoners recently released from Roman Captivity after the defeat of Hortius Decius, bringing their families and what wealth they could gather onto carts or ships with them. Many more could not leave, either for lack of space on carts and ships, or out of stubbornness.

Of those who could not or would not leave, I offered what spare equipment I could, along with advice to take to the hills and act as brigands, seizing Roman Supply wagons, ambushing scouts, and what have you. Some took the weapons and advice gladly, more refused to have anything further to do with me or my forces. Minds so full of anger at the perceived betrayal that they would prefer to fight and die without any assistance at all from me. I attempted to reason with the leaders of those bands but as Taurus Pontius, the most outspoken of the leaders of the recalcitrant Samnites said, "Betrayal for legitimate reasons is still betrayal."

Still, there were some forty-eight thousand people who did decide to leave for new lives in my burgeoning Kingdom and would be settled in towns amongst the mountains of the Interior of Sicily when we finally arrived there. Unfortunately, by the time we did arrive at Zanclo, the local Poleis had lost the entire western half of the Island of Sicily. Five Poleis had fallen already, with Gela, Himera, Thermai, and Akragas having had their forces destroyed and cities occupied. A full third of the Poleis in the Siciliote League were now under the Carthaginian Yoke. Kleon of Pydna himself had been forced to undertake administrative command in an attempt to Organize the various, fractious armies.

I gave him a new task, settling the Samnite, Marricini, Marsi, and Frentani refugees. He would take twenty-thousand of his army to help set them up in the Northeast of the Island, mostly to help defend against potential Sicel raids and attacks, though given they had already lost much of their strength as mercenaries fighting Carthage, I doubted they would try to raid new settlements very hard, just so long as nobody did anything foolish. In the meantime, I gathered the forces of the remaining eight Poleis to me near Syracuse to form a force of Eighty Thousand Men.

By this point, the fall campaign season was fast coming to a close, most of it having been taken up with settling things in Italy and moving south to Sicily. Up until this point, the Campaign Season had been loss after loss for the Poleis of Sicily. I needed to deliver them a victory to close out the campaign or I might soon find some Poleis seeking separate peace agreements with Carthage. Camarina and Casmenai were already calling their forces back to protect them against the Carthaginian Army on their borders even as I attempted to organize a counterattack.

Once more, I made sacrifices to Zeus Panhellenios and Zeus Areus to deliver me a battle, slaughtering a fattened bull in a public ceremony. Praying to Athena Promachos and Athena Nika to bring victory and slaughtering another bull to her. If nothing else, this display of piety would help cement in the minds of my troops and allies my sincerity and help shore up my legitimacy as well. Both would be needed to manage the fractious collection of troops and Poleis under my command. It seemed to work well in that regard, and it was with that religious piety fresh in the minds of all that I made my way west.

As it happened, the engagement I sought found me. My forward cavalry scouts found a large detachment of one thousand Gallic Heavy Cavalry, who were mercenaries hired by Carthage, ravaging a small town some eight leagues northeast of Casmenai and attacked them, Stirrups, Nisean Horses, and Steel Equipment doing much to even the odds against the Gauls, even though they had four times the number of horsemen my scouts did.

Several score of the Gauls were caught on foot carrying plunder out of broken-into storehouses and were cut down, while others tried to mount a defense. They fared better, but not by enough to win. By the end of the brief engagement, half the Gauls were dead or captured while the other half had been put to flight. The captured Gauls were brought back to my camp and their plunder returned to the remaining townsfolk. I had the captured Gauls questioned about Carthage's plans and forces.

As it turned out, their leader, a blonde, mustachioed, warrior in a torn mail hauberk who introduced himself as Litagenes of the Segobrigii, son of King Tragus of the Segobrigii, and spoke the Masallian Dialect of Greek was all too happy to exchange information for medical treatment for his wounded sword-arm. Apparently, he was concerned about rot requiring the arm to be taken off, and without a sword-arm, he would be unable to lead his people and the Kingship would pass to his younger brother instead.

Apparently, instead of moving to attack Camarina or Casmenai as strategy would normally dictate, Gisgo had decided to cut across Sicel Lands and head for Leontinoi instead. It was a bold plan that would hopefully, cut off Camarina, Casmenai, and Syracuse from the remaining Poleis in the League, but relied primarily on surprise to do so. To achieve that surprise, Gisgo had sent out the bulk of his cavalry on raids to disguise his intentions, keeping only some of the Numidian Light Cavalry with the army of fifty-thousand heading for Leontinoi. They had only begun their trek across Sicel Territory a few days ago, which meant if I hurried, I stood a good chance of catching them mid-march in an ambush.

I had my own personal physician look at Litagenes' wound, and thankfully, a mixture of honey and spirits was able to disinfect the sword wound running across Litagenes' bicep and he was able to avoid infection. Litagenes was thankful enough for the prompt treatment that he became a model captive, even forcing his good behavior onto the other captured Gauls. That made for an easier journey across the more rugged territory of the Sicels, as we did not have to keep a close eye on a group of surly Gauls. One of the Gauls, Gabrus of the Libicii, had come this way before, having served against the Sicels for the Oligarchs of Leontinoi and was able to give a rough approximation of the path that Gisgo might take at Litagenes' urging.

It was on the twentieth of November, Two-Eighty-One that we caught up with Gisgo and his Army as they were crossing the Trigona River, upstream of the salt marsh that would, in a future timeline that may never come, be turned into the Lago di Leontini by the damming of the river. We formed up on the opposite bank across a stretch of shallow, fordable, water from the Carthaginians and waited. For several, long minutes, nothing happened as both forces assembled, each on one side of the river, formed up across the ford from each other. Then, as if on cue, the Carthaginians began to cross, the Battle of the Trigona had begun. 

It would decide the course of the war going forward. . .

XXXX

AN: Yeah, a bunch of Samnites are pissed at the treaty. They see it as a betrayal, even if there were legitimate reasons. Thankfully, for Pyrrhus, not everyone sees it that way, though, of the ones who are more understanding, most are leaving with his army. The guerrilla bands staying behind in the mountains skew more heavily in favor of the pissed-off. Only a couple of the guerilla bands were willing to take his weapons and advice, the majority are following guys like Taurus Pontius.

One thing is for sure, if the Guerilla Bands do make it too much of a headache for Rome to reconquer Samnium completely, the military Makeup of any territory they win isn't likely to be very friendly to Pyrrhus either. Of course, that's a future Pyrrhus problem, if it even materializes at all. Current Pyrrhus has Carthage to deal with now.

Sorry this is so late, with the Holidays, my schedule is pretty irregular. Not sure when I'll be able to write next, or even if it's going to be before New Year's.

At any rate, the next chapter will be the Battle of the Trigona, then we'll be in two-eighty.

Stay tuned. . .