Chapter 5 The Expansion of Rome

In the Latinum region of central Italy, Camillos, whom Davos was concerned about, received an order from the Roman Senate: let him serve as the leading general and lead the army remaining in Rome to repel the Volsci coalition.

Although he repeatedly refused, saying that he was too old and frail to lead the army, and hoped to give this task to a more suitable person, the Roman people strongly demanded him to take it, because they did not actually expect him to be able to take the lead and kill the enemy. It is because he strongly believes in his actual combat experience and military talent, and believes that he will definitely bring brilliant victory to Rome.

Camelus had to accept it.

Considering that Camillous could not fight to kill the enemy, the Senate also assigned him a young military officer, Lucius Frius, as his partner.

The two led the remaining two legions in the city, a total of 12,000 Roman citizens, joined thousands of soldiers from allied countries, and then led the army to the southeast and rushed to the territory of Prenister.

About to encounter the Wolsey coalition, Camillous ordered the army to stop and camp, he wanted to delay the time for the battle with the enemy. On the one hand, he did not want to fight the enemy with high morale at this moment, and wanted to wait for the enemy to slack off, or force the enemy to take the initiative to attack their camp; He was cold, still had a fever, and his body was weak. He wanted to wait for his body to improve a little, and then compete with the enemy.

Unexpectedly, another young military and political officer, Frius, was eager to make contributions and was eager to fight with the enemy. Camillous was unable to fight because of his illness, so he could take advantage of the battle alone.

So he privately urged the officers in the army to make everyone unanimously petition Camillous for the battle. Camelus did not want to let others think that he was jealous and did not want the young to win. Meritorious and honored, so he reluctantly agreed: let Lucius Frius lead the army to fight, while he led a small number of soldiers to stay in the camp.

Out of concern for the war, he sent people to inquire about the progress of the battle and reported to him at any time. And he was lying in the hospital bed by himself, tossing and turning.

When he learned that the formation of the Roman army was not complete, Frius rashly launched an attack, but was defeated by the enemy in one fell swoop. Soldiers quickly prepared for defense.

He personally ran to the gate of the camp, and kept loudly exhorting the soldiers who had retreated from the battlefield to let them pick up their weapons again and repel the enemies who were following them.

The routed soldiers were ashamed when they saw the prestige and white-haired veteran nailed to the gate like a rock and did not step back. enemy.

Camelus after this tossing,

I broke out in a cold sweat, and the cold was almost healed. I couldn't help thanking Minerva for his blessing.

Depressed and remorseful, the military officer Frius came to plead with Camelous.

Camillous did not severely criticize the reckless young general, but patiently asked him about the whole process of the battle.

After thinking about it, he said to Frius: "Tomorrow we will lead our troops out of the camp and fight the enemy decisively!"

Frius thought he had heard it wrong: "We have just experienced the defeat of the battle..."

"It is precisely because of this defeat that the honor-loving Roman citizens urgently need a victory to wash away this shame!" Camillous said firmly.

Motivated, Frius nodded in agreement.

Soon, the news of the "Battle of Tomorrow Morning" spread throughout the battalion.

The soldiers heard that the venerable commander Camelus would lead them to a decisive battle tomorrow morning to wash away the shame of this defeat. Immediately, everyone no longer bowed their heads, but geared up and swore to the gods to avenge their humiliation.

The next day, after Camelus led his army out of the camp for a mile, he stopped advancing and quickly began to line up.

When the Volsi coalition heard that the Romans who had lost the battle yesterday actually walked out of the fortified camp, they were pleasantly surprised and rushed over with their troops.

Before they could fully deploy their formation, Camelus ordered: All troops attack!

Eager for revenge, the Roman soldiers stormed the Volsci allied forces, and Camelus focused his attack on the weaker Herniki.

After a fierce battle, the Volssi coalition forces, which were in disarray, were completely at a disadvantage.

Camillous ordered: the whole army continues to pursue, do not relax!

The Roman army took the opportunity to occupy the enemy's camp. Most of the Volsci allied soldiers were either killed or captured. The Roman soldiers celebrated their victory.

But after a day's rest, news came that Berne, another Latin ally in Rome, was captured by the Herniki.

Camelus immediately made a decision to send the heavy infantry back to Rome first, and then led the light infantry, marched all the way to Berne, and launched an assault on the Herniki.

The Herniki, who had just taken the town, were unsuspecting and were quickly routed, with most of the fighters killed.

Camelus returned to Rome with a large troop of loot and a class of captives.

The Roman people cheered him.

On his suggestion, the Roman Senate turned the Roman army, which had returned from the north to conquer the Etruscans, to attack the forces of the Equus and Herniki in the east.

Two months later, the Aiqui, Herniki, and Masai, who had suffered heavy losses in the previous war, were unable to resist and chose to surrender after repeated blows.

After the Romans clarified the main enemies in the east and southeast, they began to turn their attention to the Volsci people in the south.

The Volsci people are an ancient race in Italy. They lived in the upper Ligus River valley in northeastern Italy hundreds of years ago. However, with the continuous southward invasion of the Celts, the Volsci people could not compete with them. , were forced to migrate to the southwest of Italy, and eventually they settled in the fertile land south of Latium, and reproduced peacefully here for hundreds of years, but because of the rise and expansion of the Romans, the Volsci people could not Do not start a constant armed conflict with this force that has become its immediate northern neighbor.

In the past hundred years, the two sides have fought many wars. In the beginning, the Wolsey had the upper hand. But as Rome conquered the surrounding Latin city-states and established the Latin League, its strength increased greatly, and the Volsci people gradually felt difficult to attack Rome.

And in 358 years of the founding of Rome (that is, 396 BC), the Roman general Camelus led his army to conquer the Etruscan powerhouse in the northern region of the upper Tiber River - Weiai, this time the conquest. It not only completely occupied the surrounding land of the Taipei River Basin, but also deterred the surrounding races and forces.

So the Volsci signed a peace agreement with Rome.

But four years later, the Celts captured the city of Rome, and Rome's strength declined, which led to the dissolution of the Latin League. The Volsci took the opportunity to tear up the agreement and united with the forces around Rome, and continued to invade Rome's territory and allies until this time they were blocked. The army led by Mulhouse was completely defeated.

The Volsci people, who suffered heavy losses, have not yet recovered from the defeat, and the Roman army has invaded the territory of the Volsci people in a big way, and surrounded the strong state in the northwest of Volsci - Vilitre in one fell swoop. (velitrae).

While gathering troops to rescue, the Volsci people are considering asking other forces for reinforcements. It is because the Romans have become stronger and stronger after the military reform in the past few years. Several wars between the Volsci and the Romans have In failure, they developed a fear of the Romans.

In fact, the closest and more powerful force to the Volsi is the Samone, but unfortunately this powerful mountain race is always extremely aggressive to the surrounding forces. In the past years, there have been many wars between Wolsey and the Samonites, and several towns in Wolsey, such as Sora, Cepeatae, which are close to the Samone mountains, were also occupied by Samoan. How could the Worcese dare to ask this violent hostile force for help?

Therefore, after discussion, the Wolsey Alliance agreed that only the powerful kingdom in the south, Dionia, was the most suitable object for help. However, Wolsey had no formal diplomatic contact with Dionia before, and was afraid of being rejected. So the Wolsey came up with a solution.

The Volsi Alliance sent envoys south by boat to the Campania region. In Campania, there is a Campania alliance that the Volsi people seem to be relatively powerful. It has a good relationship with Volsi. , the two sides often have trade exchanges.

The Campania League was originally an alliance formed by the Greek colonial city-states in this area. Its purpose was to protect the security of the city-states and jointly defend against foreign enemies. Its main enemy was the Samone people in the mountains to the east. Later, some Etruscan city-states in the eastern part of the Campania plain were also infested by the Samonites.

The Etruscans used to be the most powerful force in Italy, occupying the entire northern and most central parts of Italy. Later, due to the invasion of the Celts, its power was greatly weakened, and many territories were continuously replaced by other races. Occupied, its forces began to retreat to the north. However, in the eastern part of the Campania plain, there were still several Etruscan city-states headed by Capua and Cesara.

After joining the Campania League, Capua also competed with Naples for the dominance of the league. However, after the Samone captured Capua 20 years ago, the league has always been dominated by Naples.

Therefore, the envoy of Volsi came directly to the city of Naples, put forward Volsi's request for help to its council, and gently reminded the Napoli: the Romans were aggressive, and once Volsi was conquered by it, the distance from Wo The fertile and fertile Campania region, not far from Chelsea, could be its next target.