Chapter 59 : Philip's War (Part III)
His father and elder brother fight the civil war in Anatolia and his younger brothers live in Makedonia, but Philippos, second-born son of Pyrrhos and heir to the throne, fights his own war in Iberia. The Iberian Confederacy started the war when they attempted to conquer the Hellenic colonies along the coast and with that any oppertunity for peace in Iberia was lost. The first acomplishment of the war was conquering the mineral rich southern regions. Then Philippos moved north to defeat the two lead tribes of the confederation, the Lusotanni and the Arevaci. The Lusotanni had been conquered quite easily while their army was in the north preparing to attack the Hellenic colonies. Since then, Philippos had moved his army forward to prepare to attack the Arevaci.
In order to weaken his enemy and in order to give some of the glory to his allies, Philippos had sent forward his coast Iberian allies first, to draw the Arevaci and Lusotanni refugee armies out. The coastal Iberians had only besieged their capital city of Numatia for a few months when the counter attack comes:
The Makedonia-friendly coastal Iberians line up just outside of a wooded area on a hillside near the road leading to Numatia. In the center are the swordsmen, with the spearmen on the flanks, and the slingers of the Baleric islands behind the line:
The wait is short and soon the enemy army is near, which the Baleric slinger open fire on:
While the enemy infantry attacks the center of the line, the Iberian cavalry circles around the left flank and charge in:
While additional Arevaci cavalry waves hit the flank, the entire flank of spearmen rush in to assist:
The huge number of spearmen make quick work of the cavalry and cut them down, causing the them to flee:
Meanwhile, in the center the enemy infantry begin fleeing as well:
The coastal Iberians chase their enemy into to the forest for some distance but soon stop and fall back. The first enemy army starts to regroup and is reinforced by the forces from the city itself. The coastal Iberians collect themselves and return to formation. They wait, but it is only a short time before the enemy army is upon them once again:
As before, the enemy infantry hits the center of the line and the two side begin to fight:
The enemy is disadvantages this time, however, as they now lack any cavalry. Instead of cavalry, the Arevaci army circles spearmen around the right flank and attacks. This move is quickly countered by the coastal spearmen and the flanking is out flanked:
The Arevaci send more forces to the battle on the flank but fail to regain the advantage. This move, however, weakens the center of the Arevaci line and the infantry in the middle gives and begins to flee back to Numatia. While half the forces from the coastal Iberians' center and left flank chase their fleeing foe, the rest charge in at the rear of the fight on the right flank:
Soon the whole of the Arevaci force is broken and fleeing back to their capital:
When news reaches Philippos that the coastal Iberians have won a crushing victory, he is surprised. Not only did the coastal Iberians win the battle, they manage to crush two huge armies of the Iberian Confederacy, taking only a few losses themselves:
Philippos then moves his Thorakitai army into Arevaci territory and plans his next move. As the war in Iberian hits another high point, the civil war in Anatolia continues. On the isle of Lesbos, the citizen expel the Demetrid garrison, declare themselves loyal to Pyrrhos, and assemble a small army of Thorakitai. This action allows the army of Sotades, stationed in Pergamon, to move forward and besiege the city of Sardis, capital to the Anatolia Satrapy:
Back in Iberia, Philippos decides to change his plans. Rather than take the city of Numatia with his own army, Philippos instead moves to command the coastal Iberians, personally, in an attack on the city of Numantia. While his army of Thorakitai guard against the possiblity of an enemy army outflanking the attack from the rear, the coastal Iberians build seige equiptment then attack:
With a half dozen seige towers, Philippos plans to take the city walls by force:
The battle starts off on a low mark, however, as half the towers are destroyed before they even reach the walls:
Although, near the city's western gate the towers reach the walls and the coastal Iberian spearmen quickly surround the Arevaci forces defending the wall:
While the spearmen kill the men guarding the wall and take control of the gateway, Philippos and the rest of the army moves forward:
Then with the walls taken, the coastal Iberians chase the last defenders of the walls away with a rain of javelin:
Philippos then splits his men into three groups. The first group are the spearmen who took the walls, who head straight to the city center. Although the plan is for them to rest before scalling the hilll, they are countered by Arevaci levy spearmen:
Even though they are tired, this group quickly pushes back the Arevaci counterattack:
The second group consists of spearmen whose towers were destroyed before it reached the walls. These men circle around the edge of the city to the south. They too meet an Arevaci counterattack:
Since some of the second group circled around the outside of the city and came in the southern gate, they manage to hit their enemy in a pincer attack, surround them, and wipe them out:
The third and final group is the coastal Iberian swordsmen who circle around the northern edge of the city. This group manages to get half-way up the city's center hill before they around countered:
All the fighting quickly ends and the last of the Arevaci forces fall back to the center of the city. There, they are surrounded and outnumbered, but the Arevaci refuse to accept surrender. Philippos' forces of allied Iberians charge in at the city center from all sides:
The coastal Iberians slowly move forward and surround their enemy, who fights to the very last man:
When the last man falls, he does not fall alone. Not only does he fall, but the city falls. With the city falls the Arevaci tribe. With the fall of the tribe, the lands they ruled fall into the care of the Arche Makedonia:
With the fall of the Arevaci the Iberian Confederacy itself almost falls apart and fades away. In-fighting within the remaining tribes and rulers begin. Although the territories and people of the tribes of Lusotanni and Arevaci fall, many of their soldiers and nobility retreat into the lands of the northern tribes. Although there is chaos, the leadership of the Iberian Confederacy falls to the defacto king of the Arevaci in exile, the young king Atu.
Meanwhile, Philippos takes the in-fighting of the Iberian Confederacy as a chance to ensure strong control over all of his Iberian conquests. While government controls is established in the south, with plans for settlement [Type2], the lands of the Lusotanni and Arevaci remain in military control [Type3]. With this, Philippos also plans to set up an easily defendable border and finally bring an end to his war in Iberia.
The known world in the autumn of 172BC:
Next: Chapter 60 : Around the Known World
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