That was just wrong...
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That was just wrong...
After his grand victory, Robin dismissed his Gallic army and resettled into life in the Seleucid court. His victories had won him great renown and the traitor Ulysses was on the run somewhere in Anatolia. However, trouble was brewing. TCV, discontent with life in the court of Hayasdan, returned to the Epeirotes to celebration. In his absence, the Romans had made numerous advances on their territories in Magna Graecia but the Basileos was able to formulate a treaty which restored much control to the Epeirotes.
Because of his great success, TCV convinced Aristos to leave his court and spend some time in Ambrakia. Robin, smelling trouble trailed the Pontic King closely but the scent was lost near Pergamon. Here, Robin came across a Seleucid camp, but one loyal to the traitor Ulysses. In fact, Ulysses himself was present there, speaking to raise the morale of his troops. As a former Satrap based out of Sardis, there were many loyal to Ulysses still in the area. Robin was unsure of what to do with two threats on his horizon and so hastily made contact with Ulysses hoping to bring the sheep back into the fold in order to strengthen the Empire. Ulysses was happy to oblige when Robin made it clear that Anatolia would remain his Satrapy if he pledged loyalty to the Syrian King. With Ulysses now at his side, Robin and his army was ferried across the Bosporus and made camp in Makedonian highlands, opposite Aristos and TCV who had learned of his movements. So it came that an initial cavalry skirmish led to battle between the forces of Epeiros and those of the Seleukid Empire. Read what happened next here...
Having suffered this defeat, Basileus TCV cursed the Epeirotes for their cowardice and incompetence in battle and instead of returning to Greece, as was expected, he instead circled around the Seleukid strategoi and made his way further into Seleukid territory. Moving quickly was able to put some distance between them, and eventually he made it to his destination: Hayasdan. Already having been recognized as Arkah, he wasted no time and immediately called for his army to be assembled. Unfortunately, all he could muster so quickly were, with the exception of the cataphracts, only levies. He expected defeat, but he had no choise: there was no time to call in allies, to wait for more reinforcements or to train new soldiers altogether. He had to take the two Seleukids on once more, this time alone.
Or so he thought. When the Seleukids failed to show up though, Arkah TCV knew something was up and sent a call to his oldest and most trusted friend, Vega, chieftain of the Saka. While waiting for him to arrive, Arkah TCV managed to improve his army with more professional infantry, and when they joined together the Arkah was very pleased with himself. Now he had a fighting chance.
As they were planning their new offensive a man ran into the officers' tent, interupting chieftain Vega as he was lecturing Arkah TCV on how to best utilize his cataphracts, the latter having little experience with them for obvious reasons. The man turned out to be one of the Arkah's scouts, and he revealed to the dynamic duo what had taken Strategos Robin so long: not only had he acquired some Indian Elephants and scythed chariots, but he had even brought with him a Carthaginian army! The Carthaginians were, as expected, mostly made out of mercenaries, and Arkah TCV expected that their commander, a man calling himself by the ridiculous name of "Velho", might very well be one himself. Having barely enough time to simply line up their armies for battle, there were no skirmishers and very few javelins in general to defend against these beats that were now threatening them. This is how the historians recorded the battle that followed...