Chapter 52 : The Battle of Thraikia
It is already after the harvest when Pyrrhos, old and exhausted from his long trek to Pella, and Pekolaos, newly appointed leader of the east, meet in Thraikia. Both have elite armies, Pyrrhos with the royal army of the Basileus and Pefkolaos with the Syrian army that was originally raised to fight against the Arche Seleukeia. The majority of both armies is Makedones, meaning this battle would be a true battle of brother against brother. If Pefkoloas wins this battle, he would take Thraikia and push the family of Pyrrhos back to Makedonia, where he could wipe them out. If Pyrrhos wins this battle he can move into Anatolia and restore this rich portion of the core of the Arche Makedonia. Dispite his exhaustion and sickness, Pyrrhos engages the battle:
The two armies line up on a flat plan, bisected by the east-west trade route of Thraikia:
On Pefkolaos' left flank is his one true advantage, the elephants from Syria, which rush forward:
On Pefkolaos' opposite flank, his cavalry rushes forward, ahead of the main force, and moves to Pyrrhos' left flank:
And at the center, with arrows bouncing off them, Pefkolaos leads his army forward with his frightening new Hetairoi Kataphraktoi:
As Pefkolaos' main force slowly moves forward, Pyrrhos takes his Hetairoi and moves to his left flank to counter the enemy cavalry:
Rather than engage Pyrrhos' line, Pefkolaos' main battle line comes to a halt and waits as both flanks begin to engage eachother:
To the north, Pyrrhos personally leads a cavalry charge in at the flank cavalry:
The charge is a huge success, but Pyrrhos quickly pulls out of the battle, not loosing a single man in the fighting. Then he lines up his Hetairoi again and charges in a second time:
To the south, the heavy Peltastai of the Basilikon Agema attempt to skirmish against the enemy elephants, but the great beasts charge in and attack the unit before they are able to withdraw:
The heavy Peltastai fall back but the elephants regroup and charge forward directly at them:
As was planned prior to the battle, the wing holds their ground against the elephants. Soon the Hypaspistai charge in and javelin and spear are thrust into the sides of the beasts. As they start to fall, the surviving elephants panic and run away, toward the west:
With half their elephants dead or fleeing and their entire cavalry force wiped out, the army of Pefkolaos has no choice but to move forward:
They Syrian Pezhetairoi move forward and form a pike line. Halted just before the Makedonike line, they begin to skirmish:
The battle then comes to a pause. Pyrrhos tries to take the time to rest his men and horses, but noticing Pefkolaos moving to the southern flank, he rushes his Hetairoi to counter. As he moves, he gives the order for his men to march forward and engage the enemy. The Makedonike Pezhetairoi slowly move forward, with their pikes down:
Finally, the two lines clash. Across the entire length of the field, two great masses of men and pike collide against eachother:
A battle of Makedonike pikemen, unseen since the Aigyptos Wars, begins as the two sides push against eachother and thrust their sarrisa across at their enemy:
On the southern flank, Pyrrhos moves forward to confront Pefkolaos, but in the north it is Pefkolaos' men who make their move. Pushing through their own men, the remaining elephants move in to make a hole in the battle line. This section of the line falls into disorder and a hole begins to form. Tasked with filling any hole that develops in the line, the Bosphorians rush forward into the gap to confront the giant beasts:
Facing a great number of men, the elephants fall back again, but the northern side of the battle is already in chaos.
Back in the center, men begin to tire and many fall dead. With Pyrrhos' Hetairoi tied down and Pefkolaos' elephants unable to push through, neither side is able to circle around the flanks or push through the line to deal a killing blow:
As the battle begins to drag out and men begin to suffer from the lack of any resolution. Pyrrhos is stuck on the southern side of the battle, tied down by Pefkolaos' Kataphraktoi. Pyrrhos' Hetairoi have skill and experience on their side, but the heavy armor of their enemy proves to be a difficult challenge:
While the infantry suffer, the Hetairoi finally manage to cut through their enemy and eliminate most of the heavy horsemen, surrounding Pefkolaos:
With his men almost entirely wiped out, Pefkolaos turns and flees from the battle, breaking out of the Hetairoi. If Pefkolaos falls, this could end the war right now. Knowing this, Pyrrhos and all the Hetairoi give chase, abandonning the infantry:
The infantry battle streches out and sections of both sides begin to break and run from the field of battle:
Ironically weakened by their own elephant attack, Pefkolaos' northern flank begins to falter. The Bosphorians and Pezhetairoi on the flank push forward and break the line. The elephants move in to assist, but they quickly fall to the Makedonike charge. The flank then circles around to surround the center of Pefkolaos' line:
Soon sections of Pefkolaos' line are breaking, then reforming, then breaking again. The Makedonike line breaks formation and charges forward to surround small groups who still stand and try to break them quickly:
Several groups of Pyrrhos' line charge forward randomly at enemy groups trying to reform and break them again before they can regroup. Pyrrhos' men take heavy losses but deal even greater losses on their enemy. With the entire Syrian infantry line broken, the Bosphorians chase the enemy archers, last men standing, from the field:
Pefkolaos manages to escape and takes the remnants of his army back into Anatolia, where he rests in the city of Nikaia:
At first glance it would appear that this battle was a success for neither side. Both leaders still live and both armies were almost entirely wiped out. Though it will turn out to be a great victory for Pyrrhos. The Syrian army was the only standing professional army that Pefkolaos and the Demetrids had. Pyrrhos, on the other hand, had two professional armies in Thraikia and another in Iberia, as well as a great number of allied armies ready to assist him in his war.
Beyond that, Pyrrhos controls Makedonia. When his professional army of Makedones is wiped out, he can simply fall back and build a new army from the sizable, though plague weakened, population of Makedonia. The number of Makedones in the east is small, and the closest center of Makedonike population is in Syria. Pefkolaos cannot assemble and move a professional force forward nearly as quickly.
While Pyrrhos falls back to Pella to rebuild his army and get some personal rest, his son Sotades takes his old army and moves forward to put pressure on the Demetrids the following spring:
The known world in the spring of 175
BC:
Next: Chapter 53 : Arabian Problems
Re: The Pyrrhic Dynasty : A Makedonian AAR
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Really awesome though!
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