last update for the summer, and maybe even for a long time.... school for me starts on the 18th.

Chapter 38- The Battle for Athenai

The world around us was a busy place.
Epeiros decided to attack Dalminion again.


Pontos besieged Nikaia, in an attempt to take it back.


In the fall of 220, in the months before winter and the supplies of Athenai dwindling because of our blockade of their port, they were forced into open combat with us.
For the first time ever, they outnumbered us.


It was a beautiful day for a massacre. We could see Athenai a mile or two away, and we could even Chalks across the channel.



The first enemy army, quite small, advanced.


We waited for them patiently, as our arrows whizzed to their targets.


Abruptly, Tarsa ordered our horse archers to stop firing at the small army.


When they inquired as to why, he told them that they should save their arrows for the main army, which was coming up the hill, like sheep’s for slaughter.


When they got in range, he let loose with the butchery.


At the same time, the smaller army, along with the cavalry elements of the larger one, crashed with our lines.


Then the bodyguards attacked our lines, but even with their heavy spears and armor, they did negligible damage.


Then the small army routed. The bodyguards followed.


We could not let the enemy general escape, so Tarsa told the horse archers to direct all their fire at him. They did, and he soon fell.


The captain of the main army from Athenai, advancing up the hill, soon followed, struck in the face by an arrow that bounced off a hoplite’s shield.


At that moment, all the horse archers, who had held their fire for a bit, unleashed a torrent of arrows upon the main enemy army.


All of a sudden, the Galatians, who were fidgeting like crazy to get in combat, burst away without orders and attacked the enemy hoplites.


The Thraikians assumed that the order had been given to advance, so they followed.


Tarsa, unable to recall the Galatians and Thraikians on the right side, sent the Thraikians and Galatians on the left side to flank the reformed hoplites that were advancing to our lines.


The effect was devastating.



They soon routed, and our men gave chase.



On the far left flank, way beyond the lines, a lone unit of Hellenic spearmen advanced slowly.
Our cavalry, spotting the threat, charged them, and quickly routed them.


Soon only a unit of Elite hoplites remained. We soon took care of them.


The entire enemy army was in confusion, and our entire army gave chase.




Soon there was only one man left, a mercenary.
We left him alive out of pity.


The victory highlighted all our previous victories. We had lost very, very, few men, but the most important thing was that we killed almost their entire army!


The Koinon Hellenon was so afraid of us that they capitulated as soon as we came to the gates of Athenai with our victorious army. Tarsa took a victory lap around the city, then ordered that all the Southern Hellenic Assembly members, all of whom had decided to stay in Athenai, were to be beheaded and their heads were sent to Rhodos, the new capital. Apparently, the Southern Hellenic Assembly had put too much faith in their armies, and had paid dearly for it.


Now the Koinon Hellenon was left with two provinces, both in Asia Minor. There they would regroup and lick their wounds.


All around the world, people heard of our victory over the Koinon Hellenon, and sent us congratulations on the victory. Even the Combined World Association, who gives out an award yearly to the strongest nation, gave us the award this year. For the past 50 or so years, the Arche Seleukia had won. The tables have turned on the Hellenic world.


But there was still work to be done, and our power in the region was about to be contested.