Chapter 883: The Third Fleets Special Arrangement
After a while, Henipolis finished writing the letter to the Senate and handed it to Davos.
Davos was satisfied with what he read and didn't change a word. Then, he signed his name at the end, stamped it, and returned it to Henipolis, “Send it to the Senate as a confidential letter of the highest order.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.” Henipolis immediately rolled up the letter skillfully, tied both ends and the middle of the paper with three red ropes and then continued writing the second letter.
Then, the captain of the palace guards, Martius, entered the tent, “Your Majesty, the navarch of the Third Fleet, Mithridates, awaits your summons outside the tent.” contemporary romance
“Oh, Mithridates is here,” Davos quickly beckoned, “Let him in quickly.”
Once Mithridates entered the tent, he immediately gave a military salute and loudly said, “Your Majesty, I was late in returning.”
“You'd just come at the nick of time!” Davos continued, “Your fleet and marines are about to come in handy!”
Mithridates immediately became excited upon hearing these words. Just upon returning to Latium, Mithridates already heard about how, during the short period he was away, King Davos' great army had marched north and conquered Veii and Caisra, Fidenae and Crustuerium to the east, captured Gabii to the south and had forced the surrender of numerous Latin city-states while chasing out the Roman armies to the small towns to the west by the sea, and are now intensifying their siege…
The news left him with a terrible feeling that the Third Fleet had become entirely irrelevant in this war. Therefore, he immediately felt excitement upon hearing Davos' words.
“Have you recruited all the marines your fleet needed?” Davos asked.
“I have managed to recruit them. It's just…” Mithridates said carefully, “It's just that as soon as we sent out the order for enlistment, not only Terina but even the citizens of Scylletium and Hipponium actively rushed to the naval base and signed up in large numbers. They had even sought out a lot of their acquaintances to mediate…so…so I end up recruiting two thousand more people…” That made Davos stare at him seriously, causing Mithridates to tense up.
Davos said slowly, “More recruits, so be it. However, adding the newly added recruits, the number of marines in the Third Fleet should be four thousand. This is already an exception granted by the Ministry of Military, so you must disband the excess personnel after the war concludes. Remember, there are no exceptions!”
Mithridates quickly stared, “You can rest assured that I will immediately disband all the extra men once the war ends, Your Majesty!”
Davos smiled slightly and said, “You…are fighting the Sixth Legion for manpower, so be careful of Thratyllus* knowing it as he will fight it with you!” (Legatus of the Sixth Legion)
Mithridates finally felt relieved hearing Davos' jest, so he joked back, “I guess I will hold more banquets for Thratyllus and get him drunk to obstruct him.” The Sixth Legion's military camp was west of Scylletium, while the Third Fleet's naval base was in the bay near Terina. With the two close to each other, they usually had a lot of exchanges. Moreover, the relationship between Mithridates and Thratyllus wasn't bad, so he was not worried that the other party would chastise him.
“Mithridates,” Tolmides said suddenly, “The approved number of marines of the Third Fleet is four thousand men. Thus, we will prepare enough provisions and supplies following this number. But for the extra two thousand men, you will have to figure it out yourself.”
‘What?!’ Mithridates initially thought Tolmides was joking, but seeing the seriousness on his face, he found himself momentarily at a loss for words. Admittedly, he had a selfish motive when he enlisted the soldiers this time. Davos noticed it and subtly signalled Tolmides to give Mithridates a gentle warning.
But for Mithridates, providing supplies for two thousand men was extremely difficult, and he could only look at Davos pleadingly.
Davos took advantage of the situation and said with a straight face, “If you want to solve the issue of feeding the additional two thousand men, you must focus on completing your next task diligently.”
“Your Majesty, my brothers from the Third Fleet and I are ready and will successfully complete even the most difficult task!” Mithridates immediately declared loudly.
As Henipolis was writing the letter, Crotokatax took his work. Aware of Davos' plan, Crotokatax found a map from the bookshelf and spread it on the desk.
Davos then led Mithridates to the table.
Mithridates lowered his head and saw a map depicting Corsica and Sardinia before his eyes.
“How much do you know about Corsica?” Davos asked.
Mithridates already had a plan in mind and thought it over carefully before he said, “Corsica is known to sailors as the giant mountain of the sea. The island is nearly entirely covered with towering mountains, making it unsuitable for habitation. Only to the east of the island are small coastal plains, each having two towns. The town of Mariana to the north belongs to the Etruscans, while the town of Aleria to the south belongs to the Phoenicians. There are also some small Phoenician villages on the west coast. However, the west coast has dense reefs and winding coastlines, making it more challenging to land warships… Your Majesty, are you asking the Third Fleet to attack Corsica?”
Davos nodded, looked at the map and said, “To be precise, we will have the Third Fleet attack the Phoenician towns and settlements on Corsica. The most crucial reason why Carthage was able to become the most prosperous and wealthy city-state in the western Mediterranean is that it controlled most of the precious metal resources and trade in the entire western Mediterranean, the Iberian Peninsula, Gaul region, Etruscan region, and Sardinia and Corsica. Especially Sardinia and Corsica, which are under complete control of Carthage. Since Carthage dares to declare war with us, we will destroy their important source of trade one after another so that their treasury will no longer be enough to sustain a prolonged war with us.
So, the first target of the Third Fleet was to attack all the Phoenician settlements on the island of Corsica. However, don't underestimate how these settlements are small in size and number because they are the ones that excavate the silver, iron, copper, and other metal minerals on Corsica, smelted, manufactured, and ultimately transported to Carthage. All of the Phoenician settlements on the west coast have formed a complete metal smelting system with each other. Hence, your Third Fleet must occupy these settlements and capture all the Phoenicians…”
“Also, try not to damage the Phoenicians' metal mines and smelting facilities!” Davos emphasised.
Hearing that, Mithridates solemnly said, “Your Majesty, the Third Fleet will overcome all difficulties and complete this task.”
“Not only should you complete it, but you must complete it as soon as possible! Of course, you must be careful of the attacks of Carthage's warship stationed in Sardinia and Corsica, and never be careless!”
“Understood!” Davos' harsh words made Mithridates' heart shudder. As the navarch responsible for defending the west coast of Theonia, he certainly had a more detailed understanding of Sardinia and Corsica: Before the war, Carthage stationed no more than thirty triremes on these two islands, mainly scattered in several towns and ports in Sardinia. Perhaps due to their weak strength, they didn't come out to cause trouble during Theonia's expedition to Rome, so Mithridates didn't take them seriously. However, Davos' warning made him take it seriously.
Davos pointed at Aleria on the map and asked again, “Despite being a Phoenician town, did you ever feel that Aleria's naming didn't fit the Phoenician and Carthaginian name sense?”
“Was the town once belonged to the Greeks?” Mithridates repeatedly murmured the town's name before asking in a slightly surprised tone. In fact, it was just in response to Davos because, as an officer of Theonia who had traversed the sea, he didn't care about the history of this town.
“You had judged correctly. However, Aleria wasn't once a mere city-state of the Greeks as, in theory, it should be a town belonging to us, Theonians!” Henipolis interjected after finishing writing the letter to Alexius and Xanticles and was just in time to overhear this dialogue. As a great disciple of Ansitanos, he immediately became interested in informing them.
“Aleria belongs to us?!” Mithridates became really surprised now.
“Back during the great colonial era, we Greeks colonised the western Mediterranean, establishing not only Agrigento, Syracuse in Sicily but also Taranto and Sybaris in Magna Graecia, Masallia(Marseille) in Gaul, Neapolis, Cumae in Campania, also Aleria in Corsica…
But the Etruscans, then hegemon of northern Italia, were terrified by the surging Greeks, thinking that our colonies would surround them if they didn't stop us from our crazy colonial behaviour. Hence, they united with Carthage, which had already gained a foothold in Sardinia, and went to war with the Greek city-states of Aleria, Masallia and Campania.
The most critical battle was a naval battle off Aleria, resulting in the Greeks' crushing defeat. It had not only left Aleria to be captured by the Carthaginians but also caused the Greeks to no longer dare colonise the north of Italia again for centuries…”
Henipolis kept speaking, and not only was Mithridates listening attentively, but Tolmides and Crotokatax were also listening with great interest.
