The Mad Tycoon of Rome

Chapter 218

The defeat at the Larissa turn was not a simple loss of a battle.

It was a painful defeat that meant the complete loss of Rome’s influence over Greece.

There were many humiliating defeats in the history of Rome, which fought countless wars.

A typical example was the Battle of Cannae against Hannibal.

In this battle, the Roman army, which had deployed more than 86,000 troops, suffered a near-annihilation defeat by Hannibal’s Carthaginian army, which had only about 50,000 men.

The number of deaths was estimated to be at least 45,000 and up to 60,000, the worst defeat ever.

It happened more than 150 years ago, but since then, Rome had never experienced such a terrible defeat in a single battle.

But this time, the disaster at the Larissa turn resulted in more than three times as many casualties as the Battle of Cannae.

Out of 200,000 legionaries, less than 20,000 managed to escape with their lives.

This terrible outcome was due to the location where the turn took place.

The Larissa plain was nearly 100 km away from Demetrias, the nearest Roman city.

Moreover, the terrain itself was wide open for tens of km in all directions, so the infantry could not avoid the eyes of the cavalry.

The only reason that this many people survived was that Sextus desperately drew attention and helped his allies retreat.

If it weren’t for him, there might have been only a few hundred survivors.

Bayatur, who won the battle, calmly conquered the Greek cities as if he had nothing to worry about.

He did not hurry at all.

He needed to collect the usable equipment from the Roman army first, and he also needed to give his subordinates some rest.

“There are some good quality equipment, but not as much as I expected. I guess the army of the South Emperor was the most inferior one.”

He was disappointed even though he expected it.

He wanted to arm all his elites with weapons of the same quality as the new ones he plundered from the Roman army in Germania, but unfortunately he still fell short of that level.

In fact, Sextus’ army’s equipment was inevitably inferior to that of Marcus and even Caesar.

Marcus did not leak any of his own equipment such as pila and plate armor at all, and only supplied plate mail (lorica segmentata) to Caesar and Pompey.

And he limited the supply amount to a level that they could easily defeat their enemies with careful calculations.

He had to consider the worst case scenario where they might have a military conflict in case something went wrong.

As long as the front-line soldiers wore new equipment, they were unbeatable against ordinary barbarians.

The exchange rate was almost 10 to 1 even if he was conservative.

He thought it was more than enough, and it was true.

If he had known that the Huns would invade in advance, Marcus would have made a different choice, but this part was also beyond his control.

No one but Marcus could have foreseen such a historical change unless they were gods.

Moreover, Sextus inherited Pompey’s legion that had lost a lot of equipment after fighting successive civil wars with Gnaeus and Caesar.

So it was inevitable that there were not enough high-quality equipment for Bayatur to get his hands on.

Bayatur nodded his head slightly with a tongue click after listening to his subordinate’s report that they had finished collecting all the weapons.

“It can’t be helped. If their equipment had been much better, our casualties would have been higher. I’ll have to be satisfied with getting this much usable weapons.”

He entered Demetrias almost bloodlessly and threw an annoyed look at the port that was ruined beyond repair.

The subordinate who reported to him seemed puzzled by his displeasure after achieving a great victory.

He asked him curiously.

“Is there anything that bothers you?”

“I’m surprised that Rome didn’t lose its meticulousness even after losing the battle. I wanted to get hold of the port and ships first, but they destroyed them thoroughly.”

What the Huns lacked most was ships and sailing skills.

The nomadic people were invincible on flat land, but they were different on the sea.

Many of them shivered or vomited as soon as they got on board.

No, some even believed that they would be cursed and d*e if they went out on a boat.

Bayatur didn’t have any crazy idea of getting ships and fighting naval battles with Rome either.

But having ships or not made a huge difference.

If he had ships, he could go from Greece to Asia Minor by sailing only 3 km, but without ships, he had to go around thousands of km to enter there.

He prepared for his greatest prey in his life.

All he had to do was wait for the time of battle.

※※※

Marcus sent Antony as a vanguard and quickly gathered all the troops he could mobilize.

And soon after, a messenger from Greece arrived to find him.

The news he received was as expected.

The fact that nearly 200,000 troops were almost wiped out was just the beginning.

Almost all areas except Athens fell into the hands of the Huns, and they stole huge amounts of cultural assets and treasures from the temples.

More than anything, the aftermath of such a historic defeat affected not only Greece but also Rome itself.

Rome panicked, and its allies doubted Rome’s power that they had never questioned before.

If he left it like this, cracks would spread throughout every field of economy, society and politics.

“I guess I have no choice but to go to Greece myself.”

Marcus listened to the messenger’s story with a bitter expression.

He felt an indescribable regret in his heart when he heard of Sextus’ last moments.

‘I’m sorry, Pompey. I couldn’t keep my promise.’

He closed his eyes and kept them shut for a while.

He did it to calm down the emotions that were rising up.

After some time passed, he opened his eyes again and asked Septimus about the readiness of the troops.

The answer was the same as before.

150,000 troops were fully prepared, but there was one thing missing: the ships that could carry them all were not yet completed.

But luckily, or by the will of heaven, Sextus’s will gave Marcus a way out.

Sextus’s will, which stated that he would transfer all his authority and clients to Marcus, was officially made public.

And not long after, Gabinius showed up with all the ships he had gathered from Greece in front of the coast of Bithynia.

If Marcus added the ships he had built so far, he would have enough to transport 150,000 troops.

“Although he made a huge mistake, Sextus did his best to correct it.”

Marcus sent a report to the Senate that started with these words to honor Sextus’s memory.

Of course, the main content of the report was that he would take over Sextus’s place and reclaim Greece and settle this chaos.

The reply was not expected.

This was not a request, but a notification.

And it was also a declaration.

“Let all the troops gather at the port. From now on, we will go to Athens and take back Greece from the hands of the Huns!”

The soldiers did not waver at the words that they were going to fight against the enemy who had annihilated 200,000 Romans.

Rather, their eyes sparkled with a firm will and determination to avenge their compatriots.

They were Marcus’s army.

They had never lost a war or failed to subdue their enemies in front of them.

Finally, a huge fleet of ships that filled the sea left the port and started moving.

A few days later.

Bayatur’s army could clearly observe the endless ships coming from across the sea entering the port of Athens.

They couldn’t interfere because they were blocked by thick walls.

That’s how Marcus’s 150,000 troops landed in Athens as if they were showing off.

Naturally, neither commander had any intention of avoiding a fight.

From Bayatur’s perspective, if he defeated Marcus, he could practically take over Asia Minor, and from Marcus’s perspective, if he killed Bayatur here with only 70,000 irregulars, he could end the war right away.

The Larissa turn was painful, but Rome still had enough power to counterattack as a superpower.

Now it was time for the Huns, who had only been taking away until now, to defend what they had taken from Rome.

The End