Interlude: Battle of the Sikyon Plains

Sparta had been on the march, defeating an Achaean Army near Argos in a crushing battle that forced the Achaean League on the defensive before seizing Argos by subterfuge. King Archidamus of Sparta having embedded agents in the city in the form of troops pretending to be stragglers from the army that had been defeated in battle. Those troops were allowed into the city a mere day before the Spartan Army arrived to lay siege. They then opened the gates of Argos in the night, allowing Archidamus' army to seize the City by storm.

Another battle followed, concurrent with the Battles of Coronea in Boeotia and Oreos on Euboea, as Archidamus took an advanced force of twenty-five-thousand men ahead, leaving ten thousand behind in Argos to organize the conquered territory of Argolis. The Achaean League once more met him in battle before the walls of Orchomenos and were again defeated. Orchomenos surrendered shortly afterward.

Furthermore, with news of defeats on Euboea and Boeotia coming in as well, Elis declared for the Epirote-Aitolian-Spartan Alliance, switching sides and forcing their former allies in the Achaean League to crush the revolt. This they did brutally, as they could not afford to show such weakness, crushing the army of Elis and razing the city to the ground, carrying noncombatants back to Achaea in chains, and plundering the city's wealth in a single week of campaigning. Archidamus took the opportunity to attack and seize control of the town of Sikyon, whose forces had been sent to deal with the revolt in Elis and was fairly easy pickings for Sparta.

With Sikyon, Argos, and Orchomenos taken, however, the Achaean League was now cut off from their allies in Corinth. They, or the Corinthians, would need to march an army past Sikyon, where Archidamos and his Spartan Army sat in the City of Sikyon high on the plateau overlooking the fertile plains below.

This, as it happened, was what they attempted. A Corinthian Army under the young Strategos Alexandros of Corinth marched west to Sikyon and at the same time an Achaean League Army under the Strategos Margos of Keryneia, likewise a young officer, came marching east. Both Alexandros of Corinth and Margos of Keryneia were young, but Margos was especially Junior and ordinarily would still be commanding individual Chilliarchies, but the defeats that had been suffered at the hands of Archidamus left experienced Strategoi thin on the ground. Meanwhile, Alexandros was somewhat more experienced, but Corinth's best troops and officers had been sent north to aid Athens against Pyrrhus.

Archidamus knew of his opponents' inexperience and set forth to exploit it. He embarked on a strategy of divide and conquer, knowing that he might be capable of defeating the forces arrayed against him in detail if he moved swiftly and with cunning. To that end, he struck at the Achaean League force first. Margos was younger and even less experienced than Alexandros of Corinth was. If he could strike a telling blow on his army as they entered the Plains of Sikyon from the west, he would panic and order a withdrawal, then Archidamus could turn about and deal with Alexandros.

He would put this plan into effect on the twelfth of October, Two-Seventy-Nine. . .

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Margos of Keryneia had ordered that the march to Sikyon be made with all haste. Corinth was far closer to Sikyon than Aigio was, and if he hoped to link up with Alexandros of Corinth on time, he would have to move with as much speed as he could. To that end, he and his men had force-marched their way east to the Sikyon Plains. It had been difficult, and some of his troops had complained of the pace, but now, with the Plataeu of Sikyon on the horizon and the Sikyon Plains stretching out before then, Margos knew that it had been worth it.

As he rode at the head of the marching column, however, he couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong. There was a dust cloud that drew perilously near from the east, which could only mean a large body of troops were on their way. He and Alexandros of Corinth had planned to link up with each other before heading for Sikyon to give battle to the Spartans, perhaps that was his army?

"Red Banners!" Called out one of the men, as he pointed to the nearing dust cloud.

Margos frowned, squinting into the bright light of the harsh noon sun. Corinth's banners were blue and yellow. Athens' were blue, and there weren't any other Achaean League Armies in the area right now. If those banners were red, that could only mean that Sparta had come to face them.

"Form up for battle!" Ordered Margos.

The horns sounded as the Army of the Achaean League, some twenty-thousand strong, formed up into a battle formation on the western edge of the Plains of Sikyon. The men were tired, however, and forming up for battle on the fly was an exacting process at the best of times. Their formation was ragged and more haphazard than it would ordinarily be. As the Spartan Army appeared and formed up opposite Margos, he frowned.

Turning to his second, Margos ordered a runner to be sent to find Alexandros and the Corinthians. The Spartans had the advantages of numbers, discipline, freshness, and equipment on Margos' Force. If Alexandros didn't arrive swiftly with his army, the last field army that the Achaean League could muster for offensive operations would be crushed in short order.

The orders were relayed and several riders went out, running the gauntlet of the Spartan Army to try and bring a message to Alexandros' force. Two of the three riders were slain, Spartan Peltasts killing their horses with javelins and stabbing the couriers with daggers as they attempted to ride around the Spartan Flanks, but one managed to get through.

Margos had to hope that he would make it and Alexandros would come. It was the only hope his force had now to survive, never mind win this brewing engagement. Muttering a silent prayer to Tyche for luck, Margos turned his attention to the battle at hand. Soon enough, he would be in the fight of his life.

He could not afford to split his focus now. . .

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Archidamus of Sparta scowled as he watched the third enemy courier manage to dodge the shower of Javelins thrown by the various peltasts on his right flank. The man must have been born in the saddle or had Scythian Blood or something because he managed to expertly negotiate his way past their flank and ride off to the east. No doubt he was riding for the Corinthian Force to attempt to compel them to arrive with enough urgency to save the Achaean League's Army.

"No matter. It simply means we will have to finish up here swiftly. Sound the advance!" Commanded Archidamus.

The big, brass, warhorns that were now standard in the Spartan Army sounded off. These remarkable instruments had been an innovation of Pyrrhus that had been copied by armies around the Mediterranean. As the horns blasted out three, short, staccato, bursts, the Spartan Army moved into action.

A shower of javelins softened up the enemy ranks, slaying many more than would ordinarily be the case, owing to the raggedness of the enemy formations. As the enemy peltasts fired back, their aim was off as well. Very few of Archidamus' own peltasts were slain in the back-and-forth exchange of missile weapons. Normally at least a hundred would be killed or wounded in such an exchange, but Archidamus counted only a few dozen slain or wounded in the opening exchange.

"Ragged formations, lacking aim, did the boy Force March his troops into battle?" Wondered Archidamus from his position amongst the reserves of the Spartan Army.

As the missile duel continued in the same fashion as it had begun, Archidamus was forced to admit that yes, Margos of Keryneia had indeed done just that. The foolhardy boy had tired his troops out to meet with Alexandros in a timely fashion rather than simply coordinating their joint march to Sikyon the whole way from the beginning, as a professional would do. It was, Archidamus reflected, a mistake that likely would not have happened had a more seasoned commander been in charge of the Achaean League Army.

"This might be over sooner than I'd thought." He mused.

Then the peltasts on both sides broke off their missile duel, as the Phalangites, Hypaspists, and Thorakitai moved up into position. Spartan Peltasts streamed away, parting to reform behind the lines like water flowing off the back of a swan. By contrast, the Achaean Peltasts were slower and far more ungainly in their attempts to withdraw. They managed it, barely, just before the lines crashed into each other.

Almost immediately, the Spartans began to push back the ragged formations of the Achaean League forces, killing many and taking few wounds in return. For fifteen minutes that was the state of affairs and it appeared as if the Achaean League's formation would collapse. However, it seemed that Margos had ordered the reserves in to bolster his lines and the press slowed before eventually stopping at the twenty-minute mark.

The battle ground to a halt as a stalemate developed. However, with how tired the Achaean League troops were, and how ragged their formations were, such a stalemate would not, and indeed could not, last for very long. Margos had already fed his reserves into the lines to steady them, and as time ticked on closer to the one-hour mark, Archidamus knew that one last push would be needed to break the Achaean League forces.

"Send in the cavalry." Ordered Archidamus.

Another long blast of horns signaled the Companion Cavalry forth. Unfortunately, Sparta had none of the famed Nisean Horses that the Seleucids had traded to Epirus, and as such, they had no horses large enough to bear the weight of metal required for Kataphractoi. Sparta's Cavalry was still organized as Companion Cavalry, as the Cavalry of Alexandros Megas' had been. They were still equipped with high-quality iron weapons and armor and with the stirrups and hard-tree saddles that Pyrrhus had invented.

The Spartan Cavalry thundered forth toward the Achaean League Force's Flank. The Achaean League sent their own meager cavalry forth to try and stop the inevitable collapse from happening, but they didn't have enough cavalry of quality to contest the charge. The Spartan Cavalry crashed into the Achaean Cavalry and a fierce melee ensued that saw the Achaeans routed in five minutes of fighting. The Spartan Cavalry reformed for another charge and this time slammed home into the Achaean League's flank.

Ten minutes later, the rightmost Phalanx of the Achaean League Army broke, the formation collapsing in on itself under pressure from Spartan Infantry in front and Cavalry to the side. It routed and allowed the Spartan Cavalry to roll up the Achaean League line like a carpet, putting their entire damned army to flight. Of the twenty thousand Achaeans that had been force-marched to the Plains of Sikyon, only some six thousand would make it back to Aigio, with the rest either slain in the battle or missing after the rout. Margos would be among those who made it back to Aigio and was promptly dismissed from his position for incompetence.

In the meantime, Archidamus sent half his cavalry to follow the routing Achaeans while he kept the other half behind and reformed his army, this time facing eastward. It took fifteen minutes to reorient his forces. As it turned out, the Spartan Army reformed not a moment too soon.

The Army of Corinth had finally made it to the battle, charging at the recently reformed Spartans. Another twenty thousand troops from Corinth, these ones far more fresh, crashed into the Spartan Lines, actually pushing the Spartans back from the fury of their assault. However, Archidamus yet had reserves to feed into the lines to stabilize them.

After another hour and a half of battle, however, the other half of Sparta's Cavalry returned, appearing on the Corinthian Flank. Rather than suffer a repeat of his allies' defeat, Alexandros of Corinth ordered the retreat, sacrificing a rear guard of three thousand men to extract the rest of his army without delay. The rear guard tied up the Spartan Army for another hour before surrendering with half their number slain. The rest of Corinth's army, some fourteen thousand men, would live to fight another day, returning to Corinth with Alexandros of Corinth.

After four hours of battle on the Plains of Sikyon, Archidamus reigned supreme. He had utterly demolished one army, and beaten back a second in four hours of fighting, capturing some seven thousand prisoners in the fighting and the immediate aftermath and keeping Corinth and the Achaean League divided. To do so, he had only suffered three-thousand-five-hundred killed and wounded.

He would send his son, Eudamidas, west into Achaea with fifteen thousand men to compel the surrender of the remaining cities of the Achaean League. Meanwhile, he would take eleven thousand to besiege Corinth, picking up a further ten thousand reinforcements from Sparta along the way.

As October continued, Archidamus would settle in for a siege of Corinth, steadily bombarding the city and attempting to form a breach in the formidable walls with his Ballistae. It would turn out not to be the bombardment or any assault that would win Archidamus the siege, however. On the seventeenth of October, Archidamus would receive word of the Achaean League's surrender after their last force, a pitiful defensive army of a mere twelve thousand troops, had been defeated by Eudamidas south of Aigio. That same night, a plague of Ergotism from damp seeping into the stored grain supply of Corinth struck the defenders.

Five days later, Corinth surrendered after news of yet more defeats in Euboea and Attica reached them. . .

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AN: So yeah, Sparta is doing well here. It helps that the Achaean League is effectively a paper tiger. They sent a bunch of troops to Argos where they were soundly thrashed by Archidamus' Spartan Army, then lost more at Orchomenos, before losing even more due to Elis' revolt. The force that had been led to their doom by Margos was effectively, their last real offensive force, and anything they could muster afterward would be green troops with bad drill and poor equipment, plus a few thousand garrison troops.

Corinth fared better, but not too much better. They sent a bunch of forces north into Attica to bolster Athens' forces, which meant that Alexandros was sent as the Strategos. Alexandros isn't Corinth's best, those are fighting Pyrrhus in Attica. Accordingly, he played it cautiously and withdrew rather than sticking around to fight it out. If Alexandros had stuck around to fight, he might have managed to turn the tables on Archidamus' forces after they'd tired themselves out.

At any rate, the next chapter will be an interlude on Crete, then we'll be back with Pyrrhus.

Stay tuned. . .