Interlude: Battle of the Noumenia

Oreos was a decent-sized town. Two centuries ago, Athens had sent two thousand colonists to establish a large port on the Island of Euboea which had more than quintupled in size ever since. Oreos had ridden the ever-shifting waves of war adeptly, first revolting against Sparta just before the Spartan defeat at Leuctra had signaled the end of Spartan Dominance in Greece, then allying with Phillip the Second of Macedon before his victory at Chaeronea, before more recently tying their fortunes back to Athens during the aftermath of the Antigonid defeat at the Battle of Ipsus and the subsequent Independence War. Now, it seemed, those ties to Athens would be an anchor that threatened to drag Oreos down into the depths to drown.

The Town had been blockaded by sea and besieged by land for weeks by the time that the Strategos of Oreos, a man named Lysander the Grey for his gray hair and beard, heard word of Athens' defeats at Coronea and in the Peloponnese. Lysander the Grey understood then that no aid would be forthcoming from Athens with the City itself under threat. Twenty-nine-thousand men had been left out of the sixty-thousand that had fought at Coronea in Beoetia to flee back to Athens and prepare for an invasion of Attica, while the Athenian Allies in places like Corinth and Argos had suffered a similar crushing blow at the hands of Sparta. Really, the only place that their coalition seemed to be doing all right was in Crete, where the League of Polyrrhenia was still occupying captured territory.

With that in mind, Lysander the Grey decided that he had two courses of action available. First, he could maintain his position behind the walls of Oreos, stay besieged and blockaded in the hope that the Athenian Fleet would be able to win decisively against the Epirote Fleet in the Sporades, and sail to his relief. The chances of that weren't the best, unfortunately. Athens' once-mighty Navy had been forced to rebuild from scratch after forty-three years of foreign domination. While it had paid attention to advancements in Naval Technology, it still wasn't the powerful force it had been a century ago, not yet. It could have been, given another decade or so, but the Boule deciding to take a hard line against Epirus had seemingly ensured that they wouldn't have the time.

The other course of action, one which was not reliant on the Athenian Fleet, was to attempt to break out of the City toward the Eastern side of the Island. If Lysander could do that, he might be able to get some reinforcements from Chalkis and Karystos and possibly open up the war on Euboea to a battle of Maneuver. Chalkis should have a strategic reserve of forces he could draw from since it was the most important Polis on the Island, and if worst came to worst, Chalkis' walls were much more formidable than Oreos'. Of course, to succeed in a breakout, several things had to be taken into account. The enemy had twenty thousand men on Euboea aside from their blockade fleet, after all, a formidable force.

Lysander only had ten thousand of his own, though, unlike Athens, the Poleis of Euboea had kept up with the pace of military advancement instead of only paying attention to Naval Advancements as Athens had. They were equipped with High-Quality Iron Weaponry purchased through middlemen from Rhodes, and organized along Epirote Lines, with Thureophorai as well as Phalangites and a small amount of Cavalry equipped with Stirrups. Still, with twice the amount of besiegers as he had troops for his breakout forces, Lysander would need to be very careful. It would be best to attempt to sally forth under cover of night fortunately, the Noumenia, or New Moon, was coming up in a few days, which would allow his force maximum cover of darkness.

All Lysander had to do was hold out a few more days and get ready to break out. . .

XXXX

Nikephoros of Epidamnos was in command of the Epirote Forces in Euboea. A younger officer, his cousin Kleon had taken part in the great victories over Macedon. Now the City Fathers of Epidamnos had determined that Nikephoros live up to his name and bring victory on Euboea. There was quite a bit invested in their family and so far, it had paid off. Nikephoros' cousin Kleon, called Kleon the Younger to distinguish himself from Kleon of Pydna, the Macedonian General who had sworn himself to Pyrrhus King and received the governorship of Sardinia for it, been rewarded by Pyrrhus with the position of Governor of Epirote Magnesia. It was hoped that Nikephoros might receive a similar position in Euboea and thus increase Epidamnos' influence in the Empire once again.

Thus far, the sweeping aside of the fleets of Euboea and the small Shore Guard Force at Cape Lichada had proved that Nikephoros could bring victory when the odds were in his favor. Now the world was about to see if he could do the same when the odds were stacked against him. Approximately one month into the campaign, while the Epirote Forces were still besieging Oreos, a night assault on the Epirote Camp would take place as the Athenian Forces in Euboea sallied forth from the City in an attempt to break out during the new moon.

It started quietly, with Peltasts from Chalkis creeping out to silence the sentries ahead of the main attack force. In the darkness provided by the night of the new moon, many of the Chalkian Peltasts were able to sneak up and take out the sentries along the siege lines with daggers and short blades. Fortunately for Nikephoros, one of the sentries spotted his attackers thanks to an ill-timed step on the part of the Chalkian snapping a fallen branch. The Sentry raced off to alert the camp, resulting in the alarm being raised mere moments before the main assault force attacked the Epirote Siege Camp.

Nikephoros, awoken by the raising of the alarm, had to make a split-second decision. There was no time for his troops to don their panoply. There was barely time to grab weapons and shields before the enemy assault came. He would have to send men to face the enemy practically naked. His decision, such as it was, was to keep ten thousand troops back to armor up while sending ten thousand to confront the attackers immediately with whatever they could grab. In effect, Nikephoros would be sacrificing a great portion of the unarmored ten thousand to buy time for his remaining forces to don their panoply. It wasn't a decision he made lightly, but he made the decision all the same. Nikephoros armored up with his reserve of ten thousand as men from various contingents grabbed weapons and shields and charged to meet the attacking enemy.

As he began to fasten his steel-scaled linothorax on, Nikephoros prayed to Ares he had made the correct choice. . .

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Krateros of Methone thrust his spear through the armpit of an Oreoi Thureophorai as he attempted to cut down at a fallen Thorakitai from Meliboia with his Falcata. Wrenching the spear out of the Oreoi's body, the Meliboian Thorakitai stood and lunged with his own Falcata in a sideways slash. Krateros dodged instinctively, only to see that the Meliboian wasn't attacking him. A Phalangite from Chalkis had rushed them from the side with a Xiphos and now was choking on his own blood, the Meliboian's Falcata having cleaved through the front of the Chalkian's neck. With a wrench, the Meliboian pulled his Falcata out of the corpse of the Chalkian Phalangite, turning to Krateros and nodding.

"My thanks." Replied Krateros.

"A balancing of the scales." Intoned the Meliboian.

"I am Krateros of Methone." Introduced Krateros.

"Temenos of Meliboia. These cowards attacking at night must be a sign that we're winning at least." Spat the Meliboian, Temenos as he kicked the corpse of the Chalkian Phalangite.

Krateros frowned, looking around at the chaos of the fighting in the camp. Because of how the tents were laid out and the suddenness of the alarm, the whole thing resembled a tavern brawl more than it did an orderly battle. Men fought in small groups, clustered around tents, storehouses, and animal pens. They fought with shields and whatever weapons they could retrieve on short notice. All around them, corpses of a number of their Lochos lay around them, eighteen in all. They'd taken out thirty-six enemy soldiers, but that was small consolation. It was a vision of what Krateros thought Tartarus must be like, utter chaos and death all around. He shook his head at the scene and turned back to Temenos.

"I do not know if we can call this winning." Huffed Krateros.

"Come on, word was there was a contingent from Dolopia heading toward the Ballistae. If we can join with them, we stand a better chance of getting out of this alive." Offered Temenos.

"Lead on." Nodded Krateros.

As they moved, Krateros found that the Chaos that had engulfed their Sub-Lochos was not unique to them. Each of the four Sub-Lochos of their eighty-strong Lochos was engulfed in battles with small groups of enemies. Krateros and Temenos helped out wherever they could. In one instance, Krateros' spear was thrust through the breast of a charging horse, snapping off as the animal threw its Chalkian Cavalryman to break his neck on the ground. In another, he and Temenos charged the rear of an enemy formation, throwing their assault on a supply tent into disarray. Each time, they picked up survivors of the other Sub-Lochos, until they had a force of fifty-nine men to bring with them to aid the Ballistae.

When they arrived, they found a Lochos of mixed troops from Dolopia and Hestaeotis defending the siege engines from an attack by a large group of five hundred enemy troops, over six times their number. Fortunately, their arrival helped even the odds some as they crashed into the enemy rear, charging into them with fifty-nine men. Krateros chopped and hacked with his pilfered Falcata, cutting down a pair of Peltasts from Karystos while Temenos did the same to a pair of Thureophorai from Oreos. As Krateros struck out with his shield, snapping the neck of a Chalkian Hypaspist, the enemy force began to react more cogently to being hit in the rear, rear ranks turning about to fight back. Temenos took a stab from an Oreoi Xiphos to his shoulder and fell back with a cry of pain, even as Crateros felt his thigh opened up by a cut from a Karystoi Falcata and gave ground.

All along the line, it looked as if the sheer numbers of the enemy, plus their armor, would win them the day even with being attacked in the rear. Krateros prayed to Tyche for some stroke of luck to get them out of the trap that was being turned around on him. Somehow, the Goddess of Good Fortune must have heard him because she answered in a big way. A horn rang out with a loud blast and suddenly a group of one thousand, armored, Thorakitai streamed forth from the direction of the center of the camp to slam into the right flank of the enemy troops, washing them away like a stream washes away leaves in autumn. When it was over, Krateros collapsed next to Temenos, whose shoulder was busily being slathered in medicinal pastes and stitched up by one of the Army's physicians. Somehow, they'd survived.

Thank Tyche. . .

XXXX

Nikephoros looked over the butcher's bill from the Battle of the Noumenia. It was a lot steeper than anyone had thought a battle on Euboea would be. It would have been a lot worse had not the Thessalian Contingents acted with courage, wisdom, and alacrity. All around the outer districts of the camp, the Thessalians had linked up with one another, supporting each other and contingents from elsewhere, whenever the situation allowed. Already, they'd lost five thousand killed and wounded in the attack, but had the Thessalians not been decisive it could have easily been seven or eight thousand, possibly even worse. There had been a very real chance the enemy could have broken out in the attack, after all.

Fortunately, they had bought time for the Contingents from Epidamnos, Nymphaon, and the other Adriatic Greek Cities and Hellenized Illyrians to armor up and push forward. They swept the Euboeans before them, killing five thousand and taking four thousand wounded as prisoners, leaving a mere one thousand to withdraw back behind their walls. As soon as order had been restored in the camp, Nikephoros had ordered the bombardment of the walls to continue and not to cease until a breach had been made. It took three days, but on the fourth of October, two-seventy-nine, a breach was made. As Nikephoros gathered troops for an assault, a rider sallied forth under a flag of parley from the city.

Two hours later, the remaining one thousand men inside Oreos marched to join their fellows in captivity. At the head of the column, a grey-bearded Man with a bandaged head marched. The Strategos, Lysander the Grey surrendered the City of Oreos to Nikephoros personally. It seemed that despite the night attack, Nikephoros had indeed lived up to his name and brought victory. Now it was on to Chalkis to see if he could do so again. It shouldn't be difficult, Chalkis' strategic reserve, though containing the remainder of the troops on Euboea, was only a further twelve thousand men. As it would turn out, those ten thousand would choose to make a stand two weeks later on the eighteenth of October, Two-seventy-nine, at the Lelantine Plain.

That battle would effectively decide the fate of Euboea. . .

XXXX

AN: All right, here we have the Battle of the Noumenia, during the New Moon of September of Two-Seventy-Nine. It very easily could have gone badly for Nikephoros and the Epirotes, but thankfully, the Thessalian Contingents of the Army on Euboea were smart and linked up with each other to better withstand the sneak attack. That let Nikephoros gather ten thousand, better prepared, troops for a counterattack. If not for that, and the lucky sentry that managed to sound the alarm, things could have gone very badly for Epirus here.

Fortunately, that wasn't the case, and things worked out well enough for the Epirotes. Yeah, they took a lot of casualties, but they were able to repulse the attack and force Oreos to submit. If they can beat Chalkis at the Lelantine Plain, Euboea will effectively be theirs. Chalkis, though, is a major Polis. Not Athens big, not even Corinth big, but big enough to be a problem, with twelve thousand men between them and Karystos to fight at the Lelantine Plain, they almost have numerical parity with Nikephoros' remaining troops.

At any rate, next up will be an interlude with Sparta as they march into Achaea.

Stay tuned. . .