Mediterranean Hegemon of Ancient Greece

When the news of Dionia's conquest of Bruti reached Syracuse, Dionysius was accompanied by Massias to inspect the construction of the defensive fortress in Syracuse.

Seeing the project nearing completion, he was delighted when he heard the news, and his face immediately became somber, and he cursed at once: "Damn Carthage, hindered my plan!..."

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In the early spring of 397 BC, Carthage Sofitel Shimilko led an army of 100,000, departed from the city of Carthage, and successfully landed in Sicily after a small battle with the Navy of Syracuse at sea, and Soon, the traitors were taken away, and they easily captured the city of Elix in the west of Sicily, and then attacked Motia successfully.

The Syracuse army was forced to withdraw from the siege of Segasta. Instead of chasing after victory, Shirmicko destroyed the city of Motia and built a new city near the seaside near it. Lili Bi.

When Carthage's army stopped advancing, the cautious Dionysius stood in the city of Syracuse.

Shortly after the foundation was laid for Lili Ping New City, Shirmico led the army to continue the offensive to the east.This time, instead of following Syracuse's offensive line last year, he took a boat around the northeast corner of Sicily and easily won the undefended Messina.

The fall of Messina was a great stimulus to Lijim on the other side of the strait.This great Greek city-state, which has relied on a favorable geographical location and prosperous port transshipment trade, has been quietly communicating with Carthage for many years to prevent Cosy from being coveted by Syracuse to the Strait of Messina.Suddenly, the friendly, alien city-state showed fangs, and captured Lijim's sister city-Mexi.Why is it a sister city-state?Because Messina was first established by the joint colonization of Kumay and Calkis, it was originally called Zankelet, and later it was renamed Messina because of the arrival of the Messenian immigrants.The Messina people realized early on that the other side of the strait must be in their own hands to ensure safety, so they encouraged the mother state of Kumai and the Mesenians to establish the friendly city of Lijim.

Li Jim felt panic, and they quickly made a decision to send a messenger to the headquarters of the Southern Italian League in Siriting, requesting to join the League.At this point, in addition to Lockley and its affiliated city-states, all other Greek city-states in Greater Greece had a covenant with Dionia.

After Silmico completely destroyed the city of Messina, in order to please the Sicilian native of eastern Sicily, he and Carthage attacked Syracuse, so he was preparing to build a new city on the south coast of Messina. ——Taoromenon, presented to the Sikels.

In March, Dionysius felt that he could no longer allow the Carthaginians to continue attacking its affiliated city-states. If they did nothing, the allies would probably fall to Carthage.So he mobilized the two sea and land troops to advance north to the Catania Plain.

In the waters near Katane, a sea battle broke out between Syracuse and Carthage.There were originally more Greek warships than Carthage, and they also had an advantage in equipment.However, Dionysius was a mere kinship, and his brother Leptinius made a mistake as a naval commander, resulting in the defeat of the Siracusa Navy and heavy losses.

The Greek troops on land watched the naval battles on the shore, and as a result saw the naval tragedy, they began to shake their minds.

Fortunately, the land army led by Sirmico did not arrive in time because the Etna volcano in the southwest of Tauromenian suddenly erupted in the past few days, and the hot volcano sprayed down, destroying the southward The road, the dark volcanic ash covered the sky, making the Carthage army have to choose to bypass.

In awe, the Syracuse army sang the carols of Hephaestus, and hurriedly returned to Syracuse. Katana and Leotini fell into the hands of Carthage.

With the aftermath of the victory in the naval warfare, Shimilko led the army to finally reach Syracuse. The Carthage navy also sailed into the big port of Syracuse, and then they camped on the banks of the Alapps River, trying to land and sea. Siege of Siracusa.

But at this time, Dionysius was anxious to send a messenger to Italy, such as Campania, the Greek motherland Corinth, Spartan and other city-states, seeking them to provide emergency assistance.Although Great Greece is the closest place to Syracuse, Dionysius consciously or unintentionally ignored this area, and did not seek help from the alliance of the Southern Italian overlord Dionia.

It is also impossible for Dionia to send troops without invitation, which would make the Sicilian suspect ulterior motives.Moreover, after frequent wars and rapid expansion, Dionyssia also needs time to recuperate, consolidate, and integrate, so the Greek city-state in Sicily faces a critical moment of total fall. The Dionysians, and Southern Italy The Greeks had complicated feelings and watched from the water.

Greek reinforcements came from all over the place, especially Sparta dispatched the young general Phoebe Das to lead 30 warships and 500 hundred Spartan fighters.

At this time, the people in Syracuse started a riot with the encouragement of interested people, and they wanted to oust Dionysius from power.Fibidas led the Greek coalition from all over to stop their riots, but they complained to Fibidas: It was because of Dionysius’ bad command that Siracusa was in trouble and the people Lost loved ones.At the same time, he also counted the brutal rule of Dionysius in the country, and begged the Spartan allies to help them get rid of the shackles of this tyrant.

Filipidas remembered Agsiluos's previous advice and raised his face to tell them: The Spartans came to Syracuse to help Dionysius fight Carthage, not to help Syracuse People overthrow Dionysius!He hoped that the rioting people would quell their anger and work together to drive away the Carthaginians who had already arrived.

At the same time, he also asked Dionysius to make a guarantee: from now on, people who participated in the riots must not be retaliated against, and future rule will be more tolerant.

With the full support of the Spartans, Dionysius temporarily passed a difficult situation.

After the Carthaginians settled outside the city, they began to destroy all the facilities outside Syracuse.They not only destroyed farmland, villages and towns, but also blasphemed the deity.It not only destroyed the Temple of Zeus on the heights of Pope Clay, but also robbed the temples of the two goddesses Demeter and Persephone.

This blasphemous behavior angered the Syracuse people, and the two sides had many small-scale land and sea battles outside the city and in the big port, with half the battle.

The stalemate of the war and the arrival of summer, as the temperature rose, the situation began to benefit the Syracuse, because the mosquitoes in the swamps near the Aspra River increased, and the bitten Carthage soldiers were tortured by the plague The number of deaths is increasing.

At this time, Dionysius, who was suffering from internal and external pressures, also inspired his wisdom to formulate an ingenious attack plan: after marching in the dark and using tactics to mobilize the enemy, the navy and the army simultaneously attacked the weakness of the enemy fortress. side.

The Carthaginians suffered low morale because of the plague, and they were unable to fight back against the Syracuse offensive.

At the cost of the lives of thousands of mercenaries, Dionysius successively captured the fortresses of Polykna built by the Carthaginians on the Alapps River and the fortresses built on the coast of Dascon, while The defeat of the Carthage navy, the Carthaginians suffered heavy casualties, and the Chinese army camp of Simirko was surrounded in the middle. The camp was in chaos, and it was in danger of being overthrown by the whole army.

Just then, Dionysius ordered to stop the attack.

That night, the Carthage Barracks and Dionysius' secret envoy frequently interacted.

For the next three days, the two sides remained calm and no fighting took place.

By the evening of the fourth day, Simirko only led the remaining 30 three-tier paddle warships to escape from the big port, abandoned most of the Carthage soldiers, allied forces and mercenaries, they were eventually met by Syracuse And the annihilation of its allies.

After the victory, Dionysius did not chase after the Carthages, completely recovered Sicily, and drove the Carthages out of the island.Because the previous Syracuse crowd forced the palace has made him deeply aware that only when the forces of Carthage continue to exist in Sicily, his arrogance can be guaranteed, so he not only freed the remaining army of Simirko , And did not continue to sweep the colonial towns of Carthage in Sicily, but began to focus on fighting against the Sicilian indigenous Sicilian forces in the eastern inland areas, because in this war, the Sikels became Carthage’s The accomplice caused a lot of trouble for Syracuse, making him feel that the Greek city-state on the island of reunification is not enough. He must expand Syracuse’s sphere of influence in the Sikel settlement and completely transform eastern Sicily into A piece of iron.

The army of Syracuse began to conquer the towns of the Sikels, such as Mogantina, Kefaloi Dion, Henna, etc., and forced more Sikel forces to sign subsidiary agreements with him.

He also surrounded the only seaside city built by Similko for the Sikels, Tauro Merion, but failed to capture it for a while.

By the second year (ie 396 BC), the power of Syracuse had expanded northwards to the northeast corner of Sicily.

On the ruins burned by Carthage, Dionysius reconstructed Messina, and the residents of the new city of Messina consisted of the colonists of Lokri and Medema, the allies of Syracuse, which mainly enveloped His allies in Greater Greece, as well as the hundreds of Mesenians who had just been driven out of their homes by the Spartans and had no fixed homes, had no kinship with the Ligims.

But soon, the Spartans sent messengers to express their dissatisfaction with Dionysius' placement of Spartan enemies in such an important city.