Mediterranean Hegemon of Ancient Greece

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Segobani cursed angrily, his eyes turning red. He and Usebek were of similar age, and their tribal territories were adjacent, so they had played together since they were young, forming a deep friendship. This friendship was why Usebek had given up competing for the position of great chieftain when the previous Caudini great chieftain passed away. Instead, Usebek wholeheartedly supported Segobani, which allowed Segobani to defeat Kinduk and become the new great chieftain of the Caudini. Later, when the Theonians captured Segobani, it was Usebek, along with other chieftains, who resisted Kinduk's pressure to appoint a new chieftain and took the initiative to cooperate with the great chieftain of the other major Samnite tribes, eventually securing his release.

“Lesguk, it's hard to blame Segobani for being upset with you. Even after your decade-long tension with Garni, you failed to raise your vigilance against him, which led to you failing to detect the sign of Abellinum's rebellion in a timely manner. You bear significant responsibility for this failure!” Pentri's great chieftain, Badani, also voiced his criticism. Despite his reservations about going to war with Theonia, it was Lesguk who convinced them, leading to a series of losses for the Samnite Tribal Alliance and significant casualties for Pentri. Consequently, Badani's dissatisfaction with Lesguk continues to grow.

“Our homeland is now threatened with Theonia's massive army already entering the Samnite mountains. Thus, we must immediately prevent the enemy from encroaching on our land further and protect our territory and people!” Konteruk reminded them.

The Samnite Tribal alliance had a lacklustre sieging capability that, if it weren't for their previous plan to lure the enemy, they would have already withdrawn. Now that their plan to lure and encircle the enemy had failed, the other three no longer had objections to withdrawing.

“Lesguk, do you have any suggestions?” Konteruk asked him since the Theonian army was operating within the Hirpini territory, and Lesguk was more familiar with the situation there.

Of course, he won't say these words out loud.

Lesguk then looked at Segobani after saying that. He believed that even as he mourned the death of his dear friend in battle, the great chieftain of Caudini should have realised how much of a threat losing Beneventum would be to Caudium. After all, the two towns were next to each other, with only over a five-kilometre distance. Furthermore, Caudini is located on a small plain in the middle of a mountain range, so the terrain there wasn't dangerous; thus, he believed that Segobani would ultimately support him.

Hence, Konteruk also expressed his concern.

“Lesguk is right, so I agree to withdraw to Beneventum!” Segobani loudly expressed his support, completely setting aside his previous grief and anger when he cursed Lesguk.

As the four discuss the matter of withdrawal, Badani couldn't help but say, “Actually…we can consider having a truce with Theonia…”

However, Lesguk first spoke against it, "We had torn up our agreement, declared war on Theonia, invaded the Dauni region, and plundered the Campanian League, all of which are a serious offence to the Theonians. So, there is no way for the rigid Theonian king to ever make peace with us, especially since he wished he could eliminate us, who constantly caused trouble for him. Therefore, we can only continue fighting until there is a change in the situation.”

“Change? What changed?” Badani asked with a gloomy expression.

But he would not say this reason and instead found a much better explanation, “Badani, don't be a fool! Think of Taranto, who had torn up their agreement and fought Theonia! They surrendered to Theonia after the South-Italian War and became that whatever free city. But this resulted in their territories getting divided, their inability to even own their army, and their citizens being kept in captivity like livestock! Do you want us, the Samnites, to become the second Taranto?! Even if we want to make peace, we have to create more trouble for Theonia and force them to be the ones to initiate the peace talks for us to gain an equal footing in the negotiations and agree to a peace treaty that is more favourable to us!”

Faced with the strong opposition from the three great chieftains, Badani could only say, “You are right! We can only fight the Theonians to the end for us to have a way of survival…”

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

Not long after, the candles in the city hall of Neapolis lit up, and the high-ranking officials of Neapoliss, the allied archons who had taken refuge, and the strategoi of the allied reinforcements arrived one after another.