Originally Posted by
Giovi
great aar
Τhank you friend Giovi, grazie!
Now the next chapter of the Tarentine AAR will be the capture of Σύβαρις (Sybaris).But before that,someone will wisely ask,why you want to capture Sybaris and not any other city near Taras?Well Sybaris is a major settlement and thats why i will post a small history evidence about the greatness of Sybaris (i will try to create a history overview for any settlement i am about to capture).
ΣΥΒΑΡΙΣ
ΜΙΑ ΑΠΟ ΤΙΣ ΥΠΕΡΔΥΝΑΜΕΙΣ ΤΗΣ ΜΕΓΑΛΗΣ ΕΛΛΑΔΑΣ
Sybaris: one of the superpowers of Magna Graecia
(7th-6th century B.C.)
During the end of the 8th century B.C. the Peloponnese Achaean founded in South Italy a series of colonies,which grew up and evolved in to strong city-states.Between them Sybaris was the most recognized.Sybaris (but also ΚΡΟΤΩΝ-CROTON-in these years was so strong)soon evolved in to superpower,with the biggest army,and great economy.An alliance between Sybaris and Croton with the intension of the destruction of the Ionian colony Siri (remember Siri from the conflicts with Taras?) ended in a bloody war between them (Sybaris and Croton).The end of the wars was the destruction (military and economically) of Sybaris, depriving from Magna Graecia the military force for the hard times in the future.
Founder of Sybaris and leader of the colonists was a person called "ΙΣ" (Is)
,he brought with him colonists from "Ελίκη"(Eliki),"Βούρα"(Voura) and from "Αιγές της Αχαϊας"(Achaean Aiges).The two sides of "Μεσσήνη" (Messini) were already colonized by "Ευβοείς" (Chalki) who founded "Ρήγιον" (Rhegion) and "Ζάγκλη" (Zankle).Year after year Sybaris was growing stronger and stronger with new colonies like Παλίνουρο (Palinouro),Μόλπη (Molpe),Λάο (Lao),Σκίδρο (Skidro),Κερίλλους (Kerillous),Αρίνθη (Arinthi),Αρτεμίσιο(Artemisium),Βρυστακία (Bristakia),Δρύς(Dris) and many others.In the middle of the 6th century B.C. Sybaris reached the peak of her glory,the perimeter of the city wall was 9 klm long (50 Στάδια),inside of the city 50000-80000 were living.The state of Sybaris reached 6500-8000 klm2 and by some sources included also four races of inhabitants (Οινωτρών-Oinotron) and 25 minor setllements of their.The state of Sybaris had 400000 free citizens (about 100000 Greeks and 300000 Italians),from them about 100000 of all free citizens were adult men.The army of Sybaris consisted by a large number of infantry and smaller but powerfull cavalry(like all city states in Magna Greacia,despite the states in Metropolitan Greece,such as Sparta,Athens,Macedonia etc etc).For the infantry we will assume that was including from Phalanxes (consisted by Greeks only) and from "Ψιλούς"-Skirmishers like akontistes,toxotes.Only Italians served as Psiloi.The army of Taras was about 70000 men (65000 infantry and 5000 cavalry).A notable issue is that a small part of cavalry was from the Italian nobility.Also the number of 70000 army is not the number of active men at arms,many of then were in garrison squads in every city,for trade safety escorts and the majority of Italians were farmers!!So in a state of war the real number of the army of Sybaris was 30000(no more no less).The destruction of Sybaris by Croton started when "Τήλυς" (Tilis) a tyrant,took power in Sybaris by force,a lot of Sybaris nobles found shelter in Croton,when Tilis demanded Croton to give the refugees to be executed in Sybaris and Croton refused,he executed 30 Crotonian dignitaries in the city of Sybaris.Because of the once more unnecessary death of innocents by Sybarites (51 Siris priests in the Temple of Athena were executed in the Sybaris-Siri war in the past) the great war between the two Achean great powers in Magna Graecia started (511-510 B.C.).The army of Croton was smaller than Sybaris but a lot better in quality(Croton was well known about his athlets).Μίλων (Milon,the greatest Olympic games athlet in the history of Croton)dressed like Hercules was the leader of the 10000 army of Croton also with 1000 men of the Spartan commander Δωριέας (Dorieas,brother of Kleomenous -Kleomenous was King of Sparta-,he went to support Croton for political benefits) while Tilis was the commander of the 30000 army of Sybaris (some ancient historians talking about 300000 Sybarites and 100000 Crotonians,but this seems unrealistic).The decisive batlle took place in the borders between the states,somewhere north of Petilia.Croton army managed to neutralize the famous cavalry of Sybaris and the result of the battle was natural(Croton soldiers were better in quality than Sybaris).When the battle ended all the survivors of the Sybaris army fortified themselves in the city.They managed to survive 70 days besieged by Croton armies,but when the Crotonians created a gap in the walls (they managed to turn the water of the nearby river Krathi straight to the defensive walls) Sybaris suffered a terrible disaster.The disaster was so cruel that little ruins of the city exists to study in our days.Tilis was killed by the people of Sybaris as the only person responsible for the destruction.An irony is that the majority of the citizens of Militos weeped for the Sybaris destruction for a lot of days,because they had very close relations through trade (cultural and economically),Militos people never imagined that in 494 B.C. Persian troops will destroy their city.Croton was very smart and occupied only the rich cities of the former city-state of Sybaris,leaving Sybaris city free.