The lust for power is one of the most notorious desires.

- Tacitus (the greatest historian of ancient Rome)

As it turned out, the recruits that Pyrus had forcibly recruited in the city of Semon had no effect at all, and had instead become a burden to the nearly five thousand hoplites he had left behind; When the brutus family's catapults began to attack the walls of Semon, the recruits who had never experienced war immediately scattered and fled on the walls.

This confusion not only increased the casualties of the recruits themselves, but also exhausted the hoplites who were responsible for overseeing them; The hoplites always had to stand up at such times to stabilize the morale and strengthen the morale of the troops, but often ended up dying themselves under the stones of the enemy. The massive casualties of the heavy infantry directly led to the collapse of the recruits.

How much combat effectiveness can a collapsed recruit have? This is a self-evident question! As soon as the Brutus attack, the remaining hoplites immediately began to counterattack; But how could these hoplites, who numbered less than a thousand and were mostly wounded, withstand the attack of the elite hoplites of the Brutus family?

As for the large number of recruits, it only took a few more of the hoplites of the Brutus family to kill them fiercely, and it would be enough to make them lose their souls; Therefore, the first tentative attack of the Brutus family succeeded in taking the walls of Semon. The rest was simple, the gates opened by the first attacking armies heralded the end of the war.

Tiberius immediately ordered the army under the command of Gnaeus to launch an all-out attack on the city of Semon, and he himself and Nero's army began to set up camp outside the city; You can't take Semon and all the troops will march into Semon, and Semon City can't accommodate so many troops!

After arranging the affairs of the camp of the army, Tiberius entered the city of Semon with his generals; At this time, Gnaeus had already led his two legions to successfully take the city of Semon, and even the hoplites left by Pyrus to guard the recruits' families were all annihilated by the soldiers under Gnaeus.

After taking control of the entire city of Semon, Tiberius naturally learned of the information that Pyrus led the army out of the city in advance; Tiberius, though, didn't think Pyrrhus would actually return. In Tiberius's view, nine times out of ten, Pyrrhus led his main army away; Went in the direction of the city-state of Athens.

Gnaeus, Nero, and others offered to pursue Pyrrhus' army, but Tiberius rejected the proposal; In this regard, Tiberius explained that Pyrrhus no longer needed the Brutus family to solve it, and he himself chose a dead end. Not to mention that the strength of the Athenian city-state is not weak, with the distance between the Athenian city-state and the Spartan city-state, it is determined that Pyrrhus will not be better.

After all, it was well known that Pyrrhus had taken the city-state of Semon by force, once Pyrrhus led his army in the city-state of Athens or other central areas of the Greek peninsula; With the personality of the Spartan city-states, they would certainly send a large army to attack Pyrrhus. Gnaeus and Nero also agreed on this; The reputation of the Spartan city-state is really great!

Since the Brutus family no longer pursues Pyrrhus, it means that the war between the Brutus family and Pyrus has finally come to an end; Although the city of Semon was more prosperous and majestic than Apollonia, the main strategic direction of the Brutus family was still in the province of Epirus, so Tiberius still needed to lead a large army back to the province of Epirus.

As for the remaining army in the city of Semon, Tiberius decided to leave behind Ganeus and the First and Ninth Legions he led; With the occupation of the city of Semon by the Brutus, the region of Aeturia where the entire city-state of Semon was located would soon become the fourth province of the Brutus, so it was not an exaggeration to leave two legions of troops to garrison.

With the exception of the 1st and 9th Legions, which were to remain and garrisoned, the rest of the armies were naturally to follow Tiberius back to the province of Epirus; Among them, the Greek legion was originally 13,000 troops, and Tiberius selected 1,000 soldiers from the recruits in the city of Semon to supplement the Greek legion, making the Greek legion exactly 14,000 troops!

By the time Tiberius led his army to take Semon, Pyrrhus had already led his 25,000 hoplites into the territory of the Macedonian kingdom; However, Pyrrhus was not as lucky as he thought. As soon as he led his hoplites into the territory of the Macedonian kingdom, he was helplessly discovered by a Macedonian city near the border, and even attracted a Macedonian patrol!

Such misfortune could have led the Macedonian kingdom to war against Pyrus and his army, but the corruption of the Macedonian kingdom saved Pyrrhus and his army; After the city and patrol of the Macedonian kingdom discovered Pyrus and his army, they immediately began to move, and the Macedonian army of less than 3,000 people appeared in front of Pyrus's army.

Pyrrhus thought that this was a group of Macedonian army that was not afraid of death and was going to fight with him! Unexpectedly, they just came to blackmail themselves! Thus, after paying a toll of 200,000 gold coins, Pyrus successfully got rid of this group of moths in the Macedonian kingdom; Even got an official pass from the Kingdom of Macedonia!

With this caravan pass in exchange for 200,000 gold coins, Pyrus led his 25,000 troops all the way through the Macedonian kingdom at speed; After leaving the kingdom of Macedonia, Pyrrhus entered the territory of the city-state of Athens. The city-state of Athens was the overlord of the entire region of Attica and the leader of the city-state; But it's not the only city-state, and the region of Attica still has a large number of city-states.

After leading his army of 25,000 into the region of Attica, Pyrus first took a small city-state; In this city, Pyrrhus boosted the morale of his soldiers and allowed them to do whatever they wanted! This is already a blatant permission for the soldiers under his command to rape and plunder on a large scale, and those soldiers who have slept in the open along the way will naturally not refuse.

Thus began a brutal massacre, in which all the wealth of the city was plundered by the army under the command of Pyrrhus, and the young and beautiful young women could not escape their fate; The men who dared to resist were all killed! The fierce smile of the city and the army under the command of Pyrus has become the most disparity in the world, which is terrifying!

Such a huge movement naturally can't be hidden from other nearby cities, plus the people who have escaped from this city to report and ask for help; In just one day and one night, news spread throughout the region of Attica that Pyrrhus had led a large army to invade Attica. In this regard, it was the Athenian city-state that was most affected; They immediately understood what Pyrrhus really wanted to do, and began to actively prepare for battle.

The strength of the Athenian city-state was certainly not weak, but it was almost impossible to find a way to resist the 25,000 hoplites in a moment; As a result, the Athenian city-state immediately began to contact the nearby small city-states, wanting to join them in the fight against the invading army of Pyrrhus. Naturally, it was impossible for those small city-states to refuse the proposal of the Athenian city-state, and everyone quickly united.

However, the only ones who could unite with the Athenian city-state in time were a dozen or so small city-states near the Athenian city-state; Other city-states far away from Athens or too close to Pyrrhus were left alone. Pyrrhus led his army to conquer seven small city-states of Attica in succession, and also slaughtered seven cities in a row; This is when we arrived at the city of Athens!

At this time, Pyrrhus's reputation in the region of Attica was light in terms of brutality and inhumanity; After all, the Greeks hadn't experienced many such massacres of invaders. Ever since Pyrrhus began to slaughter the first city, his image has been utterly demonic in the minds of the Greeks; Moreover, he is still the kind of devil who is extremely vicious!

The city-state of Athens united with other smaller city-states to gather an army of nearly 30,000 men; However, there were only about 5,000 heavy infantry in the 30,000-strong army, and the rest were all light infantry. In addition, the training of the soldiers is insufficient and there is not much cooperation; It is no exaggeration to say that these 30,000 troops are simply not able to resist the 25,000 hoplites of Pyrrhus!

However, it is difficult to resist and not to resist; Everyone saw the atrocities of Pirus before, who wants their wives and daughters to be humiliated and their families to be slaughtered? So, in the absence of a chance to win; The allied forces of the Athenian states decided to take advantage of their geographical advantage and fight a street battle with the army of Pyrrhus!

When Pyrrhus led his army and began to attack the city of Athens with a ladder, the defenders on the walls were only 5,000 hoplites and 5,000 light infantry; The remaining 20,000 light infantry were all ambushed in the city, preparing for a fierce street battle with the invading army of Pyrrhus, so that the citizens of the entire western part of the city of Athens had taken refuge in the east, and the battlefield was vacated!

Pyrrhus's 25,000 hoplites were too strong for the defenders on the walls, but the defenders fought to the death to defend their families and their homeland behind them; The fierce battle lasted all morning, and after paying more than 8,000 casualties, Pyrus's army completely broke up the 10,000 defenders on the city walls, and the number of enemies destroyed was definitely more than 6,000!

Immediately after taking the city walls, Pyrrhus personally led the rest of his army into the city of Athens; The unusually quiet city of Athens alerted Pyrrhus. However, before Pyrrhus could react; Countless arrows and javelins were shot from both sides of the street. The arrows were extremely limited in their ability to kill hoplites, but the lethality of heavy javelins was quite impressive.

Unfortunately, it is best that hundreds of of these javelins were fired at Pyrrhus; It was almost impossible for Pyrus to dodge this round of javelins. However, Pyrus was surrounded by guards who were loyal to him; Faced with such a predicament, at least more than 20 guards directly pounced on Pirus to block this round of javelin rain!

Unfortunately, before Pyrrhus could recover his senses, a stone that came from nowhere hit Pyrrhus in the head; On the spot, Pyrus fell with a splattered brain! (To be continued.) )