Imperator: Resurrection of an Empire
Chapter 204: The Eve Of Battle

Chapter 204: The Eve Of Battle

The days passed by quickly, Julius squared away his administrative work so that the nation would function without him for a few months and at worst a year while his Ministers took over the official duties.

In the meantime the people of The Eternal City rejoiced as Three legions set off, one heading West, while the other two headed south.

Before leaving Miri had approached the king and thanked him to the point of weeping on his pant legs for allowing Zeff to remain behind to tend to her rather than march once more off to war.

Julius tended to the young lady and sent her home, the young couple would in essence be the de facto rulers in his absence with Zeff having Military command while his wife Miri would run matters of state, this normally would be un-nerving for any ruler except Julius as this power couple had finally become the first of his loyal vassals.

Their Loyalty towards him capping out at 100 which locked them in, nothing he does now would cause them to betray him short of he himself giving the order to do so.

And so his new found nation was safe in their hands.

Julius meanwhile joined his men as the 10,000 Legionnaires marched toward Nova Carthago where they would be boarding ships, this time it would be a joint fleet, with a portion of the ships being the original Carthaginians Grand Fleet, while the other portion would be the Romanus created fleet sporting the newly designed ships, along with a series of transport cog style sailing ships.

The 10,000 men now scrambled up the gang planks bringing themselves and their packs of equipment with them, the dock workers meanwhile continued to load the ships will all the spare weaponry and provisions they’d be needing.

The soldiers themselves were visibly nervous as they had been informed as to where they were going, however the idea that they were to be led by their own King, and one many had already perceived to be a god-king at that boosted their morale to the point many cared not that they were unintentionally shivering in fear of the sea voyage and battles to come.

The Carthaginian peoples we also present at the docks ready to send off their lord but it was not Julius alone who they were cheering for.

Despite his protest, Serena had proclaimed herself to be the Grand Admiral of the Carthaginian fleet seeing as how her people still viewed themselves as a separate people not yet fully integrated into Romanus, this of course was quickly decided upon her hearing that Yuri was travelling abroad with Julius off to war for months, and while she’s not militaristic she was not about to let her rival get a leg up on her.

And so with Serena in command of the Carthaginian navy Julius being the overall commander in Chief, Yuri as leader of the Legions, and a newly ordained Romanus admiral the assembled force set sail from safe waters into the deep blue waves of the south seas.

The Romanus sailors had gained a great deal of proficiency in the last few months since they tutalage under the Carthaginians had begun and already the size of the Romanus Navy surpassed their allies, though this was only in the terms of quantity not quality just yet.

As the system kept advancing Romanus would develop better ships and in time the Carthaginians would be surpassed in both quality and quantity.

The voyage itself was fairly peaceful, control of the sea was almost entirely in Romanus’s hands.

Ramie had long since lost it’s ability to compete for dominance and the Greecian fleets were busy harassing the Spartans in their own war.

Germania and Dacia had limited navies themselves and tehy were at least on paper friends so no harm from there, and aside from that only unescorted merchants traveled the straights.

The trip from the heart of Romanus to the Spartan coasts would take around a week to complete during that time the crew carried on with their duties while Julius and his legions underwent further training.

In the last few month since he knew where his next target would be he’d had his men train in combatting Phalanx formations the strength of the Greecian infanty known as Hoplites.

These warrior were armed with large rounded shield and long spears forming a single impenetrable unit, at least that is the case if attacked from the front, but the Phalanx was weak at the flanks and from attack at the rear as all their offense and defense was aimed in a single direction and the unit could not move quickly or turn effectively.

His men under went drills to fight against the phalanx but also how to operate within on as well.

Combining their own circle down tactics into the phalax to increase their ability to fight longer while their enemies would drive themselves to exhaustion.

The training of new tactics as well were implemented.

These were all tools Julius planned to use in his campaign to reap the best possible results from the system by winning against an overwhelming forces with his paltry few, and at the same time impress upon the spartans the Romans own military ideology and culture.

Since they were at sea his men also took part in some naval drills practicing boarding tactics when the winds were calm and the rowers needed a break.

Julius competed in these war games against Yuri to see which could Capture the flag as it was of their enemy first.

At the same time Julius and Serena likewise competed in naval war games where one would attempt to out manuever the other as the navies key method of attack was still ramming aside from boarding.

The days passed and the three groups all saw their loyalty and resepct to their liege rise, for no matter how many times he was challenged to War Games, Single Combat or otherwise he never lost.

With a man who never loses what need they fear in the months ahead!