Noticing that the Romans were eager to return home and had not been vigilant and relaxed their defenses, Themistocles did not immediately chase the Roman fleet from the rear.
He ordered the entire army to bypass the rear guard of the Roman fleet from the west, and only after more than half an hour's journey beyond the left wing of the Roman fleet did Themistocles order the troops to form a line and attack the Roman fleet from the flank.
This tactic really caught the Roman fleet off guard!
By the time Caesar received the news, he knew that the Greek expeditionary force had caught up and attacked the left wing of the Roman fleet. The left wing of the Roman fleet had already collapsed.
The thousand ramming ships at the vanguard of the Greek fleet had rams improved by Archimedes installed on their bows.
Not only are they larger than ordinary rams, but they also have a cutting edge that extends deep underwater.
Coupled with the extremely fast speed of the Greek ships, the destructive power of the collision was far greater than that of ordinary battering rams.
The hundreds of warships that bore the brunt of the impact were smashed to pieces. The Roman soldiers on board fell into the sea and were eaten by fish before they could even launch an attack.
Only a few were lucky enough to grab the remaining wooden planks on the ship and were able to stay on the sea surface and cry out for help.
However, no one came to rescue them because the other ships on the left wing of the Roman fleet were busy with their own affairs.
After this decisive collision, more than 2,000 ships on the left wing of the Roman fleet were completely cut in half, splitting into two parts that could not take care of each other.
Immediately afterwards, the flamethrowers and catapults on both wings of the Greek fleet began to show their power, attacking freely while maintaining their formation.
Close, ignite with a direct jet of Greek fire.
Those that are far away will be blown up by bombs thrown by catapults.
Those bombs improved by Archimedes, when they landed on the deck of an enemy ship, could not only blow up a large area, but also serve as incendiary bombs.
Even if it didn't hit the enemy ship and fell into the water, it could still float on the surface. After the fuse burned into the interior, it exploded and created a large wave of water.
Morale was already low, and when faced with such an unstoppable attack method, how could the left wing of the Roman fleet hold out?
In just a few minutes, more than half of the Roman fleet's left wing, once so powerful, was annihilated. Fewer than a thousand warships remained, and they fled in all directions like frightened birds.
In fact, Themistocles was fully capable of hunting down and sinking these deserters one by one.
However, he certainly would not disperse his forces before completely destroying the main body of the Roman fleet.
Seeing that the right wing of the Roman fleet had collapsed, Themistocles immediately ordered his troops to continue the attack and rushed towards the center of the Roman fleet.
Caesar, who was in charge of the Roman center, saw the actual situation even if he did not receive the report.
This attack, beyond common sense, shocked Caesar, who was not good at naval warfare. Whether it was the speed of the ship, the effect of the ram, or the effect of the flamethrower and bombs, it was beyond Caesar's understanding.
He could only immediately order the entire army to disperse and evacuate in all directions to prevent being annihilated by the Greeks.
There is no other hope.
However, Antony, Caesar's most powerful general and an expert in naval warfare, was quite dissatisfied.
Antony was deeply resentful that the Greek expeditionary force had arrived so quickly. He regretted not alerting Caesar to this possibility sooner.
Now that they had been attacked by the enemy, Anthony felt that he had to show the bloodiness of the Romans no matter what.
Therefore, when Caesar had given up and began to organize a planned retreat, Antony still commanded more than a thousand Roman warships and launched a counterattack against Themistocles' Greek raiding fleet.
This was a one-sided massacre without any suspense.
Although the Roman soldiers were brave, they were helpless against a fatal generational gap in weaponry. Almost a hundred Roman warships were destroyed in the initial engagement with the Greek fleet's vanguard.
The traditional battering ram was no match for Archimedes' improved version. After the collision, the Roman soldiers fell into the water one after another, with heavy casualties.
However, they still fought on their own, trying to climb onto the Greek ships and engage in hand-to-hand combat.
Themistocles was also quite nervous about this life-or-death struggle, so he could only mobilize a large number of archers to shoot arrows at the enemy soldiers who tried to climb up, thus stabilizing the situation.
As for the two wings, the Roman fleet had no chance at all.
Greek fire was too powerful. Even if the Roman fleet tried desperately to board the enemy, they couldn't do so safely. They were always engulfed in flames by the Greek fire before they could even reach the enemy.
But even so, several of the burning Roman ships still struggled to get close to the Greek fire-breathing ships, hoping to die together.
Fortunately, Archimedes was well prepared and immediately put out the fire with a large amount of sea sand, which prevented the Romans' dying attack from being effective.
Antony, a great Roman general, was also burned to death.
After defeating Antony's counterattack, the Roman fleet had fled in all directions and there was no more organized resistance.
Secretly thanking his luck, Themistocles made a prompt decision and split the fleet into several small teams to chase and kill separately.
Seeing that their top general Antony had been killed, how could the Roman soldiers still have the courage to resist?
They could only flee desperately, betting that the Greek fleet was not chasing them in this direction.
If they found themselves unlucky and had become the target of a small Greek fleet, they would immediately surrender and give up resistance to avoid being sunk or burned to death, as the speed difference was too great to escape.
The harvest came to an end at nightfall.
Counting the results of the battle, Themistocles and Archimedes were both extremely happy. Of the Roman fleet of 10,000 ships, over 8,000 had been destroyed.
Although Caesar and Octavian escaped, even if that small number of troops returned to Rome, they would not be able to achieve anything in the short term.
The two men hurriedly wrote a report on the battle and sent someone to present it to the king, who was still hundreds of miles behind, asking for the king's instructions on the next step.
At the same time, hundreds of miles away on the flagship of the Greek coalition forces.
Xia Zhe had just finished dinner when Lillian walked in with two old men.
One of them, with a youthful face and white hair, was none other than the famous Greek sage Aristotle.
The other person looked even older than Aristotle, and his manners and speech were even better than Aristotle's, but Xia Zhe had never seen him before.
"Who is this gentleman?" Xia Zhe asked tentatively.
"Let me introduce him! This is my teacher Plato, the goal I vowed to surpass! However, now I have realized that my teacher sees things more clearly than I do. I will never be able to catch up with him in this lifetime!" Aristotle introduced frankly.
Plato!
Is it Plato, the second of the three great wise men?
Xia Zhe was filled with awe after hearing this and quickly asked the two to sit down and talk.
Sitting down without any hesitation and looking at Xia Zhe carefully, Plato finally started talking.
"King Strobius is such a young hero, and he has achieved unparalleled great achievements in just a few years. I'm afraid he is not from our world!" Plato said with a hint of meaning.
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