Post by HeliosMegistos on Jul 19, 2022 21:44:31 GMT
Dawnverse History - 2nd Battle of Marathon
The last stand of the Heliades took place during the Great Transition, the era when the long stagnation of Rhomaion was forcefully cast aside by the Basilissa Apollonia VI to embrace the Industrial era brought about by the Age of Steam and the Theurgic Revolution least the Rhomaioi fall further behind their rivals. Their last stand fittingly took place at Marathon where the heavily outnumbered Heliades under the leadership of Ypostratigos Arenais Eosopoulou (the Basilissa's cousin) defiantly refused Apollonia's order to lay down their arms in return for full pardons and legal amnesty.
In response the 7th, 8th and 9th Lgions under the command of Megas Doux Leonidas Komnenos attacked them with support from elements of the elite Amazones and Spartiates warriors (who had modernized with the times unlike the aristocratic Heliades). The ensuing battle was an absolute slaughter resulting in the utter annihilation of Arenais men and women. Her own death marked the end of the Arenaic Rebellion and the formal dissolution of the Heliades as a distinct military force until their eventual reformation and dramatic reorganization nearly four centuries later under Baslissa Athenais III the Magnificent.
The 2nd Battle of Marathon is a particularly famous moment in Rhomaion history due to it being romanticized in popular culture and being commemorated by Legionaries themselves despite repeated attempts by Alexandria to present it's in a negative and hostile light. The heavily outnumbered Heliades managed to decimate the 7th, 8th and 9th Legions despite facing numerical and technological supremacy with legandary martial prowess and incredible telepathic ability... which would have won them the battle if not for the presence of the Amazones and Spartiates whose own telepathic and martial prowess matched and occasionally exceeded those of the Heliades themselves.
All in all 600 Heliades held out against 19,200 men and women for over 6 hours in one of the bloodiest single battles fought by the Heliades, exceed only by the absolute butchery of Heliade on Heliade infighting during the War of the Lionesses' between Apollonia II and Sosipatra I over a millennia beforehand. To this day Arenais is considered a tragic and sympathetic heroine by the majority of Rhomaioi and Basilissa Apollonia IV herself eventually found it politically expedient to posthumously pardon the Heliades a decade after the battl. As a distinct class of aristocratic warriors the Heliades ceased to exist and the age of Unicorn Cataphracts came an end with the triumph of the Legionaries who would soon become the new face of Rhomaioi military might like Hellenistic Hoplites, Macedonian Hetairoi & the Roman Legionaries of old.
The last stand of the Heliades took place during the Great Transition, the era when the long stagnation of Rhomaion was forcefully cast aside by the Basilissa Apollonia VI to embrace the Industrial era brought about by the Age of Steam and the Theurgic Revolution least the Rhomaioi fall further behind their rivals. Their last stand fittingly took place at Marathon where the heavily outnumbered Heliades under the leadership of Ypostratigos Arenais Eosopoulou (the Basilissa's cousin) defiantly refused Apollonia's order to lay down their arms in return for full pardons and legal amnesty.
In response the 7th, 8th and 9th Lgions under the command of Megas Doux Leonidas Komnenos attacked them with support from elements of the elite Amazones and Spartiates warriors (who had modernized with the times unlike the aristocratic Heliades). The ensuing battle was an absolute slaughter resulting in the utter annihilation of Arenais men and women. Her own death marked the end of the Arenaic Rebellion and the formal dissolution of the Heliades as a distinct military force until their eventual reformation and dramatic reorganization nearly four centuries later under Baslissa Athenais III the Magnificent.
The 2nd Battle of Marathon is a particularly famous moment in Rhomaion history due to it being romanticized in popular culture and being commemorated by Legionaries themselves despite repeated attempts by Alexandria to present it's in a negative and hostile light. The heavily outnumbered Heliades managed to decimate the 7th, 8th and 9th Legions despite facing numerical and technological supremacy with legandary martial prowess and incredible telepathic ability... which would have won them the battle if not for the presence of the Amazones and Spartiates whose own telepathic and martial prowess matched and occasionally exceeded those of the Heliades themselves.
All in all 600 Heliades held out against 19,200 men and women for over 6 hours in one of the bloodiest single battles fought by the Heliades, exceed only by the absolute butchery of Heliade on Heliade infighting during the War of the Lionesses' between Apollonia II and Sosipatra I over a millennia beforehand. To this day Arenais is considered a tragic and sympathetic heroine by the majority of Rhomaioi and Basilissa Apollonia IV herself eventually found it politically expedient to posthumously pardon the Heliades a decade after the battl. As a distinct class of aristocratic warriors the Heliades ceased to exist and the age of Unicorn Cataphracts came an end with the triumph of the Legionaries who would soon become the new face of Rhomaioi military might like Hellenistic Hoplites, Macedonian Hetairoi & the Roman Legionaries of old.