Second Battle of Grumentum
Summer, 279 BC
The day had arrived. If Coruncanius delayed much longer, Kristobolous would have equipment prepared to assault the city. He didn't need much, a mere pallisade, a flimsy wall of wooden poles, protected the people and Coffeium's army from his men. More men were coming, more men were always coming, but the issue would be decided with those who had arrived at this point.
The two previous defeats had seen fairly equal numbers of men taking the field, but this time the Republic had two advantadges. First, Tiberius Coruncanius was every bit the equal of Pyrrhos as a general and better than Coffeium, Kristobolous, or any of the other known Aiakid commanders in Italy. Secondly, the combined Roman armies of more than 27,000 outnumbered the attackers two to one. The interlopers had to be stopped here, or many more would pay the ultimate price.
Krisbolous began well, choosing a very defensible hillside to position his army. The ranks of infantry knew they would have to face him wherever he was.
He was not prepared to deal with Coffeium approaching from the northwest or the auxiliaries who had just arrived from the west, and in his indecision forfeited the high ground to Coruncainus who wheeled around him, and soon a pincer was formed in the valley.
His forces divided, he tried to crush Coffeium but could not off the fresh forces of Tiberius Coruncanius while doing so. Eventually it was one of the javelinmen in Laevinus' army that ended his command permanently ... another Aiakid general lay dead by Roman hands.
Even so, the late afternoon brought rain and the elephants tore through the lines of the infantry as they had before. The loss of their leader had not broken their spirits.
There was yet much light left on the hill when the last holdouts of the proud Greek phalanxes broke and gave up the struggle. Coruncanius knew this day would end differently than the report he had received of the defeats last year. The hill had belonged to the enemy in the morning, in the evening it would be back in Roman hands and Grumentum secured.
The Aiakids were crushed. Under a hail of javelins and constant pressure from the legion, the seemingly invincible elephants were eventually taken down. Only a thousand of the enemy made it off that hillside alive, and even those abandoned the fight, seeking refuge where they could in anonymity. An estimated 12,400 fell, the last of the great army of Pyrrhos.
Laevinus Coffeium's men bore the brunt of the losses with half his strength lost, another 3,600 men. Coruncanius received relatively light casualties of only about 1900 men and still has over 18,000, the largest force by far now in southern Italy.