The Last Roman: Honour Part 13

At the same time the centre-left Roman cavalry, light but fast, emerged from behind the middle ditch and took them in the other flank, the confusion caused by the twin surprise a.s.saults immediate and obvious. The Sa.s.sanids, who were thrown into a muddle as some turned to face the new threats while others kept up the a.s.sault on Bouzes, who realised that he too had an opportunity and stopped his retreat, sounding the horns to advance.

The cataphracts were thrown back into a cl.u.s.ter in which they struggled to employ their weapons, pressed on all sides by Romans stabbing with spears and swords, with knife-carrying skirmishers in their midst seeking to cut their stirrups while from their rear a hail of arrows rained down on the crowded centre.

a.s.sailed on three flanks the cataphracts lost all cohesion and broke into individuals seeking to save themselves, and within a blink the attack had turned into flight. Flavius Belisarius had abandoned his hillock and was working to get ahead of his Romans with his mounted comitatus. He and his personal troops had to form a line that stopped the victorious cavalry from indulging in a pointless and dangerous pursuit.

At the same time Solomon was calling forward a ma.s.s of citizens from Dara armed with a variety of tools, their task to repair the ditch and re-form the defence as soon as Flavius forced his own men back to the right side of the line, working to get them to re-form, for the next attack could come soon.

Procopius beamed at him when he finally got back to his position of command. 'Would I be allowed to offer my congratulations, General Belisarius?'

'Save them until we have beaten the Sa.s.sanids, which we have not done yet!'

CHAPTER FIFTEEN.

Even through the cloud of dust Flavius could see how many of those heavy cavalry had got clear. Driven off they might be but they would re-form and the Romans would have to face them again. All around him those that had fallen were being stripped of their armour while the non-maimed horses were being shepherded back towards Dara. The Roman archers reclaimed arrows that had missed flesh to end up stuck in the ground.

They were not to be left in leisure to carry this out. A line of infantry began marching right at his centre, to their fore men who would adopt the same obstacle-destroying tactics that had just been set in reverse. Once the ditch was rendered crossable, the a.s.sault would become a trial of strength as the front lines of each army fought a close-combat battle, one which allowed for little skill and much muscle and so it proved.

In places his line bent, in others it was the Sa.s.sanids who were forced to concede ground, yet that was not translated into a Roman advantage, as whoever commanded the central attack moved his reserves to sh.o.r.e up a position. As had now become common, Procopius wanted it explained to him. Flavius pointed out that the highest number of his cavalry were behind the fighting infantry, including the bucellarii.

'The object is to fix them in place before he launches the main a.s.sault, which must come soon as there is only so much daylight left.'

'Where will it come?'

'If it were me it would be in the same place. We can't surprise him from behind that hillock twice and the ditch repairs have to be easier to break down than what they had to destroy the first time. Against that we are able to move reserves without his being able to see it and it would have to be guarded against, which might blunt what happens to the front. Pharas is now back alongside Bouzes, so from where Perozes is looking that may seem a more formidable point to attack than previously.'

'And if he breaks the centre?'

'He won't!'

There are times in a battle when a sort of hiatus descends; it is not that nothing is happening, more that little is changing, though it is also a situation that cannot last forever. For Flavius the advantage of being in defence was bearing the fruit for which he had hoped. It was his opposite number who had to make all the tactical decisions, which allowed him to be reactive. But there was another string to his personal bow and one, if Perozes obliged him, that would prove decisive.

He was thus pleased to see that the central infantry attack was not being too ardently pressed, it was exerting just enough pressure to keep his men engaged and now Perozes had sent forward his ditch destroyers on the Roman left, while behind them once more the cataphracts had formed their lines in preparation to follow. It was what lay to their rear that gave the plan away; there were the Sa.s.sanid light cavalry, put in place to pursue a beaten foe once their more puissant comrades had created the necessary s.p.a.ce.

Hermogenes pointed out to Procopius that this would be the main a.s.sault. It may have been decades since he had soldiered but he had seen enough to make sense of what lay before him, which was just as well, given Flavius needed to hand over tactical responsibility.

'I will need your good advice, Hermogenes, for staying here you will see what I cannot. If you think my plans are set to fail I need you to tell me.'

The older man just nodded as Flavius Belisarius rode off, his comitatus in his wake, to take command of the bucellarii. Once with them he would only see that which lay right before him.

In the letter Procopius wrote to Constantinople he outlined how the Sa.s.sanids had pressed on the right in the same manner as they had on the left against Bouzes. Even he, a non-military man, could discern the reasons for Perozes throwing his men forward on his left wing; there was no way they could be surprised by a sally from behind a hill for there was none, just the meandering stream in a deep gully that fed water to Dara and formed the right-flank defence of the Belisarius position.

Before long it appeared to be an attack that was on the verge of success; the same tactics produced the same result: a destroyed ditch, planking used to get onto even ground and equal terms, the pressure from the heavily armoured cataphracts forcing back the Romans, but once more it was with an unbroken frontage. What neither of his forward tactical commanders could see was the way that was going to be countered, for Bouzes and Pharas, those they could see and not already fighting, remained in place.

Flavius Belisarius had hors.e.m.e.n lined up at the right-hand edge of the central ditch and there they stayed until the Sa.s.sanid a.s.sault was well past their position, as apparent flank guard. From what the enemy could see it was but a thin screen; Procopius and Hermogenes could see the truth. Behind that seeming crust Flavius had moved his bucellarii as well as every other cavalryman who had been placed behind the central ditch.

Timing was crucial and that was a decision which could only be made by the man on the spot. For Flavius it was more of a feeling than what he could discern visually, the point at which a commander senses the moment has arrived to act. The horns blew and the forward Roman screen swung their mounts, giving the impression they were abandoning the field. The effect on the enemy was instantaneous. The man Perozes had put in command sensed impending triumph and took some of the men driving forward, sending them to attack to their right, calling forward his light cavalry to provide support.

As they swung onto their new line of a.s.sault the heavy cavalry that Flavius Belisarius had spent years training came barrelling forward at a fast canter to hit an enemy not yet properly organised, it being a mixture of two different elements. The consequence was instantaneous as that part of the Sa.s.sanid force recoiled on their comrades. As the Roman heavy cavalry made inroads they were followed by a whole host of men on lighter mounts who got amongst their enemies and began to initiate carnage.

Armies can be like a single body in their minds; once a sense of panic arises it spreads quickly and that is what happened to the men Perozes commanded. Suddenly the Roman infantry contesting the central ditch saw the opposing line sway and seriously buckle as the Sa.s.sanids' will to fight began to waver. To their left the whole attack had become a nightmare as Flavius Belisarius, having formed his bucellarii into an arrow formation, drove right through the rear of the Sa.s.sanids to cut the attackers off from support, before wheeling to drive them on the renewed a.s.sault of the men they had previously forced into a retreat.

With that stream at their back these Sa.s.sanids found themselves fighting on three fronts, their very numbers ceasing to be an advantage. Perozes did send men forward to try and break through but even his best cataphracts were faced by a body of men who could match them in battle, led by the Roman general who had engineered the downfall of his plan.

To the rear of those bucellarii the rest of the Romans were engaged in a ma.s.sacre that turned that meandering stream a deep red, running through a gully rapidly choking up with bodies. Flavius knew he had won when he heard the enemy horns recalling the men he was fighting. Perozes was now engaged in seeking to limit the damage to the Sa.s.sanid army and in short order the enemy ceased to engage the bucellarii and abandoned the fight.

The slaughter went on as the light of the day faded. The citizens of Dara, keen that it should be complete, came forward with lit torches that ensured it did not cease, they too engaging in the killing of any of their enemies seeking to surrender, before stripping them naked so their womenfolk could mutilate them.

Flavius was back on his hillock, the clothing under his armour stiff with blood, watching the first Roman victory in decades as the men Kavadh had sent to take Dara were destroyed.

'We have won a battle not a war.'

These words from the victorious Flavius Belisarius had not been an attempt to dampen celebrations but a mere statement of fact and that came true with a speed that surprised even him. By spring Kavadh had raised another army and sent it marching into Roman territory by a route never previously attempted. Entirely mounted they were now streaming along the banks of the Euphrates fifty leagues to the south of Dara.

There could be no immediate reaction, given there was suspicion it was a feint to draw the Romans away from their main base in order to denude it of a defence; Dara was still the key to holding the frontier but there were other fortress towns requiring garrisons that could not be moved so Flavius went to work to raise a force large enough to counter the threat, calling in contingents for all the territories he controlled. As the recently created magister militum per Orientem, he was now the undisputed military master in the region.

By the time it was decided this was a true incursion and dangerous, Flavius set off to counter it and if his intelligence was correct he outnumbered the enemy by a factor of just less than two to one. His forces were bolstered by five thousand Gha.s.sanids, half mounted, half infantry, they a numerous frontier tribe often allied to Rome but just as ready to treat with Kavadh if that seemed wise and Constantinople appeared to be weak: after the victory at Dara they were sure they were now choosing the winning side.

Hermogenes had returned to the capital so he took with him Procopius who would act as his secretary as well as his quartermaster. The enemy commander this time was Azarethes, the senior military satrap of Kavadh, the most lauded general of the Sa.s.sanid Empire, who did not seem to be showing much in the way of guile or war craft.

Booty and sheer destruction seemed more important. He and his men were ravaging the rich and fecund Euphrates valley, burning crops, slaughtering cattle, killing the local citizenry and taking treasure. They had to be stopped and that ceased the moment Azarethes was appraised of the fact that the Romans were closing in on him and he was seriously outnumbered. He then began to retire towards the frontier.

Flavius Belisarius had force-marched to this point and he put on an extra spurt to get within a day's march of his enemy, intent on forcing a battle, getting so close that the fires in the Sa.s.sanid camps of the previous day were still warm when the Romans came upon them.

Aware that he might struggle to get away, Azarethes decided to turn and fight at a place of his choosing, just to the east of a city called Callinic.u.m, while Flavius came on and set up his camp within sight of the Sa.s.sanid fires. He then took a tour of the probable field of battle to formulate his plans. Never entirely happy to let others decide where to fight he was not disheartened by what he observed, even if Azarethes had chosen well, a plain with the River Euphrates on one flank and some high hills to the south that projected to his left. While not narrow, it was not a s.p.a.ce in which the Romans could deploy their superiority to advantage.

The disposition of his troops conformed to the best way to use the terrain, which being flat between the river and the steep hills favoured a central attack by cavalry. The river flank Flavius would protect with infantry, while he took personal command in the centre with the ma.s.s of his horses, Lycaonians on his right and the mounted element of the Gha.s.sanids holding the right flank. Again he wanted the Sa.s.sanids to attack him, which they might do given that if Azarethes tried to escape he faced the possibility of being caught by the pursuing Romans in open country where the numerical advantage would be decisive.

The victory at Dara had imbued the Romans with a feeling of invincibility, one their general did not share. He could not doubt their desire to get at the enemy and begin the task of destruction and nor could he fault it; it was the timing of such where commander and the troops he led disagreed. Flavius counselled patience, given it would be Easter Sunday on the morrow and that was a day of fast for Christians. It seemed folly to him to fight on an empty stomach in a battle that was probably going to last from dawn till dusk.

The disagreement, albeit infusing the ranks of his army, was presented to him by his inferior unit commanders and very forcibly so, his objections being seen as too cautious. On the march to catch Azarethes the Romans had, as they pa.s.sed through the ravaged countryside, seen the destruction this invasion had caused: the men decapitated or swinging from trees, the despoiled women wailing over their loss. Children had been tossed on spears in a hideous sort of sport, while in every field lay dead livestock or burnt crops.

To their certainty of success was added their fury of grievance. These apostates must be punished, every man of them made to pay with their own blood for that which they had spilt in Roman territory and the notion of waiting a day for their justified revenge was anathema.

'Is it not impious to fight on Easter Day, Magister?'

Procopius put forward this point in a break between conferences. Flavius had sent his captains to plead with their men to trust him; was he not the Victor of Dara and did he not know when to best bring about the destruction of Azarethes and his band of murderous marauders?

Flavius clutched at the notion. 'Solomon, get men out to spread the word that it would be displeasing to G.o.d to so act vengefully on the day of his resurrection.'

If it seemed a good idea it fell on deaf ears; to the men he led it seemed Easter Day was as good as any other for slaughter and despite his reservations Flavius gave way on the grounds that, if he did not, some of his troops might decide to act independently and if they began to fight piecemeal it would be a disaster.

A plea to the accompanying priests to allow his men to eat ran into a religious hostility every bit as vehement as the lay one; this was the holiest day of the year and G.o.d could not be denied his fast under any circ.u.mstances.

'Then G.o.d better be on hand to aid us,' was the sour comment in response.

Naturally such a day began with a Ma.s.s all along the extended line, as his men, high and low and including himself, were shriven and promised that what sins they had committed in this life would be forgiven in the next for they were engaged upon G.o.d's purpose. The priests were just as keen on retribution as the men over whom they prayed and it was made plain that in killing the Sa.s.sanids they would be doing holy work.

'Odd word,' Procopius whispered, more to himself than to Solomon kneeling beside him, 'regarding a divinity who insisted we turn the other cheek.'

'Hardly ever met a priest who knew truly the message of Jesus Christ. There are some good men who have become priests but too few. Most care more for their bellies than their faith.'

'Best not let your master hear you say that, Domesticus. He's a pious man.'

'He's too soft, Procopius. What happened was mutiny and he would have done best by stringing up a few and letting the rest wonder at sharing their fate.'

The trumpets blew to end the devotion and the army in their various dispositions turned from that to facing the enemy, who within a gla.s.s of sand set about them with a burst of arrow fire at a density few had previously experienced. Counter fire evened out the rate of casualties so Flavius could be reasonably happy that no sense of balance had been achieved he still outnumbered Azarethes.

If he preferred the defensive, Flavius reasoned that with men who were going to be increasingly weakened from hunger, the longer the day went on the weaker they would become; best he launch an attack just in order to force a response. He was busy putting this in place when the discord on his right wing alerted him to a threat and had him riding hard to find out the cause.

It gave him no joy to observe that Azarethes had moved a huge number of his cavalry to the Roman right wing and attacked the Gha.s.sanids. Even worse was to see that they were beginning to panic and their line was not going to hold, which would destroy that flank completely. That was spreading to the Lycaonians who were next to their left and that would result in half of his line being rolled up.

'Solomon, get as many cavalry to this wing as you can, while I try to sh.o.r.e up the defence.'

'Best send another, Magister. If you fall we are lost.'

'If the Lycaonians give way I reckon us lost anyway, now go.'

Flavius and a small contingent of his bucellarii rode into what was the beginnings of a collapse and it was one at which he was at a loss to prevent. These mounted Gha.s.sanids had not fought under him at Dara; the sight of him did not have the effect it would have had on the men he had led to victory, so his attempts to rally them failed. These were the men who had so wanted to fight. Now they desired nothing more than to set their mounts to the west and gallop to safety.

A messenger came to tell him the Lycaonian commanders, who had managed to keep their men in place, had both been killed. That gave him a feeling of dread; men rarely held their ground when they lost their leaders and that was the case now. If they went the Huns would be next and then the whole cavalry line would crumble, which would leave the infantry at the mercy of Azarethes.

If there is a moment when a general can sense victory then there is another that hints at defeat. Even worse is the feeling that can come which presages catastrophe, one only an arrogant numbskull would face up to and not react. Flavius recognised now that he very likely could not hold; fear would negate any generalship he could bring to bear, so the task was to avoid what had happened in his first battle.

There was only time to conclude that fact before the Lycaonians broke. Now they were following in the wake of the Gha.s.sanids and there was no time to redeploy the rest of his light cavalry to face the coming threat, while his bucellarii were too few in number to fight on alone. This had him riding hard away from the mayhem around him to order his cavalry to quit the field, his own men included.

Collecting Procopius, he put Solomon in charge of getting his men out of danger, sweeping aside the suggestion that he too flee. The waggons that carried the Belisarius possessions and those of the men who attended to him were harnessed up and driven towards the river. Before he followed he ordered Solomon to get to Callinic.u.m and make sure it could be held, dismounting and pa.s.sing the reins to his domesticus.

'Get every boat you can find and bring them upriver as soon as you can. If G.o.d has any mercy, you will find us still alive.'

There was no need to say who the 'we' were. The infantry could never outrun the Sa.s.sanid cavalry so their only one hope was to stand and fight with the river at their back and Flavius Belisarius was determined to lead that defence. Peter, the man who commanded the infantry, was from Justinian's Excubitors. Flavius had no knowledge of his reading of history but he knew what to do for he had learnt much at the knee of his father.

'Form the testudo. We do battle like the legions of old.'

Peter proved an a.s.set, quick to follow orders and not one to waste time in asking for clarifications; he speedily had his men adopt the famous tortoise shape that gave them a round frontage and flat sides while Flavius organised the archers to take up a position in the centre of the protecting body and to be prepared to fire over their heads.

They got everything in place just in time; the first Sa.s.sanid attack came almost as they completed their dispositions. But with shields locked and nowhere to which they could run it was a hard defence to break and this time the Sa.s.sanids had no cataphracts in their force to make the needed breakthrough. Azarethes had only light horse, and faced with a wall of shields and protruding spears, as well as slashing swords if they got too close, the attackers were driven off a dozen times.

Being spring the heat was tolerable and there was no shortage of water. The fight went on all through the day, but what was running short was arrows as the archers sent salvo after salvo into the advancing ranks of Sa.s.sanid cavalry to break their organisation. In attack after attack the hors.e.m.e.n hit the shield wall piecemeal and with a lack of coordination. By twilight the arrows were exhausted, but so were the Sa.s.sanids, while the boats Solomon had organised began to arrive.

The defence was collapsed in an orderly manner, the lines shortened until Flavius, having got away the content of his waggons as well as the majority of his men, stood among the very last of his infantry. Azarethes rode forward in the gathering gloom, to raise his sword and kiss it in a form of salute. Flavius and Peter were the last to board a boat, to be carried downstream on the current of river full of spring melt.w.a.ter.

If they had succeeded in extracting the infantry it had not been everyone; the field they left was dotted with many dead members of the Roman forces.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN.

The capital city to which Flavius Belisarius returned as a partially successful general was one in turmoil and the target of the unrest was the Emperor Justinian, the cause being his well-intentioned efforts to effect some very important changes to a system that had become ossified. The law codes were stuffed full of statutes that no longer had any relevance while the treasury was not as full as it should be, meaning that to pursue his aims and prosecute a war in the east Justinian needed to get in all the taxes owed from a population well versed in avoidance, none more so than the richest patricians and merchants.

The problem the new Emperor had was not in the policies but in the people he chose to implement them. The recodification of the laws was handed to a senator called Tribunia.n.u.s, famed for his knowledge of jurisprudence. Initially his reforms were greeted with approval, but slowly it began to be obvious that as the man in charge of judicial judgement too many of the cases were being decided in favour of his friends. Even less palatable was the suspicion that bribes were involved, for Tribunia.n.u.s seemed to be a very much richer fellow halfway through the recodification than he had been at the outset.

Such matters tended to concern the upper reaches of Roman society but to that cla.s.s the real trouble lay in taxation. The task of ensuring collection was allotted to John the Cappadocian and in that breast the population found a degree of venality that, as it went on, became increasingly intolerable: too much of what he soaked from their income was going into his coffers and not the treasury. John inflamed feelings even more by flaunting his increasing wealth in a way that was both cra.s.s and dangerous.

John had also been ordered by Justinian to cut the number in what was an exceedingly bloated bureaucracy, which meant separating men, mostly n.o.bles, from their means of earning a living, as well as removing from them their status as imperial placemen. Given many had bribed their way to their occupation, this struck at the very heart of the cla.s.s of people the empire relied on for support.

Disenfranchised men tend to foregather and these n.o.bles were no exception; what held back the growing tide of anger was that they did not actually all combine into one group. Some gravitated towards the Blue faction, much favoured by the imperial couple, in the hope of reinstatement by ingratiation. Others joined the Greens, the party of the merchants and seen as the opposition to imperial fiscal overreach. The fact that they went their separate ways tended to hide just how serious was the discontent, given they had a habit of directing their resentments at each other.

If Flavius had heard rumours of it no one could avoid the criticisms of John the Cappadocian for they were so loud they even reached the provinces he ran he had no idea of the depth of feeling into which he rode into Constantinople. Unlike previous visits he came to the city at the head of the bucellarii, their armour and accoutrements shiny, they following behind their general and his personal guard unit.

The victory at Dara gave the Belisarius name l.u.s.tre; the defeat at Callinic.u.m was hailed as a miracle, given the losses were so few and he could be hailed as the man who had saved the day. His campaigns could be seen as a success; the Sa.s.sanids had made no more incursions since that last battle, it being conveniently put to one side that, his treasury now better supplied, Justinian had concluded a treaty and reinstated the payment of gold to Kavadh.

So he and his six-hundred-strong force entered the city to the cheers of the populace, or at least those not too occupied to notice. When they reached the plaza before the imperial palace Justinian was there to greet him, a signal honour. If it was noticed that Theodora was absent no one had the ill grace to make mention of it.

'The conquering hero is home.' Tempted to reply, one success, two failures did not a conquering hero make, Flavius merely smiled. 'You have bloodied the nose of Kavadh.'

The answer was too soft for anyone nearby to hear. 'While you have lined his purse, Highness.'

There was a moment then when Flavius thought he had gone too far. It was no secret between himself and Justinian that he disapproved of bribing the Sa.s.sanids to remain supine, indeed the Emperor had railed against it as an imperial nephew. But the look those words engendered, a flash of irritation, told Flavius that if he was still held in regard, the man was now well and truly at home in his imperial state and it was not for the likes of him to question policy. It was as brief as a small cloud obscuring the sun, for Justinian then smiled.

'Few would dare challenge me so directly.'

'You know I cannot be otherwise.'

'Just as you should know how much I miss dispute.' The voice rose from what it had been in that exchange to its normal level as Justinian added, with a scowl at the members of his counsel come to join him in the welcome, 'Everyone agrees with me now, at least to my face. Behind my back they conspire to hide from me the truth of their peculations.'

'Your lady wife is well, Highness?'

That change of subject did not go down well either: Flavius had no desire to become even tangentially involved in court politics. Or was it the way he referred to Theodora, not giving her proper t.i.tle?

'My imperial consort is in very good health.'

'It pleases me to hear it.'

'Come, let us retire to a place where we can converse more freely, without so many ears seeking words that might be used to divide us.'