Iron and Rust

CHAPTER 29

The East

Northern Mesopotamia,

the Ides of May, AD237

‘Chaboras River ahead.’

Gaius Julius Priscus raised himself on the horns of his saddle and peered over the heads of the legionaries and archers.

Julius Julianus, the Prefect of 1st Legion Parthica, pointed.

Through the dust raised by the cantering Persian cavalry, Priscus could make out a line of dark trees across the low horizon, a mile or more ahead. He caught flashes of colour against the foliage. Below what he knew must be Sassanid standards he saw a glint of sunlight on steel. It would be another contested river crossing.

‘Here they come again.’

The big shields of the legionaries clattered up and together. Sporakes moved his mount up alongside that of Priscus. The bodyguard covered them both with his shield. With their greater range, the Roman archers on foot and the handful of slingers shot first. Priscus kept his head down. There was no point in watching the effect of the volley. No matter how many easterners went down, there were always more.

With a horrible tearing sound, the Persian arrows rained down. They thumped into wood, dinged off steel. The feathers of one quivered in the shoulder of a horseman near Priscus. He rocked in the saddle. His horse shied, and he crashed to the ground.

‘Help him,’ Priscus shouted. He pointed to another of his Horse Guards. ‘You, get him to the baggage, then rejoin the standard.’

The trooper swung down by his fallen comrade. Another caught the reins of both horses. There had been thirty Equites Singulares when they set out. There were twenty left. Nineteen now.

‘Not far to go, boys.’ Priscus called over the din. ‘One more river, and we will be safe in Resaina. Kill a few more reptiles, then a cool bath, a good meal, a young girl or boy; whatever you want.’

Despite it all, the men gave a shout of mock lust.

‘Hold your places. Silence in the ranks. Listen for your orders. We are almost home.’

Nothing had gone right with this campaign. At the meeting in Samosata the previous autumn, knowing the reluctance of Persian armies to remain in the field over winter, the governors had decided the field army would gather in the new year. They had underestimated the determination of the Sassanid King. The outlying columns around Resaina and Carrhae had withdrawn, but the main force remained encamped under the walls of Nisibis.

In March, when the contingents had straggled into Zeugma, several were under strength. Licinius Serenianus had not come himself. An earthquake had devastated several cities in Cappadocia, and the governor had been forced to remain to quell widespread unrest as the locals sought to lynch every suspected Christian in the province as being the cause of the disaster. He had, however, sent the eight thousand men he had promised. Likewise, Ma’na of Hatra had appeared with the two thousand riders he had pledged from his father’s city. The others had not fulfilled their obligations. Junius Balbus had sent two thousand, not four, from Syria Coele, and Otacilius Severianus just two thousand, not eight, from Syria Palestina. Priscus had never had much time for his brother-in-law Severianus. The family had thought the Senator a good match for his sister, but from the start Priscus could tell Otacilius Severianus had the heart of a deer. Unlike the pusillanimous Romans, the Armenian Prince Chosroes had a justifiable reason for riding up with only a thousand men at his back, not ten thousand. Another Persian army, led by the King of Kings himself, was marching up the Araxes river towards the city of Artaxata. Tiridates of Armenia was fighting for the survival of his kingdom.

It had been April when Priscus had led the army over the Euphrates and to the East. They had gone via Batnae, Carrhae, Resaina and Amouda. They had collected small contingents of the army of Mesopotamia at each town. Manu of Edessa had brought down a levy of five hundred local bowmen. All told, the total number of combatants was less than eighteen thousand.

From Resaina on, they had been shadowed by enemy scouts. But no attempt had been made to hinder their progress. The reason became clear when the vanguard breasted a low hill and Nisibis came into sight. Sassanid banners flew from the battlements. How long it had been since the town had fallen, no one in the Roman army could say. Across the plain before the walls a Persian army was drawn up for battle. It was at least thirty thousand strong: cavalry, infantry, even camels and a few elephants. The Romans had walked and ridden hundreds of miles into a trap.

Priscus had ordered a camp entrenched. The Persians had not interfered. The next day Priscus kept his men behind the palisades. The Sassanid horsemen had spread across the plain. They had come close, and shouted abuse, but had not attacked. Having cut the supply lines, they knew the Romans could not stay there for long. Time was on their side.

The second evening, Priscus had watched the enemy streaming back into Nisibis for the night. The town gates shut behind them. Then, and only then, Priscus had summoned his high command, and some senior centurions, and gave his orders.

They had left the wagons behind. A hundred volunteers from the auxiliary cavalry, including trumpeters, stayed to keep the campfires burning and to make the calls that marked the watches of the night. Before first light, they had galloped after the rest of the army, which had stolen away like a thief in the night.

The third hour of the next day they had been a couple of miles short of Amouda when the Sassanid light cavalry caught up with them. Priscus had ordered the column to halt, the infantry to form testudo, the cavalry to dismount behind them. Exhilarated by their wild chase, the Persians must have thought that the Romans were dropping with fatigue, were completely at their mercy. They whooped, and charged. Through the Roman ranks the officers had repeated Priscus’ instruction: no one shoot until the signal. When the Sassanids were no more than forty paces away — already reining in, their charge faltering in the face of such unexpected immobility — a trumpet had rung out. It was picked up by others along the line. Too late, the easterners sawed on their reins. They had run into a deadly storm of thousands of javelins and arrows. Men and horses, both brightly liveried, went down, bloodied and fouled, rolling in the dirt. The survivors raced away. It had bought the army time to reach the gates and cram itself into the alleys, porticos and open spaces of the small town.

Priscus had spent two days in Amouda reorganizing the order of march. He had gone through it again and again, until he was sure that everyone, from the senior commanders down to the most junior officers, even to the common soldiers, knew their part. He had read the view of the Senator Cassius Dio that Ardashir was of no consequence in himself, and that all the troubles in the East stemmed from the licence, wantonness and lack of discipline of the soldiers. He had met Cassius Dio in the reign of Alexander. What little the Senator knew about soldiering had made him a martinet. True, the troops had murdered Priscus’ predecessor in Mesopotamia. But Flavius Heraclio too had understood nothing about discipline. It took great kindness as well as great cruelty. In Amouda, Priscus had visited the men in their billets, had distributed his own private supplies to the army — choice delicacies and expensive wines — and had had a couple of would-be deserters flogged to death and their corpses strung up over the gates to deter any with similar thoughts.

Well handled — as Priscus knew any force he led would be — the Roman army in the East was still a potent weapon, even in adversity. The problems lay elsewhere. Too many men had been taken away to the wars in the North. And Cassius Dio was wrong: the Sassanids were far more dangerous than their Parthian predecessors. The Persians might marry their daughters, granddaughters — even their mothers — they might kill their wives and sons with impunity, they might throw out the bodies of their relatives to be eaten by dogs, but they could fight.

On the third morning the army had marched out and formed up in a hollow square, with the baggage animals and servants in the centre. Julius Julianus commanded the vanguard with the thousand men of his 1st Legion Parthica, the thousand-strong detachment of 6th Legion Ferrata from Syria Palestina and five hundred auxiliary archers. Porcius Aelianus held the right flank with his thousand men of 3rd Legion Parthica, the two thousand from 15th Legion Apollinaris from Cappadocia and a thousand bowmen. Priscus had entrusted the left to his brother. Philip commanded a thousand legionaries of 4th Scythica from Syria Coele, two thousand auxiliaries armed with spears and five hundred with bows. Manu of Edessa and his levy of five hundred bowmen were also stationed there. The rear consisted of two thousand from 12th Fulminata and a thousand archers, all from Cappadocia, and led by the legate of the legion, Caius Cervonius Papus.

Both flanks of the square were backed by a thousand riders from Hatra. Those on the right were under Prince Ma’na; those on the left a Hatrene nobleman called Wa’el. Prince Chosroes supported the rear with his thousand Armenian horsemen. The final troops — five hundred auxiliary cavalry and the same number of infantry, all from Mesopotamia — Priscus himself led, behind the leading edge of the square.

It was a cumbersome, slow-moving formation, but Priscus had been unable to think of anything better. The close-order infantry could fend off armoured cavalry, and the bowmen could shoot back at horse archers. As slingshots were more effective than arrows against the metal armour worn by Sassanid noblemen, he had called for volunteers. Some two hundred men, porters and sutlers, as well as soldiers, had claimed skill with a sling. These were distributed in small packets all around the army. The Hatrene and Armenians could shoot over the heads of the men on foot. The order of march was far from ideal, but it would have to serve.

The first attack had come within an hour of setting out. Groups of Persian light horse had raced in towards the column. About a hundred and fifty paces out, they had started shooting. Some fifty paces short of the line — well outside the cast of a javelin — they had wheeled around and galloped away, all the while plying their bows over their horses’ tails. One charge had succeeded another almost without cease.

Each foray had slowed the march and claimed a few of the dead and wounded. The former, if they were fortunate, had a handful of earth sprinkled over them and a coin for the ferryman put in their mouths. Beyond that, there was nothing to do but leave the dead where they fell. Those too injured to walk were carried to the centre and mounted or strapped on the mules. Soon the path of the army was littered with the bodies of men and animals and strewn with abandoned baggage.

Progress had been agonizingly slow. Even on half rations, food had run short. It had taken two days to cover some twenty miles to the first unnamed river, another two to cover the same distance to the Arzamon, and a fifth to approach the Chaboras. At the first two crossings the Persian armoured cavalry had feinted a charge as the army struggled through the water, hoping to disrupt the lines enough to press home the attack. Priscus and the other officers had patrolled the column, shouting themselves hoarse. Somehow, panic was held at bay, cohesion maintained. The Sassanid nobles had turned their horses and, in good order, cantered away.

The Romans would have to face down their fears again before they gained the far bank of the Chaboras. Many more men would die before they reached the temporary safety of Resaina. The futility of it all dragged at Priscus. They should have accepted the offer of Ardashir, handed over Singara and Nisibis. Of course, it would have been unpleasant for the inhabitants, and the truce would have been temporary. The Sassanid was committed to conquering as far as the Aegean, and Rome would have had to try to retake the cities, and exact revenge besides. But it would have given the armies of the eastern provinces time to send an expedition west, and place Serenianus on the throne. Maximinus was bleeding the empire white for his unwinnable northern war. Priscus had served on the Rhine. There were many tribes in the North. You used money and the threat of the legions to keep them at each other’s throats. In the East, there was just the King of Kings. You could set all the other rulers of the Orient on him — the Kings of Armenia and Hatra, the Lords of Palmyra, any other petty potentates you could find — and Ardashir would defeat them all, and still unleash his horsemen on the imperium. The real threat to Rome was the house of Sasan.

Priscus prided himself on clear-sighted realism untrammelled by sentiment. Last autumn, even his brother had been horrified by his proposal. That was why he had left Philip in Mesopotamia, when he had gone to Samosata. Priscus accepted he had mishandled that meeting. He should have known the sloth and cowardice of Junius Balbus and Otacilius Severianus would not be moved by appeal to patriotism or advantage. Even his friend Timesitheus had not spoken out. Now the opportunity had gone, and all that was left was the residual danger of denouncement.

‘Infantry ahead.’

Priscus realized he was tired, his mind wandering.

The front line was less than a couple of hundred paces from the Chaboras, almost in effective bowshot.

‘Archers ready.’ Priscus called.

As they trudged forward, the auxiliaries notched arrows, raised and half drew their bows.

There was something strange about the line of men under the wide-spaced trees on the far bank. Those at the front were without shields or arms.

‘Gods below,’ a soldier said, ‘they are ours!’

The murmur rippled through the ranks like wind through a cornfield.

‘It is the garrison from Nisibis.’

He was right. Priscus could see men in Roman undress uniform, two hundred or more of them. They must be from the detachment of the 3rd Legion captured at Nisibis. Their hands were bound. Sassanids stood behind them.

A flight of arrows arced up from behind the human shield. The legionaries raised their shields. The auxiliaries lowered their bows, ducked into cover. Sporakes covered Priscus. The shafts whistled down. Someone nearby screamed.

‘Draw!’ Priscus pushed Sporakes away. ‘They are dead men. Draw, unless you want to join them.’

Only a few bowmen obeyed.

Another squall of Persian arrows fell. More men howled in agony.

‘All of you, draw!’

More — but far from all — did as they were told.

‘Release!’

A ragged volley. There were near four hundred bowmen still with the standard, but no more than half that number of shafts sped away.

Most of the arrows struck harmlessly into the trees. But Priscus saw a captive legionary transfixed. Then another tumbled down the bank, and another.

The Sassanids were hacking down the defenceless men.

An animal roar of hatred rose from the Roman column.

‘Draw! Release!’

This time, without hesitation, all the auxiliaries used their weapons.

All the prisoners were gone by the time the front rank reached the river. In their place stood a wall of big wicker shields. Dark-bearded easterners peered over the top.

The banks of the Chaboras were stony and sloped gently here. The legionaries poured down and splashed through the shallow water.

Priscus held up his hand and halted the auxiliaries. The order was relayed back. The whole column shuffled to a standstill. Too many men would breed confusion. The legionaries could clear the way. No eastern infantry could hold legionaries. Not legionaries who had just seen their comrades murdered.

The men of 1st Parthica and 6th Ferrata swept up the far bank in a terrible tide of steel. Priscus saw Persians running from the rear of their line before the clash. You could not call them cowards. Unarmoured, with inadequate shields and next to no training, the Persians who stood had no chance. They fell like wheat before the blades of the legionaries.

Priscus looked away, back across the rest of the army. Through the clouds of dust raised by innumerable hooves, he could see troops of Sassanid noble cavalry, the dreaded clibanarii, moving up to the south and east. Thank the gods there was no sign of the elephants.

‘The way is clear,’ Sporakes said.

On the far bank, Priscus could see Julius Julianus spurring his horse, shouting, gesticulating. The centurions were dragging men drunk with the violence of vengeance away from the mutilation of the fallen easterners and back into line. The legionaries were fanning out, creating a bridgehead.

Priscus gave the word to advance, told the Prefect commanding the Mesopotamian cavalry to take over the infantry as well, and pulled his Horse Guards out of the line.

Philip and Porcius Aelianus kept the flanking columns in reasonable order as they went down into the river. It was just as well. The baggage train degenerated into terrible confusion. Although there was little current and the water was not above thigh deep, the wounded men and lame and injured animals began to flounder. Some slipped and fell, obstructing or bringing down others. Soon it had ground to a flailing, staggering halt. The armed men guarding the flanks halted. Priscus sent one of his equites after Julius Julianus to make sure the vanguard did not continue and open a gap between the bodies of troops. At the rear, the Armenian horse and the infantry of Cervonius Papus had been turned about, and faced back the way they had come. Beyond them, out on the plain, the clibanarii were arrayed in a wide crescent stretching from the east to the south further down the river. They were ready, should any opportunity present itself.

When, finally, the last of the non-combatants scrambled and crawled up the far bank, the flank guards moved off. Chosroes and his Armenians wheeled about and thundered across in a cloud of spray. From the rear, Cervonius Papus sent his foot archers jogging after them.

The legionaries of 12th Fulminata were the only troops still on the far side. They were tired and hungry. They had been hard handled throughout the retreat. No more than fifteen hundred remained under the standards, many of them with minor wounds. Men in the rear ranks were looking over their shoulders, eying their retreating fellow-soldiers and the delusory security of the river.

A drumbeat rolled across from the Persians.

The first individuals began to edge back from 12th Legion.

Priscus knew what was going to happen; a lifetime in the army left no doubt. Shouting an order to a guardsman to ride and halt those on the far side, he put his boots into his horse’s flanks.

The Sassanid heavy horse was walking forward.

Small groups — three or four at a time — were breaking away from the legionary phalanx and running towards the river. Centurions and junior officers grabbed some, manhandled them back into place. More broke away. The first threw down their shields the better to run.

The drumbeat quickened. The Sassanid horse were moving into a slow canter.

Priscus brought his horse up across the flight of a gaggle of legionaries. He shouted at them to stop. Ignoring him, they swerved out of his way and ran all the harder.

Flamboyant heroics were not in Priscus’ nature. A Roman general was not Achilles. Priscus tried to think calmly, take everything in, weigh up the options. Abandon the legionaries to their fate, ride back to Chosroes, get his Armenians drawn up along the far bank? No, the fleeing legionaries would disrupt their line. In the confusion, they would all be swept away. Once a panic starts in an army, it spreads like fire across a parched hillside. Sometimes even a general has to stand in the line and fight. It was the only rational thing to be done.

The clibanarii were picking up speed.

The legionaries were bunching together, their line contracting, gaps opening. It was worst on the right, away from Cervonius Papus and the eagle.

Priscus spurred his mount across.

‘Stand firm! Hold your line. No cavalry will ride into a formed line.’

The men looked at him, uncertain and afraid.

The Sassanids were closing fast, The noise of their charge drumming in Priscus’ ears.

Swinging a leg over the horns of his saddle, he dropped to the ground. He turned his horse, drew his sword and brought the flat across its rump. The animal clattered away.

‘We will stand and fight together. Stand with your general.’

Priscus shouldered his way into the ranks. He took a standard bearer by the shoulders, propelled him to the front.

‘Spread out. Give yourselves room to use your weapons. Not too far. Shield to shield.’

When Priscus looked up, the clibanarii were no more than a hundred paces away; a solid wall of steel and horseflesh.

‘Stand, and they will not charge home.’

Priscus braced himself; left foot forward, right heel digging in.

‘Level your weapons.’

He could not take his eyes off the Sassanid bearing down directly at him. The tall, glittering helm, flowing silks. The wicked point of a lance. The huge charger, mouth foam-flecked, hooves pounding.

Priscus shut his eyes, braced for the impact that would smash him to the earth under the hooves.

Screams, shouts, an incomprehensible wave of noise.

The Sassanid was almost on top of him; halfway up his horse’s neck, clinging on, unbalanced. Further down the line a maddened animal had crashed into the line. Others were trying to push into the opening it had created. But the rest had refused. There were unseated riders on the floor. Loose horses bored into those still mounted.

‘One step for victory!’

Priscus jumped forward, brought his sword down into the thigh of the unbalanced rider. The edge bit through the scale armour. The Persian gripped the wound. The horse leapt sideways, crashing into another animal. In the chaos, riders yanked the heads of their mounts around, fought to get away.

‘One more step!’

Blades rose and fell, red with retribution, as the legionaries around Priscus stepped forward.