Total War Rome: Destroy Carthage

13

Twenty minutes later, Scipio stood before Ennius, who had come down from his position on the walls and was addressing him. ‘I am the only officer of tribunician rank who saw what you did today. I will recommend you for the spolia opima, for defeating an enemy leader in single combat. You must strip the armour of your opponent and affix it to an oak tree, and then take it to Rome and dedicate it at the Temple of Jupiter Feretrius. You will be only the fourth in Rome’s history to receive this honour, as Romulus did for defeating Acro after the rape of the Sabine women. You will be the greatest living hero in Rome. Your military reputation will be assured.’

Scipio draped an arm around Ennius’ shoulder, leaning against him and breathing heavily. He wiped the mud and spittle from his mouth with his other hand, and then pushed back, turning and looking at the body of the chieftain. ‘Do you remember what Achilles did at Troy? He stripped the fallen Hector and dragged the body round the walls, taunting his enemy and distressing Hector’s wife and children. And then, just days later, Achilles himself lay dying, felled by an arrow to his heel, the one place where he was mortal. It’s an allegory, or so Polybius tells me. Achilles had let pride and exaltation overtake him and had forgotten to protect his vulnerable spot, just as Icarus flew too close to the sun and the wax in his wings melted.’ He wiped his face again, and then straightened up, looking at the ring of Roman soldiers who had been watching the combat, and at the Celtiberian dead on the other side. ‘I will receive the corona muralis for being the first on the walls of Intercatia in the assault on the oppidum last week. To receive the spolia opima on the same day as Lucullus’ triumph in Rome would be to overshadow his glory, and earn me suspicion and envy that might play into the hands of Metellus and his supporters — those who would see me never command a legion. On this day there are many among the legionaries now who have fought their own battles worthy of the spolia opima. I care little for the esteem of Rome, but I care everything for the esteem of these legionaries. You and your cohort of fabri will form the core of the army that I will one day lead. When your men advance into battle they will always remember this day before the walls of Intercatia. That will be my reward.’

He walked back to the body of the chieftain, picked up the sword and laid it alongside. He went down on one knee in the mud and briefly bowed his head, and then stood up. A wild-haired woman had appeared with two small children at the edge of the mud, and was making her way towards the body. Scipio slogged back and stood beside Ennius again. ‘Have the optio sound the withdrawal. We will give them time to honour and burn their dead. Order the commissariat to bring up two cartloads of grain, and leave it at the entrance of their palisade. These people know they are defeated. But if they are to trust my word, they must know that I am magnanimous in victory. I will keep my word to the chieftain.’

‘Some of the surviving warriors will kill themselves. We have seen that before among the Celtiberians.’

‘So be it. They have fought well and hard, and deserve to part this life with honour. It is better than being put to the sword, as Lucullus will doubtless wish to do to those who refuse to submit, even in captivity. But those are not the ones whom we would take to Rome. We want their sons, those who could be trained and nurtured to be our allies.’ He looked across again at the woman and her boys. ‘It is their children who must be allowed to live. They will soon hear of the massacre at Cauca, and they must not be allowed to think that Lucullus’ legionaries will be let loose in their oppidum and that they will suffer the same fate.’

‘Speaking of Lucullus, I have had a message that the legion is less than a mile away. By nightfall, they will be in the camp. What would you have me do?’

‘Take your fabri and repair that breach in the wall. Station men there, and at the entrance to the oppidum. They are to keep the men from the legion out, and the Celtiberians in. Once you have seen the fire from the funeral pyres and know that the Celtiberians have completed their rites, march the remainder of your cohort inside to occupy the town. Nobody is to leave their post until the legion has left.’

‘What do you know of Lucullus’ plans?’

Scipio watched the legionaries make their way off the walls and back through the entrance to the camp, and saw the other Celtiberian women begin to search through the mud for the bodies of their menfolk. There was no sound, no cry of lamentation, only a whisper of wind over the battlements and the distant crackle of fire from the houses that were still burning in the oppidum. Over the battlefield the wisps of steam rising from the entrails and abdomen wounds of corpses had mingled with the dampness in the air to form a thin mist, floating a few feet above the ground, as if the souls of the dead were being drawn away in a ghostly miasma. Fabius watched Scipio stare at it, and then turn back to Ennius. ‘Lucullus has rekindled a war that will simmer on far into the future, like those burning embers in the oppidum, and will only finish when Numantia itself falls. If your fabri had not achieved what they have done today, this campaign could have ground on like the other ones, for months, probably years. But now that we have given him Intercatia to add to Cauca, Lucullus will have what he came for. He has enough victories for a triumph.’

‘And you?’

Scipio cracked a grin. ‘A river to wash off the mud and the blood, and then some wine and food. But not at this place. Lucullus sent me on a mission, and I don’t want him to change his mind when he sees that we’ve finished the job here for him.’

‘A mission? You have not yet told me.’

‘To find more elephants for this campaign. He knows of my friendship with Gulussa and his father Masinissa. He thinks the name Scipio is magic in Africa, and that elephants will appear out of the sand dunes of Numidia as soon as I arrive. He wants fifty of them, elephants that will be useless here if he returns home now.’

‘You can have them sent directly to Rome, for his triumph. He can pretend that our three elephants were fifty, and that he was at their head.’

‘He can take them across the Alps like Hannibal for all I care. With Intercatia fallen and this campaign all but over, I will seek reappointment as a special envoy to Numidia. There are big things afoot in Africa. Polybius hinted at it six years ago in Macedonia, when it was only a rumour. But yesterday I had a message from Gulussa. The Carthaginians are rearming. Their new circular harbour is complete, and galleys have been constructed in the shipsheds. They have recruited mercenaries from Gaul, and sent them out to the very borders of Carthaginian territory. It is only a matter of time before they clash with Masinissa’s forces. If Rome provides support and we play our cards right, it could be the beginning of the final showdown with Carthage that Cato has been clamouring for in Rome for two generations now.’

Ennius grasped Scipio’s hand, the sinews of his forearms hard and strong. ‘Ave atque vale, Scipio Aemilianus Africanus. May Fortuna smile on you.’

‘Perhaps I can earn that agnomen now. But it will need Mars Ultor the war god, not just Fortuna.’

‘Remember what Polybius taught us. Gods do not win wars, just men.’

Scipio jerked his head towards the camp. ‘Not just men. Roman legionaries.’

‘When you summon us, we will join you.’

‘Perhaps not this year, or even the next. But it will be soon. I can smell it, the smell of the desert sands of Africa blowing north, just as they did in my grandfather’s day. There will be war again before you and I are much older, and it is that war that is our destiny.’

‘Go now. I can hear the pounding of the approaching legion.’

Scipio released Ennius’ hand, slapped him on the shoulder and turned to Fabius. ‘A fast galley is waiting for us at Tarraco. If we ride now, we could be there by dawn and with Gulussa in four days. We have no time to lose.’