‘Pull gently!’ he shouted up to the trireme and the rope steadily tightened and then began to draw them in. Already a boarding net had been lowered over the side and two sailors had scrambled down and held out an arm each towards the two officers thrashing through the swell.
‘What are you bloody waiting for?’ Macro shouted. ‘Get in here and give us a hand!’
The sailors hesitated a moment then let go of the net and plunged towards Macro and Cato as they struggled towards the boarding net.
Moments later the two centurions were slumped down on the deck, gasping for breath as water pooled around them. Albinus was standing to one side, shaking his head in mock disapproval.
Cato swept the straggling hair from his brow and looked about at the ships scattered all around the Spartan, some still locked in battle. Just over half the biremes were still afloat, or seemed to remain in Roman hands. One of the pirate ships, struck by incendiaries, was ablaze from end to end, and black smoke billowed over her side in a dense swirling cloud. Another pirate ship was settling in the waves, about to sink. All the other enemy vessels were hurriedly disengaging and weaving a course between the battered wrecks and the survivors of the Roman fleet as they made for open sea. The reason for their flight was clear enough: the prefect, with the rest of the heavy warships, was bearing down on the heart of the battle. A safe distance behind and off to one side followed the trireme of Telemachus, skirting round the main strength of the Roman fleet as he made for the small force of pirate ships that had wrought havoc amongst the overloaded Roman biremes.
Cato rubbed his brow. ‘Thank the gods, it’s over.’
‘It’s not over,’ Albinus replied quietly. ‘Not by a long way. They’re just regrouping. Then they’ll be hanging around the fleet, waiting for the chance for a quick strike, like mountain wolves around sheep. If we don’t make land before dusk then they’ll come in under cover of dark and pick off the weaker ships right under our noses.’
The lookout called down, ‘Signal from the flagship, sir!’
Albinus tipped his head up to face the man, squinting into the bright sky. ‘Well?’
‘All ships to form up on the Horus.’
With the large warships wallowing over the swell, the smaller ships rowed in towards the protection of the quinquireme. The trierarch of the Horus stood on the foredeck, raised a speaking trumpet to his lips and began bellowing a string of orders. These were relayed from ship to ship and when every vessel had raised a pennant to acknowledge the orders the Horus gave the execution signal. With the flagship in the lead, the other triremes formed a thinly stretched diamond shape across the sea. Packed into the middle of the diamond were the smaller vessels, most showing signs of the battle they had just survived: damaged rigging, torn sails and some with livid streaks of red trailing down from their scuppers.
Once the fleet had formed up it began to crawl across the sea, making for the coast of Illyricum, still out of sight over the horizon. The men at the oars had been exhausted by the battle manoeuvres and the ships raised their sails, while their trierarchs prayed that the northerly breeze would hold.
The pirates wasted no time in pursuing their humbled foe, and their dark triangular sails hovered on the flanks of the Roman fleet, waiting for their chance to strike, just as Albinus had foreseen. Every so often, one of the pirate ships would suddenly alter course and steer for an opening between the triremes, trying to penetrate the defensive screen. This time the advantage lay with the Romans, whose vigilance paid off as the triremes moved to close down any gap the pirates had hoped to exploit.
As the day wore on the sky cleared to a serene and unblemished blue, and the breeze slowly moderated as the two fleets crept across the sea. The pirates managed to break through twice. The first time two of their nimble ships succeeded in swooping round the heavy triremes and attacking either side of a heavily damaged bireme straggling a quarter of a mile behind the others. The ship was boarded, its crew put to the sword, a quick search made for any portable loot, and then it was fired. The pirate vessels darted away, steering clear of the trireme that had turned to try to save its stricken comrade. Worse still, in going to the aid of the straggler, the trireme left a gap for a handful of other pirate ships to slip in and ram another Roman ship before they too were forced to retreat. But the damage had been done and the Romans could do nothing more than take on the crews and as much of the supplies as it was safe to load, and leave the rest to go down with the ship.
From the deck of the Spartan, Cato and Macro watched with the rest of the crew as the long drama was played out over the gentle swell. Despite the dreadful losses they had suffered at the hands of the pirates, Cato found himself admiring the way Telemachus had executed his trap. His intelligence had been perfect, allowing the pirates to catch Vitellius and his fleet at their most vulnerable, and Cato was almost certain that treachery had been involved. What else could explain such confident handling of their ships when the pirates would normally have been thoroughly outclassed as well as outnumbered by the imperial navy? They knew they had the upper hand in manoeuvrability long before they had closed with the Roman fleet. And even now, they were looking for every chance to press home their attack, not content to wait until night when the triremes would be blind to the dark shapes sweeping through the Roman ships.
His admiration for Telemachus quickly wore off as Cato pondered on the consequences of this disastrous encounter. Hundreds of men must have been lost, along with much of the supplies and equipment that Prefect Vitellius needed to launch his campaign once they landed on the coast of Illyricum. It was possible that the losses were already so serious that the operation might have to be called off.
As soon as the thought entered his head, Cato dismissed it. He knew Vitellius well enough to realise that the prefect could not countenance such a setback to his reputation. Senior officers had been exiled, or even executed, for lesser failures. There was no choice for Vitellius. He had to go on with his campaign, even if the odds were now stacked firmly against him. The prefect would lead his men to victory, or to defeat and death. Those were the only possible fates open to all of them now, and as Cato silently watched the fire consuming the distant bireme he was filled with a heavy and deadening sense of foreboding.
His dark mood deepened as the afternoon dragged on, and when the lookout finally gave the cry that land had been sighted, Cato knew that a safe landfall would merely mark the beginning of a yet more dangerous phase of Vitellius’ campaign.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Vitellius thrust his finger out. ‘What was the meaning of that little stunt you pulled, Centurion Cato?’
‘Sir?’ Cato stood in front of the prefect’s desk in the headquarters tent. Around him the other senior officers sat on stools and watched the confrontation warily.
‘Don’t play dumb with me, boy. Back there in the battle, when you took half my triremes out of the line.’
‘Sir, we had to move to save our lighter ships. The enemy was cutting them to pieces.’
‘Maybe, but you cost us the chance of trapping Telemachus and ending this operation at a stroke.’
‘We can’t be sure he was ever aboard that trireme, sir. After all, he was just using it as bait to lure our best ships away from the rest of the fleet.’
‘That’s just speculation, Centurion. Has it crossed your mind that the attack on the biremes might have been a ruse to lure ships away from protecting my flagship? You could have been risking my life.’
Cato shrugged. ‘Warfare is risky for us all, sir. In any case, the Horus and the ships that remained with you would have been able to handle any attack. In my judgement the greatest threat was to our biremes.’
Vitellius glared at him. ‘In your judgement? This isn’t a debating society, Centurion Cato. It’s the imperial navy. You obey orders from superior officers–you don’t create your own orders.’
‘Begging your pardon, sir, I was using my initiative. And you did not issue any countermanding order. An
d if those triremes hadn’t gone to the aid of the other ships it’s certain that our losses would have been far higher,’ Cato paused to add heavy emphasis to his last words, ‘than they already are.’
Vitellius clamped his lips together in a thin line, and as he glanced round the tent he noticed Macro and most of the other officers nodding in agreement with Cato.
The confrontation was interrupted by a challenge from a guard posted outside the tent. Then the flaps rustled as a clerk ducked inside, clutching a bundle of slates under his arm. He straightened his back, marched up to the prefect and saluted.
‘The butcher’s bill, sir.’ The clerk handed a slate to Vitellius as the prefect waved Cato away. While Vitellius scanned the notes on the slate, Cato and the other officers sat in silence. They were exhausted. Even after the surviving ships had reached the bay late in the afternoon there had been no time for rest. The shore curved round for a mile or so in either direction before the beach gave way to a tumble of rocks that rose into headlands. Beyond the beach the land was covered with scrub and stunted trees for half a mile before it rose steeply into a range of forested hills that stretched up and down the coast as far as the eye could see. Not far off lay a long-abandoned settlement, little more than piles of stones now.
While the triremes anchored a short distance from the shore the smaller ships had beached and immediately began unloading their supplies and equipment. The bulk of the marines, under Centurion Macro, had been assigned the back-breaking task of constructing a fortified camp around the beachhead. Unlike the men who served in the legions, the marines had had limited training in preparing fortifications and Macro drove them on with increasing exasperation and bad temper. They laboured well beyond sunset and finally completed a makeshift defensive ditch and rampart by the flickering blaze of torchlight. Beyond the sweating marines a thin screen of pickets stood in the darkness, anxiously staring into the shadows for any sign that the pirates might renew their onslaught by land.
As soon as the triremes had been anchored fore and aft in a line parallel to the shore, Vitellius had given the order for artillery to be mounted on the decks and trained out to sea. Any pirate ship that attempted to attack the Roman fleet now would have to brave the fire of scores of catapults. Heavy losses would be inflicted long before the pirates could close with the triremes. So Telemachus held his ships back and kept watch on the Roman fleet until nightfall. Then, as the last rays of the setting sun glimmered on the horizon, the pirate fleet turned away from the shore and steered slowly up the coast, leaving their battered foe to count the cost of the day’s action.
Prefect Vitellius lowered the slate and stared at his desk. The numbed expression on the aristocrat’s heavy features revealed his despair. Cato almost felt pity for the man, before he recalled that the disastrous naval encounter was entirely of the prefect’s own making. The lighter ships of the fleet should never have been so encumbered with men and equipment, much of which now lay at the bottom of the sea. If they had only used a convoy of transports to carry the supplies and equipment needed to launch the campaign against the pirates then the enemy would have been beaten off easily. It would have taken longer to make the crossing with transports, but that would have been a tiny price to pay as things had turned out.
As he pondered uselessly on what might have been, Cato realised that Vitellius was not wholly at fault. The perfect timing of the pirates’ attack was more than a coincidence. Even if the fleet had been spotted by a pirate ship as it left Ravenna there would not have been enough time for word to have got back to Telemachus so that he could assemble a fleet and intercept the Romans at their most vulnerable. Telemachus must have been forewarned.
Vitellius sighed, and stood up. ‘It’s not good news, as I’m sure you’re already aware. We lost eight of the biremes, two more are badly damaged, as is one of the triremes. She was holed and will need to be repaired at a dockyard. We also lost most of our artillery and siege tools. Much of the food was stored aboard the triremes, so we won’t starve to death.’ He smiled weakly, but none of his officers responded, and the smile died as the prefect continued, leaving the most painful news to last.
‘Nearly eight hundred men were lost with their ships, another sixty killed aboard those vessels that survived, and a further eighty-three wounded…’
Cato looked round at the other officers and noted their mostly hostile expressions. The human cost had been terrible indeed, and many of these men had lost comrades they had known for years. But the cost to Vitellius was even higher, Cato reminded himself. This was a bitter defeat and there was no disguising it in the report he must send back to Rome. But the time it would take for the report to be sent, read through, a response considered and a messenger sent back to the prefect, would give him as much as a month to retrieve the situation.
‘It’s a bloody disaster,’ a voice muttered.
‘Who said that?’
No one moved. No one replied. For a moment all was still, until Minucius stood up.
‘It was me, sir. Just saying what all the lads here are thinking. The pirates have given us a good kicking, and the word’s out that we were betrayed.’
‘Betrayed?’ Vitellius raised an eyebrow. If the men were looking for a traitor he might turn this to his advantage.
‘Someone sold us out, sir. Told ’em where to find us.’
There was a low chorus of angry grumbling and Minucius was emboldened as he continued, ‘We should find the bastard. Make him pay for it, nice and slow, like.’
The officers nodded and a few offered chilling suggestions for the fate of the traitor once he was discovered. Vitellius moved closer to the fire so that all could clearly see him by its glow. He raised his hands to quieten them down.
‘All right! You have my word. When we find the man, he’s yours to deal with as you wish, on one condition.’
Most of the officers looked at him suspiciously; then Minucius cleared his throat. ‘What’s that then, sir?’
‘You give me your word that his death will be as painful as possible.’
The officers laughed with relief, and Minucius nodded solemnly as the noise died away. Then there was an awkward silence as they waited for Vitellius to continue addressing them.
Macro coughed. ‘So what happens now, sir?’
‘We carry on with the plan,’ Vitellius replied firmly. ‘We still have enough ships to take on the pirates.’
‘No, sir.’ Heads turned towards a trierarch at the rear of the tent. The trierarch, Albinus, stood up so that he could be clearly seen and heard. ‘We need more ships. More biremes.’
‘And why’s that?’ Vitellius replied coolly. ‘From what I saw today those ships are worse than useless.’
Albinus shook his head. ‘That’s not fair, sir. The men on those ships fought the best battle they could today. It’s not their fault their ships were no match for the pirates. If we hadn’t changed course and gone to help them, I doubt whether any of the biremes would have survived.’
Cato took a sharp intake of breath and looked round at the other officers. Albinus’ criticism of his commander could scarcely have been more open, and the centurions and trierarchs looked to Vitellius to see how he would respond.
For a moment he just glared at Albinus, then finally he nodded slowly and replied, ‘Your point is well made, but quite academic, as things stand, Albinus. I still wish to know why we need more biremes. Our main force, the triremes, are more or less intact. Once we throw them in against the pirates it’ll all be over quickly enough.’
‘Yes, sir. Provided the pirates are prepared to sit there and wait for the triremes to come for them…’
‘So?’ The impatience in the prefect’s voice was apparent to all. ‘What are you saying?’
‘You’ve served in the legions, sir.’
‘What of it?’
‘Then you know the tactics well enough. The lighter forces are there to find and pin the enemy down so the main strength can close in and destroy them. At least t
hat’s how it works at sea. I assume you do the same thing in the army.’
‘Of course we bloody do!’ Macro snapped. ‘We’re not bloody fools, you know. At least the lads in the legion can build a proper fucking camp!’ Macro waved an arm towards the dark outline of the rampart stretching round them. ‘Not this bloody shambles—’
‘Thank you, Centurion,’ Vitellius cut in. ‘That’s enough.’
Macro’s mouth was still open, ready to deliver the rest of his diatribe, but he clamped it shut and nodded.
‘Very well, then,’ Vitellius continued. ‘So we need biremes.’
‘No, sir. We need more biremes. We need to match their numbers, at least. I counted a dozen of the bastards, and all of them were well-handled. They’ve got good crews, and good trierarchs to command them. Frankly, they’re better than us, sir. That’s why we need more ships. We need some kind of advantage if we’re going to stand a chance against them the next time it comes to a fight,’ Albinus concluded firmly.
‘Well, there aren’t any more biremes,’ Vitellius snapped. ‘I can’t just magic them out of thin air, can I?’
‘There’s the six you left at Ravenna,’ Albinus said flatly.
Cato stood up, cleared his throat and added, ‘There’s another thousand marines we could use as well, sir.’
‘No!’ Vitellius slapped his hand against his thigh. ‘I will not leave Ravenna defenceless. Rome would have my head if anything happened.’
‘Rome may well do that already, sir,’ Cato spoke quietly, ‘once they get word of what happened today. If we’re to continue operations against the pirates, we’ll need every ship, every man we can draw on.’
Vitellius stepped towards him. ‘And if they do attack Ravenna?’
‘We have our orders, sir.’ Cato laid heavy stress on the first word. ‘The operation must take priority.’
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