Parthian Dawn

by Peter Darman

  ‘Well done, Drenis, you have helped a great deal today.’

  ‘I don’t think those marsh people will be much help against Uruk,’ he said, ‘they have hardly any weapons and no discipline.’

  ‘They are the future of Mesene, Drenis.’

  ‘Really?’ He looked long and hard at the long line of bare-footed, scruffy individuals tramping after his cohorts. ‘No wonder it’s a shit-hole.’

  Surena, though, was delighted and on the way back to camp was full of grandiose plans about how he would form all the marsh people into a great army.

  ‘These are only the ones I was able to muster in a short amount of time.’

  ‘I think that most of your people would like to remain in their homeland, Surena.’

  ‘I don’t,’ he announced.

  I had to smile. When we had met he had been a wild boy from the marshes, content to live among water buffalo and cane and mud huts. Now he was on his way to being an accomplished officer in what I liked to think was the finest army in the Parthian Empire. For him it was impossible to go back to his former life.

  ‘I think, Surena, that the point of the matter is that your people should be allowed to live their lives unmolested.’

  ‘What king in Uruk will allow that, lord?’

  ‘An enlightened one, Surena; one who will respect your people and their way of life.’

  ‘Kings have always persecuted my people, lord.’

  ‘You must have faith that things will change. I predict a new dawn for your people.’

  ‘I hope so, lord, I hope so.’

  The mood of Domitus noticeably darkened when our guests arrived at camp. He was less than impressed by a couple of thousand more mouths to feed.

  ‘We’ll be on half-rations in a week,’ he complained. ‘I don’t suppose they brought any food with them?’

  ‘They are our new allies, Domitus. Make sure they are fed and well treated.’

  ‘I’ll make sure anything valuable is guarded, more like.’

  ‘It is important that they take away with them a favourable impression of us,’ I said. ‘Surena once looked liked them, and you will agree that he has turned into a fine soldier.’

  ‘There’s always an exception, but I will do as you command.’

  The marsh people were allocated a corner of the camp and were given food and tents to sleep in. Surena was placed in temporary command of them and he took to the task with relish. It helped that some of them had been his fellow associates in crime, and so he soon had officers of sorts to assist him. Domitus wanted them to sleep outside the camp, but that would have been an obvious insult and would have left them very vulnerable to any attacks against us. Not that there was any sign of the enemy, or indeed any signs of life at all. Byrd and Malik had ridden far and wide and reported people fleeing towards Uruk with their meagre belongings, no doubt hastened in their flight by the sight of Agraci warriors in their homeland. The latter had even approached the walls of the great city itself but had seen no enemy patrols on the roads.

  ‘Chosroes must be keeping what soldiers he has inside the city,’ remarked Malik as he was relaxing in my tent after he and Byrd had returned from their scouting.

  ‘Uruk has high walls,’ remarked Byrd.

  I had called a war council when they had returned for I was eager to get to Uruk.

  ‘That is why we have brought the Romans and their siege engines,’ I said. ‘High walls make good targets.’

  ‘Sieges take time,’ muttered Domitus. He was still unhappy about the presence of the Ma’adan inside the camp.

  ‘Not this one, Domitus,’ I replied. ‘I have been talking to Marcus and we have hatched a plan to bring it to a speedy conclusion.’

  ‘Will you give Chosroes an opportunity to surrender, Pacorus?’ Orodes was a true friend, but I knew that he was uneasy about attacking the capital city of one of the empire’s kings. I would have liked to dispense with the formalities but I valued Orodes’ friendship too much to upset his sense of protocol.

  I smiled at him. ‘Of course. I would prefer it if we could enter the city without shedding any blood.’

  ‘Ha,’ Domitus had a mischievous grin on his face. ‘There’s more chance of a mule pissing gold than that happening.’

  Gallia frowned at his coarseness. ‘Perhaps you could persuade Chosroes to surrender, Domitus, as you have such a way with words?’

  ‘We will have to storm the city, of that I’m sure,’ said Domitus. ‘And it will take a long time.’ He looked at Malik. ‘The walls are high, you say?’

  ‘Very high, and there are many towers.’

  ‘Archers could inflict much harm on an attacker,’ added Byrd.

  ‘Then you are looking at between three and six months to take the city, though you might starve them out before then.’

  Domitus folded his arms and sat with a smug expression on his face. Gallia frowned once more and Byrd looked disinterested. I had asked Praxima to join us, which caused something of a surprise among the others.

  ‘What do you think, Praxima?’ I asked.

  All eyes fell on the wife of Nergal, who was dressed in her leggings and mail shirt, her wild hair about her shoulders. Fearsome and fearless in battle, she was now very uncertain.

  ‘I know nothing about strategy, lord.’

  ‘Nonsense,’ I said, ‘you have fought in nearly as many battles as I have. What would you do, attack or sit around doing nothing?’

  Domitus looked away in disgust, while Nergal looked perplexed.

  ‘I would attack, lord,’ she replied.

  ‘And so we will,’ I announced. ‘We break camp in the morning.’

  Gallia cornered me after the others had left.

  ‘Since when did Praxima have a voice on the war council?’

  ‘Since today,’ I replied.

  ‘And you are suddenly interested in her opinion?’

  ‘Of course, why not?’

  She was unconvinced. ‘Because you usually listen to no one but yourself, that is why.’

  ‘I have to say that is unfair.’

  ‘But true,’ she retorted.

  I said no more and eventually she threw up her arms and left. I would reveal my plan when we stood in the royal palace at Uruk. Until then it would remain a secret.

  The march to Uruk was uneventful, though as usual Nergal threw a screen of horsemen all around the army. Domitus placed Surena and the Ma’adan in the very rear of the army, which ensured that they were covered in the dust thrown up by those that went before them. This appealed to his cruel streak. After two days of marching and seeing no enemy we arrived before the southern walls of Uruk.

  Uruk, famed city of history. It was rumoured to be five thousand years old, or at least there had been people living on its site for that long. High, mud-brick walls surrounded the city with towers at regular intervals. They had been built over four thousand years ago by a great warrior king named Gilgamesh. The city was located some five miles from the Euphrates and was connected to the great river by a series of canals that brought water to Uruk. One of the reasons for these was to irrigate the great gardens inside the city that had been created by its kings for their recreation. The gates into the city were located at the four points of the compass, though the main gates were those that faced south. These were flanked by two high, square towers from which flew the viper standard of Chosroes. He had hoped to plant his banner on Dura’s walls but I promised myself that soon the griffin would be atop those towers. The gates were slammed shut as the army surrounded the city and the Roman engineers positioned their siege engines. Marcus thought it would be straightforward enough.

  ‘A city this size, filled with refugees and with no relief army to march to its aid — might as well starve them out. Tedious, but effective.’

  ‘But if we starve them out you will not be able to demonstrate your machines,’ I said, ‘and I was so looking forward to seeing them in action.’

  He looked at me as though I had gone mad. ‘St
arving them will save you a lot of blood.’

  ‘You let me worry about that.’

  I walked with him towards the southern gates while Domitus and Nergal organised their commands. The Duran Legion set up its camp to the south of the city and the Exiles were positioned on its northern side. Kuban and his wild men were ordered to form a defensive screen to the east and Nergal established company sized camps up to twenty miles from the city in all directions. Beyond them all rode Byrd, Malik and their Agraci scouts. In this way I would have plenty of prior notice if any enemy relief force approached, such as Narses.

  ‘Narses won’t come,’ said Domitus bluntly. ‘He won’t risk being beaten just to save Chosroes.’

  ‘Alas for Chosroes,’ remarked Orodes, ‘he chose his allies unwisely.’

  ‘Don’t waste your pity on him,’ I said. ‘He would have none if the roles were reversed.’

  At the end of the first day, when the army had settled into its positions around Uruk, I convened a meeting of the war council to determine the next day’s course of action. I had invited Marcus to attend after we had finished our inspection of the city’s defences.

  ‘This is the plan,’ I said, smiling at Marcus. ‘The attack will commence tomorrow when we begin battering the main gates and the towers next to them. We will keep shooting at them until we have effected an entry.’

  ‘Those walls look very thick,’ mused Nergal.

  ‘And very strong,’ added Domitus.

  ‘May I speak, sir?’ said Marcus, raising his right hand.

  ‘Be my guest,’ I replied.

  He stood up and bowed awkwardly to me and Gallia, then Praxima. Orodes grinned and Domitus raised his eyes to the ceiling. Gallia nodded back to him courteously while Byrd looked bored by it all. Malik raised his hand in greeting.

  ‘Well,’ said Marcus, ‘I have given the matter careful consideration and believe that my engines can break those gates.’

  ‘And if you can’t?’ Domitus was unconvinced.

  ‘Then we will find another way,’ I said. ‘The point is that we are here and will not be leaving until I we have taken the city. Thank you, Marcus.’

  ‘Will you still try to convince Chosroes to surrender, Pacorus?’ Sometimes I found Orodes’ sense of protocol extremely irksome. I bit my lip.

  ‘Of course, as I promised.’

  Chapter 21

  The dawn came soon enough, an orange glow in the east that illuminated the white walls of Uruk in a ghostly glow. I smiled to myself — the last day that it would know peace under its present king. Marcus and his men had risen early and were already assembling their siege engines, watched by a curious Domitus. I ambled over to him as he munched on a handful of biscuits and sipped from his water bottle. I could tell that he was fascinated.

  There were six of the giant ballista, each one weighing several tons, being three times the height of a man and around thirty feet long. The ballista works like a bow, with a strong wooden frame holding two skeins of animal sinew in place vertically. Two horizontal wooden arms pass through each skein and are linked by a strong bowstring. As the arms are pulled back the sinews become twisted to create a great tension for propelling a missile forward, the latter resting in a groove in the horizontal stock of the ballista. The bowstring is pulled back using winches and held in place by a rotating trigger.

  Marcus was bellowing orders at his men, ten of them working on each large machine. And on either side of these were smaller ballistae, which could throw a metal-headed bolt, solid metal balls and stones over great distances. A team of two men worked these smaller machines, similar to the scorpions I had encountered in Italy. Marcus had ensured that his men and their machines were out of range of the archers who were now lining the walls facing us. When he saw us both he stopped shouting and sauntered over.

  ‘Morning! We shall soon be ready.’

  Domitus nodded towards the machines. ‘You think they will be up to the task?’

  ‘Oh yes, they are the latest in military technology,’ replied Marcus. ‘Crassus had them made specially to knock down….’ He stopped and looked sheepishly at me.

  ‘To knock down Dura’s walls,’ I continued for him. ‘It is quite all right, Marcus, you are a soldier who was obeying orders, a professional. You have nothing to be ashamed of.’

  ‘Anyway,’ he said, ‘he had these specialists brought over from Greece and they built the big ballistae and then trained us to use them. It took half a year to get us ready. This is the first time the big ones have been used in anger.’

  ‘They were not used at Dura?’ I asked.

  Marcus shook his head. ‘The army’s commander wanted to take the city by storm, thought my machines were a waste of time. I pleaded with him but he would not have it. We did some damage with the smaller ballista, and after he was repulsed from the walls he said he would think about employing the big ones. But then your army arrived and, well, he had other things to think about.’

  ‘Indeed,’ I said.

  ‘How long will it take before they are ready?’ asked Domitus.

  ‘About two hours.’ Marcus rubbed his hands. ‘After that we’ll soon have a nice fire going.’

  ‘Fire?’ I asked.

  ‘Oh, yes, we will be shooting half and half.’

  Domitus looked at him. ‘Half and half?’

  Marcus looked at us as though what he had said was the most straightforward thing in the world. ‘Half stone and iron shot and half incendiaries. Anyway, I best get back to make sure they are assembled right. If you will excuse me?’

  Marcus saluted and strode back to his machines. More wagons began to arrive carrying the ammunition for them, great round stones, smaller stones, iron balls, clay pots and bolts. The pots would be filled with naphtha and then sealed, with a burning, oil-soaked rag wrapped around the top. Upon impact the pot would smash and the flaming rag would ignite the naphtha.

  The walls were lined with many soldiers now — so much for Yasser’s claim that Chosroes had no more troops — observing Marcus and his men going about their business. The latter were beyond the range of the Mesenian bows and the soldiers of Uruk would have never seen Roman siege engines in action before, so they just stood and watched, thinking themselves safe behind their big gates and high walls. Behind the siege engines the Duran Legion began forming up in its cohorts. They were widely spaced so that they extended towards the river. Next in line, to the right of the legion, came the Amazons and Dura’s cataphracts commanded by Orodes, with his own men on the extreme right of the heavy cavalry’s line. Nergal’s horse archers then formed a great line that extended north to run parallel to Uruk’s eastern wall. On the northern side of the city were deployed the Exiles in their cohorts and centuries. Thus was Dura’s army arrayed for the garrison of the city to see.

  True to my word, and while Marcus readied his machines, I tied a white cloth on the end of a kontus and rode towards the city gates to ask for a parley. I had not ridden fifty paces beyond the siege engines when two arrows were shot in my direction from the walls. Fortunately they both fell short. I wheeled Remus around, walked him out of range and then faced the gates once more. I untied the white cloth from the lance and spat in the direction of the city. The time for talking was over.

  I purposely rode over to where Orodes was sitting in his scale armour at the head of the bored cataphracts.

  ‘They would rather fight than see reason, lord prince.’

  He nodded solemnly. ‘You have done all that honour demands, lord.’

  I bowed my head to him and rode back to the engines, the cataphracts jeering and whistling at those on the walls.

  ‘That was rather foolhardy,’ said Domitus.

  ‘I have fulfilled my promise to Orodes. How is Marcus progressing?’

  ‘They will be ready in about half an hour. I hope you are not going to keep the men standing for hours in this sun.’

  I looked into the clear blue sky. It was going to be another hot day. Most of the horsemen had alr
eady taken off their helmets or had pushed them back on their heads. The horses were swishing their tails to keep the flies away. Then I heard a noise coming from the walls and saw the Mesenians jeering and throwing insults. Some jumped on to the wall itself and lifted their robes to expose their genitals. I glanced at Gallia and her Amazons who were sitting emotionless on their horses, their faces enclosed by the cheekguards of their helmets. The other horsemen and the legionaries did not respond to the taunts but remained standing in their ranks in silence.

  I dismounted and stood beside Domitus as the taunts and insults were flung in our direction. Gallia rode up on Epona.

  ‘What are we waiting for? Are we going to sit here all day while they ridicule us?’

  ‘We are waiting for the engineers to ensure that everything is in place.’ I cocked my head at the walls. ‘Are they upsetting your girls?’

  She took off her helmet, her hair plaited behind her neck. ‘Nothing they have not heard before. But they may be frightening your cataphracts. Or perhaps your legionaries, Domitus?’

  ‘Don’t worry, Gallia, when the city falls I will get some of the boys to slice off the balls of those on the walls and present them on a silver tray to your girls.’

  She frowned. ‘You are all heart, Domitus.’

  At that moment Marcus sauntered up, looking very pleased with himself. He bowed his head to Gallia and raised his hand to Domitus and me.

  ‘All is ready, sir.’

  ‘Excellent,’ I said, ‘please begin.’

  Marcus looked at Gallia and then at me. ‘Actually, sir, I was wondering if the queen would bless the first shot, for luck you see.’

  I looked at Gallia. ‘Well?’

  She smiled at him. ‘I would be delighted, Marcus.’

  She dismounted and handed me Epona’s reins. ‘Make yourself useful.’

  I led Remus and Epona after Gallia and Marcus as they walked over to one of the machines; one of the giant ballistae that fired stones. A member of its crew lifted up one of the large missiles stacked in a great pile behind the machine and stood holding it. It was obviously heavy as he was straining from the effort.