Hosker, G [Sword of Cartimandua 12] Roman Wall (27 page)

Tiernan had more men under his command than he had ever had.  His brother besieged the fort at Luguvalium.  They did not want the auxiliaries there to come to the aid of the horse warriors. The two brothers had decided that the horse warriors were the biggest threat.  If that could be eliminated then they could run amok in the land to the south of the wall. Tiernan was using his large numbers to gain the advantage.  He had watched in horror, the previous day, as his men had attacked piecemeal and been picked off easily.  The advantage he had was that he could attack from three sides. He divided his army into four warbands of five hundred men.  The front two ranks were armed with a spear and a shield.  The warriors in the third rank had a shield too.

Three of his warbands began to move south.  Each one had a leader who stood in the third rank.  The Roman Severus had told them of this tactic. It went against the grain for the barbarians to march in straight lines but Tiernan had a powerful personality and a fiery temper. It would take a brave man to question him.

Rufius frowned when he saw their advance.  This was not the barbarian horde he was used to. Decurion Albius asked, “Do we attack as we did yesterday?”

“No, for that would do no good; they have shields.”

“Suppose we threw them beyond the front three ranks.  It would disrupt those at the back.”

“It is not worth the risk Marcus. The troopers throwing the javelins would have to be close to the barbarians, we would risk losing them.”

“Then what do we do?”

“We fall back slowly.”

They still had time to perform the manoeuvre for the warbands were still three hundred paces from them. Rufius frowned.  The two warbands at the edge of the formation were moving ahead of the centre band and looked to be angling their line of attack.

“I think they are trying to flank us. It is time to move back.” He turned to Titus. “Order about face.”

As the buccina sounded, each turma began to turn to the right.  Bizarrely the carnyx also sounded at the same time and the warbands began to move at double speed.  They were not running but they were moving swiftly.  The two wings began to envelop the ends of the Roman cavalry. The about face meant that the barbarians were moving quicker than the Romans.  The carnyx sounded two calls and fifty warriors erupted from each of the warbands.  They wore neither helmet nor armour.  Half of them carried javelins, taken from the dead horsemen and the other half had slings. The rear rank of the Batavian Cohors Equitata was struck by slingshots and javelins.  Horses and men went down.  Every trooper was struck.  Some of them only suffered a stone to the arm but others were thrown from their saddles by either the lead ball or a javelin. The warbands, miraculously, kept their pace.  They did not make the classic barbarian error of charging.

Rufius had seen the attack. “Signal trot!”

The remaining turmae began to move away quicker now but, even so, the rear turmae had to endure the rain of death.  By the time Rufius had managed to extricate them from the missiles twenty five troopers had been lost. They could hear the screams as the wounded troopers were emasculated by the warriors at the rear of the warband.

Decurion Albinus was shaken. He said, quietly, to Rufius.  “My men will not take much more of this.  Yesterday was a good one for them but they have lost too many friends today.”

Rufius was uncertain what to do.  How did you counter such an attack?  They were outnumbered and had few options.

“Sir, do you mind a suggestion?”

“Anything would be welcome, Marcus.”

“We still have one advantage sir, we just used it.  We have more speed than they do. If we split into two groups we can ride east and west along the Stanegate.”

Rufius was confused. “That will get us nowhere.”

Decurion Albius said, urgently, “This debate brings the barbarians ever closer!”

“They will think we are running away and that they have won.  Half a mile down the road, we turn and charge their flanks.  Their shields are with their front ranks. We use the Batavians’ javelins and whittle them down again.  I bet their best men are at the front!”

The warbands were less than a hundred paces away and Rufius made his decision. “Marcus, take your turma and half of the Batavians.  Go east.  We will take the rest and go west.”

The decision made, they acted swiftly.  Marcus yelled, “First three turmae follow me. Gallop!”

As they headed east they heard the jeers mixed with cheers from the barbarians and when Rufius did the same it became a chorus of victory. They rode hard to give the illusion that they were defeated. Marcus halted them at the mile marker. “Rest!” He turned to view the barbarians. His opinion of the leader was confirmed for the warbands did not disintegrate into a mob but continued their steady progress.

“About face.” He rode to the front of the turmae. “We are going to charge the barbarians.” He pointed to the decurion of the first Batavian turma. “I want you to charge and release your javelins at thirty paces.  Wheel and go to the rear.” He pointed to the next two.  Then you will do the same. Finally I will charge with my turma and we will use our spears. If I think we are winning. We will repeat the manoeuvre but if I sound recall then turn around and head back to this place.” He saw the nods from the troopers.  They were keen to avenge their dead friends.

Marcus was not happy about being in the rear.  He preferred to be the first to charge but he knew that he and his turma would have a harder task and risked the highest casualties.  The warband was still heading south and were crossing the Stanegate when Marcus heard the buccina.  Rufius was attacking.  He was earlier than Marcus. It meant that the war band’s attention was to the west and not the east. He decided not to sound his buccina.  He would rely on the Batavians doing their job.

One of the Selgovae had their wits about them and he shouted to his chief.  The carnyx sounded and the warband turned to face the new threat. As Marcus had predicted there were only a handful of shields amongst the Selgovae who faced them.  The first Batavian turma made a bloody mess of the front rank.  Even as they tried to bring shields to face the new threat the second turma added their weight of javelins. By the time the last turma had thrown their missiles there was confusion and disorder in the once rigid ranks.

“Sound the charge!”

Marcus’ turma charged the Selgovae.  Without a spear Marcus and Gnaeus were forced to lean forward and use their swords.  They were both masters of the weapons and the Selgovae were terrified of the snarling, rearing horses. Marcus’ Horse punched a hole into the war band’s line.  They had done enough.  “Fall back!”

The troop each performed the same action; they punched forward with their spear as they jerked the rein to the right. Marcus and his Chosen Man had no spear and were forced to watch. A warrior with an axe suddenly launched himself at Gnaeus. He came from the shield side and Gnaeus desperately tried to turn his horse.  Suddenly the young trooper, Gaius, wheeled his horse around and speared the barbarian in the shoulder. The huge warrior roared a scream and grabbed the spear in his hands.  He pulled.  Gaius failed to release the spear and he was pulled from his horse.  The warriors around him began to hack and chop at the helpless young warrior.  As Gnaeus and Marcus extricated themselves young Gaius joined his friend Lentius in the Otherworld. He had made up for his mistake.

As they reformed at the rear of the Batavians Marcus saw that Gaius was not the only casualty. There were empty saddles. The first turma rode in again and caused devastation in the Selgovae still reeling from the previous attacks.  The second turma had just charged in when Marcus heard the strident notes of the carnyx.  He wondered what it meant for it came from the rear of the warband.

“One last charge and we withdraw.” He saw that Titus had been wounded. As the signifer he only had a shield and a standard.  “Are you able to signal?”

He grinned and Marcus saw that he had lost a couple of teeth too.  He spat blood from his mouth.  “Don’t worry about me sir.”

As the third turma withdrew Marcus shouted, “The Sword of Cartimandua!”

The battle cry was taken up by the rest of the turma and they urged their horses on. The disorganisation of the band and the deaths of so many had taken their toll.  When the battle cry was sounded some of those at the rear began to edge back.  Those at the front felt the movement and they too moved back.  The result was that they were further away from the turma and that increased the speed at which they charged. When they struck there was an audible crack as spear met bone.  The screams of the dying filled the air.  Raven’s hooves were deadly weapons and warriors were trampled beneath them.  The sword carved a path of death and a wedge drove deep into the Selgovae lines. The Selgovae were breaking and Marcus began to wonder if they could defeat them with this charge.

“Shit! Sir, better fall back.”

Marcus looked to where Titus was pointing.  The carnyx had been a signal for the uncommitted war band which was now racing to envelop them.

“Fall back!”

The fact that the Selgovae before them were falling back allowed them to withdraw and turn their horses. The Batavians had seen the danger and taken it upon themselves to charge the advancing Selgovae and release their last javelins. It cost them a couple of troopers and barely slowed the Selgovae down. The Batavians were now reliant upon their swords.

The end of the warband now spilled over the Stanegate.  Marcus wheeled Raven and shouted, “Head south.”

As he looked to the west he saw that the warbands which had been there were now racing to surround him and his men.  He had no idea what had happened to Rufius but Marcus appeared to have the whole of the Selgovae army trying to surround them.

The Batavian charge had allowed the Selgovae to gain ground.  Ahead of him Marcus could see that there was a gap of just three hundred paces.  It was closing. “Marcus’ Horse, charge the warriors at the south eastern edge of their line!” If Marcus and his men could strike the Selgovae before they had completed their circle then some of the Batavians might escape. The trouble was that the horses were tired and the warband enveloping them had yet to fight.

He looked down the line and saw that he only had twenty three troopers left. He hoped it would be enough. Raven was stronger than the other horses and Marcus found himself at the fore once more.  The Selgovae, fifty paces ahead, could see what he was doing and ten of them formed a hurried shield wall.

“Raven let us show these Selgovae what you can do.”

The warriors had not seen cavalry in action very often and knew not what they would do.  They had braced themselves for the impact of the horse. Instead Marcus sailed over the warriors.  Raven’s hoof cracked open the skull of one warrior while the decurion sliced down to slice into the neck of a second one.  There was now a gap.  Gnaeus and Titus smashed through and two more warriors died.  The last of the ten were speared and trampled as the turma made a gap for the auxiliaries. Marcus reined in Raven and wheeled to see if the Batavians made the gap.

The sound of a buccina along the Stanegate brought hope to Marcus. It was the ala! Felix had got through.

“Titus sound recall!”

Felix had brought them news of the crisis long before Metellus had heard the sounds of battle.  It was infuriating for the Decurion Princeps.  Those were his friends and his men being killed and yet they dare not ride too quickly for they would need their horses to have enough energy to charge. As they crested the rise they saw that the Selgovae were trying to surround the tiny beleaguered group of horse men.  The warband was huge.

“Sound form line!”

The open ground in this part of the country meant that they could do so without too much danger. There were eight turmae.  Two hundred and forty men were ready to charge and each one held his spear ready. Metellus wanted the impact of the two hundred and forty men and horses to drive deep into the Selgovae line.  He wanted to break it by sheer weight. He glanced to his left and saw someone jumping over the Selgovae line.  That would be Marcus!

“Sod it! Sound the charge!”

The horses all leapt forward eagerly at the familiar call.  Felix and Wolf stopped to watch the ala go into action.  Felix’s keen eyes had spotted Marcus and he and his dog hurried south to see if they could aid the decurion.

When Tiernan heard the buccina and saw the horse warriors charging he knew that his well planned attack would fail. He remembered the words of the Roman, Severus.  He had to save as many of his men as he could. The carnyx sounded again and his men began to fall back. It was at that point which things went disastrously wrong for the Selgovae prince.  His men had managed to obey all of their orders when going forward but now that they were falling back and aware of the thundering horses behind them then their basic instinct took over and they began to run. Nothing their chiefs and leaders did could halt them.

“We have them! Push them all the way back to the wall!”

The troopers needed no urging.  It was target practice and their spears came into their own that day.  They began to kill and maim with a deadly rhythm. Punch, twist, and withdraw.  Punch, twist, and withdraw.  The barbarians had little or no armour and they fell like wheat being harvested. One or two Selgovae dropped to the ground to avoid the spears but they were trampled by the horses. Ironically it was the Roman defences which stopped the complete annihilation of the barbarian army.  The Vallum was intended to stop everyone from crossing and the horses had to slow to negotiate the steep banks and then the ditch. The Selgovae found energy from the fear of the Romans and, as the ala wearily climbed the last ditch and headed for the wall they saw the barbarians scaling it and running north and safety.

The ala did not need to rein in.  Their horses could go no further.  “Chosen Man, ascend the wall and see where they have gone.”

Metellus took off his helmet and rubbed his shaved head.  They had thwarted one attack but what of the forces to the east?