Legio XVII: Battle of Zama (42 page)

Lugius thought for a moment.  “What do you other Commanders say?  Should we go now or wait until Malush and Sisak return?”

Aze, the Taurisci Commander said, “I say we attack.  If Sisak arrives in time, he can join the assault.”

Dindar said, “Malush’s men were to attack the island.  We’ll have to let that go.  I will still send Landi’s men against the south end and the center gate.  Sisak was supposed to join him, but my 5,000 Illyrians will get over the wall without him.”

Lugius added, “Without Sisak, I still have 24,000 Boii/Eravisci warriors and 5,000 Taurisci.  Dindar, I will send the 5,000 Taurisci with your 5,000 men to attack the center gate.  You may need the help.  The 24,000 will go against the north gate as planned.  Dindar, put 1,000 of Landi’s men at the south gate to create the planned diversion.  I’ll wait 20 minutes after they attack and then send the 33,000 warriors against the center and north gates.  We’ve rehearsed this.  There should be no confusion.  Get the men up and start marching them to the wall.  We attack at 5:00 A.M.”

The sleeping men were roused from their slumber and told to prepare for battle.  They could hear the fight and see the glow in the distance.  By 3:00 A.M., the three columns began walking the three miles to the wall and arrived at 4:00 A.M.  As they drew nearer, the sounds of shouting men grew louder.  One thousand mercenaries were opposite the south gate, 9,000 were opposite the center gate, and 24,000 were massed to attack the north gate.  The Commanders arranged them in lines of 2,000 men each.  The first two lines carried the ladders and would brace them.  The following two lines were told to hold their shields up to protect the men holding the ladders, and the rest were told to climb and fight.

Mintho, Haggith, and the other Carthaginians went forward with Lugius, Aze, and Dindar into the woods by the river, but planned to ride back about 100 yards away from the river once the attack got underway.  They were fully confident that the assault would succeed, but also knew that once it started, the area within 100 yards of the wall would be a killing zone.  The air would be thick with arrows.  It was wiser for them to stay away.

At 4:45 A.M., Lugius order the 1,000 men to go forward against the south gate.  They charged out of the trees yelling their battle cry and splashed across the water.  They stood on the mound and threw their torches over the wall and pelted the parapet with spears and arrows.

The Cenomani Commander, Gervasius, could see that the attackers had no ladders and couldn’t cross the ditch, which was filled with sharp stakes.  He passed the word for the men to save their spears and let the archers take the attackers under fire.  The towers opened the shutters facing the river, and archers and scorpio began firing.  Gervasius mounted his horse and rode to see Manius. When he found him, he said, “The attack at the south end of the wall is nothing more than a diversion.  I suggested that my Legion follow the Suevi when they go out of the south gate to sweep north along the wall.  My Cenomani could cross the river and come up behind the enemy attacking the center gate.  We should be able to take them by surprise and crush them between the Suevi and my men.”

“Good idea, Commander.  Maintain a small force on the wall and prepare your men to follow the Suevi.”  Manius then found Odo and Caile and explained the new plan.

Manius instructed the onagri to hold their fire over the river wall until he gave the order.  “I want burning oil to hit the woods and piles of brush across the river.  After you do that, aim for large groups of the enemy.  I want to disrupt their attack formation.  Keep firing until you hear otherwise from me.  I’m going up by the wall.  Have one of your men go with me, so he can bring you the order to fire.  Tell him to stay by my side.”

Elitovius found Manius.  “Sir, I haven’t talked to all the prisoners by the west wall, but I’ve learned they are Gauls from Mago’s army.  Do you remember Emil, the angry young Boii that we released to find his mother?  He’s one of the prisoners.  He led the Gauls right to us.”

After the 1,000 Illyrians went forward, Lugius waited for about 20 minutes and ordered a general attack.  Landi’s men were the first to come screaming out of the woods, cross the river, and begin throwing their ladders across the ditch.  The Taurisci followed.  Manius yelled, “Tell the onagri to fire!”  The crewman ran down the rampart yelling “Shoot” as he ran.  The onagri snapped violently forward and threw their pot of burning oil.  Each pot could be seen streaking across the night sky.  Some hit the trees and spewed burning oil 20 feet in all directions.  Others landed on or near the brush piles and several landed among groups of men.  Each pot burst open and scattered its fiery contents.  The woods lining the river were ablaze within minutes.  The attackers were fully exposed, and no longer hidden by the night.

Lugius, Aze, and Dindar stood in the woods watching and directing the battle when a pot of burning oil hit a tree and burst open 10 feet above them.  Lugius caught the brunt of the oil, and his clothes caught fire.  Aze and Dindar looked on with horror as they smothered the few drops that hit them.  Lugius started running for the river, but stumbled and fell.  The fire intensified.  His aides ran to him and threw their shirts over him to extinguish the fire.  They patted at the flames until nothing remained but smoke.  When they removed their shirts, Lugius was dead.

Aze and Dindar ran up to look.  Dindar said, “I am now in Command.”

Aze replied, “My men comprise the largest part of this army, and I will assume command.”  The two men stared at each other.  The anger already in Dindar spilled over.  He had suffered one humiliation after another and would not be rebuffed by Aze.  He drew his sword.  Aze drew his sword and stabbed at Dindar’s throat.  Dindar turned away and swung sideways at Aze’s middle. The sword struck his armor.  Aze drew back his sword arm and swung overhead at Dindar’s exposed neck between his helmet and shoulder armor.  It hit just below his ear and blood gushed.  Dindar dropped his sword, fell to his knees and held his bleeding neck wound.  Aze approached Dindar, ripped off his helmet, and brought his sword down on Dindar’s head with all his strength.  It broke through his skull and slit his face in half.

Caile quickly gauged that V Etrusci could manage the attack on his part of the wall.  Calvus looked at the horde approaching the north gate and felt he was in trouble.  His men were exhausted.  They had forced marched 25 miles and just fought a battle.  And now their lives depended on summoning the energy to fight another enemy much larger than their Legion.  Buckets of water were placed around the ramparts and the Legionaries were ordered to drink.

Lugano’s men standing adjacent to Legio XVII were in the same shape.  He knew his Legion and XVII would take the full brunt of the attack.

Calvus and Lugano found Manius by the signum that accompanied him.  Calvus said, “Sir, my men are exhausted.  I’m not sure how long we can fight effectively.  The fight outside the west wall took what little they had left.”  Lugano echoed Calvus’ comment.

Manius said, “I’ll be standing by your two Legions, if they start to break, I’ll have Bricius come around the east side of the wall to take the pressure off.”

As Aze’s men crossed over the mount and began crawling over their ladders to stay out of the ditch, the towers shut their river facing shutters and shifted their aim to the wall.  Soon hundreds of scorpio arrows were impacting all along the ditch and wall.  The archers had clear fields of fire and perfect visibility.  They fired without ceasing.  Boii, Eravisci, and Taurisci began falling in large numbers, but Aze was unaware of this.  His focus was on the top of the wall.

Calvus and Lugano ordered the men to throw the oil pots into the ditch.  Dozens were tossed over the wall and soon the brush in the ditch created a roaring inferno.  But by then, many men had already crossed over the ditch, set up the ladders, and began to climb.  When the flames died down, more ladders and men streamed over the ditch and began setting up their ladders.  Thousands were now on the wall.

Manius had an aide ride to the south gate where Legate Odo stood waiting with his Suevi Legion.  He also sent a runner to tell the onagri to cease fire.  “Legate Odo, Praetor Tullus says to launch your attack now.  Commander Gervasius, you are to follow the Suevi out of the gate.”

The men of Legio XVII and I Raetorum were hard pressed to resist the onslaught.  The muscles in their shield and sword arms were near muscle collapse.  They could barely lift their shields.  They began to give ground and started taking casualties.  The two Legates ordered their reserve Maniples at the base of the ramparts to man the walls.  These men were in little better shape than the men on the ramparts.  The Centurions got them to their feet and they charged up the dirt rampart.  They pushed and butted their way to the front and took up the fight.  Manius ordered the 1,000 men on the north facing wall to run to help Legio XVII.  He turned to an aide, “Bring up the 900 man reserve and send them to Lugano.  Quickly!”  Five minutes later they were pushing their way through I Raetorum to face the enemy.

Boii and Eravisci were pouring over the parapet.  The fight was now on the rampart.  As more men came over the wall, Legio XVII and I Raetorum began to back down the rampart.  The fighting was desperate and threatened to get out of Manius’ control.  Two thousand Boii and Eravisci were on the ramparts and more were coming over the wall every minute.

“Tell Bricius to come around the wall now!” he told an aide.  The man ran to the north facing wall and yelled for Bricius.  “The Praetor says to attack with all speed.”

Five thousand Cenomani warriors, who had not fought that day and were fresh, came running from behind the wall in three lines.  The leading elements ran straight into the river, through it, and stopped when they reached the woods.  When Bricius’ men heard the Cenomani trumpet, they stopped, turned, and faced the enemy.  Their lines stretched out from the wall across the river and into the woods.  They threw their spears and charged.  There appearance caught Aze’s men completely by surprise.  Their initial charge drove deep into the Boii/Eravici.  The men on the wall side of the ditch scrambled to cross back over the ditch.  The men on the ladders began to jump down.  The men who had climbed over the wall were abandoned.

The Boii/Eravisci turned away from the wall to face this unexpected threat.  They began to reoriented their lines and fight back.  Their lines thickened.  The scorpio crews in the towers adjusted their aim and poured a relentless stream of high powered arrows into the new targets.  The effects were immediate.  The mercenaries began to move from the wall into the river and tree line.  The Cenomani fought like wild beasts; the Boii and Eravisci were tiring and gave ground.  They became more disorganized and started to retreat.

Manius raced to the nearest tower by the center gate to get a better view.  Cassius and Modius ran alongside him with their shield facing outward.  Several times, Manius would have been exposed had it not been for the shields.  He stopped to encourage the scorpio crews and continued up the steps to the archer level.  As he turned on the stairs, he was completely exposed for a split second.  Modius thrust his shield forward to cover Manius’ side.  A spear hit his shield and slid off and struck Manius.  The force of the impact knocked Manius back against the stairs.  It stuck his exposed left bicep and exited the other side.

Manius regained his footing and stood silent for a moment as he looked at the spear.  “Cassius,” he said, “pull it out.”  Cassius grabbed the spear with both hands and pulled.  It slid out easily.  Blood gushed out both sides of his arm.  Modius dropped his shield, pulled off the scarf from around his neck, and wrapped it tightly around the wound.  Cassius was outraged.  He leaned over the wall.  He saw several ladders full of climbing men, but only one Boii was looking up.  They made eye contact and the Boii smiled.

Cassius ran down the tower’s stairs to the rampart where he saw files of men, lined up behind the man at the wall doing the fighting.  The files were almost shoulder to shoulder.  He knew he could not push his way through.  A fellow Centurion from V Etrusci who was controlling the rotation of the men saw Cassius.  Cassius yelled, “I need to get to the wall!”  The Praetor’s been hit and the scum who did it is the second man down the ladder.”

The Centurion began calling men by name to move to their right or left to create a small pathway for Cassius.  Cassius dropped his shield and picked up a pilum and began weaving his way to edge of the wall.  The men at the wall to his left and right were furiously battling Boii warriors who stood at the top of the ladders thrusting and swing their swords.  Shields were swinging violently left, right, up, and down as the Legionaries blocked their blows and thrust with their gladii.  Cassius rushed the last foot to the edge of the parapet with the pila in both hands raised high over his head.  He had seconds to spot the once smiling Boii and drive the pila downward.

Cassius looked past the man at the top of the ladder and saw his target.  Once again they made eye contact just as Cassius drove the pilum down into the Boii’s shield.  It penetrated and Cassius kept pushing.  The Boii’s eyes suddenly sprung wide open as the pilum penetrated his chest.  Cassius released the pilum and quickly backed away from the wall as the Boii fell backwards off the ladder.  The Etruscan Centurion yelled, “Did you get him?” as Cassius picked his way to the rear.