He stood. ‘Scouts have detected a large Armenian force advancing towards the city from the northeast.’
Men looked at each other and some may have been alarmed but no one spoke. The officers of the Royal Bodyguard were too professional to allow their emotions to show. Assur was impassive — all the demons from the underworld could be converging on the city and he would be unconcerned, believing that Shamash would protect Hatra as long as the people remained pious.
‘How many Armenians?’ I asked.
‘We have not been able to discover that as yet,’ replied Gafarn.
‘May I suggest we convene a council of war to determine our next move,’ I said.
My mother suggested the gazebo in her secret garden and insisted on attending. It was now mid-morning and the temperature was already rising, though it was pleasant enough in the shade of the arbour. Immaculately dressed slave girls with painted fingernails and oiled hair brought us fruit juice, yoghurt, wafers, fruit and pastries as we reclined on couches and determined how best to slaughter the enemy. As we did Gafarn received more updates on the composition of the Armenian army and its distance from the city. As I devoured a delicious honey cake topped with seeds he revealed that around one hundred thousand Armenians were four hours away.
‘Outnumbered four to one,’ remarked Domitus casually. ‘Sounds decent odds.’
Vagises laughed while Vistaspa frowned but Gafarn said nothing.
‘Do Romans always give battle no matter what the odds?’ my mother asked Domitus politely.
He wiped away crumbs from around his mouth with the back of his hand. ‘Yes, lady, always. They believe that if you attack first it gives you an advantage and also pleases the gods.’
‘And what gods are those?’ she enquired further.
‘Chiefly Mars, god of war,’ replied Domitus proudly, ‘and the god of death.’
My mother was intrigued. ‘And does he have a name, this god of death?’
Domitus nodded. ‘He does, lady, but I prefer not to say it in case he notices me and takes me away into the next life for doing so.’
My mother smiled. ‘How quaint. And do you believe that we should fight the Armenians, Roman?’
Domitus grinned broadly. ‘Yes, lady.’
She looked at Gafarn and then me. ‘And what do my two sons think?’
I waited for Gafarn to speak first even though technically I outranked him as lord high general.
‘I await the decision of the empire’s lord high general,’ he replied.
I finished another honey cake. They really were most palatable.
‘By the time the Armenians get here we will still have five hours of daylight left, more than enough to fight a battle. The enemy will be tired after marching all day in the heat whilst our men will be fresh, but if we allow them to make camp then tomorrow we will have to fight an invigorated opponent. I therefore propose to fight the Armenians outside the city, today.’
‘Even though we are outnumbered?’ asked Vistaspa.
‘It is not the size of the man in the fight, Lord Vistaspa,’ said Domitus, ‘but the size of the fight in the man.’
My mother laughed and clapped her hands. ‘You really are a most intriguing individual, Roman.’
‘Even though we are outnumbered,’ I replied. ‘I have no stomach to be cooped up inside this city like lambs in a pen awaiting slaughter. Silaces is on his way from Assur and Orodes and Nergal are advancing from the south. If we allow the Armenians to lay siege to Hatra they will be able to engage our friends separately while we are trapped inside the city. This I cannot allow.’
I looked at Gafarn who smiled at me. ‘I agree. Kogan, bring all the caravans that are camped outside the city within the walls and quarter them in the squares.’
‘I will need to bring my mules, wagons and siege engines into the city as well,’ I told Gafarn.
‘Put them in the Great Square,’ he replied.
Assur raised his bushy eyebrows. ‘Adjacent to the Great Temple?’
‘I’m sure Shamash will understand,’ said Gafarn. ‘We are, after all, defending His sanctuary from the heathens.’
‘We will all defend your temple, Lord Assur,’ said my mother, ‘I will fetch my bow and stand on the battlements beside Lord Kogan’s men.’
Domitus looked at her in surprise.
‘You think I am a frail old woman, Roman,’ she asked, ‘fit only to be raped and murdered if the enemy breaches the walls? I can shoot a bow as well as any man.’
‘I don’t doubt it, lady,’ he replied admiringly.
Diana, who had once been an Amazon, also declared her intention to stand on the walls beside her mother-in-law, but when I suggested that Gallia might like to join them I was met by an icy glare.
‘I will be fighting alongside you with the Amazons, my dear,’ she insisted.
So I kissed my mother farewell and ordered Domitus to pass the word on to Marcus that the Duran camp was to be dismantled and the wagons and animals brought into the Great Square. He was to use the city’s northern gates, which gave direct access to the royal quarter. In addition to Kogan’s guards, the three thousand squires of Hatra’s cataphracts and Royal Bodyguard, plus a further two thousand from Dura, would reinforce the garrison. This gave Kogan a total of seven thousand men and boys, plus my mother and Diana.
The Armenians had hugged the Tigris on their way here before heading southwest into the desert to advance on Hatra. They had also probably diverted a number of troops to the city of Assur to keep Herneus occupied and prevent him from reinforcing Hatra. I was not worried about him: he had ten thousand horse archers plus his garrison to defend the city. But I was concerned that any assault against Assur would prevent Silaces from reaching us.
I walked with Domitus from the gardens, through the palace and into the Great Square, which would soon be filled with mules and wagons.
‘We will place Marcus’ smaller ballista among the first line cohorts,’ I said, thinking aloud. ‘Because we are greatly outnumbered we will deploy the Durans and Exiles in two lines to extend their frontage, with the horse archers on the wings and the cataphracts held back as a reserve. The Armenians will be confident of victory and we will use that against them by drawing them onto our javelins and swords.’
‘You have been doing a lot of thinking,’ he said.
I stopped and looked at him. ‘This is the city where I grew up, Domitus, a place of great strength and certainty in an uncertain world. When I was in Italy the thought of Hatra was a comfort to me: its many towers, its high walls and great moat. Whatever calamities befell the empire, the one constant was the strength of Hatra, the capital of the greatest kingdom in the empire.
‘But now much of that kingdom lies in enemy hands and this city itself is in peril. I will not stand idly by and watch it fall to the Armenians, not while there is breath left in my body.’
He smiled and laid a hand on my shoulder. ‘Do not fear. You have created an army that would follow you into the underworld if you asked it to.’
‘Just a few miles outside the city will suffice.’
I looked at the entrance of the Great Temple. ‘I think I will take a few minutes in the temple Domitus.’
‘Not thinking of becoming a priest are you?’
‘Not yet. Deploy the army immediately north of the city. I will meet you there. By the way, what is the name of the Roman god of death?’
He looked pensive before shrugging. ‘Mors.’