‘Your men did well,’ I said to Surena.
‘They and I had a good teacher,’ he beamed.
Gallia smiled at Surena in acknowledgement of his compliment. Perhaps she was warming to him at last.
A temporary lull descended over the battlefield as the horse archers of Gordyene were withdrawn in companies to replenish their ammunition and take a well-earned rest. As they did so Vagises moved his dragons closer to the edges of the square, though well out of arrow and javelin range. He also deployed five hundred men to cover the western side of the square to fully surround the Roman Army.
‘What now, lord?’ asked Surena.
It was a good question.
We had mauled the enemy’s Syrian auxiliaries and had subjected the Roman square to a prolonged period of arrow volleys, but the Romans remained in their ranks and though they had undoubtedly suffered some casualties they retained a great superiority in numbers. It was now late afternoon; the enemy had only to remain in their ranks and we would have to retire from the field, to resume our tactic of harassment tomorrow. But I comforted myself with the knowledge that Crassus would not be able to march far with us hanging on his flanks.
With my permission Surena sent word for the camel train to be brought forward so the horse archers could replenish their quivers more quickly.
‘We have time to subject them to more volleys before dusk falls, lord,’ he said.
‘You are right,’ I agreed, ‘the enemy will not make any further movements today so the more Romans we kill now the less we will have to face tomorrow. Vagises, it is time to discover whether all that money lavished on Arsam’s new arrows has been well spent.’
‘You think the Romans are just going to stand there and let you shoot them down?’ asked a sceptical Gallia.
I laid a hand on her arm to reassure her. ‘Believe me, I know the Romans better than myself. They will remain rooted to the spot until darkness falls. They will gladly trade a few casualties for time.’
A noise sounding like a dull scraping interrupted our conversation and from our vantage point on the hillock I saw movement among the Roman cohorts deployed on the northern side of the square, and then suddenly hundreds of horsemen poured from the enemy formation.
‘It would appear that the Romans know you better than you know them,’ remarked Gallia caustically, for behind the horsemen came rank upon rank of legionaries, accompanied by what appeared to be Syrian foot archers.
‘Are they attempting a breakout?’ said Vagises.
The Roman horsemen momentarily halted to dress their lines and then I heard trumpet blasts coming from their ranks, followed by fresh movement as what appeared to be well over a thousand enemy horsemen, plus at least four times as many legionaries in addition to a few hundred archers, veered right and began to head in our direction.
‘They mean to kill the Parthian commanders,’ remarked Gallia, who turned to Zenobia and ordered her to form the Amazons into line.
I looked at Surena and realised that just as we had been observing the Romans, so had Crassus been watching us. The banners of Dura and Gordyene had revealed our position to him and now he had sent a force to kill us.
‘Form line!’ I shouted to the officers of the cataphracts behind me. Seconds later horns were sounding and men were plucking their lances from the ground and pulling helmets down over their faces as the Romans trotted towards us. My eye was drawn to the centre of the line, to where a figure in what appeared to be white armour was riding ahead of the first line — Publius Crassus!
‘We will meet the Romans head on,’ I announced. ‘Gallia, throw your Amazons in front as a screen and shoot arrows at the Romans to impede their advance. Vagises, return to your dragon positioned to the north of the square and divert them to assault the legionaries and archers accompanying the Roman horsemen.’
‘What do you require of me, lord?’ asked Surena as Gallia trotted away with Zenobia to organise the Amazons’ attack.
‘Bring one of your dragons to support Vagises. Once we have dealt with their horsemen we cannot let the Roman legionaries return to their square. The chance of destroying all their horse and a good portion of their foot is too good to let slip.’
He nodded and then galloped away with his bodyguard company with him. Vagises loitered for a few moments as the cataphracts began forming into a long line on the hillock and either side of it.
‘Are you certain you do not wish my horse archers to soften them up first, Pacorus?’ he asked.
‘The finest heavy Parthian horsemen against the best Rome has to offer,’ I replied. ‘Let us see which side the gods favour.’
He smiled. ‘May they be with you, my friend.’
He raised his hand and then wheeled his horse away to gallop behind the forming cataphracts to reach his companies of horse archers. The widely spaced Amazons were by now cantering across the half mile of ground that separated the two sets of horsemen. They would close to within four hundred paces of the Romans to loose half a dozen arrows, before retreating in a leisurely fashion, shooting missiles as they did so. Their arrows would not empty many saddles but might goad the Romans into charging prematurely.
The Roman horsemen occupied a frontage of around seven hundred and thirty paces. The thousand riders were organised into what was called an ala, which was made up of thirty-two units called turmae, each one comprised of just over thirty troopers. And now the turmae trotted towards us in one long line, each one three ranks deep. I also saw a few Syrian horsemen on the flanks that overlapped our own — the remnants of the auxiliary horsemen we had defeated earlier.
Gallia and the Amazons had no success in provoking the Romans even though they emptied a few saddles, and so fell back through the three ranks of the cataphracts to replenish their arrows from the camel train. I drew my spatha and pointed it forward to signal the charge as horns relayed my order along the line. The horses broke into a slow gallop as every kontus was lowered and grasped with both hands as the gap between the two sides rapidly diminished. From within full-face helmets came muffled war cries as horses broke into a fast gallop and the two sides collided with an ear-splitting bang that reverberated across the battlefield.
The Romans carried spears and held large oval shields on their left sides but in a head-on clash they were at a gross disadvantage. Their lances were nearly half the length of a kontus and the shields provided an excellent target for my cataphracts, who literally skewered most of the ala’s front rank, knocking riders from saddles as kontus points went straight through shields, mail shirts, torsos underneath and out through the backs of enemy horsemen. Around five hundred Romans died or were hideously wounded in that initial clash.
I had steered Remus straight at the rider in the white cuirass in an effort to kill Publius Crassus, demoralise his men and shatter the enemy’s mounted arm. He had seen me too and I now became oblivious to the hundreds of armoured riders either side of me and to the Romans to my front as I raised my sword to crush the enemy commander’s helmet as Remus strained every one of his mighty muscles to outrun the horses of the other cataphracts. I screamed as I was suddenly directly in front of Publius Crassus and brought my blade down, and completely missed as he ducked to the side and carried out a perfect back slash with his sword as I passed that cut deep into the rear of my cuirass.
I pulled Remus up but his momentum had carried me straight into the Roman second rank, and now the enemy’s discipline and professionalism came to the fore as the battle changed from one of a headlong charge into a grim mêlée. The cataphracts in the second and third ranks instinctively slowed before moving into the developing maelstrom of swinging sword blades, spear thrusts and terrified bolting and limping horses that had been caused by the initial impact.