‘You were born in this land?’ he asked Spartacus.
‘I did not say that. I said I was born a Thracian,’ he snapped.
Scarab, clearly intrigued, continued to press my nephew for answers. ‘Then where were you born?’
‘Italy if you must know. I was born in Italy and my father and mother were both slaves. Are you satisfied?’
Spartacus’ smile and cheerfulness disappeared as he sat sullenly in his saddle.
Scarab broke the silence. ‘I too was born to slaves. We have no say over the circumstances of our birth, only the life we live afterwards.’
‘Well said,’ I told him. ‘What Spartacus forgot to tell you, Scarab, was that when they died his parents were both free. More than that, his father was also a great warlord, one of the greatest the world has ever known.’
I looked back at them both and saw Scarab slap my nephew on the arm. ‘I had no idea. I thought you were just a rich, pampered prince.’
‘He is that too,’ I said.
Chapter 9
Two days after we had returned to Dura another letter arrived from Silaces, this time addressed to me. It was delivered during the weekly council meeting in the headquarters building where a sweating Arsam, fresh from his workshop, was informing everyone that the last deliveries of the new arrows had been issued to Vagises’ horse archers: the final batch of half a million steel-tipped missiles that could go through our own shields with ease and could also pierce mail armour. The expenditure, as Aaron informed us after Arsam had been dismissed, had been extremely high, not only in steel but also in additional labour costs.
‘The armouries are already filled with bronze arrowheads,’ he stated, reading from the detailed itinerary handed to him by one of his clerks, ‘and now they are to be packed with additional arrows. I have to tell you, majesty, that the army is draining your treasury.’
‘You sound just like Rsan when he was treasurer,’ said Domitus, causing my governor to frown.
‘We must be prepared for when hostilities break out, Aaron,’ I said.
‘My men are eager to test their new arrows on the Romans,’ said Vagises.
‘I remain to be convinced,’ sniffed Domitus. ‘No Roman army has ever been defeated by arrows alone. It will take more than a few archers to stop Crassus.’
‘We will have more than just a few archers,’ I told him.
‘Perhaps Prince Peroz might like to issue his men with the new arrows,’ suggested Aaron, ‘then we could charge his father and thus alleviate the burden on Dura’s treasury.’
Domitus shook his head and smiled while Rsan nodded in agreement and Dobbai snoozed in a chair by the window. She opened her eyes and tugged on Gallia’s sleeve as she gazed into the courtyard at a courier pacing towards the headquarters building.
‘Ill tidings.’
Moments later one of the guards knocked on the door and entered, saluting stiffly.
‘Letter from Assur, majesty.’ He handed me the folded parchment, bowed his head and then left, closing the door as he did so.
I broke the seal and read the contents. I threw the letter on the table.
‘Surena has attacked Armenia.’
Domitus took the letter and read it himself, running a hand over his cropped skull as he did so.
‘Looks like the peace with the Armenians is over, then.’
I placed my elbows on the table and held my head in my hands. Silaces had reported that Surena had written to him that he had unleashed his Sarmatian mercenaries, supported by five thousand horse archers, against the Armenians. Silaces did not know why he had done so other than to provoke Artavasdes into retaliating and launching another invasion of Gordyene, which Surena could once again defeat.
‘I told you, son of Hatra,’ said Dobbai, ‘when a wild creature is in pain it will lash out in fury, and so it is.’
‘You should write to Surena ordering him to desist his activities,’ said Gallia.
‘It is too late for that, child,’ said Dobbai. ‘The marsh boy has tossed a burning torch onto a pile of hay. It will cause an inferno that will sweep over the land.’
‘Even if Surena obeyed you,’ said Domitus, ‘the Armenians will want revenge for what he has done.’
‘They will want his head on a spear and Gordyene returned to Armenian rule,’ said Dobbai. ‘Are you prepared to grant them those things, son of Hatra?’
I looked at her. ‘No.’
At a stroke my carefully laid plans for the forthcoming campaign had been wrecked by Surena’s foolishness. In his black despair the notion of burning and looting Armenian towns and villages may have been appealing but his actions had placed Hatra in great danger. At the end of the meeting I gave the order to prepare the army to march north and afterwards sent riders to Ctesiphon and Uruk to alert Orodes and Nergal respectively of developments and to ask them to bring their armies north. I wrote other letters to Atrax and Aschek alerting them of events in Gordyene and requesting that they march their forces west to Hatra. We would now have to fight and destroy the Armenians before Crassus arrived.
Dura’s army was up to strength and fully equipped but I worried about the forces of the other kingdoms. Babylon had been ravaged in the recent civil war and had lost many fine soldiers at the Battle of Susa, as had Media, and while I did not doubt the courage and leadership of Orodes and Atrax I was concerned about the quality of the soldiers they led.
Nergal’s horse archers I had no worries about: they were well-equipped and professional soldiers. My only regret was that there were only five thousand of them, the other five thousand he had previously brought with him being the retainers of his lords and thus part-time warriors. And then there was the problem of Hatra’s army, formally one of the most formidable in the empire but now shaken by losses and defeats. Only Dura’s army remained as strong and formidable as it had always been.
As the cataphracts and horse archers were gathered at Dura and squeezed into the legionary camp that held the Durans and Exiles, I summoned the lords to the city to explain to them my plan of action and their part in it. As usual the one-eyed Spandarat was their leader of choice. His hair was almost entirely grey now and was thinning alarmingly, though he was still possessed of that irreverence that he had displayed when I had first come to Dura.
I sat beside Gallia in the throne room and explained to the score of grizzled old warriors that once more they would be responsible for the safety of my kingdom and would provide garrisons for the two large forts at the northern border, the other one on the southern border as well as the additional smaller forts in between. Apart from a small retinue of full-time soldiers that were in effect their bodyguards, the only soldiers that Dura’s lords could call upon were the farmers that worked their lands and the servants that lived in their strongholds.
‘We would prefer to fight,’ said Spandarat to murmurs of agreement from his hoary companions.
‘Believe me,’ I said, ‘there will be plenty of fighting to do in the coming months, but for the moment I need you here watching my back while I deal with the Armenians.’
Gallia smiled at him. ‘Spandarat, we would like you to move into the palace and take care of our daughters.’
Once it had become clear that I would have to march north to fight the Armenians, Gallia had declared that she and the Amazons would be joining me to avenge Viper’s death. I could not see how the Armenians were responsible for Viper’s demise but made no protest — in this war we would need every bow and sword.
He winked at her and smiled. ‘Would be an honour, princess.’
‘Excellent,’ I said, ‘that is settled.’
They grumbled between themselves for a while but Gallia mingled among them and won them over. It was not difficult to do. They had always admired her for her fighting prowess and forthright nature and she in turn always told them how dear they were to her. Initially they had lusted after the blonde-haired, blue-eyed Queen of Dura but now they were older they regarded her as an adopted daughter and doted on her.