I strode into the main chamber and Herneus rose from his chair on the dais to let me sit in it. He had also arranged for another to be placed beside it for Gallia.
‘I take it the Armenians have arrived,’ I said indifferently.
Herneus raised an eyebrow. ‘You knew they were on the way, majesty?’
‘I suspected. Where are they?’
Herneus pointed at a dust-covered soldier. ‘Tell the king.’
The man went down on one knee and bowed his head. ‘Ten miles north of here, majesty.’
‘Get up,’ I told him. ‘How many?’
He glanced nervously at Herneus before answering. ‘Thousands, majesty, mostly foot soldiers. I also saw rafts on the river being pulled by ropes from the bank.’
I dismissed him and turned to Herneus. ‘You have closed the gates?’
‘Yes, majesty.’
‘Get the people into the temple district.’ Herneus nodded to one of his officers who scurried away to organise the evacuation of the people from their homes and businesses to the temples in the northeast area of the city. These buildings were large and could accommodate the city’s residents, and hopefully their priests would provide them with solace. The main temples in the city were dedicated to Marduk, the supreme god of Babylon, the Sky God Anu and the Sun God Shamash. But there were also places of worship dedicated to the Storm God Adad and Assur, the chief deity of the city since Assyrian times.
‘Our defences will be stretched thin, majesty,’ said Herneus. ‘There are not enough men to man the entire length of the walls.’
I nodded. ‘That was the intention all along. We will reconvene in an hour.’
With Gallia I went back to our quarters where our cleaned clothes were laid out on the bed. I changed into my leggings, vest and white shirt and Gallia did the same. Spartacus and Scarab brought my leather cuirass and helmet, the latter having a fresh goose feather crest. Zenobia reported to Gallia and after eating a quick meal of fruit and cakes the five of us walked to the main hall. Herneus and his officers were waiting for us in their scale armour cuirasses, helmets in the crooks of their arms.
‘Let us take a look at the enemy,’ I said, striding past them towards the entrance hall.
As we walked from the palace across the courtyard and through the gatehouse groups of soldiers ran past us heading towards the walls. I thanked Shamash that both my father and his father, King Sames, had devoted much time and resources on strengthening Assur’s defences. In addition to the river that protected two sides of the city and a moat that covered the other two sides, a double wall, the space in between filled with buildings to house troops of the garrison, surrounded the city on the landside. On top of the outer wall was a parapet protected by battlements, the latter containing narrow slits from where archers could shoot on attackers below.
I gestured for Herneus to walk beside me.
‘I had hoped that when Tigranes died Armenian military expertise would die with him, but it appears that I was wrong. By massing a great army north of Hatra they have drawn all the forces of the western empire there, including my own army, but it appears that it was a ruse to divert our attention from their real target — this city.’
‘If Assur falls,’ he said grimly, ‘then the enemy will control the kingdom’s main city in the east and a major crossing point over the Tigris.’
‘And will deny our allies in the east the means to get forces over the Tigris,’ I added. ‘They have played their hand well.’
I could tell that Herneus was infuriated with himself that he had allowed his lords, Silaces’ horse archers and half his garrison to be taken away from him, and perhaps a part of him was also annoyed with his king, but his sense of loyalty would never allow him to say so.
We walked through the gate in the inner wall and then ascended the steps that led to the parapet on the outer wall beside the Tabira Gate, in the northwest of the outer wall. All three of the city’s gates had been closed by now and troops of the garrison, armed with bows, stood ready behind the battlements, but they were spread very thinly. The length of the outer wall facing the landside was over a mile in extent, with the rest of the perimeter fronting the river to the north and east.
The Armenians were making no attempt to approach the walls; rather, they were deploying their forces to the west and south of the city in preparation for an assault against the three gates. Their troops were dressed in bright uniforms of blue, red and orange; huge banners bearing the Armenian six-pointed star fluttering in the southerly breeze. I thanked Shamash that a deep, wide moat encompassed all the landward side of the city else the enemy would swarm over the walls and into the city with ease.
It was now three hours past midday and despite the breeze it was very warm notwithstanding that the sun was beginning to descend in the west, right into our eyes. The battlements were high on the outer wall to protect everyone on the parapet so we stood on large steps to see over the walls.
‘They mean to attack immediately,’ I said. ‘They wish to take advantage of their superiority in numbers and will have the sun behind them when they assault us.’
I turned to Herneus. ‘Send pigeons to Hatra and Irbil to request aid.’
He turned to one of his officers and gave him the order, the man running down the stone steps to a waiting horse that would take him back to the palace. Hatra was only sixty miles to the west; Irbil ninety miles in the opposite direction. A pigeon could reach Hatra in just over an hour and Irbil thirty minutes more. If we could hold out for two days then Assur might yet be saved.
‘They are going to try to smash through the gates,’ said Herneus, pointing ahead at what appeared to be a great tree trunk mounted on a large four-wheeled carriage. I now understood why the Armenians had been using rafts on the Tigris: it was to transport their battering rams. One ram was drawn up directly in front of the Tabira Gate and I could see another opposite the Western Gate. A messenger confirmed that a third was being readied to smash through the South Gate.
‘When they get near the gates they will be cut down easily enough,’ said Gallia confidently.
But I could see frantic activity around the battering ram as its large crew assembled a protective roof of planks topped with iron sheets over the tree trunk and its carriage. And behind the ram I could also see foot archers in bright blue tunics and leggings. They would provide covering missile volleys when the ram approached the gates.
‘We must concentrate our forces at the three gates,’ I said. ‘Herneus, give the order to abandon the defences on the riverside. The Amazons and a hundred of your men will defend the Tabira Gate, the rest of your garrison will be divided between the other two gates.’
He nodded and then beckoned over another of his officers to convey my order.
‘One more thing,’ I said. ‘Send soldiers to the temples asking that anyone who can shoot a bow is to report to the walls immediately.’
Each of the gatehouses on the outer wall had two storeys, each one having shooting slits for ten archers, and now they began to fill with troops as the garrison was concentrated at the three entry points to the city. Slaves from the palace ferried quivers of arrows from the armouries as the Armenians completed their preparations and made ready to assault Assur.
After an hour the enemy began its advance. In the van were the battering rams — sharpened tree trunks mounted on sturdy carriages with four thick wheels fashioned from the same thick trees that had been used to make the rams, each of them protected by crude iron and wood roofs.
Men wearing no armour or helmets clustered all around the ram’s carriage underneath its roof. They strained to heave the heavy ram towards the Tabira Gate. The trunk was secured to the carriage by ropes so the Armenians would have to literally ram it against the gates, relying on its weight and momentum to smash through the thick wood.