When we reached the army I immediately told Spartacus what I had seen.
‘They obviously intend to fight us,’ I reported. ‘Byrd was right about the number of legions, but I’ve never seen so many Gauls gathered in one place.’
Spartacus, as usual, was marching on foot with Claudia and Akmon in the midst of his Thracians.
‘Well, as they have been so kind as to gather all in one place, it would be rude not to accommodate them.’ He grinned at me. ‘Besides, killing them now will save us the effort of doing it later.’
‘I’m sure they are thinking the same thing,’ mused a grim-faced Akmon, whose mood always darkened before any battle.
It was noon when our army began to form up in their battle positions. I threw a screen of horsemen to the front of the foot to deter the enemy from interfering with our movements, but the Romans and their allies made no moves. Byrd reported that there was a large ditch that secured the enemy’s right flank, and when I rode over to see it for myself I realised that it would stop any attempt by my cavalry to outflank the enemy from that direction. The ditch was wide — about thirty feet — and had sheer sides. It must have been at least ten feet deep and ran arrow-straight into the distance; obviously the commander of the Roman legions, the governor of Mutina (I assumed that no Gaul would have the intellect to think of such a thing) had a well-thought out battle plan. He had anchored his right flank on an obstacle that was impossible to cross, but what about his left flank? Byrd and I rode along the gap between the two armies, that piece of killing ground that belonged to no one but which would soon be full of dead and the wounded. We made sure that we were out of enemy bow range, though a group of their slingers tried their luck when we cantered past, loosing small lead pellets that fortunately whistled by us harmlessly. From the ditch to where the two Roman legions were forming up was a distance of around two miles and was filled wholly by Gauls, and in front of where they stood in groups or sat on the ground were wooden stakes over six feet in length that had been driven into the ground and angled towards our army, the ends of which appeared from a distance to have been sharpened to points. In fact, the whole of the Gaul battle line was protected by several rows of these stakes. In the centre of the enemy line stood the Roman legions, deployed side by side. They each presented a front line of four cohorts, so I assumed that each legion was deployed in a standard three-line formation. The Roman legions together covered around half a mile of front. As we rode past the Romans we discovered yet more Gauls, this time on the enemy’s left wing, thousands of them in groups, again standing behind rows of sharpened wooden stakes, and again they covered a distance of around two miles. The enemy front thus measured nearly five miles. It was the largest army I had seen in Italy; indeed, it was the largest army I had seen in my life.
I told all this to the council of war who sat on stools in the shade beside a wagon filled with cooking utensils. While the army deployed, the wagons, mules, carts, oxen and non-combatants were being positioned in its rear. The wagons and carts were arranged in a square to form a sort of barrier, behind which the animals could be secured and the army’s supplies and spare weapons could be stored. This makeshift camp was guarded by around five hundred soldiers, usually men who were too old to fight in a century but who still knew how to use a sword or a spear. If the army was defeated then the enemy would make short work of them, but it comforted us all to know that they were guarding our rear. I had wanted to use Gallia’s women as camp guards as well, but she steadfastly refused, saying that she would rather die in battle than wait to be raped and then killed if we were beaten, so that was that. Any walking wounded were also detailed to act as camp guards. The day was warm and getting warmer, and already the men in their centuries and cohorts were using up the contents of their water bottles. A steady stream of water carts were making their way to and from the river that we had crossed three miles to the rear to replenish our supplies on what would be a very thirsty day. The cavalry had its own carts, which were also making the trip to and from the watercourse, though two-thirds of my horsemen were still at the river watering their mounts. There would be plenty of time to bring them forward before the fighting started.
‘They won’t fight unless we attack them,’ said Spartacus. ‘They are inviting us to assault them sat behind their stakes.’
‘My horse will be no use against those stakes, lord,’ I added, somewhat dejectedly.
Akmon finished eating an apple and tossed the core aside. ‘Whoever the Roman commander is, he knows his business. He’s obviously heard of your cavalry, Pacorus, and at a stroke has neutralised it. Clever.’
‘Put my men in the centre, lord, and we will cut through them like a sharp spear.’ Afranius, the newly appointed commander of the two legions of Spaniards, looked like a young Akmon. He had olive skin, dark brown eyes and short-cropped hair. He was shorter then I by around six inches, but was far more muscular and thickset. He was also extremely aggressive, a consequence of fighting the Romans for five years in his native country before being captured and sold in the slave market. His fat old master thought that Afranius would make a good catamite, but instead found only death at the end of a knife that was thrust into his heart. He wanted nothing more than to butcher Romans, and only accepted the discipline of Spartacus because it was a means to the end of killing his foes. That said, he pushed himself and his men hard, and the three Spanish legions were reckoned to be among the best we had.
Spartacus shook his head. ‘No, Afranius, that is what they want.’
‘Then how do we beat them, lord?’ asked Castus, his face and neck covered in sweat from the midday sun.
‘We wear them down with arrows.’
‘The only archers in the army belong to Pacorus’ cavalry,’ remarked Godarz.
Spartacus nodded. ‘That’s true, so we will place them on our wings, behind the second line of cohorts, to shoot arrows at the Gauls. The Gauls have no defence against arrows, they lack discipline and also cannot lock their shields together to form a roof of leather and wood as the Romans do. Hopefully we can goad them into attacking us, thereby rendering their wall of stakes useless.’
‘How many archers do you need, lord?’ I asked.
‘A thousand on each flank, and make sure you have enough arrows.’
‘I will issue extra bundles from our reserves,’ said Godarz.
Spartacus stood and looked at each of us in turn. ‘Just one more battle and we are out of this country, so remind your men of that. We’ve beaten them before and we can do so again. May the gods be with you all.’
We shook hands and returned to our posts, though I actually seemed to have little to do save form a reserve with the remainder of my horse. Spartacus had earlier decided on how our ten legions would deploy. He had the three legions of Spaniards under Afranius positioned on the extreme left, next to the ditch and facing the Gauls. Afranius was most unhappy about this, but Spartacus told him that if he was killed then he could do what he liked, but not until then. Next in line came the two legions of Castus’ Germans, men who rivalled the Thracians for their calmness in battle and their dependability. Also put under Castus’ command was another legion made up of those Gauls who had joined us after the defeat of Crixus, plus a large number Greeks, Dacians and Jews. On the Germans’ right were Akmon’s Thracians, twenty thousand men arranged in four legions, the first two of which faced the two Roman legions opposite them. The final two Thracian legions, our right flank, adopted a two-line formation in an attempt to match the frontage of the Gauls facing them, but failed. This meant that we were outflanked on our right wing by about half a mile, maybe more, and if the Gauls decided not to stand behind their forest of stakes, then they could easily envelop the whole of our right side.