‘He holds,’ said Procopius, admiration evident in his voice.
‘For now,’ came the toneless reply.
Bouzes would have struggled on the first day had the attack been pressed and now he had more of the line to protect. So when the cataphracts increased in numbers it came as no surprise that his front began to buckle. But it did not break and Bouzes was riding to the rear yelling and screaming, though he could not be heard on the hillock, clearly urging resistance before he dashed into the melee with his personal bucellarii to shore up a weakness, which brought a feeling of reluctant admiration to his general.
‘Orders to Bouzes, Solomon. He is to allow the pressure to tell. Let him give ground but slowly and if he enquires why say to him we need him and his men whole for what is to come.’
In truth Bouzes was not going to be gifted with a choice; Flavius had sent the message to allow him to do that which was being forced upon him anyway, the sound reason that with permission to give ground he would keep his men intact as a fighting unit. The lighter cavalry he led were struggling to hold the heavier cataphracts and if they began to break up completely they would open a huge and irreparable gap in the Roman line and allow the enemy to begin an encirclement.
If he was enraged by the command it was clear Bouzes was obeying, but with commendable slowness, as if trying to send a message of his disapproval. Flavius issued his orders to the left central unit of cavalry and waited for the moment of decision, which lay not with him but with Pharas and his Herul cavalry. If it was agony it was necessary as he saw even more lines of cataphracts pressing forward towards the ditch till soon those at the rear were crowding the men at the front.
Pharas chose his moment well. He had led his men round behind the hill that formed the left flank of the battlefield, one so steep that it defied any horsemen the chance to overcome it and would have been hard going on foot, and this had been carried out unseen. Now that the Sassanid cataphracts were entirely committed he and his men emerged at the charge from the southern side of the hill and hit them in the flank, their lances taking horses mainly as well as knocking from their saddle the odd rider. Once a man so heavily armoured was on the ground he was as good as dead.
At the same time the centre-left Roman cavalry, light but fast, emerged from behind the middle ditch and took them in the other flank, the confusion caused by the twin surprise assaults immediate and obvious. The Sassanids, who were thrown into a muddle as some turned to face the new threats while others kept up the assault on Bouzes, who realised that he too had an opportunity and stopped his retreat, sounding the horns to advance.
The cataphracts were thrown back into a cluster in which they struggled to employ their weapons, pressed on all sides by Romans stabbing with spears and swords, with knife-carrying skirmishers in their midst seeking to cut their stirrups while from their rear a hail of arrows rained down on the crowded centre.
Assailed on three flanks the cataphracts lost all cohesion and broke into individuals seeking to save themselves, and within a blink the attack had turned into flight. Flavius Belisarius had abandoned his hillock and was working to get ahead of his Romans with his mounted comitatus. He and his personal troops had to form a line that stopped the victorious cavalry from indulging in a pointless and dangerous pursuit.
At the same time Solomon was calling forward a mass of citizens from Dara armed with a variety of tools, their task to repair the ditch and re-form the defence as soon as Flavius forced his own men back to the right side of the line, working to get them to re-form, for the next attack could come soon.
Procopius beamed at him when he finally got back to his position of command. ‘Would I be allowed to offer my congratulations, General Belisarius?’
‘Save them until we have beaten the Sassanids, which we have not done yet!’
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Even through the cloud of dust Flavius could see how many of those heavy cavalry had got clear. Driven off they might be but they would re-form and the Romans would have to face them again. All around him those that had fallen were being stripped of their armour while the non-maimed horses were being shepherded back towards Dara. The Roman archers reclaimed arrows that had missed flesh to end up stuck in the ground.
They were not to be left in leisure to carry this out. A line of infantry began marching right at his centre, to their fore men who would adopt the same obstacle-destroying tactics that had just been set in reverse. Once the ditch was rendered crossable, the assault would become a trial of strength as the front lines of each army fought a close-combat battle, one which allowed for little skill and much muscle and so it proved.
In places his line bent, in others it was the Sassanids who were forced to concede ground, yet that was not translated into a Roman advantage, as whoever commanded the central attack moved his reserves to shore up a position. As had now become common, Procopius wanted it explained to him. Flavius pointed out that the highest number of his cavalry were behind the fighting infantry, including the bucellarii.
‘The object is to fix them in place before he launches the main assault, which must come soon as there is only so much daylight left.’
‘Where will it come?’
‘If it were me it would be in the same place. We can’t surprise him from behind that hillock twice and the ditch repairs have to be easier to break down than what they had to destroy the first time. Against that we are able to move reserves without his being able to see it and it would have to be guarded against, which might blunt what happens to the front. Pharas is now back alongside Bouzes, so from where Perozes is looking that may seem a more formidable point to attack than previously.’
‘And if he breaks the centre?’
‘He won’t!’
There are times in a battle when a sort of hiatus descends; it is not that nothing is happening, more that little is changing, though it is also a situation that cannot last forever. For Flavius the advantage of being in defence was bearing the fruit for which he had hoped. It was his opposite number who had to make all the tactical decisions, which allowed him to be reactive. But there was another string to his personal bow and one, if Perozes obliged him, that would prove decisive.
He was thus pleased to see that the central infantry attack was not being too ardently pressed, it was exerting just enough pressure to keep his men engaged and now Perozes had sent forward his ditch destroyers on the Roman left, while behind them once more the cataphracts had formed their lines in preparation to follow. It was what lay to their rear that gave the plan away; there were the Sassanid light cavalry, put in place to pursue a beaten foe once their more puissant comrades had created the necessary space.
Hermogenes pointed out to Procopius that this would be the main assault. It may have been decades since he had soldiered but he had seen enough to make sense of what lay before him, which was just as well, given Flavius needed to hand over tactical responsibility.
‘I will need your good advice, Hermogenes, for staying here you will see what I cannot. If you think my plans are set to fail I need you to tell me.’
The older man just nodded as Flavius Belisarius rode off, his comitatus in his wake, to take command of the bucellarii. Once with them he would only see that which lay right before him.