‘Narses won’t come,’ said Domitus bluntly. ‘He won’t risk being beaten just to save Chosroes.’
‘Alas for Chosroes,’ remarked Orodes, ‘he chose his allies unwisely.’
‘Don’t waste your pity on him,’ I said. ‘He would have none if the roles were reversed.’
At the end of the first day, when the army had settled into its positions around Uruk, I convened a meeting of the war council to determine the next day’s course of action. I had invited Marcus to attend after we had finished our inspection of the city’s defences.
‘This is the plan,’ I said, smiling at Marcus. ‘The attack will commence tomorrow when we begin battering the main gates and the towers next to them. We will keep shooting at them until we have effected an entry.’
‘Those walls look very thick,’ mused Nergal.
‘And very strong,’ added Domitus.
‘May I speak, sir?’ said Marcus, raising his right hand.
‘Be my guest,’ I replied.
He stood up and bowed awkwardly to me and Gallia, then Praxima. Orodes grinned and Domitus raised his eyes to the ceiling. Gallia nodded back to him courteously while Byrd looked bored by it all. Malik raised his hand in greeting.
‘Well,’ said Marcus, ‘I have given the matter careful consideration and believe that my engines can break those gates.’
‘And if you can’t?’ Domitus was unconvinced.
‘Then we will find another way,’ I said. ‘The point is that we are here and will not be leaving until I we have taken the city. Thank you, Marcus.’
‘Will you still try to convince Chosroes to surrender, Pacorus?’ Sometimes I found Orodes’ sense of protocol extremely irksome. I bit my lip.
‘Of course, as I promised.’
Chapter 21
The dawn came soon enough, an orange glow in the east that illuminated the white walls of Uruk in a ghostly glow. I smiled to myself — the last day that it would know peace under its present king. Marcus and his men had risen early and were already assembling their siege engines, watched by a curious Domitus. I ambled over to him as he munched on a handful of biscuits and sipped from his water bottle. I could tell that he was fascinated.
There were six of the giant ballista, each one weighing several tons, being three times the height of a man and around thirty feet long. The ballista works like a bow, with a strong wooden frame holding two skeins of animal sinew in place vertically. Two horizontal wooden arms pass through each skein and are linked by a strong bowstring. As the arms are pulled back the sinews become twisted to create a great tension for propelling a missile forward, the latter resting in a groove in the horizontal stock of the ballista. The bowstring is pulled back using winches and held in place by a rotating trigger.
Marcus was bellowing orders at his men, ten of them working on each large machine. And on either side of these were smaller ballistae, which could throw a metal-headed bolt, solid metal balls and stones over great distances. A team of two men worked these smaller machines, similar to the scorpions I had encountered in Italy. Marcus had ensured that his men and their machines were out of range of the archers who were now lining the walls facing us. When he saw us both he stopped shouting and sauntered over.
‘Morning! We shall soon be ready.’
Domitus nodded towards the machines. ‘You think they will be up to the task?’
‘Oh yes, they are the latest in military technology,’ replied Marcus. ‘Crassus had them made specially to knock down….’ He stopped and looked sheepishly at me.
‘To knock down Dura’s walls,’ I continued for him. ‘It is quite all right, Marcus, you are a soldier who was obeying orders, a professional. You have nothing to be ashamed of.’
‘Anyway,’ he said, ‘he had these specialists brought over from Greece and they built the big ballistae and then trained us to use them. It took half a year to get us ready. This is the first time the big ones have been used in anger.’
‘They were not used at Dura?’ I asked.
Marcus shook his head. ‘The army’s commander wanted to take the city by storm, thought my machines were a waste of time. I pleaded with him but he would not have it. We did some damage with the smaller ballista, and after he was repulsed from the walls he said he would think about employing the big ones. But then your army arrived and, well, he had other things to think about.’
‘Indeed,’ I said.
‘How long will it take before they are ready?’ asked Domitus.
‘About two hours.’ Marcus rubbed his hands. ‘After that we’ll soon have a nice fire going.’
‘Fire?’ I asked.
‘Oh, yes, we will be shooting half and half.’
Domitus looked at him. ‘Half and half?’
Marcus looked at us as though what he had said was the most straightforward thing in the world. ‘Half stone and iron shot and half incendiaries. Anyway, I best get back to make sure they are assembled right. If you will excuse me?’
Marcus saluted and strode back to his machines. More wagons began to arrive carrying the ammunition for them, great round stones, smaller stones, iron balls, clay pots and bolts. The pots would be filled with naphtha and then sealed, with a burning, oil-soaked rag wrapped around the top. Upon impact the pot would smash and the flaming rag would ignite the naphtha.
The walls were lined with many soldiers now — so much for Yasser’s claim that Chosroes had no more troops — observing Marcus and his men going about their business. The latter were beyond the range of the Mesenian bows and the soldiers of Uruk would have never seen Roman siege engines in action before, so they just stood and watched, thinking themselves safe behind their big gates and high walls. Behind the siege engines the Duran Legion began forming up in its cohorts. They were widely spaced so that they extended towards the river. Next in line, to the right of the legion, came the Amazons and Dura’s cataphracts commanded by Orodes, with his own men on the extreme right of the heavy cavalry’s line. Nergal’s horse archers then formed a great line that extended north to run parallel to Uruk’s eastern wall. On the northern side of the city were deployed the Exiles in their cohorts and centuries. Thus was Dura’s army arrayed for the garrison of the city to see.
True to my word, and while Marcus readied his machines, I tied a white cloth on the end of a kontus and rode towards the city gates to ask for a parley. I had not ridden fifty paces beyond the siege engines when two arrows were shot in my direction from the walls. Fortunately they both fell short. I wheeled Remus around, walked him out of range and then faced the gates once more. I untied the white cloth from the lance and spat in the direction of the city. The time for talking was over.
I purposely rode over to where Orodes was sitting in his scale armour at the head of the bored cataphracts.
‘They would rather fight than see reason, lord prince.’
He nodded solemnly. ‘You have done all that honour demands, lord.’
I bowed my head to him and rode back to the engines, the cataphracts jeering and whistling at those on the walls.
‘That was rather foolhardy,’ said Domitus.
‘I have fulfilled my promise to Orodes. How is Marcus progressing?’
‘They will be ready in about half an hour. I hope you are not going to keep the men standing for hours in this sun.’
I looked into the clear blue sky. It was going to be another hot day. Most of the horsemen had already taken off their helmets or had pushed them back on their heads. The horses were swishing their tails to keep the flies away. Then I heard a noise coming from the walls and saw the Mesenians jeering and throwing insults. Some jumped on to the wall itself and lifted their robes to expose their genitals. I glanced at Gallia and her Amazons who were sitting emotionless on their horses, their faces enclosed by the cheekguards of their helmets. The other horsemen and the legionaries did not respond to the taunts but remained standing in their ranks in silence.