‘This is the disadvantage of filling an army with ill-equipped farmers,’ I told them. ‘Domitus, the legions will advance against them in a hollow square formation to draw their arrow fire. I have no doubt that their spearmen will launch an attack against you after their horse archers have softened you up. You and your men will be today’s bait.’
He smiled grimly. ‘Don’t you worry, Pacorus, my boys will deal with them.’
‘Vagises,’ I said, ‘when their horse archers have expended their arrows your men will charge and disperse them, after which Domitus will be able to destroy their spearmen.’
‘What about the cataphracts?’ asked Orodes, clearly annoyed that he had been left out of things.
‘What about them?’ teased Domitus. ‘They can sit on their arses and watch proper soldiers at work.’
Orodes was most unhappy but the only role for the armoured horsemen was as a reserve. As Domitus went back to his men and the legions deployed into a great hollow square, he remained at the head of the cataphracts in frustration. I stayed beside him, my helmet heating up my head, the sweat running down my cheeks and stinging my eyes. Behind me twelve hundred horsemen roasted in their armour. Fighting in the height of summer could be a most uncomfortable as well as a deadly experience.
The enemy commander knew what he was doing in that he adopted the correct tactics to suit the soldiers he had at his disposal. His spearmen halted around five hundred paces from the legions as the latter inched their way across the hard-packed earth towards them, retaining their formation as if they were on the parade square. Then the enemy horse archers attacked from the wings, companies darting towards the dense ranks of the legionaries and loosing their arrows. But the legionaries had already halted to form a continuous shield wall to face their attackers, while the ranks behind hoisted their shields above their heads to make an impervious roof of leather and wood.
Horse archers swept around the square, riders galloping to within a hundred paces of the shield wall to loose their arrows, then retreating and then attacking again and again, the hiss and whoosh of flying arrows enveloping the Durans and Exiles. While this thunderstorm of arrows was taking place Vagises’ men on both flanks actually fell back to further isolate the square and lure the enemy in. And behind them the cataphracts continued to roast in their armour.
After around half an hour the inevitable happened: the enemy horse archers ran out of arrows and withdrew to take up position either side of the spearmen, who were now banging their shafts against the insides of their wicker shields and shouting and screaming their war cries. Then they advanced against Domitus’ square.
Having believed he had weakened the opposition with his horse archers, the enemy commander now committed his spearmen to deliver the mortal blow to the soldiers who had been peppered with arrows. The spearmen advanced at a steady rate, retaining their lines as they did so. These men were obviously professional soldiers, well trained and equipped, the sun glinting off their helmets and spear points. Against ordinary soldiers they would have prevailed easily enough. But they were not facing ordinary soldiers; they were facing the legionaries of Lucius Domitus. And in the next few minutes the enemy commander’s battle plan and army disintegrated before his eyes.
As Vagises’ horse archers thundered across the ground to attack the two wings of enemy horsemen, trumpet blasts ordered the legions to deploy from square into line, the five cohorts at the top of the square halting while those that had formed the left-hand and right-hand sides of the square fanned out to take up position either side of them. They presented a line of fifteen cohorts to the enemy spearmen who, to their credit, continued their steady advance undeterred. In the rear the five cohorts who had formed the bottom of the square closed up on the first line, ready to act as a reserve to plug any gaps that might appear. None did.
I heard another blast of trumpets followed by a mighty cheer and then the cohorts raced forward to assault the spearmen, the first five ranks in each century hurling their javelins and the first rank then drawing their swords moments before they collided with the enemy, ramming their shield bosses into wicker shields and attempting to push their owners over as they stabbed with their swords. Javelins hit flesh and bone and bent on impact as they embedded themselves in wicker shields and the front ranks of the spearmen buckled and then collapsed as gladius blades went about their deadly work.
I felt elation sweep through me as, above the ghastly din of close-quarter combat, I heard the chant that had graced so many battlefields — ‘Dura, Dura’ — and knew that the enemy had been broken. And on the flanks Vagises and his horse archers charged at the enemy horsemen who now had no arrows. At the gallop they shot arrows at the stationary ranks that within minutes had turned tail and fled the battlefield, abandoning their foot soldiers to their fate. Vagises and his men gave chase. Orodes drew his sword and raised it in the air, turning in the saddle to order his men to move forward. I stopped him.
‘No, my friend, today we let Vagises and Domitus have all the glory.’
He looked disconsolate as he slid his sword back in its scabbard and slumped in his saddle, while behind him the cataphracts continued to sweat in the heat.
The last, tragic act of the battle was played out as the sun at last began its descent in the western sky and began to lose some of its heat. Fifteen cohorts of legionaries methodically destroyed the enemy spearmen, who were attacked from the flanks as the five reserve cohorts were moved to the wings to envelop what remained of the opposition. The enemy commander died with his men who formed a tight circle around both him and their standard as they were cut down. Domitus brought me the flag, a great square of yellow cloth with a leering black Simurgel stitched in its centre, and threw it at my feet.
‘Burn it,’ I ordered.
I stood the cataphracts down as the sweating but jubilant legionaries filed back to camp to once again pitch their tents. They would sleep like the dead tonight. Orodes and his men led their horses back to the camp’s stable area, they and their horses soaked with sweat and gripped by frustration.
Vagises returned after dark and reported to me immediately. He looked tired, filthy but elated, which only increased Orodes’ discomfort.
‘We chased them all the way to the walls of Seleucia,’ he beamed. ‘They ran their horses into the ground trying to flee us.’
‘Well done, Vagises, you and your men have earned their pay today.’
He took a jug of water from the table, filled a cup and then emptied it.
‘One thing you should know, Pacorus. We saw lots of foot soldiers on the road, all of them heading into Seleucia, horsemen as well.’
‘They must be reinforcing the garrison,’ said Orodes.
‘Your plan has worked,’ I said to Byrd, ‘they must be sending troops from Babylon in response to our presence here.’
Vagises shook his head. ‘We did not stay around long enough to get an accurate assessment of what was happening, but there are hundreds of tents pitched outside the city walls. Very odd.’
‘Tomorrow we will find out what the enemy is up to,’ I said.
As a rule Parthians do not fight in the hours of darkness but I increased the number of sentries that night as a precaution against an attack. Acting like thieves in the night suited Narses and Mithridates and it was obvious that their attention had now turned towards us following Vagises’ report. But no attack came and in the morning we struck camp, cremated our own dead and marched south once more, leaving the enemy corpses to rot in the desert. Our own losses had amounted to a hundred legionaries killed and thirty wounded, with a further fifty horse archers slain. It had been another easy victory.