Looking at the map I could see that the Euphrates ran right through Babylon, effectively cutting it in half, though the largest part — the old city I assumed — stood on the eastern bank of the river. The map also showed that the river was used to fill the great moat that surrounded all four sides of the city. It was undoubtedly still a formidable fortress. In addition to the Ishtar Gate there were nine other entrances into the city.
‘It is most important that we get our soldiers inside the city,’ said Vardan. ‘The enemy has already tried to infiltrate Babylon north and south via the Euphrates, using rafts carrying troops, and they were beaten off with some difficulty.’
Vardan’s plan made no sense. What was the point of trying to get horsemen into a city under siege when they could be used to destroy the besiegers outside the walls?
‘Your pardon, lord king,’ I said.
Vardan looked up at me. ‘Yes, Pacorus?’
‘Surely, lord, it would be better to destroy the enemy in battle and afterwards take our forces into your city.’
Vardan nodded knowingly at me. ‘I have discussed this with your father and we are in agreement that the enemy will retreat before our forces arrive at Babylon.’
So, they had agreed on the plan for tomorrow without consulting Nergal or me. I saw the look of triumph on my father’s face.
‘Can you be certain that the enemy will retreat, lord king?’ I said to Vardan.
‘They will fall back,’ said my father. ‘They tried to take Babylon in Vardan’s absence. Now he has returned at the head of over forty thousand men they won’t let themselves be trapped between us and the city’s garrison.’
My father made a good point but I resented not being consulted on matters of strategy.
‘As it is Dura who fields the largest portion of the army, over half by my reckoning, it would have been good manners, father, to have sought my advice on the plan for tomorrow.’
My father folded his arms across his chest.
‘You have already dragged Vardan and myself into your private war with Mithridates and Narses, which has led to Babylon being besieged. It is fortunate for you that the city has thick walls and strong defences, otherwise the blood of its inhabitants would be on your conscience. As I have told you once before, I do not wish to plunge the empire into another civil war.’
‘Neither do I, Pacorus,’ said Vardan. ‘Further war will be the ruin of the empire and of us all, I fear.’
I held out my palms to Vardan. ‘I am in your service and debt, lord king.’
To my father I said nothing. Nergal appeared to be squirming with embarrassment while Gafarn merely looked at me with sympathetic eyes and shook his head.
‘Good, well, let us continue.’ Vardan nodded at Mardonius who pointed his stick at the Ishtar Gate. ‘Tomorrow we will advance to the city with the army of Hatra on the right flank, the place of honour.’
Vardan nodded at my father, who smiled back.
‘My own Babylonians,’ continued Vardan, ‘will occupy the centre of the line, with the Durans and Mesenians deployed on the left wing.’
This arrangement made sense in that it placed fifteen hundred cataphracts on the right under my father and a thousand of my own armoured horsemen on the left wing, though the army would be rather lopsided with my lords and their twenty thousand horse archers grouped on the left flank.
‘My lords and their men could be used to strengthen our centre,’ I suggested. ‘In that way we can extend our frontage and thus have a better chance of enveloping the enemy.’
‘Poor farmers on ragged mounts,’ sneered Vistaspa, to which my father laughed.
Vistaspa was a great warrior, a man who had helped to forge Hatra’s army into a fearsome weapon, but his blind loyalty to my father and his callous nature made him a difficult man to like, though one could certainly admire him for his achievements. But at this moment I despised him. What was the bulk of Vardan’s army but horse archers who were also farmers and townsfolk?
‘At least my farmers have fought in battle, Lord Vistaspa. Remind me, when was the last time Hatra’s army crossed swords with the enemy, I forget?’
Vistaspa’s nostrils flared at the insult but it was my father who spoke.
‘A kingdom’s army is a resource to be used wisely, to preserve its safety and prosperity, not as a tool for a reckless king.’
Mardonius glanced anxiously at his fellow officers.
‘Father,’ I said slowly, ‘when I think of all the blood that has been shed these last few years, I cannot help but think that if you had listened to the words of your friends and had become king of kings then we would not be standing at this table arguing thus.’
My father let his hands fall by his sides.
‘So it is my fault that Mithridates is king of kings, that Narses is his lord high general and that Babylon is under siege, is it? Would you admit that perhaps some of the blame for the empire’s current problems can be attributable to the King of Dura?’
‘I have only responded to threats, never made them.’
He rested his hands on the side of the table and leaned towards me.
‘Do you deny that you wrote a letter to Mithridates following your capture of Uruk, stating that you would never rest until he was gone from the world.’
‘It is common knowledge that I did so,’ I replied.
‘And did you expect that the high king would forget such an insult?’
‘I do not care what Mithridates thinks.’
He gripped the edge of the table. ‘Of course not, and in so doing you condemn your allies to a state of perpetual war.’
‘What would you have me do, father, beg Mithridates for forgiveness?’
‘Why not?’ he said. ‘You might find that he is more accommodating than you think.’
I thought of the sneering visage of Mithridates, the blood-soaked body of Godarz lying on the floor of his residence and the way he had insulted me at Esfahan during the Council of Kings.
‘There can be no accommodation with Mithridates,’ I replied.
My father then tried a different strategy. He looked at Nergal.
‘What does the King of Mesene think on this matter? Your kingdom lies next to Susiana and your presence at this table may condemn you to face an invasion from the east.’
My father had articulated my own fears, for whereas the kingdoms of Babylon and Hatra lay between Dura and Susiana, Nergal’s lands were adjacent to Mithridates’ kingdom.
‘It is as you say, lord king,’ replied Nergal. ‘Mesene would not be able to defeat the wrath of Susiana and Persis. But I have fought beside your son for ten years and everything I now have,’ he put his arm round Praxima. ‘Everything we have, is all down to him. But more than that, lord, he is our friend and we will not desert his side.’
‘You must understand, father,’ said Gafarn, ‘that those of us who fought beside Spartacus in Italy have an unbreakable bond. We stand and fall together.’
‘It is the falling that I worry about,’ remarked my father grimly. ‘But regarding the plan for tomorrow, it stands. Our main priority is to relieve Babylon, nothing more.’
I was tempted to raise the issue of the enemy burning Babylonian villages and killing and raping their inhabitants, but this would have provoked more argument to little effect. Thus the meeting petered out and we said our farewells to Gafarn, Vardan and Mardonius. I ignored Vistaspa and bade an icy good night to my father, though Gallia embraced both him and Gafarn warmly.
It was late when I assembled the lords and the senior officers of my cavalry in my tent. They all stood before me as I explained to them the dispositions they would adopt tomorrow. I told them that we had Mithridates and Narses where we wanted them and that the coming battle would be a chance to settle things once and for all.
‘We go to kill Mithridates and Narses,’ I told them, ‘to avenge Godarz and Gotarzes and rid the empire of the false high king. Only when we have a new king of kings sitting at Ctesiphon will we have peace and justice in the empire instead of tyranny and lawlessness.’