An hour later we were half a mile from the walls of Babylon, which rose majestically from the desert floor to a height of at least seventy feet, defensive towers at regular intervals all along their circumference. Once there had been outer walls that gave the city even greater protection. They were so high and wide that it was reputed that two chariots travelling along the top of them in opposite directions could pass each other without difficulty. These walls had long since gone, the only remnant being the paved road that linked where the outer wall had once stood to the Ishtar Gate. It was called Aibur-shabu — ‘the enemy shall not pass’ — and was built by King Hammurabi when Babylon had ruled the world.
Even from this distance the walls looked imposing and impregnable. I knew that they were constructed from large mud-bricks cemented together with bitumen, and that the moat that surrounded the city was also lined with bricks. Without siege towers and engines such as Dura possessed the enemy would have no chance of breaching those walls. But with the city surrounded the chance of starving a Babylon filled with many hungry mouths into surrender was a very real possibility. At least it was! Now relief had come.
Narses had scorned the chance of flight, obviously believing that even without Mithridates he had every chance of defeating us. He would have known that my legions had limped back home, for information was easily bought and word would have spread down the Euphrates that my foot soldiers were on their way back to Dura. He would have also known that the armies of Hatra, Mesene and Babylon had joined with my horsemen to make a formidable force. That said, he would have assumed, not unreasonably, that the Babylonians were second-rate compared to his own forces and would have assumed that Nergal’s soldiers were also inferior. Mesene had always produced ragtag armies composed of ill-equipped soldiers. He would have thus also discounted them. In his mind the only formidable troops he faced were my own and those of my father. That my father had brought only six and a half thousand horsemen with him must have filled Narses with confidence, the more so as we approached the city and it became apparent that we were greatly outnumbered by his own forces.
Narses had drawn up his army in three sections. On his left flank, occupying the space between the walls and my father’s Hatrans, was a great body of horsemen armed with lances and carrying round shields. They wore helmets on their heads and armless leather cuirasses on their bodies. Interspersed with these lancers were bodies of horse archers. Riders sent from my father and Vardan reported that they could see no cataphracts among these horsemen.
In the centre of the enemy’s line was a great mass of foot that must have numbered thirty thousand men or more, and which faced the horsemen of Babylon and extended right to face my own cavalry.
Officers barked orders at their men as the troops of both sides dressed their ranks and lines before the first clash. I clasped arms with Nergal as he and Praxima rode back to their horsemen that faced the mounted spearmen of the enemy’s right wing. I reached over and kissed Gallia on the lips before she took up her position in front of Dura’s horse archers.
‘Shamash be with you, my sweet, and remember not to unleash the lords until the enemy is breaking.’
‘God be with you, Pacorus.’ She closed her helmet’s cheekguards, tied the leather straps together under her chin and then pulled her bow from its hide case attached to her saddle. She held it over her head, a gesture reciprocated by the Amazons grouped behind her, and then dug her knees into Epona and galloped away to take command of the horse archers.
I rammed the butt spike of my kontus into the earth.
‘Come, Orodes, let us take a closer look at the enemy.’
He did the same and we trotted across no man’s land to with five hundred paces or so of the enemy’s front ranks. I kept an eye over to the left to where the enemy’s horsemen were grouped but in truth did not think they would charge us. The foot opposite us was firmly routed to the spot — it seemed that Narses would fight a defensive battle.
We edged our horses closer to the front ranks of the enemy, a long line of large wicker shields, rectangular in shape and almost the height of a man. Covered in thick leather and painted yellow, with the bird-god symbol of Persis painted on each one, they were held by Narses’ royal spearmen. Looking up and down their line I estimated that there were at least five thousand of them standing in three ranks or more. Each man wore a plumed, bronze helmet and probably wore leather armour. Reflecting their Persian heritage they most likely were armed with light battleaxes and daggers, in addition to the long spear each man carried. The shield was thick enough to stop arrows, though too large and cumbersome to form a roof under which the men could take shelter in an arrow storm. The front rank held their spears towards us at an angle of forty-five degrees, the ranks behind holding their spears upright. These soldiers were not a rabble but among the best that Persis could field. That Narses had brought mostly foot soldiers before the walls of Babylon did not surprise me. Horsemen are mostly useless in sieges but their mounts consume fodder that can easily exhaust the resources of the surrounding areas. In addition, Babylon lies only fifty miles from the Tigris and the Kingdom of Susiana, close enough to get an army of foot soldiers to the city within four days.
A group of arrows suddenly arched into the sky from behind the ranks of the spearmen to land harmlessly a few paces in front of us. No other volley followed but I thanked Shamash for this lack of discipline, for the enemy had revealed to me that there were foot archers standing behind the spearmen.
‘Time to retreat,’ I said to Orodes and wheeled Remus around.
I heard a thud and he suddenly bolted forward. I managed to bring him under control as Orodes galloped up to me.
‘They have slingers as well, then,’ he said, grinning at my temporary discomfort.
We rode to where Gallia waited in front of her Amazons with a knot of officers from my horse archers around her.
‘Don’t get too close to the foot opposite,’ I told them. ‘They have archers and slingers behind the spearmen.’
‘Don’t give them any cheap victories,’ I said to Gallia. ‘Just annoy them. Shoot high so your arrows fall on the heads of the front ranks. You will be able to thin them out but that’s about all.’
‘And your cataphracts?’ she asked.
I smiled at her and pointed to where the horsemen of the enemy right wing were standing.
‘That is where the key to the battle lies, my sweet.’
I smiled at her again and then dug my knees into Remus’ flanks to take me back to my cataphracts. It appeared that the enemy had no heavy cavalry, which evened the odds greatly. In my mind I quickly formulated a plan: shatter the enemy’s right wing with my heavy horsemen to allow Nergal’s horse archers to sweep around the enemy foot to attack their exposed flank and rear. Once that had been achieved Narses’ foot soldiers would be peppered with volleys of arrows that would both demoralise and decimate them. I did not worry about what would be happening on the enemy’s left flank where Narses faced the combined horsemen of Hatra and Babylon. The enemy’s mounted spearmen would be no match for my father’s cavalry. Orodes looked at me with concern as I began to whistle to myself. We had Narses cornered like a rat. So much for the lord high general of the Parthian Empire. Victory was so close I could taste it.
Chapter 8
As both sides eyed each other warily across the featureless stretch of desert that would soon become a blood-soaked killing ground, an eerie silence descended over the battlefield. Horses scraped at the ground impatiently, chomped on their bits and flicked their tails to swat away flies. Men pulled on their bowstrings to test the draw weight, others checked their quivers and the cataphracts rested their great lances on their shoulders, their helmets pushed back on their heads. The breeze ruffled windsocks and banners and offered slight relief to men sweating in armour. Most of the clouds had disappeared by now to leave a clear blue sky. It was a beautiful spring day, and for many their last one on earth.