The city officials, priests and officers of the garrison looked at each other, concern and fear etched on their faces.
‘Well,’ announced Domitus loudly, ‘if you want to beat such a large army with so few men you will have to make his numbers count against him.’
‘And how do we do that, Roman?’ asked my father, intrigued.
Domitus winked at me and smiled at him. ‘With a bit of bait and a bit more luck.’
After the meeting I rode with Herneus and my companions to the ford of Makhmur that lay immediately south of the city. Though there was a stone bridge over the Tigris near the city’s South Gate, the river to the south of the bridge was shallow. Indeed, we rode our horses into the waters and walked them to the midpoint of the river where it was around three hundred paces wide at this spot. The current was very slow.
‘As you can see,’ said Herneus, the water lapping round his horse’s body, ‘it is about five feet deep, shallow enough to allow men on foot to cross let alone horsemen.’
Domitus looked back at the western riverbank that rose up from the water a paltry four feet. ‘The river is this shallow for how far?’
‘About four miles,’ replied Herneus. ‘In the spring it is deeper and faster flowing, but in the summer it is as you see it now. It will be no barrier to an army. It can even be forded to the north of the city, though the banks are steeper than here.’
Domitus nodded and then looked south.
‘What are you thinking?’ I asked him.
‘We line up the legions over there, a short distance from the riverbank, stretching south of the city for around a mile. That should be a nice tempting target for them.’
‘They will be able to sweep round your flanks,’ I said.
‘Not if your horsemen stand on our right flank,’ he said.
We rode back to the city and went straight to the palace to consult with my father. According to Herneus’ intelligence we had two days in which to prepare our battle plan, which Domitus estimated was just enough time to place the stakes we had brought from the north. Herneus provided the city garrison to assist the legionaries, Domitus stating undiplomatically that it was the least they could do as they would be useless when it came to the actual fighting. So the stakes were transported to south of the city and dumped on the western riverbank. They were hammered into the dry ground at an angle of forty-five degrees pointing towards the river, after which each one was sharpened to a point. The stakes were arranged in three rows, each one spaced every four feet to a length of a mile — four thousand stakes in total. They were positioned a hundred paces from the water’s edge and presented a fearsome obstacle.
When the work was finished we both stood and admired the newly planted forest of stakes.
‘Tomorrow the first line will stand in front of them to hide them from the enemy,’ said Domitus. ‘Then they will retire just before the horsemen hit them. Should give them a nasty surprise.’
‘They will shower you with arrows first,’ I said, ‘to soften you up before they send in the heavy horsemen.’
‘We’ve been under arrows before. You just make sure you hold them on our flanks. If they get behind us we’re finished.’
He looked across the river towards the Plain of Makhmur.
‘Keeping a hundred thousand men and their horses provisioned is a mighty undertaking.’
I shook my head. ‘Many of them will be poorly equipped and trained, and the condition of their mounts will leave a lot to be desired after such a long journey. The kings and their lords will have taken priority when it comes to supplies, the rest will have had to scavenge for food and fodder.’
‘That will make them all the more desperate to capture Assur,’ said Domitus.
I nodded my head. ‘No doubt they have looted all the villages along their route in Media. I hope the inhabitants had time to bury their possessions and reach the nearest walled town.’
I knew that was a forlorn hope. Fast-moving horsemen could raid and torch villages before their inhabitants knew what was happening. Media would have felt the full wrath of the invading army. My father was right: it had to be stopped here, at the border.
The first to appear were the light horsemen, men without armour or helmets riding small horses and armed with two short javelins and a long knife. They carried a small oblong wicker shield for protection but their main task was to reconnoitre and harry, not stand and fight. At first there were only a few of them riding on the Plain of Makhmur across the river, but as the time passed the plain began to fill with more and more of them. These were the vanguard of the enemy army and I knew it would not be long before the rest of it arrived: the horse archers and heavy cavalry, the two kings and their entourages.
Dura’s army had risen before dawn, the legions taking up position in front of and behind the rows of wooden stakes that extended south of Assur in an unbroken line, the first line cohorts standing in front of them to mask them from the enemy. The Duran Legion was deployed from the bridge south for half a mile, the Exiles arrayed next to them and also extending south for another half mile. Next to the Exiles were Dura’s three thousand horse archers, the three dragons arrayed in a line that extended south for another mile. The cataphracts were positioned immediately behind the Exiles, and behind them were Herneus and his five and a half thousand horse archers.
I stood with Domitus and Kronos at the water’s edge and watched the plain opposite fill with horsemen. Most were content to ride to the edge of the water opposite the legions and stare, though a few rode into the water and shouted insults in our direction, raising their shields and javelins above their heads as they did so in an act of bravado. The legionaries took no notice. They had seen pre-battle rituals many times and largely ignored them, though there was a large cheer when one of the horsemen was toppled from his saddle and fell in the water when his horse tripped while descending the low riverbank.
We all stood holding our helmets for the day was already hot despite the early hour, the sun rising into a clear blue sky. I had my scale armour on and as always before battle it felt heavy and cumbersome.
‘You think they will attack any time soon?’ said Domitus, nodding at the light horsemen opposite, who now lined the riverbank north and south as far as the eye could see.
‘No,’ I replied, ‘they are just a screen for the main army.’
‘Big screen,’ remarked Kronos.
Domitus pointed his cane to the south where the light horsemen disappeared into the distance.
‘If they have any sense they won’t attack here but rather cross the river downstream and outflank us.’
I shook my head. ‘The depth of the river increases substantially the further south you go. That is why this ford is so important, that and Assur. The city is full of stores and people.’
‘People?’ Kronos was confused.
‘Slaves, my friend,’ I replied. ‘Many Parthian kings like to collect a great haul of slaves and gold to take back to their kingdoms after a campaign as proof of its success.’
‘What about the troops under the city governor?’ sniffed Domitus. ‘You think they are reliable?’
‘My father has great faith in Lord Herneus,’ I replied. ‘He will not let us down.’
‘I would prefer your father’s army behind us rather than his,’ said Domitus, far from convinced.
‘We agreed on the plan, Domitus,’ I said. ‘With luck we won’t even need them.’
He drew his gladius. ‘I prefer to rely on this rather than luck.’
Typical Domitus, hard and unyielding, much like Herneus in fact.
Then, in the distance, I heard that sound that I had come to loathe — kettledrums — signalling that the main enemy force was approaching. At first the drums created a low rumble in the distance, but as the time passed the accursed sound grew in intensity until it reverberated across the plain, like ground-based thunder. Without orders the men behind us instinctively rose from the ground, stopped chatting to each other and fastened helmet straps and checked their shields and swords. Kettledrums were designed to spread fear and uncertainty among enemy ranks, but the men of Dura had grown accustomed to their unceasing lament long ago.