Carrhae (15 page)

‘Not all slaves are treated kindly,’ said Praxima with bitterness.

‘I have heard that your army is made up of former slaves, uncle.’

‘Not all of it,’ I replied, ‘but there are many who have escaped from bondage.’

‘My aunts do not approve of it,’ he said.

‘I can imagine,’ I smiled.

‘They do not approve of me,’ he said softly.

Gallia looked at me and then at Praxima.

‘Why?’ she asked.

‘Because my father, my blood father, was a slave. And my current parents were also slaves. I may be a prince but it makes no difference. The other squires call me
servus
, which is Latin for slave. By doing so they insult me twice, by reminding me that I was born to slave parents and that they were both killed by the Romans. The gossip in the city is that because the present king and queen were slaves Shamash has abandoned us and will continue to do so until a Parthian noble sits on the throne.’

‘You should be proud of your real father and the parents who have adopted you,’ said Nergal.

‘They say that he was a great leader, the man I am named after.’

‘Perhaps one of the greatest who has ever lived,’ I said.

We spent the rest of the evening regaling him with tales of Italy and Spartacus. I am sure that he had heard them a hundred times before but never from our mouths. So Gallia told him of the founding of the Amazons and how she had maintained their numbers at one hundred ever since, of how she had rescued me on a beach near Thurii and how I had returned the favour later when her father had kidnapped her. He sat open mouthed as Praxima told him about the Battle of Mutina and how we slaughtered the Gauls and Romans and then afterwards marched south instead of north over the Alps. We told him of Domitus, Thumelicus, Drenis and Vagises. He want to bed happy, while I made a promise to myself that I would do everything I could to turn back the Armenian tide.

To that end we rode with young Spartacus back into Hatra the next morning to attend the council of war. It was held in the office next to the throne room, a great hide map of the empire hanging on the wall. Waiting for us was Orodes, Gafarn, Vistaspa, Kogan, Herneus, the man with the black beard and Atrax, the latter shaking my hand and saying nothing of what had happened the day before. I walked over to Vistaspa and clasped his forearm. He tried to get up but his injured leg was still in splints so I told him to stay seated. He looked pale and in pain and I wondered if he would see the new year.

The doors were closed and the meeting got under way with Gafarn introducing the severe-looking man with the beard as Lord Apollonius, the governor of western Hatra who held the towns of Ichnae, Nicephorium, Carrhae and Zenodotium; all of which were under threat of being assaulted by the Romans. No wonder he looked serious!

‘What strength can the Kingdom of Hatra muster?’ asked Orodes.

A grim-faced Gafarn pointed at Apollonius first, who stood and cleared his throat.

‘If I brought all the garrisons of the towns together the number would total two thousand foot and five thousand horsemen, majesty.’

‘And you, Herneus?’ asked Gafarn.

‘There is at Assur ten thousand horse archers and a thousand foot soldiers.’

Gafarn smiled at Vistaspa. ‘There is in this city a thousand cataphracts, twenty thousand horse archers and the garrison of two thousand foot soldiers.’

‘Twenty-one thousand horsemen,’ I said, ‘plus those who have arrived from Media, Dura, Mesene and Babylon.’

These amounted to an additional two thousand heavy horsemen and twenty-two thousand horse archers.

‘Forty-five thousand men in all,’ remarked Orodes with satisfaction. ‘Enough to convince Tigranes not to provoke us, I think.’

‘When we last encountered Tigranes at Nisibus,’ I said, ‘his army was deficient in heavy horsemen so we need to increase the number of our cataphracts to impress him.’

Vistaspa winced as pain shot through his leg and there were beads of sweat on his forehead.

‘Hatra and Dura can muster a thousand each, while Babylon and Media have five hundred apiece. Three thousand men,’ he said. ‘There are no more.’

‘There are another six thousand we can put into the field,’ I replied.

They all looked at me in confusion.

‘It is quite simple,’ I continued. ‘We arm every squire and attire him in scale armour. We can place them behind their masters to stiffen their resolve so Tigranes sees nine thousand
kontus
points arrayed against him.’

‘If the Armenians attack, majesty,’ said a concerned Kogan, ‘then those boys will be the first to fall.’

‘It is a risk,’ I agreed, ‘but desperate times call for desperate measures and these are desperate times, my friends.’

I looked at Orodes. ‘The decision rests with you.’

He looked at Gafarn and then Atrax, who both nodded at him.

‘Very well, we will try what Pacorus suggests.’

The rest of the meeting addressed matters in Gordyene and Atropaiene. Atrax reported receiving regular updates from Surena who was more than holding his own against Prince Artavasdes and his Armenians. True to form, Surena had initially avoided the invaders, being content to launch raids against their flanks and rear. These had proved so effective that Artavasdes had halted his advance. Intercepted messages had revealed that he had appealed to his father for reinforcements, without which capturing Vanadzor, Gordyene’s capital city, would be impossible. As for Atropaiene, the Armenian force that had invaded the north of that kingdom had been nothing more than a large-scale raid and had quickly retreated after burning and looting a few dozen villages and carrying off their inhabitants as slaves.

As two squires and two camels loaded with spare armour and weapons attended every cataphract, it was relatively easy to create another six thousand heavy horsemen. And while we waited for Tigranes to inform us of the time and place of the meeting the squires practised riding in formation. It was decided that the squires from each kingdom should deploy immediately behind their masters in the front rank. Thus Dura’s cataphracts would deploy in two ranks: five hundred men in the first rank, another five hundred in the second. And behind them would be two thousand squires in four ranks.

This formation was copied by the heavy horsemen of Media, Hatra and Babylon and made for an impressive sight on the arid plain north of the city.

‘That should deter the old man,’ I said smugly as we admired the thousands of horses, men and boys covered in scale armour, a forest of
kontus
points stretching right and left.

‘Let us hope so, Pacorus,’ said Orodes, not wholly convinced.

‘One more thing,’ I said. ‘If negotiations fail then we must launch an immediate attack against the Armenians. We should not repeat the mistake made at Nisibus.’

‘I agree,’ said Atrax. ‘I was there that day and we could have destroyed Tigranes and his army.’

‘I am with you, Pacorus,’ added Nergal.

‘And I,’ said Gafarn.

‘And you, high king?’ I asked Orodes.

I knew that I was forcing his hand but I feared that Orodes’ sense of fair play and high honour would preclude any talk of fighting before negotiations had failed, but I did not trust Tigranes, who had already seized the northern part of my brother’s kingdom and threatened the rest. For all I knew he was demanding this meeting to gather us all in one place so he could slaughter us.

‘Very well,’ said Orodes with reluctance.

Two days later a messenger arrived from Tigranes saying that he would meet us forty miles north of Hatra, which I found most curious. As he and his army were near the Tigris to the northeast I wondered why he would travel west into the desert to meet with us. It made no sense. But if Tigranes liked to undertake futile marches in the desert, so be it. All I was concerned about was the safety of Hatra.

On the first day out from the city we covered twenty-five miles before making camp in the vast emptiness of the flat desert plain. In this desolate place a city such as Hatra, which drew its water from underground springs that supplied the precious liquid all-year round, was worth is weight in gold. If Hatra fell then foreign armies could pour south into Babylon and Mesene and conquer all the lands between the Euphrates and Tigris with ease. From Hatra an enemy could also strike east towards Media and Atropaiene and west to Dura. It was no exaggeration to state that if Hatra fell then the whole of the western half of the Parthian Empire would crumble.

These thoughts swirled in my mind the next day when we broke camp and headed north to meet with Tigranes. When we reached the designated spot there was no sign of the Armenians and I began to wonder that it may have been a ruse to lure us out of Hatra so Tigranes could assault the city, but as the city garrison would be manning the walls, the gates would be shut and the surrounding moat full I discounted this possibility. My fears were then dispelled when parties of horse archers began to appear on the horizon, and behind them columns of foot soldiers tramping across the dusty plain.

Our own horsemen were already moving into their battle positions – cataphracts in the centre and horse archers on the wings. We extended our line as far as possible to create an impression of strength that would hopefully awe the Armenians. The six thousand heavy horsemen in the centre looked very imposing, pennants fluttering in the easterly breeze and the sun’s rays glinting off steel leg and arm armour and the silver scales of Hatra’s royal bodyguard. The latter were placed in the centre of the line, with my Durans to their left and Orodes’ bodyguard on their right. Atrax’s heavy horsemen were deployed to the right of Orodes’ men. I had to admit that the sight of nine thousand cataphracts was a wonder to behold, even if two-thirds of them were only nervous boys.

On our right wing were deployed the horse archers of Babylon, Mesene and Media – a total of nineteen thousand men – while our left comprised my own horse archers – three thousand under Vagises – and Hatra’s twenty thousand extending far into the distance. Thus did we muster fifty-one thousand soldiers on this barren stretch of earth. In addition, stocked with spare arrows and deployed in the rear of both wings, were the camel trains of Hatra, Media, Dura and Mesene.

As they had both foot and horse the Armenians placed the former in the centre and the latter on the wings. The great majority of the foot soldiers were élite spearmen equipped with large rectangular shields faced with iron and protected by bronze helmets and thick leather armour. They held their long spears with both hands and so their shields had to be strapped to their forearms. Deployed in one huge phalanx, they stood directly opposite our cataphracts and numbered around twenty thousand men. Either side of them were groups of foot archers and slingers to provide missile support for the spearmen. These numbered between five and seven thousand.

On the wings the Armenians grouped their horse archers interspersed with blocks of mounted spearmen, though I noted that they either did not have enough horsemen to match our frontage or were keeping some back in reserve as both our wings outflanked theirs to a considerable extent. I estimated each Armenian wing to number around ten thousand men, which meant on sight we matched the size of the Armenian army, though there may have been a substantial reserve in their rear.

After the Armenians had deployed into position Tigranes himself appeared, riding from behind the phalanx of spearmen and escorted by around two thousand heavy horsemen, his personal bodyguard. The latter were magnificently attired in black leggings and blue tunics, over which they wore short-sleeved mail shirts. Their heads helmets sported purple plumes and mail face veils. They carried long spears and their horses were protected by scale armour covering their bodies but not their heads or necks.

As he had been at Nisibus, the king was dressed in a purple and white striped tunic and had a rich purple cloak around his shoulders. A tall, imposing man, the conical jewel-encrusted hat he wore made him appear even taller.

As I sat next to Orodes watching Tigranes walk his horse into the middle of no-man’s land the other kings came to our side. Nergal and Praxima galloped across the front ranks of the cataphracts with a huge yellow banner carrying a double-headed lion sceptre crossed with a sword billowing behind them. Atrax brought Media’s banner of a white dragon on a black background to stand beside that of Mesene and the horned bull of Babylon and the eagle with a snake in its talons that was the emblem of Susiana, both of these kingdoms being ruled by Orodes. Behind me the brave and loyal Vagharsh held Dura’s banner of a red griffin on a white background. The last banner to arrive was that of Hatra – a white horse’s head on a red background – carried behind Gafarn who had been with the officers of his horse archers on the left wing.

The Armenian ranks were dotted with red, yellow, purple and blue flags and dragon windsocks, while behind Tigranes was carried a huge white flag upon which was a purple six-pointed star, the symbol of Armenia. Tigranes halted his horsemen around five hundred paces from our position as the breeze stiffened and gave life to the hundreds of flags among the Armenian ranks. A lone rider came from behind Tigranes and headed towards us. Orodes turned in the saddle and pointed to one of his own officers, who spurred his horse forward to meet the Armenian rider. This was normal protocol for determining the size of each party in the discussions to guarantee equal numbers.

‘At least we are not outnumbered,’ remarked Gafarn.

‘They may have a reserve behind that phalanx of spearmen,’ I said. ‘We should not underestimate Tigranes.

‘Speaking of Tigranes, it would be to our advantage, I think, not to provoke him,’ Orodes cautioned me.

No doubt he was thinking back to the meeting between my father and Tigranes outside Nisibus when I had goaded the Armenian king and had been rebuked for doing so by my father. Orodes had been a prince that day and had not been part of the negotiations, but I told him what had happened afterwards. That day I was confident we could defeat the Armenians. Today I was not so sure.

‘Have no fear, my friend,’ I replied, ‘it is you who will do all the talking, not I.’