Carrhae (37 page)

‘Ill tidings.’

Moments later one of the guards knocked on the door and entered, saluting stiffly.

‘Letter from Assur, majesty.’ He handed me the folded parchment, bowed his head and then left, closing the door as he did so.

I broke the seal and read the contents. I threw the letter on the table.

‘Surena has attacked Armenia.’

Domitus took the letter and read it himself, running a hand over his cropped skull as he did so.

‘Looks like the peace with the Armenians is over, then.’

I placed my elbows on the table and held my head in my hands. Silaces had reported that Surena had written to him that he had unleashed his Sarmatian mercenaries, supported by five thousand horse archers, against the Armenians. Silaces did not know why he had done so other than to provoke Artavasdes into retaliating and launching another invasion of Gordyene, which Surena could once again defeat.

‘I told you, son of Hatra,’ said Dobbai, ‘when a wild creature is in pain it will lash out in fury, and so it is.’

‘You should write to Surena ordering him to desist his activities,’ said Gallia.

‘It is too late for that, child,’ said Dobbai. ‘The marsh boy has tossed a burning torch onto a pile of hay. It will cause an inferno that will sweep over the land.’

‘Even if Surena obeyed you,’ said Domitus, ‘the Armenians will want revenge for what he has done.’

‘They will want his head on a spear and Gordyene returned to Armenian rule,’ said Dobbai. ‘Are you prepared to grant them those things, son of Hatra?’

I looked at her. ‘No.’

At a stroke my carefully laid plans for the forthcoming campaign had been wrecked by Surena’s foolishness. In his black despair the notion of burning and looting Armenian towns and villages may have been appealing but his actions had placed Hatra in great danger. At the end of the meeting I gave the order to prepare the army to march north and afterwards sent riders to Ctesiphon and Uruk to alert Orodes and Nergal respectively of developments and to ask them to bring their armies north. I wrote other letters to Atrax and Aschek alerting them of events in Gordyene and requesting that they march their forces west to Hatra. We would now have to fight and destroy the Armenians before Crassus arrived.

Dura’s army was up to strength and fully equipped but I worried about the forces of the other kingdoms. Babylon had been ravaged in the recent civil war and had lost many fine soldiers at the Battle of Susa, as had Media, and while I did not doubt the courage and leadership of Orodes and Atrax I was concerned about the quality of the soldiers they led.

Nergal’s horse archers I had no worries about: they were well-equipped and professional soldiers. My only regret was that there were only five thousand of them, the other five thousand he had previously brought with him being the retainers of his lords and thus part-time warriors. And then there was the problem of Hatra’s army, formally one of the most formidable in the empire but now shaken by losses and defeats. Only Dura’s army remained as strong and formidable as it had always been.

As the cataphracts and horse archers were gathered at Dura and squeezed into the legionary camp that held the Durans and Exiles, I summoned the lords to the city to explain to them my plan of action and their part in it. As usual the one-eyed Spandarat was their leader of choice. His hair was almost entirely grey now and was thinning alarmingly, though he was still possessed of that irreverence that he had displayed when I had first come to Dura.

I sat beside Gallia in the throne room and explained to the score of grizzled old warriors that once more they would be responsible for the safety of my kingdom and would provide garrisons for the two large forts at the northern border, the other one on the southern border as well as the additional smaller forts in between. Apart from a small retinue of full-time soldiers that were in effect their bodyguards, the only soldiers that Dura’s lords could call upon were the farmers that worked their lands and the servants that lived in their strongholds.

‘We would prefer to fight,’ said Spandarat to murmurs of agreement from his hoary companions.

‘Believe me,’ I said, ‘there will be plenty of fighting to do in the coming months, but for the moment I need you here watching my back while I deal with the Armenians.’

Gallia smiled at him. ‘Spandarat, we would like you to move into the palace and take care of our daughters.’

Once it had become clear that I would have to march north to fight the Armenians, Gallia had declared that she and the Amazons would be joining me to avenge Viper’s death. I could not see how the Armenians were responsible for Viper’s demise but made no protest – in this war we would need every bow and sword.

He winked at her and smiled. ‘Would be an honour, princess.’

‘Excellent,’ I said, ‘that is settled.’

They grumbled between themselves for a while but Gallia mingled among them and won them over. It was not difficult to do. They had always admired her for her fighting prowess and forthright nature and she in turn always told them how dear they were to her. Initially they had lusted after the blonde-haired, blue-eyed Queen of Dura but now they were older they regarded her as an adopted daughter and doted on her.

It was just as well that they were so compliant as the next day I received a despatch from Gafarn stating that Armenian troops were mustering at Nisibus. A great many of them! His missive dripped with fear and uncertainty and it was clear that his nerves needed steadying.

‘Hatra is a mighty fortress,’ said Domitus dismissively as I sat in his tent while he read the letter. ‘The Armenians have no siege engines and even if they did it would take them many weeks to drain the city’s moat and breach the walls.’

‘Gafarn is not a soldier like you. All he sees is the Armenians massing to the north and Crassus about to arrive to the west. Hatra badly needs a victory.’

He tossed the letter on the table. ‘Hatra badly needs a king who can fight.’

‘You are being unkind, Domitus. Gafarn is capable enough and he has Vistaspa to command his army.’

Domitus stood and started to pace up and down, tapping his right thigh with his vine cane as he did so – always a bad sign.

‘Vistaspa is old and had the stuffing knocked out of him at Susa. Does he even command Hatra’s army now? Vata should have been leading it but he managed to get himself killed. There is only one logical course of action.’

He stopped pacing and fixed me with his stare.

‘Would you care to enlighten me, Domitus?’

‘You must go to Hatra and take command of its army.’

In theory it might have been a laudable idea but if I did as he was suggesting it would fatally undermine the authority of Gafarn and make it impossible for him to remain king. There was already a growing number of dissenting voices within the city that were questioning the legitimacy of his reign. They said that it was not right that a former slave of the royal household should have succeeded my father, especially as the rightful heir was alive and ruling Dura. They wanted the two kingdoms to be united under one ruler and it was not Gafarn.

‘I cannot do that, Domitus, for to do so would emasculate my brother’s authority and that I am not prepared to do.’

He walked back to his chair and retook his seat. ‘You’ve been spending too much time in the company of Orodes. You are beginning to sound like him. In any case you are lord high general so in theory you can take control of Hatra’s army as part of your duties.’

‘No. Gafarn needs actions that reinforce his authority, not undermine it. We shall muster the armies of the kings at Hatra and then engage the Armenians, and afterwards march north to retake Nisibus.’

‘And what about Crassus?’

I managed a weak smile. ‘Hopefully we will have defeated the Armenians before he appears. But if he arrives sooner then I will have to deploy the reserve to delay him until we can march back south to engage him.’

He looked baffled. ‘Reserve?’

I tapped my nose. ‘Bringing back Silaces from Gordyene was not only designed to muzzle Surena’s aggression.’

‘Just as well,’ he said ironically.

‘It was also for the purpose of creating a reserve. Lord Herneus, the governor, can muster ten thousand horse archers from the lords under his control. Added to the seven thousand under Silaces that makes a sizeable number of horsemen who can be deployed rapidly north or west.’

Domitus was not convinced. ‘Seventeen thousand horse archers cannot defeat the Roman legions plus auxiliaries and Roman cavalry.’

‘You are right, my friend, but they can slow them down and give us time. Time, Domitus that is the key. I also intend to transfer the horse archers under the command of Apollonius in western Hatra to Herneus. That will give him an additional five thousand men.’

‘And in doing so,’ said Domitus, ‘you will sacrifice those towns in western Hatra.’

I held out my palms. ‘What can I do? I cannot be in two places at once. Thanks to Surena the Armenians are preparing to launch an attack against Hatra. Ideally we would have been waiting for Crassus at the border but now have to battle the Armenians instead.’

It took only a week before Nergal and Praxima arrived with their five thousand Mesenian horse archers and the thousand camels loaded with food, fodder, tents, spare weapons and arrows. They had crossed the Euphrates near Uruk and then travelled up the western bank of the river through Agraci territory before reaching Dura’s southern border. They camped two miles south of the city while their king and queen were lodged in the Citadel. I was disappointed that Nergal did not bring ten thousand men but he told me that he could not empty his kingdom of soldiers in the face of the impending Armenian and Roman threat.

From Palmyra came Byrd and Malik with their fifty bearded, dishevelled scouts on their wild horses, some of them approaching middle age now but having lost none of that semi-feral nature and appearance that set them apart from the rest of Dura’s army. They really were a law unto themselves; paid by Byrd from an allowance that was sent to him each month by Aaron and taking orders from no one save their paymaster and Malik. Most of them were Agraci but even Malik said that his own people viewed them as rough loners. Domitus believed Dobbai had created them by casting a spell but the truth was that they had become the lucky mascots of the army. Soldiers are very superstitious and when setting out on campaign every man always looked for the wiry men dressed in ragged robes that galloped out of camp before dawn and were not seen again until dusk.

It took a further week for the Babylonians to arrive: five hundred cataphracts of Orodes’ bodyguard, a further five hundred horsemen of Axsen’s Royal Guard, seven thousand horse archers and five thousand spearmen on foot. There were in addition a further three thousand foot soldiers from the Kingdom of Susiana, Orodes’ homeland that had been the location of the battle where we had finally defeated and killed Narses. Unfortunately for Susiana its troops had been on the losing side that day and had suffered accordingly. Still, it was fitting that a small number had marched with their king to represent him and their kingdom. I was delighted to discover that he had also brought Demaratus with him as his second-in-command.

The Babylonians made camp across the Euphrates opposite the Citadel, a sprawling collection of different sized and coloured tents pitched in ever widening circles around the purple marquee of Orodes, which though rectangular and larger than the rest was not as grand as the great pavilion used by his predecessor, King Vardan, while on campaign.

‘And there are no half-naked slave girls to serve you wine,’ he informed me as I settled into a plush chair in the central area of his marquee.

‘That is a shame. I always looked forward to seeing their oiled bodies when I visited Vardan on campaign.’

In order to leave us alone he dismissed the four officers from the Royal Guard in their gleaming dragon skin armour. He slumped into a chair opposite. He looked as though the weight of the world was on his shoulders.

‘Axsen has gone back to Babylon,’ he said. ‘She would not stay at Ctesiphon alone and when I am away she likes to have Nabu and Afrand close by her.’

Nabu was the high priest at the Temple of Marduk in Babylon, a dour, imposing individual who exerted great control over the city’s population. Afrand was high priestess at the Temple of Ishtar, a beautiful seductress who wore few clothes to cover her voluptuous body.

He sighed. ‘So we march again, my friend. It appears to be our destiny to spend our lives living in tents and tramping to war.’

‘The gods have willed it so.’

‘I sometimes wonder if they are any gods,’ he said bitterly, ‘or if there are why we waste our lives worshipping them and building great temples in their honour.’

‘You sound just like Surena.’

His brow furrowed. ‘What are we to do with him? I made him King of Gordyene as a reward for liberating the province but it seems I have created a monster that is out of control.’

‘He is still a good commander,’ I said, ‘but the deaths of his wife and child have unhinged him.’

He looked at me sympathetically. ‘As a man I cannot blame him for his anguish but as high king I must rebuke him for his recklessness when I next see him. Unless the Armenians kill him and defeat his army, that is.’

I thought of the training that Surena had received at Dura and that day when I had inspected his army.

‘I do not think you need worry about his battlefield prowess, Orodes.’

My friend’s mood was lifted later when I gave a great feast in the palace and invited all my senior officers and those of Mesene, Babylon and those with Peroz, the banners of these kingdoms hanging on the wall. The chamber was filled with laughter and chatter as the wine and beer flowed and men reaffirmed friendships and forged new ones. Thumelicus insisted on arm wrestling a great hairy brute from the Zagros Mountains who served in the ranks of the Susianans and we were stunned when he failed to beat him with ease. The bout ended in a draw and with the two of them, both very drunk, embracing each other and weeping like small children. It was a most curious spectacle.