Legions of Rome (73 page)

It seems that Arrian had personally scouted the territory into which his troops were now marching. Either that, or someone whose judgment he trusted implicitly had scouted for him. For, based on prior knowledge of the locale, Arrian had chosen a particular valley in the foothills of the Caucasus where he intended to fight the Alans after they crossed the mountains—in his orders to his officers he wrote of “the appointed place” for the battle. [Arr.,
EAA
, 11] This was a valley where the infantry could readily form up in its battle lines on the flat, with rising ground on either flank where Arrian planned to post archers and stone-throwers.

Arrian also very carefully dictated the order of march. A stickler for orderly formations, he knew that Roman armies on the march—such as that of Varus in the Teutoburg Forest in Germany in
AD
9—had been destroyed while proceeding in disorder, by enemies sometimes inferior in numbers and/or equipment. Arrian’s
orderly formation as he led the army east in
AD
135 began with cavalry scouts well out in advance, in pairs. The army’s vanguard consisted of auxiliary cavalry, infantry and archers, followed by the two legions, then carts carrying Arrian’s catapults, with horse archers protecting the flanks. More auxiliaries followed, then the main baggage train, with a cavalry rearguard provided by Getae allies.

On Arrian’s orders, his troops marched in silence; the only sounds were those of tramping feet and hoofs, rolling wheels, the tinkling of the bells on the thousands of mules in the baggage train, and the rattle of harness and equipment. Each unit looked much the same as the next, with similar uniforms and equipment. Frequently the only way to tell one from the other was to look at the unit designs on their shields. Only the allied Armenian horse archers stood out, in their loose pants and fish-scale armor, riding horses that also sported armor.

On reaching the chosen valley—the exact location is unknown—mounted scouts were sent by Arrian to clamber up into the surrounding heights to keep watch for the enemy. Meanwhile, the Roman cavalry formed up in a vast square on the flat ground, ready to defend the infantry should the enemy appear unexpectedly. Inside the cavalry screen, and still without uttering a word, the Roman infantry armed themselves with additional ammunition from the baggage train, and then moved to their prearranged battle positions.

Arrian’s army, following the battle plan he had carefully mapped out back in Mazaka, spread across the plain and up on to the rising ground on either side of it. Arrian did not use the standard Roman formation for countering cavalry attack—the wedge. Instead, the majority of his front line was flat and straight. The 15th Apollinaris Legion took the right side of the battlefront, four lines deep. The legion’s commander, Valens, was to command all troops on the right—which included auxiliary light infantry, stone throwers and horse archers from Armenia under their chiefs Vasakes and Artbelos. Here, Arrian introduced a tactic of his own creation—these units on the wing curved around the foothills to project ahead of the straight battlefront, like the horn of a bull.

The 12th Fulminata Legion occupied the left of the battlefront, again four lines deep. Its tribune commanded the left of the line. As on the right, there were light infantry, horse archers and cavalry stationed on the left flank, likewise following the rising ground to form a projecting horn. The cavalry were stationed in front of the infantry on the wings, with orders not to hurl their lances at the enemy but to extend
them in front, with each trooper running the rear part of his lance along the flank of his horse for added strength. These projecting lances formed a sharp wall to discourage the enemy from approaching the Roman wings, and prevented the Alans from reaching the archers stationed behind the cavalry.

Immediately behind these front lines, to the left and right, the artillery was quickly set up, the gunners under orders to fire their missiles over the heads of the legionaries and auxiliaries lined up in front of them. A long line of auxiliaries including the foot archers extended between the catapults, behind the legion lines. Arrian positioned himself to the rear of the lines of archers, with more catapults. Here, from his saddle, the general could see over the archers to the legion lines, and could quickly spot any problems that might develop with the legions—the core of his army—and relay orders to correct those problems. [Arr.,
EAA
, 23]

The commander-in-chief was accompanied by his staff, all mounted, including his personal standard-bearer and trumpeter, and the governor’s bodyguard—his mounted
equites singulares
, who were detached from various cavalry units for the prestigious task of providing protection for Arrian, plus 200 hand-picked legionaries from the 15th Apollinaris and 100 carriers of light spears.

Arrian’s dispositions meant that the Romans blocked the valley. The Alans’ passage would only be over the dead bodies of Arrian’s men. Whether the planned battle actually took place or not is not recorded, but the outcome of Arrian’s campaign against the Alans suggests that it did. If the battle ran according to Arrian’s plan, it went with Arrian sending cavalry to encourage the Alans to pursue them, and so draw them into the valley where the Romans waited. On the other hand, perhaps the nomadic Alans were simply moving west now that the winter had passed and the snows in the mountain passes had melted, and Arrian stood in their way.

The Alans approached from the northeast. Their exact number is unknown, but they were a large tribe and this force was probably not less than 10,000 strong; it may well have numbered many more men. They were all mounted, with, Arrian noted, both riders and their mounts lightly armored. [Arr.,
EAA
, 31] Confident of their ability to ride down any foot soldiers foolish enough to oppose them, the Alans would have enthusiastically charged the stationary Roman army in their path.

Because the horns of the Roman battle line occupied high ground, the charge of the Alans funneled through the valley to crash into the Roman legions on the flat ground in the center, ignoring the auxiliaries on the wings. On Arrian’s orders, the
Roman army was silent as the thousands of barbarian horsemen pounded toward them armed with long lances, swords and battleaxes.

The commander-in-chief’s trumpeter sounded a call. The curved, rectangular shields of the four lines of legionaries of the 12th and 15th came up from the rest position, and the men of the first three lines locked their shields together to create three solid walls. The second and third lines shuffled forward, until they had created a dense mass of men and shields. There they stood, like sardines in a can, with shields raised and left foot forward, ready to take the impact of the charging horsemen. Behind them, the men of the fourth legionary line stood back a little in the throwing stance, with a javelin in their right hand.

On the wings, stone-throwers and javelin-throwers stood ready to release their missiles; they were under orders to concentrate their fire on a particular point in the front ranks of the charging enemy cavalry. Behind them, the catapults had been drawn into the firing position and loaded with long, metal-tipped bolts. On the wings and in a close-packed line stretching along behind the legions, the archers raised their bows to the heavens and drew back their first arrows.

On his horse, Arrian waited, watching the Alani charge bring the mass of enemy horsemen closer and closer. Timing was critical; the general could not afford to give his order too soon, or too late. Around him, men and horses would have been becoming edgy. Arrian was waiting for the precisely the right moment. He had to allow time for his order to be transmitted, first by his trumpeter, then by the trumpeters of the legions, then for the troops to react and for their missiles to fly to the point where Arrian wanted them to land, right at the forefront of the enemy charge.

Now, the general gave the much anticipated order. As Arrian noted in his
Tactical Handbook
, the noise of battle could sometimes make it difficult for the troops to hear commands. For this reason, the general’s banner would visually show what the latest command was. As the keyed-up troops heard the trumpet call they had been waiting for, the general’s banner also motioned—with the standard-bearer possibly quickly pumping it up and down. Arrian’s pre-battle orders required his men at this moment to “all cry out most grandly and frightfully to [the god] Ares” and let fly with their missiles. [Arr.,
EAA
, 25]

The men of the first three lines of the legions, waiting to receive the enemy charge with their raised shields hard up against their left shoulders, now would have seen and heard thousands of arrows and catapult bolts fly over their heads from behind
them. They saw the missiles fall from the sky like rain, right on to the front ranks of the mass of charging horsemen. Dead and dying horses would be going down; others shying in terror. Riders would be toppling from the saddle with multiple wounds. The massive charge had its own momentum, and continued forward, over the top of fallen men and steeds.

Another Roman trumpet call. The bowmen had swiftly reloaded; they fired again. From the flanks, the shorter range missiles now began to fly. Stones, arrows and javelins filled the air, coming in from the “horns” toward the center of the charging mass. At the same time, the legionaries of the fourth line let fly with their javelins, then reached for their next missile. The catapults had reloaded; with a thwack and a whoosh they too let fly, and their missiles again soared over the heads of the infantry. “Altogether,” Arrian wrote in his battle plan, “the shooting should be from all sides, to one dense point, for the confusion of horses and the destruction of the enemy.” [Arr.,
EAA
, 25]

The Alans’ horse charge would have devolved into chaos. Some of the Alans would have made it through the carnage and confusion caused by the missiles, which continued to fall from the sky in their thousands, to press home the attack. The legionary shield line held firm; horses literally bounced off it. As the Alans closed in with lances, swords and axes, the men of the legionary front line pushed javelins out through slender gaps in their shield line, and jabbed into the nearest horses. With shrieks of pain horses reared up, badly injured, or fell dead to the ground, dislodging their riders.

The charge had come to a rude halt. Alan riders further back continued to push forward, crushing comrades against the shield line. With the momentum of the charge gone, using their small shields to try to protect themselves from the hail of missiles, and with their horses going down under them or going mad with fear, panic broke out in the Alani ranks. More and more horsemen withdrew from the fight in wide-eyed terror.

If the enemy were repulsed by his tactics, Arrian had written, his foot soldiers were to advance, in good order, to give pursuit and drive home the advantage. As for the Roman cavalry on the wings, half—those in the frontal formations on the
“horns”—were permitted to charge in pursuit, while the remainder were under strict orders to follow in formation and at the trot. If the enemy continued to flee, once the horses of the first division of pursuing Roman cavalry tired, then the second division was permitted to continue the chase and complete the destruction of the enemy. They were under orders not to throw javelins at the Alans but to get in close on their heels and butcher them in the saddle, or on the ground if their horses went down, with sword and ax.

On the other hand, should the enemy regroup and suddenly wheel to stage a counter-attack, a common tactic among the cavalry of eastern peoples, the cavalry that were slowly following up the pursuit could then charge to the attack. To prevent the enemy from wheeling about, Arrian placed the Armenian horse archers with the first cavalry division, and they had orders to keep up a discouraging rate of fire as they took part in the pursuit.

Apparently, Arrian’s battle went precisely to his carefully conceived plan: the Alans were slaughtered in their thousands and the survivors fled back across the mountains. According to Dio, the Alans then not only accepted gifts from the king of Armenia and agreed not to invade his country, but they “also stood in dread of Flavius Arrianus.” [Dio,
LXIX
, 15] For the Alans to be in dread of Arrian, who had not possessed a significant military reputation prior to his Cappadocian appointment, strongly suggests that they had suffered a terrible defeat at the hands of his army.

Arrian’s apparently stunning victory had another result, for Dio reported that the Iazyges Germans, who had gone to war with Rome during the reign of Domitian and who would launch a savage new war during the reign of Marcus Aurelius, less than thirty years later, quickly sent envoys to Hadrian in Rome following the withdrawal of the Alans, for they “wished to confirm the peace.” [Ibid.] The Armenians also sent envoys to Hadrian in Rome blaming Pharasmanes, the Iberian king, for encouraging the Alan invasion. Pharasmanes himself would later travel to Rome to vow his allegiance to the Roman emperor.

It would be another 200 years before the Alans pitted themselves against the might of Rome in strength, and then it would be in the West. After their sound defeat by Arrian, the Alans would not again take the road south to the Roman East. As for the men of the two legions who had taken part in the battle, there was the glory of a great victory, and a cheap one at that. And there was booty galore from the dead Alans and their horses—which were famously decorated with gold horse ornaments.

ARRIAN’S ORDER OF BATTLE

This is the most detailed extant order of battle for any Imperial Roman army.

A
RMY COMMANDER
:

Flavius Arrianus, Propraetor of Cappadocia.

D
EPUTY COMMANDER
:

Marcus Vettius Valens, legate of the 15th Apollinaris Legion.

L
EGIONS
:

15th Apollinaris Legion, normally stationed at Satala, Cappadocia. Commanded by the legate Valens (above).