Parthian Vengeance (79 page)

And then the Babylonians broke.

Having lost a thousand men the day before the morale of Babylon’s foot soldiers was shaky at best. I had hoped that the guaranteed success of the legions deployed on their right wing would stiffen their resolve but I was wrong. In the initial clash they again suffered heavy casualties and began to falter, then were forced back as the Exiles next to them advanced. Within no time they were fighting their own private battle and losing it, made worse by the deluge of arrows and stones that was being directed at them by enemy archers and slingers whose commanders, learning from the previous day, realised that the missiles of their men would be more effective against the Babylonians rather than the legions. Then enemy spearmen began to envelop them to attack their flanks and so they broke and fled to the rear. Fortunately Kronos had been alert to the danger and had turned the cohort on the extreme left of his second line through ninety degrees to provide protection for his now exposed flank. Frantic trumpet commands and whistles brought the Exiles to a halt, which were reciprocated among the ranks of the Durans as Domitus also realised that something was awry. The advance stopped and then the legions disengaged and began to inch backwards.

‘Gallia,’ I said, ‘you and your reserve are with me. We must assist the Babylonians.’

Small groups of the latter were attempting to make a stand but were being methodically surrounded and cut down by enemy spearmen who, I had to admit, were maintaining their discipline. Nevertheless there were around five thousand enemy troops advancing towards our rear where our camps and all their supplies were located.

‘Do you need your cataphracts, Pacorus?’ asked Orodes, pained by the plight of his foot soldiers giving way.

I shook my head. ‘No, I can stabilise the situation long enough for Domitus to seal the gap in the line.’

‘There is little point in assaulting their centre now,’ said my father.

He was right: the enemy’s left wing was still intact albeit sorely depleted. Archers had now come forward to pepper the withdrawing legions with arrows, though they inflicted few casualties. As Dura’s foot soldiers fell back they revealed a ground that was literally carpeted in dead. How many soldiers did Narses have?

I pulled my sword from its scabbard just as Byrd and Malik brought their horses to a halt behind the kings.

‘Second army come,’ announced Byrd.

My father turned in his saddle. ‘What did you say?’

‘It is true, lord,’ said Malik. ‘Another army is approaching from the northern end of the valley. Horse archers leading a great number of tribesmen.’

‘How many?’ asked Orodes.

Byrd looked at him. ‘Tens of thousands.’

The valleys of the Zagros Mountains were dotted with villages and smaller settlements that had existed since before the empire. Ruled by tribal chieftains, these villages owed allegiance to no king in a faraway city and their inhabitants spent most of their time raiding other villages and settling blood feuds. The Persians and then the Greeks had tried to subdue them and failed, and it had been the same with the Parthians. However, all these races had discovered that the hill tribes could be enlisted as allies easily enough if they had enough gold to pay them. Mithridates had obviously used some of the gold he had shipped from Ctesiphon to recruit these wild people to his cause. Armed with an assortment of axes, spears, clubs and knives they usually wore no armour or head protection, their only defence being a small shield.

‘The Babylonians still need our assistance,’ I said.

 ‘Hatra’s horsemen will deal with the hill men,’ stated my father.

‘You do not know how many there are, father.’

He smiled. ‘As you yourself said, Pacorus, it is size of the fight in the man that counts.’

The next few minutes were organised chaos as a rider was sent to Vistaspa ordering that Dura’s and Hatra’s horse archers to redeploy north of the campsites to form up with my father’s armoured riders to assault the approaching enemy. Meanwhile Orodes would lead the rest of the cataphracts against the horsemen in the enemy’s centre and Gallia and I would assault the spearmen who had routed the Babylonians. Surena and Media’s archers remained on the left wing to contain the enemy’s horse archers. I reached over and shook my father’s hand and then Gafarn’s as the Amazons and Babylon’s royal guard began trotting towards our right wing.

Gallia rode beside me, the Amazons in a long line behind together with Vagharsh carrying my banner, as we broke into a gallop and headed towards the phalanx of enemy spearmen that was advancing towards the Babylonian camp. Most of the Babylonian spearmen had either been killed or had sought refuge in Dura’s camp, whose ramparts were at least guarded by squires and their bows.

The enemy spearmen had spotted the body of horsemen coming towards them and had halted to assume an all-round defensive posture – shields rested on the ground and spears pointed at us at an angle of forty-five degrees. The Babylonian horsemen slowed and then halted as the Amazons deployed into five widely spaced columns that galloped to within a hundred paces of the densely packed square of spearmen, before each rider shot her bow before wheeling sharply right and right again to ride to the rear of the column. In this way a steady volley of arrows was unleashed against the spearmen, the arrows arching into the sky before falling among the spearmen. It was useless to strike the shields because the wicker and leather facing was too thick, and so the arrows were shot upwards to fall out of the sky and hopefully strike necks and faces. A hundred archers did not have enough arrows to cause many casualties among so many spearmen but they were numerous enough to bring them to a halt.

As the Amazons amused themselves with target practice, the Babylonian horsemen deployed around my wife’s fighters acting as a guard, I rode across the field to where the legions had pulled back to their original positions. I had to take a wide detour to reach them as the phalanx of enemy spearmen was actually behind the left wing of the Exiles.

I saw a cohort of the Durans running back to camp as I rode up to Domitus who was speaking to Kronos. They raised their hands when they saw me.

Domitus pointed over to where the block of enemy spearmen stood.

‘You stopped them, then?’

‘Gallia and the Amazons are keeping them entertained.’

‘I’ve sent to men to fetch Marcus and his machines,’ said Domitus. ‘They can finish them off.’

‘There has been an unfortunate development, my friends,’ I told them. ‘Another enemy army is approaching from the north.’

Kronos and Domitus looked at each other.

‘My father’s takes his army to deal with it,’ I reassured them. ‘In the meantime remain on the defensive here.’

I looked to where the legions had battled the spearmen. Not only was the ground blanketed with bodies but there also were enemy dead floating in the river.

I nodded towards the grim harvest. ‘Excellent work.’

‘We would have been in Susa by now if the Babylonians had not collapsed,’ remarked Kronos bitterly.

‘Can’t help that,’ I replied. ‘We may still win the day.’

I saw wagons leaving the camp and heading towards us – Marcus and his ballista.

‘Make sure none escape,’ I ordered. ‘The more enemy we kill today the less we have to face tomorrow.’

Kronos was shocked. ‘You think the battle will extend into a third day?’

‘I’m sure of it. The enemy seems to have an inexhaustible supply of soldiers.’

‘Whereas we do not,’ said Domitus grimly.

I did not bother to ask about the size of our losses as I raised a hand to them and rode back to Gallia whose women had ceased their shooting.

‘We are out of arrows,’ she said frustratingly.

I looked at the phalanx of spearmen that were now rooted to the spot.

I smiled at her. ‘Do not worry. Marcus brings his ballista to thin their ranks. You have done what was required.’

I heard horn blasts and the low rumble of thousands of hooves churning up the ground and turned to see Orodes and the cataphracts smashing into the enemy’s centre, followed by a loud crunching noise as the heavy horsemen struck.

I smiled. The day may still be ours.

With the Babylonian guards we rode back to where the camel trains holding spare ammunition were located to the rear of our left wing. When Orodes had charged Surena had launched the horse archers against those on the enemy’s right wing, inflicting many casualties but his men also suffered significant losses. Now he too rode to the camels with his men to acquire fresh quivers. Meanwhile, to the north of our camps, my father and Vistaspa led over eleven thousand horsemen against the Zagros hordes.

Surena’s lion banner fluttered behind him as he rode over to Gallia and me, his men being handed full quivers by the camel drivers whose beasts were sitting on the ground.

‘The Medians holds the line while we restock our quivers, lord. The enemy has suffered many losses and falls back.’

‘What losses have you suffered?’ I asked him.

He looked pensive. ‘We also have many empty saddles, lord. Atrax’s men charged most valiantly and suffered the most.’

Gallia and the Amazons received fresh quivers from Dura’s camel train as a lull descended over our left wing. After we had replenished our stocks of arrows she and I rode with Surena to where Media’s horse archers were deployed in their companies in a long line that extended for at least half a mile eastwards. In front of them stretching south the ground was littered with dead men and horses, many of the corpses resembling pin cushions so many arrows did they have in them. In the distance, well out of bow range, enemy horse archers were being attacked by Orodes’ companies who were wheeling left to strike the enemy horsemen’s right flank.

I nodded. ‘Orodes has destroyed the enemy’s centre.’

Now it was time to send forward Surena and his horse archers to support Orodes to complete the rout of the enemy’s centre and right wing. After that the legions could attack once more to finally destroy the enemy foot soldiers in front of the date palm grove. We finally had victory within our grasp.

‘Can you hear that?’

I looked at Gallia who was sitting up in her saddle trying to look over the heads of the Amazons behind her. Then I heard the sound, an ominous rumble of thousands of cheering voices. Remus stirred nervously and I also became aware that the ground was shaking. Surena looked at me with concern and I knew that the battle was about to take another twist.

All thoughts of reinforcing Orodes disappeared as Surena, Gallia and I led Gordyene’s horse archers through the camel train to where my father’s men were battling the hill men. What I saw took my breath away.

As we halted and the horse archers formed into their companies behind us the land to the north of our position was filled with hill men being led by groups of horse archers. Directly ahead of us my father’s horsemen had driven deep into the enemy ranks and were now scything down the hill men around them. My father and Gafarn led over eleven thousand men against these heathens, but were vastly outnumbered by an enemy that now seemed certain to overwhelm them. Looking left and right I estimated that each formation of enemy horsemen numbered around a thousand men, and behind them came more than that number of hill men on foot.

Either side of my father’s army I counted ten such groups of horsemen – twenty thousand horse archers – not counting the ones that the Hatrans were fighting. If each one was accompanied by three times that number of hill men then there were at least eighty thousand enemy troops heading our way!

I turned to Surena. ‘We must aid my father else he will be surrounded.’

‘Yes, lord.’

He gave the command to his officers to prepare to charge as I passed word to the Babylonians to move forward as my father’s horsemen disappeared among an ocean of hill men. The enemy now surrounded them. Something caught my eye on the right and I saw two enemy groups peeling off to head towards Surena’s camp.

‘Surena,’ I called, pointing towards his camp, ‘who is still in your camp?’

‘Farriers, grooms, veterinaries, the wounded; four hundred or so.’

The enemy, who would butcher all those inside, would soon overrun his camp. Surena’s camel train and its drivers were located behind us, along with the camels of Hatra and Dura. The only chance of saving those inside the camp was to evacuate them via the western entrance and get them inside Dura’s camp, whose ramparts were manned by squires armed with bows.

‘Send a thousand of your men to intercept those soldiers heading for your camp,’ I ordered him, forgetting he was a king, ‘otherwise they will be slaughtered.’

He nodded and called forward one of his officers who then rode back to his men. Within minutes a thousand riders were galloping to intercept the enemy before they reached the camp.

‘Gallia,’ I shouted, ‘get the camel trains back to our camp. Take the Babylonians with you.’

She pointed her bow ahead. ‘I would rather fight that horde.’

‘Do as you are told,’ I shouted. ‘The battle hangs in the balance and I don’t have time to argue with you.’

She did not respond but tugged savagely on Epona’s reins to wheel her away, followed by the Amazons. I nodded at Surena who dug his knees into his horse to urge it forward. Behind us seven thousand horse archers from Gordyene galloped forward to save my father.

The air was thick with arrows as we charged among the enemy masses. The enemy horse archers broke left and right to avoid our arrowhead formation but the hill men were not so lucky. As we galloped forward the front ranks shot arrows in quick succession at those men on foot before us. The hill men had little discipline and fought as part of a rabble, relying on weight of numbers to overwhelm an opponent. Against disciplined soldiers in formation they were easy meat. Most tried to get out of our way, scattering left and right, though others attempted to make a stand and formed a ragged shield wall in front of our charge. Loosing up to seven arrows a minute we shot their flimsy defences to pieces before we reached them, and then we were through them to reach the Hatrans.