Hadrian's Consolidation - reboot
- Thread starter Hecatee
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Hecatee
Donor
Grr, I always fill the field when I publish but I've seen more than once that the system does not properly save the threadmarkIt’s awesome, the only thing missing is the thread mark.
Thanks for noticing !
Hecatee
Donor
Sorry I had not seen your post earlier... To answer you their is nothing better than a drawing :
All of this in one night? Holy Spirit, they're fastSorry I had not seen your post earlier... To answer you their is nothing better than a drawing :
Hecatee
Donor
All of this in one night? Holy Spirit, they're fast
No, in this battle they only built a 4,5/5km long v-shaped ditch some 3 to 4m deep at the center of the ditch and 3 to 4m wide at the top, a wooden wall set in another ditch about three meters behind the main ditch, a battlement of earth (taken from the ditches) behind the wall, with a small number of low towers, some gates, and a few ranks of lilies in front of the ditch. The picture shows what a full scale defense would look like, that's what the barbarians met in front of the smaller wall that barred the pass at the end of the valley and forced them to fight the longer and less protected wall.
Here is my calculation based on Alesia and the estimates for the digging of the ditch and building of the vallus of Hadrian's wall :
Of the some 5km of wall they had to build, about 1km had already been built by the legions when they built their night camps, so the 10000 men had only 4km to build, 2500 men/km. Of these some 8000 dug at first the main ditch and built the embankment that would become the battlement : first they would cut any soil/turf to access the ground, making squares of grass that would make a foundation to the wall and show where the battlement had to be set, some three meters behind the ditch. Then they would use pikeaxes to soften the ground and carry the soil on top of the turf. It meant that each man had about 3 to 4m³ to dig, or around 8h of digging without pauses : of course it took more time because pauses were planned and also they worked in teams of two, one digging and the other moving the earth, then they made a short pause before changing task for the next 20 minutes, etc. : the digging took a total of around 12 hours.
Meanwhile 2000 men would cut the wood in teams of 5 men : they cut a tree, trimmed it so that it would be easy to carry and would fit with others while not providing too much help to the barbarians who tried to climb, and put them on a pile. Trees where thus prepared, cut to size and made ready to carry. About 5000 trees were needed to do the work, which meant each tree-team had to cut some 12 trees. They each required about an half hour of work, they were all cut in about 8 hours
Once the battlement was high enough, trees were laid half a meter in front of it and the smaller ditch dug between the trees and the battlement, and more trees were brought to make the wall. Transport was of course tiring work but the distances were rather short : all trees were cut less than 250m from the fortifications
All this was made in about 15 hours (camp raised around 4 PM, work done around 6 AM)
Yeah the attention to detail makes this timeline feel less like a timeline and more like a living world. Definitely what keeps my interest going.
Hecatee
Donor
Thanks but on the other hand I must confess I don't check everything... for instance I did not look for a valley with those characteristics on the map, and I do take shortcuts from time to time (especially as keeping on a weekly schedule can be an issue, I admire people with multiple daily posts such as @fester or @Zheng He , to give but two examples
Alauna Civitas, Caledonia, September 169
Hecatee
Donor
Alauna Civitas, Caledonia, September 169
The countryside was on fire. From the top of one of the makeshift towers of Alauna Civitas one could see the smoke of a number of burning farms, set aflame by the barbarians and their rebel allies.
Until now Alauna Civitas had been preserved from any direct attack, but it would not remain so for long. Despite the warning signs the governor of Caledonia had not made a strong move to kill the revolt at birth and as a result the barbarians had been emboldened. Thanks to traitors attacking from behind the wall a small milecastle had been taken by the enemy not far from the western sea, allowing the passage of the barbarians from beyond the wall. The local commander had reacted as quickly as foolishly and died along most men of his half cohors of auxiliary men, leaving the westermost area of the wall dangerously understrength. The Caledonian had then proceeded to roll up the last defenses on their flank so that no one would attack in their back, leaving a guarison behind in the captured forts so as to keep open the way to safety.
During all this time the governor had done nothing, or so it seemed. He’d sent orders for the fortification of Alauna Civitas and sent a few soldiers, but little else. It was due to two factors : his forces were understrength, some units having been sent on the mainland to support the war there, but mainly it was because he’d also allowed his force to decay by sheer neglect. When he’d had to send forces to the Limes Germanicus he’d had to gut many a century because none were at full strength : his legion, supposed to be made of some 6000 soldiers, was in fact only 4500 strong and having to send one third of his official strength to the mainland had left him too weak to confront the barbarians, who soon numbered around 10 000. The situation was the same for most of the other units in Caledonia, with most of the best officers sent to the Rhine border with the vexilations.
What no one dared to say too loudly was that this sorry state of affair was also largely due to corruption and greed, many centurions using the lack of firm control by their commanding officer to actually forge the accounting books and put in their own pocket the money that should have paid for non-existent soldiers. Some said at even lower voices that the governor was well aware of the fact and that he actually took at least 10% of the money for himself…
What was certain was that he was unprepared and mostly unable to act when the crisis erupted at the beginning of the summer and that Alauna Civitas would have to bear the barbarians’ fury. Fleeing civilians coming from unprotected communities flooded into town with what few belongings they could save, to be set to work by the small garrison. While the first order of business had been to build temporary fortifications using the town’s unique construction plan, Aelius Prigonus Cicero had soon expanded the scope of the work. The shops alongside the town’s main square had been requisitioned to serve as storage for foodstuff while the taberna of the old Tiophorus had been converted into a temporary barrack for the two centuries of troops the tribune machinatorum had brought with him.
After a few days the town had been secured from any sudden attack and they had started looking at further defensive measures as well as ways to accommodate the numerous civilians that kept coming in search of security. A ditch had been dug in the hard ground, defending a perimeter much larger than the town itself but that enclosed enough land to graze the sheeps and cows that many refugees had brought with them while providing enough space for temporary housing. One the first ditch had been dug a second one, parallel to the first, had been made under the supervision of the legionary soldiers while the auxiliaries kept vigilant watch from the towers erected in some of the town’s garden.
All the earth from the ditches had been piled into a large vallus but there was not enough wood in the area to create a palissade all around the town : it was also the reason why Alauna Civitas was made of stone instead of wood like so many other villages of the area… Yet they had other ressources availlable : coal, clay, reeds and other natural ressources were easy to obtain in the area.
One solution would of course have been to make the wall in stone too, but Prigonus Cicero had another idea and ordered bricks to be made in great quantity. Day and night ovens worked to cook large bricks made by a number of the town’s women, new oven being also made to increase supply while the men started to dig yet another ditch to serve as foundation for the wall, filling it with stone. Of course all of the town’s wheelbarrows had been pressed into service to either feed the brickmakers with clay or transport the heavy bricks to the walls.
Starting from the western corner of the perimeter closest to the main road and the taverna, they soon started to build a large square tower, planned to be two story high in order to look above the main hadrianic wall but that they would at first keep to a bit above man height. Then they started to build the wall toward the south, still at the same height, to protect the main direction of attack. The bases of four large towers were also built in this section, the plan of the tribune being to later add smaller towers in the intervals. At the last tower the wall turned east, toward the river, as it was the second most vulnerable part of the town given that the hadrianic wall and the taverna’s strong construction protected at least in part the northern side. Building the first wall had taken them around a month working day and night by shifts, helped by the civilians that kept arriving and by another two centuries of auxiliaries, survivors of the battle in the west.
Their arrival had been a bad surprise for Prigonus Cicero, as he feared they would damage the moral of the troops. But it soon appeared they were dissatisfied with their leadership and their commanding centurions thought their commander had made important mistakes that explained the defeat, thus they were not surprised by it and were in fact full of revenge spirit.
Now as September was almost at its end the southern wall had also been completed with the same amount of towers as the western wall, and work had begun on both the northern and eastern walls. Yet they would not be ready for the battle as the barbarian host was clearly coming… All efforts were put into the prolongation the wall on the northern side so that it may arrive at the height of the taverna so that no enemy may turn the wall on that side without passing through a zone where archers set on the taverna would be able to fire from a position of safety. High baskets woven with reeds by the women had also been filled with rubble to block the way and to quickly extend the eastern and northern walls as far as possible, even if it would not be defensible. A gate of sort had been made at the level of the taverna with other baskets put in quincunx to break the charge of any barbarian, with a terrasse on the side on which shooters could take place.
The towers were also all filled with rubble to provide firing platforms for small balistae able to throw darts at the enemy from a great distance, with enough room for a number of archers. Behind the wall too the earth from the foundation provided enough space for archers to stand : all the civilians, even the women, had been trained in the use of bows when they were not digging. Children had not been exempted from learning how to fight, each having its own sling a enough small stones to throw at the barbarians and each having had time to learn how to use his or her weapon…
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Argentocoxos, ruler of the Maetae, looked at the town of stone and disliked what he saw. His informers before the war had never spoken of a walled city, but here it was. Of course his scouts informed him that the defenses were incomplete, but it was still a big problem as his army was not good at taking fortresses…
Still he had no choice. The stone town was too good a base for his enemy, the cowardly governor that declined to face him. He would have to attack. Now the question was to define where the attack would take place : according to the scouts the eastern wall was less defended but would not be a very good spot to attack because the baskets were too high and offered no platform to cross above them while the wall itself was surprisingly low and he could see the defenders’ heads so it must have a platform behind that would allow for fighting without hurting oneself in a fall beforehand.
He had about 10 000 men at his back, including a number of roman military defectors whom he kept as a source of informations on his enemies’ thinking. Presently he called the highest ranking of those, a centurion called Glaucus who commanded the milecastle through which his army had been able to come south. He’d known the man for a long time as he was often sent on diplomatic missions to Argentocoxos’ village and he’d known what kind of bribe would make him a traitor, namely some gold and some redheaded slaves.
When Glaucus saw the defenses he made a face. Whoever was in command had done a good job with limited means and time : if he could not see it for himself he’d have believed such a feat impossible. Two ditches, a vallum and a wall… There was an opening on the northern side, a few dozen meters between Hadrianus’ wall and the new fortification, it did not seem to be as long a wall as the one to the south, and no tower protected it so the best solution would probably be to launch a diversionary attack on the main wall and run the gauntlet to the north, but it would not be pretty… Losses would be high and he could not know how many soldiers the enemy had… With the Caledonian having few shields and even fewer helmets they would suffer horribly from any kind of archers so they would have to be quick… He gave Argentocoxos his opinion and saw that the barbarian had come to the same conclusion and gone further in his reflexion, selecting the troops he’d assign to each part of the plan. A decision that had some to do with military strategy and a lot to do with tribal politics.
The least loyal tribes would be sent against the main fortification in the first line, with more loyal tribes in second position. The core of his army and the defectors, a number of whom still carried their armor and shield, would take the northern passage, the later hopefully protected from anything the defenders might throw at them and in any case serving as a shield for his his clansmen and best warriors…
It was too late for the day, so the attack would take place the following morning, his warriors rested and ready for war...
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Prigonus Cicero had had a very bad night. He’d patrolled the perimeter until around midnight when one of his centurion had convinced him of going to bed. Sleep had been long to come despite the tiring day and he felt as if he’d had none when his private slave came to wake him up at sunrise.
All that could be done had been, it was now in the hands of the gods and the steel of his blade. Putting on his full armor he thought once more on his battle plan and then shrugged. It would have to do…
Messenger boys were in the courtyard of the taverna, ready to carry his orders to all points in the city. The tribune himself went on the inn’s roof, where he’d had an observation platform built. The barbarians were already awakening, slowly getting in line for a massive assault on the western wall. They seemed not to have gone around the fortifications during the night, but Prigonus Cicero still kept 300 civilian archers and a century of auxiliaries in position to defend the southern and eastern defenses. Five hundred more civilian archers were on the wall and towers of the western and northern side, the legionary century and two last auxiliary centuries ready for action just outside the taberna with two hundred more civilian archers and twice as many slingers.
All had to wait for around one hour before the battle truly began. A group of about two thousand barbarians moved to the south, and got ready to attack that part of the wall while three thousand more made ready to storm the western wall. Three thousand seemed to make a second wave ready to support the attack on the western wall while a last group stayed closer to Hadrianus’ wall, visibly better equipped and probably the leader’s retinue. At least the Barbarians were doing what he expected, but would his barely trained civilians act the same ?
The sight of thousands of screaming barbarians was frightening, but the wall gave the civilians a sense of false safety. While the wall was barely higher than a man could jump they felt the barbarians could never reach them. The men amongst them would had been designated as optio told them to wait, to wait, to wait still longer, until the barbarians were in range of their bows. Whitewashed stones had been placed in the field to give them an idea when to shoot.
The first to unleash their weapons where the men manning the balistae. The sharp thang of the release could be heard by those near the towers but not further, the noise of the Barbarians covering the sound. Yet the results were unmistakable : the five missiles struck the enemy ost, one impaling three warriors. The artillerist did not wait to look at the result and were already reloading their weapons. Luckily the day was dry and while it helped the enemy who did not have to crawl in mud, it also meant that the artillery worked at maximum power, the sinew made of women’s hairs not loosened by the humidity.
The balistae had two shots before the archers joined their efforts. After a first rather good volley it became a continuous shower of arrows shot by archers as fast as they could. The results could clearly be seen : the enemy had not yet reached the first ditch that they had already lost at least two or three hundred men, wounded or killed. Unprotected by either shield, helmet or armor, they were very vulnerable yet they were not even in the area where their run would slow to a crawl…
On the southern wall the situation was the same, even if there were less archers available. Everything was going according to plan… Prigonus Cicero was so focused on the assault that he did not see the third attack group start its move. One of his observers, a youth he’d given this specific task, had to shake his arm to get his attention and show him the threat.
Swearing, the tribune went down running. Barely stopping in the courtyard to give orders to the message boys, he went to his main force of three centuries, barely 200 men, with whom he hoped to stop 2000 warriors…
Behind him the runner went to the centurion in charge of the last century of auxiliaries, near the southern wall. His men were to be divided in two to guard the southern and western inner gates, the makeshift defenses made between the walls of the towns’ houses. It had already been agreed that his men would facilitate the retreat of the archers, who had been ordered to run from the walls to the town after the first barbarian set foot on the wall or a tower.
As Prigonus Cicero reached his men he saw them rise from where they lay. Time for them to earn their pay. He did not have much time to harrang them so his discourse was short : “Men of Rome, here they come. There are enough of them for each of us, and they are the best they have to throw at us. Yet you all know that the brittunculi are no match for the least of us, so I’m not afraid and neither should you. Beside they will come to you like fishes caught in a river trap comes to the fishermen : disorganized, in small groups. Remember what I told you : keep your shield high, your sword in hand, your head about you, and you can’t lose. Don’t forget also that there are hundreds of civilians around us fighting alongside you but who depends on you to survive, don’t let them down. Remember the plan and all will be well !”
The two auxiliary centuries put themselves in front of the woven baskets full of dirt that had been placed in such a way as to break the stamina of any barbarian charge while also giving enough space for the slingers’ stones to hit hard the faces of the warriors coming at the romans.
As soon as the barbarians came into view they were it by a storm of arrow and then of stones. Many were deflected by the shields and body armor the traitors and the enemy chief’s elite warrior wore, but some still fell to the ground, hurt or knocked unconscious by hits in the head or on the helmet. Still, the barbarians were running to keep exposure at a minimum, until they came to the quincux : they slowed down, some pushing to see if they could move the defense away or push them over, to no avail. Other went through the passages, to be met by roman steel.
The two centuries of auxiliaries received them on their steel. The barbarians could not push against them and got slaughtered while projectiles kept coming onto their brethren behind, shot from platforms on both side, to high to be reached.
But soon this strategy became too brilliant : too many bodies fell, allowing the warriors to walk on top of their fallen comrades to reach the top of the baskets and then jump down, forcing the auxiliaries to take a few steps back. Where the 160 men fought but a dozen enemy warriors at every given moment they now fought on a wide front in which a hundred warriors pressed : the auxiliaries had no one to hold the line behind them, no reinforcement but the single century of legionnaires and their tribune.
Yet discipline held. On his order the two centuries took ten steps back and on the side, to come alongside the legionnaires, making a line three men deep. Losses were still very light, only half a dozen soldiers of Rome had fallen… On a shouted order the legionaries threw their pilum into the barbarians, falling two dozen more of them.
By now Argentocoxos himself had come to the fore. Larger than most of his warriors, covered in jewels and armor, he looked like the chief he was and Prigonus Cicero recognized him for who he was. Ordering his men to take a position further back yet, he stepped forward in obvious challenge, a challenge that was duly accepted.
The barbarians poured inside the area but left enough space for the two combatants. Behind the defenses the shooting had stopped for lack of munitions and the archers and slingers had fallen back toward the town center, the din of battle had diminished to a distant rumor as the attack on the western and southern walls was still ongoing. Yet here, at the foot of the taberna, men were silent, except of course for the wounded.
The two commanders eyed each other. Prigonus Cicero was not the most impressive warrior. He came from the engineering branch of the legion, but still knew how to hold himself in battle : no only had he had gladiators training him during his youth, as most kids of the elite, but he’d also kept his skills sharp by training with centurions during his assignments. While his gladius was shorter than the Caledonian’s blade, he knew he had the defensive advantage with his armor, a full muscle-plate combined with vambrace and greaves, his shield and his helmet.
Argentocoxos was the first to strike, a powerful downward blow aiming toward the Roman’s head which the tribune deflected by raising and inclining his shield so that the blade skittered on its metallic edge away from his body. At the same time Prigonus Cicero stepped one pace in the direction of his foe, punching with his gladius toward his belly. Yet while he did hear the point of his blade hit his foe’s chainmail shirt, the barbarian had made a step backward and escaped the blade that would have gutted him.
Using the momentum of his downward going blade, he tried to his the tribune in the leg but the scutum was once again in his way and while the defensive move opened the Roman’s body to a strike, the long blade prevented Argentocoxos from using that opportunity before the scutum was back in place. Both men had taken their foe’s mettle, and Argentocoxo did not like what he saw : his adversary knew how to wield his blade, something he did not think Roman officers did…
Prigonus Cicero then launched himself at his enemy, using his shield to punch him in the torso, following with his short blade, but the gladius only hit his adversary’s arm, cutting through the unprotected biceps before being deflected by a gold armband. Roaring from the pain, Argentocoxos swung his sword, this time at hip level, only to be deflected by the gladius’ blade.
The Roman countered by punching again with his shield, yet not with the boss this time. Instead he used the top of his rectangular shield to hit his enemy in the shoulder, destabilizing his and hitting him then with his gladius straight in the neck, cutting the arteries : the gush of blood that appeared told of his victory. Behind him a cheer by his soldiers marked his triumph while a wail of rage and despair sounded in front of him.
Quickly the tribune regained the ranks of his soldiers. He had no time to look into their eye to see if a newfound respect could be seen in them because the angry bodyguards of Argentocoxos were running at his line.
Just before contact between the two armies made hearing anything impossible Prigonus Cicero heard a strange noise that sounded like a tuba giving battle order, but he dismissed it as a figment of his imagination : his unit had no tuba…
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The assault on the two walls had faltered once already, corpses littering the ground. Losses were too high, some two thousand men dead or wounded, but the barbarians had not lost enough men at the foot of the battlement to succeed in walking on top of them to jump on the wall. Yet the stocks of arrows were low, as were those of munitions for the balistae. A third of the archers had already left their position for the town center’s defenses, where more arrows were available : the wall would not succeed in fending off a second attack.
The lack of enemy archers meant that losses had been few among the defenders and morale remained good. Maybe if they could bleed the barbarians enough they would leave the town for an easier target and the army would be able to destroy them ?
Then the miracle happened. Coming from the west, in the back of the barbarians, a large unit of cavalry appeared, blaring their trumpets and flying their draco proudly. Forming into a wedge formation, they charged the enemy reserves, bursting through the line and falling on the back of the retreating first wave. Chaos erupted while behind the cavalry appeared another force, infantry this time : the VI legion had finally come with its auxiliary units and was about to crash in the back of the barbarians !
The countryside was on fire. From the top of one of the makeshift towers of Alauna Civitas one could see the smoke of a number of burning farms, set aflame by the barbarians and their rebel allies.
Until now Alauna Civitas had been preserved from any direct attack, but it would not remain so for long. Despite the warning signs the governor of Caledonia had not made a strong move to kill the revolt at birth and as a result the barbarians had been emboldened. Thanks to traitors attacking from behind the wall a small milecastle had been taken by the enemy not far from the western sea, allowing the passage of the barbarians from beyond the wall. The local commander had reacted as quickly as foolishly and died along most men of his half cohors of auxiliary men, leaving the westermost area of the wall dangerously understrength. The Caledonian had then proceeded to roll up the last defenses on their flank so that no one would attack in their back, leaving a guarison behind in the captured forts so as to keep open the way to safety.
During all this time the governor had done nothing, or so it seemed. He’d sent orders for the fortification of Alauna Civitas and sent a few soldiers, but little else. It was due to two factors : his forces were understrength, some units having been sent on the mainland to support the war there, but mainly it was because he’d also allowed his force to decay by sheer neglect. When he’d had to send forces to the Limes Germanicus he’d had to gut many a century because none were at full strength : his legion, supposed to be made of some 6000 soldiers, was in fact only 4500 strong and having to send one third of his official strength to the mainland had left him too weak to confront the barbarians, who soon numbered around 10 000. The situation was the same for most of the other units in Caledonia, with most of the best officers sent to the Rhine border with the vexilations.
What no one dared to say too loudly was that this sorry state of affair was also largely due to corruption and greed, many centurions using the lack of firm control by their commanding officer to actually forge the accounting books and put in their own pocket the money that should have paid for non-existent soldiers. Some said at even lower voices that the governor was well aware of the fact and that he actually took at least 10% of the money for himself…
What was certain was that he was unprepared and mostly unable to act when the crisis erupted at the beginning of the summer and that Alauna Civitas would have to bear the barbarians’ fury. Fleeing civilians coming from unprotected communities flooded into town with what few belongings they could save, to be set to work by the small garrison. While the first order of business had been to build temporary fortifications using the town’s unique construction plan, Aelius Prigonus Cicero had soon expanded the scope of the work. The shops alongside the town’s main square had been requisitioned to serve as storage for foodstuff while the taberna of the old Tiophorus had been converted into a temporary barrack for the two centuries of troops the tribune machinatorum had brought with him.
After a few days the town had been secured from any sudden attack and they had started looking at further defensive measures as well as ways to accommodate the numerous civilians that kept coming in search of security. A ditch had been dug in the hard ground, defending a perimeter much larger than the town itself but that enclosed enough land to graze the sheeps and cows that many refugees had brought with them while providing enough space for temporary housing. One the first ditch had been dug a second one, parallel to the first, had been made under the supervision of the legionary soldiers while the auxiliaries kept vigilant watch from the towers erected in some of the town’s garden.
All the earth from the ditches had been piled into a large vallus but there was not enough wood in the area to create a palissade all around the town : it was also the reason why Alauna Civitas was made of stone instead of wood like so many other villages of the area… Yet they had other ressources availlable : coal, clay, reeds and other natural ressources were easy to obtain in the area.
One solution would of course have been to make the wall in stone too, but Prigonus Cicero had another idea and ordered bricks to be made in great quantity. Day and night ovens worked to cook large bricks made by a number of the town’s women, new oven being also made to increase supply while the men started to dig yet another ditch to serve as foundation for the wall, filling it with stone. Of course all of the town’s wheelbarrows had been pressed into service to either feed the brickmakers with clay or transport the heavy bricks to the walls.
Starting from the western corner of the perimeter closest to the main road and the taverna, they soon started to build a large square tower, planned to be two story high in order to look above the main hadrianic wall but that they would at first keep to a bit above man height. Then they started to build the wall toward the south, still at the same height, to protect the main direction of attack. The bases of four large towers were also built in this section, the plan of the tribune being to later add smaller towers in the intervals. At the last tower the wall turned east, toward the river, as it was the second most vulnerable part of the town given that the hadrianic wall and the taverna’s strong construction protected at least in part the northern side. Building the first wall had taken them around a month working day and night by shifts, helped by the civilians that kept arriving and by another two centuries of auxiliaries, survivors of the battle in the west.
Their arrival had been a bad surprise for Prigonus Cicero, as he feared they would damage the moral of the troops. But it soon appeared they were dissatisfied with their leadership and their commanding centurions thought their commander had made important mistakes that explained the defeat, thus they were not surprised by it and were in fact full of revenge spirit.
Now as September was almost at its end the southern wall had also been completed with the same amount of towers as the western wall, and work had begun on both the northern and eastern walls. Yet they would not be ready for the battle as the barbarian host was clearly coming… All efforts were put into the prolongation the wall on the northern side so that it may arrive at the height of the taverna so that no enemy may turn the wall on that side without passing through a zone where archers set on the taverna would be able to fire from a position of safety. High baskets woven with reeds by the women had also been filled with rubble to block the way and to quickly extend the eastern and northern walls as far as possible, even if it would not be defensible. A gate of sort had been made at the level of the taverna with other baskets put in quincunx to break the charge of any barbarian, with a terrasse on the side on which shooters could take place.
The towers were also all filled with rubble to provide firing platforms for small balistae able to throw darts at the enemy from a great distance, with enough room for a number of archers. Behind the wall too the earth from the foundation provided enough space for archers to stand : all the civilians, even the women, had been trained in the use of bows when they were not digging. Children had not been exempted from learning how to fight, each having its own sling a enough small stones to throw at the barbarians and each having had time to learn how to use his or her weapon…
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Argentocoxos, ruler of the Maetae, looked at the town of stone and disliked what he saw. His informers before the war had never spoken of a walled city, but here it was. Of course his scouts informed him that the defenses were incomplete, but it was still a big problem as his army was not good at taking fortresses…
Still he had no choice. The stone town was too good a base for his enemy, the cowardly governor that declined to face him. He would have to attack. Now the question was to define where the attack would take place : according to the scouts the eastern wall was less defended but would not be a very good spot to attack because the baskets were too high and offered no platform to cross above them while the wall itself was surprisingly low and he could see the defenders’ heads so it must have a platform behind that would allow for fighting without hurting oneself in a fall beforehand.
He had about 10 000 men at his back, including a number of roman military defectors whom he kept as a source of informations on his enemies’ thinking. Presently he called the highest ranking of those, a centurion called Glaucus who commanded the milecastle through which his army had been able to come south. He’d known the man for a long time as he was often sent on diplomatic missions to Argentocoxos’ village and he’d known what kind of bribe would make him a traitor, namely some gold and some redheaded slaves.
When Glaucus saw the defenses he made a face. Whoever was in command had done a good job with limited means and time : if he could not see it for himself he’d have believed such a feat impossible. Two ditches, a vallum and a wall… There was an opening on the northern side, a few dozen meters between Hadrianus’ wall and the new fortification, it did not seem to be as long a wall as the one to the south, and no tower protected it so the best solution would probably be to launch a diversionary attack on the main wall and run the gauntlet to the north, but it would not be pretty… Losses would be high and he could not know how many soldiers the enemy had… With the Caledonian having few shields and even fewer helmets they would suffer horribly from any kind of archers so they would have to be quick… He gave Argentocoxos his opinion and saw that the barbarian had come to the same conclusion and gone further in his reflexion, selecting the troops he’d assign to each part of the plan. A decision that had some to do with military strategy and a lot to do with tribal politics.
The least loyal tribes would be sent against the main fortification in the first line, with more loyal tribes in second position. The core of his army and the defectors, a number of whom still carried their armor and shield, would take the northern passage, the later hopefully protected from anything the defenders might throw at them and in any case serving as a shield for his his clansmen and best warriors…
It was too late for the day, so the attack would take place the following morning, his warriors rested and ready for war...
--
Prigonus Cicero had had a very bad night. He’d patrolled the perimeter until around midnight when one of his centurion had convinced him of going to bed. Sleep had been long to come despite the tiring day and he felt as if he’d had none when his private slave came to wake him up at sunrise.
All that could be done had been, it was now in the hands of the gods and the steel of his blade. Putting on his full armor he thought once more on his battle plan and then shrugged. It would have to do…
Messenger boys were in the courtyard of the taverna, ready to carry his orders to all points in the city. The tribune himself went on the inn’s roof, where he’d had an observation platform built. The barbarians were already awakening, slowly getting in line for a massive assault on the western wall. They seemed not to have gone around the fortifications during the night, but Prigonus Cicero still kept 300 civilian archers and a century of auxiliaries in position to defend the southern and eastern defenses. Five hundred more civilian archers were on the wall and towers of the western and northern side, the legionary century and two last auxiliary centuries ready for action just outside the taberna with two hundred more civilian archers and twice as many slingers.
All had to wait for around one hour before the battle truly began. A group of about two thousand barbarians moved to the south, and got ready to attack that part of the wall while three thousand more made ready to storm the western wall. Three thousand seemed to make a second wave ready to support the attack on the western wall while a last group stayed closer to Hadrianus’ wall, visibly better equipped and probably the leader’s retinue. At least the Barbarians were doing what he expected, but would his barely trained civilians act the same ?
The sight of thousands of screaming barbarians was frightening, but the wall gave the civilians a sense of false safety. While the wall was barely higher than a man could jump they felt the barbarians could never reach them. The men amongst them would had been designated as optio told them to wait, to wait, to wait still longer, until the barbarians were in range of their bows. Whitewashed stones had been placed in the field to give them an idea when to shoot.
The first to unleash their weapons where the men manning the balistae. The sharp thang of the release could be heard by those near the towers but not further, the noise of the Barbarians covering the sound. Yet the results were unmistakable : the five missiles struck the enemy ost, one impaling three warriors. The artillerist did not wait to look at the result and were already reloading their weapons. Luckily the day was dry and while it helped the enemy who did not have to crawl in mud, it also meant that the artillery worked at maximum power, the sinew made of women’s hairs not loosened by the humidity.
The balistae had two shots before the archers joined their efforts. After a first rather good volley it became a continuous shower of arrows shot by archers as fast as they could. The results could clearly be seen : the enemy had not yet reached the first ditch that they had already lost at least two or three hundred men, wounded or killed. Unprotected by either shield, helmet or armor, they were very vulnerable yet they were not even in the area where their run would slow to a crawl…
On the southern wall the situation was the same, even if there were less archers available. Everything was going according to plan… Prigonus Cicero was so focused on the assault that he did not see the third attack group start its move. One of his observers, a youth he’d given this specific task, had to shake his arm to get his attention and show him the threat.
Swearing, the tribune went down running. Barely stopping in the courtyard to give orders to the message boys, he went to his main force of three centuries, barely 200 men, with whom he hoped to stop 2000 warriors…
Behind him the runner went to the centurion in charge of the last century of auxiliaries, near the southern wall. His men were to be divided in two to guard the southern and western inner gates, the makeshift defenses made between the walls of the towns’ houses. It had already been agreed that his men would facilitate the retreat of the archers, who had been ordered to run from the walls to the town after the first barbarian set foot on the wall or a tower.
As Prigonus Cicero reached his men he saw them rise from where they lay. Time for them to earn their pay. He did not have much time to harrang them so his discourse was short : “Men of Rome, here they come. There are enough of them for each of us, and they are the best they have to throw at us. Yet you all know that the brittunculi are no match for the least of us, so I’m not afraid and neither should you. Beside they will come to you like fishes caught in a river trap comes to the fishermen : disorganized, in small groups. Remember what I told you : keep your shield high, your sword in hand, your head about you, and you can’t lose. Don’t forget also that there are hundreds of civilians around us fighting alongside you but who depends on you to survive, don’t let them down. Remember the plan and all will be well !”
The two auxiliary centuries put themselves in front of the woven baskets full of dirt that had been placed in such a way as to break the stamina of any barbarian charge while also giving enough space for the slingers’ stones to hit hard the faces of the warriors coming at the romans.
As soon as the barbarians came into view they were it by a storm of arrow and then of stones. Many were deflected by the shields and body armor the traitors and the enemy chief’s elite warrior wore, but some still fell to the ground, hurt or knocked unconscious by hits in the head or on the helmet. Still, the barbarians were running to keep exposure at a minimum, until they came to the quincux : they slowed down, some pushing to see if they could move the defense away or push them over, to no avail. Other went through the passages, to be met by roman steel.
The two centuries of auxiliaries received them on their steel. The barbarians could not push against them and got slaughtered while projectiles kept coming onto their brethren behind, shot from platforms on both side, to high to be reached.
But soon this strategy became too brilliant : too many bodies fell, allowing the warriors to walk on top of their fallen comrades to reach the top of the baskets and then jump down, forcing the auxiliaries to take a few steps back. Where the 160 men fought but a dozen enemy warriors at every given moment they now fought on a wide front in which a hundred warriors pressed : the auxiliaries had no one to hold the line behind them, no reinforcement but the single century of legionnaires and their tribune.
Yet discipline held. On his order the two centuries took ten steps back and on the side, to come alongside the legionnaires, making a line three men deep. Losses were still very light, only half a dozen soldiers of Rome had fallen… On a shouted order the legionaries threw their pilum into the barbarians, falling two dozen more of them.
By now Argentocoxos himself had come to the fore. Larger than most of his warriors, covered in jewels and armor, he looked like the chief he was and Prigonus Cicero recognized him for who he was. Ordering his men to take a position further back yet, he stepped forward in obvious challenge, a challenge that was duly accepted.
The barbarians poured inside the area but left enough space for the two combatants. Behind the defenses the shooting had stopped for lack of munitions and the archers and slingers had fallen back toward the town center, the din of battle had diminished to a distant rumor as the attack on the western and southern walls was still ongoing. Yet here, at the foot of the taberna, men were silent, except of course for the wounded.
The two commanders eyed each other. Prigonus Cicero was not the most impressive warrior. He came from the engineering branch of the legion, but still knew how to hold himself in battle : no only had he had gladiators training him during his youth, as most kids of the elite, but he’d also kept his skills sharp by training with centurions during his assignments. While his gladius was shorter than the Caledonian’s blade, he knew he had the defensive advantage with his armor, a full muscle-plate combined with vambrace and greaves, his shield and his helmet.
Argentocoxos was the first to strike, a powerful downward blow aiming toward the Roman’s head which the tribune deflected by raising and inclining his shield so that the blade skittered on its metallic edge away from his body. At the same time Prigonus Cicero stepped one pace in the direction of his foe, punching with his gladius toward his belly. Yet while he did hear the point of his blade hit his foe’s chainmail shirt, the barbarian had made a step backward and escaped the blade that would have gutted him.
Using the momentum of his downward going blade, he tried to his the tribune in the leg but the scutum was once again in his way and while the defensive move opened the Roman’s body to a strike, the long blade prevented Argentocoxos from using that opportunity before the scutum was back in place. Both men had taken their foe’s mettle, and Argentocoxo did not like what he saw : his adversary knew how to wield his blade, something he did not think Roman officers did…
Prigonus Cicero then launched himself at his enemy, using his shield to punch him in the torso, following with his short blade, but the gladius only hit his adversary’s arm, cutting through the unprotected biceps before being deflected by a gold armband. Roaring from the pain, Argentocoxos swung his sword, this time at hip level, only to be deflected by the gladius’ blade.
The Roman countered by punching again with his shield, yet not with the boss this time. Instead he used the top of his rectangular shield to hit his enemy in the shoulder, destabilizing his and hitting him then with his gladius straight in the neck, cutting the arteries : the gush of blood that appeared told of his victory. Behind him a cheer by his soldiers marked his triumph while a wail of rage and despair sounded in front of him.
Quickly the tribune regained the ranks of his soldiers. He had no time to look into their eye to see if a newfound respect could be seen in them because the angry bodyguards of Argentocoxos were running at his line.
Just before contact between the two armies made hearing anything impossible Prigonus Cicero heard a strange noise that sounded like a tuba giving battle order, but he dismissed it as a figment of his imagination : his unit had no tuba…
--
The assault on the two walls had faltered once already, corpses littering the ground. Losses were too high, some two thousand men dead or wounded, but the barbarians had not lost enough men at the foot of the battlement to succeed in walking on top of them to jump on the wall. Yet the stocks of arrows were low, as were those of munitions for the balistae. A third of the archers had already left their position for the town center’s defenses, where more arrows were available : the wall would not succeed in fending off a second attack.
The lack of enemy archers meant that losses had been few among the defenders and morale remained good. Maybe if they could bleed the barbarians enough they would leave the town for an easier target and the army would be able to destroy them ?
Then the miracle happened. Coming from the west, in the back of the barbarians, a large unit of cavalry appeared, blaring their trumpets and flying their draco proudly. Forming into a wedge formation, they charged the enemy reserves, bursting through the line and falling on the back of the retreating first wave. Chaos erupted while behind the cavalry appeared another force, infantry this time : the VI legion had finally come with its auxiliary units and was about to crash in the back of the barbarians !
Awesome as always I really like how the engineering corps is showing it's impact on the Roman Empire battle and civilian life
I really like how the engineering corps is showing it's impact on the Roman Empire battle and civilian life
Well,another excellent chapter...only a typo:
Seems that thanks that they were able to resist and bled to the barbarians Army...seems that the whole province would debt its saving to the Alaunas Civitas' savior.
Whom probably get the Emperor himself 'attention' when the news came to him and of course I would expect a 'major clean' and the punish of the all culprits that lets start and be surprised not ready, for theirs greedy, by the barbarians rebelion/invasion of the province.
Seems that thanks that they were able to resist and bled to the barbarians Army...seems that the whole province would debt its saving to the Alaunas Civitas' savior.
Whom probably get the Emperor himself 'attention' when the news came to him and of course I would expect a 'major clean' and the punish of the all culprits that lets start and be surprised not ready, for theirs greedy, by the barbarians rebelion/invasion of the province.
Is there something signifigant about them using brick instead of stone for the walls.
They can make brick right in the city, far better than quarrying in the middle of a war and they didn't have access to cement!
@Hecatee I'm motivated to make a map for this timeline. Do I have your permission?
I'll probably use the wiki map of 125AD as the base. Or would you prefer a different map style/base date?
I'll probably use the wiki map of 125AD as the base. Or would you prefer a different map style/base date?
Hecatee
Donor
That would be great ! I'm awful at it so any help is great
As for the map its a great one, yes : in UK you have to move the wall to Antonine Wall's position and delete it from where it stands, and in the mainland the best is to start from Romania : the border goes from Troesmis alongside the Porata river, then jumps to the Tisia through the affluent just above the "D" of Dacia, until the word Aquincum which covers the new limes that protect the area down to Sirmium. Then you follow the Danube until Carnuntum and go up north alongside the river that goes through the "Q" of Quadi until its source above the "i" of Marcomanni, where the borders turn toward the Albis river, at the foot of the mountains. It then follows the southern bank of the Albis until the confluence, where it goes north on the western side of the river up to the mountains that close down western bohemia. The borders goes then down to the second "u" of Hermunduri where it moves north toward "chatti" and follows the western side of the river up to the height of Bonna, to where it goes almost straight.
In the far east the border of the Parthian is on the eastern side of the Tigris, the Romans go north on the eastern most affluent and then straight up to the Araxes river and then due west.
As for the new cities you'll have to check my bad maps and the indications I gave in various posts if you want to add them