Caesar ascending pandya, p.21
Caesar Ascending-Pandya, page 21
“If they know that they’re likely to lose a substantial number of their elephants because of the demon’s fire,” Ranjeet had steadfastly refused to accept that the naphtha that had proven so devastating was a naturally occurring substance, “you’ll be lucky if you get a single animal.”
Abhiraka had attempted to heed Ranjeet’s advice, but his fellow king was far too shrewd to be put off by a vague story about how so many of Bharuch’s elephants had met their demise. He had done his best to minimize how horrifically effective the Romans’ weapon had been, but in the end, he was forced to accept the terms set by Puddapandyan, which was in essence every drachmae that his queen had smuggled south with their remaining children shortly before the Romans arrived outside the gates of the city. Under other circumstances, Abhiraka thought bitterly, I could have purchased an army twice this size, with twice as many elephants with the money I paid; however, he was also a pragmatist who had long before learned that the cost of anything was measured by how much that thing was needed. Regardless of his understanding of the realities, it was still something that gnawed at the king, particularly as he was forced to listen to Puddapandyan nattering about his favorite concubine of the moment. Perhaps the only thing of a positive nature that could be attributed to their slow march north was that, whenever it happened that they clash with the Romans, the army would be rested, but this was small consolation in the moment.
Now that they were within two days march of Kalliena, the southernmost settlement that was considered part of Abhiraka’s domains on the Goaris River, the king spent every spare moment with his commanders as they worked out the details of their plan. In its conception, the strategy hadn’t changed; Abhiraka would use his newly reinforced army to reclaim enough territory that it would begin to impinge on the ability for the Romans to feed not only themselves, but the citizens of Bharuch. It was a grim calculation, yet it was one where Abhiraka felt, and his commanders agreed, that this was not only the best way to force the Romans into the field, but the only way. Where the king felt more certain was in his belief that the Roman general Caesar wouldn’t be willing to send his entire army out into the field and leave Bharuch undefended. While he couldn’t know with any real certainty, Abhiraka was operating on the assumption that the Romans had learned more about the other kingdoms in the western part of India, including Bharuch’s most potent and hated rival, the Kanva, who were ruled by Narayana from their capital, the city of Ujjain, which was some two hundred miles east and fifty miles north of Bharuch. Their wealth was substantial, but it was the ambition of Narayana that kept Abhiraka awake at night, at least until the cursed Romans had arrived. Now, however, the Kanva might serve a useful purpose by keeping a substantial portion of Caesar’s army penned in Bharuch, because of one thing Abhiraka was certain; Narayana had learned of Bharuch’s downfall. As he would learn, his reasoning was sound, and he had anticipated the likelihood that the Romans would be forced to send a smaller portion of their army out into the field. What he wasn’t prepared for was when, towards the end of the day’s march that put them within two days of Kalliena, there would be a call from the leading elements of his army that riders were approaching. Moving Darpashata into a lumbering trot, Abhiraka hurried to meet the riders, recognizing one of the men as Sagara, a young member of his phalanx corps who had shown such promise that he had been promoted into the bodyguard to replace the losses the king had suffered during the battle for the city.
“Your Highness, we have been to Kalliena, and they informed us that there are Romans nearby!”
The fact that in his excitement Sagara had forgotten to perform the expected obeisance was something that Abhiraka normally would chastise a man for, but between the young soldier’s excitement and his own rush of the same emotion, it meant that he barely noticed.
“Did they tell you how large a force it is?”
“Yes,” Sagara answered, feeling an understandable surge of pride that he had actually thought to ask the traveling merchant who had been his source of information that very thing. “There are two of the eagle standards they carry,” he informed the king. “I made sure to question the man who saw them very closely, and he is certain that he saw two, and only two.”
Unlike Barhinder, and those who remained in Bharuch, Abhiraka hadn’t learned much about the organization of the Roman army, but from the survivors of Ranjeet’s last-gasp attempt to break through to the city defenders, he did know that the presence of the eagle standards represented what the Romans called a Legion. Therefore, there were two Legions within striking distance. This, he thought, was the chance to strike the first blow.
Tiberius Atartinus, the Primus Pilus of the 11th Legion, was indulging himself in what had become a daily habit of cursing the Fates that had ordained that it was his Legion’s turn to perform what he thought of as a pointless exercise in wandering around the countryside. If it weren’t so hot and wet, it wouldn’t have been so bad, but since Legate Pollio had issued a standing order that the men wore their armor at all times, it introduced another level of hardship. Not a single day passed without easily a dozen men stricken down, not by an enemy blade or arrow, nor even because of something like the bite of a serpent, but by the sun. These were the only men who were allowed to shed their armor, and they were slung on the back of one of the mules from the pool of spares, allowed to ride until they recovered. Which, as Atartinus had heard from his predecessors on these long-range forays, didn’t always happen. He and his fellow Primus Pilus, Aulus Mus of the 7th, had been fortunate in that respect, at least to this point, but it didn’t mean that his Legion was unscathed. To this point, seven days into the march, he had lost two section slaves who, while it had occurred on two separate occasions, was from the same cause, one that had thrown the hard-bitten veterans of two Roman Legions into a state of near panic. Prior to this, the returning Legions had reported signs that tigers were lurking in the dense forests that, whenever possible, the Romans bypassed, but it wasn’t until it was Atartinus’ turn that men had actually been attacked, and even worse, eaten. The animal had been driven off by a hail of javelins with the last death, but the half-eaten remains had thoroughly terrified the men to the point that no man who wanted to relieve themselves left the relative security of the column alone. It did have one salutary effect; the men had stopped complaining about building a marching camp at the end of every day, although it wasn’t ever to the dimensions normally demanded by Caesar.
Now that they were a day’s march to the east of the town that had been identified as Kalliena, Atartinus was looking forward to the prospect of returning by a route that was at least thoroughly scouted, following the coast northward back to Bharuch. The 7th and 11th had been tasked by Pollio to push farther to the east than ever before, and the two Legions had reached the base of the line of mountains that Titus Pullus had learned about from the first villager questioned by Achaemenes. As they had been told, these peaks thrust up from relatively flat ground, making them the most visible landmark in the area, and the two Legions had located the source of the river upon which Kalliena was located. They had been following the river for the previous two days, stopping at every village along the route, where Achaemenes worked tirelessly to learn more about the land in which they found themselves. As absorbed in his own worries as he was, Atartinus still felt enormous sympathy for the young Parthian, the only man currently able to communicate with the native people. Because of this, Achaemenes had been the only man in the entire Roman army who had accompanied the pair of Legions on every march, yet he had done so without complaint, and as his predecessors had, Atartinus quickly learned to not only rely on the translator, but to trust him implicitly. Consequently, it was only reluctantly that he had allowed Achaemenes to leave the security of the two Legions, but that was the case at this moment, the young Parthian off with one of the scouting parties. It was through Achaemenes, for example, that Atartinus and Mus learned that it was a likelihood bordering on certainty that the two slaves had been killed by the same animal, as it was a habit of tigers to stalk the same herd of animals as they moved. Bit by bit, the Romans were learning more about this strange world, but rather than making them more comfortable, Atartinus could see that his men were repelled by the absolute foreignness of their surroundings, and when he made his circuit around the fires at night, he heard them speaking of returning to Bharuch in the same manner they had spoken of returning to Susa, viewing these cities as more of a home. Like every Primus Pilus, Atartinus was aware that several of his men had formed some sort of union with one of the women of the city, reminding him of their time in Parthia, where they had done the same. And, he was certain, there was more than one man in his Legion who had a de facto wife back in Susa who was involved with a woman of Bharuch.
None of which mattered in the moment, and since his 11th was the vanguard on the day’s march, it fell to Atartinus to receive the report of the half-dozen cavalrymen who had been sent downriver to scout.
“There’s only one more village between here and the large town,” the trooper in command, Manius Glabius, reported. “But there’s a thick band of forest about five miles east of the town. And,” he glanced down at the sketch he had drawn in his wax tablet, “there’s another river that meets this one just a mile beyond the forest.”
“We know about that one.” Atartinus pointed to their right. “It’s coming down from the north.”
“No, Primus Pilus.” The scout shook his head, but he turned the tablet so that Atartinus could see. “That was already marked. This is coming from the south.”
Atartinus understood immediately.
“Which means,” he spat to show his disgust, “that we can’t bypass that fucking forest if we go north around it because of that first river, and we can’t bypass it to the south because of the river to the south.”
“Yes, Primus Pilus.” Glabius nodded. “That’s what it means. Also,” he pointed to a double line he had incised across the snaking line that Atartinus knew represented the Goaris, “less than a mile up ahead, right before the forest, there’s a fordable spot on the river that shouldn’t come up past the waist of the men. But,” the scout assured him, “there’s no sign of more than normal activity, just a few cart tracks and the like.”
He hesitated then, but in such a way that Atartinus noticed, prompting the Centurion to ask, “What else?”
“It’s probably nothing,” the scout answered, “but one of the boys swears he saw a group of horsemen on the other side of the river.”
“You didn’t see them yourself?”
“No, sir.” He shook his head. “By the time Vologases called out, they were gone.” Pausing to think, he admitted, “He said he saw them just on this side of that forest that’s south of the river.”
Atartinus understood that the trooper was referring to the line of trees that ran roughly parallel to the river, but about a mile south, and from where they were standing, he could see the eastern edge of it, where it gave way to the scrub vegetation that passed for open country. However, since no Romans had ventured south of the Goaris, and they hadn’t come across a villager who had any knowledge of what lay beyond, they had no idea how wide the stretch of forest was, or what lay beyond it.
Rubbing his chin, Atartinus thought for a moment, then shook his head as he decided, “I’m not going to send you across the river just based on what one man says he saw.”
“Vologases is a good man, Primus Pilus,” Glabius argued, but Atartinus was unmoved, although he did modify his tone a bit as he replied, “I’m not saying that he isn’t, Glabius. But I’m not going to risk losing you and the rest of your boys because of only the gods know what may be lurking in those trees. And,” he added grimly, “I’m not just talking about any barbarians. That,” he pointed across to the treeline, “is the kind of thing those fucking tigers and the hooded serpents live in.” Turning his attention back to the more immediate moment, he sighed and said, “So we have no choice but to go through the forest on this side of the river. Once we do that, I’ll think about sending you across.”
Glabius saluted, remounted, and rejoined his comrades, while Atartinus turned to his Cornicen, the preliminary step in relaying his decision, one that would have lasting ramifications, both for him, and for the rest of Caesar’s army, which would be compounded by his temporarily forgetting about the presence of a ford that would be behind them as they continued towards Kalliena.
“We cannot reach Kalliena before the Romans,” Abhiraka informed his officers. They were seated under a canopy, the sides of which could be rolled up as they were at this moment to allow the slight breeze to cool them. Since they didn’t use wax tablets, Abhiraka had smoothed a patch of dirt, around which they were sitting, where he had sketched out a map of the area. Using a stick, he drew an arrow that pointed in the direction of the X that marked his southernmost town. “They are about to enter the strip of jangla that is west of where the Kalu meets the Goaris. Depending on what Sagara reports to me when he returns, we are going to turn northwest.” His stick moved from the circle he had drawn below the line of the Goaris, and he etched an arrow in the opposite direction of the first one, with the river in between. “They will be unable to see us because of the forest, and we will take advantage of that by marching to the ford that they will pass by just before they enter it once they’re out of sight.”
“Your Highness,” Ranjeet interrupted, confident in his relationship with Abhiraka to do so, “what if they post a guard on the ford?”
“That,” Abhiraka replied with a satisfied smile, “is why I said, ‘depending on what our scouts report to me,’ my friend. If they do that,” he moved the pointer, “we will have to make a decision whether to continue directly north to Kalliena. We can still use the forest for cover while we observe what these dogs intend to do to my subjects in the town.” All signs of humor vanished as Abhiraka looked at each of his officers. “If they attack the town or make any attempt to harm my subjects, we will stop them from doing so. They will not harm any more of my people without paying a heavy price for it. Is that understood?”
Bolon, sitting next to Ranjeet, shifted uncomfortably but said nothing, so it fell to Nahapana to clear his throat nervously, then ask, “Your Highness, wouldn’t attacking the Romans while they are in the town damage both the town and the people in it? And,” he pointed out, “that is not the best kind of ground for our elephants. There are too many places to hide, and with the…” suddenly, he realized that he was on dangerous ground, glancing over at Puddapandyan who, despite looking as if he were half-asleep, Nahapana was certain was listening with keen interest. Consequently, he settled on, “…ways these demons have in combating our elephants.”
For a moment, Nahapana thought he had grievously erred, as Abhiraka pinned him with an angry stare, the silence dragging out until suddenly, the king relaxed slightly, and he agreed, “You are correct, Nahapana. We would undoubtedly do damage to the town. Which,” he said grimly, “is why this is a last resort, and I will order it only if the Romans make any kind of threatening move. However,” he didn’t like admitting as much, but he did so, “we do know that this is not the first time some Romans have ventured this far south, and they have actually been in the town before, although it was just a scouting party. If they have not attacked it by now, I do not think they will do so today.”
“Provided they don’t learn of our presence, Your Highness,” Ranjeet interjected bluntly.
“Yes, that is true as well,” Abhiraka agreed, then stroked his black beard, which had grayed noticeably just in the few months since he had been forced to flee Bharuch, considering for a moment before he said, “We will need to keep a series of outposts all along the northern edge of the forest on this side of the river. If the Romans do venture across the river, we will have to stop them from spotting our own army in order to maintain the element of surprise.”
“Who do you want to command the scouts, Your Highness?” Ranjeet asked, certain that it wouldn’t be him.
“Gotra,” Abhiraka answered immediately, which created surprise bordering on shock on the parts of both Bolon and Nahapana, each of them assuming it would be one of them.
“Gotra?” Ranjeet exclaimed, no less startled than the other two men, both of them subordinate to him but were the most senior commanders left of Bharuch’s army. “Isn’t he a bit young for such an important task?”
