Content that his forces were ready, Varinius looked towards Thurii, which lay perhaps half a mile away. The messenger had been correct in his estimation. The black stain around the walls told him that the slaves had surrounded the entire town. Just to do that meant that they outnumbered his legionaries by a considerable margin. What of it? he thought scornfully. There was no visible order to the seething mass of men before him. Far from it. Instead of battle cries, the sound of frightened shouts wafted through the air from Thurii. Excellent. ‘They’ve seen us. Sound the advance!’ Varinius shouted.
The musician beside him raised his instrument to his lips and blew a short series of notes. This was taken up at once by the other trumpeters. Then, with measured tread, the lines of legionaries began to march forwards. Tramp, tramp, tramp.
With his excitement growing, Varinius walked his horse some twenty steps to the rear.
‘Hold the line, men,’ bellowed a centurion. ‘Have your first pilum ready!’
‘Steady,’ ordered Galba. ‘We want to hit the bastards all at the same time.’
‘Revenge for Lucius Furius and his lads!’ roared a voice.
‘And for Lucius Cossinius,’ added another.
‘REVENGE!’
The cry began echoing up and down the line, drowning out the slaves’ noises of distress.
‘SI–LENCE!’ screamed Galba, clattering the flat of his blade on the helmets of the men around him. ‘We close in on the fuckers in silence!’
It took some time, but the centurions and junior officers regained control eventually. An odd quiet fell over the legionaries. Varinius had not fought many battles, but he recognised the atmosphere well. The air was laced with the smell of leather and men’s sweat. The dominant sound once more was the heavy tread of his soldiers’ studded caligae on the muddy ground. Interspersed with this was the clash of pila shafts off the sides of shields and the metallic jingle of mail. Everywhere, men were hawking and spitting. They muttered prayers to their favourite gods and surreptitiously rubbed at the amulets hanging from their necks. Varinius felt his own stomach tighten with anxiety. He took a deep breath and let it out again. Think of the effect this will have. It’s absolutely terrifying to have an enemy advance in complete silence. That’s why we do it.
The distance between them and the slaves closed to perhaps 250 paces. Varinius’ anticipation grew. They were still well beyond javelin range, but close enough to mean that battle was likely. Sensing the slaves’ fear, his men were growing keener by the moment. But the seasoned centurions stayed calm, ensuring that no one broke ranks.
At two hundred paces, the legionaries were ordered to begin smacking their pila rhythmically off the metal rims on the tops of their scuta.
Clack. Clack. Clack.
It was an unnerving sound. A sound designed to send fear darting into men’s hearts. To promise the kiss of death from javelin tip or gladius blade. To ensure a trip to the River Styx, there to meet the ferryman.
Few enemies could take the terror of its approach.
A wall of incoherent shouts rose up from Spartacus’ men, and then, before Varinius’ very eyes, the main body of slaves broke in two. Half began running to the south, and the rest broke and fled for the trees to the north.
Varinius stifled a cheer. ‘Two cohorts wheel to the left, three to the right!’ He waited while the trumpeter sounded his commands, before directing the four cohorts in the second line to split equally and follow their comrades, and the final line of three to halt and hold the centre. ‘Toranius, I want you to lead the chase to the south. It’s open farmland, so the sheep-fuckers will have nowhere to go but face down in the mud. Chase them hard. Kill them all if you can!’
‘Yes, sir.’ Toranius’ teeth flashed white in his swarthy face.
‘You stay here,’ said Varinius, glancing at two of his tribunes. ‘The rest of you, follow the cohorts to the left. I want you to run them right on to the Germans. They’ll charge when it’s time and smash the whoresons against your shield wall.’ To his trumpeter: ‘Sound the charge. Javelins at will.’
He watched with great satisfaction as his orders were rapidly obeyed. The charging legionaries began to roar battle cries, and this time the centurions did nothing to stop them.
‘Kill! Kill! Kill!’
The air to Varinius’ left darkened as hundreds of pila were thrown after the retreating slaves. They soared up in graceful, lethal arcs and he counted his heartbeat. One. Two. Three. Four. Five. The missiles’ tips turned to point earthwards. Six. Seven. Eight. The screaming began, and Varinius stopped his count with a smile. There’s nothing like javelins to create panic in a fleeing mob.
Varinius glanced to his right, seeing the same scenario unfold. Toranius would do a good job. He was young, but steady.
His gaze casually returned to the front. The town’s main gate was opening. The defenders are making a sally, he thought with some amusement. The sluggards best hurry if they want a piece of the action. Or maybe they’ve come to thank me for saving their miserable hides.
Hundreds of armed men swarmed out of Thurii. Dressed in Roman mail shirts and wearing typical plumed bronze helmets, they ran with their shields close together. In total silence. Straight at Varinius’ three cohorts.
Varinius blinked. ‘What in Jupiter’s name are they doing?’
He glanced around, but Toranius and the tribunes were all long gone.
When he looked back, the men were twenty paces nearer. Varinius was startled to see that some of them had long hair and moustaches. His eyes flickered across their lines and his heart nearly stopped. There was a Nubian in the front rank too. And a man with facial tattoos who could only be a Scythian, or similar. ‘T-they’re not Romans! It’s a trap!’ he screamed.
With an anxious look, his trumpeter half raised his instrument. ‘What are your orders, sir?’
‘Close order,’ bawled Varinius. ‘A volley of javelins at fifty paces.’
Tan-tara. Tan-tara-tara.
The legionaries’ shields slammed together almost as one. ‘Right arms back,’ yelled the centurions. ‘Pila ready!’
Dismounting, Varinius threw his reins to his orderly, who began to lead his horse out of harm’s way. He took up his shield and drew his sword. Varinius had wielded the weapon in battle just once before, but he took comfort from the firmness of its carved ivory hilt. ‘All right, men. Let’s how the scumbags the meaning of courage. FOR ROME!’
‘FOR ROME!’ they roared back. ‘FOR ROME!’
Varinius’ courage rallied. ‘Is this all you can throw at me, Spartacus?’
It wasn’t.
His eyes widened in horror. The tide of men issuing from the town gate had not stopped. Instead, it had grown even denser. Now his three cohorts were outnumbered, and the balance was fast tipping further in the slaves’ favour. Moreover, the men running at his legionaries looked every bit as determined as the most hardbitten Roman veteran. They still hadn’t uttered a word either. Fifty paces separated the two sides now, no more. Right on cue, orders rang out from the centurions and a tide of Roman javelins flew up. The slaves slowed in response, and sent a volley soaring in the opposite direction. Then, to Varinius’ complete amazement, they raised their scuta to protect themselves.
‘Raise shields!’ went the cry from the centurions.
Foolishly, Varinius looked up. Seeing something flashing towards him, he ducked down behind his scutum. The movement saved his life. There was a sharp, whistling sound, and a pilum flew through the space where his head had been. It sank more than a handspan into the dirt. Two more thrummed down to his left, and a sickening scream behind him told Varinius that his orderly had been hit. He shook his head like a drunken man trying to find his way home. ‘This can’t be happening.’
But it was.
Chapter XIX
ANOTHER SHOWER OF javelins was exchanged, and then the two sides struck each other with a sound like a giant thunderclap. Varinius’ legionaries reeled with the impact, the sheer fury of
it. At least two score soldiers went down, or were knocked from their feet. They never got a chance to stand up. Gladii lanced down, thrusting into their flesh with a terrible hunger. Normally, the gaps left by such casualties would be filled immediately. Not this time. With froth spraying from their lips, the Gauls that Varinius had spotted thrust themselves, uncaring, screaming, into the breaches. Punching with their shield bosses and stabbing with their swords like men possessed, they drove the legionaries of the second rank back several steps. A centurion who jumped into their path was hacked to pieces in a storm of vicious blows. A signifer was killed and his standard raised into the air by a triumphant Scythian.
Varinius’ troops, so sure of success just a few moments before, quailed at their enemies’ sheer ferocity. This was a world away from what they’d been told to expect. These were no frightened, easy-to-kill slaves. They were more like ravenous, indestructible beasts.
The legionaries fell back another step.
Baying for blood, Spartacus’ men pressed forward with renewed strength.
‘Hold the line,’ roared Galba. ‘Hold the line, you fucking dogs!’ With contemptible ease, the veteran centurion lopped the sword arm off a short slave with a rusty helmet. Smashing him aside with his scutum, Galba ran the next man through the chest. He pulled out the blade, laughing as blood spattered all over his face. ‘Is this all you can do, you miserable sacks of shit?’
There was a momentary pause, and the nearest legionaries glanced at each other.
Listen to him, prayed Varinius. Listen to him!
‘Come on, you scumbags,’ screamed Galba. He leaped forward, using his shield to drive a big Gaul backwards into the arms of his fellows. Galba slipped his gladius around his scutum, running it deep into the man’s belly. An agonising scream split the air, and the legionaries took heart. Locking shields, they advanced towards Galba, whose heroic attack had left him alone.
‘FORWARD!’ shouted Varinius. ‘FORWARD!’
But someone else had also realised that Galba’s position was vulnerable.
A figure emerged from the enemy ranks. Those around him held back, and Varinius’ breath caught in his chest. The man was of average height, but his magnificent Phrygian helmet marked him out at once as someone to be reckoned with. He was clad similarly to his comrades, in a mail shirt, and he carried a scutum. Instead of a gladius, however, he bore a sica. A Thracian. He has to be. Without a word, the newcomer pointed the bloodied weapon at the senior centurion.
Galba’s lip curled. ‘Think you can take me? Come on, then!’ He glanced over his shoulder. ‘Stay where you are, lads. I want to carve this piece of dirt a new arsehole.’
Grinning with newfound confidence, the legionaries did as they were told.
Snap! The Thracian’s sword clicked into its scabbard. He stretched out his right arm. ‘Javelin!’
Stepping forward, a fierce-looking Scythian slapped one into his palm.
‘Scared of sword work?’ Galba sneered. ‘Slave scum!’
‘Not at all,’ replied the Thracian in accented Latin. Hefting the weapon, he drew back and hurled it with all his might. It covered the distance to Galba in less than a heartbeat. Punching through his scutum, the pilum ripped a hole in his mail shirt and sank deep into his chest. Galba’s eyes bulged with the agony of it; his mouth opened in shock. Froth poured from his lips in a bloody spume. He staggered and fell on to his back, his shield still pinned to his body.
‘It’s just that I’m better with a spear,’ said the Thracian mildly.
Varinius goggled. He’d never seen a throw like it.
Nor had the watching legionaries. Dismay and fear rippled across their faces, as when a stone lands in a pond.
With a savage grin, the Thracian drew his sica and aimed it at the Romans.
‘SPAR-TA-CUS!’ roared his men. ‘SPAR-TA-CUS! SPAR-TA-CUS!’
Acid-tipped claws of fear ripped at Varinius. Gods above. This is no halfwit rabble-rouser.
By now, the nearest legionaries were looking terrified. Their heads began to turn, seeking a way to retreat. The men in the front rank pushed back against those behind them. There was little resistance.
With a maniacal yell, Spartacus threw himself forward.
In a devastating surge, the slaves followed.
Varinius was struck dumb with shock. Mesmerised, he watched as the structure of his central cohort disintegrated before his eyes. Some legionaries fought desperately against the wave of attackers, but theirs was a hopeless cause. Once the line of shields was broken, and men presented their backs on the enemy, there was no way back. The soldiers at the front – the first to have turned to run – were also quickest to die. They were hacked down, like rotten branches torn off a tree by a gale. In the time it took Varinius to drop his shield, grab his horse’s reins and swing up on to its back, scores of men had been slain. The ground was carpeted with mangled, bloody bodies. Uncaring, the slaves trampled over the dead to reach their next victims. The slaves’ swords rose and fell in a dreadful, hypnotic rhythm. Their job couldn’t have been easier. Riven by fear, the legionaries were shoving and fighting with each other to get away. The screaming was absolutely deafening.
Despite himself, Varinius quailed. This cohort is finished.
Then he glanced to either side, and his desperation reached new levels. Seeing, hearing, sensing that their comrades had broken, the legionaries of the other two cohorts were also in full retreat.
A hand pulled at his leg, and Varinius glanced down in horror at a blood-spattered legionary. He had neither sword nor shield. ‘Help me, sir!’
Without thinking, Varinius smashed the hilt of his sword into the man’s face. He heard the crunch as the soldier’s nose broke, and then he was dragging his horse’s head around and drumming his heels into its sides. Not liking the chaos, it took off willingly.
What of the other cohorts? Varinius wondered. To the south, he could see Toranius’ units engaging with the slaves, who looked to have turned and formed up. Toranius wouldn’t be coming back to help any time soon. Damn it all to Hades! Varinius’ worst fears were confirmed when he looked towards the woodland to the north. Hundreds of horsemen – far too many to be his Germans – were swirling gracefully around a large cluster of armoured men. Varinius struggled to make sense of it. How could Spartacus have cavalry? It wasn’t possible that his riders had been driven off.
Was it?
He felt the thump as something struck his mount hard in the haunch. He shot a look over his shoulder. A javelin! Even as Varinius took it in, his horse reared up in pain, throwing him free. He landed on the flat of his back. All the air was driven from his lungs, and for a moment Varinius lay there, looking dazedly up at the sky. It was completely cloudless, he saw.
‘Are you hurt, sir?’
Varinius squinted. An optio whom Galba had praised was stooping over him. ‘Eh?’
‘If you want to live, sir, get up!’ A filthy hand was shoved in his face.
Varinius took it, and the optio heaved him to his feet. They had to brace themselves against the tide of men who were shoving past, blind to their commander’s presence.
‘All right, sir?’
‘Y-yes,’ muttered Varinius.
‘You go first, sir. I’ll guard your back.’
‘Where to?’
‘Anywhere, sir.’ The optio actually gave him a shove. ‘Quickly!’
Normally, Varinius would have been incensed by such audacity and had the optio punished on the spot. Now he was happy to turn and run like everyone else. It was that option, or die. Varinius was very aware, however, that fleeing did not guarantee his survival.
Mars, the Bringer of War, forgive my poor judgement. Let me live.
By mid-afternoon, the battle was over. It was a spectacular victory for the slaves. The Romans had been completely driven off, suffering massive casualties in the process. Spartacus estimated from the bodies littering that field that more than two-thirds of Varinius’ force had been killed. Several seni
or officers were among the slain. No doubt hundreds more enemy soldiers would die before nightfall. Crixus and his men were pursuing them northwards on the Via Annia. Then there were those who would die of their wounds in the following days. Serves the bastards right. Grim satisfaction filled Spartacus as he surveyed the field from one of the wall towers.
Grinning with exhilaration, his men descended on the town like a cloud of locusts. In their eyes, it was now time for the pillage that they’d been denied the previous night during the successful assault on Thurii. The defenders had been cut down then in their scores, but Spartacus had prevented any killing of the city’s denizens, who had been cowering in their houses ever since.
He was waiting for his troops at the main gate. Half a dozen Thracians surrounded him, carrying the fasces that had been dropped by Varinius’ lictores as they fled.
The slaves greeted Spartacus like a conquering hero, roaring their approbation until their throats were hoarse.
‘You did well,’ he cried to the first arrivals. ‘I’m proud of you. The fat senators in Rome will tremble when they hear of your deeds.’
‘SPAR-TA-CUS!’ they bellowed delightedly.
He held up a hand, and silence gradually fell. ‘Two things, though, before you go inside the city to claim your just rewards.’
‘What are they, Spartacus?’ yelled Pulcher, the smith.
‘I want no killing of children or babes. Enough of them were slain in Forum Annii.’ Spartacus stared from face to sweat-grimed face. Many could not meet his hard stare. ‘Any man seen harming a child or an infant will be executed on the spot. There will be no exceptions. Clear?’
An uncomfortable silence fell.
‘We hear you,’ said Pulcher, glaring all around him. ‘Don’t we, lads?’
Men grunted in assent, or shook their heads.
Spartacus nodded, satisfied. ‘The second thing is to remember that Rome will not regard this loss as anything more than a spur to raise new armies. We have not won a war today. We haven’t even won a campaign. To those parasites in the Senate, this will be little more than a nasty shock. They will send far more soldiers next time, and not under the command of a mere praetor. I’d say it would be fair to expect a consul, at the head of an entire army.’