Legio XVII: Battle of Zama (37 page)

By 2:00 P.M., the unit marched out the south gate and went behind the west wall.  They were lined up 10 abreast and began their rehearsal.  At 5:00 P.M. they returned to camp to eat, rest, and prepare for another round.  Then with darkness falling, they marched out the gate again, and conducted a night rehearsal which revealed a vast improvement over the earlier sessions.  The following day, they rehearsed at 11:00 A.M. and again three hours later.  Manius was invited to watch the final practice and question the troops.  The Cenomani lined up in five rows of 1,000 men each, and Manius and Gervasius rode down the long lines of men.  As expected, Manius periodically stopped his horse, pointed to an individual, and asked his question.  Only one man showed any hesitation, and that was attributed to nervousness.  Manius congratulated Gervasius.  “You’ve done a fine job preparing your men.  Attack the Illyrian camp tonight.  Good luck.”

*******

Gervasius instructed his leaders to let the men sleep for the rest of the day.  He planned to get them up at 10:00 P.M. and open the gate at 1:00 A.M.  He instructed his two-man outpost in the wood line across the river to notify him immediately if there was any unusual activity in the camp targeted for the attack.

At 1:00 A.M. the gates were opened and the Cenomani filed out with the 50 archers leading the way.  Each man carried an unlit torch as they waded across the river and began a quiet one-mile walk to the Illyrian camp.  They had left anything that made noise behind in the fort.  As it turned out, the Illyrians did not have listening posts in the field, so the archers approached the wall.  As they had practiced, the Cenomani split their column to encircle the camp.  There were only a handful of Illyrian guards by the wall and they were perfectly silhouetted by the night fires burning in the camp.

Multiple archers fired at each guard.  Some arrows missed their targets and flew into the tents, but by then it made no difference.  The Cenomani had lit their torches and were running toward the camp.  As soon as the torches were over the wall, the warriors took their places by the entrances and around the wall.  The torches immediately ignited the tents, and the Illyrians bolted for the exits or climbed over the wall.  None took the time to grab their weapons.  The fire jumped from tent to tent, and in no time, the entire camp was in flames.

The fleeing Illyrians had no idea they were under attack, and had not paused to grab their weapons.  When they came face to face with the Cenomani, they faced one of two choices: die by the sword or die by fire.  The dead stacked up around the entrances and along the wall.  The heat was so intense the Cenomani had to back away.  Gervasius recalled his blocking force, and the warriors re-formed their column formation and began trotting back to the river. They hadn’t lost a man, and they killed everyone in the camp.

Manius and the other Legates were waiting at the gate to show support for the Cenomani’s accomplishment.  Torches were lit by the entrance.  When Manius saw Gervasius walk into the camp, he grasped his hand and offered his congratulations.  His men had performed perfectly, so Manius told Gervasius that he and his men were excused from all routine duties for the next two days.  Manius turned to Cassius and said, “Look familiar to you?  I’ll put you in for an award.  This was your idea.”

Dindar, like most other veterans of the army, knew that fires would occasionally burn down a camp. It was something that happened, but the men always managed to get out.  Some would suffer burns, but rarely did any one die.  The shouts of fire spread down the line of camps.  Some of the men mocked their stupidity and carelessness.  Dindar got up and looked, but could only see a bright glow in the distance.  Like the other camps, it was too far away to see any detail.  The Officer-on-Duty in each of the camps mounted his horse and rode to the burning camp.  What they saw was unbelievable.  Dead men were stacked deep by each of the two entrances and all around the outside of the now smoldering wall.  They immediately peered into the dark for anything threatening.  Someone had attacked and killed these men.  The alarm spread quickly among all the camps, and Dindar was informed.  The camp walls were soon lined with men prepared to repel attackers.

Dindar mounted his horse and rode cautiously to the burning camp to see things for himself.  He was stunned and angry at what he found.  He promptly ordered the two remaining camps to assemble by his headquarters and assume their battle formation.  He ordered his cavalry and archers to go forward and probe the darkness in the direction of the river.  They returned shortly and reported that they found nothing, and there was no noise or light coming from the enemy side of the river.

Dindar told his cavalry commander to post men along the river to watch for any activity while he stayed in his tent and angrily paced the ground.  Before long, he was joined shortly by his Commanders Andis, Sali, Landi and Malush.  “I assume that Bujar is among the stack of bodies by the entrance,” said Dindar.  “I should have anticipated this.  Those damn Cenomani must have come out from behind their wall, and attacked Bujar’s camp because it was separated from the rest.  I underestimated the ingenuity and boldness of my enemy.  A classic mistake.  Tomorrow, we will move our camps back one mile and keep the cavalry close to the river at night.  I don’t think they will try this again, but let’s be prepared.”

By 5:00 A.M. on July 6th, Dindar sent the men back to their camps.  The rest of the day was spent moving the men away from the river.  Dindar and the other leaders returned to Bujar’s burnt out camp.  They rode around the perimeter looking for anything that would reveal the identity of the attackers.  The fire had destroyed everything, and they found nothing, but the dead.  They were able to determine the route the attackers had used based on the disturbed ground leading to and from the river.

Dindar called his leaders together.  “We need to bury these men.  It’s bad for morale and soon the entire area will smell.  Malush, after your men set up their new camp, bring them back here and dig a trench; a couple of feet deep should do it.  Get these men underground today.”

Around noon the next day, the scouts returned from Trento.  Commanders Andis and Sali were with Dindar discussing last night’s attack when Dindar’s aide announced their arrival.

“Send them in.  Let’s hear what they have to say,” said Dindar.

The senior scout gave the report.  “Commander, we rode to Trento and met Commanders Aze and Lugius.  They send you their greetings and estimate that they will arrive here on July 11th.”

“How many men are with them?” asked Dindar.

“We were told that they started with 10,000 Taurisci and 20,000 Boii/Eravisci, but lost 6,000 men attacking a place called Bad Tolz.”

“Good report.  Return to your unit,” he said dismissing them with a wave of his hand.

Andis spoke, “With Vendim at the north end of the lake and Bujar dead, I have no command left.”

“You can serve as my Deputy until Vendim returns.  Maybe we can recruit a couple thousand Gauls once we move beyond this wall.  Don’t worry, Andis, you will soon be back in command.”

“Do you propose to take any offensive action while we wait for Aze and Lugius to arrive?”  Sali asked Dindar.

“No, not with only 10,000 men!  But I do want to talk about how our combined army should attack the Cenomani position.  I don’t want Aze and Lugius dictating to me how to use my men.  I want to control the discussion and tell them the best way to attack.”

“I’ve already given it some thought and have a few ideas,” said Sali.

“Tell me,” said Dindar.

“My approach would be to force them to shift their men from place to place with diversionary attacks and keep them guessing where and when the main attack will take place.  First, I would have our men build five rafts that each measure 10 feet by 10 feet.  They would build these rafts out of sight of the three islands, up the beach a few miles in an area hidden by hills and trees.  These rafts would be lashed tightly together to form a bridge that could be floated down to the islands when we are ready for them.”

“I would start the action at 1:00 A.M. with a diversionary attack against the southernmost part of the wall with maybe 1,000 warriors. They would throw torches and spears at the defenders, but not seriously try to assault the wall.  They would draw the enemy’s attention and hopefully, cause the Commander to move more men to that part of the wall.  Next, I would float the rafts down the lake to the islands.  The darkness will hide them.  The five rafts should span the 50 feet between the island and the land.  I would use 1,000 men, with ladders, to run across the rafts and attempt to scale the wall.  I would have another 4,000 on the shore prepared to reinforce the 1,000 men if they are successful.”

“I would space these two diversionary attacks apart by 15 to 20 minutes to allow enough time for the defenders to react.  I would then send 10,000 men against the gate in the center of the wall.  This is the secondary attack, which could actually succeed.  After 20 minutes, I would send the main attack against the northernmost gate, the one closest to the lake where the bridge used to be.  This attack would have 17,000 men, which includes the 4,000 that were opposite the first island.”

“I think that by hitting the two ends of the wall first, the enemy Commander will shift forces thinking either one could be the main assault.  Then when the 10,000 men hit the very center of the wall, he will have to shift forces again.  I want to create as much confusion as possible.  Once the enemy adjusts to these attacks, the main attack will catch them totally by surprise and our men will be over the wall.”

“If Vendim can get around the lake and behind the wall, we could launch our attacks when we hear him begin his assault.  The enemy would be fighting on two walls and I don’t think he has the manpower to do that.  If Vendim fails to get around the lake, we can still attack this side as I described it.  That’s my idea, Commander.”

“Sali, that’s a lot to digest.  It’s complicated with a lot of moving parts.  The troops would have to move silently into four different attack positions in the dark.  The overall Commander, undoubtedly Aze or Lugius, would have to be able to order the four attacks in the sequence and timing you cited.  I think our Illyrians could do this, but I don’t know the state of discipline of the other army.  It is a good plan, so let’s continue talking about it.  If I still like it when the other army arrives, I’ll let you explain it to them.”

“Andis, as my new Deputy, here’s my first order.  Make sure the cavalry is patrolling down by the river tonight, and for as long as we’re here.  We don’t need any more fires.”

As ordered, the Illyrian cavalry began to patrol along the river that night.  The 50 horsemen stayed about 100 yards away from the tree line.  They walked their horses in a circular route from one end of the wall to the other.  Along the way, they would stop and talk to each other and made no attempt to hide their presence.

The two lookouts from each Legion in the fort lay hidden in the woods and spotted the cavalrymen as soon as they arrived.  The presence of the horsemen was reported back to the fort.  Individuals up the reporting chain were notified, but decided to take no action on the reports until the following day.

When Manius was informed about the cavalry patrols the following morning, he called together his Commanders and Legates to discuss the enemy cavalry.  The consensus was that this was an expected defensive reaction to the night attack.  Snake, the Commander of the archers, thought about it for a moment and said, “Commanders, at 100 yards my archers can’t miss!  Let me put out 100 of my best men.  We can definitely hit the horses and probably bring down a number of the riders as well.”  Manius agreed.

At dusk, the archers went across the river with the lookouts.  The plan was that the leader of the archers would blow a whistle, and the archers would fire and continue firing as long as the riders were in range.  The horses were the primary target.

As soon as it was dark, the Illyrian cavalrymen returned and began their circular patrolling route.  They were relaxed and only expected to lose another night’s sleep.

The riders snapped their heads around to face the shrill sound of a whistle coming from the trees.  Instead of seeing the source of the noise, they found themselves the target of hundreds of incoming arrows.  The horses bolted from the impact and pain of the arrow strikes.  Riders fell from their saddles or slumped over from their wound.  Some horses were down; other ran off carrying multiple arrows.  Some horses fell after running a short distance, while a few were remained unscathed and rode back to report the attack.

Andis was awakened.  Before waking Dindar, he went to talk to the men and see the horses.  He learned that the Commander of the cavalry detachment was dead in the field.  He was seen falling from his horse.  Andis reluctantly woke Dindar.  He knew and feared his anger.

“Andis, this is an outrage.  How many men and horses did we lose?”

“All but six horses were hit.  The rest were killed or will probably have to be put down.  The wounds are deep and will surely become infected.  Most of the men survived and are still making their way back.”