West Romans, the four immediately spurred to intercept them.
‘Run for it, lads,’ ordered Aetius.
As the three urged their mounts to a gallop, they were presented with a dilemma. They could only hope to outdistance their pursuers by keeping to the firm ground away from the marsh. But this course must eventually bring them dangerously close to Aspar’s lines. The problem was resolved unexpectedly.
The chase had continued for some time, with the West Romans beginning to draw away, when a cry from Victor in the rear made the other two pull up. Encountering a swampy patch, he had become mired. He had dismounted and was tugging desperately at the bridle, but the horse had sunk almost to the hocks and was stuck fast.
‘Leave it!’ shouted Aetius, racing back accompanied by Titus. Reining in close to the edge of the bright green surface of the bog, he leapt to the ground and extended a hand towards Victor, now himself in some difficulty.
‘Ride on, sir,’ urged Victor. ‘Don’t put yourself at risk. I’ll give myself up.’
‘Don’t be a fool,’ snapped the general. ‘They’ll kill you; cavalry never take prisoners.’
Victor struggled to the edge of the morass, grasped the general’s hand and was hauled clear.
‘Get up behind me,’ ordered Aetius, grabbing his horse’s mane and swinging himself into the saddle. But as the young Batavian reached for a rear saddle-horn, a javelin came arcing through the air and struck him in the back. He gave a choked cry, blood gushed from his mouth, and he crumpled to the ground.
The delay had allowed the pursuit to close. The leading three were only yards away, the fourth, the heavy cavalryman, some distance behind.
‘Take the one on the right!’ Aetius shouted to Titus, wheeling Bucephalus and charging the other two leaders.
Suddenly, time seemed to slow for Titus. As in a dream, inconsequent details registered on his mind: his opponent’s arm still upraised from hurling the missile that had killed Victor; the helmet with its tall crest, nose- guard and huge cheek-pieces giving the man an ancient, almost Homeric appearance; the pair of rampant wolves painted on his shield; his horse’s hoofs lifting and falling no faster than a galley’s oars.
Then time came back to normal. The two horsemen hurtled towards each other, Titus drawing his sword, a long, cutting
Titus, an experienced horseman, noticed signs of restiveness in the enemy’s mount: it was shying and fighting the bit. At some stage, horse or rider had lost his nerve, he decided. Probably the rider, whose lack of confidence transferred itself to the animal. The Eastern cavalry had recently seen hard action on the Persian front; some units, if exposed to constant attack by the superb Persian horsemen, would have become demoralized. Trusting that the horse would flinch and spoil its rider’s aim, Titus bent low over his own horse’s neck and rode straight at his opponent.
Things transpired as he had hoped. Daunted by Titus’ direct charge, the enemy’s horse reared as its rider flung his weapon — Titus felt the wind of its passage past his cheek as he drove his sword-point into the exposed armpit. A jarring shock travelled up his arm as steel struck bone; then the blade slid deep into yielding flesh. Wrenching his
Turning towards Aetius, Titus saw with dismay that the general was hard pressed. He had dispatched one of his opponents, and was engaged in a sword duel with the other, the closeness of the combat precluding a javelin- throw. The pressing danger came from the fourth cavalryman the armoured
With no time to think, scarcely enough to react, Titus spurred towards the monstrous figure bearing down on his commander. The
Converging on this apparently unstoppable killing-machine, Titus saw that the
Abandoning valour in favour of discretion, the surviving trooper broke off his fight with Aetius and fled. Meanwhile, the
‘I owe you my life.’ The general grasped Titus by the arm. ‘This I will not forget.’
Titus’s mind flashed back eighteen months to when it had all begun. .
1 The ninth hour was mid-afternoon. The Roman day — from sunrise to sunset — was divided into twelve hours, which varied in length according to the season. Midday corresponded to the sixth hour.
ONE
Ill-smelling seven-foot giants with tow hair
Although it was only October, the wind from the Alpine passes that ruffled the leaden surface of Lacus Brigantinus1 and roared around the barrack blocks of Spolicinum was bitterly cold and held a hint of snow. The Roman sentries pacing the walkway of the fort’s crumbling walls shivered beneath their cloaks and blew on reddened hands gripping spear-shafts. Unlike the tough German mercenaries whose cantonment lay a few hundred yards off beside the lake, not all these men would survive the coming winter. For the Roman element in the increasingly Germanized army tended these days to be drawn from the sweepings of the great estates:
In his tiny office, Titus Valerius Rufinus, the fort’s senior clerk, made a swift calculation on his abacus and entered the latest consignment, a cartload of iron pigs and mouflon horn for bow laths, in the codex tagged ‘
Spolicinum Fort, Province of 2nd Raetia, Diocese of Italia. The year of the consuls Asclepiodotus and Marinianus, IV Ides Oct.2
Following a terrible quarrel with my father, Gaius Valerius Rufinus, retired general and veteran of Hadrianopolis and the Gothic Wars, I’ve decided to take up the task that he began, namely the keeping of the