Despite knowing the danger, I raised mysword in salute to the fallen Thracian, calling out in a loudvoice, in Greek so that the Thracians would understand, “Nobody isto touch this man’s body! Honor him or face me!” Then I turned myattention back to the fighting to see that this fortress was stillfar from falling.
The First Cohort had only managed to pushthe Thracians back a few paces from the edge of the breach, withthings still much too disorganized on our part to give the men whohad been in the leading edge of the assault the chance of relief.Because of this, they were growing tired, but the Serdi were nobetter off. Men were still milling about behind the first three orfour rows of the enemy, unable or unwilling to make their way up tothe fighting. Whereas under normal circumstances we had anorganized system, the only way these Thracians could get into thefight was by men falling or by pushing their way forward, an actthat was almost as dangerous as facing us. My blood was stillrunning hot, yet I could feel the first signs of fatigue comingback, knowing that the other men had to be at least as badly off,if not worse. Macrinus had sweat streaming down his face, alongwith spatters of blood from the men he had killed, but otherwiseseemed fine. Taking the moment of respite my killing of theThracian had offered, I stepped quickly aside, signaling the manbehind me to move forward, which he did without hesitation, hisface set and determined.
“Keep your shield up,” I shouted at him ashe moved forward, noticing that he was carrying it a bit low, andhe nodded in answer before he punched forward with it at anotherSerdi.
With my height, I could peer above our men’sheads to see that the rubble pile was filled with Legionaries,balancing on the ladders, or having found a perch on a piece ofrubble or even one of the timbers, had crouched and were waiting tojoin the fight. There was no more firing from the Thracians aboveour heads on the ramparts, and for reasons I could not understand,they had not moved farther back on the ramparts to allow them toshoot down at us. Our own artillery had ceased firing and, back inthat direction, I could also see Marcus Primus, with Masala at hisside, along with the other Tribunes, sitting on the small risewatching us. I turned back to the fighting, picking up a shieldfrom a man who would no longer need it, suffering what looked likea spear thrust to the throat, then rejoined the fighting. Isqueezed next to Macrinus, the Primus Pilus pausing when I reachedhis side.
“We have to do something to break this upand get some room,” I shouted into his ear over the noise.
“I know,” he replied, his face grim as hewatched one of his men, clutching a gaping wound to his thigh, getdragged out of the fight by a comrade.
“But I don’t know what. Do you have anyideas?”
“A Trojan horse.” It was a weak joke, butthe best I could think of.
In truth, I was stalling for time, trying tothink of the best course of action. Standing on my toes, I lookedover the heads and waving weapons of the Serdi to get a better ideaof the layout of the fortress. At the far end, hard under the wallthat essentially sat in the shadow of the upper reaches of thepeak, were a series of five low-roofed buildings that had the looksof barracks, each one housing perhaps two hundred men. Tucked intoa far corner were stables, except they were relatively small sincethis was essentially an infantry outpost. In the opposite cornerand extending roughly halfway along what was the northern wall andending just short of the smaller gate that led directly to Serdicawas what was clearly the storehouse, where the garrison supplieswere kept. Even though it was expected, I was still disappointed tosee that all of these buildings were made of stone, because the oneidea I had was to try and fire the buildings behind the massedThracians, essentially forcing some of the manpower to go and fightthe fire. From what I was seeing, the main reason we could not pushour way deeper into the fortress was a matter of numbers. Therewere simply too many Thracians, packed too tightly together for usto make any headway. That idea was not going to work, becausedespite there being a number of smaller structures scattered aboutthat were made of wood, they were too small and isolated from theother wooden buildings to make the conflagration that would beneeded. There was nothing for it but to simply try to wear theThracians down, and I told Macrinus as much. It may seemsurprising, but after the initial onslaught when our two forcesfirst came together and men were cut down, the casualties on bothsides were relatively light. In simplest terms, neither side hadenough room to work in their own particular manner, and now thatthe fighting had been going
