my years in the Legions, it ishard for me to think of any other time it happened. The Serdicertainly helped matters, starting by sending a scouting party ofabout twenty men, all mounted, up the road to the fortress.Undoubtedly approaching cautiously, they rode up to the northerngate, which we had left standing open, stopping just outside thewalls while one man rode into the fortress. Giving the signal thatit was clear, the rest of the Serdi entered as well and, whileseveral dismounted to search the area, two men remained onhorseback. Caldus saw this from his hiding spot, and knew thatthese mounted Thracians were actually the biggest threat, sincethey would bolt out through the gate the moment our men began theirattack. Watching as the Thracians behaved in the way they had beenexpected to, searching the obvious places like the barracks andstables, Caldus waited for the four Serdi who had climbed to theramparts and already begun making a fire to give the signal.Finally, they were given the order to proceed and made a fire usinggreen wood soaked in oil that they had brought with them, waitinguntil it was smoking. Then, using a cloak, they covered the firefor a moment to interrupt the smoke streaming into the air beforepulling the cloak away, repeating this three times. Caldus knewthat it was time to move, but he saw that the two mounted men werelingering just inside the gate. The moment our men burst from coverto begin their attack, they would head for Serdica to warn theothers. Thinking quickly, Caldus climbed out of the box that hadbeen his hiding place and, as he did so, he made a great show ofyawning and stretching, acting like he had been taking a nap.Keeping his gaze on the ground and rubbing his eyes, he walkedseveral steps before one of the Serdi by the gate saw him, shoutingan alarm. Caldus stopped short, looking up in apparent surprise,then turned to run back in the opposite direction, carrying hishorn with him. Both cavalrymen and their horses are conditioned todo one thing at the sight of a running enemy, and the two menreacted according to their training, spurring their horses afterthe fleeing cornicen without a moment’s hesitation. Caldusran a few more steps, then wheeled to blow the signal to begin ourattack, but his quick thinking did not stop with his initialaction. Instead of blowing the normal signal to attack and, despitebeing out of breath, Caldus blew the notes that warned instead of acavalry charge. Fortunately, the Centurions in charge of eachgroup, one from the 13
th commanding the men in thestorage building, and one from the 8
th in the cisterns,had the presence of mind to realize that they needed to first takecare of whatever mounted men they found. The men of the13
th in the storage buildings had kept their javelinswith them, while the men in the cisterns who had to ascend theladders were relying on the slingers with them to provide longdistance firepower. Slings aren’t as reliable against horses,unless they are using the lead bullets that Ventidius had them usein Parthia, but our slingers had only normal stone ammunition withthem, leaving it up to the men of the 13
th. Caldus,still thinking on his feet as it were, had either realized this, orwas just lucky because, in his headlong flight, he veered in thedirection of the storage building. When the 13
th camebursting out of their hiding place, they were confronted by Caldusrunning for his life and now yelling at the top of his lungs forhis comrades to kill the bastards chasing him, with the twohorsemen just paces behind, their swords raised, triumphant grinson their faces. Their victory turned sour in the amount of time ittook for the javelins thrown by some of our men to strike themdown. At the same time this was taking place, the men of the8
th climbed out of the cisterns, the slingersimmediately sending their missiles upward at the four men on therampart, who were just realizing what was happening and were tryingfrantically to revive the fire. In a matter of moments, everyThracian of the scouting party was accounted for and dispatched,before any warning could be sent out that the relieving force washeading into a trap.
We had been sitting in our own hiding spot,the men talking quietly while we waited. Suddenly, a warning shoutcame from the man assigned to watch for the signal, and I turned tosee him pointing at the two tiny figures high up on the trail,frantically waving their signal pennant. Immediately, Centurionswere shouting men to their feet, striking laggards with theirvitus, and the army was ready to move very quickly.
I moved to the front of the column onOcelus, the Evocati and Tribunes along with me, moving out at thetrot and counting on the men to follow along. The path we werefollowing was higher up on the side of the mountain than the drawwe had followed from the road to the hiding place and, as Flavianushad reported, despite the rough ground, we still made good time. Werode up to the eastern wall, having to dismount to enter throughthe hole that we had knocked in it to provide unseen access intothe fortress, to find that the two Centurions, Decimus Flaccus ofthe 8th and Tiberius Numidius of the 13th,had gotten the men busy in tidying up, dragging the bodies of theThracian scouting party out of sight and moving their horses to thestables. Those bodies with the least bloodstained clothes werestripped, and men who more or less fit into them put them on, wherethey would be standing on the ramparts in clear view to the reliefforce from Serdica. One problem was the number of Thracians withfacial hair, while our men were all clean-shaven. Fortunately,there were enough men in the scouting party that were beardlessthat it would not be an obvious tipoff. Still, I ordered that someof the men rub their faces with charcoal to simulate a beard,knowing that it would not stand up to scrutiny up close, yet shouldsuffice from a distance. We also made sure that at least one of themen on the
