Final Campaign

am sure thatwas how it sounded to his ears.

“I promise I will not let you down,Prefect!”

Oh, the boy was so eager, reminding me ofwhat Scribonius had pointed out to me, and I had a sudden flash ofdread that I had done something terribly wrong. What if the boywasn’t ready for this? What if he died trying to impress me?

“Scipio, I said you are going toparticipate. I did not say you were going to lead the attack,” Isaid severely, guessing that was what he had inferred from mypermission. My suspicions were confirmed when he sagged a bit inthe saddle, a look of dejection written plainly across his handsomeyoung face.

“Oh,” he said, finally. “I just thoughtthat…”

Again, I cut him off.

“That’s where you made your mistake,Tribune. You thought. Junior Tribunes are not here to think; theyare here to do as their superiors tell them. And your superior istelling you that you will be joining Libo and his cavalry on thewing, along with the Evocati. Is that clear?”

Scipio swallowed hard, but replied that hedid understand, so I dismissed him to go back and wait for thesignal. While it was still fresh in my mind, I rode over toScribonius.

“I have a favor to ask.”

He gave a mock sigh of exasperation, rollinghis eyes at me.

“Of course you do.”

“No, this is serious,” I said quietly. “Iwant you to keep an eye on Scipio. Make sure he doesn’t do anythingstupid.”

Scribonius’ smile disappeared, his faceturning grim and set. He gave a quick nod.

“I will.”

With that, I turned about, calling for thecornicen.

“Sound the call. Column to Line, dragLegion, followed by the same for the drag auxiliary force. Then,wait for my signal to sound the call to attack.”

Going from marching in a column to line ofbattle is the most difficult maneuver a Legion can perform, moredifficult than the quadratum agmentum even, which is hard tomaintain but not hard to get into. However, getting men frommarching in a column of Cohorts and Centuries then into an aciestriplex or even duplex, is not only the most difficultto accomplish, it is also the most crucial because it usually meansthat we are being attacked. That is why it is the maneuver wepractice the most often, and is one of the few unit maneuvers thatwe work on even during the winter months, when most men are workingon their individual skills and fitness. I was counting on thatpractice to pay off, thankful at least that we were doing so notbecause we were being attacked, but instead going on the offensiveourselves. Compounding matters in such a maneuver is the fact thatit rarely if ever works out that the Cohorts are in a marchingorder that would allow them to make this maneuver easier. Over theyears, on those occasions when I have found myself talking tocivilians about life in the army, I have found one of the mostcommon misconceptions is their belief the order of march is static,that every man knows his place in the column, and thereforeautomatically goes to his spot, theoretically able to do soblindfolded. Despite the fact this would certainly make thingseasier to manage, it would not take long for a commander to have amutinous army on his hands, because there is nothing more miserableon the march than being the last Century of the last Cohort of amarching army. Depending on the conditions, at the end of each day,those men are completely caked in either dust or mud, or sometimesboth, and their gear is filthy. Being the penultimate Cohort issimply a more minor version of misery, gradually lessening as onemoves up the column. It is particularly trying when the march isconfigured in the way ours currently was, with the baggage train inthe middle. Not only does it mean many stops and starts, whenwagons bog down in mud, wheels break, or animals go lame and haveto be replaced from the pool of spares, it also means wading,almost literally, in shit. It would be inherently unfair to singleout one Cohort in particular for this kind of trial, though I haveseen it done as punishment. If there is one thing that the Romanarmy is extremely fair about, it is making sure that misery isequally shared. That is why there is a system of rotation that Iexplained some time ago that ensures that every Cohort marches dragbefore it rotates. Back in Marius’ day, immediately after hisreforms, apparently the system of rotation was such that wheneverevery Cohort marched vanguard, they simply dropped one place in themarch the next day, thereby ensuring that the Cohorts to theirfront and rear always remained the same. I do not know who or howit was discovered, but this created more problems than it wasworth, since it led to disputes between Cohorts that were allowedto fester, exacerbated by their proximity to each other day afterday. Until, that is, supposedly on one march, a brawl broke outbetween two Cohorts with some sort of grudge. That is when thingswere refined, so that the order is constantly being shuffled, whichis one of the duties of the Primus Pilus of the Legion.

On this day, the Third Cohort of the13^th was marching drag, meaning that it would be easyfor them to form up in their spot in the front line of the aciesduplex, the formation I had ordered for this attack, instead ofthe usual three lines. However, immediately in front of the Thirdwas the Tenth, and in front of the Tenth was the Fifth. In short,it was a huge mess if the 13^th was expected to shakeitself out in its normal formation. Compounding matters evenfurther would be the presence of the “auxiliaries” that had beenmarching immediately behind the baggage train and in front of the13^th. More accurately, half of them were marching behindthe baggage train. Since we were using them more as slingers thaninfantry, I had ordered Capito to split the force in two, athousand men immediately in front, with the rest immediately behindthe baggage train. These men would be joining in the attack, exceptat that moment, they were not true auxiliaries. It had been while Iwas standing on Ocelus that the