Final Campaign

idea had come to me. Rather, Irecalled Caesar’s idea and decided to adopt it, or a variation ofit. I remembered the time when Caesar had ordered his mule driversto don cavalry helmets and shields from the Legion stores, and usedthem to draw the Gallic cavalry away, while our real cavalry forcestayed behind. This had been done at Gergovia, and despite the factit had not worked out in the manner Caesar had hoped, it was notdue to the idea, so I was doing something similar.

After both Macrinus and Flaminius had toldme that they did not feel their single Legion would suffice toensure a complete victory over the Thracians, I decided to augmentthe 13^th to give them what they needed. I told Macrinusto pick two Cohorts, roughly equaling the number of auxiliaries tothe rear of the baggage train. Then, during the rest stop, I hadthem exchange places. Moving in small groups, using the wagons ofthe baggage train to conceal their activity, Legionaries moved tothe rear while auxiliaries moved to the front. To complete theruse, when they met, I had ordered them to exchange shields, sincethat is the one piece of gear that is visibly different between thetwo forces. The curved, cut-down, rectangular shield had just beenintroduced as part of the Augustan reforms, while the auxiliariescarried the old-style oval shield. That was what had caused thedelay in resuming the march, but still nothing indicated that theThracians were suspicious. Their vanguard was composed of the samemounted force, in the same numbers, followed closely by apresumably handpicked group of infantry. I had been dismayed to seethat, once again, Macrinus had selected the Seventh Cohort andGaius, along with the Second Cohort, both of them now in place. Ijudged that we had resumed marching long enough to dispel anysuspicion on the part of the Thracians, meaning the boredom of themarch would be back in full force.

I turned to the cornicen, giving hima brief nod. Hefting the curved horn onto his shoulder, he drew ina deep breath and began to blow, the deep, bass notes sounding thecall for which the men had been waiting. At the same time, Isignaled to Libo and the three hundred troopers that we hadgathered from the flank security patrols and vanguard to beginmoving to the rear, along with the Evocati. This was perhaps thebiggest risk I was taking by essentially stripping the army of theability to be forewarned of an as yet undetected third Thracianforce approaching us. Nevertheless, I felt it worth the risk,knowing that should things go according to plan, we would needevery trooper to achieve the total victory I was looking for. TheLegions would be enough to break the Thracians, or so I believed,but to turn a victory into a rout and completely disrupt thisforce, we would need as many mounted men as we could muster.Sensing a presence next to me, I turned to see Marcus Primus, hisface grim as he watched the sudden flurry of movement.

“I hope you know what you’re doing, Prefect.For both of our sakes.”

For once, I was in complete agreement.Marcus Primus and I had the same goal.

“So do I, sir. So do I.”

Excusing myself, I trotted Ocelus toward therear, knowing that things were out of my hands, but still feelingthe need to be near the action. Because of the order of march, Ihad decided that the simplest way to deal with it was to have thelast five Cohorts form the line nearest to the Thracians, thesecond line composed of the remaining five. The two Cohorts of the8^th that had switched with the auxiliaries were held inreserve, but under my command to feed into the fight when and wherethey would be needed. As much as I was counting on the cavalry tofinish the job, I was counting on these two Cohorts to be the finalhammer blow that would make the Thracians crack.

By the time I made it past the baggagetrain, the 13^th was already well under way to shakingthemselves out, and I was pleased to see that the Thracians hadbeen slow to react. Their advance party of mounted men were millingabout in confusion at the sight of our Legionaries moving in whatundoubtedly looked to them like a mass of confusion, yet is in facta carefully rehearsed maneuver. Signiferi and Centurions arethe most important pieces of this maneuver, because eachstandard-bearer has to run to their correct spot in relation to theaquilifer and the Primus Pilus, in this case Flaminius, whoserved as the anchor of the right of the front line. From thatpoint moving left, each signifer had to correctly estimatethe width of the Century to their right, whereupon the men wouldbegin aligning in the normal twenty-man front, four ranks deep.Watching the men now, I was struck by an extremely odd memory, orso I thought at the time. I was reminded of a native dance I hadseen in Alexandria, at Cleopatra’s palace when I had been withCaesar and the 6^th Legion, where the dancers moved inwhat looked like uncoordinated steps when one viewed themindividually. But when I stepped back to watch all of the dancerstogether, I could see that it was in fact an intricate andinterwoven performance where dancers meshed, becoming one. This waswhat I was reminded of watching men pivot about from their standardeight man wide, ten deep marching formation. The second, fourth,sixth, and eighth ranks countermarched, then executed a flank marchto move alongside the men of the first, third, fifth, and seventhranks, all under the supervision of their Centurions and Optios,whereupon they marched in battle formation towards their waitingsignifer.

Tearing my gaze away from the sight, Ilooked over at the Thracians, who were just now beginning tounderstand what was happening, responding to matters in their ownway. I watched their mounted warriors, clearly the leaders of theirrespective warbands based on the quality of their armor and thenumber of mounted men trailing behind them, galloping towards themarching Thracians, pointing excitedly, first at us, then at somespot on the ground that I assumed would be their own rally point.Here was when the barbarian disorganization would actually work totheir advantage, with men