away at the wall atevenly spaced intervals, with every crew waiting for their turn tofire. Frankly, it becomes monotonous very quickly. Suddenly, one ofthe missiles hit the wall, making a distinctly different sound, amore hollow report than anything we had heard previously. I turnedmy head just in time to see a large chunk of rock and mortarsuddenly give way, tumbling down the face of the wall in a cloud ofmortar and rock dust. Once it cleared, I could see a gaping holejust above the right corner of the gate lintel, evoking a rousingcheer from the men and a grimace that I knew was his version of asmile from Flavianus. Still, the sun was now hanging a hand’s widthabove the low mountains to the west, and despite the suddenprogress we were making, I did not see a breach happening on thisday. It was also getting to be time for Libo and the scouting partyto return. I was beginning to feel the strain in my eyes fromconstantly peering north, then checking the wall for furtherdamage. I found myself willing the sun to stop moving downward; ofcourse it did not, continuing despite my wishes, inexorably drawingthis first full day of the siege of the fortress to a close. Thiswas a time where I missed Scribonius as well, because he would havehelped pass the time, and I wondered how he was doing. Travelingalone, especially in wild and potentially hostile country likeThrace was risky, yet in some ways riding alone is something of anadvantage, since you are harder to spot than a group. Besides,Scribonius was a veteran, and extremely experienced, knowing betterthan anyone I knew how to avoid trouble, a trait that he wouldconstantly remind me is equally as important as knowing what to doif you get into it. I would always laugh this off, tapping the hiltof my Gallic sword, boasting that this was all I needed foranything that came my way. However, the truth was that as I gotolder, I came to appreciate this quality in Scribonius more andmore. I am afraid that my mind was wandering, yet another sign thatI was getting older. So when I heard another shout, I was startled,except this did not come from the gunners but from Masala, who hadstayed behind when Marcus Primus had gone back to where the rest ofthe army was still waiting. Primus’ aide was pointing north, up thevalley, and I followed his finger to see the low-hanging dustcloud. Then, before it rose much higher, I saw the dark mass ofcharging horses and riders that was causing it. Instantlyunderstanding that the scouting party was coming back and was doingso at the full gallop, I turned to Caldus, snapping out an orderfor him to alert the guard Cohort that I had placed a shortdistance up the road from the rest of the army. I was relying onthe Pilus Prior of the Cohort seeing the dust himself and reactingaccording to the orders he had been given, setting up a blockingposition. However, I had ordered him to keep one Century preparedto move quickly aside to let the scouting party through beforemoving back into place to block any pursuit. Unfortunately, we werenot the only ones to see the return of our men.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw one ofthe Serdi who had been stationed at the corner of the fortresswaving wildly to someone inside the walls. It was not long afterthat I heard the crashing sound of the beams of the enemy artilleryhitting the crossbars, but I could not spot the missiles sailingover the wall, arcing down toward the valley floor and the road. Idid see the impact of the enemy missiles, hitting in a spray ofdirt and bouncing several times before making a huge splash in theriver on the opposite side of the road from the fortress. Myinitial reaction was relief, since the shots were well ahead of ourmen, who were still a good distance from the impact area. Then Icaught more movement from the man in the corner, realizing that hewas calling out corrections to the artillery crews. This was notgood, yet I was still not worried, hitting a fast moving targetlike our horsemen being more a matter of luck than skill. What Iwas not counting on was that the next volley would not be stones,and they were not trying to hit our men, just to slow them down.For not far behind Libo, Lucullus, and the rest, I could see a muchlarger group of horsemen, clearly intent on running them down.
I did see the next barrage from the Thracianartillery, only because it is hard to miss flaming balls leaving asmoky trail through the air. When the missiles hit, I saw that theyhad been some sort of vessels filled with Greek fire, leaving asplattering trail of fire across the road. Perhaps a half dozen ofthese missiles hit, all of them exploding in flame, and despitestill being ahead of our returning cavalry, the distance was muchcloser. Like most animals, including man, horses do not like fire,so it was natural that the leading animals suddenly broke stride,trying to slow to avoid galloping directly into the flames thatwere spread along the road. Greek fire will burn out on its own,but it takes time, much more time than our men had before theywould reach the barricade of fire. When the leading horses slowed,those immediately behind, obviously not seeing the danger, plowedheadlong into the rear of the front ranks, causing the horses upfront to react in reflex, lashing out violently with their rearhooves. Even from where I was, I could hear the scream of theanimals that went tumbling, throwing their riders violently intothe air, including at least two men who were pitched headlong intothe flames. An instant later, the agonized shrieks of the burningmen reached my ears as well, while the leading element of thescouting party churned to a confused, milling stop. Strung outfurther behind, fortunately for them, were Libo and Lucullus, theplumes of their helmets and cloaks streaming behind them. They wereat the full gallop, enabling them
