Athene's Prophecy (Gaius Claudius Scaevola Trilogy) (20 page)

"Better!" came back the comment.

Nothing much happened for some time, then came the account for the costs. The citizens would have to pay additional taxes. Timothy reported murmurs of resentment amongst the citizens.

"Unfair!" Gaius muttered.

"That's what the conquered tend to say about Roman taxes," Timothy said.

"What's unfair," Gaius retorted, "is that I should know about these taxes before they do."

Timothy left the room, and shortly returned with a note saying, 'Point conceded – you have three days before word leaks.'

"I research the history of the region, with a record of pillaging and so on in mind. I want to know the size of the harvest this year compared with previous years."

"The harvests are the same as usual," Timothy reported, "but this time most of it isn't stolen."

"How much do they keep, after taxes?"

It turned out that the peasants all had more than they would normally keep, even after paying the taxes, and nobody had been killed.

"I tell them that," Gaius said. "They should see the point. And, of course," he added, "they should also see the legion."

"They'll see that," Timothy nodded. "Next problem. A message comes from the empire over there demanding you send ten thousand sacks of wheat and four hundred cattle."

"I send out scouts to see what is going on," Gaius said, "and I send back the message that Rome does not bow to intimidation."

This time the old General appeared and shook his head sadly. "You've just started a war," he said.

"I don't recall declaring war on anyone."

"You've sent a response back that leaves the other king with no choice."

"But surely you don't expect me merely to give him all that food? Rome's reputation would be in tatters if . . ."

"I don't expect you to leave everyone with the opinion that Rome's a gutless wonder," the General shrugged, "but you don't want to give out the feeling it's just another stronger tyrant either. And more to the point, Rome doesn't need young inexperienced Legates starting off pointless wars which lead to hundreds of thousands of deaths, and, even more to the point, the loss of tens of millions of sesterces in taxes from the lands on which your battles will be fought."

"What should I do, then?" Gaius asked with a tone of frustration in his voice.

"The first rule of warfare," the old General said, "is to see what you can accomplish without fighting. War should be the last resort, because it's the most irreversible."

"But surely I'm not going to just cave in? What would that achieve?"

"Nothing," the old General agreed. "However you can engage your brain. What strikes you as odd about this demand?"

"I don't know," Gaius admitted. "I suppose there's no evidence to back up the implied 'or else'. The fact he didn't state the back-up shows weakness."

"What I'd find unusual is that he's demanding food." The General gave Gaius a challenging stare.

"Why?" Gaius muttered.

"Hah!" the old General laughed. "The first sign of ability. That 'why' was totally ambiguous, either the sign of insight if it referred to the demand, or bordering on a challenge to me if it referred to my statement. Answer your own question!"

"There's an implication that his empire's short of food," Gaius said, realizing quickly what the 'why' should refer to.

"So, what do you do?"

"I suppose, ask the messenger to come back tomorrow to hear my reply, then try and find out if there's been a drought, or something."

"You find out there's a real food shortage."

"I offer to trade."

"Suppose they haven't got enough to trade with?"

"I don't know," Gaius said slowly. "I suppose . . ."

"Go on!"

"If they've got enough troops to fight me, they've got enough troops to fight as auxiliaries for me. They get the food, I get the troops, and they've got fewer mouths to feed anyway."

"That's better," the General said. "Better still, try to make the king an ally. Perhaps there're signs of hope. Now, let's assume all this fails, and the king decides on war anyway. A traveller who has passed through this region here," he said, pointing to a flat area in the rear of the map, "has seen a large force being assembled, and they are heading this way."

"Large?"

"About twelve thousand men. Twice what you have. Now, let me go back to my board. The next round is about to begin."

It appeared as though Gaius was merely watching the General leave, but his brain was working furiously. He had to do well here. "This is the nearest village," Gaius eventually said, pointing. "I bring my entire legion here. I also send out scouting parties to learn what I can, then march the legion out in this direction, which covers most possibilities and gets me closer."

"We assumed you would probably do that," Timothy nodded, "so to save time, after twelve days your first scout returns to say the enemy force has entered this valley and is marching towards you."

"I employ the marching camp technique and set myself to cover thirty kilometers per day," Gaius said. "I intend to cross these hills before I meet him and with any luck, I meet him approaching this pass."

"You get to here, and your scouts report the enemy is approaching along this road."

"I march and camp here," Gaius said while pointing to the board. "I send out cavalry to find and capture any enemy scouts in this region."

"You achieve both goals," Timothy reported. "Your scouts inform you that the enemy will march along this road tomorrow. You must now set your battle plan."

"There is a river behind them," Gaius replied. "I send out scouts to confirm they are coming. If they are, with that many men, it should take several hours for the column to march past. We lay concealed until about two thirds have passed, then we march downhill and engage here. I set up ballistae here, and here, front and rear of my attacking position, and along this ridge I set up catapults. I direct my cavalry at their baggage train, assuming it is near the rear, with one cohort for infantry support."

"I see," Timothy said. He left the room, and returned with the old Roman General.

"Not bad," the old man said. "Main problem is lack of specifics. You start out by sending out scouts. Fine, but what sort? Try to remember the
exploratores
fight as well. You indicated you had some idea at the end when you instructed your scouts to capture enemy scouts, but you lost the significance while marching. It is absolutely imperative that if you march hard to gain surprise, you must capture any enemy scouts you come into, and to do that your bands of
exploratores
must be strong enough to guarantee success. You may or may not have thought you were doing that, but unless you give explicit orders you must assume the worst will happen.

"Now, on the last day, and perhaps the most important of all, you forget to capture enemy scouts, and worse, you check on the enemy's path, but you make no attempt to look out for unexpected forces from some different direction. One of the things you probably don't realize is that a whole legion moving is rather noisy, and the enemy don't have to get all that close to know something's on the way. Now, your final attack. There's some good material there, but again the detail is lacking. Worse, about two thirds of the enemy is not under attack . . ."

"I'm outnumbered," Gaius interrupted. "What I am trying to do is to capture his supplies, and knock off as much of his force as possible with minimal losses. If I attack in the centre, in principle I can be encircled, if I attack at the front, the enemy can use his rear how he likes. I have to do something."

The old General stared at Gaius, then nodded. "Your idea is promising, but operationally you are letting yourself down. Your deployment against the rear is fair enough, and you are correct that if you are grossly outnumbered the reality is you can't prevent a determined enemy getting some troops around your flanks. However, while
you
know you are outnumbered, your enemy doesn't. Don't credit him with divine inspiration. You must deploy so as to give him the greatest problem possible, so that in the heat of the battle, as opposed to this board game, he can't work out what's going on.

"Now, let's look at what you've done. Your main force is merely going to march downhill and get in its own way. You have concentrated far too much force at that point. Yes, you do better by concentrating force, but there's no point in winning one place thirty times over, then finding you've given up all the advantages. Now, tell me, what were you trying to achieve?"

"I'll demoralize them," Gaius replied, "I'll capture their supplies, and I wipe out their rear."

"You will achieve that," the old man nodded, "but you leave the front untroubled. The enemy commander has time to work out a plan, and has reasonable freedom to get started. Any comment?"

"Would I have been better off to split the legion, and attack in several concentrated points?" Gaius asked.

"Possibly," the old man asked. "You don't want to get your cohorts too far apart, but equally you don't want any of your forces being spectators. Your advantage is of surprise. You must achieve as much as you can with that. Me, I would commit less to the rear, and at least try to launch a diversionary attack on the command, if for no other reason than to give the enemy commander something to distract his concentration. You'd be surprised how often a weak commander can't get his mind off his own personal and current problems. Also, if the enemy is strung out, you'd be surprised how many of the men are more concerned about what is happening 'over there'. They start to imagine things, they start to fear things are much worse somewhere else, and they're about to be encircled and killed. That's when troops with poor discipline start fleeing. So, remember, if you can do it without risking your own battle-plan, don't be afraid to send some men off to generate as much chaos as possible. Now, for some further points . . ."

* * *

"You hear an enemy army is approaching from the east," Timothy said, opening the exercise for the following day. "You send out scouts and establish the army is intent on conquest and at present marching speed will enter your eastern arable land in seven days. You can reach the limits of your eastern productive land in five days. Your move."

"How big is this army?"

"Your scouts say they have about nine thousand men."

"Have I any other potential enemies?"

"For the purposes of this exercise, assume not."

"Then I march my legion towards the enemy. I maintain as many
exploratores
as I can afford, because I regard it as imperative that I keep track of such a force. On day five, assuming I have reached the outskirts of my territory and the enemy is still marching . . . How do I know he is an enemy?" Gaius suddenly asked.

"For the purposes of this exercise, assume you are at war."

"Then where are we?" Gaius asked, as he looked at the board.

"You should know where you are," Timothy smiled. "You've been marching."

"I have been heading in the general direction required to head off my opponent," Gaius replied, then added sourly, "My scouts have apparently told me where that is, but you haven't."

"Then he is here," Timothy said, and placed a marker on the board.

Gaius stared at the board, then said, "On the following day I march slowly to here, and form a defensive line."

Timothy nodded, then left. When he returned he moved the enemy markers to oppose Gaius.

"Why are you there?" Timothy asked.

"There's a swamp on my left," Gaius said. "I shall fortify to here, leaving a narrow gap between myself and the swamp. There's also a small riverbed behind me, which I can use to move troops and reserves without being too visible."

"I see," Timothy replied. "The next morning your opponent lines up for battle. Give your order of battle."

"I order the first cohort to the centre," Gaius said, "the second and third to the left. They are ordered to make a lot of noise and look as if they're the main attack, but they're only to hold position. The fourth also goes to the left and be seen to do so, but on the commencement of battle it is to slide back to this riverbed and march to the right, unless directly countermanded. The fifth, sixth and seventh go to the right, the eighth is visibly seen as a reserve behind the centre, the ninth is a hidden reserve on the right. I deploy the archers in the riverbed, with orders to support the right. I position myself here, then when ready, assuming the enemy doesn't attack first, I order the fifth, sixth and seventh to attack, supported by archers, and assuming nothing goes wrong, once battle has commenced I order the cavalry to attempt to flank on the right. The centre and the left are ordered to hold."

"I see," Timothy nodded, and left the room. When he returned, he said, "The enemy makes a mass attack on your centre as you initiate your attack on the right. Your attack proceeds well enough, and very soon you have broken through their first line. The enemy orders reserves to plug this gap."

"Assuming my cavalry is engaging, I signal the eighth and ninth to advance as quickly as possible and to pass through the fifth and sixth, to give them a bit of a rest. If I think the centre will hold, I let the order for the fourth stand. When the fourth reaches, it joins the fifth and sixth, and tries to punch its hole."

"And now?" Timothy asked when he returned.

"Now nothing," Gaius frowned. "I have to rely on my soldiers."

"On the contrary," the old General smiled as he entered, "you should have left some sort of order as to what everyone is supposed to do assuming you punch your hole."

"I thought it was obvious! If I'm through the flank, I turn them, and by then they shall probably be fleeing. If not, we clean them out."

"Yes, and your centurions will probably assume that, but nevertheless, it doesn't hurt to let them know you've thought it through right to the end."

"I suppose not," Gaius conceded.

"Why did you attack through the right?"