Legio XVII: Battle of the Danube (39 page)

Soon, thousands of cooking fires were burning brightly inside the fort.  It was another day in the field.  Animals were fed and the tents erected.

When Timur and Donar saw the Legions disappear behind the ramparts, Timur ordered his troops to return to their fort.  As the sun set, 90,000 warriors were camped 1,000 yards (914m) apart, but other than additional guards on the walls, life inside the two camps followed its normal pattern.

Timur and his leaders debated the idea of attacking the enemy in the morning.  They knew the ditch and rampart they could see were too strong to storm, but perhaps they could lure them out and then charge them.  The plan they settled on was to array the warriors just after sunrise and hope the enemy would come out.  Timur said, “They obviously didn’t come all this way to simply sit behind their wall.  They will fight us; the question is do we initiate the attack or do they.  If we do, we will be moving away from the fort and that makes me uncomfortable.  We still don’t know enough about them to take such a risk.  I would rather have them come to us.  Let’s put our men out tomorrow morning and see how the enemy reacts.”

At 7:00 A.M., the Teutons’ three gates opened up and the warriors marched out.  They assumed the same extended positions as the day before.  Then Timur began to reorganize them.  He wanted to match the enemy’s strength in the center.  Yesterday, Timur could see four distinct enemy units in the center: two in the front and two behind them.  They were the units with all the armor.  He stacked his best 20,000 men in the center, four units of 10,000 each, and spread the remaining 30,000 out in groups of 5,000 each separated by about 20 feet (6m).  The rear of Timur’s formation was about 50 yards (45m) from his fort.  Once in position, the Teutons pounded stakes into the ground to designate where each group of 5,000 would form up.

At 9:00 A.M., Proconsul Tullus ordered the Legions to march across the four bridges over the ditch and instructed them to maintain the same formation as the day before: four Legions in the center, 10,000 on each flank with maniple size gaps between Maniples.  Manius kept the men standing until noon and ordered them back behind the wall.  Timur returned his men to the fort.  Manius had a plan and every move was calculated.  Timur was perplexed and unsure what was really happening.  Even though Timur felt he had forced the enemy to deploy outside the fort by his actions, that’s exactly what Manius wanted him to do.

On 3 July, Timur again started the action by bringing his men out of the fort at 9:00 A.M.  Manius did likewise at 9:30.  The battle array of both sides remained unchanged.  Timur’s men aligned themselves on the stakes in the ground and Manius maintained the gaps between Maniples.

Timur advanced 5,000 men on each of his flanks about 100 yards (91m) to see what the enemy would do.  These men were only 300 yards (274m) from the Romans and were quickly driven back by the Illyrian archers and suffered some casualties.  Manius advanced his skirmishers to just outside the range of the Teuton archers to taunt Timur’s men, which they did for an hour or so before he recalled them.  Both sides retired to their forts.

On 4 July, the following day, the Proconsul planned to attack the Teutons.  Like Scipio in Spain, he was getting Timur accustomed to seeing his array with his four heavy Legions in the center.  He was going to change that tomorrow and hoped that Timur would not be able to react quickly enough.  Manius told his Legates, “I want the Legionaries briefed on the plan for tomorrow morning.  Every Legionary must know about the new battle array and the tactics we will employ.  I want them to feel that they matter and to know the importance of breaking the Teuton flanks.  Everything hinges on that.”

The troops were awaken at 2:00 A.M. and told to eat a hearty breakfast.  At 3:30 A.M., the gates opened and eight Legions silently filed out. The sky was overcast and the moon was not visible.  This time, the array was considerably altered.  The Legionaries who had previously occupied the center were moved to the flanks.  Legio XVII and Legio I Raetorum stood side by side on the left flank in their triplex acies and Legio XX and Legio V Etrusci stood side by side on the right.  The four Suevi Legions were now in the center with two in the front and two stacked behind them.

Manius needed to take out the Teuton archers as a first priority.  The archers and Scorpio were assigned the mission.  They were positioned to the left of Legio XVII and slightly behind them while the archers stood in front of the Scorpio to conceal them.  Manius wanted them to be hidden from Timur for as long as possible.  He told his cavalry that on his order, and not before, to circle to the right, on the opposite flank of the Teuton archers, and to attack the Teuton cavalry so Timur’s attention would not be on his archers, but on his cavalry.  He told couriers to ride to the river and tell Rasce to attack the ferry on the far side of the Danube as soon as the Legions made contact with the Teutons.

Once the Legions were arrayed in the new shorten formation, Manius ordered them forward.  Forty five thousand and five hundred heavily armed, trained, confident, and disciplined men began walking to the Teuton fort. Legates Vitulus, Caile, Valerian, and Lugano rode their horses at the front of their Legions.  They wanted the men to see them.  They advanced unseen to within 300 yards (274mm) of the Teuton fort and stopped.  It was about 5:30 A.M.

A blast of the horns signaled the Legions to begin to strike their shield with their swords.  The Legates rode along the front of their Legions holding their swords and shouting encouragement to the Legionaries.  The reaction inside the fort was immediate; men scurried to arm themselves and looked to their leaders for instructions.

Timur and Donar rushed to the wall to see what had happened.  It was still too dark to see details, but they could easily see that the enemy had moved out of their fort under the cover of darkness and now stood 300 yards away from the fort.  Timur gathered his leaders and asked, “Do we go out to face them or stay here and defend the fort?”  The response was unanimous, “Go out and fight.”

The Teutons warriors were ready to fight and needed little encouragement.  When the gates opened, they rushed out yelling and stood in same array they had used for the last three days. The gates were locked behind them.  The Teuton line was almost twice as long as the Romans’.  None had eaten breakfast, which was part of Manius’ plan.  Both sides stood facing each other as the sun came up.  Timur stood atop the gate so he could see the battle and direct his forces as necessary.  Donar stood outside the gate in front of the Army.  His Commanders of 20,000, 10,000, and 5,000 did likewise.  The two Armies looked at each other; the Teutons continued to shout and their enemy continued to strike their shields.  The archers on both sides held their fire awaiting the order to engage the enemy.

Manius gave the signal for the cavalry to charge.  Six hundred Roman horses surged forward in a looping right hand circle.  The 500 man Teuton cavalry rode out to meet them.  They met about 300 yards (274m) off to the Roman right flank.  Horses and men swirled in every direction; men fell, rider less horses careened throughout the mass of yelling men.  It appeared to be chaos.

Timur immediately saw that the enemy had changed their formation from what it had been the previous three days.  They had shortened their line by half.  He realized his line extended way beyond the enemy’s and his forces were now too thinly stretched out.  Timur shouted to Donar and the other Commanders to pull in the flanks, but no one could hear him above the noise of shouting men.   He sent aides to run and tell Donar to shorten the line.

Timur also saw that the men with the armor and large shield no longer stood in the center, but were now on each flank.  The Suevi, whom he could recognize by their appearance, occupied the center in one large rectangular formation.  He quickly estimated that there were 20,000 Suevi.  Timur felt unsettled; he was not sure what all this meant, but he had to thicken his lines by recalling his flanks.

Then he heard the enemy cavalry give a loud yell and race off to his left.  He turned his head to follow them.  Whatever was going to happen this day had just started.  His cavalry galloped out to meet the enemy horsemen, but it was obvious as soon as they made contact that his riders were no match for the enemy.  He could see his men falling from their horses.  Timur was so preoccupied with the cavalry battle, he failed to notice what was happening on his right flank.

The Roman cavalry were experienced horsemen and soon had the upper hand.  They had engaged Hannibal’s cavalry on numerous occasions and learned hard bloody lessons.  Their tactics, weapons, and armor were far superior to that of the Teutons.  In short order, the remnant of the Teuton cavalry fled the field in all direction.  The Roman cavalry then reassembled and threatened the left flank of the Teuton infantry before returning to the center next to the four Suevi Legions.

Timur’s extended flanks finally began running to the center to match the enemy’s line.  The Teuton battle array was disintegrating.  Men were simply piling up in large unorganized groups.

As Manius had hoped, both armies watched the melee taking place off to his right and paid scant attention to the activity taking place on the left.  As soon as the two cavalries engaged one another, 150 Scorpio and 2,000 archers opened fire on the hapless Teuton archers.  It took the Teuton archers a few minutes to realize what was happening, but by then scores of heavy iron tipped arrows had already decimated their ranks.  Romans archers added to the slaughter with flight after flight of sharp barbed points that penetrated leather and flesh.  The Teuton archers broke and ran to the rear of their Army.

Timur snapped his head to the right when he heard screams of pain coming from hundreds of men.  That distinctive sound rose above all the other sounds assaulting his ears.  He saw thousands of arrows flying from the enemy side and impacting his archers.  Hundreds, maybe thousands of his archers lay upon the ground.  Mixed in among the enemy archers were dozens of devises that threw a large arrow in a flat trajectory. He could follow the flight path of these arrows and saw the effects.  His men were pushed backwards by the impact.  His archers had ceased to return fire and were running to get behind the Army.

Manius signaled the horns to sound the attack and Legiones XVII, I Raetorum, XX and V Etrusci started running for the Teuton lines only 100 yards (91.4m) away.  He wanted the Teuton line to back up, intermingle with those behind them, and force the formation to lose its cohesion.  He told the Legates that when the Hastati can’t push them any farther to pass through the Principe immediately, but keep pushing them. He was counting on the thousands of thrown pila sowing fear and confusion among their ranks.  He said, “When the flanks begin to collapse, turn into the Teuton center and hit them on the flanks.”

When the Legions surged forward, the Scorpio and archers swung wide to the flank and continued firing into the Teutons.  The Teuton archers had their backs to the fort and could no longer fire their arrows or see the battle taking place.  All they saw was the backs of tightly packed men.

Earlier, Manius told Bethica to surge her forces forward about 50 yards (45m) when the other Legions attack, but to stop short of actually making contact.  Manius said, “I want your Legions to pose a credible threat that you will attack the center at some point, but hold back.  The intent is that you will pin their strong center in place and, therefore, they will not be able to assist their flanks, which I hope will be collapsing. I’ll signal you when to actually launch your attack.”

“Manius then looked directly into Bethica’s eyes and said, “Bethica, I want you to be aware that the Teutons may not stay in place; they may attack you.  I do not think that they have the discipline to stand while everyone around them is fighting; I think they may go after your Legions.  If they do, throw your pila when they are close enough and charge them.  The pila will break their charge and your charge will have momentum.  If they attack you, I will bring the 10 flying Scorpio around to the side to fire into their flanks.  I will also send the cavalry into the gap that they will create by attacking you forward of their retreating flanks.  This gap will only widen as we force back their flanks.  You are not in this alone; just keep your sense of awareness and encourage your troops.”

The Centurions told the Legionaries to hold their pila ready to throw and hit them hard with their shields. The Legionaries trotted towards the waiting Teutons who stood with their shields raised and their swords held high.  The Teutons stood with one leg braced against the impact and the other bend forward for action.  The Teutons shouted their defiance and challenges.  They were not expecting the cloud of pila that suddenly filled the air.

The Legionaries stopped running, drew back their first pila and threw on command.  The air filled with missiles.  The shouting stopped in mid yell as all eyes followed the spears.  Teutons began to turn and run, but were blocked by the mass of men behind them.  Then the impact!  The first 20 feet (6m) of Teutons were impaled and dropped.  The Legionaries then threw their second pila while on the run.  The Teutons crouched or tried to back up; they had nothing to stop the penetrating power of the weighted pila.  The Hastati stepped over the bodies and slammed into the bewildered Teutons.  Pushing and stabbing, they easily drove deep into their ranks.