When Hannibal crossed the Alps eight years ago and invaded Italy, Davood was in Rome, by chance, or so it seemed. From then on, he was a permanent fixture with his fingers into everything. These were difficult days for Davood and he suffered much verbal abuse from enraged citizens. To burnish his moral vitae, he could often be found in hospitals and orphanages helping the victims of his countrymen’s wartime successes. In time, he amassed a wealth of personal good will, but remained a spy dedicated to serving the interests of Carthage to the detriment of Rome.
Unbeknown to Manius, Farrid and Tribune Calvus had long ago forged a bond of mutual interests. The “under appreciated” and disgruntled Calvus had found a sympathetic listener and friend in Farrid who agreed with him that the Roman Army did not value Calvus’ worth nor reward him appropriately. Farrid knew money would not entice Calvus to become a traitor, but rather the promise of post-bellum Carthaginian honors, prestige, and titles.
Farrid convinced Calvus that Carthage did not seek the destruction of Rome, but needed economic freedom to develop the natural resources of Spain, Sicily, and Sardinia. Farrid pointed out quite sincerely that Rome could have all the rest of the Mediterranean basin, as well as Greece, Illyria [western part of the Balkan Peninsula], and anything else they could conquer.
Farrid suggested to Calvus that he should, “Use your enormous talent to subtly alter the way Rome trains its Legionaries. The weaker Rome’s military becomes the quicker Carthage will be able to end the war and good Romans like yourself will be placed in positions of power and honor.” Calvus readily agreed and asked Farrid to provide him a written pledge that Carthage would honor its promises to him. In time, Farrid produced a signed bogus document and Calvus was satisfied.
Farrid maintained his close contact with Calvus, as he did with all his agents, and, over time, his requests to Calvus for general information became more and more specific. At first, Calvus was uncomfortable providing military information to Farrid, but slowly began to enjoy his new role as spy. He found the secret meetings with Farrid to be exciting and flattering and could not turn his back on the amorous attention he received at the lavish parties hosted by the Carthaginian embassy.
Deployment Countdown
As soon as he could respectfully excuse himself from the Change of Command ceremony, Manius retreated to his temporary office where Joseph was already waiting. Over the next two hours, Manius dictated to Joseph a series of deliberate steps that he needed to undertake in the coming days. Despite Joseph’s youth, Manius found him to be far wiser than his age would indicate and extremely useful while planning for the upcoming campaign into the Cisalpine and Austria.
Administratively, Joseph was assigned to one of the Rome-based Legions with duty as immunes (administrative assistant) to Tribune Tullus, which freed Joseph from normal Legionary duties. Joseph’s two friends from basic training were also in Rome and the three occasionally got together. With the formation of Legio XVII, all three were assigned to the Hastati of the XVII. Joseph retained his immunes status for the duration, but was allowed to train with the Hastati.
Rather than be paralyzed into inactivity by all that needed to be done, Manius now had an exciting and challenging new purpose for his life and a strong passion to get started. He was happy again. He had to prepare himself, a staff, and troops for a lengthy deployment into hostile country. In his opinion, it could not get any better!
By mid August, Manius had prepared a specific mission statement, which was subsequently approved by the Army leadership and the Senate. He then went on to convince Levi to increase the funding for the campaign from 1 to 1.5 million sesterces [$105 million dollars to $157,500,000].
With these two important steps out of the way, Manius then selected 12 Tribunes by name, based on his personal knowledge of them, to serve as his staff officers. When the 12 were reduced to six because of their unavailability, he substituted 6 outstanding Centurions who were available and known to him.
Manius knew he faced an uphill battle getting experienced personnel, serviceable equipment, and trained troops since almost the entire Army was in southern Italy or in Spain.
Having served so long in Rome, Manius was well connected. He used his influence, over stiff resistance, to draw specific people from deployed Legions including the bright young officers that accompanied him to Cannae. He did not make any friends with this maneuver, but felt it was necessary if his mission was to have any chance of success.
Within a month, by mid September, his primary staff of 12, each augmented with two junior aides, was in place and diligently working on their assigned tasks. The normal challenges of preparing for a lengthy campaign were compounded many times over by the lack of available resources and by the fact that he only had five months to pull it all together.
Figure 10 Pescara (Google Maps)
It seemed that every mule, horse, and oxen had already been recruited by the army and driven south. To solve this shortfall, Manius directed his Tribune in charge of Logistics to prepare a plan to travel from Rome on the Via Tiburtina to Aternum [modern Pescara]. Once there, he was to sail the 125 miles to the other side of the Adriatic Sea to Spalatum [modern Split, Croatia] on the Illyrian coast and negotiate with the local tribes for draft animals and horses.
This unorthodox technique required the Tribune to identify funds from an already constrained budget to get boats capable of carrying the animals, to create a strong escort to protect the herd once they arrived back in Italy, and to arrange for sufficient fodder to keep the animals alive for the long walk back to Rome.
The greatest challenge was to devise a scheme to protect the herd from the many lawless bands that infested the countryside between the port and Rome. They would be an easy target unless adequately protected. Against all odds, Manius was able to muster in an Auxiliary Legion of 4,500 men of mixed nationalities to march to the port, await the arrival of the herd, and escort them back to Rome. In time, this Auxiliary Legion would be permanently stationed in Aternum and serve Manius and Rome for years to come.
In a remarkable display of Roman ingenuity, three months later, on December 2, the field serving as Manius’ staging area resounded with the sounds of hundreds of animals moving into the encampment. The Tribune had been successful! Each animal meant that much less that each Legionaire would have to carry and were, therefore, loudly cheered as they moved into waiting stalls. The Legion had their precious draft animals, about 600, and the cavalry had 300 more horses.
Manius faced the same struggle in obtaining food stocks, equipment for the troops, fodder for the animals, and attention from those in authority to help him overcome these issues. He quickly realized that he was pretty much on his own. Everyone was focused on Hannibal, Spain, Sicily, or Sardinia and not the “side show” on which he was embarking. The only items not in short supply were maps of the Cisalpine and interpreters. The benefit of this lack of scrutiny was that Manius could pretty much do as he pleased without official approval ~ and he took full advantage of it. One of his first actions was to request the new rectangular curved shield for his Legion rather than the oval that was being phased out.
To make up for his lack of soldiers, he obtained a list of Legionaries who were back home recuperating from wounds or illness, and sent representatives to offer them the opportunity to transfer to Legio XVII. Not surprisingly, many did. Duty with the XVII looked more promising than going back down south and facing Hannibal.
Manius also risked his career by sending boats to Sicily in early October to recruit from among the banished Cannae Legionaries. He had low level Army approval to do this, but risked the ire of local commanders. Many enthusiastically volunteered. They hoped to recapture their honor and self respect, and to once again rejoin Roman society. This intense recruitment took about two months and barely left him time to actually train these troops into a coherent and capable Legion.
As these new troops joined the original 3000 Legionaries provided by the Senate, they were artfully blended into the train
ing program already well underway. Joseph made sure that his two friends, Accius and Tertius, were part of the 3000. Manius knew how to train soldiers! He basically developed and implemented an abbreviated individual, unit, and advanced Legionaire training program. Following the individual training phase, he began training at the unit level with the Maniples.
Once the individual Maniple learned to function as a single entity, he then combined them into the Hastati, Principes, and Triarii lines. Finally, he and the staff began operating and maneuvering at the Legion level. During all levels of training, Manius emphasized the continued incorporation of individual fitness training. In effect, Manius duplicated the Legionaries complete panoply of training skills albeit in a shortened version.
As a Legion, they practiced the standard maneuvers they would employ in battle such as quick reaction formations in response to a surprise attack and forming a wedge to break out of encirclement. The most important maneuver for the Legion was to be able to rotate the first line of troops facing the enemy, the Hastati, back through the second line, the Principes, quickly and with minimal disorder. This was practiced over and over and over. This maneuver was used to allow the Hastati to rest while the Principes took up the fight. Once the Hastati was rested, about five to ten minutes, they would pass back through the Principes and resume fighting. Manius initially allowed the soldiers to perform these maneuvers without their body armor or other accoutrement. The initial objective was learning the movements while not being burdened with heavy equipment. That would come later.
Manius devised another training technique which involved taking the Triarii line, traditionally the wealthiest, oldest, and most experienced Legionaries, who fought with a long 6.5’ stabbing spear along the lines of a Greek phalanx, and used them as an opposing force. Armed only with training shields, heavy wooden swords, and body armor, Manius had the Triarii attack the Hastati to enable these young inexperienced Legionaries to get the feel of actual combat complete with noise and fatigue. On cue, the Hastati would rotate behind the Principes who would take up the fight until they were tired and then the Hastati would rotate again to the front.
This exercise provided the entire Hastati and Principes not only with much needed experience, but also enabled the Centurions to practice rotating individuals within these two fighting lines. Without exception, individual Legionaries credited these mock battles, above all other training, with preparing them for the sights, sounds, and rigors of actual battle. As the months slipped by, Manius’ confidence in his troops and staff grew. By early December, Manius felt they were ready.
With the help of Levi’s money and influence, Manius requested and received 1000 mercenary Illyrian archers, 600 cavalry, and 12 mobile ballistae. He used members of the disgraced Cannae cavalry from Sicily to train his cavalry and to apply the lessons they learned from their defeat. Manius was particularly enamored with the skill of the archers and pressed his staff to conceive of ways to employ them more effectively. In time, they developed two different types of arrows: one, light and fast, to fire line-of-sight directly at a target and one to use as indirect plunging fire with a weighted shaft that would drop from the sky to penetrate light armor or even a shield.
But it was the Illyrian commander of Archers who proposed the most innovative use of bowmen in battle. Abeis (translated as Snake) Scirto, a short swarthy man not given to much talking, one day asked Manius and his staff to observe his archers in training. They followed the man and expected to see rows of archers facing rows of target. Instead, they saw a line of horses with two riders each, racing by a single target when suddenly the second rider, the archer, would rise up, draw his bow and fire at the target. Snake then directed their attention to another demonstration. A horse with two riders charged a stationary target. Just out of pilum range, the horse whirled and reversed direction while the archer fired off a rapid string of arrows during the turn.
That concluded the demonstration.
Snake now explained it. “Archers talk to other archers. We are a brotherhood of skilled fighters. The idea for the demonstration you have just seen comes from the east and has been used successfully in battle. Mounted archers can be used to slow an advancing enemy column, conduct an ambush to the vulnerable flanks or rear of an army, or deliver a lethal force any place on the battlefield. The employment of this force requires the diversion of vital cavalry assets and, therefore, would be used sparingly. If you approve of this concept, I proposed to train all the archers in this form of mounted attacked. My biggest problem is keeping the archers from falling off the bouncing horses.” His last comment drew a robust round of laughter. Snake added, “It’s true; they keep falling off!”
Manius turned to his staff and said, “I like this! Snake, you are to be commended.” Then looking at the staff he said, “This is the kind of thinking we need. Well done. Now, obviously, if we are facing a cavalry threat, we counter it with our cavalry, but if the cavalry threat is low, we can employ mounted archers. Unless someone has an objection, Snake I want you to train all your archers in this technique.”
Manius then looked directly at his disapproving 40ish cavalry commander and knew this was the moment to force the issue. Sextus had been uncooperative and captious since the day he arrived. Sextus was a wealthy blowhard who possessed countless foibles and demonstrated dozens of reasons to despise him, chief among them being his refusal to eat Legionaries food as something beneath him. Servants fed him his special cuisine. He was lazy and irresponsible, but he had patronage in high places. Manius was loath to get embroiled in a controversy with a political appointee, but for the sake of the mission and morale, he had to take this on.
With an inward sigh, he said, “Sextus, what do you think of diverting cavalry resources to train the archers?” The edge in his voice barely concealed the dread welling up inside of him. Sextus’ narcissism prevented him from properly reading Manius’ growing resolve and where this conversation was really going. He loudly and angrily denigrated Snake’s idea with an ad hominem attack against Snake’s character, reliability, ethnicity, and parentage. This was Sextus at his illogical best and his words sealed his fate. Manius calmed his emotions as Sextus’ tirade helped finalized his decision.
“Thank you Sextus,” Manius said politely and adjourned the gathering.
“Levi, can you help me find another job for Sextus. You know he’s been a wen on our morale ever since he took over as cavalry commander. For the good of the mission, he has to go. Perhaps, one of the Legates in the south could request him by name. He’d jump at the chance to serve with a Legion of the line.” Levi felt he could do it, but he needed a couple of weeks. In the meantime, he would use him to escort the Egyptian Ambassador who’s going to be in Rome for a couple of weeks. Sextus would like that.
Levi asked, “How’s my son doing?” Manius told him, “You have a good son Levi; he’s like you. I would trust him with my life.”
Within a few days, Sextus had new orders and Manius appointed his deputy, an Etruscan named Rasce, as the new cavalry commander. Rasce was everything Sextus was not. His men respected him and he shared their life. After some initial resistance from his own men, Rasce was able to convince them that mounted archers made them even more important to the XVII. The cavalry would, of course, retain their primary function of scouting and cavalry-on-cavalry engagements. This was just another employment of cavalry.
Soon, Rasce and Snake worked out a collaborative training schedule and began the joint venture in earnest. Rasce even came up with an idea to give the archers more stability while bouncing on the back of a galloping horse. After a number of attempts, he developed an interim solution; a thick soft cloth was wrapped and tied around the horse’s belly; a large knot served as a hand-hold and loops from the knot lay along each side of the horse for the archer’s feet. The loops enabled the archer to stand up to draw the bow and fire without obstruction. The hand-hold knot secured the archer during the run up to the target. It worked pretty well; accuracy improved and fe
wer archers ended up on the ground.
Snake had one more innovation that he proposed to the staff. He wanted to double the basic load of arrows that would move with the XVII. Normally, each archer carried 20 arrows in his quiver and another 40 in the baggage train. He wanted to double the basic load to 80 arrows in the baggage train per archer. It was approved and the archers began the hunt for the right wood and feathers and began the tedious process of making hundreds of extra arrows. Extra bows and strings were also gathered.
Figure 11 Scorpio
During his five years at Campus Martius, Manius made time to continue his unofficial experiments with the ballistae. Levi and his access to funding made this venture possible. Since the Battle of Faesulae, 15 years earlier, the Army had made significant strides with this weapon. It was more mobile, but it was still intended primarily for siege warfare rather than for use as a truly mobile infantry weapon.
Manius felt he had solved the problem. He sacrificed the distance it would fire for less weight, which enabled the weapon’s 3-man crew to dismount it from its traveling configuration atop a wagon and be carried anywhere on the battlefield. Use of wings on the arrow more than made up for the loss of distance. He now had a weapon that could be carried by its crew and used effectively to affect the outcome of a battle. He dubbed it the “Scorpio.”
As part of his operational planning, Manius conducted almost daily staff exercises to identify potential issues and possible solutions. This was also a time to weed out and replace weaker members of his staff. When the process was compete, he had a loyal, trained, and dedicated staff who could act independently when necessary and follow orders intelligently.
Legio XVII: Roman Legion at War Page 14