Vocion’s men in the north woods ran headlong into the field, but like the 4000 with Vocion, just stopped and stood when the cavalry rode away. They too saw the Romans on the hill and then heard Vocion yelling commands. They quickly aligned themselves alongside Vocion men and now presented a front of 5000 warriors to the Hastati’s 1500. Vocion stopped his advance mid way to the waiting Hastati and tried to get his men to form a thicker column. He felt that his flank extended too far to the left and would be unopposed and end up not engaged. He wanted more men in the middle to overwhelm the Romans with manpower. He knew his men could beat them.
Still, he did not like the looks of the long sharp spears they carried or their big shields. He then heard a horn sound and the men on the hill began to strike their pila on their shields, making an ominous sound. He had not forgotten Ariovistus warning not to engage the Romans by himself, but this was too tempting and easy a target. They were obviously taunting him; daring him to attack.
Manius sat on his horse alongside the Hastati and carefully watched the Suevi. They had successfully massed and were now on the verge of attacking. The bulk of the Legion was still out of sight on the back side of the hill. He began issuing orders. He sent a courier racing over to Andreas with orders to break off his battle immediately and to attack the Suevi in the open field, on the run. When Andreas received the order, he found his two Auxiliary Commanders and told them to form up in the field just out of the woods facing the Suevi. “I want the Raeti on the west and Cenomani on the east. Centurions, put both Maniples in the center with the archers. Quickly now!”
Manius sent another courier to Rasce with orders to have the cavalry attack the Suevi rear as soon as they attack the Hastati. Rasce told his men of the orders and rode up the hill to look at the field. So far, he had heard, but not seen the Suevi. The sight startled him. Five thousand men stood about 250 yards from the Hastati and, from all appearances, were very eager to attack. He quickly picked out an approach to the Suevi rear; backed off the hill and moved his cavalry closer to the top of the hill.
Joseph’s two friends and tent mates in the Hastati stood on the hill facing 5000 men determined to kill them. Accius was in the front; Tertius stood behind him and a little to the left to allow Accius to draw back his pila when the order was given. For most of the men in the Hastati, this was their first battle. They trusted their training and equipment, but were scared nonetheless. The veteran Centurion tried to calm his men by repeating the commands he would give and expressing his confidence in their bravery. Joseph was back with the wagons and hated it. He longed to be with the Hastati and among his friends.
Manius called for the three Tribunes in charge of the three lines. He told the Hastati Tribune to have his men throw their pila when the Suevi were about 60’ downhill from their position and then to attack them on the run. “Close the distance quickly and tell the men to use their shields to butt and punch. I’ll pass the Principes through them as soon as the Suevi flanks weaken.” Manius told the Tribune of the Principes to have his men come over the hill on the run when called, throw their pila, and to pass through the Hastati. He told the Triarii Tribune to shift over to the right flank immediately, but to advance over the hill on the run when the Hastati attacks. Manius said that his intent is that Andreas would attack the Suevi right flank and that the Triarii would attack their left.
*******
Vocion looked at his men. They were ready and now slightly bunched in the middle. The enemy on the hill remained unchanged. He knew that attacking uphill gave the enemy the advantage, but was not concerned since they were few in number. He was so focused on his front that he did not notice that the noise coming out of the woods to his south had stopped. He also did not see the Auxiliaries filtering out of the woods and forming up along the wood line, slightly to his rear. He was as eager to attack as his men, but he held them back. He wanted to get within 100 yards before letting them run. They started to walk.
At about 150 yards the tension was unbearable and his men just took off. They were in no discernible formation; every man raced to be first. Vocion did not hold back either. He was out front with his men. It felt good to run and yell! He was no longer the leader; just another warrior running into battle. It was glorious!
Andreas and the Auxiliaries began an easy trot just seconds after the Suevi began their dash at the Hastati. The Auxiliaries had 300 yards to cover and were slightly to the rear of the Suevi. At one point, Andreas even slowed the advance to a walk to reform his lines. He estimated his troops presented a front about 250 yards across. He used the slower moving Maniples as pace setters and aimed them at the center of the Suevi mass.
The air over the racing Suevi was suddenly filled with a cloud of hissing missiles. The Hastati had unleashed their pila! The Suevi in the front, the fastest and bravest, instinctively dropped to the ground and tried to cover their heads, but for the men in this 10 yard wide impact zone, there was no protection.
The deadly pila thudded into shield, flesh and dirt all around them. The Suevi following behind missed the pila attack, but stumbled over the sprawled bodies of the dead and dying. The men coming from the rear continued to push those in the front. As these oncoming warriors slowed to get around the carnage, they suddenly came face to face with the running Hastati’s huge shield. Most never saw the short gladius poking out from the side of the shield. This line of Suevi were knocked off their feet by the downhill charge and stabbed where they fell.
The Hastati was now in a stand-up fight with the Suevi. Both sides were tripping over Suevi bodies. Swords came crashing down on Roman shields while gladius’ darted out with quick, short thrusts. After about 40 seconds of intense fighting, the Centurions blew their whistles and the first Hastati rotation took place. Fresh men now butted, pushed, and stabbed. From his vantage point up on the hill, Manius saw the Auxiliaries approaching the Suevi right flank. He planned to allow the Hastati to continue to fight until some on the Suevi right flank turned to face this new threat. Only a few of the Suevi saw the Auxiliaries coming, but by then it was too late. Some turned to defend themselves while others backed away and pressed into the center. The flank was crumbling.
When Rasce heard the command to throw the pila, he and his 280 horsemen bolted for the crest of the hill, skirted off to the right, and began to circle behind the Suevi. Rasce made it to his previous night’s campsite about the time the Auxiliaries crashed into the Suevi flank. Andreas’ two Maniples threw their pila and were now totally engaged. The Suevi facing the Hastati began to back up as their flank turned to engage or flee the Auxiliaries. That was Manius’ cue to pass the 1500 Principes through the Hastati to break the spirit and cohesion of the Suevi. They came over the hill on the run and threw their pila. The Hastati gave a final push and jumped back. The Principes hit the stunned Suevi with tremendous force.
As soon as the cavalry rode off, the Triarii, which had moved moments ago from behind the Principes over to the right flank, now charged over the hill while maintaining their formation of three lines of 500 each. Their Tribune led them in a short arc so they would face the left side of the Suevi. They paused 50’ away and unloaded their two pila each before crashing into the Suevi’s left flank.
Rasce lined up his cavalry to face the hill and yelled, “Charge.” Horses and riders lurched forward and raced the 400 yards to the hill. The riders bent low; their spears extended. Some Suevi turned; most never saw them coming. The horses crashed into the infantrymen and everything went flying. Spears jabbed; horses whirled about; Suevi ran in every direction. Roman cavalry chased and rode them down.
Vocion could not believe what he was seeing. The Roman spears were bad enough, but at least his men were still fighting. It was when he saw the second line of Romans come over the hill and the huge cavalry force suddenly appear and ride off his flank that he knew it was over. He held back; then stopped. He then heard the Roman Auxiliaries join the fight on his right and saw the Triarii come over the hill on his left. He was dumbfounded
. What had started out as a one sided fight in his favor was now a disaster that he may not survive. He started running for the north woods, as did those around him. The first arrow hit him in the hand as he ran, the second his shoulder, the third pierced his spleen. He was dead in one minute.
After a few minutes of slaughter, Rasce began riding around yelling, “Prisoners, prisoners!” Manius told him earlier to spare some Suevi so he could question them. Andreas similarly spared some of the Suevi on his flank; the rest lie in heaps at the foot of the hill and were now completely surrounded by blood splattered Legionaries and Auxiliaries, who stood, breathing hard, and quietly surveying the bloody and chaotic scene before them. It was over for now and they had won!
Manius knew to give them a moment to process what had just taken place; to let them think about it and to fill their eyes and minds with the scene. This was battle and this was the life of a Legionary. They had to harden to it and simply accept it. But Manius had to move on and quickly!
By 1000 hours, the Tribunes had already ordered the Principes and Hastati to walk among the Suevi and put to death those too wounded to survive. The 223 Roman dead were collected by the Triarii and set off to the side. The Auxiliaries gathered their dead, about 241. The number of Roman and Auxiliary wounded was five times more, about 2500, but few seriously. Forty prisoners had been captured and now sat on the grass thinking they would be executed at any minute. Manius told Elitovius to interrogate them to find out more about the Suevi army bearing down on him and once he had done that to then find out how Vocion had planned this ambush, if that is what it was.
Manius summoned Rasce and told him, to drop a solid curtain around this battlefield. “I can’t allow any Suevi survivors to get back to Ariovistus. Also stop any of Ariovistus’ men from trying to make contact with Vocion.” Rasce deployed his entire 600-man cavalry force stretching from the river’s edge to the battlefield, and beyond to the mountains. He established three successive belts of protection. Nothing was going to get through. It turned out that a few survivors did escape the battle in the south woods, but they went west, in the direction from which they had originally come, and not east towards Ariovistus.
Manius estimated that the larger Suevi force could arrive in the area between 1200 and 1400, which would give him 2 to 4 hours to set the battlefield and execute the plan that he and Joseph developed the night before. He needed more time. He thought about the first time that he met Ariovistus at the bridge. Maybe he could get him talking and drag it out for as long as possible. He had to buy a couple more hours or this was not going to end well.
Manius assembled his leaders on the top of the hill to bring them up to date and brief them on his plan to engage the army approaching from the east. He quickly reviewed what had just taken place and liberally praised each Commander, particularly the Auxiliaries, and the role each unit played in the victory. He then issued a stream of orders: “Calvus use the wagons to move the Suevi dead back to the wood line at Ranggen; I want them out of sight of any prying eyes as well as for the morale of our men.
Tomaeus, prepare a triangular shaped fort with ditches and palisades at the base of this hill as soon as the dead are removed. Construct it so that the longest side faces east and the point of the two shorter sides faces back to Ranggen; construct an observation tower in the center of the fort that is high enough to look over this hill that we are standing upon, about 20 feet; Andreas, move the Auxiliaries to the top of this hill and have them face east in the direction of the Suevi approach as a show of force; Snake, move your archers into the woods to the north and south of this hill to prevent the Suevi from getting around our flanks. Go now and put all that into motion, then return immediately.”
About 30 minutes later, everyone but Tomaeus was once again assembled and Manius continued: “As you know, the Suevi are but hours away from our present location and moving to engage us. They don’t know our location yet or the fact that we just defeated half of their army. I’ve already sent Rasce’s cavalry with a number of mounted archers to ensure word of this battle doesn’t reach the ears of their Commander. The cavalry is completely blocking any east-west communications across this entire valley and have order to delay the Suevi advance, as much as possible.”
“I estimate that Ariovistus has 10,000 men, which is about equal to our force in numbers. The difference is that 4500 of our army is made up of Auxiliaries who have had little training and are poorly equipped in comparison to that of a Roman Legionary. Now, as we have just seen, their bravery and willingness to engage the enemy is not in question. Their ability to stand up to an experienced army, however, is in doubt. My point is that even though our two opposing armies are numerically similar, we are the weaker force.
Because of this, I plan to take a defensive stance and employ a reverse-slope defense. This means we will dig-in on the side of the hill that the enemy cannot see. For it to succeed, it’s essential that Ariovistus not know our plans or see our defenses before he attacks. Commanders, when I dismiss you, I want you to post guards around this encampment to ensure no one leaves the area.”
Manius pointed, “See the woods to the east, the same woods that we occupied before entering this field this morning? I envision that Ariovistus and his men will also occupy those same woods after he discovers us. If we appear too strong to him, he may retreat back across the river and we’ll have accomplished little. If we appear too weak, he may attack immediately and may not even use his entire force. To put him in the proper frame of mind, I plan to show him the Auxiliaries right here where we are standing. Their lack of body armor, pila, and shields will mimic what he saw by the bridge the other day and not reveal our true capability.”
“I also want to display 300 archers and 200 horses or about 5000 men in total. That should be sufficient to garner his full attention, but not spook him into attacking prematurely or retreating. I want him to believe that he is not strong enough to attack us on his own and for him to feel he must wait to link up with Vocion. I will also try to buy time by meeting with him and engaging him in a dialog. Hopefully, both of us will see an advantage to delaying the battle.
We need the time to continue improving our fort and honing our tactics. You all have jobs to do. One last thing before you go, Elitovius found out that Vocion did not know our location before the battle we just fought. He was only going after the cavalry. We were not ambushed. Dismissed!”
*******
Ariovistus’ army entered the woods at Aldrans and settled in for a lengthy break. They had gotten up at 0400 and had been pushing hard ever since. Most had eaten little all day. It was now 0900. They built fires and ate; some slept. Ariovistus sent out scouts to try to make contact with Vocion and to try to find the Romans.
Ariovistus was not particularly concerned about the coming engagement. His warriors were used to fighting the Teutons in the north and were battle wise. He had no reason to doubt his own tactics and envisioned fighting the Romans as he fought all his battles: two sides face each other and charge! There was no subtlety involved. The stronger wins! It was man-to-man personal combat. Anything less is not honorable.
Two hours later, the first of his scouts came back with a disturbing report. “We rode west along the river road. Just past the Innsbruck-Brenner road, we saw a line of Roman cavalry in the distance blocking the road. We turned south to go around them and saw other cavalry spread out at intervals in the woods. We kept going south and kept seeing more Roman horsemen. We decided to test their purpose and road back to the river road and approached them. When we got within 100 yards, they charged us and we came back here. They didn’t follow us.”
Ariovistus hastily assembled his subordinate Commanders for a meeting. He told them about the scouts’ report and the failed link up with Vocion. He started the discussion, “It bothers me a great deal that we don’t know the location of Vocion. We should have made contact by now. Also why are the Romans so keen on blocking our scouts’ westward movement? I can only conclude that they kn
ow the general location of Vocion’s army and are desperately trying to prevent a link up. That tells me that the Romans are fewer in number than our forces, which is no surprise, and they don’t want to fight us. I say that because we saw about 2000 of them by the bridge the other day. Even if they have double that number, Vocion out numbers them and we have almost three times that.”
At this point additional scouts returned. Ariovistus told them to give their report to the assembled Commanders: “There are Romans covering all possible routes west. We tried to find a way around them and even went as far south as the entrance to the Brenner where we found several hundred more Romans guarding the road. They fired arrows at us as we approached them. Three of our horses were hit, but they all made it back.”
Ariovistus dismissed them and continued to talk. “They could be guarding the pass to ensure we don’t block their way out of the valley. We could send a force up there that’s large enough to push the Romans away and hold it.” One man spoke up and said, “Until we know what we are facing, I don’t think we should reduce our strength. Let’s keep the army together for now.” Another said, “Why not send a strong force up the road alongside the river and push the Romans out of the way. Then we can find out if Vocion is ready to attack. For all we know, he’s in position now and waiting for us to show up.”
A third man said, “That sounds good, but what if the Romans don’t want to be pushed off the road and then summon reinforcement. Then we have to reinforce and then they follow suit, and so on. My point is, if we try to push them away, we need to be prepared to fight the battle on or near the road. Is that what we really want to do? I suggest we keep the army together and keep moving west. If the Romans want to fight, then we fight them, with or without Vocion.”
Ariovistus agreed with the last speaker. “Let’s keep the army together for now and keep moving west. I think Vocion and his men can’t be far away. I also have a gut feeling the Romans are close to their cavalry screen, which puts them about 2 miles away. They’re hiding something. Let’s proceed west. Put half the army in the fields close to the river and the other half in the woods with the east-west road separating the two halves. When we meet the Romans, we’ll decide what to do. Get your men moving!” It was noon when the army cleared the wood heading west.
Legio XVII: Roman Legion at War Page 31