by Jack Ludlow
‘You may have wondered why I have left it so late to say what I intend. Do not think I insult you when I say wagging tongues can do us much damage. The information I have tells me we are not expected by the Vandals but that is the word of one man, recently a visitor to Carthage but no soldier, though I will say I believe what he told me. My silence was a mere precaution to maintain what I hope is the true situation.’
He reminded them that another Roman expedition had been destroyed very close by where they lay, nearly a hundred years previously, and in reading of that campaign he had seen several things that needed to be altered to avoid the failure that was their lot.
‘We shall not reside aboard our vessels for a moment longer than is necessary, which will ease discomfort. More than that, it gives our enemies a chance to attack us, which they will certainly take in a situation where they would have the advantage. Well-manned ships, more manoeuvrable than our transports, and the time to choose a propitious moment.’
Valerianus, the general who commanded the praesental infantry, spoke up to say he was sure they could beat the enemy off.
‘At what cost, Valerianus? I have no idea of the size of their fleet and I would hazard I am not alone. Apart from a battle I have no desire to fight, we risk bad weather as well, but that is not why I wish to rapidly disembark. If our presence is unknown it will not remain so. A fleet this size cannot beat up and down off the coast without word getting to our enemies, if only from fishermen. If we anchor inshore the same applies and it seems to me if there is Vandal ignorance we must move swiftly to take advantage of it.’
It was necessary with men of this calibre to pause and let them acknowledge the acceptance of his points, one being that whatever forces the Vandals possessed must of necessity at present be dispersed.
‘But are we deceived?’ Flavius added, entering a note of caution. ‘Is Gelimer waiting to strike, knowing full well where we are and the likely spot at which we will come ashore? We must guard against that, so the first thing to do on landing is to give ourselves a secure base. We will throw up an earthen rampart behind which we will be secure and we will turn that into a fortress, as well guarded as would be an old legionary camp. For the vessels anchored offshore the fighting galleys must be manned, and employed in rowing guard too. You know why.’
The expedition he had just mentioned had been destroyed by Vandals sending in among them fireships while they were at anchor. The losses sustained to that tactic ensured that the battle ended in defeat.
‘Rowboats too, General,’ suggested Calonymus. ‘As far from the anchorage as they can without losing sight of our masts. An early warning if they have torches and flints with which to ignite them.’
‘A good idea. Gentlemen it is time to pray. We land at dawn.’
With the sun at their backs they hit the open beach just south of a settlement known as Caput Vada, the infantry disembarking first. Half set to digging and throwing up the earthwork Flavius wanted, the rest hauling the horse transports beam on to the beach and securing them with ropes and stakes so their wide gangplanks could be lowered over the side. Both the horses and those landing them took pleasure in the time spent in the warm sea, the animals, even if they had been continually groomed, carrying the filth of accumulated travel and confinement, causing a great amount of splashing that turned the sea light brown by disturbed sand.
Much shouting in various tongues ensued as the commanders sought to organise their troops of cavalry and it was far from smooth. But it was heartening to Flavius, watching from the deck of his command ship, to see it being less of a melee than had attended any of the previous disembarkations. Not long after, midday patrols were out scouring the surrounding countryside for any evidence of an enemy but there was none. Belisarius and the Roman army were ashore and secure, now with a wooden stockade under construction and a fleet to which they could retreat at will behind them.
Next he must go ashore himself and lead the march on Carthage. If Gelimer was not in his capital it made no difference where he lay, for with a Roman army on the way to besiege it he must hurry to secure his base. He who held the city held the region and that had been the case since the time of Hannibal and Scipio Africanus. The only worry was the lack of knowledge of the whereabouts of any forces out in the countryside and that dictated his tactics from now on.
The Vandals, once they found the Romans had landed, would not be organised into a composite army ready for battle and thus, being dispersed, they must coalesce in groups of varying sizes according to previous arrangements at certain key locations. There had to be another plan for them to unite and his aim was to prevent such a union so that he would always outnumber whoever he faced.
There was one other consideration and it was important, the attitude of those the Vandals ruled: what would they do when they encountered the Roman army, welcome them and provide aid and intelligence, or stand aside and wait to see who was more likely to triumph? The nearest town of any size was called Syllectus, a place large enough to have both a local forum and an amphitheatre.
Flavius selected one of his best bucellarii commanders to go there. Boriades had a cool head and a shrewd mind, but more importantly he was, like his general, a native Latin speaker, for that was the language of the province. The instructions were clear: whatever happened, no harm was to come to the indigenes.
‘Even if you lose men in the process you are to retire in the face of any resistance.’
‘Not an easy order to obey, General.’
‘But obey it you must.’
The day was spent in more organisation, though the troops were given some freedom to roam and that led to the first flogging, administered to a quartet of infantry to drive home that it was not acceptable for any of his men to help themselves to food and drink without payment, which was what had occurred, though in this case it was merely picking fruit without asking.
That had him call his entire force together and harangue them; the local population had been under Vandal rule for a century but he thought them still to be Romans at heart. Such people could be their friends or, exposed to unprincipled behaviour, at best indifferent and at worst actively resistant. Treated well they might provide valuable information on the Vandals, for whom they should have no love, treated badly they might join with the enemy. Then there was food, which would be abundant only if paid for; stolen on the march, those ahead of the army would hide their stored produce.
He reminded them they were alone on a hostile shore and without driving it home too forcibly, alluded to the vicissitudes the men had suffered just to get here; did they want to be forced back aboard those ships to return defeated to Constantinople? It was then made plain that any more incidents of such a nature would be more severely punished and the men were reminded of those two Huns publically hanged.
‘Pay for what you need,’ was the blanket command.
Boriades did not return in person but sent a small detachment back to the main camp to report that having bivouacked outside Syllectus the men had entered the town by just following in the morning carts proceeding to market; no violence and no parleying had been necessary. Finding Romans in their midst, albeit from the east, the leading citizens had bid them welcome and promised aid.
‘Freely given or out of fear?’ Flavius asked. ‘Faced with a body of mounted fighting men they may be just being cautious.’
‘Impossible to tell, Excellence.’
‘Your impression will suffice.’
‘I think them pleased, but with worries that should we not prevail their overlords will take a stiff revenge.’
While they were talking another messenger came in from Syllectus, to say that Boriades, with the help of the overseer of the local post house, had taken into custody a messenger on his way to alert Carthage to the landing, the fellow having stopped to change mounts. This revealed that the Vandals were still using the same method of fast-mounted messengers on the roads they inherited from Roman rule and that would be used to get their forces o
rganised. Discussing what to do with this messenger, Flavius was politely interrupted by Procopius.
‘Is our cause against Gelimer or the Vandals as a people?’
The man he served was quick to get the drift of that suggestion, which seemed to confuse the other senior officers present. The messenger, sent on his way, might provide an opportunity to separate those who still supported the imprisoned Hilderic from Gelimer, and the majority of those would be in Carthage where such a message might have an effect. He spoke while Procopius wrote, saying who they were and more importantly whom they represented.
The message stated that the Emperor Justinian had no desire to make war on the Vandals as a people, just to see their rightful ruler, a man with whom he had corresponded and with whom he was about to sign a treaty of friendship, placed back on his throne. That accomplished, the invasion force would re-embark and sail for home.
‘Justinian would brand us for such a falsehood,’ Procopius ventured.
‘The opposite is true; when it comes to spinning lies our Emperor is a past master. This is mean stuff to him and would scarce warrant a reward.’
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
The Romans having no idea of the whereabouts of their enemies or their mode of fighting, Flavius split the army into separate detachments prior to the march to Styllectus, their first destination. Three hundred bucellarii were placed under an experienced commander, John the Armenian. They were sent ahead of the main body at a distance of one league, that to be maintained.
Balas and his Huns were allotted the inland flank defence, there being no need for that on the shoreside of the advance; that was guarded by the fleet which would accompany the army and match its pace as long as they hugged the coast. Flavius brought up the rear with the remainder of the bucellarii as well as his own comitatus, these being his best troops. Gelimer had last been placed south of their landing place; being behind his main force their commander was well placed not only to protect them but to launch an immediate attack should the need arise.
They arrived at Syllectus to be greeted by a wary populace, but that caution evaporated in the face of the way the Romans behaved. Soon a delegation of the leading citizens were happy to inform Flavius that he had their full support and the first task he had for them was that these worthies should give him some indication of the methods of fighting he was likely to face.
Being non-military it could only be partial but that proved edifying. The first point established that the Vandals did not train as an army, each fighter was expected to work on his own skills but never in large bodies, more in small local detachments, and that boded well. Better still was their opinion regarding the Moors, the local rivals of the Vandals, nomads occupying the lands to the west all the way to the Pillars of Hercules and beyond, into which these northern barbarians were inclined to encroach.
The two protagonists had fought a battle not long past in which the Moors had triumphed by placing a screen of camels ahead of their army, which threw the mounted attack into disarray, the stink of camels being one equines cannot abide. They had then, from behind that screen, assailed their enemies with archery and volleys of stones fired from small ballistae, throwing the entire Vandal assault into turmoil and eventually obliging them to retire. The first lesson to be drawn from this was obvious: the Vandals would struggle against any force that could disrupt their structure, for it appeared they lacked the ability to make swift tactical changes.
With the population of Syllectus on his side these elders were happy to send out riders to gather intelligence from the cities that lay in the Roman army’s path. The reports that came back indicated that another brother of Gelimer, Ammatus, was in the capital with some five thousand effectives while the unconfirmed news was that Gelimer was hurrying north to join up with him, traversing the road between the capital and Hermione. His numbers were greater but that was yet to be established, so in essence it was a race to Carthage.
That allowed Flavius to alter his dispositions; the cavalry were to go ahead of the infantry, which he would command, keeping with him his mounted comitatus as a shock and protective force bringing up the rear until notice came that Gelimer may have reached his columns. There was no hiding the fact that this was a strategy that carried risks. The Vandals had morphed in North Africa from travelling in carts and fighting on foot into a mounted power and that was the kind of opposition the Roman infantry ever struggled to contain.
Like the Vandal messengers he would base his advance on the roads. The difficulty was that moving at the pace of a foot soldier imposed some restrictions: first there was the speed of penetration; Gelimer would not forever be in ignorance of the whereabouts of those he must fight and destroy. There would be scouts out soon if not already, so Flavius wanted any information he received to put the Roman army well ahead of where it was in total, which would form the basis of his contrary tactics.
Strung out along a highway made the infantry vulnerable but with a strong cavalry screen and the fact that he had spent so much time in training them to manoeuvre, their commander was sure by the time any enemy came upon them they would be formed up and ready to defend themselves, very likely on favourable ground chosen by their general. At that point he would send out skirmishers and archers to disrupt the Vandal preparations in order to delay any attack.
The cavalry, operating in strong flying columns, would have standing orders to retire on the position Flavius took up, which might completely surprise the enemy in the first instance. But more importantly it would unite the two arms into a formidable whole in a spot where the Romans should enjoy the advantage. To any observation on the dangers Flavius Belisarius had his response ready: war was ever carried out in a fog of uncertainty and that applied to Gelimer just as much as it applied to him.
Never one to underestimate his opponent, he knew that his enemy would be seeking to surprise him, and putting the sandal on the other foot he sought to outguess him. There was one obvious point on the old Roman maps which told Flavius danger would very likely threaten, the narrow pass at Ad Decimum, some three leagues from Carthage, a place where, if his information was accurate, success depended more on how troops were deployed than the mere numerical supremacy he was sure he enjoyed.
Could Gelimer leave his capital city undefended? To ask Ammatus to come towards him was to bring that to pass, which meant wherever battle was joined the Vandal leader must win for any other outcome would leave his capital at the mercy of the invader. But the Romans were between the two Vandal forces and Flavius could not see how they could combine without him being aware of their dispositions.
Truly war was carried out in a fog; for all his intelligence and the aid of the locals no one told the Romans that there was another road to the south by which Gelimer could join forces with his brother, other than the direct route from Hermione. That road met the main route from the coast and Leptis Magna, south of the very pass where danger threatened.
It had been the intention to draw the enemy towards him, and as was his way, fight a battle on his chosen ground. If his insistence on what amounted to a defensive tactic met with disapproval from his more fiery inferiors, that he was willing to suffer, so, on the fourth day, having found a suitable site for an encampment, on ground he knew he could defend, Flavius ordered it made secure before sending Solomon and a force of mounted foederati riding off to reconnoitre for the enemy as well as join up with John the Armenian.
Unbeknown to the man in command, battle was already being joined. Balas and his Huns were still to the west of the main force to guard its flank, albeit they had increased the distance somewhat, which brought them to the main road from Hermione to Carthage and there they encountered a force of Vandals outnumbering their six hundred by some three or four times. Sense indicated an immediate withdrawal but one of Balas’s men rode right on to top a slight mound and gazed down upon the enemy, defying them to attack.
This piece of bravado caused the Vandals to stop, either because they feared a trap or they were
merely nonplussed by such behaviour and it was at that point Balas saw an opportunity. Famously fierce and sometimes uncontrollable he attacked an enemy now static, which was a bad situation for cavalry under any circumstances and deadly when they lacked the discipline to properly react.
Before the Vandals could get into any sort of defensive formation, the fast-riding Huns were peppering them with arrows just before, swords out, they got amongst them, throwing the Vandals into utter confusion. To say they acted like headless chickens was only to anticipate the fate of many who ended up as headless humans, many more being skewered or dragged from their horses by whips in the hands of riders of great skill.
The enemy were routed, many of them killed, including their leader who, it transpired, was the nephew of Gelimer. The Huns also established that, two thousand strong, they had been on their way to defend Carthage, which was a solid indication that Ammatus had left the city to join his elder brother.
The next phase of the battle was as much a mystery to Flavius Belisarius as the first; at almost the same moment at Balas was routing his enemies, John the Armenian had encountered a force of Vandals scouting forward, one clearly a high-ranking leader with a small escort of no more than thirty men, and that led to an immediate engagement. John suffered casualties, for the Vandals fought bravely and well, but for his dozen dead John could account in profit of the bodies of every man he had faced.
Sensing the road to Carthage might be open, John ordered his men to follow and sped along it, encountering on his way the army of Ammatus strung out in small groups along the roadway, these either fleeing or, if they stood to fight, dying. John kept going until he sighted the walls of Carthage itself where, knowing he was isolated, he turned to retrace his steps, the men he led looting his dead and dying victims en route.