Dawn of Empire

by H A CULLEY

  Samsu-Iluna pulled back his bowstring, adrenalin lending renewed strength to his tired arms, and sent arrow after arrow at the retreating enemy. The Elamites shot back and an arrow hit the left hand horse of Samsu-Iluna’s matched pair in the chest. The horse stumbled and fell whilst its companion tried to keep going. The chariot slewed sharply to the left and overturned. The youth was thrown clear but his helmeted head came into violent contact with a rock and he knew no more.

  Meanwhile the camel archers and the horsemen were finishing off the last of the Elamites who had manned the disabled chariots until they were all dead. The Babylonians had heard about the mutilations the two soldiers who were with Arishaka had been subjected to and their blood was up. They had determined that no quarter would be given to the Elamites. They then galloped after the chariots but by the time they arrived it was all over. For the loss of three chariots all the Elamites were dead. However, their elation at their easy victory was destroyed by the discovery of Samsu-Iluna lying deathly pale beside his smashed chariot with blood seeping out of the bashed-in helmet that still covered his head.

  Es-Nasir, the captain of the camel archers, who had been a companion of Samsu-Iluna’s since boyhood, dismounted and ran to his friend’s side and gently lifted his head.

  ‘He’s breathing, albeit very shallowly,’ he told the rest who were now crowding around. They lifted him gently onto the floor of a chariot and took him slowly back to their camp in the valley.

  After some time the senior physician came out of his tent and told them that the prince lived but his skull was fractured. His brain was swollen and he needed to trepan the skull to relieve the pressure. It was a dangerous operation which he had only seen done once before. It would be a long time before the prince recovered, even if the operation went well, and he could have damaged his brain. He said no more and went back into his tent, leaving a stunned silence behind him.

  Ea-nasir, the two captains of a thousand spearmen and the captain of archers had been briefed on the plan to bottle the Elamites up in the ravine. He realised that they should have moved into position as soon as the chariots were disposed of so, drawing his thoughts reluctantly away from his unconscious friend, he started to give orders for the army to move out.

  One of the spearmen captains, a man twenty years older than the seventeen year old captain of camel archers, looked as if he was about to challenge Es-Nasir’s right to take over command but thought better of it. He and the other captains rushed away to get their men formed up.

  An hour later they were in position across the entrance to the ravine. The archers were drawn up in front of the ranks of spearmen, who stood five deep right across the valley. The seventeen light chariots, augmented by another ten cobbled together from the remnants of the Elamite heavy chariots and pulled by the surviving onagers, were placed in front of the archers. The camel archers were placed to either side of the foot archers with the horsemen in reserve. There they waited under the fading sun as it sank to the west. Ea-nasir hoped that, by the time the Elamites tried to leave the ravine, the sun would be directly behind his army and in the eyes of the enemy.

  ~#~

  Now that he had time to reflect as they waited for the next attack, Arishaka admitted to himself that perhaps he had been a little foolhardy. He would be thirty next year. Adiar had been nagging him for some time to settle down and find a wife but he kept telling her that there was plenty of time. Well, perhaps there wasn’t; not if he kept getting into scrapes. He loved both his nephews and for the first time he thought about what it would be like having children of his own.

  Then his thoughts were dragged back to the present. The Elamites were massing for an all-out assault on the wall. After a few initial volleys of arrows designed to keep the defenders’ heads down, all ten thousand surviving spearmen ran forward. A few fell to the missiles from the sangers but they had no real impact on so many men. They broke against the wall like a wave crashing against a sea cliff. Whilst the first rank braced themselves against the base of the wall the next rank climbed onto their shoulders and then the next rank climbed up the human ladder until they were facing the defenders on top of the wall.

  The Babylonians had the advantage of a steadier platform from which to fight and the Elamite soldiers suffered three casualties to every Babylonian one, but still they kept coming, rank after rank. The Babylonians were tiring and they were faced by a fresh soldier every time they defeated one. Gaps were appearing along the wall and some Elamites managed to get a foothold on the parapet inside the wall.

  A thousand had rushed around the end of the left hand wall into the space that led to the improvised gate. The archers, spearmen and slingers rained missiles down on them until at least half were dead but the other five hundred had reached the barricade. Arishaka knew that this was the weak spot in his defences and had chosen to command the defenders there himself. As the Elamites clambered up the wooden barricade he was everywhere at the top wielding his hooked bronze sword and shield. The Elamites were now down to perhaps three hundred and beginning to lose heart when an enormous man clambered on top of the barricade and lunged at Arishaka with his spear. So great was the power behind the thrust that the bronze tip punched straight through his shield and made a shallow cut along Arishaka’s forearm. Fortunately the spear stuck fast in the shield and, when Arishaka threw it aside, the huge Elamite was left with a useless weapon. He let go of the spear and pulled out a long bronze dagger. He still had his shield, unlike Arishaka, and try as he might he couldn’t get past the larger man’s guard with his sword.

  Engaged as he was, he was totally oblivious to what was going on around him. Suddenly he saw an opening. The Elamite had lifted his shield to block a blow to his head, but Arishaka changed it at the last moment to a sweeping cut at his legs. The sickle shape at the lower end of his blade cut deeply into the man’s right calf, right down and into the bone. The man shrieked and dropped to one knee as Arishaka struggled to free his blade. He pulled it clear just as the furious Elamite struck upwards with his dagger towards Arishaka’s groin. For a fleeting moment he saw his chances of siring children disappear and then he chopped down with his blade, cutting deeply into the man’s right arm at the wrist. A moment later he swung the blade again with all his force and the man’s head flopped to one side, more than half severed from his torso.

  As he stood there shaking in reaction to the fight he looked around him. The area between the two walls leading up to the barricade was so full of dead Elamites that you couldn’t see a patch of earth. The top of barricade itself as festooned with the dead of both sides. He carefully made his way along the top, stepping on corpses because there was no alternative, until he reached the parapet inside the wall. Exhausted Babylonians were slumped everywhere amongst the dead. He walked over and looked at the scene below him in the ravine. Here again the ground was covered in bodies, several deep at the base of the wall. The enemy were in full flight back the way they had come; what was left of them.

  He turned and asked one of his captains of a thousand spearmen where the king was. The man was leaning heavily on his shield and turned his tired eyes towards his commander.

  ‘He has gone back down to the camp to lead the horsemen in the pursuit, my lord.’

  Arishaka went over and patted the man on his stooped back. ‘Then I hope that they don’t turn on him. A few horsemen wouldn’t stand a chance against several thousand spearmen.’

  Just at that moment he saw the barricade being hauled to one side to allow the horsemen to leave. But the horses refused to clamber over the dead bodies and it was another half an hour before enough were dragged to one side to make a pathway. By this time Arishaka had found a horse and joined his brother.

  ‘Let me go. You’re too valuable to risk. Suppose they turn on you, which they may well do when they find their escape blocked?’

  Jus at that moment the camel archers joined them.

  ‘We had to wait for archers on the walls to recover and get their camel
s. With them we should be safe enough. In any case I am concerned about Samsu-Iluna. This will be his first battle in command.’

  Arishaka nodded. ‘Let’s go then.’

  ~#~

  But Samsu-Iluna lay unconscious in the physicians’ tent so it was Es-Nasir who told the chariots to move forward at a walk as the first of the routed enemy came running around the bend in the ravine. The chariots picked up speed as they advanced either side of the stream. The leading Elamites came to a sudden halt as they saw the chariots and the massed army behind them. Those behind them crashed into them and several were knocked to the ground to be trodden underfoot. When their predicament became obvious a great wailing started. Most had thrown away their weapons in their haste to get away so only few arrows flew towards the charging chariots.

  Es-Nasir was wise enough to know that, although a charge into the enemy would kill many of them, even men with bare hands could kill them if there were enough of them. So they turned across the front of the enemy and sent arrow after arrow into their ranks. This maddened them so much that they forgot their fear and charged after the retreating chariots. Having done their job, the chariots disappeared down gaps that opened up in the ranks of infantry and then closed behind them.

  Next it was the archers’ turn. First the camels rode forward and fired several volleys in the massed enemy, then they withdrew to the rear as the Elamite horde came in range of the foot archers. They had time to get off three or four arrows each before they too withdrew.

  Then the remaining five thousand Elamites struck the two thousand Babylonian spearmen. These were mainly ex-militia men who had only just completed their basic training as members of the standing army, but there was a sprinkling of seventeen-year olds for whom this was their first taste of conflict. The front rank buckled as the first wave hit it but the rear ranks pushed forward with their shields against the backs of the men in front and the line held. Then the spearmen went to work stabbing and stabbing the Elamites, few of whom were properly armed but many had daggers which did do some damage.

  Meanwhile the archers of both types, camel and foot, kept up a steady rain of arrows shot at high trajectory to hit the rearmost ranks of the enemy. When Hammurabi arrived at their rear his four hundred camel archers added their volleys to the rest. The Elamites soon decided that they had had enough and they started to hold up their hands in surrender.

  It was then that Arishaka and Es-Nasir cried out ‘No quarter’ and the killing continued.

  ‘Why did you call for no quarter?’ Hammurabi, furious once more, yelled at his brother.

  ‘Because of the way that they mutilated my men.’

  ‘Even so, enough is enough. Give the order to spare the rest.’ Arishaka looked as if he was going to argue but eventually he nodded.

  When they had finished counting the dead he discovered that the Elamites had lost nine thousand men to less than a thousand Babylonian dead. Another hundred Babylonians were so badly wounded that they were unlikely to survive and three hundred more were too badly crippled to remain in the army. They would be pensioned off to work as storemen, baggage train drivers and the like.

  The Babylonian dead were buried on the battlefield but the Elamites were thrown onto carts and chariots and dumped out on the plain where they were left to feed the carrion birds and animals for many weeks to come. All this was left to Arishaka to organise as Hammurabi, once he was told about Samsu-Iluna, scarcely left his bedside. Two weeks later Adiar arrived to join him. By this time their son had regained consciousness but couldn’t remember anything. He didn’t even recognise his parents or his brother, which left them distraught.

  ~#~

  When the prisoners were interrogated it turned out that their commander was the younger brother of the new King of Susa. He would have made a useful hostage but he was dead, like most of the Elamite officers. The man now in charge of the siege of Hiritum was an old man who had been the training officer in Susa for many years before this campaign. However their training regime was nothing like that of Babylon, their militia mustered for just one week every year.

  Hammurabi could think of little else but his concern for Samsu-Iluna, but Adiar was more practical.

  ‘We have six thousand well trained men here compared to the twelve thousand poor quality troops besieging Hiritum, and there are another four thousand soldiers inside the city. You have the opportunity to defeat the rest of the Elamite army and relieve the city before Zimri-Lim gets here.’

  Hammurabi dragged his mind away from thinking about his son for a moment.

  ‘What you mean is we can bring the city into alliance with us, whereas if we wait for the men from Mari and Yamhad to arrive there will be a struggle for power after our joint victory, however politely conducted?’

  ‘Precisely. The likely outcome of which is that Hiritum will remain independent but the three kingdoms will be under an obligation to come to its aid if Elam comes calling again.’

  ‘And all our efforts will have been for nothing.’ Hammurabi nodded. ‘Well Arishaka can earn his forgiveness by leading the army to victory. I’m not leaving my son’s side.’

  The king watched his brother ride out at the head of the army and turn towards Hiritum; then went back to sit with his son again. As he approached the tent Adiar came rushing out and threw herself into his arms.

  ‘He recognised me. I think he’s getting better,’ she wept with relief. Hammurabi kept his arms around her and squeezed gently.

  ‘That’s wonderful news. Shall we go and see if he recognises his father too?’

  Half an hour later Hammurabi went to find the chief priest to instruct him to offer up a bull in sacrifice to thank Marduk for his son’s recovery. After that he considered riding after the army but, after mature consideration, he felt that his brother deserved the victory that he was so sure he would achieve.

  Arishaka was not so confident. The enemy had outnumbered him by two to one, but from his vantage point overlooking the enemy camp there seemed to quite a lot more than twelve thousand present; more like fifteen or sixteen thousand. Most were Elamites from their dress, but quite a sizeable minority looked like Eshnunnans. He was fairly certain that all the Eshnunnans had either been killed or had deserted. Could they have returned? Or was this a new contingent? Then he had an idea and sent for the one Eshnunnan officer they had captured.

  It took the chariot he sent three hours to collect the man from the cage where the prisoners were being held and then return. Arishaka looked the man over. He was middle-aged and looked as if all the fight had been knocked out of him.

  ‘Why do you serve the Elamites?’ Arishaka began.

  ‘Because they have conquered our country and they have threatened to kill our families if we don’t fight for them,’ he muttered resignedly. ‘But, after our losses in opposing their invasion and now our losses in fighting you, there are very few Eshnunnans left to fight anybody.’

  ‘How would you like to save the loss of what few soldiers you have left so that they can help you to free your country from the Elamite yoke?’

  ‘How?’ he asked suspiciously. So Arishaka explained his plan.

  ~#~

  The Babylonians launched a dawn attack against the Elamite camp using chariots and camel archers. It was a quick in and out operation intended to damage morale, rather than inflict significant losses. When the Elamites launched an ill-organised pursuit they ran into Uktannu’s slingers and the foot archers. After they suffered a lot more casualties they withdrew, all semblance of order gone. It was two hours or more before their commander managed to restore some semblance of control over his men.

  An hour later the Elamites marched out onto the plain to the south of the city. The had left the Eshnunnans to guard against a sally by the Hiritum army. This was a grave error as the two small forces met up and combined to make a force five thousand strong in the rear of the Elamites. The Eshnunnan officer released by Arishaka had done his job well. Not only had be persuaded his fellow countryme
n to switch sides but he had also managed to get Arishaka’s message into the city.

  The Elamites formed up with their chariots to the flanks, archers in front and massed ranks of spearmen behind. Their line was twice as long as that of the Babylonians, who had adopted a similar formation, except for the camel archers who took up position further out on the flanks beyond the chariots. Arishaka had placed his slingers with his archers so that he could concentrate his fire on the Elamite centre whilst leaving his mobile troops to protect the vulnerable flanks. If the Elamites managed to envelop his army in a manoeuvre called the bull’s horns he knew that his men could be massacred.

  The Elamites began proceedings in the traditional way by sending in the chariots. He didn’t have as many as the Babylonians but Arishaka didn’t respond by ordering his own chariots forward. Instead he left it to the massed archers and slingers to bring down the onagers and slay the charioteers. Only a few chariots reached the archers and slingers, who parted to let them through. A few seconds later the chariots crashed into the hidden pits, which had been dug in front of the spearmen.

  Having lost his chariots, the Elamite commander had only one option left. He sent ten thousand spearmen forward in a massive wave. The archers and slingers did as much damage as they could before they withdrew through the infantry phalanxes. The camels and the Babylonian chariots then charged forward to harass the enemy flanks. The pits had only been dug in the centre so they had complete freedom of manoeuvre and they made use of it. Time and time again they swept along the front and sides of the enemy flanks, out of reach of their spears. They slowed them down and then they started to break under the incessant attack from men they couldn’t strike back at.

  It was at that moment that the Eshnunnans and the men from Hiritum charged into the rear ranks of the Elamite centre. With the flanks who had been trying to envelop the Babylonians routed, the enemy found themselves fighting on four sides: infantry to the front and back and mobile archers at the sides. Meanwhile Arishaka had dispatched the horsemen he was holding in reserve to pursue the fleeing spearmen from the flanks. The city was vulnerable now that all its fighting men were engaged in the battle and the last thing he wanted was to win a victory, only to find the city had fallen after all.