by R. W. Peake
“That’s Pompey’s 1st, and isn’t that the 15th next to them?”
Vibius peered at the enemy lines for a moment, then nodded. “I wonder how the 15th feels about facing us, after all the miles we marched together in Gaul?”
That was the question in my own mind, but since there was no real way of knowing the answer, I just shrugged.
Vibius looked over at the massed cavalry standing motionless except for the horses pawing at the ground, creating a veil of dust that made it hard to distinguish individuals, but managing to make out at least one, he pointed and exclaimed, “Isn’t that that prick Labienus over there?”
I squinted, then after a moment I could make out a figure sitting a horse in a familiar manner, and I nodded. “The gods know I saw him enough to know how he sits a horse. That’s definitely him,” I said.
“We better win then, because that bastard will show us no mercy.” Vibius smiled grimly.
“And if I get the chance, I have a promise to fulfill,” I replied, thinking about my conversation with Albinus.
~ ~ ~ ~
For several moments, the two armies just stood there, looking at each other, and there was a pervasive silence that I have never witnessed before or since. It was so unnerving that the Pompeians became clearly agitated, moving around and even as we watched, their cohesion began to fall apart. Their Centurions started snapping orders at their men to keep still, but we watched the carefully ordered lines simply begin to fall apart. Even as this was happening, Pompey issued the orders for his cavalry to charge, the ground starting to shake when more than 6,000 horses began thundering towards us. Instantly, Caesar ordered our own cavalry to countercharge, despite there being barely 1,000 of them, and now both groups of infantry stood watching them crash together with a horrific sound. Almost immediately, the dust churned up by thousands of pounding hooves obscured most of the action, with only glimpses of what was taking place coming when some freak of the wind cleared the dust away for a moment. In those moments, I spotted Labienus swinging his spatha, the long cavalry sword, above his head as he shouted out commands to his troopers. Through the dust, I saw men falling, and at first, I took heart because it appeared that it was more Pompeians than our own men on the ground, but deep down I knew that with a disparity of more than six to one it could not last. With the cavalry battling on the plain to our right, Pompey ordered his force of archers and slingers, positioned just behind the cavalry, forward into the space just vacated by them, whereupon they began launching volleys of slingshot and arrows at us.
Now, above the sound of the cavalry battle, came the whirring sound of slingshot zipping by, and I yelled out to my men, “Shields up! If any of you bastards gets hit by any of these piddling missiles, you’re on a charge!”
As I expected, this brought a laugh, and not for the first time I had the fleeting wish that I was back in the ranks, safe behind a shield, rather than standing out front with nothing but my vitus to wave at the slings and arrows headed my way. While it is considered bad form for a Centurion to hop and dance about, trying to dodge things headed his way, it is acceptable for us to take a step in one direction or another. The next few moments found me taking such steps back and forth, convinced that the entire Pompeian force had decided to aim right at me. I was so busy trying not to be skewered or smacked in the face with a lead shot that I did not see Labienus split off part of his force, disengage them from our cavalry, and begin to gallop around our right flank.
~ ~ ~ ~
I honestly do not remember hearing the signal, but it must have been given because as a single unit, the army stepped forward, beginning the advance again, at the quick step. We closed the distance rapidly, then the cornu gave the signal to ready the javelins.
“Prepare, Javelins!”
Behind me, I heard the indrawn breaths of thousands of men readying themselves to hurl their javelin at the enemy, who in turn hunched behind their shields, waiting for the volley to come their way.
“Release!”
The air was filled with the whistling sound of thousands of shafts arcing through the air and despite myself I winced at seeing the slender slivers of wood turn downward to pick up speed. Enemies or not, I could not help feeling sorry for anyone forced to endure a volley of javelins. The sound of the metal heads punching into the wood of the Pompeian shields made a thunderous racket, overlying which were the high-pitched screams of men not fast or lucky enough to block one of the missiles coming at them with their shields.
Immediately after we discharged our volley, I heard a familiar voice roar out, “Follow me boys, it’s time to earn our pay!”
And with that, Crastinus and his handpicked group of men let out a roar before charging headlong into the men of Pompey’s 1st Legion. Just heartbeats later, the rest of us followed, slamming into the stationary line of the Pompeians. Once more, I found myself staring at men just like myself, looking over the rims of their shields at me as I ran forward, dropping my vitus. Reaching out, I made as if to grab the upper edge of a man’s shield who reacted instantly, sweeping his blade along the edge in an attempt to cut off my fingers, but that was exactly what I wanted him to do. Instead, I whipped my hand down, grabbing the left edge of his shield and giving a tremendous yank. If he had relinquished his grip on his shield, he would have lived, at least for a bit longer, but instead he held on for dear life, the combination of my size and strength serving to pull him bodily out from his own line, stripping him of the protection of the man to his left. Instantly, I saw the silver of a blade flicker out as one of my men saw the opening, his sword punching through under the man’s elbow and into his ribcage. The man crumpled to the ground and I immediately grabbed his shield to use as my own. Before we could exploit the hole made by his loss, however, the man behind him stepped into his place, lashing out with his shield to knock me a step backwards. All along the line, men were bashing at each other, and like our raid on the hillfort, I was struck by the thought if bodies were not falling and blood flowing, this could be nothing more than a training exercise. Because we were so familiar with each other's tactics, it was impossible for one side to gain an advantage over the other, yet we stood there bashing at each other, trying nonetheless. Now that we were engaged, I had no idea what was happening to our right flank; I just had to trust that Caesar had the situation under control. Besides, turning my attention away from the matter at hand would be a deadly mistake with men as experienced as we were facing, so I concentrated on the action immediately around me. The second line was ordered forward earlier than usual, but even the added weight pushing those of us in the front line, we were unable to budge the Pompeians. After the initial clash, where we had unleashed our battle cry as we slammed into the enemy, there was very little sound issuing from the men, aside from the grunts, gasps and groans of someone being struck down. I had never been involved in a battle where there was so little sound coming from the combatants, even more so than the fight at the hillfort, and it was a little unnerving, to put it mildly. I am convinced that because of this silence, I was able to hear a cry that chilled my heart.
“Crastinus is dead! They’ve killed the Primus Pilus!”
Immediately after that call, there was a roar of triumph from the Pompeians to my right, followed by an answering roar of rage by my comrades in Crastinus’ volunteers. Turning and looking over my shoulder, I saw the same look of shock on the men’s faces that I felt; Gaius Crastinus was invincible. If he fell, what hope did any of us have? I think for the first time in my life in the Legions, I felt the icy grip of doubt threaten to take hold of me. Oh, I always knew that there was a possibility that I would fall whenever we lined up in battle, but I never truly believed it might happen, until this moment. Gaius Crastinus was my first commander, and I was proud to watch his rise through the Legion, just as I knew he was proud to watch mine. The idea that he could be dead brought home the fact that if he could die, I could just as easily die, and I know that’s exactly what every man behind me was thinking. We
ll, Titus, if today is the day you fall, I thought to myself, then you will be in good company and you may as well go out covering your name in glory. You have to give these men an example to follow, like Crastinus did.
“All right boys,” I roared, waving my Gallic blade above my head, “I’m going to go join Crastinus. We’re going to share the same rowboat over to Charon. Who’s with me?”
And without waiting for an answer, I waded into the Pompeians in front of me.
~ ~ ~ ~
Over the years, I have been asked by many civilians about the famous battles I have been in, and there is none better known throughout the Republic, now called the Empire, than the Battle of Pharsalus. However, it is a funny thing, because when one is actually standing in the line, fighting as a lowly Gregarius or even as an Optio or Centurion, your perspective is usually drastically different than that of the general or Tribunes who ultimately end up being the men that the historians listen to when they are writing their version of events. That is one reason I have taken on this endeavor, because I have read some of the accounts of our time in Gaul and the civil war and my hope is that my feeble attempt to convey what those of us who actually did the fighting were feeling will be appreciated by you, gentle reader. And on that hot, dusty day on the plains of Pharsalus, I have never been so sure that we were defeated as I was then. Despite managing to push the Pompeian line back a few paces, nowhere along our front did we have the kind of breakthrough that could be exploited by the men of the third line, standing ready for such an occasion. The best it could be called was a standoff, where whatever gains we made were simply not sufficient to carry the day, but where the enemy could not do any better, except that on this day a draw was the same as a defeat for Caesar and the army, and we all knew it. Even with my best attempts to create a breach, I never got farther than a few paces deep into the Pompeians, with my men pushing right behind me, yet it was not enough. All I could tell about the larger battle was from the calls of the cornu, so I heard the signal for the Cohorts of the fourth line that Caesar had created to move forward. Regardless, I did not have the time to give it any thought as to whether or not his stratagem worked. However, it did and it worked very well indeed. The men of the fourth line were ordered to lie down in the tall grass that was a feature of the plain, and as our own cavalry fell back under the onslaught of the Pompeian cavalry, the dust raised by the horses’ hooves further shielded them from view of the enemy.
When Caesar ordered the attack of the fourth line, they were barely a hundred paces away from the Pompeian cavalry, and over such a short distance, a running man can close with a mounted man, especially against such a tightly packed mass of man and horseflesh as the Pompeian cavalry presented, and that is what happened. Once they closed with the Pompeian cavalry, rather than throw their javelin, they used them as lances to stab upward at the faces of the cavalrymen, inflicting horrific damage, maiming and blinding whoever was in their path. In a matter of moments, the Pompeian cavalry charge disintegrated, the horsemen wheeling about, intent only on saving themselves, thereby leaving the slingers and archers completely unprotected. Consequently, their slaughter was total, the remainder of our cavalry force now turning back about and running the missile troops down. With both the Pompeian cavalry and missile force disposed of, the men of the fourth line now turned to fall on the left flank of the 1st and 15th, rolling them up like a carpet. From what I was able to reconstruct after talking to some of the men in the fourth line, their charge into the cavalry happened just moments before Crastinus fell, and I have been left wondering if he was not so reckless if he would be alive today. Not that it matters; such thoughts are meaningless, doing nothing but haunting an old man’s sleep. Indeed, at the time, he was doing his duty by setting an example of bravery to give his men courage by leaping onto the wall of shields in an attempt to create a breach, much as had been done during the fight against Ariovistus. Just as he leapt against the Pompeian line, he was struck on the side of the head, knocking his helmet askew and causing him to fall to his knees, as close to a certain death in battle as one can come. Only losing your footing in close combat leaves you incredibly vulnerable, but the blow to his head further robbed him of his awareness so that he kneeled on the ground, weaving about, making no attempt to defend himself, and the inevitable happened. The shield of the man in front of him moved six inches to the side, a flash of silver darted out, the blade of the sword entered his open mouth and punched through the back of his head. Just that quickly, Primus Pilus Gaius Crastinus, hero of the 10th Legion and one of the most respected Centurions in the army, was dead. It was not more than a dozen heartbeats later that the men of the fourth line slammed into the side and rear of the Pompeian left, forcing the Pompeians to start yielding ground. Where I was at, we were only alerted that something had happened by a change in the sounds of battle when our fourth line slammed into them. Additionally, it was at this moment that Caesar also ordered our third line forward. At first, the Pompeian line did not waver, but the unrelenting pressure on two sides became too much and we heard the cornu call that signaled a fighting withdrawal. Immediately, the Pompeian front line lashed out with their shields, pushing us back a step to give them the freedom to take their own step backwards, but we immediately moved back in to engage them again. Now their Centurions were calling out the count that we use to pace the formation as they slowly, grudgingly gave ground, even as the added weight of our third line exerted even more pressure.
Inch by inch, then foot by foot, we pushed the Pompeians backward, bashing and smashing, their progress backward marked by bodies of both their fallen and ours, but still they held formation, refusing to break. The sun was now high in the sky, causing both sides to suffer from thirst and exhaustion, but we could not stop putting on the pressure, while they could not stop resisting our advance. Fortunately, while our battle on the right wing was still at something of an impasse, the raw recruits of Pompey’s Legions holding the center were not made of the same stuff as the veterans on the wings, and shortly after the third line engaged with them, their cohesion shattered as they simply turned to run for their lives. The 15th was to our left, next to the Pompeian center, but once they lost the support of the Legions on their right, they too finally broke and fled. Now that the third line was engaged, those of us in the first two lines moved to the rear to catch our breath and I immediately called to my Centurions to give me a tally of casualties. Since we had dropped all of our gear back by the camp, we had also left our water behind, so I ordered some men to go through the bodies of the Pompeians to see if anything could be scavenged. The dust cloud was the most oppressive and obscuring that I had ever seen in battle, making it almost impossible to tell what was going on. However, I could see that the Legions to our immediate left were pushing forward in pursuit of the fleeing Pompeians. If I strained my eyes, I could make out the far left wing where the 8th and 9th was engaged, but could only see that they were roughly in the same position that we were, so it appeared that only the center and the 15th had given way. At that point, that was my total knowledge of the situation, so without thinking, I began to move over to where Crastinus would be with his volunteers to see what his orders were before stopping short. Crastinus was dead; that meant that the Primus Princeps was now in command, a short, squatty little man named Torquatus who had been the Primus Pilus briefly before Crastinus returned, so I went looking for him instead. The men were breathing easier by this point, but I could see that they were close to the edge of exhaustion, yet I knew that we were not through, and I cursed myself for not thinking to make the men bring along their water at the very least. Just before I reached where Torquatus was standing with the rest of his Centurions from the First, through the veil of dust I saw Caesar himself coming, his face covered in dust, except for where rivulets of sweat had streamed down his cheeks. My immediate thought was that he looked like a Narbo whore with her makeup ruined after a hard night’s work, the thought forcing me to bite back a laugh since I did not want my gen
eral to ask what was so funny at a time like this.
Stopping where Torquatus was standing, Caesar asked, “Where is the Primus Pilus?”
There was a pause as Torquatus exchanged glances with the other men around him, then said quietly, “Primus Pilus Crastinus is dead, sir. He made good his promise to bring you glory dead or alive.”
Caesar did not respond for a moment; his head bowed, he closed his eyes, and I saw his lips move in what I presumed to be a silent prayer for Crastinus. Then, commander once again, he looked up and said, “Very well. We'll mourn him later, but as of now you're the Primus Pilus and I need you and your men to make one last effort.” He pointed in the direction of Pompey’s camp, and continued, “We have them on the run, except for the 1st here, but the third line has them engaged. I want you to take the remaining Cohorts, circle around, and cut them off, but I don’t think you'll have to engage them. Once they see they're completely isolated, they'll break and run like the rest of them, I’m sure of it. Instead, I need you to push on to the camp. If we stop here, we’ve won a battle. If we take the camp, we’ve won the war. Do you understand, Primus Pilus?”
Torquatus came to intente, saluted, and said crisply, “Perfectly, General. We won't let you down.”
Caesar favored Torquatus and the rest of the men standing there with one of his most dazzling smiles and said, “I know you won’t, Torquatus.”
Then he wheeled Toes around and galloped off towards the center, a string of aides hurrying after him, making the dust cloud even worse for a moment, causing me to cough and spit out a glob of mud, cursing this dusty country as I did.