Vettias looked first to Davos with an expression declaring his awareness of the incompetence he had just performed. He next looked at me with an expression of regret having shown ineptitude in front of his pupil. “He knew something, damn it! Antigonus has infiltrated this camp. Before he clammed up he mentioned someone on our battle staff was in talks with Antigonus’ agents. I let my emotions and pride get the better of me tonight. Let that be a lesson for you, Andrikos. Both of you return to your quarters. I’ll clean up here.”
Chapter 41
After surrounding and pilfering the ancient city of Ancyra along our route of banditry, our army departed the Royal Road and headed south in the direction of Cilicia to meet the approaching enemy. Several days marching south brought reports from our advanced scouts that Antigonus’ army was near. We remained in place close to a settlement called Orcynia for two more days awaiting final movement orders. Our army occupied a large plain to best capitalize on our superior cavalry force. On the third morning, a nervous calm had descended over our ranks as all could sense the violence of battle was imminent. We were ordered to keep our armour and weapons at the ready and to ensure no one wandered too far away from their bivouac. Stephanos and I sat with our lochos mates passing the time around a fire engaging in trivial conversation. I sat propped up against a tree half asleep, contently listening to the quiet banter of my mates, when suddenly I came crashing awake by the sound of our horns blowing. We all looked at each other in confusion while Croesus ran over and screamed at us to ready for battle.
As we scrambled to comply, rumours began flying that Antigonus’ army had surreptitiously occupied several foothills overlooking our plain and now held favourable position for combat. This was not a good omen for the coming struggle, and I began to fret over the prowess of our adversary if he could so successfully outmanoeuvre our general. Our lochos scurried into formation within our syntagma, which took its place within our taxis. Horns continued blaring and banners waved furiously to arrange all of our units into proper formation. Again, our countless hours of drilling paid off, allowing our army to align itself in short order and giving us enough time to face our enemy before they commenced their surprise attack.
Stephanos had shown impressive leadership during my prolonged absence and was rewarded by occupying the fourth position in our file- his sarissa would be one of the first five spear points to engage in battle. My position had moved back considerably since our battle with Craterus and I now occupied the ninth position, directly behind First Officer Neokles. Second Officer Gelon remained at the rear position and Croesus continued to lead from the front. General Eumenes and his cavalry occupied the right flank. After our battle with Craterus, our horses were now the world’s most feared cavalry force since Alexander’s famed Companions.
The army lurched forward in lumbering unison as we began our march towards Antigonus. My position within the phalanx limited my ability to view our adversaries, but my above average height allowed me to witness the terrifying sight of elephants in the distance. Their presence had an unsettling effect on our troops, especially among those who could clearly see and hear them. Our officers began scolding the men to regain their nerve and reminded us Alexander defeated such beasts in India. Antigonus remained in his advantageous position atop the foothills and began to rain arrows and bolts down on our approaching army. Their prevalence was more than we experienced during our previous two battles, and their impact was more violent due to the favourable trajectory Antigonus’ high ground afforded. Thus far, General Eumenes had not convinced me our chances for victory were good.
Antigonus’ opening volley had a demoralizing effect on our army, who were still frazzled from the unexpected call to arms just twenty minutes prior. Our forest of sarissas aided in deflecting a good deal of the murderous projectiles, but many found their mark. We held our small shields up to protect ourselves as best we could, but screams could be heard from unfortunate phalangites on the receiving end of warheads. A multitude of arrows were landing all around me. Most of them had been deflected by our spears and erratically slammed into my shield arm, helmet, cuirass, and face causing several nicks and scrapes that drew blood. Their sting was painful, forcing me to advance forward cautiously with my head turned to the side in a wincing pose. Out of the corner of my eye I watched a phalangite two positions ahead of me in the adjacent file receive an arrow directly through his throat. He dropped his sarissa instantly and fell to the ground. His surviving comrades had no choice but to continue marching forward, trying as best they could not to trample him. As I passed him I saw he still drew breath and had enough wits about him to try and protect himself with his hands. Phalangites towards the rear of his file who had not seen him fall would inevitably walk right over him. This terrible occurrence was reenacted dozens of times around me, further hampering my warrior spirit.
The phalangite directly to my right now took an arrow through his left shoulder. Its close proximity allowed me to hear the warhead slam into his body and tear through his flesh. The man cried out but retained his footing as I tried to assist his balance as best I could. His wound did not seem imminently lethal but caused him unbearable pain. He screamed in agony directly in my ear, drowning out all other noise. After two minutes he was able to relegate his uncontrollable outbursts to more manageable grunts of anguish. I assessed his injury would prevent him from delivering the necessary force behind his sarissa thrusts that was required against Antigonus’ Macedonian regulars.
The endless wave of projectiles continued as we neared our enemy. Antigonus’ army began marching forward and came into effective range of our projectiles. The shrieks of his several dozen elephants could be heard by all the army now and had their intended effect. Their skin was coated with bright war paint to add to their fearsome appearance. Three men sat atop each- one mahout held the reigns while the other two rained down arrows and javelins on our army. During one spell of staring at these magnificent machines of war, I felt something slam into my shield arm. Its impact forced my forearm back towards my chest and a second later I felt the most intense pain of my life. I looked down to see an arrow sticking through my left arm. Its warhead had punctured my skin, scraped off my bone, and exited the other side. The warhead was mercifully brought to a halt by my linen cuirass. I let out a scream of pain like I had never done before. The phalangites around me, including Neokles, quickly inspected my injury and deemed in non-threatening.
“You’ll be alright kid! Break the shaft and pull it out!” Neokles yelled over the cacophony of war. While Neokles’ words were encouraging, his instruction could not be executed without considerable effort. The severe sting immediately brought a sickness to my stomach and all motivation left me. I would also have to break and remove the arrow with my right hand, which was preoccupied holding my eighteen foot long sarissa, all while I was maintaining the phalanx’s increased marching pace. The viciousness of my situation overwhelmed me and I vomited on myself and Neokles in front of me. He barked more words of encouragement, but my mind was not alert enough to hear him.
My thoughts now turned to nothing but my own survival. My feet kept pace with the army- seemingly on their own. My mind left the battlefield. I ached for Stephanos to pull me out of the melee, for Vettias to save me from this torment. More phalangites fell to arrows around me, but I did not have the presence of mind to help them. My vision narrowed and I saw my family. I wanted my mother to hold me as my reality narrowed further, as if I were looking through a small tunnel. Mara now entered this small space. Her expression was sombre as she saw my ability to save her fading.
The severity of her potential fate succeeded in bringing me out of my internal delusions. My sight returned and in one uninterrupted motion I held my sarissa against the right side of my torso with my right arm, pinned it there with the assistance of my chin, grabbed the arrow with my right hand, wedged the arrow’s point against the left side of my torso, and snapped the back end of the arrow off. I winced at the shot of incredible
pain as the shaft ripped a larger tear in my skin. Having broke the feathered end off, I felt its splinters rub against my bone as I pulled the remaining shaft through my wound and dropped the subject of my torment on the ground. This action relieved the acute pressure on my wound, producing a more manageable throb of discomfort. I readjusted my sarissa and slowly gained cognizance of my surroundings.
As the two armies neared, it was clear Antigonus meant to counter our phalanx with his elephants, which he positioned in one single rank ahead of his phalanx in the middle of his formation. Two phalangites within my lochos had succumbed to Antigonus’ murderous volleys, and I now occupied the seventh position. I was close enough to see the back of Stephanos’ head and he appeared to be unscathed. Javelins now came flying in from Antigonus’ skirmishers and elephants as we closed with the enemy. The combined thunder of their approach shook the very ground as their pace hastened to trample us. Our front five ranks lowered their sarissas in preparation for the impending rush.
Our men released blood-curdling screams in the face of this onslaught and braced for impact. The ground shook violently as the beasts collided with our first row of spear points, bringing our forward progress to a halt. I felt the familiar crush of men as seven ranks of phalangites pushed against me and the men to my left and right closed in on me, hindering my ability to hold my sarissa properly. The momentum of several elephants was stunted by well-placed spear thrusts while the majority charged forward, snapping sarissas or forcing them away from their path. The first of the elephants now reached our front rank and began kicking and thrashing our men. I watched in horror as several lochagos’ were trampled over and gored. Their bodies resembled bloody, mangled cloth as their bones had been crushed and their carcasses lost all rigidity. Some had their entrails ejected from their mouths or from open wounds due to the force of the elephants’ charge.
More were making their way forward, impaling and crushing men from the second, third, and fourth ranks. Croesus had succeeded in gouging out the eye of the elephant attacking directly opposite our lochos. The beast’s injury blunted its charge as more pikes stabbed its stomach, face and underbelly. The creature finally turned back and began trampling men from Antigonus’ phalanx, prompting its rider to hammer a prepositioned stake into the back of its neck- killing it instantly. The elephant fell face first into the enemy phalanx, crushing several phalangites and throwing its riders to the ground to be trampled. The elephant to our right began making headway against the two lochoi it was engaged with however. The beast was four ranks in and violently swinging its massive tusks to and fro- goring and killing men from several adjacent files. Another phalangite from our line was killed in this way, causing Neokles to fall back into me. The animal was so close that I felt its hot breath upon me exhale from its wild trunk, which was littered with cut marks and arrows. The monster made it so deep into our phalanx that phalangites from either side of it began stabbing at its powerful torso with their short swords. Several of these strikes punctured vital organs, causing the elephant to fall to one side in submission to its wounds. Had it fell the other way I would have been crushed instantly. Our men mercilessly stomped in the skulls of the animal’s riders who had fallen with it to the ground.
Despite all this, our phalanx managed to keep its fighting spirit high. Several more elephants were either turned back or killed, while others managed to annihilate entire lochoi of our syntagma. I had forgotten about my injury during this orgy of carnage but was painfully reminded of its presence once it became time for me to lower my sarissa and engage the coming onslaught of Antigonus’ phalanx- who were now charging in behind the holes opened by the elephants. The exertion required to effectively thrust my weapon induced a throb of anguish in my arm with every strike. This new wave of death brought even more butchery as thousands of fresh phalangites began thrusting their spear points at our reeling ranks. Our exhausted and battered syntagma began losing ground to our rested opponents and dozens of our men were being impaled all around me. Strategos Androkles screamed at our syntagma’s ouragous’ to ensure each lochos second officer stopped the movement backwards and began pushing with all of their might so that the men in front would be forced to hold their ground. If we could hold our position just a little longer, I was sure our superior cavalry would succeed in flanking our enemy, allowing us to push forward and defeat them.
Only Croesus, Stephanos, a Macedonian, and Neokles stood between myself and the front line. Being in the fifth position, my spear point was now actively engaged in the battle. The crush of the army behind us, pushing vociferously to hold our position, was so great that I was pressed completely up against Neokles’ back, who, in turn, was in similar position against the Macedonian in front of him. I felt as though I could be suspended in air between the men in front and back of me had my feet been lifted off the ground. I fought on as best I could, however, and never stopped thrusting my sarissa despite the pain of my arm and my limited ability to see where my point was striking. The ground was covered in blood, vomit, gore, piss, shit, and some substances I had never seen before. They mixed to create a slippery slick of stench that added to my nausea. Trampled bodies were strewn all around me- some corpses were as thin as a wool blanket and as grotesque as anything from Hades.
Croesus and Stephanos were fighting with the skill of Achilles at the front of our rank. Both of their spears had snapped and Croesus was hacking through a sea of enemy sarissas with his sword while Stephanos was stabbing over his shoulder with his broken sarissa, impaling the enemy with its splintered edge. The sarissas from the remaining three positions behind them assisted in protecting them and fending off the enemy.
The severity of our situation produced an enraged frenzy among our men, and I thrust my spear with blind fury knowing that each strike was keeping my best friend alive. I managed to kill several enemy phalangites as our army’s newfound passions succeeded in blunting our retreat and allowed us to take several steps forward, seizing ground from our enemy. Our momentum grew and our army shouted blood-curdling oaths at our assailants. It was at this time a spear point grazed Neokles’ face, opening his right cheek and fracturing his jaw. He reflexively turned from the blow to look me straight in the eyes as his disfigured face spat blood all over me. His severely broken jaw had become dislocated and, combined with his wide open cheek, produced a ghastly façade where the lower half of his face lost all form, with his tongue partially hanging out of the gaping wound. The gruesome injury was not fatal, however, and he quickly spun back around and continued fighting despite losing the ability to speak coherently.
Although many spear points were slicing my shoulders, upper arms, and parts of my face, opening several gashes, the renewed motivation of our phalanx increased my hopes of a victory- if only we could stand firm a little longer. Where was our damned cavalry? Why had they not flanked Antigonus’ phalanx by now? I was so enmeshed in the fighting that it was impossible to see anything happening more than ten feet in any direction.
Suddenly, members of our army began shouting that General Apollonides had fled the field. No one near me could see for themselves if this disastrous news was true but it had the effect of instantly changing the momentum of the fighting. We began losing ground once again and this time our rear soldiers could not push hard enough to stop it. Enemy spear points were striking in from seemingly everywhere and it felt as though the whole world was crashing in around us.
The enemy made further inroads and other lochoi began to collapse to our right and left. This left Croesus and Stephanos surrounded on all sides by enemy spears and swords. I watched as Croesus was stabbed repeatedly before succumbing to a spear thrust and dropping to the gore-soaked ground to be trampled. Stephanos was now in front and risked the same fate. Neokles, still fighting heroically despite his ghastly wound, pulled Stephanos backwards as our army continued falling back. Stephanos slashed and cursed our enemies while being dragged backwards and looked like a bloody mess with unbridled rage in his eyes. He was covered i
n bruises, gashes, open cuts, and gore. His breathing was erratic while screaming oaths at the top of his lungs. Neokles now jumped into the first position and threw himself with abandon on our foes. Stephanos and I were now together, fighting side by side- just as we always imagined. I had dropped my sarissa, which was unbroken and thus too long for the close-in battle, and wielded my short sword with reckless abandon. The sarissas from the men behind me succeeded in giving us cover as we hacked at the enemy with our blades.
More of our lochos began collapsing as I watched Neokles succumb to numerous stab wounds and fall in front of us. Our spear points began disappearing around Stephanos and I, which left us dangerously exposed to the oncoming rush of the enemy phalanx, who by now were motivated with the sense of imminent victory. I turned around to see our army in full flight. I grabbed Stephanos, who was still hacking away at opposing spear points, and pulled him back to retreat- only to realize we were too close to the front line to escape in time. I saw an enormous elephant carcass and darted under it, dragging Stephanos with me. We lay there as first Antigonus’ phalanx, and then his cavalry, ran over our fleeing comrades, massacring them by the thousands.
Stephanos and I were panting so heavily I worried enemy soldiers would hear us. After a few minutes my heart rate slowed and I vomited on the ground next to me. I glanced over at my dearest friend looking as though he were bleeding out of every pore. I was able to calm him down so that he was no longer attempting to leave the safety of our hiding place to continue fighting the enemy. An army in full route is no time for heroes, and I did not want to lose another friend as close to me as Stephanos.
“We cannot be captured here. We have to flee this place as soon as we get a chance,” I exclaimed, still out of breath. Poking my head up I looked to see Antigonus had lost control of his army and they pressed hard in pursuit of our fleeing forces- making the battlefield an empty scene of death and carnage. Words have never been voiced or written that fully describe the apocalyptic scene Stephanos and I gazed upon. Thousands of men lay dead in the most horrible manners imagined: trampled, impaled, stabbed, speared, beaten, clubbed, lanced, and hacked. Hundreds of men squirmed and crawled through the vicious chaos looking for aid, praying to the Gods, or moaning in agony. Their machinations brought a lifelike quality to the sea of death and added to its horrific macabre.
By the Sword Page 39