The long night finally ended...
The sun rose slowly above the plain of Heraclea. A powerful trumpet announced the morning to the camp. Longinus was up and dressed even before his seven companions had sat up. He grabbed his shield as he emerged from the tent, the sun warmed his face and arms, while the dew of the night slowly evaporated. Longinus put the shield down again and streched his back and legs while he was yawning, but finally he grabbed his helmet lying on the little bench outside the tent.
"Hey Longinus..." Longinus turned, it was his buddy Marcus Teninus. "What do you expect will happen today? I have had a look at the Greeks, but they don't seem to be stirring."
"The Gods know... I do not. That is the reason why I'm not centurion or optio."
"Come on, you have previously had your predictions come true."
"Just because I thought the Tarentines would ask for help doesn't mean I know everything."
"Yeah yeah... Come on with it." Said Teninus as he prepared to sacrifice a chicken.
"Fine! I predict that we will see peril today, the day is lovely and the scenery is beautiful. It reminds me of my fathers farm near Capua. That is never a good thing when you have joined the legions."
As Longinus spoke Teninus cut the head of the chicken and let the blood spread in a circle, then threw a few leafs into the circle.
"Hmmm... Lets hope you are wrong. I like the view, it is so much more beautiful than Rome."
"Heh... Yeah, that is true. I'm not much of an urban dweller, give me a farm any day."
The comfortable little talk was interrupted by a command from the centurion's tent.
"First maniple line up!!! Inspection!!!"
The centurion, Ascinius, was already out and banging the nearest tents with his cane, his optio doing similarly on the other row. Longinus could hear the other maniples got the same treatment. It seems that no breakfast could be gotten today.
Within minutes the maniple was ready as the first in the Hastati quarter. The centurion stood in front of the maniple, looking to either side making sure the lines were sorted as the other maniples fell into place. Finally the entire Hastati line was finished, if somewhat cramped inside the camp. The centurions ironing out the lines of young men. "CRISPINUS!!! Get up front right away!!!" Some poor sod down the line, in third maniple it seems, was late. Punishment would be swift...
But before any punishment could be dished out the cornicens blatted an order. Cornicens? Was the army to move out? But we haven't packed up yet. As if he had read Longinus' thought Ascinius yelled out loud "Don't worry we will be back before noon." Then he ordered the maniple to face left and began to march it out.
Within the hour the entire army was ready for battle at the edge of the wide plain. Out front the leves were fanning out chasing off the Greek scouts, meanwhile a small group of equites scouted out the Greeks as they too filed out of their camp. Longinus' prediction was coming closer and closer to the truth.
But within a few seconds Longinus' view of the field was obscured. Standing in the fourth line he couldn't see what was going on, but he was confident that Roman arms would prevail. Especially the last few decandes had seen a great strethening of Rome, Longinus' family had benefitted greatly from it. His father getting a large farm outside Capua, which had meant he had been able to buy himself good equipment for war, and now he was standing in the frontranks of the Triarii of the other legion in the army present. Longinus' himself had yet to accumulate any wealth and had not even been able to buy himself a breastplate as many of his compatriots of the Hastati had. But at least his father had secured him a nice Celtic helmet with a wide neckguard and reinforced brow, and an imported Spanish sword. His friends had been envious of him, as this sword was famed for its quality, even the centurion had eyed it with longing eyes.
Suddenly the trumpets blurted out the command to advance, shaking Longinus from his thoughts. He gripped his first pilum tightly and followed the man in front of him in step. The dusty ground began to flow up around his legs as they advanced. To his side Teninus looked anxiously around, this was his first real campaign as he hadn't been with the army when it had skirmished with the Tarentines. "Relax Teninus... You are safe here." Longinus whispered at the youth.
"I know Longinus, but I feel so hemmed in, I can't see anything and can't hear anything beyond us marching."
"HEY!!! Silence in the ranks!" The optio's voice bomed, and Teninus stiffly looked ahead into the neck of the man in front.
After a few minutes of marching the army halted, and the front ranks began cheering and yelling encouragements. Longinus could just dimly see the leves fighting with the enemy skirmishers, but he couldn't see what was truly going on. The centurions and optios encouraged the trops to keep up the yells. But the yells soon turned into a masive groan and curses. The trumpets gave another blat and the centurions ordered the shields up. Longinus picked it up by it's horizontal grip, he felt safe behind its massive bulk. To his side Teninus figeted as he also looked to his side. The leves were streaming through the gaps in the maniples, clearly beaten. "JAVELINS INCOMING!!! Prepare to recieve!!!" Longinus raised the shield high to cover his head while he squatted down to recieve the javelins. Around him his companions did the same thing.
And instant later the swarm of javelins came crashing down. One javelin bounced off the reinforced top edge and landed behind Longinus' shoulder. The sound of the javelins striking shields rang out for a few seconds, but fortunately no sceams were obvious. But a few seconds later a scream sounded from the rear. The next volley came too soon for comfort and the crash of impacts was once again loud in Longinus' ears, when teh sounds subsided and only the screams of injured were audible he peered above his shield. This time he could see across the ranks, and he got scared beyond his senses.
First he noticed the enemy skirmishers. Armed with clutch of javelins, they were equipped with tall oval shields and gleaming helmets. Very much superior to the leves. But they were not what scared poor Longinus, behind the enemy skirmishers were a solid mass of inafantry with long spear pointing to the sky. Their polished shields were unpleasantly bright, and just as he looked the skirmishers began to fall back and the infantry began to fell their long spears, turning their bodies to balance them. Now the line of infantry turned into a line of spearpoints.
Before the order to stand up normally was given the Greeks began to yell. And the warcry was chilling to the core.
"Alalalalalalalalalai!!!! Alalalalalalalalalalai!!!" The cacophony of the warcry was loud and continous, and now the enemy began to advance with their felled pikes. Longinus felt his pulse quicken and his limbs go tense.
Finally above the din of the enemy warcry the order stand was given. "ADVANCE!!!! FIRST CENTURY... PILUM AT THE READY!" The orders fell in rapid succession, and the maniple began to advance on the menacing enemy, the pikes pointing upwards clearly visible above the heads of men in front of Longinus. Suddenly the march became slower as the first ranks began to take shorter steps and the ranks bunched up. "Speed up!!! Make space you fools or I will beat some sense into you!" Ascinius voice was strong and confident, and the ranks began to spread out again.
The enemy was at best 50 paces away now. "LIGHT RUN!!!" At once the front ranks began to jog, and the maniple had only jogged a few steps before the next order came. "FIRST FOUR RANKS! THROW PILUM AT MY ORDER!" Longinus shifted grip on the pilum and lifted it above his head. The enemy was now 30 paces away. Following the step of the jog the order came "MANIPLE... THROW!!!" Longinus jerked the arm back and threw his light pilum, the arc of the weapon was good, then he gripped the heavy pilum in anticipation of the next order. Over the crash of the landing pila the order came. "HEAVY PILUM READY!" Another few steps, the enemy was now only 15 paces away, "MANIPLE... THROW!!!" Again Longinus jerked back his arm and threw the heavy pilum as his left leg touched down, just like his companions around him. The low arc of the weapon was slightly too low but it would still go well.
The sound of the pila landing was drowned out by the crash of contact with the enemy pikes. At once several grunts and screams were heard from the front ranks. Longinus ran into the man ahead of him who had himself jerked to get out of the way of a falling man, punched through the throat by a pike. The entire maniple was brought to a halt by the enemy pikemen.
Uncomfortably congested, the maniple began to spread out after the contact, the surviving men in front hunkered down behind their shields and tried to fight off the stabs of the pikes. A voice rang out "Ascinius is fallen!" Longinus felt his confidence ebb away. That was fast for a centurion to fall. But for a few seconds nothing more happened, no more men fell and the line was sorted out, wounded dragged back. But then a Greek voice was heard, building up an order, and when it finished the pikemen gave a common "HOU" as they thrust their pikes forwards and advanced a step. Several screams were heard, some in pain others in terror, yet others in surprise as their shields were penetrated.
The relentless push of the ordered thrusts gave Longinus and his friends no respite, but for Longinus and Teninus there was no information either. They could hear the yells and screams, and the sickening sound as spearpoints ripped through flesh, but they could only see the backs of the men right in front of them, the little gaps closed by the press after the charge. But they felt the press going backwards as the men in front stepped to the rear as the Greeks advanced.
Longinus suddenly saw Teninus look over his shoulder, clearly very upset and nervous. "Don't do it Teninus... Don't do it!" He looked back, his eyes wild. "TENINUS! Get a grip on yourself!!!" The tough command shook the man back to he normal world and he turned to face the front again. Longinus had in fact been looking over his own should for a break, but his own encouragement to Teninus had given himself a good boost, and he pushed his shield into the back of the man in front and yelled "COME ON MEN!!!" Around him the Hastati regathered their composure and pushed back. But the pikes were deadly.
Suddenly light pila flew overhead, apparently second century and the last four ranks of first century were feeling stressed to do something. They were nearing their point of breaking. The pila continued to fly, but a few fell short, taking the poor legionaries up front in the back, and then came the heavy pila. Being heavier they could not the thrown as far and they struck the front ranks very hard, hardly reaching enemy soldiers. A few men tried to leave but they were stuck and they were struck in the back by the pikes. Others tried to cut the heads of the pikes but the several ranks of pikes ruined that, and the headless pikes were still dangerous as they could still push men to the ground.
The uneven fight went on and Longinus felt his own strength vane, he took himself in looking over his shoulder more and more often. His beautiful Iberian blade still unused. The push of the pikes was terrible, and worse was the fact that it seemed as if not a single man of the maniple had engaged an enemy in close combat. The men up front took terrible losses, and Longinus noticed that he some how always managed to keep clear of being forced to the frontlines, always letting others go up.
Finally the pikemen halted and let the hastati pull back. Longinus couldn't see what was going on, but he was just happy that he and his friends got a break. At once the entire maniple flowed back into the opening in the principes' lines. As he passed them he could see that they were looking rather solemn and not very confident. Their centurions yelling and screaming to get them into the mood. The last Longinus saw of them wasfor them to lift their light pilum to throw it.
The maniple kept retreating until they got to the triarii where they flowed to either side until they could pass through their lines. Behind them the maniple began to form up again inverted, with second century up front and the first four ranks of first century at the rear. Around them the leves were stading uneasily. Their stares betrayed the looks of the hastati, and Longinus looked at the men assembled around him, and it dawned upon him how roughly they had been handled by the Greeks. Many men were splashed with blood, several had open wounds, one was even carrying his intestines around, but the worst was the lack of many familiar faces.
Here from the rear Longinus could finally follow the action more readily. All along the line hastati were falling back behind the triarii. He could even see a bunch of officers sitting on their horses deeply engaged in discussion, suddenly one rode off towards the allied troops or possibly the cavalry on the right flank.
The entire army continued to fall back for a long time. Suddenly the officer returned with all haste. The other officers talked with him for a short while, then one of them pointed towards the front, Longinus looked as well, the principes were falling back, pursued by the enemy light infantry and skirmishers. When he looked back towards the officers he saw them riding for they were worth out of the plain. Longinus felt at first angry with this, but then he realized that if the men who knew better than Longinus himself were running, then it couldn't be good. He turned again as saw the principes stream through the gaps and the triarii advance to hold the enemy.
This was it, the battle was lost. Longinus continued to look to the flanks of the army, and suddenly he saw dust pluming up from the right flank. That should not be going on. The allied infantry began to reform at the very edge of his vision, but they never finished it and broke in terror.
Longinus looked at Teninus, he nodded. A quick scan for officers and optios showed none were near, the triarii were occupied with the final part of the battle. The road to the rear was open, this was it, the battle was lost anyway, why stay and get killed? The two men bolted from the maniple, and when they looked over their shoulders they saw the maniple in complete chaos as more men began to flee as well. Longinus felt a pang of guilt at this, but he rated survival above honour... The battle of Heraclea had been lost to Pyrrhus of Epirus and his heavy phalangites.
