Marcella walks quietly up to the desk where the Senate scribe keeps the First Consuls's reports. She takes out a letter from under her cloak, kisses it lightly and places it with the documents in the box...

Later, an irritated scribe retrieves the letter and angrily files it in the correct box.

Dear Marcella,

I must be the first to tell you - your father is fine, as am I. The battle was won and neither of us was hurt, although our poor horses were run into the ground.

You were right to tell me to vote for the First Consul - he was most wise. He warned your father that there was a chance a landing on Sardinia would be met by a Consular sized army. But your father did not believe it. The old man said that, even if Carthage did mount a seaborne landing, it was better that they do it in Sardinia, where we have no settlements to lose, than in Sicily where we have many.



The Carthaginian army (its two mercenary peltasts are not shown)

First Consul Aemilius was also considerate - he told your father we did not need to fight, that we could withdraw. We looked at the size of the enemy ranged against. We looked at the great heights we were forced to deploy below. We looked at each other, but had no need of words. Your father is a proud man. Twice a Consul, to withdraw from battle after his triumph in Sicily would have been a dishonour he could not bear.

Our ambush had failed, so we were forced to deploy at the bottom of a steep incline, with the Carthaginians above us. Your father decided to set up our battle line as far up the slope as he could, in the hope of wrong-footing the enemy. Some luck was with us, as the enemy appeared some distance away from us and not on the heights overlooking our position. So your father gave the order to the army - we had to race the Carthaginians to the top of the slope.



Quintus orders his army to march for the heights to try to deprive the Carthaginians of their advantageous position.

But the Carthaginians had no intention of racing us. They simply wanted to kill us. They marched straight for us and their cavalry reached us before we could gain a significant height advantage. Fortunately, your father had deployed the legion to the right of the alae, so it was true Romans who bore the brunt of the Carthaginian charge. We beat off the initial attacks by their three troops of cavalry, but the Principes were left exposed on our right flank and soon engulfed in a mass of Carthaginian infantry.



The Carthaginian cavalry leads the assault on the Roman legion. Quintus just manages to extract his escort from a melee with one troop of enemy cavalry before mercenary hoplites can pull off a charge to his rear. But the principes enveloped on the right flank can have no such quick escape.



Ashtzaph charges the surrounded principes in their flank but still they hold.

The principes faught valiantly, but were gradually surrounded on all sides. Then the enemy general, Ashtzaph, charged his escort into their rear. The battle was now at a critical stage - if the principes broke, it would have unravelled our line and caused a chain rout.

I was fighting on the left flank, driving off another cavalry troop. Your father had given me command of that wing. My job was to use the small height advantage our forced march had gained us and try to turn the enemy's right. But it was slow work. We had no numerical advantage and our men were already exhausted by the climbing they had done. The principes had to hold on. Their job that day was to buy me time at the cost of their lives.



Tribune Titus Vatinus gets into a dangerous spot. Again and again, the Roman generals must use their mobility in hit and run tactics. Against so many Carthaginian spears, to be stationary would be suicide.

Gradually, the brave principes fell. They were utterly surrounded and whole cohorts of Carthaginian came up behind them to march on my forces. The only support available for the principes was your father’s escort and with so many enemies falling upon our poor infantry, your father could not directly charge to their aid. He could only charge around them, trying to drive off harassing skirmishers.



The mid-point of the battle. The Romans have gained the ascendancy on the left but the cohort of principes is being overwhelmed on the right. The white horses of Quintus’s escort charge some peltasts but dare not engage the mass of spearmen who are mobbing the principes.

Your father’s efforts to support the principes attracted the attention of Ashtzaph, who fortunately had a much smaller escort and by now had squandered the three troops of cavalry he started the battle with. The two generals and their escorts duelled for a while and again your father had to withdraw when the fighting attracted the attention of the enemy infantry.



Quintus extracts his escort from the melee but the over-eager Carthaginian general pursues

His men say your father personally slew Ashtzaph. Your father refuses to say whether this is true. He says it was like a frenzy, like hounds tearing at a fox and it is impossible to know who struck the fatal blow. Whatever the truth, the old man was certainly in at the kill.



Quintus’s horse rears up as that of his rival falls.

With the death of their leader, the tide had turned. Ashtzaph was an outstanding commander - in his way, as good as your father, and his presence inspired his men to fight fiercely. But with his death, their resolve began to falter. I led my wing to overrun the Carthaginian right, while slowly our men began to move down to where a lone principes fought doggedly on.



The turning point of the battle. With their leader dead, the Carthaginian morale is fragile and units begin to rout. In the distance, the white horses of Tribune Vatinius's escort start to envelope the enemy right while in the foreground, the velites move to support the heroic last principes on the enemy's left.

Now, with their resolve wavering, it was safe for your father and I to charge the enemy infantry. Your father moved to support the brave velites who had drawn their swords and were fighting in close order like heavy infantry.



As the Carthaginian right dissolves, Quintus charges their left. But his targets, although exhausted, are still steady and the charge will not be enough

Again and again, your father charged until eventually the enemy broke.



Quintus, on the mid-left of the picture, leads the charge against the last unbroken Carthaginian infantry

After that, my dear, it was slaughter. We let only twenty of the enemy escape. My escort claim they killed 221 of the enemy. Your father’s boast of 511 kills. But the best news was that the chirurgeons did their work wonderfully. Although 181 of our men fell, the chirurgeons were able to revive 92 of them. These included 60 of the brave principes - the Carthaginians had so respected the bravery of these men, they had spared the wounded and these were rescued when the battle was over.



What happens next, my dear, is up to the First Consul. The worst of it is, we have spotted two more Carthaginian armies near Caralis, both of full Consular size. While we could probably triumph over another, it would be folly to risk attacking two. Your father is requesting that the Consular I Army be restored to full strength, with another legion and alae sent to our aid. But whether Aemilius chooses us to lead the inevitable confrontation is a decision only for him.

I am sorry to write so impersonally to you my dear. But I know your interest in our campaigns and I suspect that you will wish to show this account to others of our friends in the Senate. I will write a private letter to you soon, but for this now, I must take my leave and wish you every happiness in these troubled times,

Your loving husband,


Titus Vatinius