The Will of the Senate - Battle reports

[econ21]

[An account of a dramatic intervention in the Senate by Tribune Augustus Verginius, as faithfully recorded by a Senate scribe]:
*The Senate doors are thrown open and a man appears in the entrance, his face pale, his body covered in blood.*

Conscript fathers! It was an ambush! I know not how, but they fell on us... Gauls, thousands of them! We had been trudging through a blinding snowstorm to meet up with Consul Aemilius when we heard a mighty roar from the left...



I do not know how it happened, I barely had time to think. The rearguard was still inside a small copse of trees and I ordered the rest of the men to rally around them. In truth, I had little to do with it, it was the centurians who reacted fastest. We had only just formed some semblance of a line when the mass broke upon us!



I... I cannot describe the horror of the sound of that impact. I have seen war before, but not like this. It was like the Underworld, I tell you! Our line bent back on itself as their mass overwhelmed us, pushing us back. For a while it seemed as though the men would break. The Legion, they stood their ground, they made the Gauls pay for every inch of soil, but we had not enough men... not enough...

They flanked us! Bypassed the right wing and turned upon us from the rear! There were no reinforcements, no rescue, no one to fend off the deathblow... so I looked to my men. The seventeen brave souls who have served me on this campaign; it was to them I looked. We all knew it would be our deaths, but it was an end we gladly accepted in defense of the Republic. We charged, oh... what a glorious charge...



The Gauls though would not break, would not let up their relentless assault. My men were too few, their bravery outweighing their numbers. We charged again and again until we were but a scattered few. My men... my brave men... it seemed only a moment had passed, yet I could see not a single one of my companions. The Gauls remained though, the Legion still in crisis and I still drew breath... so I charged again alone.



I took down three of the beasts, but they swarmed up at me without end. I saw my end in a spear thrust to the face, when suddenly a sword caught the deadly point and turned it. I wiped the blood from my eyes and saw Luca Mamilius, the foremost of my guard and a personal friend who had ridden with me since he left the Academy. He had gathered with him the four other survivors of my guard and they had cut their way through the Gauls to aid me. He looked at me hard and gestured to the left flank. I followed his arm and then I saw him... the demon of hell himself, Lucco! He had turned the other flank and was viciously cutting through the unarmored Velites. They were falling quickly, no match for the heavily armored Gallic demons.

I fear... I fear I failed my men. Rage overtook me. The sight of brave Romans falling to a Gallic horde brought back nightmares I have had since childhood... nightmares of Brennus and the sack of Rome. I abandoned my men on the right and rode at Lucco, not caring if I lived or died. I neglected my duty, neglected my men...

It seemed like an eternity that we sparred, he and I. I screamed in his face and spat blood on his armor as our swords clashed. In truth, I remember little. I do not know how it happened, how it ended. My men tell me that he fell, struck by a fatal blow...



...and horrible things. I do not remember, but they say I leaped from my saddle and severed his head in a single blow, screaming wildly and throwing the bloody mass into the melee. As if a witch's spell had been broken, the beasts turned as one and ran...



In a rage, I submitted once again to my rage and ordered my men to pursue. I must have personally ridden down and butchered 50 of the things before I came to my senses. In the end, one Gaul was spared. To him was given the severed head of Lucco, to take back across the Alps as a warning and as a testament to the bravery of my Legion.



Senators... I submit to you as a failed man. I failed my men, failed the Republic. At the moment of greatest crisis, I let my anger overcome me, overcome duty. I abandoned the most threatened part of the line and rode against Lucco. The success of the battle does not counteract my shame at the action. It was the Legion that won the battle, not I. When I let emotion take over, they held true to discipline. I will never be as worthy of praise as the most low-born of soldiers on the field that day. I beg of you, Senators... honor my men for their bravery and forgive me for my failures.