H32

The Battle of Antium began with both sides drawing up on the field. Rufinus has seemingly placed his best troops on the right in a double layer, while the rest of his line was less fortified. It was seemingly a gamble aimed at breaking through my right flank quickly in order to roll up my own line. The tactic was sound and if he could pull it off, he'd be able to inflict my first defeat of the campaign. Normally, I would counter with a charge of my Kataphraktoi to halt any attempt at rolling up my line with heavy cavalry, forcing the opponent to repel the charge and giving me time to reform my lines. Unfortunately, the promontory that Antium sat on meant that such cavalry maneuvers would be limited in scope from the narrow battlefield, and under fire from Roman Archers atop the walls of the City to boot.

Instead, I shortened the formation of Thorakitai covering my extreme left flank to make room for a mixed phalanx of Phalangites and Hypaspists. If Rufinus wanted to force a grinding fight within archery range of his Auxiliary Bowmen on the walls, then it was best to have my most armored and forward-focused troops in place there to counter. It would be a slog, and I'd take casualties in excess of anything I'd taken so far, but I was confident that my troops would come out on top. Rufinus had chosen his battlefield well, though. Today would be bloodier than any of the days that had come before. Just in case, however, I kept a healthy reserve back to plug any gaps in the line.

As the battle commenced, my Peltasts began to skirmish with the Roman Velites. The Velites seemed to be better drilled than the last few groups I had encountered, launching their pila with more practiced throws than the green troops I'd previously faced, almost the equal of the veterans I'd smashed at the outset of this war. These Velites were also better armored, wearing lorica lintea, a type of light linen cuirass similar to the standard, non-reinforced, linothorax. While they weren't trading equally with my peltasts, the casualty ratio was a lot closer than it usually was as the duel of skirmishers continued. It seemed that somehow, the Senate had coughed up the denarii to foot the bill for the equipment of their latest batch of troops.

As the Peltasts and Velites ran out of javelins and pila, the Roman Velites did something unexpected. Instead of breaking contact, a horn blast rang out from the Roman lines and they charged my peltasts, drawing leaf-bladed pugiones daggers and attacking my Peltasts with pugio and clipeus. My Peltasts drew their Xiphe swords and countered with Xiphos and Pelte Shields, but their training in melee combat had been secondary to their role as skirmishers. Once again, it was the equipment that carried the day, steel deflecting blows from Roman Daggers that slipped past shields, blades longer than their opponent's giving a reach advantage. Unfortunately, by the time the Roman Velites pulled back, both they and my peltasts had been mauled.

Next, the clash of our main lines ensued, the Roman Triarii on the Roman Right facing off against the mixed phalanx of Phalangites and Hypaspists on my left. Both sides met with a clamor of steel on iron, the grunts of exertion as each side attempted to push through the other, and the cries of wounded men. The slaughter was immense as both sides attempted to push through the other. At one point, the Romans managed to get past the wall of Sarissa Pikes only for my Hypaspists with their shorter Dory spears to repulse the attack with losses. All the while, arrows from the archers on the walls of Antium showered down on my troops, though they claimed fewer casualties than the Roman Triarii.

The battle there was fierce enough that a few cohorts of Roman Triarii broke through the shortened flank of Thorakitai at the three-hour mark of the battle. That forced me to plug the gap they opened with troops from the reserves, otherwise, Rufinus might have accomplished what he set out to do with his strategy and turn my flank. Once I had plugged the line with fresh troops, however, the Roman attack ground to a halt, and a stalemate ensued.

Fortunately, the rest of my main line of battle had a far easier time of things. Meeting with the Roman Hastati and pushing against them. The Roman Hastati were clearly well-equipped, with greaves in addition to the standard lorica hamata, helmet, scutum, and gladius. They clearly had been well drilled compared to the last batch I'd fought, but they weren't the equal of my men, not like how the Triarii on the Roman right had turned out to be. As the nightmare fight against the Triarii stalemated in the third hour of battle, the Hastati on the Roman left began to be pushed back. If we could just push them back further, we might unhinge their left from their center, allowing my Kataphraktoi their moment of glory.

Indeed, that is what happened at the five-hour mark of the battle, with the Roman Left pushed up the promontory so far that a gap formed between the left and the center. Seeing my chance, I drew my falcata and called out to my Kataphraktoi.

"We have them! It's been a bloody slog, but by Hades, we have them now! All we need do is reach out and grasp them by the throat! Are you with me?" I shouted. A chorus of voices in the affirmative answered me, and I grinned savagely under my helmet.

"Then let us not waste this opportunity! Charge!" I ordered.

With that, my Kataphractoi charged, riding alongside me to take the Roman Center in the flank now that they've been unhinged from the left. To his credit, Rufinus seemed to sense what was about to happen because he sent his reserves at us to attempt to block our charge and redirected his Auxiliary Archers to fire at our charging wedge, but it was too late. The archery harassment failed to stop our charge and the Roman reserves had been too hastily sent forward and were only partially in formation.

I took an arrow from the walls on my shield as we closed with the half-assembled Roman Reserve, my steed trampling a poor Reserve Hastati Legionary even as my falcata sliced into the throat of another. All around me, Xyston lances plunged into Reserve Legionaries, Falcata took off heads and limbs, and horses clad in steel barding trampled Romans at the behest of Kataphraktoi utilizing stirrups to direct them. We broke into and then through the Roman blocking formation and crashed into the Roman Center beyond. I parried another arrow on my shield even as my falcata lashed out to literally disarm a Roman Legionary who was attempting to thrust his gladius into my steed's flank.

Next to me, Astios split open a Roman Tribune's skull with his Illyrian axe, helmet and all, even as another of my Kataphraktoi, Attalus of Larissa, cut out with his Makhaira and beheaded a Roman Signifer, causing one of Rome's Legionary Eagles to fall to the ground. We laid about us with abandon, rolling up the Roman Center, much like they had wanted to do with our flank, before wheeling around and charging their Triarii on the right. We must have charged the Roman right three times before Rufinus called a retreat back to the city of Antium. Our mounts were exhausted, as were our Peltasts and main infantry line, but I yet had reserves to send after the retreating Romans.

With three quick horn blasts, I signaled the reserves to charge the retreating Romans as they attempted to withdraw back into Antium. By now, the Auxiliary Archers on the wall had been firing for close to six hours and had exhausted their supply of ready arrows. They were unable to help the remnants of Rufinus' Army as it attempted to withdraw into Antium. Predictably, Rufinus' force bottlenecked at the gate and my reserves smashed into them from the rear and flanks. In the ensuing carnage, Rome lost most of the rest of its army, along with two more Legionary Eagles, making a total of six Eagles captured by my forces.

By the end of the battle, Rufinus had a mere six-thousand men still capable of fighting left in his army, his Auxiliary Archers had exhausted most of their arrows and were only able to fire sporadically from whatever reserves they had left, and he was now under siege within Antium. However, the butcher's bill for my own force was quite large. Four-thousand dead, six-thousand wounded for a total of ten-thousand casualties. That wasn't quite Heraclea-level casualties, but it was close. Rufinus had been no slouch. Fortunately, I still had fifty-thousand men remaining uninjured and ready to go to Rufinus' six-thousand.

Two weeks before the end of the Spring Campaign Season, Rufinus surrendered after we managed to break open the wooden gate of Antium with a Ram in preparation for an assault. Apparently, his forces were on half rations and unable to contest an assault. We received word from Kleon of Pydna and Hortius Decius not too long afterward. Kleon had successfully brought a Roman Army under Quintus Fabius Maximus Rullianus to battle northeast of Rome near Fidinae, though Rullianus escaped with twenty-three-thousand men. Meanwhile, Hortius Decius had taken Gabii and was marching west.

With two weeks left in the Spring Campaign Season, the noose tightening on Rome, and us all being undefeated, everything looked to be proceeding as planned until a messenger arrived from Hortius Decius some three days after my army went into quarters for the Summer at the city of Aricia, which surrendered after a brief skirmish. The messenger was exhausted and his horse half-dead, but he had to get the missive he handed me into my hands. He'd been very adamant about that. When I broke the seal to read it, I found out why.

Hortius Decius had been forced to battle by two Roman Armies under the joint command of Quintus Fabius Maximus Rullianus and the Roman Dictator Decimus Junius Brutus. Hortius Decius had been surprised on the banks of the River Ano, caught between two armies, and soundly defeated. He had been forced to withdraw back to Gabii with only sixteen-thousand men. He was now under siege by the twin Roman Armies.

It was our first defeat in this campaign, and it had been heavy. . .

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AN: Rome is fighting back harder now. While Rufinus was thrashed and forced to surrender, Rullianus managed to escape from Kleon with enough of an army and in good enough order, to utterly demolish Hortius Decius and his Samnites and Rebel Socii in conjunction with Brutus.

Hortius Decius likely won't be able to withstand a summer siege in Gabii against sixty-six-thousand men. The Campaign is going to come down to a battle between Rullianus and Brutus versus Pyrrhus and Kleon. If the Romans lose, they have nowhere to fall back to but Rome itself.

At any rate, next up will be naval action as the Fleet takes on Carthage, precipitating a crisis.

Stay tuned. . .