[IB AAR] Rome's Enduring Promise

[Samuel Adams]

This is a prelude to a coming AAR I intend to do. The events of Castus's life will take us from Iberia and some heroic victories over the Vandals, to Italy and Gaul where Roman and Barbarian alike will be fought by the decrepit armies of the Roman Empire.

It is in times of utmost turmoil that the hearts and fortitude of men are tested greatest. I, Castus, have lived to see these times.

First I wish to relay to you the slaughter of a Vandal train in the year of Christ our Lord 409. I was a young Roman Knight under an over-elevated man of my same status in Western Iberia. Under his command was a small party of Milites, some local Auxilia, as well as Foederati cavalry, of which I commanded. These men were Germans, hardy men who were solid soldiers and a more fine set of which were not seen the empire over. I had the honor to lead them for many years after this occurrence, and it is with them I made a stand in my final battle- a story for another time.

Honorius Flavius had sent orders that any Vandals that could be destroyed were to be done so at the earliest possible convenience. Our cities in Spain were mostly lost to these jackals, and Carthago Nova had been the gathering point of refugees from all of Roman Spain. Small detachments of Roman soldiers were still spread out all over, being whittled down in their attempts to rejoin the larger comitatenses in the south.

Constans's rebellion and usurpation in Gaul had riddled the empire with strife, and the Gothic sacking of Rome and occupation of Italy was further cause for strife internally. Ravenna was the new capital while Valens, a mediocre but by all soldiers' accounts administratively capable officer, attempted to retake Rome.

We felt the strain by lack of funds. We had no money in Iberia to raise more soldiers, or even to pay the existing troops. A select few remained in the army paid by their officers, such as myself. We were well aware that Rome was not what she had been just a hundred years prior.

This may have been what led our Prefectus to attack this train; however, we attacked this column of invalids on a Lord's Day, 409 AD, and laid waste to the column. Under orders from the Prefectus we left none alive; One Biarchus was found to have attempted to conceal an infant girl and was executed by the Prefectus, and the infant was killed as well.

The amount of slaughter that day was great; we killed over two thousand men, women and children; scarce a hundred of these were warriors, and not a dozen were there to resist that were not disease ridden. Even the crows could not feast on all the dead that day; we stacked and burned the weapons, and left the dead to roam the manes of hades unburied.

Marching back to our garrison that night, we could hear the cries of the Vandal warriors as they came over their wives, children, mothers, fathers, and brothers. We knew that they would be seeking revenge.

[SeniorBatavianHorse]

An excellent beginning, Horton! Chilling and laden with portents of doom to come (my kind of AAR!). I will look forward eagerly to the next update and the fate of your Magister Militum of Interior Gaul.

[Samuel Adams]

The City of Corduba was where we worked from, and that night the gates shut heavier than usual behind the weary soldiers.

My foederati were the only regular soldiers that had accompanied the expedition, and the rest were the field troops of the empire; farmers, ready to return to their crops. In Corduba, a small detachment of pseudo-comitatenses were stationed mostly as rural police and tax collectors, but had not been stationed there to deal with the Vandal threat. Now that the Vandals were this far south, and the Iberian Comitatus units dispersed and destroyed, save a few who had made it to Carthago Nova, we were the Southwestern rim of the Empire, save Tigli in North Africa; that city we knew was doomed internally, with religious strife as well as the fact it was too far from Rome for the people to feel connected.

As much as the governor of the place attempted to keep order, he knew that it was no use; Vandal ships had begun, in force, to clear the straights and were raiding the shores.

A great massacre took place on October 15, 409, when a large trading caravan was set upon by Vandal raiders; over two hundred were slain, and their cargo, including spices from the orient bound for Tigli and Corduba, were captured, the estimated losses being vastly more than the merchants in Tigli could spare; that place fell into riots, and after holding the place for some days, in November the Governor had to evacuate the soldiers of Rome from that place at a loss of over a hundred men. The people there were hasty, and attempted to chase them into the desert, but being on open ground Oppius Venditius was able to turn about and form his men for battle, cutting them down in droves with their plumbata and javelins before the cavalry charged and utterly dispersed the mob. Briefly recapturing the city, he burned it to the ground when he found his position untenable and began to march towards the straights; the frontier garrisons were recalled from the south, and joined him, as Berber armies were closing on their small forts, and with a sizeable force he was able to cross by night into Iberia.

Being a resourceful man he was able to deny the Vandals the knowledge of his presence, until in January, 410, our fate was sealed;

A large Vandal army under Rechila, a local celebrity-general of sorts, appeared outside Corduba by nightfall. The frontier garrisons just made it into the city with their families when the Vandals sealed off the last escape approaches, and with heavy hearts we watched as our last rider was cut down by Alan cavalry. We could only hope one of the first had made it out.

Little beknownst to us at the time, Oppius had taken the opportunity to attack Gades, the southernmost city in Iberia, and had sacked the place entirely, burning it to the ground and executing, enslaving, or taxing the entire population before taking a hasty retreat.

Carthago Nova, also unknown to us, was under siege at this time, and had been for some months. The last two bastions of Roman power in Iberia were about to fall.

[Samuel Adams]

I will now go into detail regarding the battle of Corduba; first, I wish to relay our troop's disposition.

We had the Auxilia, mostly local milita with some invalid old soldiers; of these we had four numeri, almost at full strength. Three numeri of limitanei were also on the roster, with one cohortes of psuedo-comitatenses Auxilia. I had two vexillationes of foederati cavalry, and the people of the city provided us also with 200 archers, hunters turned killers.

The city was just springing into it's heyday at the time of Vandal invasion, and we had not had the funding to build stone walls. Thus our tribuni vacantes, Lucilius, deemed that it was impractical to attempt to hold the walls, but rather to attempt to hold the Vandals in the narrow streets, funneling their forces into a narrow passage that would bring about visions to most of Thermopolaye, the late Greek disaster turned military feat of myth.

At our supper that evening, before the assault of the Vandals, I spoke to Lucilius.

"Sir, you realize of course the three hundred Spartans had support of numerous auxiliary troops. They had only one flanking threat, and that was scarce able to be found. We have many, the roads through this town will spread us thin and we will have Vandals in our rear. On top of that most of our men are mere militia."

"Yes, Castus. Your opinion is noted. I do not see a way out. The walls are untenable. Palisade will fall before a ram and they have four; we can expect four breeches. How do you expect to hold those? Along the street, not down it, no less? You cannot move reserves from place to place. You can not, also, know for sure where the enemy will send his crack troops. If he re-deploys at the last moment we may meet the heavy elite warriors of the Vandals with our poorest troops. Again, if we meet them at the breech he can redeploy his soldiers while I am forced to send mine to the intestine of the city, going around the streets until they come out exhausted on the other end.

"This method, I can funnel them into a certain alleyway. They will have no heart to go around. The majority of the troops they have are as good as the majority of ours- poor. The Vandal will need to win his victory on a quick, lighting note. That is the only way we will win. Any more thoughts, equestrian?"

"No, sir." I bashfully sat back into my chair and dove into my foul and venison.

"Very good. That is all. Continue eating, we will need all the victuals we can handle to get us through tomorrow."

The next morning we fought, and fought well. The heretical massacre of the innocents was erased from our souls as we fought, I am convinced.

At first light the Vandals advanced; the walls were down in three places, and the gates knocked in, by lunchtime. We ate our tack, and not a man among us was not feared of death.

The archers were sent forward and as the enemy attempted this, they wreaked great casualties among them. One ram was forced to halt while the men gained the courage to continue- but by and by the walls continued to fall.

The Vandals waited for the last breech, and their troops fell into all four at once.

Lucilius had placed two major roadblocks; the first was a numeri of Auxilia, which was backed by the comitatus cohortes. The second was a numeri of Auxilia, backed by the same of limitanei. The other troops were all in reserve.

As the enemy advanced the archers fell back and took position along the main road behind the comitantens. They then continued to wreak their havok among the enemy, and great congestion of the roadways was instigated with their arrows. The auxilia fought desperately, more than men of their station do generally; with Jehova as my witness, they were the bravest fighters I've ever seen; unarmored, with only a shield and sword, against the heaviest swordsmen of the Vandal host.

As my vexillationes watched, these men butchered the Vandals in such great numbers that the streets were stacked, and a wall of the dead could be seen to be naturally rising. But bravado against numbers and experience does not last forever; nay, the poor Auxilia was whittled down to nothing more than a half of what it had been.

At this point the ordinarii of the cohortes ordered his men to release their pila, and the darts of death were loosed with utter precision into the enemy ranks. The archers continued as well until utterly spent of arrows, and when both parties were spent of missiles the ordinarii gave the order to charge; the archers, armed with only large knives, charged as well into the fray, and a great massacre of the Vandals took place.

In the second major street the Vandal cavalry had advanced, but had stretched itself too thin. The ordinarii in command of the area had ordered his men, one numeri of Auxilia and one of Milites, to charge, and they did as well great things for Rome against the Vandals. Lucilius, however, was in the throws of coniption, and from his command post in the tower threw his helm in rage at the ordinarii;

"That man will be damned, damned I say; he has lost us!"

We did not know why he shrieked so until a few minutes later; the troops on the left, still in the grind, were holding; two numeri had to detach from the reserves to augment the men on the right, who had foolishly advanced into a market square, and were now not in a narrow front but a large one; the supporting infantry had arrived, and at this time I was ordered to take "the half of my foederati closest to the place of the travesty, and charge," as well as "not to take any prisoners."

I left and charged with half my men into a fray where the enemy was being pushed back. However, the ordinarii of the flank, apparently a man of better repute than command, was killed to the great horror of his men; with a shout and a cry these started to flee, and the auxilia followed. With great slaughter the Vandals followed, and another batch of reserves was dispatched to deal with them. We had now committed all our reserves; while I was in battle, Lucilius had led the second group of my cavalry and the rest of the limitanei to the other conflict.

Now the men from all sides came rushing to rally in the city's market square, and were sent by me into the fray at once. Only the comitatus and the foederati, as well as the last reserve limitanei, were still fighting. All seemed lost.

At this time, with no explanation, the Vandals started to break; they were chased down with bloody execution, and their general was slain in their midst. On my side of things the Vandals held some time longer, and finally they were caught by our men in a gap, and three Romans got inside their ranks and began to slay them in great numbers, creating a void, and soon the whole mob (for we were no longer organized into a fighting force) broke into their lines. We killed over 2600 of them, at a loss of less than half that.

I stood on the forum pavilion and gasped at the sites before me. Mounting, I took a dozen of my Foederati to secure the walls; almost there, we were attacked by twenty Vandals who could not make their escape, and with great and macabre pleasure we slew them to a man. Corduba was safe at a loss of 1200 Roman soldiers.


Vandals pour in hordes through our walls


Again... from higher up.


Auxilia and Comites stand to, ready for the butcher at hand.


The archers were able to kill quite a few of the Vandals before they reached us, Praises to God!


The "grinder" on the left.


End results


The pitiful few remnants.


Ambush! fool's on you!


Roll call for the few.


Next morning, police detail as usual.

[Samuel Adams]

For history's sake it is only fair to relay the events that occurred outside Spain in these turbulent years.

Valens retook Rome by paying off the men on the walls in late 410 Anno Domini, who were mostly disenchanted Romans. Most of the Goths had moved on in search of food, and were loitering in force in Cisilpine Gaul, also maneuvering towards Ravenna. The emperor, Augustus Honorius Flavius, was there with two cohortes of Palatine guards and cohortes of psuedo-comitatenses.

At this time, three Field Armies were converging on the Goths; Valens from the south, a column from the east, and a column from the west. This latter column was followed as well by half the Gallic Comitatus, who had successfully taken Constan's the Usurper's capitol and killed Constans; his followers continued to hold all of Northern and western Gaul, however, and yet had no sizeable forces in the south. The Frank and Burgundian tribes were wreaking havoc in the north.

Valens was the instrumental key to the Goth problem in those times. Much as we had disheartened Vandal invasion, Valens utterly smote the Visigoths with despair, destroying two massive armies under lesser warlords at a loss of less than a thousand men. The Gallic comitatus was able to reinforce these losses, and the effort was renewed. Ravenna was besieged by Alaric himself in 411, and a large rear-guard of Goths camped some fifty miles to the north, lines stretching to the rivers and marshes, blocking any attempt at relief.

Thus Valens took two comitatus, and fell upon these men with great power and contempt, and for three days such a chase and slaughter was had that the Romans had to take a week to regroup and reform, and the carrion birds were unable to be chased away for a radius of thirty miles in all directions. The sky was black by day with these birds, and the stench of the Goth dead reached the Imperial Palace at Ravenna.

Alaric escaped in the night from Ravenna with all his force, and for fear of ending up like Stilicho (with no head on his shoulders, that is) Valens gave chase, until a younger general took up the burden so Valens could be released for a more pressing threat.

Over the alps, in 414, came the Burgundii. Valens had been sent after the Gothic wars of 411 to fortify those passes most likely to be used, and by the time the Burgundii arrived Valens was in a position of great power in the Alps. All attempts to break past were repulsed; Valens, in the first battle, suffered only forty and eight casualties, against twenty two hundred dead Germans. In the second battle, a similar slaughter took place, though at a loss of some three times that of the first battle.

The next year, in 415, Valens fell back some five miles; the Burgundii advanced and upon seeing the frozen corpses of their fallen warriors from the year previous beat a hasty retreat, and began to look for other accomodations; finally, they took Augusta Trevororum in northern Gaul from Constans's men, and the Burgundii settled there, never again to bother Roman borders in Italia.

With this a great time of prosperity was enjoyed by Rome; Honorius was able to get, through the aid of advisors, the finances of the Empire in order; alliances were formed with the Ostrogoths, trade was established with the Alemanni, Lombardii, and Huns, and finally a Roman navy cleared the straights of Vandal pirates.

In Spain we enjoyed some ten years of peace, although the Vandals would not trade with us and frequently raiding parties passed south of Corduba. The Visigoths were pressed out of the Empire, and several German Kingdoms swore alliegance to Rome in exchange for protection against the Saxons and Franks working their way south. Still no new troops were raised, until finally, in 420, Honorius wrote his name on the last debt owed by Rome, and placed the first coin back into the hithero empty public chest. The soldiers were payed back pay, and private citizens, being reassured of the economy, began constructing civil works, and governors were able to keep more taxes to implement local improvements.

The raising of troops in Carthago Nova began at this time in earnest, with three new Cohortes of Comitatenses and several numerii of frontier troops. A Limez was established north of Corduba, and two years later, the invasion of Vandal Spain began.

I took ill with dysentery, and missed the expedition, but Lucilius led the expedition under the directive of Oppius. The rosters were Foederati archers, numbering over 400; three cohortes of comitatenses; two numerii of Foederati Spearmen; and two numerii of Milites. Arabian cavalry vexillationes were the only mounted members of the comitatus. Two numerii of Auxilia from Corduba also joined the expedition to augment the numbers and to act as scouts and a rear-guard. These unfortunate men would suffer the greatest.

As the campaign went, the comitatus advanced for six weeks until only several miles outside the Vandal capitol. Lucilius advanced with his Milites on the flanks, one numerii on each flank; the Foederati advanced on the front, backed by the Comitatenses, so as to be able to repulse cavalry charges, and have the pila and plumbata of the cohortes to nullify their numbers. The baggage was secured in the middle of the square with the archers, and the Auxilia took up position in the rear, with the cavalry riding scouting screens.

As the army advanced, the Vandal host presented itself, and formed to attack just a few miles outside their capitol city. Lucilius, a student of Valens since his astounding victories and the publication of his military tactics theorems, deployed his troops in similar manner.

The Auxilia was posted to the front, to absorb the impact of the charge; behind them the Comites formed in four ranks deep line, with orders to release javelins at will. The archers were posted to the rear, and foederati on the flanks. The milites of the frontier army were posted in reserve, and the cavalry posted to screen the flanks.

While I have been scolded and learned much by Lucilius in the past, I now find several flaws in his deployment. First, Valens posted his foederati to the front, in a shield wall the Auxilia were not able to form. Secondly, he was not on the same incline as Valens, who was able to utilize the slopes of the Alps to allow his archers range and angle on the Burgundii. Third, he only had two cavalry Ala, both being Arabs with no armor, skirmishers as opposed to the cataphracts and clibinarii of Valens. Lastly, he did not wait as Valens had, but advanced, meaning that any semblance of solidity on the line was lost as the men surged forward. Spacing was poor as well; the comites were unable to throw their missiles before engaging with the Vandals.

As the Vandals approached, Lucilius realized he was on a reverse slope; the enemy was going to be attacking down-hill. Thus advancing his whole line in formation, he met the Vandals atop the hill. The Auxilia had hesitated, and so the comititatenses had closed distance; all five units were engaged at once. The Archers began to fire upon the advancing Vandals, and the cavalry rode to the flanks. The Vandal cavalry engaged the front lines, and the Auxilia were instantly pressed back into the comitatenses.

Accounts vary as to the demise of the Auxilia; however, that only thirty men survived attests to their effectiveness. Some say that the auxilia panicked and retreated, and were killed by the comitatenses to avoid a breech in the line while others say that they were killed fighting, where they stood, among better armed and armoured Vandals. I think that it is a mix of the two; no doubt the lesser men ran while the more stout hearted did not.

For some time the battle appeared to be in the Vandal's favor- the line was broken, the reserves committed. Half the foederati, those on the left, attacked a cavalry unit with the aid of Arabian cavalry. After utterly butchering the Vandal horsemen, These men lost their discipline and ran to attack the Vandal archers. The Vandal cavalry disengaged and attacked these men, wiping out the Arab cavalry and most of the foederati.

On the right the reserves were committed, and began to retake the hilltop slowly. The other cavalry contingent now began to drive the light infantry back, but the Vandal nobles charged them and these too were killed, only some dozen riding away. These rallied, and loosed their missiles on the enemy from a distance.

The Roman line cracked, and there Julianus, the artist of the butcher of the Vandal innocents, was killed a fitting death; his intestine was cut open, and he lied on the ground for hours in agony as men pressed over him, stepping in his warm refuse and internals, the Romans around him too hard pressed to put him out of his misery. The comitatenses of the fourth cohort were slain almost to a man, with only twenty forming a hollow moon until they were relieved by the other cohortes and milites.

As dark fell and the Romans pressed on, in groups of ten, twenty, or more, the Vandals fell into despair; The enemy was attacked with renewed effort and the archers, their arrows long spent, ran to the flank and began to fall on the enemy wounded with their knives; this caused a panic and the whole line routed, being driven like chaff in the wind, until the night was too dark to further give chase.

Over half the Roman force was lost, and the orders of Lucilius were to return to Roman Spain for refitting and reinforcements. However, he had broken the back of Vandal resistance in Spain. No more excursions into Roman territory were reported on the Limez. Once again, Rome plummeted into peace, content to let Germans kill the Usurper and let Goths kill Huns beyond the border. As the depleted Comitatus passed by the Fortress I commanded on the Limez, I wondered how many young Romans it would take to ensure Rome's promise for tomorrow's generations.



I must make an editor's note here; much as I hate to.

The battle relayed at the end of this chapter was so intense, I did not have time to take screenshots. It was supposed to be the end-all battle, the only Roman force I could muster in Spain against the only Vandal army left in Spain. While Rome won, it was unacceptable to move on to conquest, and so I fell back. Money is still too tight to instantly retrain all of these men, and with a new city having been taken in Germania- which you will hear about next time- that needs walls built, who knows when Spain will be re-subdued and when our hero, Castus, gets to move on to other adventures!