Legio XVII: Roman Legion at War (2 page)

COL Charles suggested we mention our indebtedness to the Roman historians Polybius and Livy, as critical sources in understanding the scrolls, as well as Theodore Mommsen’s
History of Rome
, Jonathan P. Roth’s
The Logistics of the Roman Army (264 B.C.-A.D. 235)
, Pat Southern’s
The Roman Army: A Social and Institutional History
, and Robert L. O’Connell’s
The Ghosts of Cannae
, Random House, 2010.  These works as well as numerous other articles and Internet websites such as The Roman Army and UNRV History - Roman Empire were of invaluable assistance in telling this story properly.

Maria Kralinger

Team Leader

Innsbruck, Austria

A
t 5’8”,
Praetor
Manius Tullus stood a little taller than the average Roman and he used the extra few inches to enhance his gravitas whether on the battlefield or training grounds.  By letting his height and war wounds do the talking, he did not have to degrade himself, like so many others, with bragging and bluster.  Maybe it was just his age or maybe it was his battle wounds from
Cannae
10 years earlier, but by age 53 he had become soft spoken, gentle, and more compassionate.

As he stood tall in the Senate chambers with all eyes upon him, he felt immensely proud and humble as the Senate Ovation, the second highest honor bestowed by the Senate and People of Rome, filled his ears and echoed loudly off the chamber’s walls.  Everyone he loved was there:  Lucia, his wife and their two children Flavia and Titus; his dear friend
Quaestor
Levi, his wife Rivkah [Rebecca], and their son Joseph and his wife Decima; all the leaders from
Legio XVII
that served him so faithfully:
Tribuni
Servilius and Vitulus,
Centurio
Andreas, his spy master Elitovius, Snake his
Illyrian
archer, Rasce, his Etruscan cavalry commander, Lucani and Luceria, the
Samnites
who nursed him back to health after
Cannae
; Timo Bosettius, his loyal
Rhaetian
ally, and his Roman wife Rosa, and Tribune Tomaeus, his brilliant Engineer.  He felt like he would burst with gratitude and pride.  He would treasure this moment for the rest of his life.

As he stood there smiling, he recalled that the 30 month expedition of
Legio XVII
did not get off to a very promising start.  The Senate granted Scipio and the other Commanders top priority for men and materials in their fight against Hannibal and his Carthaginian Army.  His expedition against the Gauls in northern Italy and the
Suevi
in Austria was considered a side show, a necessary one, but not as important as fighting the North Africans.

Despite having to beg and borrow to outfit his Legionaries, he soon commanded a legion as professional and competent as any that took the field against Hannibal.  Indeed, in short order,
Legio XVII
had earned a well deserved reputation for its fighting ability.

In his heart, he thanked the gods for the competence of his subordinate commanders particularly
Tribuni
Servilius and Vitulus who not only protected their respective outposts, but soundly defeated experienced and hardened mercenaries.  His own victories against the
Suevi
at Innsbruck he attributed to the courage of his Legionaries and the leadership of his centurions.  He recalled how he briefly considered that his Legion might dissolve and run when thousands of attacking
Suevi
topped the hill to his front.  But 5,500 stout Roman shields backed by courage, deadly
pila
[spears], stabbing swords, and eight Scorpios stopped them in their tracks and won a great victory for Rome.

In 216 BC, Tribune Manius Tullus was a part of the ill fated, last ditch attempt by Roman arms to defeat Hannibal.  Rome had already been soundly defeated by the Carthaginian and his mercenaries at
Trebia
in 218 and
Lake Trasimene
in 217, where Rome lost two legions.  Now, eight confident Roman legions and an equal number of Auxiliaries marched to
Cannae
to put an end to Hannibal and his invasion of Italy.

Manius recalled with perfect clarity the intense 88 degree July heat that accompanied the huge force that marched away from Rome heading southeast to confront Hannibal.  As a senior Tribune, he was mounted upon a horse, but would occasionally dismount to walk alongside his Legionaries during the 15 day 230-mile march to
Cannae
.  As usual, everyone was carrying their body armor rather than wearing it otherwise men would be dropping from the intense heat captured by the metal plates.  The men always said you could actually cook chickpeas on hot body armor!

Morale was good.  The army expected a difficult, but ultimately victorious battle primarily because they had a 2 to 1 advantage in manpower.

Because of the large Roman Army that surrounded him, Manius was not overly concerned when he noticed Legionaries dropping out of the march unconscious or lying limply alongside the road.  Most appeared to be suffering from exertion and the intense heat.  He knew many would rejoin their Legions later in the day; still he grew more concerned with each new heat casualty that fainted or staggered off to the side.  He estimated that the equivalent of an entire Legion had fallen out.  He silently asked the gods to provide some cloud cover.

He suspected dehydration was the culprit.  To confirm his suspicion, that evening at camp he wandered throughout the tired Army asking questions.  What he learned stunned him.  Men were drinking water at breakfast, but did not want to carry their heavy canteens during the march and left them on the wagons.  Manius blamed the Centurions for failing to enforce proper hydration.  He reported his findings to the Legion Commanders and orders were immediately issued to ensure the men carried their canteens and drank every two hours.

It was a typically hot and dry August day when the two armies finally faced each other across a large dusty plain.  Hannibal had been at
Cannae
for several weeks already; more than adequate time to develop an innovative plan of battle that would surprise and defeat the Romans.

The two armies looked at each other across the open field for two days.  The Romans rested from their march; Hannibal prepared.

As the armies maneuvered into their final battle positions, the Romans could barely see the Carthaginians for the great swirls of dust intentionally kicked up by thousands of Carthaginian feet and horses hooves.  Hannibal also deployed his skirmishers early on to mask the shifting and deceptive disposition of his troops.

Because of the flat terrain, the Roman Consuls could not see that the Carthaginian center, comprised of Gauls, was actually bowed out towards the Romans in a crescent shape rather than the usual straight line.

Manius dismounted and positioned himself with the
Principes
of one of the center most Legions.  He wanted to be where he could do some good.  The armies were arrayed in the customary manner with the width of the Roman front equaling that of the Carthaginians.  Then at the last minute, the Consuls decided to narrow the Roman front by stacking the Legions one behind the other and compressing the
Hastati
and
Principes
.

This type formation would provide maximum crushing power to the center of the Carthaginian line, but severely reduce Roman flexibility to deal with any changes in the tactical situation on the right or left wings as the battle developed.

Manius was told later that as the Legions advanced and made contact, the Carthaginian center slowly retreated while their reinforced flanks held firm.  Unbeknown to the Romans, the Carthaginian center was intentionally giving ground and drawing the Romans into a “U” shaped trap.

Figure 1 Roman Advance

The Legionaries doing the fighting sensed an easy victory and pushed forward all the harder.  At this point, Manius knew something was wrong, but was powerless to do anything about it.  He kept moving forward with the unstoppable and “successful” Legions.

He could see that they were advancing into the “mouth of a cave” with Carthaginians now on both sides.  He could also see that the Romans were being slowly compressed the deeper into the “cave” they went.  Suddenly, the Carthaginian center stopped giving ground and began to fight in earnest.  At the same time, the Libyan spearmen on the flanks began to push inward hard.  The Legions were now in the middle of a vast hostile army and being squeezed tighter and tighter.  At this critical point, the 10,000 strong Carthaginian cavalry commanded by Hasdrubal and Hanno returned to the battle after soundly defeating the 6,000 Roman horsemen and completely blocked the rear and any avenue of escape.

The heat, dust, noise, shouting, and screaming was overwhelming.  Roman soldiers were being slaughtered not through any fault of theirs, but because they could not use their shield and sword.  Only the soldiers on the extreme outer edge of this deadly circle had any chance of fighting and they lacked enough room to maneuver.  They bulk of the Roman army was now simply a mob packed so tightly together by the pressure on all sides that all they could do was stand and await a killing blow as the circle tightened.  They could not run away or fight.  They were trapped and powerless to alter the outcome.  They were going to die and accepted their fate feyly.  The killing lasted for eight long hours.

Throughout the battle, Carthaginian spearmen rained javelins down in an endless stream upon the cowering remnant of an army.  In their desperate struggle to protect themselves, some managed to raise their shields and deflected the razor sharp pieces of metal to the left and right ~ and down into their comrades.

Manius was now on the outer edge of the deadly circle.  He could see the Carthaginians chopping down Romans with all manner of weapons.  Manius felt the Roman
pilum
hit his thigh and screamed in pain.  He looked down and saw that its conical head was completed imbedded in the muscle.  As he bent down to inspect the wound, he felt a massive blow to his helmet.  He was unconscious before he hit the ground.

The next two days were a shadow, a dream that he could not let go or grasp.  He was in and out of consciousness.  He awoke to darkness; felt unable to move; pain racked his head and leg; there was unbearable pressure on his chest; then he would relax and feel nothing as the blackness returned
.

Manius lay for two days severely wounded and near death on the blood soaked field at
Cannae
.  Suddenly, voices were in his tortured dreams; he felt the sun hit his face blinding him as he tried to open his eyes; the pressure was lifted off his chest; he could breathe freely again.  When the man and his wife heard his weak moans and realized someone was alive in these piles of bodies, they went looking, which meant pulling apart the gruesome stacks of bloody, twisted, and smelly bodies while being careful to avoid the sharpened metal swords and spears that lay everywhere.  The scene reflected the handiwork of the Demiurge at his malevolent worst.

When they dragged the fourth body off a mound of broken bodies, they saw Manius’ chest rise sharply and knew this was the one who moaned and was still alive.  After wiping away the blood, they examined the wounds to his head and thigh and realized that with care, he might be saved.  They knew he was someone important by the insignia on his uniform and decided that they had found what they were seeking.  Their goal, unlike many of the others searching for coins and rings among the dead, was to find someone alive, nurse him back to health, and take a reward from grateful relatives.  The several other wounded soldiers they discovered earlier were obviously not important enough to bother with and left to die.

Lucani first cut away the wooden part of the
pilum
in the man’s thigh so just the metal shaft protruded.  This would make it easier to move him.  Then they forced some water into his mouth and unceremoniously loaded him onto their dilapidated mule drawn wagon.  They had a long way to go; it was a three day’s journey back to their village of
Sabina et Samnium
[Agnone] in the
Samnite
area of central Italy.

As they pulled away from the carnage, they could see hundreds of people and thousands of vultures picking through the corpses.  Vultures came from everywhere.  The familiar Griffon and Cinereous vultures, the strikingly handsome Egyptian, the rarely seen Black vulture, and even the high flying Bearded vultures had come down from the Alps for the gory feast.

After the battle, the Carthaginians had made a quick sweep through the piles of bodies to kill the wounded and gather valuables, but were reluctant to spend the time trying to uncover every hidden living Roman.  They did collect, and later displayed, up to 300 rings of wealthy Romans, including many Senators who died in the battle.

In a few days, the battlefield would begin smelling and all the survivors would have died of their wounds and exposure.  Only the vultures would be able to stand the stench.  Lucani and Luceria rejoiced in their good fortune to find one still alive after two days of looking.  They had arrived on the field as soon as the Carthaginian had left.  It was not Hannibal’s practice to burn or bury the dead and on this occasion, there were simply too many bodies.  It was wiser to move on as quickly as possible and let nature take its course.

Hannibal had accomplished his goal.  There was no one in all of Italy who could now contest his movements.  He could go and do whatever he wanted.  He decided to winter over in Capua and moved his army south.  In the spring, he would attack
Tarentum
unless the city came over to him as so many others had already done.

Once Lucani and Luceria arrived back in their village, they set about the difficult task of keeping Manius alive.  They sold and traded off the coins and other objects they had taken from the battlefield and devoted their full energy to nursing Manius.  Their sturdy one room hut was sparsely furnished, had a large fireplace and was adequately insulated.  They prepared a bed for Manius near the fire to keep him warm and free of drafts in the coming winter.  They worked around the clock to keep him alive.

Manius skull had been fractured probably from a Celtic ax blow.  Removing his helmet was difficult as its crumpled edges were embedded in the bone.  Manius moaned as Lucani gently pried back the bent edges of the bashed helmet and lifted it off his head.  The wound was washed and left open to drain.  Later Luceria would stitch the scalp.  The metal part of the
pilum
was cut out of his leg and the wound cauterized eliciting screams from Manius even in his henbane induced stupor.  Henbane was a
Samnite
nostrum mixed in water that dulled Manius’ pain.

He had a fever and his head and leg wounds were showing signs of infection.  Luceria applied a mixture of herbs to the wounds and washed them frequently to combat the angry red swelling.  His leg grew to double its normal size.  She began to doubt whether he could be saved.  She forced him to drink whenever he was conscious and caught the small amount of urine he passed in a wooden bowl.  It was hard work and, despite Manius’ weakening condition, the couple gleefully planned how they would spend the reward money they were earning.  It made the nights go quicker.

Manius’ arrival in the
Samnite
village had not gone unnoticed.  Some of the neighbors, and one old former warrior in particular, demanded that the couple kill the Roman.  The
Samnite
s had not forgotten their last war with Rome, a mere 75 years ago, and there was still bitterness.  There was no love for the Romans in Agnone.  Lucani ended the debate by promising the villagers a piece of the expected reward if they helped him and his wife keep him alive.  Their greed got the better of them and Manius soon became the village project with everyone lending a hand in his care.  In the evenings, the villagers debated the amount to ask for him and considered how they should notify his relatives.

Lucani and Luceria marveled at how popular they had become since Lucani promised to share the reward.  Villagers now vied with one another to be seen helping with the care of Manius by bringing food, firewood, and water to the hut.  Everyone wanted to please the care givers to ensure that their contribution was not overlooked or forgotten.  Neighbors were extra kind to one another to prevent resentment and backbiting that could result in losing their share of the reward.  In a perverse way, the hated Roman had introduced an era of good will into this poor
Samnite
village that would last for years.

In the beginning, Luceria would give Manius water, but slowly added soup to his diet.  Still the infection raged and he began to have febrile seizures.  As August passed into September, Manius slowly began to show signs that he might indeed survive.  His fever broke after two weeks and the infection began to recede after the first month.  He still could not stay conscious for too long and the couple feared his brain may have been damaged and concluded he may not fetch a good price, if any at all.

September gave way to October and Manius was now awake and could sit upright in his bed.  He had lost much weight and had trouble forming words, but the villagers greedily rejoiced that he was a survivor.  By November, Manius was eating more and beginning to look healthier.  His speech had cleared and he was more aware of his surroundings, but still exhibited mental confusion at times.  Lucani asked Manius who they should contact in Rome to come and fetch him and carefully pointed out how much money and effort they had expended in his care.  Manius got the point.  Levi was the name that immediately came to mind.  He also asked that whoever made the 10 day trip back to Rome to ask Levi to notify Lucia that her husband had survived the battle and would soon be home.