The King's Cavalry Read Online Free PDF Page A

contact with the horse traders and breeders who had the herds we needed.
    I had sent word ahead of his mission to King Stelamann, one of the vassal kings the Romans had installed to hold the frontier. He was a ruler I met when I had travelled to create a federation against the legions. Our union had been successful and we had driven the Romans from Gaul after the great battle at Alesia. Now, the king could help me again, and should be eager to do so to maintain our alliance, as I had promised help if he and his kingdom come under threat.
    Quirinus was to make his way to Stelamann’s citadel at Vallis on the River Meuse to meet guides who could take him safely through the tribal lands to the horse breeders. Quirinus’ lancers would be enough to deter bandits and to protect the gold I needed to send with him for the horses purchase.
    His report said that he had successfully reached Vallis without arousing hostile interest, and the king had agreed to send for horse traders to bring their stock to his stronghold. He also had guides waiting for Quirinus to take him to the horse copers further afield, but cautioned that Maxentius’ men were now skirmishing wider out of their castrum at Colonia, on the Rhine.
    The king felt that Quirinus’ troop was not strong enough to withstand a strong patrol, so , to guarantee my tribune’s safety, insisted on having a troop of his own foot soldiers accompany the Britons. This, said Quirinus’ report, would slow their progress but on balance was a sensible precaution. Because the pace would be merely that of the infantry, Quirinus opted to leave the Gallic ponies behind at Vallis, for he would be returning to Bononia with a herd of heavy horses to manage and the ponies would require extra work and fodder. As they were leaving their ponies, our cavalrymen equipped themselves from the king’s armoury with infantry shields to replace the smaller cavalry targs they normally carried.
    The combined force of troopers proceeded to march north along the bank of the Meuse, which was still frozen, for the spring thaw was late this year of 312. The going was easier without the mud, but the king’s prediction about the enemy proved accurate. Quirinus and the Celts were intercepted by a strong Roman mounted patrol that was several days’ ride out from Colonia.
    “Fortunately, we saw them at a distance and I had time to prepare. I had considered this possibility,” Quirinus wrote, “and had devised a number of defensive strategies. One in particular was effective. I ordered the entire force to put socks on over their boots, because the hobnails pushed through the wool, which gave added traction. Then I marched them onto the ice of the frozen river.”
    The Roman dragoons rode their horses out to encircle Quirinus, but he ordered his two decurions to deploy the men out of their ranks and to stand them back to back in a modified infantry square. Next, he commanded the soldiers to hack grooves in the ice at their feet and to plant the bottom edges of their big shields in them.
    The men arrayed themselves shield edge to edge, and by bracing the backs of their ice-slotted shields against one foot, they created a solid defensive wall of limewood, leather and metal. Thus protected and on good footing, they braced themselves to receive the attack. As expected, the Roman horsemen trotted cautiously across the treacherous, frozen surface to break the line, but their forest pony steeds were doubly unstable on the ice and on their loose, tied-on horseshoes. The beasts jibbed and halted at the hedge of spears.
    “As they closed on us, several of our men leaned out and grabbed the horses’ reins, jerking them forward. The animals had poor footing on the ice, and fell, knocking other beasts and men to the ground. Soon, the whole square, Celts and Britons, was hauling the horses to the ice, and then we killed the unseated Romans. Our men employed their gladiatorial techniques of infighting with great success,”