Heir of Aurelian

Chapter 141 Forced into an Uncomfortable Position

Constantius stood upon the wasteland of the battlefield and gazed upon the destruction wrought by the war. After saving what remained of the Gothic Foederati beneath Alaric’s command, he fought his way north, towards the next outpost which was surrounded by the enemy.

Unlike the previous battle, the eastern roman army at this location had not been so foolish as to turn their backs on what lie behind them. Because of this, they had indeed been able to see the approach of the Western roman army long before they arrived.

The result was a chaotic battle, which ultimately resulted in the victory of the Western Romans, though the cost was several thousand men. This was despite the eastern romans being sandwiched between the fortress’s garrison and the western roman field army.

Though many of the men stationed at this fortress were Romans, there were still some Gothic Foederati among their ranks. Despite this, Constantius had no intentions to inform them that their King was dead, as he would wait until word could reach Marcellus. If the Goths found out their monarch was slain in battle, they would quickly turn on themselves and fight for the vacant title.

Thus, Marcellus needed to hear of Alaric’s death, and crown a new King of the Goths in order to stabilize the barbarian “Kingdom”. Which now existed within the borders of the Roman Empire as a quasi-vassal state.

Constantius currently stood in the confines of the fortress, looking over a map alongside his officer’s and the man in charge of the garrison. The border fortresses were marked on the positions of those who were currently under assault by the eastern roman army. With on marking larger than all others.

The leader of the Frumentarii who was attached to Constantius’ unit, quickly spoke up about the most recent intelligence that Marcellus’ agents had collected from the front lines.

“It appears that this location is where the rival Magister Militum is located. If we can defeat him, and the bulk of his forces in a single battle the others will flee back to their lands with their tails between their legs. However, they have this fortress surrounded, and by the time we arrive in force, they will have taken it for themselves. Meaning we will have to lay siege to our own fortress…”

Constantius sneered in disdain when he heard this before questioning the agent, who said these words.

“Are the soldiers aware that they are to dismantle the trebuchets should the fortress fall? We can’t allow the enemy to acquire such weapons, or learn how to reverse engineer them!”

The agent nodded his head before responding with a confident tone in his voice.

“Yes, by now, the trebuchets should have been dismantled, as the soldiers hold out to the last man. However, the crossbows and the remaining bolts will definitely fall into the enemy’s hands!:

In response to this, Constantius smiled and shook his head before explaining how that the crossbows would not pose a problem to their men.

“Our soldiers are equipped with the best armor money can buy. Assuming the crossbow bolt is able to pierce through the lorica squamata, it will not pass the subarmalis beneath it, and even if it does, it will not be to a significant enough degree to inflict serious bodily harm.

We do not need to fear the crossbows. In fact, it sounds like a good idea to allow them to first take the stronghold. We will lure them into a false sense of security behind their walls and then bring them down with the trebuchets. After we punched a few holes in their walls, we will attack with everything we have, and put an end to their reign.

Once I have this so-called magister militum, I will bring him to Marcellus so that he may beg for forgiveness before the true emperor or Rome. Let us see how the dogs of Yazdegerd hold out against our superior army. Prepare the men to march. After they are well rested and resupplied, we will march on this fortress with the full might of strength.”

With these orders given, the Western Roman Army was prepared to march on their enemies. If they could bring down Durio and his forces, which were the bulk of the Eastern Roman Army, then they could effectively crush the Eastern Roman invasion of Illyricum.

—

While Constantius prepared for a massive assault on the eastern roman magister militum. Marcellus had marched his forces to the coasts of Italia. Where he could see the eastern roman fleet in the distance. No matter where they sailed to his army would follow.

Yazdegerd, perhaps out of fear of the sea of shimmering iron that lie on the cliffs above the shores, continued to sail his ships further north. Unfortunately, galleys were slow-moving ships, with at most 4 knots under favorable conditions.

Thus, they never left the sight of the pursuing Roman Army. Realizing that he was running out of shoreline until he reached those closest to the city of Rome. The Persian King was forced to land his army, sooner rather than later. In the end, the Western Roman forces took advantage of this, and held the cliffs, raining arrows down upon the enemy army as they disembarked from their warships.

A torrent of iron arrows fell on the eastern roman soldiers and their Persian allies, who covered their torsos with wooden shields. Despite this, many of the missiles penetrated through the gaps in their formation and pierced through the unarmored torsos of many of the less fortunate soldiers.

Opposed landings were rare throughout the entirety of human history, the most famous of which was the invasion of Normandy in 1944 from Marcellus’ past life. However, the end result was normally the same: the forces who landed on the beaches were always killed off in massive numbers.

However, this was an era of arrows and iron. Thus, the initial damage dealt to Yazdegerd’s forces was much smaller than it could have been. One thing was certain, the battle for the shores of Italia had only just begun.