Final Campaign by R W Peake

Author:R W Peake [Peake, R W]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: R.W. Peake
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Despite Primus’ insistence that we immediately begin the siege of Serdica, the next day was spent in consolidating the camps. The wounded men were resting comfortably in the barracks building and, after their night of comfort, the men of the 8th were summarily dismissed to allow Primus to move all of his furnishings into the remaining barracks. This may have been suitable for him, yet it was an awkward arrangement for everyone else, since the Praetorium tent was still in the center of the new camp, meaning scribes had to move back and forth between the camp and where Primus was located to conduct the business of the army. He was also still governor of Macedonia, and couriers were constantly streaming back and forth from his province to the army as well. Naturally, they would come to the camp first, under the reasonable belief that the Praetor would be with his army, only to find that he was two miles away at the fortress. There would be much back and forth with whatever business being conducted, and the poor scribes and couriers were consigned to trudging back and forth. It apparently never occurred to Primus to come to the camp during the day before returning to his comforts at night. However, his absence did serve to make my life easier, since he did not interfere with our preparations for the siege. With the camps being consolidated, Flavianus and his assistants, the Primi Pili, and I went on an inspection tour around the city. As I have described, the western wall of the city fronted the river, and we could see that canals had been carved out of the rock that traveled under the walls. The river flowed north to south; we had been traveling upstream, meaning that if we wanted to divert the flow and cut the water off from Serdica, we would have to travel past the city to do so. That would require us to split our force in two, because we could not afford to vacate the fortress and leave the Thracian garrison in Serdica between us and it, thereby basically giving them the key to the fortress to reoccupy. If that happened, once again, we would have an enemy force in a position to cut off our line of supply and communication, and was why we took it in the first place. Beside the tangible reasons I just described, there was also the effect it would have on the morale of the army if we did that; nothing infuriates and demoralizes men more than giving something up without a fight that their comrades died taking. What all this meant was that cutting off their water was not an option, in turn informing me that the siege was likely to last much longer than we had hoped, making it even more crucial that we keep the road south open. Very soon, the cavalry would have to be employed in foraging patrols, and if we were forced to

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