Hibernia (Veteran of Rome Book 2) by William Kelso

Author:William Kelso [Kelso, William]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi

Chapter Nineteen - The Battle Group Trebonius

The harbour was packed with soldiers. Long queues of heavily laden Legionaries were embarking onto the troop transports. The men stood in single files weighed down by their armour, helmet, weapons, rations, supplies and personal kit as they waited patiently for their turn to board the ships. The soldiers had placed their large red rectangular shields against their legs and their Pilum's, throwing spears had been strapped to their back and each man was clutching two, six feet long, wooden stakes that had been sharpened at the end. The Legionaries were quiet and there seemed to be no appetite for the marching songs, which they had so lustily sung when the Twentieth had come marching into Deva Victrix a few days earlier. Beside the galleys the Legionary officers clustered together in small groups watching the embarkation. Further along the water front Corbulo could hear the shouts and nervous neighing of the cavalry horses as they were led onto the transports, one horse at a time. The journey across the sea towards a hostile coast seemed to be weighing on everyone's mind. Beyond the lines of Roman Legionaries a queue of Syrian archers were boarding their galleys. The Syrians too were each clutching two sharpened wooden stakes and they had slung their bows and quivers over their shoulders. They were small men with olive coloured skin and black hair and they seemed to be keeping themselves to themselves. Corbulo peered at them keenly. These then had to be the men belonging to the First Cohort of Hamian Archers. Corbulo had never heard of this auxiliary unit before but the Legate's staff officers had told him that the Hamians were amongst the finest bowmen in the Empire and that they had only arrived in Britannia from their home province of Syria a few months ago.

Corbulo pushed his way through the throngs of Roman soldiers towards the section of quayside that had been reserved for the Second Batavian Cohort. Five large troop transports lay at anchor in the river, one next to the other, as if they were building a bridge across the Dee. The Batavians were shuffling onto the ships across the narrow deck planks that had been laid out in between the galleys. The sailors and rowers onboard the vessels were leaning over the sides of their ships watching the embarkation. Corbulo caught sight of a small group of Batavian officers and veered towards them. He recognised the commanding officer from his uniform and helmet.

"Sir," Corbulo said snapping out a quick salute, "I am looking for one of your Decurion's. His name is Marcus; he's got red hair. Do you know where I can find him?"

The Prefect of the Second Batavians was a tall thin man with a white scarf tied around his neck to stop his armour from chafing. He glanced at Corbulo and nodded.

"He's over there making sure those sailors don't mishandle my horses," the officer replied gesturing in the direction of the horse transports.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.