Zama by Dan Armstrong

Author:Dan Armstrong
Language: eng
Format: azw3
ISBN: 9780983004578
Published: 2017-01-30T05:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 56

The inquiry took place in the morning at the villa in Syracuse where Pomponius and his twelve-man team were staying. They questioned Scipio about the events in Locri. I wasn’t there, but judging from Scipio’s mood when I saw him afterward, it must have gone well.

Following the inquiry, the legal team was taken to the battlements on the south wall of the city that overlooked the Great Harbor. Scipio offered the men chairs to sit in and then directed their attention to the open field between the harbor and our camp. Scipio wore full armor—a dazzlingly bronze cuirass and red plumed helmet, a matching bronze greave on his left shin, and his gladius on his hip. Pomponius, an over-weight man with a deep ugly cough, and his team were in togas. It was a breezy afternoon. A few had red mantles draped over their shoulders. Twenty trumpeters, ten on each side of the attendees, stood ready with their trumpets. I was there with my wax pad and bronze stylus.

Scipio, who was his most charming self all day, asked the men if they were ready. When all said they were, he raised his gladius over his head. The trumpeters lifted their instruments. Scipio stroked down and the twenty trumpets sounded. The front gate to our camp opened and four legions of soldiers—two allied, two Roman—just under twenty thousand men, marched out in perfect order and assumed regimental position in the field.

Scipio again raised his gladius to signal another round of trumpet blasts. One thousand cavalry, riding four abreast, came from behind the camp and rode down the slight incline to take their position with the other soldiers.

Using the trumpets as signals, Scipio ran the four legions through a series of maneuvers. Following Scipio’s direction, the four legions then split into two groups, each with a Roman legion and an allied legion. They faced off in two lines as though opposing armies with five hundred cavalry on a side. With another round of trumpet blasts, the two armies’ velites raced across the field and tossed their javelins at the opposition to simulate the opening of a battle. The tribunes then signaled for their men, who were carrying wooden swords, to advance into a mock battle that demonstrated a variety of troop movements—the advance of hastati, the support of the principes, the reinforcement of the triarii, and a series of sorties on the flanks by the cavalries. All was carried out with enough actual sword play to create the drama and feel of a real battle.

When the two armies retreated back into formation, the thirteen men on the battlements stood as one and applauded. Even I, who had witnessed the long hours of training, was impressed.

After the four legions and the accompanying cavalry had returned to the camp, Scipio directed his audience’s attention to the Great Harbor. On Scipio’s signal and the blare of trumpets, twenty warships, which had been waiting outside the harbor, rowed into the harbor two abreast, then separated to opposite sides of the harbor.

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