I hope someone enjoys it, I think it isn't that bad.
Chapter 1: Gates of Porrolissium
The troops were restless after nearly 3 years of siege. The proud and treacherous Thracians stood behind their massive walls; walls built by the very troops who now wished them destroyed. It was not so long ago that 12th legion partied and drank inside the city after having delivered the final blow to the Dacians under the command of Servius Victor and they wished desperately for their leader to return to them. "If Servius was here he would have crushed these Thracians in 2 days flat!" was the popular phrase of the Triarii and archers and many nights the veterans would tell the younger troops of the 'good ol' days' under Servius where defeat was unheard of and the only hardships were suffered by the enemies of Servius.
Unknown to them though was that Servius had died in obscurity trying to conquer Macedon nearly a year ago. He foolishly tried to repeat his success over Dacia again with Macedon, however the Dacian horde was a far cry from the organized and well equipped Macedonians. Leading a small mercenary army and remnants of the 5th legion Servius captured and enslaved Bylazora easily. He went on into the province of Macedon and as he reached the outskirts of Thessalonica he set up camp and dared the Macedonians to attack him. The Macedonians were at first afraid saying "Servius has yet to lose a battle! How can we succeed where so many have failed?" However one brave captain stood up and rallied his troops "Servius is but a man! His troops are arrogant and careless. Take courage men! Courage will give us victory!"
Early next morning the Macedonians lined up in battle formation and marched against Servius. Confident in his men and inpatient in his heart Servius ordered a full assault against the Macedonians. A grave miscalculation. The Macedonians pressed on the Romans like a wall and pushed them back with a line of spears. The day ended horribly, Servius had lost more than half of his troops. He attempted to retreat back to Bylazora but the Macedonians caught up to him and forced him into a second battle. Humilated and frustrated at the effectiveness of their phalanx menuvers Servius gave one last speech to his doomed troops and led them forward to their fate. A grim day as not a single man survived and Servius himself was skewered upon a hoplite lance and his head severed and sent to Athens to show the doubting Macedonians that the Julii were nothing compare to the might of Macedon.
The 15th legion experienced no such nostalga. They were the cream of the crop. The newest, best trained and best equipped legion made up of praetorian cohorts, archer auxillia, legionary cavalry and led by Arretium's newest and brightest general: Cassenus. At only 22 years old Cassenus had only lead his troops in a few battles against brigands and this was his first and greatest assignment yet. His troops, men from the towns of Mediolanium and Patavium, were indiferent to him, caring little for his education at Arretium's academy or his so-called 'elite' training. These men were came from the towns that were battlehardened from years of Gaul invasions and sieges. Death was nothing new to them; they could die here at the hands of Thracians...or they could stay at home and die at the hands of Gauls and so unlike Cassenus who was nervous all the time, his troops remained calm and steady.
The Thracians inside the city seemed to have confined themselves to their fate, never emerging from their walls to meet their enemy and so the Romans had optimistically hoped that an assault would be unnecessary and even went so far as to say that the population might rise up and oust the Thracians and welcome back their original conquerers. Unknown to the Romans though was that city garrison was actually just biding time, waiting for reinforcments and indeed they would come, not that they really needed them though. Porrolissium had a garrison of at least 1,000 men and it was well stocked for a siege and its walls nearly brand new stone walls that were 15 feet thick. The narrow streets favored their style of battles, that is to say their phalanx formation which could literally block off the street completely if had not been for the Roman's large contingency of archers. It was August when the reinforcements arrived, and the Romans now saw the resolve of the Thracians to hold this city. Two new armies lead by two family members of Thrace's elite ruling family each having 1000 men under their command. The Roman's did not come prepared for this, having barely over 2,000 men. As soon as the reinforcemnts arrived the garrison Porrolissium sallied forth to meet their foe. The 15th legion was in position in front of the city's main gate and the 12th lay about a 20 minute's march away to their right. The Thracian's two reinforcement armies each took one side of the city, hoping that the garrison would hold the 15th in the middle and they would be able to surround them and finish them off before the 12th could even arrive.
As soon as the Thracian garrison opened the gates and the reinforcements could be seen Cassenus had his men abandon the siege equipment. Taking the city now was too much to hope for. At best, he had hoped that he could force the garrison back inside and wipe out one of the reinforcement armies then regroup near the province of Tribus Iazyges. The hoplites filed out of the city one by one and began to form battle formation. Cassenus would have attcked then but feared he might push the two reinforcement armies to attack too soon and he would be overwhelmed. Instead he had all 5 units archers to the front ranks and wait for the command to fire. The Thracians tried to counter this menuver by sending their own archers to their front ranks but they were too few and the Romans easily routed them with two volleys. The Romans themselves had arranged themselves in a tight formation with spearmen on the flanks to counter the Thracian Cavalry and Praetorians in the middle to hold the hoplites long eough for the cavalry to flank and surround them. The Thracians sent their first wave of men as soon as they assumed battle formation. As soon as they closed in the order was given to the archers to fire at will. However, the two siege towers blocked the view of most of the archers hindering their affect. Seeing this Cassenus ordered his Praetorians to mop them up quickly, a move he hesitated to make. He didn't want his men tired before the fearsome hoplites arrived, but wanted his archers and Auxila alive to support them. Luckily it paid off and the falxmen and warbands were quickly routed, retreating back to their city. The Thracians had enough and the hoplites marched forward in full force. Cassenus then gave the order for his archers to fire upon the hoplites and to stand their ground, worrying that if they skirmished that they would leave his infantry vulnerable. The hoplites closed in and clashed head on with the praetorians. The praetorians fought with such great spirit that the hoplites began to rout without the cavalry charge being sounded to surround them! This however seemed to be a terrible thing at first as the hoplites now concentrated on the the praetorians. Action was needed fast, the praetorians couldn't hold forever and as soon as the next wave of hoplites hit the cavalry charge was sounded and the hoplites were flanked and crushed. The remaining men of the garrison fled back into the city gates at the sight of 4 of their 7 hoplite units being destroyed. A good start and indeed Cassenus was impressed with his men and his own strategic thinking but the battle was far from over. To his armies' left now approached a new fresh army of Thracians and as soon as the Romans had run in the garrison back through the gates they were hit with a massive volley of arrows from the Thracians. The Thracians had foolishly sent their archers first without any protecting cavalry and the hoplites were still some distance away so Cassenus took this opportunity and had all avaliable cavalry to charge them...
To be continued. Not bad...right?
[This message has been edited by JudetheObscure (edited 10-24-2004 @ 01:18 AM).]