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Back The City Save as PDF
Contents ( 111)
  1. BY ADRIAN GOLDSWORTHY
  2. CONTENTS
  3. MAP
  4. PROLOGUE
  5. I
  6. In the hill country
  7. Nearer the Euphrates
  8. The same night
  9. II
  10. The temporary camp of Legio VIIII Hispana, Fifty-five miles east of Cyrrhus
  11. Fifteen days before the Kalends of March
  12. III
  13. On the training grounds outside Zeugma
  14. Fifth day before the Nones of March
  15. In the house of Simon the merchant, Nicopolis
  16. The next day
  17. IV
  18. The temporary camp of Legio VIIII Hispana
  19. V
  20. Outside Nicopolis
  21. Eleventh day before the Kalends of April
  22. Nicopolis
  23. The same day
  24. VI
  25. On the road to the crossing at Zeugma
  26. Tenth day before the Kalends of April
  27. VII
  28. Zeugma
  29. Seventh day before the Kalends of April
  30. VIII
  31. The camp of VIIII Hispana
  32. One day before the Nones of April
  33. Nicopolis
  34. The same day, late afternoon
  35. IX
  36. Outside Nicopolis
  37. Eighth Day before the Ides of April
  38. X
  39. Near Nicopolis
  40. A little later
  41. XI
  42. In the plain in front of Nicopolis
  43. The Ides of April
  44. Nicopolis
  45. The same night
  46. XII
  47. In front of Nicopolis
  48. Eighteenth day before the Kalends of May First day of the siege
  49. XIII
  50. Outside Nicopolis
  51. Seventeenth day before the Kalends of May Second day of the siege
  52. XIV
  53. Outside Nicopolis
  54. Fifteenth day before the Kalends of May The fourth day of the siege
  55. Nicopolis
  56. The sixth day of the siege
  57. XV
  58. Up country
  59. Thirteenth day before the Kalends of May The eighth day of the siege
  60. XVI
  61. Zeugma
  62. That same night
  63. XVII
  64. The siege lines outside Nicopolis
  65. Eleventh day before the Kalends of May The tenth day of the siege
  66. XVIII
  67. The large camp to the east of Nicopolis
  68. Tenth day before the Kalends of May The eleventh day of the siege
  69. Nicopolis
  70. Late on the fourteenth night of the siege
  71. XIX
  72. Before Nicopolis
  73. Fifth day before the Kalends of April Sixteenth day of the siege
  74. XX
  75. Outside Nicopolis
  76. The Kalends of May The twenty-first day of the siege
  77. XXI
  78. Before Nicopolis
  79. The day before the Nones of May The twenty-sixth day of the siege
  80. Nicopolis
  81. The next day The twenty-seventh day of the siege
  82. XXII
  83. North west of Nicopolis, some miles from the road
  84. Fifth day before the Ides of May The thirty-second day of the siege
  85. XXIII
  86. In front of Nicopolis
  87. The day before the Ides of May The thirty-fifth day of the siege
  88. XXIV
  89. Outside Nicopolis
  90. The Ides of May
  91. The thirty-sixth day of the siege
  92. XXV
  93. The breach in the western wall
  94. XXVI
  95. Outside Nicopolis
  96. Seventeenth day before the Kalends of June The thirty-seventh day of the siege
  97. The prison at Nicopolis
  98. Three days later
  99. The forty-first day of the siege
  100. XXVII
  101. The citadel at Nicopolis
  102. The last hours of the fourteenth day before the Kalends of June
  103. The forty-first day of the siege
  104. XXVIII
  105. Nicopolis
  106. The same night
  107. EPILOGUE
  108. The next morning
  109. HISTORICAL NOTE
  110. GLOSSARY
  111. CAST OF CHARACTERS

That night he did not sleep well, even before there was more noise and once again the glow of flames. Domitius stared up at the bare ceiling and thought about the note scrawled on the shard of pottery.

‘Which side are you on?’

The truth was that he no longer knew.

XIX

Before Nicopolis

Fifth day before the Kalends of April
Sixteenth day of the siege

‘GET LOST, DID we?’ Vindex asked as Ferox and Bran rode towards Crispinus’ main camp.

‘Something like that,’ Ferox told him.

There were compounds and work areas spreading for more than a mile behind the main position, mostly occupied by parties of soldiers, although a few had been set down by the traders and other followers, or were housing the animals. Vindex was with a dozen of the Brigantes watching their horses graze and get some exercise, having moved back to the western camp in the last few days. The sound of sawing wood and hammering nails filled the air, and closest to them was one of the siege towers, already some forty feet high and still not finished. A second stood several hundred paces to the right. They must have been plain to see from the walls of the fortress, and Ferox knew that the army usually liked to keep machines like this secret until they were ready. Still, there was not really a suitable ridge to conceal them that was also close enough to make it worthwhile and not mean dragging the things for more than a mile. The one meant for the eastern assault ramp would have a long enough journey as it was.

Vindex nodded at the nearest one. ‘Big, isn’t it?’

‘It is.’

‘Taller than the ones at Piroboridava,’ Bran noted.

‘And look what happened to them!’ Vindex reminded them. They had all been besieged in the Roman fort and the Dacians had attacked with two towers. One had bogged down on its way to the wall and been smashed by stones flung from their engines. Ferox, Bran and some others had burned the second one. The young warrior stared up at the tower for a long while.

‘Anything new?’ Ferox asked Vindex.

‘Not much. The convoy has gone back, but I was told we weren’t wanted this time. So we help out with the patrols and pickets, and try to look busy the rest of the time so no one asks us to work… Oh, and it sounds like the big chief has found himself a woman. All a secret, and she lives quiet in a compound that’s heavily guarded and fenced off from the rest of the camp. Rumour is that it’s the princess – the bint you said started all this. He’s certainly happy – right ray of sunshine whenever you see him.’

‘How many know?’

Vindex shrugged. ‘I got chatting to a lass, turned out she was fetching water for another lass who serves the princess. Not sure many know, but you can’t really keep a secret like that.’