“The Emperor was concerned about the arsenal at Damascus,” Constantine explained. “And he wanted to know what is really happening on the Persian frontier.”
“The arsenal should be safe, for the moment. Narses will be busy for a while; the Roman retreat began only a few days ago.” “Retreat!” Constantine exclaimed. “Where?”
“To Antioch, if rumors are true,” said Lucius Catullus grimly. “Perhaps even to the port of Seleucia, or into the sea. The way I heard it, Galerius was in such a hurry to win a victory in Persia that he used green troops from Cilicia and Syria Palaestina to make up his army, leaving his veterans behind to hold the Danube fortifications, lest the Goths decide to visit Greece again. As an old veteran, Dacius no offense meant, Tribune you can imagine what happened when such a rabble began the march from Carrhae to the Euphrates.”
“It would have been a kindness to cut their throats first,” Dacius agreed. “Those curved swords the Persian cavalrymen use can slit a man’s gullet before he knows what’s happening to him, so I imagine plenty have been cut since.”
“Then you have no idea where the battle lines really are?” Constantine asked.
Lucius Catullus said
“Or if any line exists,” Lucius Catullus said. ‘We have been waiting here for the Persians to come, after they finish with Galerius. My advice to you, Tribune, is to recross the river and ride for Antioch.”
“Out of the fighting entirely?”
“But alive,” the centurion said and added earnestly, “Don’t risk five hundred horse on a battle that is lost already; they may be needed to save Antioch.” He turned to Dacius. “Don’t you agree?”
“The decision is Tribune Constantine’s,” Dacius said, his eyes never leaving the younger man’s face. “He alone is responsible to Diocletian for our ala.”
“But discretion is still the ”
“Unroll the map, Dacius, and let me see what lies north of here,” Constantine interrupted crisply.
Dacius opened the map and the three of them studied it. “I thought I remembered two roads to the north,” Constantine said after a moment. “But I see only one leaving here.”
“The way forks about two or three hours’ ride to the north,” Lucius Catullus explained. “One route goes eastward, the other westward to Antioch.”
“Can we cross the Euphrates at a point where the Persians might not be in force? I don’t want to be caught with the river between me and Antioch and no way to cross.”
Read More about Tribunus Primi Ordinarius
