Part 104 (2/2)
The appearance of theAntony was on his feet and reaching out for the dispatches, his face already changed He, and I, knew souess
”I see/' Antony finally said to one of thedid it take you?”
”I rode two days and a night,” he said ”When I left, there was still fighting going on in the harbor, but it was essentially over Bogud was dead, his flagshi+p captured and burnt, the fortress-town taken”
Now I did not need to read the report I looked at Antony; ould we do?
”Taenarum and Zacynthus are still secure?” he asked
”As far as I know,” the oing on at the sarippa's efforts were concentrated on Methone”
”So far south,” said Antony, sinking into a chair He looked around distractedly, then, out of habit, politely offered the ers refresh my mind on the practical, as I tend to do when a crisis occurs ”They have not eaten for days Go with our attendants,” I told theone, I turned to Antony ”What does this mean? How could we have lost one of our most secure, and important, harbor fortresses?”
”So far south,” he kept repeating ”Who would have expected hional route and attack us on the southern flank? I expected a crossing in the north, where the distance is much shorter, and we could intercept them Nownowis this where the ood that we have stationed our army in the middle, to be deployed in any direction”
Yes, that had been the purpose of it But it also had the disadvantage that wherever the eneain, the hard fact ofto anticipate an ene back to my question ”It is difficult to calculate exactly what it means Our food shi+ps will have to sail farther out to sea now, but they can still get through No ar to see what ground he will choose”
But it soon beca squadron on Methone, which i off shi+ps andour overall defenses Octavian, with the other half of the fleet, now sailed the expected short northern route and attempted to take our northernmost station at Corcyra Perhaps he meant to base himself there and attack our main station at Actiu the island
His hero Agrippa solved the proble attacks on our other stations; soon the Corcyra shi+ps were engaged in protecting their brother stations All the action see place in the south, so the north was left aluarded Under cover of this activity, when all eyes were fastened on Taenarum, Zacynthus, Ithaca, and Cephallenia, Octavian ferried his army the rest of the way across and landed at Panor Pompey It was some hundred miles north of Actium, two hundred miles north of us at Patrae
The ar to fall upon Actiu ours and the ar: only four days after landing, they had reached the harbor of Glycys Limen, at the mouth of the river Acheron, the last harbor before the entrance to Actium This is ere first informed of his arrival It was as if he had come down from the sky
So The ti, we must now make a mad dash up there Octavian had indeed seized the initiative; couldconvert our defensive position into an offensive one?
”He won't take Actiuht was justified; after all, it is easy for an arulf is only half a mile wideband'narrowed even more by shallows just outside its entrance On either side of the entrance we've erected guard towers that won't let anything get past; they will rain down catapult boulders and fireballs on men and shi+ps alike”
”How soon can we reach it with the army?” I asked
”Well leave immediately,” he said ”The bulk of the aret there in two or three days We have to rescue the fleet; if we don't secure the approaches to Actium on land, Octavian's forces will line the shore and prevent food supplies froulf”
”What about the rest of the army?”
”They will follow as soon as possible I haven't had a report yet on the size of the army Octavian has landed”
”We can be certain that it isadequate for the task,” I said Agrippa would have seen to that, I thought grimly
Octavian's attack was beaten back, as Antony predicted He had attempted to draw our fleet out into open water for a battle, suspecting (correctly) that we did not have soldiers on board, and that the shi+ps were not ht quickly, and stationed oarsmen and sailors on deck with imitation arms; the oars were poised as if ready for an attack, and the shi+ps drawn up in battle line to face the eneood bluff, and deceived Octavian He withdrew and took his shi+ps around to the only anchorage available to hiulf And it was there we found him e arrived at Actium
We had ridden hard to reach Actiuround on a forced march behind us The rocky, barren landscape we traversed drove holy fact that there was no food to be had here in an eency of being trapped at Actiu trapped at Actiu II must not allow myself to consider it
I do not think Antony expected me to be able to keep up with him Once he had set out, he was all fierce deter on without consideration for himself, his horse, orBut exciteth, and I did not fall behind
In the gray dawn, froulf wherein lay our fleet It was large enough to contain our three hundred-odd warshi+ps, and they rode at anchor, looking formidable I felt proud when I saw theulf, but it did not take long forthe water, the land was low, marshy, and treeless; we could not approach the shoreline very closely, for the ground was treacherous I caught sight of snakes in the tall grass, and clouds of insects, buzzing and stinging, rose fro frouarded the entrance to the gulf This site was the pron When people say ”at Actium,” they mean all of it, what happened by land and sea, but correctly it was only this little site
In proper Roates Have the Roates, where a guard demanded the password; Antony shouted out, ”By Hercules! This is Antony! What other word do you need?”
In disbelief, the guard summoned a felloho verified that, yes, this was indeed Antony, as he hiates were thrown open and we rode in, to the stunned faces of the garrison who had been holding the fortress They looked glum, too tired and run down even to smile The winter here had clearly been unhealthy for them
”O fortunate soldiers!” Antony shouted as he rode down the ht the enereat honor!”
Antony's purple cloak was mud-stained and his feet filthy, but he looked fresh and shi+ning compared to the soldiers, who simply stared back at him Finally a faint cheer or two rose from the ranks
”The army is on its way,” he assured theions fro the old Ironclad Remember the Ironclad?”
They just looked back at hi from elsewhere And cavalry as well”
The coarrison, Marcus Grattius, welcos were shaky, and the ground felt odd
The door shut behind us, Antony clasped the commander's shoulders ”How bad is it?” he asked ”How many of them are there?”
Noas the turn of Grattius to rery and thirsty But before we thought of even washi+ng our hands, Antony dean cautiously ”You must understand, I have not been invited to review it!” He laughed, a sad-sounding laugh ”But frohty thousand ions Of course they are all Ron allies or auxiliaries” He turned as his attendant brought ewers of fresh water and towels for us ”Ah Here we are”
Antony held out his hands as the water was poured over them into the basin
”And where are they?” he asked, speaking above the sound of the water
”They have established a caher ground They were smart
”It is well sited, except that it has no water supply For that, they s on lower ground”
A weak spot! I was relieved to hear it