Chapter XXIII: Mountainous flanking
Our units arrived there in late August, such big is the Roman Empire even if diminished. Some legions coming all the way from the Sicilian coastline, half of the units were in dire need of some free time, and to accomplish that we stopped at Iuvavum. The Thuringians were to siege it anyways.
However, no attack came for weeks. Instead what we got were many reports of constant raids and assaults on the already pillaged towns. Truly, Bisinus Almading was none the wiser. However, he did achieve one thing, which is to get us to leave our fortified position and go on the offensive. The ally units were now completely fresh and eager to meet the foe, so we didn’t have to worry about desertions or misbehaviour in our lines. Tens of villages had already been burned down in both the Monachian and Oeniponsian areas, but to be honest I’m not even impressed at this point. It’s always the same. Comes Paulus was once again scared of an incoming force, but he had nothing to fear for the victorious Legions were once again near his fort at Tauriscia.
We were forced to move our units through the mountains of the Lesser Alps, ready to reinforce once again the garrisons behind the Mura. This seemed to be a complete repetition of past actions but there is a small detail that we were ignoring back then: We were now the ones that had to cross the river.
Septimius Decius was the main leader of the Roman units, being Decimus his second in command. The current governor of the Alpes Maritimae designed a simple but smart plan to make a two flanked crossing, so as to avoid a completely centralized conflict. It was understood that there was to be a battle, and it was an unavoidable reality, but the fewer men we lost in the mountainous areas of the northwest the better.
I was separated from Decimus, as my group required the carriage I was using to carry goods through the plains, while my kinsman went with the mountainous assaultants. We did not know back then were the enemy was located, nor did we know what their intentions were. However, what we did know is that they were to be crushed, for this time they would definitely be the last ones to dare cross the border. I swear, the limitanei really need to begin doing their job correctly. It’s already been two times an enemy has crossed the Alps in less than three years and the last time that it happened the results were bleak until we arrived at the scene.
Our side of the army marched surrounding the bigger Alps, letting ourselves be seen by everyone, including possible Thuringian reconnaissance units that were scouting the roads.
We were the decoy, of course, and we were to move slightly towards the Mura but always with a second paved road near just in case we were to flee.
Decimus meanwhile, as he detailed me later, crossed the mountains directly with a group of a thousand and a half men, suffering the pain of having to wear and carry
heavy armour while leading an army that was constantly getting lost in the neverending woods. At least he had a horse this time…