October 483 – January 484
Militarily, the autumn campaign season in northern Italia opened with great promise. The entrance into Rome had yielded some political fruits, transforming a military revolt into potentially a restoration of the western state as it had been before 476. Even before the city itself was secure, however, intrigue began and the major factions within – Church, Senate, aspiring emperor, the army – began to position themselves to secure advantage within the emerging state. Though many optimistically called it an empire, the lands officially ruled by Romulus Augustulus were scarcely a collection of settlements controlled by a small army. Legitimacy still lay in the future.
Avoiding any political entanglements and leaving Rome behind with the bulk of his veteran army, Remus Macrinus harried Donatus north to the gates of Ravenna itself. At Arminium, in mid-October, he caught up with the rear of the Italian force and destroyed a significant portion of it, ensuring that little would stand in the way of a march on Ravenna.
Donatus meets his fate in the desperate holding action at Arminium
Fighting well into the night, Donatus himself was wounded in the fray, reaching the safety of the fortress only to be ignominiously executed by an ungrateful Odoacer. The Patrician now decided to take personal command of what remained of his realm.
Unlike a field battle, however, Ravenna would be a different proposition altogether. Surrounded by marshes and canals built by Augustus and Trajan, terrain alone served as the fortress city’s first line of defense. Then there were the large imposing walls which surrounded not only the city but its access to the sea, where the lagoon and the naval dockyards - the Classis - were both protected by extensions of the long Ravenna walls. Secured by a large garrison and open to the Hadriatic, assault was all but impossible and the prospects of a siege just as poor. As Patrician of the Eastern Empire in the West, Odoacer still possessed open lines of communications to his superiors, who were looking upon the latest interlopes in Italia with grave concern.
That Romulus Augustulus immediately sent a formidable embassy to treat with the Emperor Zeno was no surprise, as only Zeno’s forbearance offered any real prospect of holding power in the west.
As for Remus Macrinus, he soon found himself unable to breach the formidable defenses by assault or treachery. Few in the city actually feared his approach and most of those were politically bound to Odoacer’s rule. None were interested in opening the gates of their refuge. Negotiating the swamps to attack what he hoped were weak spots in the defenses only proved to be more exasperating. Confined, there, to leaving a tiny and symbolic covering force outside the walls, he soon focused on the more practical task of pushing north and around Ravenna, towards the valley of the Padus and the fertile lands through which it flowed.
Steady reinforcements of recruits, comprised of the too young and the too old, began to trickle into the various Roman camps on either side of the Apennines. There were already concerns from Rome as a portion of these reinforcements were held back at Romulus’ command, to form a nascent city garrison and guard.
These political tensions, however, could not be made to stand in the way of military progress. These weak additions to his army were useful as detachments which fanned out to both coasts, securing strategic settlements in Umbria and Etruria, and in particular access along the Via Flaminia and Via Cassia, the north and northeast routes leading out of Rome.
Winning the cavalry battle at Volaterrae opened up the Via Cassia
At Volaterrae, deep in Etruria, a small Italian blocking force of two thousand cavalry was bullied aside, allowing Remus to cross the Flumen Arnus. Only the northern mountain passes beyond Luca offered any prospect of denying Remus entry into the open plains beyond.
It was strategically vital to isolate Ravenna in 484 if possible. The biggest step towards accomplishing this was to secure the city of Mediolanum. Mediolanum was a formidable prize, a strong defensive position that had once served as an imperial capital, and which boasted both a former imperial mint and significant weapons and armor fabricae. It rivaled Rome easily in symbolic and practical value. Unfortunately for Remus, winter more so than his enemy was serving to delay that accomplishment.
Three inches had fallen in the last hour, and his tough leather boots crunched in the deepening snow cover, doing little to keep his feet warm. Constant movement was the best way of preventing his limbs from going numb and as a commander, Remus found it convenient to keep in motion, inspecting the extreme southern portion of what he sometimes thought was a useless mission.
”These are one thousand wasted men, God help them. By spring you’ll have lost more than Donatus could ever do in his best days,” Claudius growled. Like most of Remus’ staff, Claudius objected to screening Ravenna, deeming manpower to be a premium at what he called the critical point of the campaign.
Remus thought otherwise, and was rarely reluctant to voice his strategic thinking.
”We can’t take Ravenna. The Lord of Hosts couldn’t take it, not without help from the inside or the makings of a navy.” He winced at his own words, which he knew bordered on blasphemy. But he felt he had a point. Alternating from one foot to the other, he struggling to keep warm as icy cold gusts cut through his
sagum cloak.
”We can’t take Ravenna, Claudius. Neither can I ignore it. Odoacer has at least a thousand troops inside and can emerge as he pleases. If I don’t at least watch him, he could sweep down towards Rome and do who knows what.”
Claudius laughed with a trace of bitter sarcasm.
”Oh wouldn’t the Imperator love that! Give him a chance to test his Guard in battle. I wonder, sometimes, if he keeps those puffed-up swordsman to watch Odoacer, or----“
”That’s enough!” Remus said sharply, his eyes cutting as much as his words. Claudius fell silent, though he certainly didn’t look cowed. Remus stepped closer to him.
”I know your mind, but I won’t have such dangerous talk in my presence. We have a war to win, and we both serve the Imperator as loyal Romans. Keep your peace on such things. You follow my orders, and I follow his. Are we agreed?”
Claudius spit, the dribble freezing almost instantly as it fell to the ground.
”Yes, we’re agreed. Loyal Romans,” he laughed again.
”That matters less than you think, nowadays, Magister,” he said, subsiding when Remus held up a forefinger.
Tense, freezing, the pair turned and observed a small detachment of infantry cutting wood for a palisade, another small chokepoint forming an impossibly long line around Ravenna. The fog and snowfall kept Remus from spotting the distant walls, but he knew they were there. The cold had begun to freeze the marshes, and if his cavalry wasn’t pushing through Etruria, he could do something. But what, his mind admonished him. Riding around walls was but a fruitless exercise in parade-marching. Claudius had a point. But so did he. He would not turn his back on Odoacer. And, though he would never admit it to Claudius, on Romulus as well. Yet surely loyalty counted for something?
) and the future of Italia. Now we can only wait to see how the East reacts. Can't wait to read about that. It should prove to be quite... interesting.
