Journal of P. Licinius Crassus (pt. 1)

My name is Publius Licinius Crassus, distant cousin to Marcus Lucinius Crassus Dives, Counsul and Censor of Roma, slayer of the vile slave Spartacus. 

        It is the 4th day of Quintilis in the 700th year since the found of Roma as reckoned by my mentor, Marcus Terentis Varro. 

        It has been three weeks since that vile creature Ariamnes, a chief of the Arab tribes in this area and “trusted” friend of Gn. Pompey Magnus, led our army into an ambush by the Parthian army. 

        Contrary to my prior beliefs that the Parthians were mere barbarians no different than the Cimbri or Teutones, or the various Celtic tribes of Gaul, the Parthians have been exceedingly merciful to the survivors of a shattered invading army. 

        For three weeks now the Parthians have been rounding up survivors and stragglers from our army.  They have been placing us in a single camp on the stream Balissus, a few miles from where we were initially engaged by their cavalry.  Our few medici have been given supplies and helpers to tend our many wounded.  While I believe more than ten thousand have been brought here, there have been many deaths due to wounds and infections.  Our captors have allowed us to show proper respect for each of our fallen.  A level of mercy that I had not expected from barbarians.

        Our surviving tribunes have been negotiating with our captors to determine our ultimate fate.  It is almost certain that we will be sold into slavery.  That is the usual fate for prisoners of war.  In all truth, I expect that the conditions of our slavery are the only real points of discussion

10 Quintilis, 700 AUC.

        For the last six days, we scribes have been gathering the names and conditions of the survivors.  Of the over forty thousand men who left Syria at the start of this campaign, 3 in 4 are dead or have fled in hopes of making it back to Syria.  Every cohort of every legion is represented among the survivors.  Not since cruel Hannibal sent so many of our finest across the River Styx on that day on the plains of a Cannae have we known such a bitter defeat.

        While our medici assure me that most of those who will die from their wounds or infections have already done so, nearly 4 in 5 of us in this camp remain under their close care.  The rumor is that as soon as we are fit to travel, we will be marched to a distant land.  What will happen to us then is in the hands of our new masters.

25 Quintilis 700 AUC

        The census of our numbers has finally been completed.  In total, counting all legionaries and support persons including cooks to blacksmiths, there are 8,364 survivors.  Now that most of us can at least walk a few miles a day with our injury we are to be sent to the province of Margiana, some 1,700 miles to the east.  At best speed, it will take us at least three months of hard marching to reach our destination.  We will either head strait across the high Persian plateau or move slightly north and move along the southern edge of the Hyrcania Mare to reach the deserts that separate the main Parthian empire from our new home. 

16 Sextilis 700 AUC

        Since starting our march 20 days ago, we have been formed into new contubernia and thus into new centuries and cohorts.  Even with the losses that come from long hard marches, we have 10 full cohorts, including a double strength 1st cohort.  We have formed two units of velites, each of cohort strength.  We even have all the necessary craftsmen and artisans to be a full strength legion. 

        While our guards were very skeptical to our reorganization, the improved speed that we are able to march, and the fact that we have no weapons, has led them to tolerate the decision of our new legate, Gaius Licinius Calvus Stolo, to reorganize us from a mob of slaves to something that resembles a disciplined force.  In reforming ourselves as a legion, we retain some small measure of self-respect.  We may be marching off to be slaves, but until that day we are citizens of Roma.

29 Sextilis 700 AUC

        We are now approaching the last range of mountains between us and Marginna.  Depending on the weather, we should reach our destination in a month or a month and a half.  While it is very early autumn, we hope to be through the mountains before the first snow. 

        In a stunning development, our tribune has secured permission for us to carry rudisi and scutum.  They appeared as by magic outside each of our tents this morning; eight rudisi, eight scutum; one for each person in the contubernia.  I am completely baffled by why our guards would allow slaves to have a practice sword and shield while we march into slavery, unless of course we are to become mercenaries rather than mere beasts of burden.  Even non-combatants, like myself, are being required to practice at least an hour each day after the day’s march with rudisi and scutum. 

29 Septembris 700 AUC

        We made excellent time through the mountains.  We are camped on a hill overlooking the city of Margiana.  It is a fairly large city but one lacking adequate defenses.  It seems that our famed skills in siege craft and building were a major reason for the Parthians to bring us to this distant land. 

3 Octobris 700 AUC

        We have camped outside the city and have begun building a permanent fort for ourselves.  Using that fort as a base, we will extend walls and defenses around the whole city. 

        When that task is completed, our Parthian masters have told us that those of us who wish it will be allowed to remain under arms as garrison troops and those who wish it can muster out with a small farm.  Our legate, breaking with tradition, has ruled that legionaries may take wives while still under the standard.  He feels that it would ease tensions in this city if 8000 new men, most of marriageable age, would not remain single.  Obviously we will have to conform to local customs.  I do not know if the local custom is for the groom to pay a brideprice or for the bride’s family to provide a dowery.  I think I shall have to investigate this … quickly.