Tales of Ancient Rome: Lions in the Valley Chapter 3

Chapter 2: Continued

    Titus: "Besides, she has the best skills to move fast and scout, better than any of us.  Me, I 'clink' and 'clack' when I move around in my amour.  Her, she can be as quiet as a mouse when she moves.  First, let her try to slip into the woods, scout him and maybe pick off one of his men before they realize they're the quarry.  If there are a lot of them, we'll have to whittle them down.  We'll come up with a way she can go after them besides fighting as a Dimachaeri.  We can also try creating that intentional weakness, and get some of his scouts for her.  And when we've finally cut him down to size, we can help her set up some sort of trap to get them all."

    "Tal, I know you don't want Lydi to take any chances, but it just makes sense that she's the one who should do the scouting.  And Tal, she'll be safer as a scout in the woods than guarding the families if Vircingi comes down here again with all his men."

    Talig and Salidia knew the others were right, but they weren't happy with the course things had taken.  Talig, especially, was bothered when he saw the women put at risk, and he didn't want Lydia going alone to get this man, but the practical realities of the situation forced him to concede.

Chapter 3

Gretting Dressed for the Dance

    The ex-gladiators all knew a number of different fighting styles from the arena.  Before they were freed, they had sat around in their ludus (the gladiator training schools where they lived and trained between fights) talking with other gladiators at night.  All of Salidia's ex-gladiators knew how Hoplomachi, murmillones, provocatores, retiarii, etc.(different gladiator types) fought, and the advantages and disadvantages of each type.  Their own trainers, the doctores, taught them the strengths and weaknesses of their opponents.  The ex-Legionnaires and mercenaries among Salidia's men had also fought along side of different types of auxiliaries, and knew their qualities.  They had a rich fund of knowledge about different fighting styles, and the equipment and training required by each.

    And all the men knew Lydia's strengths and weaknesses.  They had trained her from the beginning.  Now they turned to the problems facing her.  Trained as a *Dimachaeri, deadly as she was and fast as she was, she didn't have the skills needed to take on six or more men alone.

    Titus: "Well, if she's going to hunt for these guys, the first thing she's going to need is a good horse, and I don't mean some farm plug.  If she runs into all six together, she'll have to run.  She's going to need a good cavalry horse, a fast one."

    Presphene: "When I took her to Selenius, she was bouncing all over the place, and both her and Salidia were hanging off the sides of the horses a couple of times.  Both of them have to learn to ride better.  And she needs to learn more than I can teach her if she needs to fight on a horse.  I only know the curved Scythian cavalry sword and the Thracian shield, and those are too heavy for her."

    Cetus: "Me too, I only know the Scythian sword and a cavalry shield.  I can't teach her all she needs to know."

    Talig: "Alright, maybe Selenius has got somebody he can farm out for a while to teach her the horse.  Every time I've been to his camp, the centurions have got the men running up and down the field training, and the equites out doing drills."

    Lucius: "It's a good thing Vircingi is playing possum in the woods for a while.  It will give her some time to train first."

    Atus: "Whoever Selenius sends, she can't fight like a equite.  She's got to continue to depend upon speed.  Speed's her weapon.  A shield will be too heavy for her to move fast enough, unless it's just a small buckler.  They'll cut off her legs first fight on a horse.  Even the sword's too much.  We've all seen her at practice with a sword and shield.  The extra weight of a sword and shield slow her down.  With that much weight, she can't move much faster than one of us, without our strength.  She needs to use light weapons that won't slow her down.  She needs that speed of her's.  Speed is what makes her special."

    Marcus: "I worked with Persians.  They had mounted bowman."

    Presphene:  "That's good.  I like that.  Give her a bow, let her use a bow on the horse.  I hear the tribes up on the Steppes do that.  I even hear they have women warriors who fight with bows on horse.  Like the Amazons."  Turing to Lydia, "We'll make you into an Amazon.  How do you like that, Lady," he asked her.

    She smiled back at him, pleased with the idea.  "I like that."  Lydia wasn't Roman, but Salidia had told her the tale of the Amazons, and Lydia was enthralled with the storied women.  She turned to Salidia, "Those are the women warriors who men fear, right," she asked Salidia.  Salidia nodded affirmatively.  "Yes, I want to be like them," Lydia finished.

    Salidia: "A bow is a good choice for Lydia and me.  A woman with a bow could kill any enemy warrior as well as any man.  And she can kill from a distance.  With a horse already underneath her and ready to run."

    Titus: "Yes," he said thoughtfully, nodding his head.  "She can pick off just one of them at a time from a distance, and then be able to run before they surround her.  So we need someone to teach her the bow."  Titus was a reasonable man who could be depended upon for good advice, and he was in command of the men behind Talig.  Talig always liked to discuss things with him, and Salidia always liked to hear what he thought.

    Talig: "The bow is good, but if they close in on her, she's going to need something to hold them off, to replace a sword and shield.  I don't like her not having anything to use close up."

    Presphene: "What about a trident like the Retiarii uses.  You all know the Retiarii use the trident to keep you gladiators at bay till they throw the net on you, and then they use a knife to finish you once you're caught in the net."

    Titus was a bull of a man and he had been a gladiator, a heavily  armored, "big shield" Crupellarius.  After Andeocene had been pulled outside, and Caius and Aurelius killed, it was Titus who stepped up to stand beside Talig.  Titus in his heavy armor stood like an unmovable, massive, iron clad boulder in the doorway, and he and Talig held the Aquitani back until Selenius arrived.  Sword blows rained down on Titus, but his thick, massive armor withstood every blow, and the sword strikes glanced off the sides of his armor as if the swords were only sticks.  Only the biggest, strongest men like Titus could handle this heavy armor, and the price it exacted on him made him relatively slow.  But any man who would stand toe to toe with him to trade blow for blow, or any man Titus managed to corner, was a doomed man.

    Titus had a practical understanding of the weapons gladiators use which Presphene, who had been a mercenary, did not.  "A trident's no good.  It's designed to cripple, not kill.  If it's fitted with barbs on the end, they'll get stuck in the first guy she sticks.  And the prongs are short, too short to be lethal.  And a trident can be easily blocked with a sword.  A short lance would work.  Wouldn't get stuck, harder to block," Titus commented on Presphene's suggestion.  He added, "We'll make a light one for her that won't be too heavy for her to use and slow her down."

    Talig: "I like that. Let her use a bow at a distance to cut down their numbers, and a light lance to hold them at bay if they get too close."

    Titus: "That sounds like it will work.  So we're going to need a good horse, light bow, light lance, net, and some guys to teach her all these things."

    Lucius: "I'm not so sure about a net.  If someone threw a net at me on a horse, I'd just hug the horse's neck, and let the net go over me and the horse.  Kick my horse, and let the horse do the work of pulling the guy right off his mount.  It will be a contest between his muscles and my horse.  Anyone who ducks down and hugs his horse would be safe from a net."

    Presphene: "I don't know.  I'd like to try it.  I think it will work."

    Lucius: "Pres, you're going to be stuck there holding a net while the net is caught on the horse.  The horse is going to pull you off, instead of you pulling him off.  A net on a horse is going to work different than using it on a man standing on the ground.  You'd have to get the net on just the guy, and not the horse, and what are you going to do if he hugs the horse?"

    Presphene: "Let's at least give it a try and see how it works."

    Talig: "Alright, Lady.  You're getting a horse, a bow, a lance, maybe a net.  And some guys to teach you how to use them."

    She didn't answer.  She just looked at them and was glad they were on her side.  These were her teachers, and she needed these men.  She could beat all of them but Talig in a fight, but that was because she had raw speed.  She could strike the chinks in all their armor and she could strike before they could block her.  They couldn't match her lightning speed; but they all knew more moves, and more techniques with different kinds of weapons, and knew how to do things better than her.  And they all loved her and would share their knowledge with her and help her.

    And deep within her heart, she was sooo grateful that they hadn't turned against her for what had happened.  It spoke of the strength of the bond they shared before all this happened.  But most of all, it showed the kinds of hearts these men possessed, that they hadn't attacked her for what happened, but still cared about her in spite of everything.  These were men with good, true, loyal hearts, and it was why she loved them all.  They were men who could be counted on in "thick and thin," and because of that, they commanded her loyalty to them.  And her heart.

    At the end of this meeting, the bonds which tied them all together into one loyal band was stronger than when the meeting started.  It gave the group a strength because they acted in concert with one another.  With a different group of people, they might have been split apart by blame and recriminations.

(*Dimachaeri were gladiators who used speed as a weapon.  Usually armed with a small buckler and dagger or 2 swords, and no body armor, they depended upon their speed and reflexes to avoid opponent's blows.  Talig was one of these, and he trained both Salidia and Lydia in that style of fighting.  Dimachaeri> were expected to streak in to an opponent, find a chink in their armor, and strike.  They typically fought heavily armored opponents, who's armor slowed them down.  The contest hinged on the speed and endurance of the two fighters, one vulnerable but fast, the other almost impregnable but slow.

    Unlike today's custom of pairing evenly matched opponents against each other, the Roman's usually paired men with very unequal abilities against each.  Each man had different strengths and weakness, and the contest hinged on who could best use his strength against the other's weakness.  The most common type of match was between a "small shield," a lightly armored man, against a "large shield," a heavy armored man.  Roman contests were than between two different types of strengths,i.e. speed versus muscle; and the type of strengths involved depended upon the type of gladiators employed, each gladiatorial type having a different strength and weakness.  At the gladiatorial games, Romans watched horseman fight infantry; the lightly armored and fast Retiarii, with his net trying to catch a better armored, but slower, Thracian, etc.  To use a modern analogy, the Romans would have staged a contest between a baseball player and a basketball player to see who was the better athlete, then they'd try a boxer against a wrestler.  Pitting a team of hockey players against a team of lacrosse players would be something they would enjoyed.

     Of all the gladiator types, Dimachaeri had the least armor, none, and they were expected to be the fastest.

    In the stories, I posited that Talig developed a system of training similar to today's Plyometric training.  The primary benefit of plyometrics is explosive speed and power.  It also enhances endurance.  All contemporary proffessional atletes and Olympic grade atletes employ it and it's becoming common place in local gyms.  It can produce people capable of lightning fast moves.

    Incidentally, if someone wants to see a person move faster than the eye can see, go on line and watch some of the videos for the "Fast Draw" national competitions, where people try to draw handguns like the gun fighters in the Old West.  Watch the national competitions, not just some guy in Texas trying to show off.  Or watch kids in cup stacking competitions.  You'll see their hands in one location, and then see their hands in a second location, and you will not have seen the transition from one place to the other.  Some people can really move faster than the eye can see!  That's about 300 fps or 91 mps., depending upon size of the object.)