Monday, December 19, 2016

Editio IX.

Celtic Mercenaries in the front and behind them Roman Legionaries at the north end of Patavium.

























(Patavium. 262 BC) With supplies low and the legionaries exhausted, General Lucius Julius Libo felt his only move was to fortify Patavium and try to hold. Worrying intelligence continued to come in to his tent. A excited scout rode up and reported that just a few miles to the east was a force of 4,690 Veneti fresh warriors marching toward the town.

The Romans rushed to their defensive positions. Libo had only fifteen hundred Legionaries and two hundred and forty Celtic mercenaries to put against the mass of warriors rapidly approaching. The Romans were in the town's redoubt. A naturally elevated fortress with boulders and rocky ledges
with two entrances. Both were wide slopes and these two locations were where the great majority of Romans and Celtic Mercenaries placed.
No Quarter expected or given!

The Veneti approached the town and headed at Libo's forces. Combat was joined and the Romans held bravely for many minutes. The trouble spot appeared to be the south end of the bastion. The celts had slain about half the Roman force there. General Libo committed his reserve to this fight, roughly a cohort of Hastari infantry. The south held but then the north end of the redoubt was in trouble. The 240 Celtic Mercenaries fighting for the Romans were of low quality. They had been subject to relentless hot attack, they melted and the last line of Romans All gave way as a dam might burst and the Veneti were into the redoubt.

General Libo and his body guard made a last ditch attempt to charge the oncoming wave of Veneti warriors but the charge lost momentum. The general then pulled his guard back to the north entrance and this is where he and the remaining Romans died. A famous Legion the Legio I 'Italia' was no more!

Fighting at the southern entrance to the redoubt.




 
Legio I in their last defense. In the foreground the Veneti, up on the hill Romans.
                                                                                           




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