Sunday, August 02, 2009

Plinius and the Gladiators (5)

Plinius Fulius was a young man untested in battle but his father was highly placed amongst Tullus's supporters. Tullus being hard pressed for Men of high rank decided to give the charismatic man a chance to prove himself on the field. Tullus would have thought twice if he had known the Gods would pit him against Dewolfus. However, the young man had charm and Tullus knew that that meant luck when it came to the Gods. He was to need a lot of luck Tullus thought when he heard reports of the coming battle in the Senones valley.

Plinius was no fool though and had taken great care in preparing for a heavy battle of Roman armour. He had the largest formations of horse yet seen in the Campaign and to back these he had enlarged his heavy Infantry by enlisting Gladiators. These tough fighters had been stripped of most of their heavy Gladiatorial armour and had been reequipped from the army stores. Those individuals with names for themselves decided to keep their heavy 'show' armour for recognition. As a result the unit entered the field in heavy armour and made for a very impressive sight as it marched down the hill and across the plain. Plinius knew these trained fighters lacked the iron discipline of the Legions, so he joined them with a small bodyguard and the Eagle party. If they did start to fall back he would be on hand to stop them.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi, i just wanted to say how I am really enjoying this whole campaign, Funny, interesting and plenty of fantastic drawings !! please keep this up it is great, must say that this whole sign in join process is a pain, anyway awesome stuff keep it up !

Immortal.

Anonymous said...

I actually went right back to the start and read all the posts !! from the begining, so cool! as a result I have ordered plenty of caesarian romans from foundry, thanks for the inspiration !!
Caesar and pompey here I come civil war madness !

Immortal.

Secundus said...

Thankyou Immortal, I know some guys who follow the Blog have just signed in to Blogger and made a profile. It might make life a little easier when logging in.

I'm glad you found some inspiration within my site, although Foundry have had quite enough of my money for the time being, I try not to order from them if I can help it any more.
Their Caesarian forces are the best on the market though so you made the right choice there.

Scutatus said...

Gladiators! Don't they look fantastic? See how imposing they are, how tough and fierce. Makes sense to position the general there.

Doesn't it?

I love the look of this unit, lots of character and fun here.

Great illustration as always.