CASILINUM - v1.0
July (?) 554
by Chris Jackson
Symbol set required: Master 1

approximate man-to-man scale - 1:25

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

During the Gothic Wars, the Franks took advantage of their opportunity. The
Ostrogoth king Vitigis was forced to secure his rear by conceding Provence plus
a monetary payment to them in 536, bringing the Franks very close to controlling
all of Gaul. The three Frankish kings divided the money and cities among themselves
and made a secret alliance with the Ostrogoths to send subjects to help defend 
Italy. In 538, Theodobert sent 10,000 Burgundian warriors to assist the siege of 
Milan. But in 539, Theodobert led an army of 10,000 into Italy to attack both the
Ostrogoths and Belisarius, though he was forced to turn back due to sickness and 
lack of food. Later when Totila was ravaging in the South, Theodobert moved in 
again and occupied Liguria, Emilia and Venetia. When Narses marched through here 
on his way into Italy he had to be very careful to avoid the Franks. In 548,
Theodobert died at age 43, and his 14-year old son Theodobald took over the
Kingdom of Rheims. He was young and physically feeble, and came under the influence
of two Alaman brothers, Leuthar and Buccelin.  The extent of Theodobald's role in 
this enterprise can only be speculated, but the two brothers raised an army of 
75,000 Franks for the purposes of conquering more of Italy, and launched this new
offensive sometime in 553 when Narses was still mopping up the last of the 
Ostrogoths. 
  
Narses ordered his men not to risk a great battle yet, but to only harass and delay the
Franks as long as possible until a different course of action could be decided upon.
After meeting the Franks personally in a skirmish at Rimini, Narses went to the 
impregnable Ravenna to arrange his troops for the winter, and then wintered himself
in Rome. With his army regrouped in the spring of 554, he was ready to begin 
manouvering for a decisive battle.

As Narses waited, the Alaman brothers divided themselves into two unequal armies as
they looted their way south. Buccelin commanded the larger western army, and 
Leuthar's smaller army moved down the Adriatic coast. By mid-summer Leuthar had had
his fill of plundering, but Buccelin was determined to continue. Leuthar never made it
back out Italy though, as he lost most of his men and treasure in a Byzantine ambush
and then died of plague soon after. 

Buccelin's army was also suffering from disease and illness, perhaps encouraging Narses
to go for a pitched battle. Buccelin set up a fortified camp near Casilinum (Capua),
hoping for reinforcements from the brother he must not have yet known was dead. Narses
moved in and once again forced his enemy to make the first move.

Narses had roughly 18,000 men under his command, and Buccelin had about 30,000. In his
center Narses placed true infantry men this time, with a line of light infantry behind.
His wings consisted of the heavy cavalry. The Hurulians would join the battlefield 
later; it seems they had disagreed with Narses' order to execute a Herulian officer for
killing a slave, and been threatening not to participate. Buccelin had no cavalry and 
only simple weapons, and used the ancient "wedge" for a formation, one that traditionally
relied on the ferocity of a mass charging attack. Narses once again set a trap.

The center line gave in somewhat at first to the Franks, but yhey were bolstered by the 
arrival of the Herulians. Meanwhile, Narses had both cavalry wings wheel around and strike
the Frankish flanks with their arrows until they broke. Then he ordered a general charge 
that shattered the Franks. Once source claims that Narses lost only 80 men, and of all the
Franks, only FIVE survived. Whether or not that figure is correct, all accounts agree it 
was a terrible massacre. From then on the Franks would recognize the value of cavalry and
started to gradually introduce it into their own army. That autumn Narses enjoyed a Triumph
in Rome, the last one ever to be held there. By next spring all Gothic resistance had 
officially ceased, and Narses spent the last years of his life as an administrator in Italy.


SOURCES

Hodgkin, Thomas. "Italy and Her Invaders, Volume 4". London: Russell and Russell, 
     (1880-89), 1967.

Fauber, Laurence. "Narses: Hammer of the Goths". New York: St. Martin's Press, 1990.

Oman, Charles. "A History of the Art of War In the Middle Ages". 2nd Edition. New York: 
     Burt Franklin, 1924.


BATTLE NOTES

To keep the Franks densely packed, I have the leadership range down to 3 for their 
leaders. This also discourages them from wanting to go anywhere, but an objective
didn't seem to help much. So you won't get the AI to charge while playing the Franks,
but you can recreate Narses' strategy pretty easily by moving up the infantry, then 
having your mounted cavalry dance just out of throwing-axe range of the slow-moving
Franks and showering arrows on them. From there you can box them up and massacre them
just like what happened historically. As a human playing the Franks you could probably
beat the Byzantine computer player easily by breaking up the wedge and just swarming 
them, but you probably could have guessed that already.
 
I have seen the GMT "Cataphract" board game version of this scenario but I went more
with Fauber's description of the battlefield arrangement. 


- Chris Jackson
March 27, 2000





 