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"You will attend to this service," continued Fabius, not seeming to regard the young officer's exultation. "Take the other five turmae of your legion not those of the escort. You must have light cavalry to cope with the Numidians, and your Greek horsemen are too heavily equipped.
At one moment the Numidians seemed to be holding their distance; at another, the Romans gained slightly but unmistakably. All order of detachments and turmae was soon lost; Romans and allies, officers and men, were mingled together in a straggling mass, with naught but the eagerness of the riders and the speed of their animals to marshal them.
It consisted of three legions the Jovian, the Cappadocian, and the men of Hercules. Ten turmae of Gallic cavalry led the van, whilst the rear was covered by a regiment of Batavian Horse Guards, the immediate attendants of the Emperor Septimus Severus who had conducted the campaign in person.
Elsewhere there was so quick a play of naked swords that only the points were visible, while turmae of cavalry formed wide circles which closed again like whirlwinds behind them. Above the voices of the captains, the ringing of clarions and the grating of tyres, bullets of lead and almonds of clay whistled through the air, dashing the sword from the hand or the brain out of the skull.
The word turmae is applicable to such a cavalry as theirs, cf. Ann. 14, 34: Britannorum copiae passim per catervas et turmas exsultabant. Br. Ky. and others here understand it of the Roman cavalry. But R. Dr. and Wr. apply it to the Britons, and with reason, as we shall see below, and as we might infer indeed from its close connexion with covinarii, for the covinarii were certainly Britons.
Argus, who had not thought upon his wife and children all the way, went very gravely up: and everyone being seated, the Senate by their silence seemed to call for the report, which Argus, standing up, delivered in this wise: "RIGHT HONORABLE LORDS AND FATHERS ASSEMBLED IN PARLIAMENT: "So it is, that it has fallen to my lot to report to your excellencies in the votes of the people, taken upon the 3d instant, in the first year of this commonwealth, at the halo; the Right Honorable Phosphorus de Auge in the tribe of Eudia, Dolabella d'Enyo in the tribe of Turmae, and Linceus de Stella in the tribe of Nubia, lords commissioners of the great seal of Oceana, and proposers pro temporibus, together with my brethren the tribunes, and myself being present.
Interim equitum turmae fugere, covinarii peditum se proelio miscuere: et, quanquam recentem terrorem intulerant, densis tamen hostium agminibus et inaequalibus locis haerebant: minimeque equestris ea pugnae facies erat, cum aegre diu stantes simul equorum corporibus impellerentur, ac saepe vagi currus, exterriti sine rectoribus equi, ut quemque formido tulerat, transversos aut obvios incursabant.
Once mounted and urging on their steeds with the shrill, barbaric cries of the desert, Hannibal's light horsemen were safe from all ordinary pursuit. One after another of the Romans drew up his panting animal, and scarce half of their turmae pounded on. Suddenly they saw the flying Numidians throw their horses upon their haunches.
Lest the pang of so great a parting with men who were about to encounter such grave dangers might sap the courage of those remaining, and thence that of the new levies, the dictator had wisely decreed that the army should assemble at Tibur. So it happened that there was none to go now save himself and a small escort of cavalry, five turmae, at the head of which was Sergius.
Sarracenorum autem turmae, videntes quia Christianorum virtus audactur facie ad faciem vicini sibi hospitio proxime iungebatur, media nocte orbi incumbente, amotis tentorijs amplius milliari subtractae consederunt, dum luce exorta consilium inirent, vtrum Ascalonem redirent, aut ciues Iaphet crebris assultibus vexarent. The same in English.
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