Heir of Aurelian

On the eve of the third day, following Marcellus’ order of stirrups, the man in question was fast asleep. In his dreams, another vision had come to him. It was a discussion from the perspective of Frank Caruso, with a friend of his from college. The two men were in the basement of of the friend’s house playing war games.

With a haughty smile, Frank moved his heavy cavalry into place as they flanked the enemy. After a roll of the dice, it was determined that his attack had dealt a critical blow to the enemy forces, causing his friend to lose many of his elite troops. The young man cursed at frank as he gazed upon the devastation that had been done to his miniature army.

“You bastard! You took out my fire wizards! How am I supposed to beat you now?”

Despite his friends’ protests, Frank was in a good mood. He knew the young man’s comments were not hostile in the least, and were merely friendly banter exchanged between two men. Instead, he had a shit-eating grin on his face as he poured salt on the wound.

“Bah fire wizards? You seriously think that such petty magic tricks can contend with the might of a couched lance? You have much to learn, my friend!”

The friend looked at Frank with a pitiful expression, he knew Frank was flouting his history degree in his face. Even though he did not want to sit through another one of the man’s lectures, he knew that it was going to have to happen either way. Thus, the young man bit the proverbial bullet as he asked what his friend was talking about.

“What the hell is a couched lance?”_.

A smug expression was on Frank’s lips. He always loved talking about his area of study, so much so that his friends and family found it tedious. However, he couldn’t help it. He was passionate about history, and thus had come to see himself as an educator of the ignorant.

“You seriously don’t know what a couched lance is? Okay, so you know what stirrups are right? Basically, some time after stirrups were invented, some unknown genius had the idea to hold the lance in a special way beneath their shoulder. This provided stability for the lance, allowing for serious damage to be inflicted on his foe, when the lance collided with the speed of the horse.

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The reason why such a tactic was never used before the invention of stirrups was because there was nothing to keep the rider seated. If he dared to do such a thing, he’d probably end up falling off his horse..

The friend scowled at Frank as he watched the man shamelessly perform the gesture of couching his imaginary lance. This guy wasted all of his brainpower on something so worthless. Just when the hell would he ever need to know how to couch a lance? Eventually, he ignored Frank’s comments and shifted his attention towards his crumbling lines of defense.

“No wonder you cut through my wizards then, if even a heavily armored knight would meet his end against such a tactic…”

Marcellus awoke with a sweat, as he gazed over at his side where Sigefrida lay asleep. He did not know why he was having another dream about stirrups, but despite the strange occurrence, there was some useful information in the vision. He quickly got out of his bed and got dressed. After all, the sun was rising, and today was the day he could finally test his newest invention.

Hours passed and Marcellus was waiting patiently in front of the blacksmith known by the name of Catus. For the first time, Marcellus had heard the man’s voice as he spoke up about the stirrups. It was a deep and gruff voice befitting the man’s masculine appearance.

“As promised, I have made your devices. If that is all, I have other matters to attend to.”

Marcellus did not take offense at the blunt nature of the man, and instead thanked him for his help.

“Thank you, Catus. If these work out as planned, I will be back for more orders later.”

Despite Marcellus’ offer of future business, the blacksmith ignored him, and instead began cutting out some iron nails. The man’s work was never truly finished. There were a lot of things that needed to be made of iron in the village, and he was one of the few blacksmiths in the region who could fulfill such a task.

Marcellus paid no heed to this and instead took his stirrups to the tanner, who by now would be finished with his new saddle. The tanner had an excited look on his face as noticed the General’s approach and quickly greeted him. Unlike Catus, he was a much more sociable person..

“Dux, come take a look! I have completed the saddle you have asked for.”

Marcellus gazed upon the fine leather saddle with a hint of pride in his eyes, it was made of a chestnut brown leather, and was truly fitting for a man of his position. After closely examining the saddle, he attached the iron stirrups before nodding his head to the tanner.

“Excellent job. If my experiment works, you will be the first to know, as I will need quite a few more of these new saddles.”

The tanner smiled and nodded his head. Afterward, Marcellus ordered his personal guard to carry the saddle back to his villa. He planned to test the device out himself. As he turned to leave, the tanner thanked him for his business.

“I look forward to your results!”

Marcellus nodded his head with a smile on his lips before returning to his villa, where the stables kept his personal steed. It was a fine horse of noble lineage, who had been Marcellus’ mount for many years. The stallion had a chestnut colored coat, and a white spot on its forehead. Marcellus calmed the horse as he equipped its saddle.

“Shhhh… shhhh… Behave yourself, Romulus!”

The steed, named Romulus, was obedient as Marcellus took a deep breath before putting one foot into the stirrup and hoisting himself onto the beast’s back. He calmed himself once both feet were secured in the iron fittings before commanding the steed to take a slow trot forward and out of the stables.

Though the sensation was strange, Marcellus soon became used to the stirrups and had finally mustered the courage to usher the horse forward at a faster speed. He guided the beast into the field as several targets had been prepared in advance for the experiment. After arriving at the area, a soldier handed him a lance, and a shield where Marcellus snapped the reins, ordering a full charge at the target.

Marcellus followed the instructions from his dream as he clumsily couched the lance beneath his arm and charged towards the straw target, which was covered in a mail coat at full speed. When his lance collided with the target, it pierced through the riveted mail armor as if it was made of butter, bringing a smile to his face.

Not only did he pierce through the armor of the straw target, but his lance had practically gone out the other side. Despite the speed at which he had struck the target, Marcellus was still seated on horseback. When the soldiers watching him saw this, they were shocked, believing he would surely fall off his horse at such speeds.

The stirrup solved many problems with cavalry, for starters it made it incredibly easy to mount the horse, before this invention it took significant training just to be able to properly mount a horse. Secondly, it made it easier to ride the horse. The amount of training required to stay seated on your mount was extensive. This was no longer the case with the invention of stirrups. Finally, the stirrups allowed the rider to remain seated even at high speed collisions, making it ideal for cavalry.

This was one simple test. Marcellus rode back and forth between the many targets at breakneck speeds, using his couched lance to thrust through whatever defenses were in its path. He spent several hours conducting experiments on the use of stirrups, and the many weapons that cavalry utilized. He was particularly fond of its capabilities, with heavy cavalry and horse archers.

By the time the sun went down, Marcellus regrouped with Ordius, and outlined his findings in an extensive report.

“It would appear my suspicions were correct. The stirrup greatly increases the controllability and maneuverability of the rider. I suspect it makes learning how to ride easier, as it is a simple task to mount the horse, let alone stay on it.

With these devices, we could raise a troop of Cataphracts in a fraction of the time it would normally take. Years of training could be halved with this invention! Not to mention the role it plays in horse archery! My friend, I think I have just started a new era of cavalry warfare…”

Ordius gazed upon his commander with shock in his eyes. Cataphracts were among the best cavalry units in the empire. If they could be raised with less training and expense, it could be a game changer. He quickly nodded his head before responding to Marcellus’ summary.

“Tomorrow morning, I will begin requisitioning as many mounts and saddles so that we can begin raising cavalry forces. Though we might not be able to afford cataphracts at the moment, we can still make a significant difference on the battlefield with this discovery!”

Marcellus nodded his head in agreement. The invention of the saddle would change warfare as the world knew it. It might even be able to aid him in his future battles with the Goths. He had no time to waste and quickly approved of the idea. After speaking of these issues, the two men departed. There was much work to be done, and not enough time in the world to fulfill it.