The Bull of Sargon

The description for this picture was:
"King Hammurabi goes to war, his chariot drawn
by a specially toughened breed of ass."
Pic: Roger Payne

Pic: Roger Payne

This is the second post about the story of the second legion. This time I focus on the story of their primarch, Apis.

Under the command of Ashur Tiglatus, the legion grew and became an efficient machine of war. They refined the tactic of long skirmishes, combined with brutal close combat, now known as the flight of the arrow and thrust of the spear. This doctrine was efficient against arrogant and foolhardy enemies, but if the thrust of the spear was not enough to break the enemy moral, then the Taurii were locked in furious hand-to-hand, which deprived them of tactical flexibility and inflicted terrible casualties. This weakness, their new-found primarch was planning to mend.

Apis-bel-nisheshu, meaning “Apis is the lord of his people” in Sargonite, was one of the more lucky primarchs. When the powers of corruption scattered him and his brothers from their fathers embrace, he landed on the isolated world of Sargon in the Segmentum Obscuris. This planet was not a frozen wasteland, a dark, nightmarish hell or a toxic inferno. Sargon lay relatively close to the system’s sun, so its surface was arid, except for fertile river valleys and deltas. The fertile lands were controlled by quarrelling city-states, who were in constant war against nomadic desert tribes and ambitious neighbours. The name Sargon came from the name of the empire that Apis had carved himself, and even that was just a small part of the whole of the planet.

Pic: Roger Payne

Although the city-states were wealthy, their technological level was based upon the mastery of stone, iron, wood and horses. There were no lasguns, or even gunpowder. That is not to say that the Sargonites were not cultured or bad artisans. In fact, the cities of the fertile river-belts were marvels of architecture. Huge, stepped pyramids rose to the sky, and the nobility rode their chariots in wide, paved boulevards. These projects were designed by highly educated masons and built by peasants during the inundation of the river.

One of the largest buildings in a city-state was the barracks, called the Bazakhatum in Sargonite. Here lived the professional soldiers of the ba’al, the lord or king. They were a closed warrior caste, with their own families travelling beside them while on campaign. The idea was that the children would get used to army life, and the soldiers would fight to the death to protect their family in battles. Apis was found in the desert by an unknown soldier from the city-state of Sargon, and he was taught in the ways of war.

As all primarchs, Apis soon towered over his fellow Sargonites, and he made a name for himself in the wars of the ba’al. He was an idol to the people of the city, spoke of as a demi-god, and a descendant of Apis, the Sargonite god of strength and fertility. Thus he adopted the name, much to the irritation of the priesthood. After a while, Apis became a thorn I the eye of both the ba’al and the priests. Their first plan was to send him on a Uriah’s post. The plan failed, as the mighty primarch survived the suicide mission and was received in Sargon with a great triumph.

The second plan was to hire some of his fellow soldiers to murder him in the night, but the ba’al and his co-conspirators only learned that the entire army was more loyal to the champion than to their lord. Apis was shocked when he heard about the treachery of his master, but would not at first believe the story of his fellow soldiers.
But when Apis was assaulted by robed men in the street, and he found out that they were priests, he knew that he was the target of a conspiracy. He gathered his most trusted comrades, and marched on the temple of Kingu, lord of the gods. There, he slew the entire priesthood, and smashed the altar of Kingu. His men were shocked, and waited for him to be struck to the ground by the wrath of the lord of lords, but he stood in the holiest of the holies and laughed, mocking the gods.

Pic: Roger Payne

Then he rode into the palace of the ba’al. The bodyguard of the lord did not offer any resistance, and Apis found the ba’al crying in hiding in his harem. Apis grabbed him by his oiled, curled hair, and dragged him through the streets of Sargon. In the market place, he blinded the treacherous king, and broke his spine with his bare hands.

The onlookers shouted praises, and hailed Apis as their new ba’al. But that was not enough for the primarch. He was the son of the bull of heaven. He was a god, and would rule as one. Thus the age of the Sargonite Empire, began. Apis refined the army, and conquered huge swathes of land. Wherever he came, he smashed the altars and icons of the local gods. In their stead, they would build monuments to his honour.
It was during this expansion that the Legio II Taurii found their primarch.