Insurgent of Rome Page 57

  The young man merely nodded with a sheepish grin, naturally keeping his words to himself in the august presence of three Captains and a high noble of Capua.

  Julius pointed to the ship, saying, "Come on deck for cups - and as friends, not worshipers at the spectacle of my garb and new position." The offer was for all on board, not just the Captains, and after an hour the women appeared, refreshed and with the wagon of baggage required by all females before traveling further than the next household. He had allowed only one attendant for each woman, something that would have scandalized most noble females. Moving any distance without her personal ancilla, cosmeta and tonstrix, and two or three young females as mere extra handmaids, would be thought scandalous by the usual high-born woman. Fortunately, Camelia did not insist on such requirement outside of the house, taking along her lifelong maid as her only need. Pontika had little use at all for such - her young handmaiden was more friend than servant, despite the continual chastisements from the Domina and Grand Domina of proper deportment before inferiors.

  The baggage stowed and farewells made to his friends, who returned to the duties on their ships, the Petrel was pushed out and turned to run the western course until the bay of Neápolis could be cleared and the bow pointed to the north. Pontika, naturally, made request to take the rudder, gaining a mild rebuke from Camelia, "It would make a poor showing for our new Tribune to stand into Ostia with a female at the helm. The noble Crassus might give further thought to the sudden strangeness of the man he had given such trust in." Despite the protests of the femina, that the highborn noble spoken of had already seen the young woman in command of the rudder, she was fated to be only a passenger on this voyage.

  As the ship coursed along to the north, and with Julius feeling the strangeness of being only a passenger on the vessel that he had commanded to the far reaches of the Great Sea, he called Densus to a conference at the forepeak. "I do not know what will be the time of my reside in Rome, but the Petrel will stand by in Ostia for message duty. The crew can have their usual dockside privileges as long as they make themselves easy to recall." He pointed across the deck. "Ngozi and Maccalus will accompany us to the city as protection for the women in a strange city." Julius had pulled two men from the other ships to fill out the crew, should it need to depart without the two men now detailed for woman-guarding.

  Judoc would have been the selection had the duty not required the long walk between port and city. His skills with a blade were almost as good as with the bow, but his defective leg was not of use in long marches. Still, young Maccalus had become a more than fair swordsman, with both interest in the art and under the tutelage of Ngozi. Many times in the last voyages had Julius seen both on the forepeak with their weapons of river cane, giving and taking as they honed their facility with both long and short blades.

  This voyage, as short as it was, would not have the pair in mock battle. Rather, Julius gave Ngozi the duty of instruction to young Valens, that he not slice his own limb in twain should the need come to draw iron. For himself, he sat with Patroclus and the women in the waist as a proper passenger, letting Captain Densus command the ship. They watched with some amusement as the black crewman tossed stones at the young batman, high or low, slowly or with haste, requiring the youngster to either block the oncoming missile with his shield, or receive a sharp pain as it landed on flesh.

  Despite her ebullience at yet another voyage, Pontika was troubled by the reason for the elevation of her mentor and friend to high office. "You will be in fight with Melglos, and required to kill him if you are able."

  Camelia immediately gave attempt to disarm her words. "Nay, 'Tika. Julius will merely be in headquarters giving advice to the Dux. He will have no reason to swing a sword in battle."

  "But the mission for the army is to destroy our friend and his fellows."

  There was little way to give a reply to such a statement that was not total falsehood. She had given the reason of the desire of Rome accurately enough, but... "My hope is that I can find Melglos before any such battles, or afterward, and give convince to allow me to make passage of himself and any close followers to some far land." Julius shrugged his shoulders, but continued with truth. "But, the need is to end the despoiling of the land and return civility to Latium - that has to be done without regard to any individual."

  The femina just nodded with no more words, knowing full well the truth of the statement, but it giving her no slightest satisfaction.

  Ostia appeared on the fourth day, the Petrel wharfing and discharging its passengers, selecting one of the clamoring wagoners for passage to Rome. After a last discussion with Densus, and giving instructions as to where any urgent missives could be sent if needed, they set both foot and wagon on the road to Rome. Night was falling when they entered the ornate devorsorium at the foot of the Capitoline hill. Normally, servants and maids would both eat and sleep in the area reserved for retainers, but Julius had engaged an entire chamber of rooms for his party, with an external door that any noble guest would not be offended by meeting an inferior in passing within the inn. Patroclus and Valens were given an alcove that actually had a window with a veranda. Ngozi and Maccalus had a small room and the maids their own within the chambers. Usually, such would not be allowed, but with the rank of Tribune Laticlavius for the man making the charter, it would have taken a brash Caupo to give deny.

  With the three nobles and Patroclus sitting down to their evening meal, Julius gave his decrees for the exploration of the city by the women. Sending for a sketch map of Rome, he marked several quarters where they were not to venture without both Ngozi and Maccalus in escort, and two others in which they were forbidden to enter at all. Around the Capitoline and Palatine hills, the women could wander as they wished and without attendants - indeed, in the former quarter either of the Plebeian men would probably be stopped by the Vigilis to be questioned as to the reason for their presence on the hill of nobles.

  On the next morning, Julius and his Cacula - his batman - walked to the headquarters of the Legions, below the Capitoline and on a main thoroughfare in the city - the Via Flaminia. There, he found the Consul, now Dux Crassus, who gave a goodly welcome, and an introduction around the room. Julius was given far too many names of Senators, nobles, and high officers to remember at once, but he knew that those of importance would become familiar and soon. Then, a private conference in a corner of the room...

  "...our first need is to train the new levies, and well. We need no more units of untrained and flailing militia to camp without sentries and sleep until the midday hour because of an inclement day that would be better served in relaxing on a warm mat. But, I have training officers in abundance, and I did not ask for your services to merely stand and watch Tyros flail at straw men." He waved away the servant with a platter of cups and a jug. "You are appointed as Cura Explorationis, the officer who attempts to put together the various reports, rumors and gab into some reasonable expectation of reality. As such, you have full authority to travel to any place, to requisition at need, and without halt by any man of Rome, be he even a Senator."

  Julius nodded his head in understanding, but hiding the utter surprise at his assignment. His assumption until now was that he would be one officer of many, standing around a map table, interjecting ideas on occasion and making suggestions for use. This was a... startlingly important position for a man, only recently the Captain of a small ship.

  "Questions?" asked the Dux.

  "Aye, Sos. I need some idea of the time until you intend to make your move to engage the rebels."

  The General shook his head. "Unfortunately, not until the campaigning season is almost over. I would rather delay than take the field with half-trained soldiers. I believe that events have proven that to be an unwise move."

  Julius nodded. Months then. Indeed, the whole of the warm season. Mayhap he could find a way to determine just what was the intention of Melglos, assuming that Thracian to still be alive.

  The General now said, "If y
ou need a unit of scouting horse, I am told that there are about ten turmae of Cavalry available that are trained as scouts. You may requisition as many as needed. Mind, I have no idea of the proficiency of such and indeed, I am not even certain that they actually exist."

  The General walked back to the discussion around the map table, leaving Julius to... do something, but as to what, he had no idea as yet. He did not even know the meaning of the term 'turmae' other than it obviously referred to some number of scouting horsemen. Gathering Valens in the outer foyer, they quickly strode back to the inn to gather Patroclus for discussion.

  The next day, Valens was dispatched to Ostia with a missive for Densus, then both Julius and Patroclus sat at a table in the scriptorium of the Headquarters - a gloomy room at the far back of the building where all messages and missives of the Legions were eventually stored. There, with one old archive-scribe in attendance, they attempted to make some sense of the reports sent in by scouts and travelers from all over Latium. Their task was made more difficult because of the barely readable scripting on some of the tablets and scrolls. It was obvious that some messages were penned by men who had paid little attention during their youthful tutoring in the art of writing, while others were apparently written in the most extreme haste - no doubt by men in need of avoiding demise at the hands of their topics.

  At the end of the day, Patroclus summed up the findings of the day. "There is little doubt that Mel... Spartacus is indeed moving south. But as to the reason..." The old Pedagogue just spread his hands in his ignorance.

  "Aye," said Julius, looking out the window at the imposing arena of the Circus, just down the Via from their watchpoint. "He was within easy walk of refuge... well, mayhap not easy. I doubt that the passage over the Alpinum mountains is as a walk to the therma, but still - even women and oldsters could have made the journey before the coming of winter."

  Before leaving for the inn, he made his report to the staff in the main room, that the army of rebels was apparently still cohesive and slowing moving down the center of the peninsula. But to what destination, he could not yet give.

  The month went by without incident - at least in Rome. He had inspected the various training camps with Crassus, to see the progress of the new levies, but had little else to do as yet. He enjoyed touring Rome with the two women, seeing the ornate temples and vast Forum, even to watch some entertaining performances on the acting boards. Patroclus took advantage of the high office of his principal, to gain entrance to the librari and official archives of the city, happily engrossing himself in ancient texts until the light of the day failed.

  Finally, a horseman appeared at the Headquarters with a scroll - nay, a bag of such for Julius. To the question of the Dux, he explained, "I gave orders for our fast missive ships to touch in each port along the coast, even to the end at Rhegium, to give directions to any of our agents in those cities to gather any knowledge of Spartacus that might come from travelers. Or, mayhap, people in flight from the moving horde." He pointed to the bag being held by his batman. "This is the first of such to come."

  For most of the day, Patroclus - hurriedly summoned from his reading in the city archives - and he pored over the tablets and scrolls. Finally, they made a list of points gained in the readings, then Julius walked to give the knowledge to the Dux.

  Crassus called a general meeting of the Headquarters, then turned to give the attention to Julius. Using his scrap of papyrus as notes to prod his talk, he began his presentation. With a long stick as a pointer, he tapped the huge map on the table. "As of the Nonae of the month, the bulk of his leading forces are about here. His movements are not as an army on the march, but just with the pace to feed off the land. Parties still bound out from either side to forage for food and weapons, of course, but apparently Spartacus is attempting to gather any horses that can be found. I would say that he apparently is attempting to form scouting units..."

  "Or his own cavalry," commented an officer.

  "Nay, Flavius," said another. "Merely putting men on mounts and calling them Equestris does not make cavalry. Such takes a year of training, and how many slaves would be accomplished horsemen?"

  Julius continued, "Word from men who have tired of the life of a roaming soldier, and dropped from the march, give that their destination will be in the region of Bruttium, at the far tip of the peninsula. Another has said of the intention to make the crossing to Sicilia, across the narrow straits of Messina, although how such would be accomplished even over the narrow waters is not at all clear. By estimate, he now has almost a hundred and twenty thousands in his total of followers, although that count includes families - women, children, oldsters. Even were the entirety of ships in the fleet of my family, and all based in Capua, given hire for the crossing, it would take two months in the least. And that assumes no evil weather or any resistance in the short voyages."

  Now Crassus asked, "Have you discovered the reason for his turning back from the base of the mountains, rather than crossing into the wilds of the north?"

  "Nay, Sos," replied Julius. "But the men giving their bit of information are mere stragglers in the army of the rebels. Without doubt even their tales come through many mouths, which is why I would not base any plans on what has been told so far until we can obtain a closer look."

  The Dux shook his head. "It makes little difference. Whatever the scum decides to do next, they cannot be allowed to just meander over the land, in pillage and looting. At the beginning of Septembris, we will begin our march to the south."

  "That will leave only a month of campaigning weather, Sos," gave comment by his senior staff officer.

  Crassus nodded. "Aye, and I would prefer to march after a winter of solid training, but I fear that such a delay will not be welcomed by the Senate. The lesser informed members of that body are shouting their displeasure that we are not even now in battle."

  Chapter 47

  As the end of the month of Sextilis approached, Julius sent the Petrel back to Capua with Camelia and Pontika. Indeed, the pair had begun to tire of their extended visit in Rome, anxious to return to the normalcy of their household. More importantly, were several messages and orders to the two fast speculatoriae and now, even, the newest addition to their fleet, the escort ship, altered to his needs and now with the name of Albatross. Like its feathered namesake, it was built to cross vast distances of water without need of revictualing and with comfortable cabins for an expanded crew. Unlike the bird, it had an inset rail - a fence, it would be called by a landman - around the hull, with iron points in projection upward. Any man attempting to board would hesitate before putting hand on the upper rail to vault into the ship - or he would make his leap without use of a limb. And, of course, there were the raisable barriers to protect the crew from inbound shafts, even while they were launching their own into the foe of their adversary.

  Kaeso was moved from the big ship taken from the evil Greek merchant, giving him command of the new vessel and with the orders to try and test men for the crew, both knowledge of sailcraft and familiarity with weapons - rejecting and replacing any that did not have superior skills in both crafts.

  With the two fast missive ships, the new vessel would be busy in its coursing up and down the coast of Latium to the orders of Julius.

  On the first day of Septembris, the Army began the movement south, along the Via of the Appian Way, and in proper stance for a Roman army. Unlike the untrained militia before, these units were properly supported with cavalry for scouting and nimble Centuries of Velites, lightly armed javelin troops that could rush to this encounter and that, giving time for the cohorts of heaven infantry to gain position. In the columns were the Ingeniarii components, to build bridges if needed and responsible for laying out each nightly encampment in the proper form, both for security at night and ease of assembling and feeding during the stop. Quartermaster units followed with wagonloads of victuals, blacksmiths and farriers, medicuae personnel and message runners. All the attributes of the Roman Legion, ho
ned and tested for several hundred years.

  Julius and Valens were on horseback, in the train of the Dux, about halfway back in the columns. With them, although following behind the troupe of officers, were a double handful of young horsemen, unarmored and well learned in the art of riding. Requested by Julius, these would, hopefully, be his message bearers, sending orders and bringing information as the Legion moved in follow of the band of Spartacus.

  With almost fifteen thousand men spread across four Legions, the army did not move as one unit, of course, else the front of the train would be leaving the road for the nightly encampment before the tail had even started its march for the day. They were in loosely attached columns on the two main roads leading south, and kept in pace with the constant efforts of horse-messengers moving between the four Legions when connecting roads allowed.