Andivius Hedulio: Adventures of a Roman Nobleman in the Days of the Empire

by Edward Lucas White

  CHAPTER XXII

  THE MUTINEERS

  Our promotion from the mills to the kitchen took place early in March ofthe year when Manius Acilius Glabrio, after an interval of thirty-fouryears since his first consulship, was consul for the second time and hadas nominal associate Commodus, preening himself, for the fifth time, onthe highest office in the Republic, which he had done little to deserve,and while he held it, did less to justify himself in possessing, since heleft most of the duties of the consulship to Glabrio, as he left most ofthe Principate to Perennis, his Prefect of the Praetorium. All of this, ofcourse, we learnt later in the year; for, inside our prison, we knewnothing of what went on in Placentia, let alone of what went on in Italyand in Rome itself.

  We had been cooking for more than three months, when, about the middle ofJune, our attention in the cellars was distracted from doling out food, asthat of the wretches we served was distracted from eating their scantyrations, by an unusual uproar in the street outside of our windows. Wecould descry, in the morning sunlight, military trappings, tatteredcloaks, ragged tunics, dingy kilt-straps, sheenless helmets, unkemptbeards, and brawny arms in the crowds which packed the narrow streets. Themob seemed made up of rough frontier soldiery, and we marvelled at thepresence of such men in Italy.

  The uproar increased and we heard it not only from the streets but fromthe courtyards; we could not make out any words, but the tone of thetumultuous growls was menacing and imperative. After no long interval thedoors at the foot of the one stair burst open and there entered to usthree centurions, indubitably from distant frontier garrisons, accompaniedby six or seven _optiones_ [Footnote: See Note F.] and a dozen or morelegionaries. The privates and corporals stood silent while one of thethree sergeants addressed us:

  "No one shall be compelled to join us. Every man of you shall have hisunforced choice. All who join us shall be free. Such as prefer to remainwhere they are sit down! All who select to join us stand up!"

  If any man sat down I did not see him. Through the door we flowed withoutjostling or crowding, for at the first appearance of a tendency to pushforward the sergeant's big voice bellowed a warning and order reigned. Upthe stair we poured, passing on the landing the mute, motionless porter-accountant and his Scythian guard, cowed immobile between two burlyfrontier centurions; out into the courtyard we streamed, more and morefollowing till the courtyard was packed. The whole movement was made insilence, without a cheer or yell, for, like the porter and the Scythians,the most unconscionable villains in our _ergastulum_ quailed before thetruculence of the frontier sergeants.

  In the outer court, at the suggestion of one of those same centurions,every man of us drank his fill at the well-curb, pairs of the legionariestaking turns at hauling up the buckets and watering us, much as if we hadbeen thirsty workhorses. After they had made sure that none had missed achance to quench his thirst, they roughly marshalled us into somesemblance of order and out into the street we trooped, where we foundourselves between two detachments of frontier soldiers, one filling thestreet ahead of us from house-wall to house-wall, the other similarlyblocking the street behind us. Between them we were marched to the market-square, where we had plenty of room, for we had it all to ourselves, thesoldiery having cleared it and a squad of them blocking the entrance ofeach street leading into it, so that the townsfolk were kept out and weherded among the frontier soldiery.

  Their centurions, to the number of eighteen, stood together on the stoneplatform from which orators were accustomed to address or harangue suchcrowds as might assemble in the market-square. Before it we packedourselves as closely as we could, eager to hear. About us idled thesoldiery not occupied in guarding the approach to the square.

  One of the sergeants made a speech to us, explaining our liberation andtheir presence in Placentia. He called us "comrades" and began hisharangue with a long and virulent denunciation of Perennis, the Prefect ofthe Palace. Perennis, he declared, had been a slave of the vilest originand had won his freedom and the favor of the Palace authorities and of theEmperor not by merit but by rank favoritism. He maintained that Perennis,as Prefect of the Palace, had gained such an ascendancy over Commodus thatbesides his proper duties as guardian of the Emperor's personal safety,surely a charge sufficiently heavy to burden any one man and sufficientlyhonorable to satisfy any reasonable man, his master had been enticed intoentrusting to Perennis the management of the entire Empire, so that healone controlled promotions in and appointments to the navy, army andtreasury services. In this capacity, as sole minister and representativeof the sovereign, Perennis had enriched himself by taking bribes from allfrom whom he could extort bribes. By his venality he had gone far towardsruining the navy and army, which were by now more than half officered byhopeless incompetents who had bought their appointments. As a result thelegionaries garrisoning the lines along the Euphrates, the Carpathians,the Danube, the Rhine and the Wall, since they were badly led, hadsuffered undeserved mishandling from the barbarians attacking them; andeven the garrisons of mountain districts like Armenia, Pisidia, andLusitania had been mauled by the bands of outlaws. He instanced therebellion of Maternus as a result of the incompetence and venality ofPerennis.

  Worse than this, he said, Perennis was plotting the Emperor'sassassination and the elevation to the Principate of one of his two sons.This project of his, which he was furthering by astute secretmachinations, had come to the knowledge of a loyal member of the Emperor'sretinue. He had written of it to a brother of his, Centurion [Footnote:See Note D.] of the Thirteenth Legion, entitled "Victorious" and quarteredon the Wall, along the northern frontier of Britain, towards theCaledonian Highlands. This letter had reached the quarters of theThirteenth Legion late in September. Its recipient had at oncecommunicated to his fellow-sergeants the horrible intimation which itcontained. They had resolved to do all in their power to save their Princeby forestalling and foiling the treacherous Perennis. They had called ameeting of their garrison and disclosed their information to their men.The legionaries acclaimed their decision. Deputations set out east andwest along the Wall and roused the other cohorts of the Thirteenth Legionand those of the Twenty-Seventh. From the Wall messengers galloped southto the garrisons throughout Britain. In an incredibly short time, despitethe approach and onset of winter, they apprised every garrison in theisland. Messengers from every garrison reached every garrison. So rapidlywas mutual comprehension and unanimity established, so secretly did theyoperate, that on the Nones of January all the garrisons in Britainsimultaneously mutinied, overpowered their unsuspecting officers,disclosed to them the reasons for their sedition, and invited them to jointhem. Of all the officers on the island only two hesitated to agree withtheir men. These, after some expostulation, were killed. The rest resumedtheir duties, if competent, or were relegated to civilian life, ifadjudged incompetent.

  The three most prominent legions in Britain, the Sixth, Thirteenth andTwentieth, each entitled, because of prowess displayed in past campaigns,to the appellation of "Victorious," selected the equivalent of a cohortapiece to unite into a deputation representing the soldiery of Britaincollectively, to proceed to Rome, reveal to the Emperor his danger, savehim, foil Perennis, and see to it that he was put to death. In pursuanceof this plan the six centuries chosen by the Thirteenth Legion, about fivehundred men, had set out southward from the Wall on the day before theIdes of January. Accomplishing the march of a hundred and thirty-fivemiles to Eburacum, in spite of deep snow and heavy snow-storms, infourteen days, there they foregathered with the main body of the SixthLegion and were joined by their six selected centuries. The twelve, somethousand picked men, accomplished the march of eighty-five miles to Devain nine days, though hampered by terrible weather. There they were joinedby the delegates of the Twentieth Legion. Together the fifteen hundreddeputies made the march of two hundred and eighty miles to Ritupis by wayof Londinium, in twenty-eight days. At Ritupis they took part in thefestival of Isis, by which navigation was declared open for the year andnavigation blessed. Next day,
on the day before the Nones of March, theyhad sailed for Gaul and made the crossing in ten hours, without anyhindrance from headwinds or bad weather.

  From Gessoriacum they had tramped across Gaul, inducing to join them suchkindred spirits as they encountered among the squads of recent leviesbeing drilled at each large town preparatory to being forwarded toreinforce the frontier garrisons. These inexperienced recruits they hadorganized into centuries under sergeants elected by the recruitsthemselves from among themselves, which elective centurions had handilylearnt their novel duties from instructions given by one or two veteransdetailed to aid in drilling each new century. Before they reached Vapincumthey had associated with them fresh comrades equalling themselves innumber, equipped from town arsenals. With these they had crossed intoItaly through the Cottian Alps.

  At Segusio they had been told that, under the misrule of Perennis, the_ergastula_ of Italy were filled, not half with runaway slaves, pettythieves, rascals, ruffians and outlaws, but mainly with honest fellows whohad committed no crime, but had been secretly arrested and consigned totheir prisons merely because they had incurred the displeasure of Perennisor of one of his henchmen, or had been suspected, however vaguely, ofactions, words or even of unspoken opinions distasteful to him or toanyone powerful through him. Acting on that information they had beensetting free the inmates of _ergastula_ in cities through which they hadpassed, such as Turin and Milan, and had formed from these victims twofresh centuries. They proposed that we join them and march with them toRome to inform and rescue our Emperor and foil and kill Perennis.

  Of course the liberated riffraff accepted this suggestion with enthusiasmand without a dissenting voice. We were divided into squads of convenientsize and marched off to the near-by bathing establishments. In that towhich Agathemer and I were led, we, with the rest of our squad, were toldby the sergeant superintending us to strip. Our worn, tattered and lousygarments were turned over to the bath-attendants to be steamed and thendisposed of as they might. We were thoroughly steamed and scrubbed, sothat every man of us was freed from every sort of vermin. During our baththe centurion, in charge of us unobtrusively inspected us individually andcollectively. In the dressing-room of the bathing establishments, after wehad been steamed, scrubbed, baked, and dried, we were clad in militarytunics fetched from the town arsenal or its store-houses. Also we wereprovided with military boots of the coarsest and cheapest materials, madeafter the pattern usual for frontier regiments.

  Outside the bath the watchful sergeant divided us into two squads, alarger and a smaller, the smaller made up of those who, like Agathemer andme, bore brands, and scourge-marks. In the market-square we were againherded together, surrounded by the British legionaries and now ourselvesdivided into those like me and Agathemer, who were marked as runawayslaves and the larger number who showed no marks of scourge or brand. Fromamong the unmarked the frontier centurions picked out thirty whom theyjudged likely material for sergeants like themselves. These thirty theybade select from among themselves three. Then they set the three, anUmbrian and a Ligurian outlaw, and a Dalmatian pirate, along the front ofthe stone platform and asked us whether we would accept those three as ourcenturions. Two speakers, one a Venetian and the other an Insubrian Gaul,objected to the pirate. In his place we were bidden to choose some otherfrom the twenty-seven already selected by the sergeants. A second Umbrianoutlaw was selected.

  Then the centurions bade the newly-elected three to choose each one man inrotation, until they had made up for each the nucleus of a century fromthe unmarked men.

  After the three new centuries were thus constituted, they asked them todecide whether they would accept as comrades and associates the residue ofthe inmates of our _ergastulum_ who were marked plainly as runaway slaves.They voted overwhelmingly to accept us. Then the three new sergeantsproceeded to choose us also into their centuries. The choosing wasinterrupted by a Ravenna Gaul, who called the attention of the assembly tothe fact that Agathemer had been cook to the _ergastulum_ and I hishelper; similarly to the baker and his assistant. After some discussion itwas unanimously voted that the baker and his helper be treated as anyothers of the liberated rascals, that the three new centurions draw lotswhich should have Agathemer for cook to his century and me for his helper,and that the other two centuries appoint cooks by lot unless cooks andhelpers volunteered. Four of the brand-marked rabble at once volunteered.

  After the last man had been selected and the British centurions hadmarshalled, inspected and approved the three new centuries thusconstituted, we were marched off to the town arsenal and there equippedwith corselets, strap-kilts, greaves; cloaks, helmets, shields, swords andspears; only Agathemer, I, and the four other cooks and helpers, weregiven no spears, shields, helmets or body-armour, only swords, jackets andcaps.

  Then, full-fledged tumultary legionaries, we were marshalled as well asgreenhorns could be ranked and we marched from the market-place the lengthof the street leading to the Fidentia Gate. Outside it we found thesemblance of a camping-ground and tents ready for us to set up. Up we setthem, we new recruits, clumsily, under the jeers of the old-timers, to thetune of taunts and curses from the disgusted veteran centurions.

  When the camp was set up a fire was made for each century and we cooks andhelpers fell to our duties, with a squad of privates to cut wood, feed thefires, fetch water and do any other rough preparatory work, such asbutchering a sheep or a goat, killing, picking and cleaning fowls, andwhat not. For this welcome, if clumsy, assistance we had to thank one ofthe British centurions, who admonished our newly-elected Umbrian sergeantthat camp-cookery called for any needed number of assistant helpers to thechief cook if the men were to be fed properly and promptly.

  The town officials had sent out to the camp a generous provision of wheat,barley, lentils, pulse, sheep, goats, fowls, cheese, oil, salt and wine. Idid not learn how the volunteer cooks fared, but the barley-stew, seasonedwith minced fowls, which Agathemer concocted, was acclaimed by ourcentury.

  That night, in our tent, Agathemer and I, talking Greek and whispering,discussed our situation. After two fulfillments, the prophesy of theAemilian Sibyl seemed in a fair way to be fulfilled a third time; we wereheaded for Rome.

  To Rome we went. We had, in that first consultation, in many similarconsultations later, planned to escape and hoped to escape. But we weretoo carefully watched. Whether we were suspected because of our scourge-marks and brand-marks, or were prized as cooks, or whether there was someother reason, we could not conjecture. Certainly we were sedulouslyguarded on all marches, and kept strictly within, each camp, though wewere free to wander about each camp as we pleased.

  We had planned to escape in or near Parma, Mutina, Bononia, or Faventia,any of which towns Agathemer judged a favorable locality for marketing agem from our amulet-bags. But in these, as everywhere else, our guardsgave us no chance of escape.

  When not busy cooking I found myself greatly interested in the amazingcompany among which I was cast. In my rambles about our camp, when allwere full-fed and groups sat or lay chatting about the slackening camp-fires, I became acquainted with most of the eighteen centurions fromthe legions quartered in Britain, and had talks, sometimes even longtalks, with more than half of them. These bluff, burly frontier sergeants,like their corporals and men, treated all their volunteer associates aswelcome comrades, even welted and branded runaway slaves acting as cooks.From them I heard again and again the story of discontent, conspiracy,mutiny, insurrection and attempt at protest about rectification of theevils they believed to exist, which tale we had all heard outlined by thesergeant-orator in the Forum of Placentia.

  Among the eighteen centurions there was no sergeant-major nor anycenturion of the upper rank. The highest in army rank was Sextius Baculusof Isca, a native of Britain and lineally descended, through an originalcolonist of Isca, from the celebrated sergeant-major of the Divine Julius.He had been twelfth in rank in the Sixth Legion, being second centurion ofits second cohort. Not one of his seventeen associates had ranked
so high:the next highest being Publius Cordatus, of Lindum, who had been secondsergeant of the fourth cohort in the Twentieth Legion.

  The totality of my mental impressions of what I heard from these two andother members of this incredible deputation of insurgent mutineers and ofwhat I saw of the doings of the whole deputation, was vague and confused.From the confusion emerged a predominating sense of their manyinconsistencies and of the haphazard irresponsibility and inconsequence oftheir states of mind and actions. They were, indeed, entirely consistentin one respect. Unlike Maternus and his men, not one of them blamedCommodus for anything, not even for having appointed Perennis to his highoffice and then having permitted him to arrogate to himself all thefunctions of the government of the Republic and Empire. One and all theyexcused the Emperor and expressed for him enthusiastic loyalty: one andall they blamed not only the Prefect's mismanagement but also his ownappointment on Perennis. Consistent as they were in holding these opinionsor in having such feelings, the notions were inconsistent in themselves.

  So likewise was their often expressed and manifestly sincere intention toforestall the consummation of the alleged conspiracy and save the Emperorinconsistent with their slow progress from Britain towards Rome. Neverhaving been in Britain and knowing little of it from such reports as I hadheard, I could not controvert their assertion that the state of the roadsand weather there had made impossible greater speed than they had achievedfrom their quarters to their port, yet I suspected that men reallysystematically in earnest might have accomplished in twenty days marcheswhich had occupied them for fifty-one days. I was certain that it wasnothing short of ridiculous for legionaries in hard fighting condition andwell fed to consume one hundred and one days in marching from theirlanding-port on the coast of Gaul to Placentia: ten miles a day wasdespicable marching even for lazy and soft-muscled recruits; anylegionaries should make fifteen, miles at day under any conditions,earnest men keyed up to hurry should have made twenty and might oftenmarch twenty-five miles between camps. These blatherskites were on firewith high resolve, by their talk, yet had loafed along for a thousandmiles, camping early, sleeping long after sunrise, resting at midday andgorging themselves at leisurely meals. All this was amazing.

  Equally astonishing was the condition of supineness, of all governmentalofficials in Gaul, local and Imperial, as their tale revealed it. Neitherthe Prefect of the Rhine, nor any one of the Procurators of Gaul, had, asfar as their story indicated, made any effort to arrest them, turn themback, stop them, check them, hinder them or even have them expostulatedwith. As far as I could infer from all I heard neither had the governingbody of any city or town. For all they were interfered with by anyofficial they might have been full-time veterans, honorably discharged,marching homeward under accredited officers provided with diplomasproperly made out, signed, sealed and stamped. Everywhere they had beenfed at public expense, lodged free or provided with camping-grounds andtents; their pack-animals had been replaced if worn out, and everythingthey needed had been provided on their asking for it or even before theymade any request. I could only infer that they had inspired fear by theirnumbers and truculence and that each town or district had striven to keepthem in a good humor and to get rid of them as soon as possible byentertaining them lavishly and speeding them along their chosen way.

  As they told of their own behavior there had been no consistency or systemor method in their additions to their company. By their own account theyhad enticed men to join them or had ignored likely recruits in the mosthaphazard fashion, purely as the humor struck them. The like was true oftheir emptyings of _ergastula_ in Italy. At Turin, as well as I couldgather from my chats with this or that centurion or soldier or liberatedslave, they had set free the inmates of the _ergastulum_ by the SegusioGate and had then turned aside to that by the Vercellae Gate, but hadignored the larger _ergastulum_ by the Milan Gate; though they had marchedout of Turin, necessarily, by that gate. Similarly at Milan, they hademptied two _ergastula_ and ignored the rest; as at Placentia, where theyhad expended all their time and energy on the first _ergastulum_ theyhappened on inside the Milan Gate and on ours, and then had ignored orforgotten the four or five others, equally large and equally well filled.

  On our progress to Rome I saw similar inconsistencies in their behavior.They never so much as entered Fidentia, but marched round it, acquiescentto the gentle suggestion of a trembling and incoherent alderman, quakingwith fear and barely able to enunciate some disjointed sentences. At Parmathey emptied two _ergastula_ and never so much as approached the others,repeating this inconsistency at Mutina and Bononia. Outside of Faventiasomething, I never learned what, enraged a knot of the veterans, so thattheir fury communicated itself to all the soldiery from Britain andinflamed their associates, Gallic and Italian. Whereupon we burst theBononia Gate of Faventia, flocked into the town, sacked some of the shops,left a score of corpses in the market-place and some in the streets nearit, set fire to a block of buildings, and burst out of the Ariminum Gate,tumultuous and excited, but without so much as trying the outer doors ofany _ergastulum_.

  Yet, after this riotous performance, we did no damage at Ariminum, noteven entering the town, not even enquiring if it had an _ergastulum_, asit must have had.

  Similarly at Pisaurum, at Fanum Fortunae, at Forum Sempronii, though thesewere small towns and could not have resisted us, we camped outside,accepted gracefully the tents and food provided for us and made no move tomaltreat anyone or do any looting. But at Nuceria, at Spolitum and atNarnia we entered the towns and liberated the inmates of two of the_ergastula_, in each, though we never so much as threatened Interamnia.

  Looking back over these proceedings I explain them to myself approximatelyas follows: the eighteen centurions from Britain treated each other as ifthey all felt on terms of complete mutual equality, none ever assumed anyrights of superiority, seniority, precedence, or authority, none was everinvested with any right of permanent or temporary leadership. If some whimprompted any one of the eighteen to take the lead in emptying an_ergastulum_ or breaking in a town gate, or sacking a shop, not one of hisfellow-sergeants demurred or expostulated or opposed him; they allconcurred in any suggestion of any one of them. And the soldiers followedtheir centurions with, apparently, implicit confidence in them, or a blindinstinct of deference. So of submission to the request of any towndecurion, that they stay outside: mostly, they were acquiescent. But ifsomething irritated a sergeant, or even a soldier, the entire deputationflamed into fury and burst gates, sacked shops and even fired buildingsuntil their rage spent itself, after which they were civil and kindly toall townsmen, whether officials, citizens, slaves or women and children. Inever could detect any reason for any action or inaction of theirs.