Marius' Mules VI: Caesar's Vow

by S. J. A. Turney

  The hospital complex was a large one, having taken in the wounded from every legion while their healthy comrades campaigned in the great forest, but Baculus was still the most senior officer within the complex, and ruled the roost of the sick and damaged as though they were a working cohort. Nothing happened in the complex without his knowledge and permission, despite the medicus’ exasperation.

  Striding from the door and between the small orderlies’ quarters, he left the hospital zone and emerged in the open space used currently as a parade ground and muster point within the walls. The camp was larger than necessary for its current occupants, and Caesar’s orders - given to Cicero in detail on a tablet - had stated with no margin for misinterpretation that he was under no circumstances to place the legion in jeopardy, and that all forces should remain in camp until the army returned by the kalends of Quintilis. A brief exception had been made upon arrival in order to gather the timber for the camp’s fortifications, but after that time, even parades had been carried out within the ramparts.

  Why, then, Baculus pondered, were there several cohorts of men forming up in full kit?

  He briefly ran through his days in the hospital bed, wondering if he’d missed a day or two somewhere? No. The kalends was tomorrow.

  His eyes picked out Cicero standing on the raised timber platform at the far side with two tribunes, and, the twitch beneath his left eye starting up once again, Baculus walked slowly around the mustering men, closing on the podium.

  Cicero was in deep conversation with the tribunes as he stomped up the steps and stopped in front of them. After a few moments of clearing his throat meaningfully, the legate looked up in surprise.

  ‘Baculus, isn’t it? From the Twelfth? Thought you were removed from duties?’

  Baculus saluted gingerly and nodded. ‘Yes sir. Heard all the commotion and thought I’d come see what was happening?’

  ‘Well, centurion, it appears that our supplies are running dangerously low. I have authorised a forage party to scour the local countryside and settlements and refill our stores.’

  ‘Sir?’

  ‘Hard of hearing, centurion?’

  Baculus frowned. Labienus he’d got to know, and would take that kind of comment from, as he knew he still commanded the man’s respect. This armoured politician, on the other hand, was looking at him as though he’d crawled out from under a rock.’

  ‘Respectfully, sir,’ he replied, stressing the syllables as though he might push them through that decorative bronze cuirass and make them part of the legate, ‘Caesar’s orders were specific. I was there when they were read out. No leaving the fort until the army arrives on the kalends.’

  Cicero’s face fell stony and the man gave Baculus a hard look.

  ‘Tomorrow is the Kalends, centurion.’

  ‘Yes sir. And respectfully, today is not.’

  Cicero bridled, but the senior, broad-striped tribune beside him looked distinctly uncomfortable and Baculus realised he had an ally there. The man cleared his throat. ‘Perhaps, legate, for the sake of one day…?’

  Cicero rounded on his officer.

  ‘Yes, tribune, we have the supplies to last ‘til the kalends. Possibly even an extra day or more. But think beyond today. The forest of Arduenna is huge. There is every likelihood that the army will be considerably delayed in returning... if they haven’t run into trouble and been slaughtered within its mass! We might be sitting here for weeks yet, awaiting their arrival. Just because the general said they’d be back tomorrow does not mean they will be. Anything might happen. And what do we do if we fail to replenish supplies and then we find ourselves under siege? What if the Belgae take exception to us and try to repeat their successes of last winter? How long do you think we will hold them off with enough supplies to feed the men four meals each?’

  The tribune fell silent, though he was clearly still unhappy. Cicero turned to Baculus again.

  ‘And the sick, I might add, are a huge drain on supplies and resources.’

  ‘We’ll try to be less sick and wounded for you, sir.’

  ‘That’s enough of that kind of talk!’ snapped Cicero. ‘I have here Caesar’s baggage train and I will not let it or the wounded fall into enemy hands. It’s one day. We need to be fully stocked with vittles. What use is a supply train of weapons, equipment and booty if we starve protecting it. The forage party will only be going a few miles and will return before dark. Five cohorts can look after themselves without the walls for a few hours. Stop panicking, centurion, and get back to your cot, where you belong.’

  Baculus’ eyes widened and his twitch jumped more and more below the left lid.

  ‘Five cohorts, sir? That’s half the bloody legion!’

  ‘Watch your tongue when you address me, centurion,’ snapped Cicero.

  ‘There’s always the civilian sutlers, sir,’ threw in the senior tribune, and shrunk back as the legate cast a look of daggers at him.

  ‘What?’ Baculus frowned.

  ‘The natives have set up outside the ditches in the hope of selling us the goods,’ Cicero sneered.

  ‘Then buy them from them!’ Baculus suggested in amazement.

  ‘Their prices are extortionate, and they are merchants from tribes we have already beaten this year in campaigns. I am not about to take the hard-won booty from Caesar’s wagons and give it back to the men from whom we took it in the first damn place.’

  ‘We could just take it from them, sir?’ suggested the junior tribune.

  The other tribune, Cicero and Baculus all turned to the young man, shaking their heads. ‘It would violate Caesar’s peace agreements,’ Cicero said quietly. ‘But I won’t put coin in their pockets,’ he added, turning back to Baculus with a flinty gaze.’

  ‘I’ll stand the damned cost, sir,’ Baculus growled, ‘if you’ll just buy from them.’

  ‘You?’ Cicero laughed.

  ‘You might be surprised how much I could scrape up, legate.’

  ‘Get back to your sick bed, centurion,’ Cicero glowered at him. ‘If you are still here when I have counted to ten, I will give your cot to someone deserving and have you escorted instead to the stockade. That is a final order.’

  ‘Legate…’

  ‘One.’

  ‘This is endangering…’

  ‘Two.’

  ‘Caesar will…’

  ‘Three.’

  Throwing a sour look at the legate, Baculus turned with a rough salute and marched off down the steps and around the gathering forces on the parade ground.

  ‘Moron!’ he grunted as he strode back to the barracks, wondering where his full kit was stored. He had the horrible feeling it might be needed soon.

  * * * * *

  Galronus reined in his horse and gestured for the cavalry prefects to join him. Among their number and wearing a bleak, sour face, was Basilus.

  ‘What do you make of that?’ he asked. The prefects peered off into the bright landscape.

  ‘Looks like cavalry,’ one of them said quietly. Galronus rolled his eyes at the man. ‘I too am capable of counting legs and dividing by four. I know what they are, but who are they, do you think?’

  ‘Natives,’ Basilus said quietly, his voice broken and lost.

  Galronus nodded. ‘Belgae, I would say. But I think I can see Roman banners. Anyone confirm or deny that for me?’

  One of the others, squinting, straightened with a nod. ‘That’s the vexillum of the Twelfth, sir.’

  ‘You’ve got damn sharp eyes,’ Galronus said with a smile. ‘But I think you’re right. Them or the Thirteenth, anyway. Let’s go see what’s happening with them.’

  The cavalry raised their own Roman vexilla to display their allegiance and began to move down the slope at the woods’ edge, on a course to intercept the second column, which was perhaps half the size of Galronus’ force. As they descended, the other column paused, taking time to identify them, and then changed heading towards the slope.

  Reining in a few hundred paces away,
the commander of the second force saluted, and Galronus returned the gesture, coming to a halt alongside him.

  ‘Gaius Volusenus Quadratus, officer commanding cavalry of the Twelfth, Ninth and Thirteenth legions.

  ‘Galronus. Commander of the Second wing and various associated units. Where are you bound, Quadratus.’

  ‘Cicero’s camp,’ the Roman smiled wearily. ‘For the love of Venus, it’s good to see you.’

  Galronus answered with a frown and an encouraging nod.

  ‘I know: we’re heading the wrong way. Problem is, we were heading north ahead of the infantry to let the legate know that the army was inbound, when our path was blocked by the biggest force of Germans I’ve seen in years, all heading north and singing battle songs. Too many for us to take on, so we skirted round them. I was hoping to get to Cicero and warn him they were coming, but they move fast, these buggers, and I’m sure they’ll be there well ahead of us.’

  ‘We’re on our way to hook up with the army, too,’ Galronus nodded. ‘Seems like our forces just joined. Let’s see if we can get to Cicero before the Germans. Hope his ditches are deep and his walls high.’

  Quadratus nodded and turned to his musicians and signifers. ‘Send the orders. We move at speed for the camp.’

  Chapter Eighteen

  Camp of the Fourteenth Legion.

  Lucius Primillus yawned and leaned on the palisade top, his eyes locked on the swathe of darkened grass that lay between the fort’s multiple ditches and the treeline and its array of dull, dun-coloured tents with braziers and flickering campfires. The intermittent moonlight, dusted by constant drifting shrouds in the night sky, and combined with the sutlers’ firelight, played tricks on the eyes. He had become sick of second-checking the shadows that appeared to be moving demons and flitting shapes, but were simply moon or fire light, interrupted and eerie.

  He was tired.

  By his reckoning, he was not fit for duty. Dragged from his sick cot by the watch centurion, he’d initially been grateful to be away from the miserable, sarcastic Primus Pilus who’d been convalescing next to him seemingly forever, but now he was standing at the wall, he realised just how weak he really still was. And his bowels ached…. Oh how his bowels ached!

  The legate, Cicero, had sent out half the legion on foraging duty and, because of the manpower limits imposed upon him, had been through the hospital lists like… like… like whatever it was that had been going though Primillus’ guts for the past few weeks. He’d selected a large number of the convalescent - some said two thirds of the sick list - and overridden the medicus’ outrage, splitting the men into two groups to supplement both the forage party and the fort’s guards.

  The legate had been around the walls an hour ago, at sunset, fuming that his foragers were still out there and should have been back before dark. But Primillus had seen the state of the countryside and its native settlements when they first pulled in, and every sensible man knew the forage party would have their work cut out to find much of use without going a good distance. Primillus didn’t expect to see them until the morning at least, but the legate had pushed himself into an unpleasant corner. Tomorrow was when Caesar and the army were set to return, and if the general returned to find only half the legion in residence, there was a general feeling that Cicero’s balls might well end up hanging from the gate top.

  His watery, weary gaze strayed back towards the ditches and the tents of the civilian sutlers and merchants who had set up their stores outside the defences. Could he persuade the optio at the gate to let him sneak out? He’d smelled the roasted lamb from their tents at sunset and would give not only every coin in his purse for a plate of it, but probably a limb or two. No. The optio was under orders like the rest of them. No trading with the natives when the forage party would return with extra supplies.

  Ha!

  Still, his bowels would probably make him regret roasted lamb pretty sharply.

  His gaze fell upon the flickering shadows cast by the moon’s light playing among the trees and civilian tents.

  Although tents and trees tended not to move. He frowned and turned. Gemellus, ten paces to his right, looked every bit as bored as he.

  ‘Gaius? Can you see…?’

  He blinked, interrupted, as Gaius Gemellus was suddenly lifted from his feet by the force of a spear blow and hurled from the wall down the inner bank, the thrown weapon impaling him and jutting from his chest. Primillus turned, eyes wide, in time to see another spear arcing up towards him and dropped behind the palisade just in time, the shaft passing over him and clattering down inside the camp. He lifted his head so that his gaze peeked through the narrow gap between helmet brim and pointed stake tops.

  His wide eyes strained and bulged as he watched the barbarians on their shaggy horses pouring from the forest edge, behind them a sea of men on foot, waving axes, swords and spears. The bulk of the horsemen were making for the decumana gate and its causeway across the ditches, while a few of their confederates rode for the sutlers’ tents.

  ‘Shit! To arms!’ He cleared his throat and tried to project his voice more. ‘Alarm! To arms!’

  It was largely unnecessary. Other men on watch had seen them now, and whistles, horns and shouts rang out across the camp. Primillus stared at the mass of men swarming around the camp in both directions. It was like a nightmare.

  The call went up from the decumana gate nearby, and Primillus realised he would be more use there than here. Three ditches stood between the enemy and this rampart, but the cavalry were already making their way across the causeway for the gate, and the duty optio was shouting for support.

  Turning, shield and pilum in hand, he ran along the wall top, keeping his head as low as possible, though he took the opportunity to peek out and check what was happening as he moved. The scene was horrific. Whoever the attackers were, they clearly were not Nervii, Eburone or Menapii, as the sutlers who had gathered from those tribes were the first to suffer, the horsemen slashing down at tent ropes and collapsing them, then cutting down anyone who attempted to flee. As the footmen arrived behind them, they took torches from the various cooking fires before the tents and used them to ignite the makeshift trade settlement. Poor bastards. The survivors were fleeing into the ditches and for the gate, but they would find no solace there. The watch guard was hardly going to open up the camp in the face of an enemy force to help a few natives.

  Already, as Primillus reached the gate, the attackers were pounding on the timbers with axes and hammers, those with spears jabbing up at the parapet, their horses dancing this way and that, guided with inexpert hands. These men were not the natural horsemen that summed up the spirit of Gaul.

  Germans, Primillus decided, looking at them. He’d fought Germans on a few occasions over the army’s time in Gaul. Finding a couple of feet of unoccupied gate top, Primillus took up position and began to jab down with this pilum into the mass of riders milling without, striking flesh and armour repeatedly, though unsure in the press whether it was man or horse he was striking. The effect of either was equally valuable.

  As he fought, his suspicions about his state of health reasserted themselves and his bowels gave liquid way into his woollen underwear. He should not have been out of the damned hospital! Ignoring his medical issues, he continued to jab down again and again, watching horses rearing in agony, throwing their riders into the press to be trampled to death. Men were pierced and run through, some wounded and lucky enough to pull back through the mass and into the open ground beyond. The first rider to do so immediately fell foul of a pilum thrown from one side of the gate.

  In a matter of twenty heartbeats it was over.

  The riders, unable in their initial rush to overcome the gate guard, pulled back out of danger, where the rest of their army, still arriving from the forest, were spreading out to surround the large, poorly-defended camp. The last few to leave the causeway suffered for their tardiness, pila cast by panicked and angry legionaries taking them in their retreating backs. In fa
ct, pila were being cast with gay abandon. Unlike food, they were one thing the camp had in almost infinite supply!

  The churned turf and mud of the causeway beneath the gate thronged with bodies writhing in pain, both men and horses, the screams and cries echoing out through the night. The ditches to either side were filled with enemy men and horses who had toppled in and with native traders, some dead, others wounded, a few still hale and pleading desperately for the legionaries to haul them up onto the walls. Even as Primillus felt the familiar post-fight leaden heaviness settle into his limbs, he watched those poor souls crying for help as they fell one by one to thrown German spears or loosed arrows and sling stones.

  ‘Jove, what happened to you?’ the optio hissed as he moved along the gate checking his men and reached Primillus.

  ‘Bowel rot, sir. Brought from hospital for wall duty.’

  ‘For the love of Venus get away from my gate and wash yourself down!’

  ‘Sir,’ Primillus sighed with relief, but the officer grasped his shoulder. ‘Are you empty now?’

  ‘Damn well hope so, sir.’

  ‘Then as soon as you’re washed and stink-free, get to the supply wagons and oversee the distribution of extra pila around the walls.’

  Primillus sagged. A momentary image of his sick bed had floated tantalisingly in front of him before being whipped away again.

  ‘And try not to shit yourself on duty again, soldier, or I might decide to plug your arse shut with a hob-nailed boot.’

  Primillus saluted and scurried off towards the latrines with their buckets of cleansing water and the sponge sticks. It very much appeared, given the Germanic voices raised around the camp’s periphery, that this evening’s fight was far from over.

  * * * * *

  Baculus stomped around the hospital ward angrily.

  ‘Orderly? Where is my vine staff?’

  ‘I’ve no idea, sir.’

  ‘When I find it I’m going to use it to teach you wastrels a lesson in looking after important property. I left it with the rest of my gear. Help me get this bloody harness on.’