Marius’ Mules III: Gallia Invicta
S.J.A. Turney
“Marius’ Mules: nickname acquired by the legions after the General Marius made it standard practice for the soldier to carry all of his kit about his person.”
I would like to dedicate this book to all those people who have supported and helped me over the past few years of writing the Marius’ Mules series. You know who you are, and I know who some of you are. I have made a lot of good friends and met some fascinating and amazing people through my work and you are all deserving of praise.
This book is available in print at most online retailers
Published in this format 2011
Copyright - S.J.A.Turney
First Edition
The author asserts the moral right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work.
All Rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means without the prior consent of the author, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
By the same author:
Tales of the Empire Series:
Interregnum (2009)
For twenty years civil war has torn the Empire apart; the Imperial line extinguished as the mad Emperor Quintus burned in his palace, betrayed by his greatest general. Against a background of war, decay, poverty and violence, men who once served in the proud Imperial army now fight as mercenaries, hiring themselves to the greediest lords.
On a hopeless battlefield that same general, now a mercenary captain tortured by the events of his past, stumbles across hope in the form of a young man begging for help. Kiva is forced to face more than his dark past as he struggles to put his life and the very Empire back together. The last scion of the Imperial line will change Kiva forever.
Ironroot (2010)
Captain Varro of the Fourth army is about to have the worst day of his life. Wounded in battle and fearing for his life and his future, he stumbles upon a plot that reaches deep into the past and into the roots of everything in which he believes. Accompanied by a young engineer from his unit and the daughter of his commander in chief, he begins to unpeel layers of treachery and murder that threaten not only himself, but the people that he loves. Ironroot is a tale of treason and revenge set in the world of the Interregnum, some twenty years after the events of that book.
Dark Empress (2011)
The desert nomads have a saying:
"When something is broken it should never be discarded. So long as the pieces remains, the whole can be remade."
A time of trials, war and terror is coming to the desert city of M'Dahz, the Empire's southern bastion. As the Empire's government falters and crumbles, the people suffer.
But Samir, Ghassan and Asima, childhood friends and citizens of M'Dahz, are about to discover that while people change the world, the world also changes people and that the best and worst of folk are forged in hardship.
The Marius’ Mules Series, books 1 - 3:
Marius’ Mules: The Invasion of Gaul (2009)
It is 58 BC and the mighty Tenth Legion, camped in Northern Italy, prepare for the arrival of the most notorious general in Roman history: Julius Caesar.
Marcus Falerius Fronto, commander of the Tenth is a career soldier and long-time companion of Caesar's. Despite his desire for the simplicity of the military life, he cannot help but be drawn into intrigue and politics as Caesar engineers a motive to invade the lands of Gaul.
Fronto is about to discover that politics can be as dangerous as battle, that old enemies can be trusted more than new friends, and that standing close to such a shining figure as Caesar, even the most ethical of men risk being burned.
Marius’ Mules II: The Belgae (2010)
57BC. The fearsome Belgae have gathered a great army to oppose Rome and Fronto and the legions assemble once more to take Caesar’s war against the most dangerous tribes in the northern world. While the legions battle the Celts in the fiercest war of Caesar’s career, the plots and conspiracies against him, both at Rome and among his own army, become ever deeper and more dangerous.
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For more information visit www.sjaturney.co.uk
Dramatis Personae (List of Principal Characters)
The Command Staff:
Gaius Julius Caesar: Politician, general and governor.
Aulus Ingenuus: Commander of Caesar’s Praetorian Cohort.
Cita: Chief quartermaster of the army.
Decimus Brutus: Staff officer and favourite of Caesar’s family.
Quintus Atius Varus: Commander of the Cavalry.
Quintus Titurius Sabinus: Senior lieutenant of Caesar.
Quintus Tullius Cicero: Staff officer and brother of the great orator.
Titus Labienus: Senior lieutenant of Caesar.
Seventh Legion:
Publius Licinius Crassus: Legate and son of the triumvir Crassus.
Titus Terrasidius: Senior Tribune.
Publius Tertullus: Junior Tribune.
Gaius Pinarius Rusca: Junior Tribune.
Eighth Legion:
Quintus Balbus: Ageing Legate of the Eighth, close friend of Fronto.
Titus Balventius: Primus pilus & veteran of several terms of service.
Aquilius: Training officer, senior centurion and perfectionist.
Ninth Legion:
Publius Sulpicius Rufus: Young Legate of the Ninth.
Marcus Trebius Gallus: Senior Tribune and veteran soldier.
Grattius: primus pilus, once in sole command of the Ninth.
Tenth Legion:
Marcus Falerius Fronto: Legate and confidante of Caesar.
Gaius Tetricus: Military Tribune, expert in military defences.
Servius Fabricius Carbo: Primus Pilus.
Petrosidius: Chief Signifer of the first cohort.
Eleventh Legion:
Aulus Crispus: Legate, former civil servant in Rome.
Quintus Velanius: Senior Tribune.
Titus Silius: Junior Tribune.
‘Felix’: Primus Pilus, accounted an unlucky man.
Twelfth Legion:
Servius Galba: Legate.
Gaius Volusenus: Junior Tribune.
Publius Sextius Baculus: Primus pilus. A distinguished veteran.
Thirteenth Legion:
Lucius Roscius: Legate and native of Illyricum.
Atenos: Senior centurion and former mercenary.
Fourteenth Legion:
Lucius Munatius Plancus: Legate and former staff officer.
Cantorix: Centurion in the Third cohort.
Other characters:
Faleria the elder: Mother of Fronto and matriarch of the Falerii.
Faleria the younger: sister of Fronto.
Corvinia: Wife of Balbus, legate of the Eighth.
Lucilia: Elder daughter of Balbus.
Balbina: Younger daughter of Balbus.
Galronus: Gaulish officer, commanding auxiliary cavalry under Varus.
Gnaeus Vinicius Priscus: Former primus pilus of the Tenth, assigned camp prefect of the army, convalescing in Rome after serious wounding last year.
Paetus: Former camp prefect, betrayed by Caesar and by Clodius. Believed dead, but escaped and at large in Italy.
Publius Clodius Pulcher: Powerful man in Rome, enemy of Caesar and conspirator, responsible for multiple crimes.
Philopater: Clodius’ chief enforcer.
Clodia: Sister of Clodius, a devious and da
ngerous woman.
PART ONE: GALLIA INVICTA
Chapter 1
(December: Octodurus, in the Alpine passes above Geneva)
‘It is the third day before the nones of December and we are feeling the first morsel of security in months. On the orders of the general I left Titus Labienus and his command at Nemetocenna and brought the depleted Twelfth Legion into the mountains above Cisalpine Gaul, a territory only nominally Roman, plagued with bandits and antagonistic Celts, in order to secure a trade route across the mountains.
Our task has not been an easy one. Indeed, this is the first time I have had the leisure and reason to make report.
Upon arrival in these unforgiving valleys, once we had departed from friendly territory and lost sight of the Geneva Lake, we immediately encountered opposition in the form of the Nantuates. It causes me to shake my head in wonder when I remember that these men were raw recruits less than two years ago, hastily trained and armed for campaigning in the very lands that we once again occupy. Two years of brutal warfare against Gauls, Belgae and Germans have left me with tough, if relatively inexperienced, men at every level, but all too few of them. By the time we had reached Geneva we had lost another fifty men or more of our already woefully understaffed legion to their wounds and the increasing cold of the mountains.
Despite promises of reinforcements from Cisalpine Gaul, we have seen or heard no sign of relief and have carried out the orders to take and hold this vital mercantile pass with a legion so diminished we would not be able to form three complete cohorts, let alone the full ten. Our numbers are down to a little over seven hundred, including my officers, some of whom have only been soldiering for two years, due to the high death toll last year and this small but costly campaign. Even with the cavalry ala that accompanied us, we are terribly reduced.
And yet we have fought on for more than two months. The valiant and rapidly diminishing Twelfth have pushed back and contained the Nantuates, reducing three of their fortresses to ash and rubble, have forced the Seduni back deep into their lands and reduced their strength, and lastly stormed the main strongholds of the Veragri, breaking the greater part of local resistance. Only three days ago did we stop for the first time to take account of our accomplishments.
The three tribes we have subdued here sent emissaries seeking peace and I have never been more pleased to be able to grant a request. Our men were close to breaking through exhaustion, numbing cold and the unsettling odds. But we have agreed terms with them all. The Seduni, who are the most distant of the three, have sent us hostages as a sign of faith. The Nantuates have done the same, but there was something about the way they spoke that has left me unsure of their fidelity and so I settled three centuries of men, which was all I can truly spare, among the Nantuates under a veteran centurion with orders to fortify and keep in contact with riders.
I then brought the rest of the army to the centre of this hornet nest: the town of Octodurus in Veragri territory. Here we are fortifying our own position and preparing to send out patrols and set up a line of signal stations in both directions across the pass, to the north through our garrison among the Nantuates down to the fort at Pennelucos by the lake and to the south as far as the fort at Eporedia in Cisalpine Gaul.
It is my dearest hope that within a few weeks we will be settled, fortified and beginning to trade and work with the local tribes rather than having to watch them for signs of trouble and increased banditry. When we have signal towers and watch stations we will be in a position to say that the pass is truly safe for merchants, but at this time I would still strongly discourage any civilian from trying the route, even with armed escorts. It will be some weeks at the least before we can claim the pass is safe. Indeed, I still feel uneasy in myself; a sentiment that is echoed among the men, though they try not to show it.
I will make further report when we have the signal system in place and have set up good lines of trade and communication.
While I do not wish to speak out of turn, I would urgently request that emissaries are sent to Caesar in Rome or Illyricum, wherever he may be, with a request for reinforcements. Without them, the Twelfth remains in dire straits throughout this damned winter.
My courier and his escort will need food and shelter upon receipt of this report and will stand by to return to Octodurus with a reply at your earliest convenience.
For the senate and the people of Rome.
Servius Sulpicius Galba, legatus of the Twelfth Legion.’
Galba furrowed his brow as he re-read the last paragraphs for the fourth time. It was delicate. With the general away involved in politics either in Rome or across the sea, their closest senior contact was the camp prefect of the Tenth’s garrison fortress at Cremona. While Galba theoretically outranked the man, Piso was the de facto senior commander in the whole province of Cisalpine Gaul and therefore the immediate step between Galba and the general.
To suggest that the general had been neglectful or deficient in some way in not providing the troops that he had promised almost half a year ago would not be, Galba was sure, a good career move. Still, something had to be done. The Twelfth barely had enough men to keep Octodurus quiet, let alone the entire pass that led from the eastern end of the Geneva Lake all the way across the Alps and down to Eporedia in Roman territory.
With a sigh, he nodded at the last few lines, his mouth turning up at the corner as he noted once again ‘For the senate and the people of Rome’ when the whole campaign was clearly ‘for the glory and purse of the great Caesar’. Fronto may be an outspoken lunatic with plebeian tendencies, but there were times he nailed the general to the wall with a well chosen description.
“Shame I couldn’t get away with that…”
“I’m sorry sir?”
Galba blinked. He’d forgotten the cavalry decurion was there.
“Oh, nothing. Just talking to myself.”
Taking a breath, he snapped the wood-encased tablet shut and sealed it with the wax from one of the three candles that lit the room’s murky interior, plunging the seal of the Twelfth’s commander into the liquid and watching it harden instantly. For a moment, he frowned down at the mark of the bull with the XII and sighed. If they didn’t get more men soon, this letter may be the last time that seal was ever used. Shaking the gloomy thoughts from his head, he reached up and passed the tablet to the cavalry officer.
“This goes into the hands of Prefect Piso at Cremona and no other. Do not be fobbed off at the gate with a promise to deliver it. Understand?”
The decurion nodded.
“Yes, sir. I have assembled a turma of men for escort. I realise that leaves you with diminished cavalry, sir, but the pass is very dangerous.”
Galba nodded.
“I’m aware of the situation, decurion. One turma of cavalry will hardly make or break our position here. Just get this report to Cremona and don’t come back until you have a reply… preferably a good one with an offer of help.”
He smiled at the man. A little encouragement wouldn’t go amiss. The valley was still home to many bandits and pockets of resistance that had not surrendered with the main tribes and the journey would be dangerous.
“And make sure they feed you well and soak you in wine when you get there. On my orders, yes?”
The decurion grinned.
“Count on it, sir.”
With a salute, he turned and left the building, tucking the wax tablet away into his tunic. Galba sighed and leaned back in the chair. This room smelled of badly-cured animal skins, burned meat and a tightly-packed family group who had clearly eaten too many vegetables.
Trying not to picture what might be lurking in the dark corners of the room where he’d not yet had the courage to prod and examine, Galba stood and turned to follow the trooper through the door.
Outside the house, the street sloped gently down toward the river that cut Octodurus in two. It was the most unusual Celtic settlement Galba had ever seen. No hill fort here, with high walls and a central gatherin
g place at the summit. Here, the Veragri had been at the mercy of the vertiginous landscape. Octodurus lay on almost flat land at the head of a ‘Y’-shaped valley, in a commanding position and bisected by a river. The view down the street was truly breathtaking, not for the town itself, but for the enormous mountains that rose up like unassailable walls to either side of the valley and at the spur rising like the prow of an upturned trireme between the valleys.
Climbing those mountains was an epic journey in itself, as the scouts that he’d sent up there yesterday had verified when they returned late in the evening, exhausted, scratched and bruised. Since the legion had arrived here two days ago, the town had changed beyond measure. In an effort to preserve a level of reasonable trust and acceptability with the Veragri, Galba had allowed them to keep the lower, flatter half of Octodurus for themselves on the other side of the river, across the single bridge that joined the two halves.
Marius Mules III: Gallia Invicta (Marius' Mules) Page 1