Saviour of Rome [Gaius Valerius Verrens 7]

by Douglas Jackson

  Aurelio had information Melanius might be interested in – it turned out Melanius was not the only person with contacts. Like the fox he was, Aurelio had somehow scented his intent and now he suggested an arrangement. Julius Licinius Ferox, the Emperor Nero’s esteemed and trusted praefectus metallorum for Asturica, was not just taking bribes for handing out licences, he was also skimming off small amounts of the Emperor’s gold. The former was so widespread a practice as to be almost a benefit of office, but the theft? No one had any doubt what the feared and unpredictable Nero’s reaction would be. A team of experienced torturers would descend on Asturica. Ferox would die screaming and what was left fed to the feral dogs who patrolled the city walls.

  Not surprisingly, Ferox had proved amenable to suggestion, and a percentage of his profits found its way into an iron-bound chest in Melanius’s library. Aurelio now enjoyed a valued place in Melanius’s household and, little by little, Ferox had been induced to make small increases in his appropriations.

  But the great opportunity came with the civil war. Melanius sensed an opportunity presented by Servius Sulpicius Galba’s accession to the purple. Galba had been killed before he could take advantage, but the state of paralysis at Tarraco that followed his death couldn’t be ignored. It was now they enlisted the aid of Severus and Fronton. An army of phantom workers doubled the workforce in the mines and the cost to the Imperial treasury. The profits were split equally between the conspirators and Claudius Harpocration, recruited by Aurelio to supply a force which ensured obedience from anyone who had doubts. The figureheads in turn disbursed their own gifts to oil the wheels of the conspiracy, and Aurelio or Harpocration would remind the recipients of their responsibilities from time to time. They had stolen a fortune.

  They should have stopped immediately Vitellius’s forces defeated Otho at Bedriacum and the Emperor of only a few months committed suicide. In the chaos that followed likely no one would have noticed. If they had, the losses could have been explained away as the fortunes of war.

  But somehow the time had never been right. Fronton would have been happy to bring things to a close, but he had little say in the council. Harpocration enjoyed the power of his position – by then Melanius had suborned Proculus and made the auxiliary the true authority at Legio – and saw no reason to change it. Ferox had long been under the thrall of the metal he ripped from the earth. Severus had an insatiable wife and an insatiable greed for the luxuries of life. And he, Melanius? He had been seduced by his ability to control all these disparate elements of a crime on a scale never witnessed before. Blinded by his vanity. By the time he’d realized he’d placed his head in a noose it was too late.

  That was when he’d persuaded his fellow conspirators to place a portion of their great wealth in trust with him. If the time came to run, the gold would ease their path. Even then he understood Rome’s long reach would find them wherever they fled. They would never be free of the fear of poisoners and backstabbers. It was only gradually that another possibility dawned. A plan so outrageous it might be called insane, but at least it gave them a chance. Gamble all on one final throw of the dice.

  Petronius’s investigations had supplied the opportunity. Melanius had even provided a little help that allowed him to increase the pressure on the others. He knew they would never act unless they could feel the blade tickling the back of their neck. Now he was able to offer them the possibility of salvation. Win, and advancement and more riches would be theirs. Lose? The end was inevitable in any case. Of course they’d been reluctant; so terrified he’d found it almost amusing. It had taken months of persuasion, but finally he’d won them round. All except Fronton, a man who spent each day frightened of what was going to happen on the next, and who’d preferred death to the chance of making a name for himself that would live through the ages. But Fronton, most opportunely, was gone. Everything was in place and going exactly to plan.

  So why did Melanius’s gut feel as if it was clenched in the grip of an icy fist?

  Calpurnius Piso rode up to his side. The young tribune glanced nervously over his shoulder at Aurelio before he spoke.

  ‘I still think I should have ordered the Tenth to hold their positions east of Emporiae and cover the Pyrenean passes. What happens if Vespasian hears of their defection and sends another legion, perhaps more than one, in pursuit? It would—’

  ‘We have discussed this,’ Melanius interrupted curtly. ‘We need the Tenth at Tarraco to consolidate our position there. Not everyone will see the benefits of removing Vespasian. The Emperor will still have his supporters among the aristocracy and the civil service. I have the names of those likely to be open to persuasion and of those who may well require to be eliminated. With the Tenth we can place a cordon round the entire city while we weed them out. Only then will they be sent to defend the passes. Do not concern yourself, Calpurnius. If any of the legions on the Rhenus move I will hear of it.’ He mitigated any implied criticism with a false smile. ‘When we have Tarraco we will send out detachments to demand allegiance of the other cities, gather hostages and recruit young men for a new legion which you will lead. You will be a new Quintus Sertorius. I see much of him in you. He was brave, noble, eloquent and a brilliant soldier. He took and held Hispania.’

  Piso looked sceptical. ‘But wasn’t Sertorius defeated in the end by Pompey?’

  ‘Not defeated, betrayed,’ Melanius insisted. ‘He believed his position powerful enough to deter any attack from Rome. We will not make the same mistake. This is not about Hispania, it is about seeing you hailed Emperor, by the Senate and people of Rome. When we march on Rome Vespasian is finished. An emperor needs the support of the army, the Senate and the mob. We have the Senate, he does not yet have the mob. We have the Sixth, the Tenth and the majority of the legions of Germania. All it takes is the defection of one or two more legions and we cannot be stopped. Caesar crossed his Rubicon. The moment we cross the Iberus, there is no turning back.’

  The sentiment brought a sickly smile from Piso. He’d long dreamed of deposing Vespasian, winning the purple and of reclaiming his illustrious family’s destiny. Now he was on the brink of attempting it he’d begun to question whether he was up to the task. His lofty ambitions had provoked scorn from his friends and only Melanius seemed to understand. The older man had encouraged him, pointed out men who could help, and ways the dream might become a reality. Melanius had somehow won the cooperation of Proculus and the support of the Sixth, without which none of this would be happening.

  Melanius provided the funds with which he had drawn tribunes from the legions on the Rhenus frontier into the plot. Melanius supplied the fortune that allowed him to win assurances of cooperation from the commander of the Tenth legion.

  But what were those assurances truly worth?

  He tried to remember the wording of the letters, letters that would destroy him if they ever found their way to the Palatine. But did it really matter? If they failed he would be dead anyway. A shudder ran through him at the thought. No, they could not fail. When ten thousand soldiers appeared at the gates of Tarraco, Gaius Plinius Secundus would have no choice but to surrender or flee. Piso saw himself being magnanimous in victory and his mood lifted. First Tarraco, then Hispania, and before Vespasian had the chance to react, on to Rome. To victory and immortality.

  Claudius Harpocration nudged his horse a little closer to Melanius. ‘We will reach the river soon. Time to water the horses and allow the legionaries to catch up.’

  Melanius nodded his agreement. He looked over his shoulder to where the cohort banner of the Sixth was barely visible. ‘I will talk to Proculus and insist the Sixth keep their position.’

  Harpocration shrugged. It wasn’t for him to say that it would be much more sensible to dismount and walk their horses occasionally. Melanius was neither inclined nor suited to walking.

  They’d ridden another half mile and the hills that marked the line of the river were in sight when one of the Parthian scouts rode up at the gallop and sna
pped out a report to his commander.

  ‘What is he saying?’ Melanius demanded.

  Harpocration looked thoughtful. ‘It seems someone is trying to bar our way to the river.’

  ‘But why?’ Melanius shook his head. ‘No one can know … Could it be bandits?’

  The tribune snarled a question at his scout. ‘Not bandits,’ Harpocration said when he’d listened to the reply. ‘Local tribesmen armed with axes and sickles. Perhaps a hundred of them.’

  ‘Should we talk to them?’ Severus looked shocked at this unexpected development.

  ‘You don’t talk to vermin, you slaughter them.’ Harpocration barked an order to the escort. ‘The only thing barring your way when you reach the river will be their dead bodies.’ He pulled his horse around and took his place at the head of the column of riders who’d formed up in fours at his command. ‘I’ll leave you half a squadron,’ he called to Melanius. ‘Wait here for the infantry to come up.’

  Melanius watched them trot away. He looked back to the two legionary cohorts. They were still a long way off, but the little knot of Parthians gave him a feeling of security. Harpocration’s cavalry would soon deal with a few peasants. But the question of why they were there niggled at him. Finally a face swam into view, a beautiful face that always assumed an expression of contempt when she encountered him. He turned to Severus as a sudden flurry of rage rose in him. ‘You fool. You told your wife—’

  ‘No,’ Severus spluttered. ‘I—’

  Melanius would have struck him, but for the warning shout from one of the escorts. ‘Look!’

  XLVII

  Valerius and Serpentius waited in the depths of the gully, their mounts skittish beneath them as they sensed the nervousness of the men in their saddles. Around them, the hawkish bearded faces of the Asturians were set in grim resolution as they waited in the growing tension murmuring quietly to their horses or muttering prayers to whichever god they thought would aid them. Valerius was certain the hillmen would do their tasks to the best of their ability. The only question was whether their best would be good enough. Hidden amongst the rocks above, Allius called out the progress of the column, estimating the narrowing gap at every count of a hundred. Valerius could visualize what he was seeing. The head of the snake. It was just as Serpentius had predicted. Melanius, Severus and their Parthian escort had forged ahead of the legionary infantry.

  ‘They’ve seen the men at the river.’ The hidden informant couldn’t conceal his excitement.

  Valerius shifted his grip on the leather-wrapped hilt of the unfamiliar, scythe-like Asturian sword. Beside him, Serpentius sat utterly immobile, his lined features a mask of concentration.

  ‘They’re talking,’ the disembodied voice announced. ‘Yes. Now the hook-noses are moving into formation. They’ve taken the bait.’

  ‘Wait!’ Serpentius snarled as one of the riders pushed his mount towards the entrance. ‘Another inch and I’ll take your head off.’

  ‘How many of the escort have they left?’ Valerius demanded.

  ‘Not more than twenty.’

  Valerius turned to Serpentius. ‘We go the moment Tito retreats across the river.’ The Spaniard passed on the instruction to the others in his own language.

  ‘Where are they now?’ Valerius’s throat was so dry the words emerged as a croak. The timing of their attack was utterly crucial. He couldn’t afford to allow Melanius and his Parthian escort to get too far past the entrance to the gully. To do so would take them closer to the main cavalry force at the river and risk bringing the two cohorts of the Sixth within pilum range.

  ‘The cavalry or the fat man and his friends?’

  ‘Both.’

  ‘The cavalry are forming line short of the river. The fat man is fifty paces short of the gully.’

  A few moments later the distant blare of a cavalry trumpet broke the silence. It was the sound of the charge. If Tito wasn’t retreating across the river by now his little force would be cut to pieces.

  ‘Now!’ Valerius shouted the order.

  The Asturian riders burst from the gully in an untidy bunch, but by the time they’d gone twenty strides they’d formed a ragged version of an attack line. The only sound that accompanied their charge was the rhythm of hooves on the hard-packed earth. Valerius wanted no shouts or screams to alert the enemy. They headed directly for the flank of the little group of riders two hundred paces to their front. Valerius and Serpentius rode a little behind the main line, curbing their mounts to stop their fleeter horses overtaking the smaller Asturian beasts. The plan called for the Asturians to draw the attention of the Parthians and hold it. In the chaos that followed, the Roman and the Spaniard would find a way through to Melanius, Severus and Piso. Valerius glanced to his right where the First cohort of the Sixth were marching down the road four abreast, the long, compact column of legionaries disappearing into the distance. How would Proculus react when he realized what was happening? The best scenario for Valerius was if he perceived a real threat and formed a defensive square. That would keep the legionaries static long enough for his party to do what they’d come to do or die in the attempt.

  Still no reaction from the little group of riders. The eyes of Melanius and his Parthian escort must be fixed on what was happening ahead. But even as the thought formed, a shout from Serpentius drew him back to the legionary column. Someone must have seen the riders because the column came to an abrupt halt. Valerius imagined shouted orders as the individual centuries of the cohort began to move smoothly into line. Too quick. It was happening too quickly.

  Still no sound but the rush of disturbed air and the thunder of hooves.

  At last a shout of warning from ahead. With frightening precision the Parthian escort formed up and moved forward in line to block the attack, clearly undeterred by the odds. As Valerius watched they kicked their horses first into a trot, then a canter.

  ‘Spread out.’ Serpentius roared the order to the other riders in their own language and felt a surge of pride as they reacted like veterans. If the Asturians bunched to meet the Parthian charge their small ponies would be smashed back by the cavalry horses and the seven-foot spears would sweep them from the saddle. The only way to survive was to use their greater numbers and agility to confuse and confound the enemy. A ripple ran through the Parthian line as the squadron’s commander reacted to the change in formation. Valerius could see gaps between the individual riders and it was to one of these that he set his course, knowing Serpentius would be doing the same.

  Two hundred paces rapidly became a hundred. Now the enemy cavalrymen could be identified as individuals, snarling mouths showing pink through the black beards. Dark eyes glaring hatred from beneath heavy brows. A blur of chaotic movement to the left and a shriek as one of the Asturian ponies snapped a leg in an animal burrow and its rider smashed to the ground, rolled three times and lay still. Ahead, Valerius sensed the moment when the Parthian commander noticed the two larger horses and recognized the threat they posed. A shouted order and a pair of spears angled towards him.

  Fifty paces.

  One of the Asturians veered across his front to engage a particular enemy and he was forced to avoid a collision.

  Twenty-five.

  He raised his sword to shoulder height. No time to think about the infantry now. One of the Parthians who’d targeted him moved ahead, blocking the other’s attack. The flash of a gleaming metal point aimed directly at his eyes. A mistake, because a flick of the sword drove the point over his right shoulder and once Valerius was inside the spear point the other man was dead. Valerius swung his heavy blade in a vicious back cut that caught his enemy across the upper lip. The weight of the blow and the momentum as metal and bone met jarred Valerius’s arm and drove the blade upwards in a shearing motion that sliced off the top part of the Parthian’s face. He heard a sharp clang as the edge clipped an iron helmet. A muffled shriek and a momentary image of red horror punctured by two disbelieving white eyes and he was past. Around him, screams and anx
ious shouts, the clash of metal upon metal, but his entire focus was on what lay ahead.

  Melanius and Severus and one other were milling in a little confused group, Piso urging his mount back in the direction of the Sixth. Valerius ignored the tribune and kicked his horse on, sword raised and at the ready. He saw stark terror etched on Melanius’s bloated red face. Without warning another horse was shoulder to shoulder with his own, blocking the path to his target. He sensed a blur of bright metal at the very edge of his vision and managed to parry the cut aimed at his neck with a frenzied sweep of his blade. Aurelio. How could he have forgotten Aurelio?

  Aurelio fought with a mocking grin on his rat’s face and his sword edge seemed to come from every angle at once. Mars’ arse, but he was fast. But as they tested each other it became clear he’d never fought a left-handed man and that gave Valerius an advantage that outweighed his enemy’s speed. The weight and direction of the Roman’s parries puzzled Aurelio and soon the mocking grin became a frown of concentration. Valerius sensed the pace of his opponent’s attack slacken a little as he tried to work out where his advantage lay.

  ‘You owe Melanius nothing,’ Valerius gasped as he manoeuvred his mount to gain an opening. ‘If he dies the conspiracy dies with him.’

  ‘If he dies I have nothing,’ the other man laughed. ‘And you’ll come after me in any case. But if I kill you Piso will take the purple and Melanius will make me rich. So you have to die, Gaius Valerius Verrens.’

  The jibe was accompanied by a back cut that was so obvious Valerius was able to parry it with a careless sweep of the blade. But he’d seen Aurelio’s eyes flicker to his left and he was moving even before Serpentius’s warning shout, hauling his horse round and ducking in the saddle. Melanius’s flailing sword flashed above his head so close he could feel the disturbed air as it passed. He slashed at the passing figure and missed, but the razor edge of his blade caught the horse across the rump and as it reared Melanius fell from the saddle with a cry of alarm.