by Griff Hosker
Stanwyck
The Governor had made his temporary headquarters in the main hall at Stanwyck. Thanks to the Romanisation of Lenta and Macha it was almost comfortable. As it was such a large space he had all of the officers from the legions and auxiliaries present, the tribunes, prefects, centurions and decurions. The only ones not present were the optios and sergeants who were busy running the camp. “We have done well, he glanced over at the prefect of cavalry although not well enough in some cases. I will see each unit commander after this briefing to give specific orders.” Marcus smiled to himself. This new Governor was certainly a man for the detail and Marcus approved of this. It was in complete contrast to his own leader who just expected his subordinates to carry out his wishes; he sometimes expected them to read his mind. “We will go into winter quarters. The Ninth at Eboracum, the twentieth at Cataractonium, the Batavians will build a fort here although the vexillation at Morbium can remain and will share quarters with the Pannonians.”
“Sir,” blustered a red faced Rufius.
“When we have our meeting prefect you can raise all the questions and issues you wish but let us get the bigger picture first eh?” The Governor waited for the sniggers and whisperings to cease and then went to the hide map pinned to the long wall in the hall. “We are here and control the land to the south and east. General Agricola assures me that the land to the west is secure right up to the land of the lakes. The Dunum Fluvius will be our northern border and this will be our western border. Winter approaches and those that know the land better than I assure me that nought can live and travel the high lands in winter.” He smiled at his officers. “Actually I am not certain the summer travel is advisable.” All present laughed at this attempt at a joke, all that is except for the grim faced Rufius and his sulking son Fabius. “I want the Pannonians to continue their patrols north of the Dunum Fluvius.” He looked pointedly at the prefect, “which is why the century of Batavians will be useful in guarding the fort whilst the cavalry are on patrol. I want the twentieth to re-invest and rebuild Glanibanta. I am not at all sure why it was abandoned in the first place this way we will have a base from which to invade up the west coast should it be needed. I have asked Rome for more legions and auxiliaries but in all honesty I do not expect any before the spring. The Second Adiutrix at Lindum is busy recruiting suitable replacements for the Pannonians and the Batavians but gentlemen that is all we expect.” He put down his vine staff with which he had been pointing and turned to face his officers. “In the spring we will invade the lands of the Carvetii and the Brigante and we will destroy them. Then we will begin to plan how to conquer the rest of this barbaric yet rich province.”One of the centurions from the twentieth put up his hand and the Governor frowned although he allowed him his question.
“Sir some of the men are worried that we are on the edge of the world and are fearful of what we may find in the north and west. What shall we tell them?”
No-one laughed at this for some legionaries had refused to fight in Mona and even Caesar had found it difficult to make his soldiers fight with the same zeal at this remote part of the world. “
“A good question, centurion. Tell your men that I have some of the Classis Britannica sailing not only up the west coast but around this land which I and Julius Agricola believe to be an island. When that ship sails up to the docks in Eboracum I will be there to find the news and you, centurion will be the first to know. Any more questions?” Heads were shaken and Cerialis rose to dismiss them. “As he is so keen with his questions I will see the prefect of the Pannonians first. Dismiss.”
Marcus strode away with the rest of the Pannonian officers. The exception was Fabius who hung around outside waiting for his father. Decius turned to Julius and bantered, “Thought you would have wanted to wait with your brother?”
Julius grinned back, “What and miss all the witty remarks and comments from you sir? I don’t think so.”
They all laughed as Decius playfully cuffed him about the head. “Cheeky little bugger.”
Marcus smiled; his first impressions of the youth had been right he would fit in and make a good officer. In his mind he was going through the casualties and the effect on the ala. It should have been the worry of the prefect but that sort of logistics seemed beneath him. The banter and chat of the officers who were relieved to be alive still seemed to be going on somewhere else. It was not that they had forgotten Drusus it was just that this was not the time to mourn and each man would remember their friend in their own way. He went back to his ruminations on their strength. They had begun the campaign with twelve turmae. Each had been up to full strength but now, with the casualties they had incurred, they had less than seven turmae anywhere near full strength, three were half strength and one no longer existed. The recruits they had left at the fort to complete their training would make the numbers up in most turmae but that would still only leave them with eleven turmae, about four hundred men. Their full strength was a thousand men but it was some time since they had had the luxury of twenty four turmae with complete ranks. Even if the prefect could not see it Marcus could. They would be spending most of the winter either patrolling or training raw recruits; and training raw recruits in winter would severely tax Decius’ temper and patience. Marcus smiled at the thought.
On their way back to Morbium the prefect gestured for Marcus to join him. He had returned from his meeting with the Governor with a face as black as thunder. He had not spoken other than to tell them to follow. Stanwyck was some way in the distance and the prefect obviously felt he could speak without being overheard. “Damned impertinence! Said I should have obeyed orders! The Batavians might have been saved if I had been there. The man doesn’t realise the function of cavalry. We need to be free from the legion’s apron strings eh?” Marcus noticed the use of ‘we’ to include him in this rant against authority. Marcus believed that cavalry could be used closely with the legions; he had seen Ulpius do so at the battle of Glanibanta when Decius Brutus and he had destroyed a much bigger Brigante army.
The prefect looked carefully at Marcus, noting that he had not spoken. “I was going to bring charges against you, you know?”
Marcus looked surprised. “Me sir why?”
“Losing me a turma and not being there when I needed you and your men.”
“I couldn’t get back any quicker sir and the loss of Drusus; well I would have given anything for that not to have happened. He was my friend.” Although he spoke calmly inside he was seething with rage. What did this pompous self centred snob know of friendship and comradeship? Absolutely nothing.
Mollified the prefect went on, “Quite quite. Not my orders anyway; the Governor… again! And you did well to attack when you did. The Governor was quite impressed. Seems you have friends in the legion.”
“Have I sir?”
“Don’t get coy with me Marcus Aurelius Maximunius. Julius Agricola and Decius Brutus both seem to think you are a brilliant soldier. What do you say to that?”
Marcus was taken aback. He had never coped with compliments and he was wary for he thought the prefect had an ulterior motive and would end up punishing him or embarrassing him in front of the men. In the end he just said, “Not for me to say sir. I can’t control what others think of me.”
“Quite right, quite right. The thing is I need you to carry on doing what you do well. Manage the men train the men.”
“Yes sir, not a problem.”
“But not lead them.”
“I beg your pardon?”
“I am the leader and I will lead the men into action. These detached duties where you go off and fight little battles they won’t do you know.” He leaned into Marcus and spoke quietly, “Confidentially I will only be here a short time. My family has a much better position for me with the Emperor Vespasian so you see if you help me out then I will recommend that you become prefect when I leave. With friends like the Governor and Agricola that shouldn’t be a problem. So what do you say? Will you manage and train th
e men and run the ala?”
“Of course sir, that goes without saying but when you talk about not leading, will I be stuck in the fort?”
Rufius laughed. Marcus had never heard him laugh and it sounded like the cackle of an old crone. “No, no. You will take your turma out on patrol and so on and so forth but when the ala goes into action I will command and I will lead. The glory will be mine. Clear?”
“Clear sir.”
“Good.”
Marcus now saw how petty the prefect was. He was only interested in glory and honour. Marcus cared for neither. The prefect saw the ala and its men as a vehicle. Marcus saw them as his family. He would go along with the prefect but he would be damned if he would stop leading the men.
“Of coursed that means that you will be Decurion Princeps. Extra pay and all that.”
Murmuring ‘thank you sir’ Marcus saw just how pathetic the prefect was. The men still regarded him as Decurion Princeps and he had more money than he needed. Once again he had an insight into the prefect and his petty ways. The prefect spent the next few miles explaining his ideas to Marcus. Surprisingly Marcus found he liked some of them.
Chapter 11
Morbium
They had only been in the fort for hours and the decurions had barely unpacked when Rufius asked for the officers to attend a meeting. He had not yet spoken to his friends about the prefect’s plan and he wondered how they would take the announcement. When he entered he was somewhat surprised to see Fabius sat on the prefect’s right. He had no chance to think further for the prefect began without preamble.
“The Governor in his wisdom has seen fit to house a century of Batavians in the fort. I made my objections known of course. I have just been informed that we have another one hundred and fifty recruits to add to the one hundred we left here untrained. It should be obvious to even a blind monkey that we cannot be housed here.”
Decius interjected, “We have the camp we built for the refugees sir.”
The prefect glared at the decurion. “When I want questions or advice I will ask for it until then kindly remain silent. As I was saying we are too crowded. Decurion Marcus Aurelius Maximunius has had a good idea. Oh before I go on I should add that Marcus Aurelius Maximunius is hereby promoted to Decurion Princeps.” The prefect found it hard to continue as the other decurions were congratulating and patting Marcus on the back. “When you have quite finished. He had the idea of re-investing the fort at Derventio. Although this was curtailed because of the rebellion I think it has merit. Decurion Princeps Marcus Aurelius Maximunius will take turmae one three and five along with all the recruits. The fort will be enlarged and the Decurion Princeps will train troopers. I will retain the other turmae, all eight of them and we will patrol. When Decurion Decius Flavius and Decurion Princeps Marcus Aurelius Maximunius have trained the first turma he will appoint a decurion and that will bring the garrison up to four, From then on trained recruits will be sent here to eventually build us up to twenty four turmae. Any questions?”
Marcus had waited until he was in a big meeting to ask this one question. “Any restriction on who I appoint as decurion sir?”
The prefect beamed a smile and looked at his son. “Of course not you are Decurion Princeps after all.”
“In that case I can appoint him now.”
“You have someone in mind already?”
“Yes sir, Gaius Appius Figulus.” The prefect coloured and Fabius tried to rise only to be restrained by his father. Decius and the other decurions grinned but kept silent. Even Julius looked pleased.
“Very well. We shall spend the winter building up our stock so Decurion Princeps if you wish you can use your sergeant to start the stud. If the last battle was anything to go by we will need many horses. Any further questions? No then in that case Decurion Princeps you may take your men to Derventio in the morning and one final matter. As you know I shall be very busy visiting the Governor and so forth my deputy and the other Decurion Princeps is Fabius Octavius Demetrius.”
Even Julius was shocked but no one could say anything. They all had to suffer the smug expression on the young patrician’s face. They left in stunned silence. Marcus turned to Lentius and Decius. “Find Gaius and bring him to my quarters we’ll need to plan.” He held his hand up to silence Decius and looked at each of the other decurions in turn. “And we need to think before we open our mouths. We can have a farewell drink later when, perhaps, we have reflected on all of this.”
Marcus’ quarters were quite crowded with the ten other decurions. As soon as they had entered all of them had effusively praised Gaius who was really taken aback by it all. Earlier when Decius and Lentius had brought him along to Marcus he could not hide his disbelief that Marcus had managed to get this promotion for him. “I don’t think the prefect was too happy about it.”
“Not just the prefect Decius did you see his son? I thought his head was going to erupt with rage,” added Lentius.
Even Marcus smiled at this image. “All you need to know Gaius is that you are now a decurion and we will be going to Derventio for a while.”
Septimus was the first one to bring up the prefect’s decision. “I have been in the auxilia for ten years and I have never heard of such a young man being promoted so highly and so early.” He turned to Julius sat next to him. “No offence young Julius.”
Julius grinned; he was so unlike his brother that some of the decurions thought he must have a different father. “None taken, Septimus. I too was surprised but my brother is ambitious and he was ever the favourite.”
Decius grunted, “Well he’s not our favourite,” and ruffled the young man’s hair.
“It doesn’t matter. He is the prefect and he can do as he wishes. “
“Yes Decurion Princeps,“ said Lentius, “but if it is any consolation to the rest of you when we field the whole ala Marcus has seniority because of his service.”
“Didn’t know that,” said Vettius a happier look rising on his face like a new moon. “I think I’ll drink to that.”
“You had better make that your last one, I suspect that the new Decurion Princeps will be exerting his authority tomorrow and you will all need your wits about you.”
They took the hint and began to drift off. “Now that they have gone, Marcus, do you think this is going to work? I can’t see him changing at all. Someone else will be flogged to cover his mistake. It makes me angry to think that all the good work you did to get spirit back into the ala will be eradicated by one man, sorry boy!”
“If one man was able to do that Decius then I wouldn’t have done such a good job would I? Tonight you saw all of the decurions. They might argue about little things, they might even not like each other at times and have different ways of doing things but they are united in one thing, their determination to make this ala great again. I don’t think they will have too many battles to fight over the winter. Remember when we went on our last little jaunt? We saw neither hide nor hair of the tribes until spring. He might exert harsher discipline than we might but it isn’t going to kill them. If we trained the decurions right, and I think we did, then they will survive and in the spring we return and when we return we will be stronger because you Decius will have trained the new recruits our way.”
Decius swallowed the last of the wine, gave an almighty belch and then asked, “What is this place Derventio like? I have never been there.”
“Totally different from here. It is in a vale between two moor lands and is about fifteen miles from the sea. Great country for horses for it is gentle upland not rocky crags as here. It is a perfect place for training and I think Sergeant Cato will enjoy the places he can train the horses.”
“And the people?”
“Good question. Ulpius and I patrolled there a couple of years ago and although they are more Romanized than the rest they don’t welcome us there with open arms. I think they put up with us and hope we will be gone sooner rather than later.”
“They are in for a shock then. We’ve
never left anywhere we have conquered.”
“Once we have built the gyrus…”
“Again?”
“Again. And the stud I will take a patrol out with Lentius to get the lay of the land and let the locals know that the Romans have returned to Derventio.”
“While I get to train all the recruits.”
“Yes but you will have Gaius and Macro with you. One other thing about the recruits, they are likely to be from this province we will need to be very careful about their loyalty.”
“Especially after Aed.”
“Have you any thoughts on a weapons trainer, I know you could do it Decius but you have your hands full getting them to sit on a horse, and we will need a quartermaster.”
“I have a couple of lads in mind. How about Agrippa for weapons trainer? He is handy with a sword and a javelin. Perhaps Macro could assist him by all accounts he might be a bit of a big head but he can use every weapon easily.”
“Good idea. I will talk to them tomorrow while we ride. And quartermaster?”
“Bit more difficult that. They have to be trustworthy and not afraid of the really boring work. No-one springs to mind.” He reflected for a moment. “Wonder what happened to that fat bastard Cresens? He was an evil swine. Robbed every trooper blind.”
Marcus’ face became hard. “He has more to answer for than robbing troopers. He robbed Ulpius of a Queen. I don’t know where he is but if he is in this land I will find him and then he will die.”
Streonshal
At that very moment Gaius Cresens was very comfortable. Nor was he as fat. The life he had led had been harsher than hitherto and he was leaner. He was however becoming increasingly rich. His informal taxes, which amounted to protection money, were very lucrative. Because the locals did not live in fear of bandits and pirates they were producing more and did not notice the money that Cresens was accruing. The only dark cloud on the horizon was the Romans. Although their attack on the bandits’ lair had been timely and saved them from disaster if they returned in numbers then they would bring with them all the trappings of civilisation, like taxes and the people would not pay to two tax masters. As they had not been heard of since the summer he hoped that they were off fighting more belligerent locals. Now that autumn was here and there was food aplenty Cresens hoped to make even more money. Jared had also told him of the winter storms which brought a bountiful crop of wrecks and plunder. Life was good.