Veterans of Rome (Book 9 of the Veteran of Rome Series)

by William Kelso

  As his gaze settled on two small clay figurines that stood on his desk, his eyes narrowed. Here he was, Fergus thought, as he took another sip of wine. Here he was at the age of thirty-two, commander and legate of the Twentieth Legion, a legion he had joined as a common soldier; as an eighteen-year old recruit. It was the legion his grandfather Corbulo had first served in sixty years ago and it had a proud history. And now he had made it to the very top. His dream had become reality. He had made something of himself. He had risen from the lowest rank to the highest rank in the legion. It was an astonishing and meteoric rise, but he could not have done it without his father having been a senator or Hadrian’s influence and friendship. He could not have done it without the inspiration his grandfather had provided. Would Marcus and Corbulo be proud? With a contented look, Fergus raised his cup in the air, as if saluting an imaginary friend. Then he sighed. He was not only legate of the Twentieth Legion, but also the head of his family and owner of the family farm on Vectis, responsible for all who lived there. One day, when he finally retired, it would be to Vectis, where he would retreat with Galena and where he would grow old with her. But that too could wait. He was still only thirty-two.

  On the table, a scroll suddenly caught his eye and reaching out, he plucked it from the pile. It was a letter and, as he peered closer at the seal, he saw that it had come all the way from Rome. With a frown, Fergus broke the seal and unrolled the parchment.

  Lady Claudia to Fergus, legate of the Twentieth Legion at Deva Victrix, Britannia. Greetings Fergus. I am writing to you because I have heard about the death of your father Marcus and would like to convey my deepest sympathies. I knew your father well and loved him dearly. He was an honourable man, who served Rome faithfully and it is with great sadness, that I heard about his death. You and Kyna have my condolences and my prayers. I also wish to inform you, in case you are not aware, that emperor Hadrian and his praetorian prefect Attianus have been consolidating their power. Nigrinus, Quietus, Palma and Celsus, the principal leaders of the War Party, have all been executed on Hadrian’s orders. The charges were for plotting to assassinate the new emperor, although there were no trials. I must too, add the sad news that my, and your father’s old friend, Paulinus, chief magistrate of the Imperial Fiscus has also been murdered. Paulinus was a good man and did not deserve his fate. I am told that they had to drag him kicking and screaming out of the Temple of Saturn in Rome before he was killed. I know you and I come from opposing factions in the senate, but I would like to ask you, out of respect to your father, that we bury these differences, now that we have a new emperor. Your father Marcus was a great man, representing the true heart and nobility of Rome. I recognised that the first time I met him.

  I want you to know that I shall soon be leaving Rome and returning to Britannia and I will be bringing Ahern, your half-brother with me. Please let Kyna know for, I know how much she will be missing him. It would give me great pleasure if we could meet when I return to Britannia. Please write as soon as you can and let me know. Your most loyal friend, Claudia.

  Lowering the letter Fergus suddenly became aware of Hera, his Mesopotamian slave standing and staring at him from the doorway to his family’s quarters.

  “You. Look. Sad. Master,” the little girl said in broken Latin.

  “No,” Fergus said as a broad smile appeared on his lips. “No Hera. I am not sad. I am a happy man. Everything is as it should be.”

  Author’s Notes

  One of the things that I have tried to reveal throughout the whole Veteran of Rome series is the process of Romanisation that took place in many Roman provinces with Britannia being just one example. In Britannia most people’s lives would have at first been relatively unaffected by Roman rule. The people by and large would have gone on living as per before in their small scattered settlements, living off the land, honouring their own gods and maintaining their tribal traditions. Contact with real Romans would have been limited. Taxes would have been imposed on them by a centralised and sophisticated Roman bureaucracy but it’s likely the locals already paid some form of tax to their own kings before Roman rule.

  As Roman rule endured however the locals would have started to notice changes. Hardened roads would have appeared making it easier to travel. New towns would have appeared - markets would have suddenly been filled with strange new and exotic foreign goods. Long distance travel would suddenly have become more feasible. New techniques of farming, building, new technology and new industries would have appeared creating work and growing wealth. Whereas before the locals would have likely produced only enough food to feed themselves and their community the Romans would have encouraged local farmers to maximise their surplus production of food and sell it in the market to feed the thousands of troops stationed in the province. A similar revolution would have occurred in mining with the Romans pushing production of gold, lead and silver to the limits to pay for the army upkeep. No doubt some smart local entrepreneurs would quickly have become very wealthy under Roman rule as I have tried to show with Dylis and the farm on Vectis.

  The phycological impact on the local populace must have been immense. Seeing a bath house and piped running water for the first time must have been an amazing experience on par with eating garum and sweet apples. We can only guess at what the locals really made of it all, but I suspect most would have liked what they saw and would have taken quickly to the new way of life filled with new possibilities and opportunities.

  This leads me to Corbulo and his family. Corbulo would have been a full Roman of Italian stock originating from the small town of Falacrinea, near Narnia, seventy-five miles north east of Rome in central Italy (yes, it’s mentioned in chapter 15 of Caledonia). Marcus his son however would have been half of Italian stock and half Celt. Fergus, Corbulo’s grandson, would have been only a quarter of Italian stock and three quarters Celt and Fergus’s daughters only an eighth of Italian stock. Yet it is Fergus, Galena and their daughters who are almost fully Romanised and it is Fergus who rises to one of the highest military positions possible. I have done that because I wanted to show that within a few generations of the start of Roman rule, local men would have been playing a large role in the running and security of the provincial administration. This is highly likely. It shows the success of the Romanisation process and it reveals one of the secrets to the longevity of Roman rule. Over time as they became more integrated the local populations would have tacitly started to support Rome and defend their new way of life. In this period before the rise of the nation state, what the Roman empire did was in effect divide Europe into those who were growing increasingly prosperous and sophisticated and those that were not. The ones on the outside increasingly coveted what the populations in the empire had thus eventually leading to the catastrophe of the fifth century when the Germanic and central Asian tribes mucked it up for all of us.

  Veterans of Rome is book nine and the final book in the Veteran of Rome series. What next? Well I shall soon be embarking on a brand-new Roman series that will follow Corbulo’s paternal ancestors through their long and arduous fight against Hannibal during the epic 2nd Punic War. There is going to be a lot of fighting during this – Rome’s finest hour. The link between Corbulo and his ancestors is referred to in chapter twenty of this book. The first book in the new series will hopefully be ready by Christmas 2018. I hope you will read it.

  William Kelso, London, June 2018

  MAJOR PARTICIPANTS IN “VETERANS OF ROME”

  Corbulo, Marcus and Fergus’s family

  Kyna, wife of Marcus, mother of Fergus

  Corbulo, Marcus’s father, Fergus’s grandfather

  Ahern, Kyna’s son by another man. Jowan forced to adopt him

  Elsa, orphaned daughter of Lucius, but adopted by Marcus and his family

  Cassius, Elsa’s husband and Marcus’s secretary

  Armin, orphaned little brother of Elsa

  Galena, wife of Fergus

  Briana, Fergus and Galena’s first daughter

/>   Efa, Fergus and Galena’s second daughter

  Gitta, Fergus and Galena’s third daughter

  Aina, Fergus and Galena’s fourth daughter

  Athena, Fergus and Galena’s fifth daughter

  Indus, Marcus’s Batavian bodyguard in Rome and ex-soldier

  Aledus, Friend and army buddy of Fergus

  Dylis, Marcus’s half-sister, adopted by Corbulo

  Cunomoltus, Marcus’s half-brother, illegitimate son of Corbulo

  Jowan, Dylis’s husband

  Petrus, Christian boy rescued by Corbulo

  Imperial family

  Marcus Ulpius Traianus, Emperor of Rome (Trajan) AD 98 - 117

  Plotina Pompeia, Empress of Rome, Emperor Trajan’s wife

  Salonia Matidia, Trajan’s niece

  Members of the Peace Party

  Publius Aelius Hadrianus, (Hadrian) Leader of the peace party

  Adalwolf, German amber and slave trader, but also guide, advisor and translator for Hadrian

  Vibia Sabina , Hadrian’s wife

  Publius Acilius Attianus, Hadrian’s old childhood guardian (Jointly with Trajan)

  Marcus Aemilius Papus, friend of Hadrian

  Quintus Sosius Senecio, soldier and supporter of Hadrian

  Aulus Platorius Nepos, Roman politician and soldier

  Admiral Quintus Marcius Turbo, close friend of Trajan and Hadrian

  Members of the War Party

  Gaius Avidius Nigrinus, Senator, leading citizen in Rome and close friend of Trajan. Leader of the war party and potential successor to Trajan

  Lady Claudia, a high-born aristocrat and old acquaintance of Marcus

  Paulinus Picardus Taliare, one of Rome’s finance ministers, in charge of the state treasury

  Aulus Cornelius Palma, conqueror of Arabia Nabataea and sworn enemy of Hadrian

  Lucius Pubilius Celsus, Senator and ex Consul; bitter enemy of Hadrian

  Lusius Quietus, Berber prince and Roman citizen from Mauretania in northern Africa, a successful and popular Roman military leader

  Marcus, Fergus’s father, senator and supporter of the War Party

  The Armenians and Parthians

  Osroes I, King of Kings of Parthia

  Parthamasiris, Nephew of Osroes, who became king of Armenia

  Parthamaspates, Parthian vassal king, installed by Trajan

  Volagases III, rival Parthian king to Osroes, rules in eastern Parthia

  Sanatruces, nephew to the king of kings Osroes

  The Fourth “Scythica” Legion

  Gellius, legionary legate of the Fourth legion

  Britannicus, a young tribune angusticlavii with the Fourth Legion

  Dio, a veteran centurion in the Fourth Legion

  Other Characters

  Cunitius, a private investigator and one-time enemy of Marcus

  Heron of Alexandria, a Greek mathematician, engineer and inventor

  Similis, ex-prefect of Egypt, placed in charge of all security matters in Rome whilst Trajan is away in the east

  Alexandros, Greek captain of the ship Hermes that sailed to Hyperborea with Marcus

  Cora, Alexandros’s wife

  Calista, Alexandros’s daughter

  Jodoc, Calista’s husband

  Senovarus, Marcus’s defence lawyer in Londinium

  Felix, A member of the speculatores, law enforcers

  Ninian, Dylis’s business agent and grain broker

  Hedwig, Batavian officer served with Marcus in the 2nd Batavian auxiliary cohort

  Wolfgang, Hedwig’s nephew

  Marcus Appius Bradua, Roman governor of Britannia

  GLOSSARY

  Adiabene, region in north-eastern Iraq

  Aerarium, State treasury for Senatorial provinces

  Aesculapius, The god of healing

  Agora, market place and public space

  Agrimensore, A land surveyor

  Albania, Roman client kingdom at the southern foot hills of the Caucasus

  Aila, Red sea port now called Aqaba in Jordan

  Alae, Cavalry unit

  Alani, A Scythian people living on the steppes to the north of the Caucasus

  Armorica, Region of north-west France

  Amphorae, a large two-handled storage jar having an oval body

  Antioch, Near Antakya, Turkey

  Aqua Sulis, Bath, England

  Aquila, a sacred gold and silver eagle standard, one for each legion

  Aquilifer, a legionary eagle standard bearer

  Aquincum, Modern Budapest, Hungary

  Arabia Nabataea, modern day Jordan and northern Saudi Arabia

  Araxes river, also known as the Aras. Former border between the USSR and Iran

  Arcidava, Fort in the Banat region of Dacia

  Argiletum, Street of the booksellers in ancient Rome

  Artaxata, ancient capital of the kingdom of Armenia

  Asses, Roman copper coins, money

  Athena, Greek goddess and protector of Athens

  Babylon, city 50 miles/80 km south of Bagdad

  Babylonia, region around Babylon, Mesopotamia

  Balearic isles, Islands of the eastern cost of Spain.

  Ballista, Roman artillery catapult

  Banat, Region of Dacia, Romania and Serbia

  Batavorum Lugdunum. Near Katwijk, the Netherlands

  Berzobis, Fort in the Banat region of Dacia

  Bonnensis, Bonn, Germany. Full name

  Burdigala, Roman city close to modern Bordeaux, France

  Bostra, a Roman occupied town in Jordan

  Byre houses, crude barbarian dwellings made of wood, thatch and mud

  Caledonia, Scotland

  Camulodunum, Colchester, England

  Capitoline Hill, One of the seven hills of ancient Rome

  Carnuntum, Roman settlement just east of Vienna, Austria

  Carrobalista, Roman artillery catapults/crossbows mounted on wagons

  Castra, Fort

  Caltrops, small spiked metal anti cavalry and personnel weapons

  Cataphracts heavily armoured shock cavalry

  Cappadocia, Roman province in central and eastern Turkey

  Caucasian Gates, Darial Gorge Georgia/Russia border

  Centurion, Roman officer in charge of a company of about 80 legionaries

  Cella, internal space in a temple

  Chaboras river, now known as the Khabur river, tributary to the Euphrates

  Charax, near modern day Basra

  Chatti Confederation, Germanic tribal confederation

  Cilicia, Roman province in modern Turkey

  Circesium, a town now called Buseira in Syria

  Classis Germanica, Roman fleet based on the Rhine

  Classis Pannonica, Roman fleet based on the Danube at Carnuntum

  Cohort, Roman military unit equivalent to a battalion of around 500 men

  Colchis, land around the south-eastern part of the Black sea

  Colonia Agrippina, Cologne, Germany

  Commagene, Roman province

  Consul, Governor of a province.

  Contubernium, Eight-man legionary infantry squad. Barrack room/tent group room

  Cornucopia, horn

  Corona Muralis, Roman military decoration

  Cornicen, Trumpeter and signaller

  Cuirassed armour, Expensive chest armour that followed the muscles of the chest

  Cyrenaica, eastern part of Libya

  Currach, Celtic boat

  Cataphract, type of heavily armoured cavalry

  Ctesiphon, Parthian winter capital, near modern Baghdad

  Dacia(n), The area in Romania where the Dacians lived

  Decanus, Corporal, squad leader

  Decurion, Roman cavalry officer

  Demeter, Greek goddess of agriculture

  Denarii, Roman money

  Derbent, claims to be oldest town in Russia, on the Caspian-sea

  Deva Victrix, Chester, UK

  Diane, the Goddess of the hunt

  Do
mitian, Emperor from AD 81 – 96

  Doura Europus, Near to Salihiye in eastern Syria

  Draco banner, Dacian coloured banner made of cloth

  Edessa, Sanliurfa, now in southeastern Turkey

  Emporium, Marketplace

  Elegeia, Armenian town in the region of Erzurum

  Eleusinion, Temple of Demeter, Athens

  Eponymous Archon of Athens, The city’s ruler and mayor

  Equestrian Order, The Order of Knights – minor Roman aristocracy

  Equites, Individual men of the Equestrian Order

  Erebus, the Greek god of darkness and son of Chaos

  Euphrates, major river in Iraq, Syria and Turkey

  Falx, Curved Dacian sword

  Fallujah, Fallujah in Iraq

  Fibula, A brooch or pin used by the Romans to fasten clothing

  Fiscus, The Roman state treasury controlled by the emperor and not the senate

  Focale, Roman army neck scarf

  Fortuna, The Goddess of Fortune

  Forum Boarium, The ancient cattle market of Rome

  Forum Romanum, Political centre of ancient Rome, area of government buildings

  Frisii, Tribe of Frisians who lived in the northern Netherlands

  Gabala, ancient capital of Caucasian Albania

  Gades, Cadiz, southern Spain

  Garum, Roman fermented fish sauce

  Gladius, Standard Roman army short stabbing sword

  Greaves, Armour that protects the legs

  Hatra, Hatra in Iraq

  Hellenistic, Greek

  Hengistbury Head, Ancient Celtic trading post near Christchurch, UK

  Hermes - Messenger of the gods

  Hibernia, Ireland

  Hispania, Spain

  Hyrcanian Ocean, Caspian Sea

  Hyperborea, Mythical land beyond the north wind

  Iberia, Spain but also a small Roman client kingdom south of the Caucasus

  Imaginifer, Roman army standard bearer carrying an image of the emperor

  Imagine, image of the emperor