The Eternal Empire (4 page)

They broke off their conversation when
Cornelius and his mother entered the room. Titus sighed with relief. Their
father's military service had been a long time ago and Cornelius and Titus had
heard all the stories a hundred times before. Cornelius greeted his father and
uncle with a warm embrace and then turned to Titus with a big grin on his face.

"So you survived Ravenna did you,
they must be getting soft."

"You are just jealous that the
Emperor isn't paying you to see the sights of the Empire anymore. Your seven
years in the army was just one big walking holiday!"

They laughed and gave each other a hug.
It had been nearly six months since the two brothers has last seen each other.
Both were dark haired and of medium build and it was clear from their faces
that they were related, but in temperament they were quite different. Cornelius
was thoughtful and reflective whilst Titus was impulsive and easy going. The
older brother had excelled academically, whereas the youngest barely passed his
exams into the Military Academy - although that was not so much due to a lack
of intelligence as to his indifferent attitude to life. Cornelius had had a
highly successful career in the army rising to being the chief of staff of a
legion in Asia Minor. How Titus would cope with the rigours of life in the
legions of Rome was the question that currently concerned most of the Petronius
family.

"Anyway, congratulations on
surviving Military Academy and on becoming a junior tribune. Has your posting
come through yet?"

Cornelius took a glass from the tray
offered by one of the servants and Titus also took the opportunity to obtain a
fresh drink. They both took a sip of the red wine, a good vintage thought
Cornelius appreciatively; father is being generous, before Titus answered his
brothers’ enquiry.

"Actually, the orders came through
yesterday; I've been posted to the II Augusta at Isca in Britannia."

Cornelius gave his brother a sad look
and patted him on the shoulder. "Oh my poor brother, what did you do to
get sent to Britannia? It never stops raining there, and when it does its
overcast and cloudy - you won't see the sun for the two years that you're
there. You will come back looking as white as your toga."

Titus was as vain as most young men of
noble birth and was very proud of his carefully cultivated golden brown tan.
Uncle Tiberius decided to rescue Titus from Cornelius's taunting. "Come
now Cornelius, it's not as bad as all that. You came back after 18 months in
charge of that auxiliary cohort up on ‘the wall’ looking healthy enough, and
you were stationed much further north than Titus will be."

"You're right Uncle Tiberius, but
I couldn't resist the temptation to tease my little brother once more,
especially when it touches upon his vaunted good looks. By the way how many
girls did you leave behind in Ravenna?"

Titus gave Cornelius what could only be
described as a totally depraved grin. "Nowhere near enough, but speaking
of girls, here's somebody you haven't seen in a while."

Cornelius turned back towards the
entrance hall to see a stunningly attractive raven haired woman standing at the
door to the reception room watching the group of men chatting in the centre.
Cornelius pressed his wine glass onto his brother who now found himself with
two drinks, and strode briskly toward the new arrival. He embraced her warmly
and they exchanged a friendly kiss.

"Fulvia, when did you get back to
Milan?"

"A few days ago. Your mother found
out from my mother that I was back. Then I received an invitation to Titus's
celebration dinner. My mother persuaded me to attend, so here I am. "

"Your mother didn't mention that I
was back in Milan as well did she?"

"Oh no, that would've been too
obvious."

They both laughed. Their mothers had
quietly been trying to get Cornelius and Fulvia to fall in love and marry each
other for years, and it was testimony to their persistence that despite their
children showing no romantic inclination whatsoever towards each other they had
not forsaken their dream of a marriage between the Antoninus and Petronius
families. Every opportunity that came along would be seized upon by one or
other of their mothers to 'bring' them together in the hope that the two young
people would see sense and make their mothers very happy. Cornelius and Fulvia
had worked this out very early on, and the strange thing, especially to their
mothers, was that they were very close friends. In fact they were too close to
fall in love. They had grown up together, played together as young children and
went to school together. They viewed each other as brother and sister, a
relationship strengthened by the fact that Fulvia was an only child and Titus
was some ten years younger than Cornelius. They had tried to explain this to
their mothers, who indignantly denied any form of matchmaking, but to no avail.

"How much do you bet,"
whispered Fulvia, "that your mother has us sitting next to each other at
the dinner table?"

"No bet," responded
Cornelius, "she couldn't stop herself if she tried."

Cornelius took two glasses from a
servant and gave one to Fulvia. He was sure that Titus could take care of his
old drink.

Half an hour later, after the final
guest had arrived, they all went through to the dining-room. Cornelius was glad
to see that they were using chairs and not couches as they had done at the
dinner for Uncle Tiberius. Despite being very much in favour of the old
traditions, it would appear that his father remembered the acute indigestion
that had resulted. Place names indicated where they were to sit and Cornelius
noted that he had saved himself some money as Fulvia took her seat on his left.

Julia Petronius preferred to group
people of like minds together at dinner parties, claiming that it got things
going much quicker than if guests are surrounded by strangers, and so in
addition to Fulvia, Cornelius found himself seated near three of his closest
friends. In fact it was the first time that the four of them had been together
at the same time although all had met each other whilst Cornelius had been in
the army.

The eldest was Gregory Nicerites. He
had been Cornelius's first commanding officer when, as a junior tribune, he had
been posted to the legio III Augusta in the Province of Africa. Nicerites came
from an old and influential Greek family in Constantinople, and was a good
officer but Africa was a province where the East-West, Greek-Latin animosity
had been very pronounced during the last civil war and the resentment still
lingered. During a pursuit of Moorish raiders into the deserts and mountains of
the interior, several advance patrols had been ambushed and only some quick
thinking and a calculated misinterpretation of his orders had enabled Nicerites
to extricate the men from the Moorish trap. He had made some enemies amongst
the legions mainly Latin speaking senior officers and instead of a decoration,
he was brought before a court martial for allowing the patrols to be ambushed
in the first place and for disobeying orders whilst rescuing them.

Of all the officers in the legion, only
Cornelius Petronius was prepared to testify on behalf of Nicerites. Cornelius
had been commanding one of the patrols that had been ambushed and was not
prepared to remain quiet whilst Nicerites was rushed through a local military
court heavily biased against him. Cornelius's outspoken defence of his senior
officers actions had held up the proceedings long enough for Gregory's
political connections to come into play. An order from Imperial Army Head
Quarters forced the appointment of an independent tribunal from another
province. Gregory Nicerites was acquitted on all charges, commended for his
actions, and became a good friend of Cornelius Petronius. He had left the army
a few years later and was now a highly placed official in the Office of the
Emperor in Constantinople. He had been visiting Rome, now little more than a
provincial capital despite its history and being the home of the Pope, when he
received the invitation and had rearranged his schedule in order to attend.

Marcus Metellus came from Hispania and
met Cornelius in Germany when they were both tribunes in the legio I Germania
along the Rhine, where Cornelius had been posted after Africa. With the Empire
and Saxony at peace and the border Duchies effectively under Roman control the
Rhine frontier was the quietest it had been for many years and this left the
junior officers with plenty of time on their hands. Cornelius and Marcus had
arrived at the legionary Head Quarters on the same day and got on well from the
start. Together they explored the night life and country side around the
garrison towns where the units of the legion were quartered and developed one
of those friendships that would last a lifetime.

Marcus left the army at the same time
as Cornelius, but whereas Cornelius joined the Imperial Diplomatic Service, his
friend had gone into politics. This did not surprise Cornelius who had spent
many late nights listening to monologues on the state of the Empire and how
things had to change before it was too late. Marcus had been a member of the
'Modernist' party since he was sixteen, and in September he had been elected as
the representative for his home city of Constinius in Hispania. He was staying
over in Milan on his way to take up his seat in the Imperial Assembly in
Constantinople.

The youngest of the three friends was
Sextus Capito. As part of his military career Cornelius had been assigned to
command a cohort of auxiliary infantry in Britannia, and Sextus had been a
junior tribune commanding the heavy weapons century of machine rifles and
mortars. After a few months Cornelius could see that Sextus did not really fit.
He was competent enough in what he was doing but was clearly capable of more.
After some thought and discussion with Sextus, Cornelius made him the cohort’s
adjutant, and saw a dramatic transformation in both Sextus and the cohort. Some
people are gifted organisers and administrators - Sextus was one of them. Within
three months he had streamlined the administrative procedures, the purchasing
of supplies, training programmes and all aspects of the units logistics. Over
half a dozen schemes being run by the supply clerks to sell army equipment to
the local market had been uncovered and the accounts section was operating more
effectively than ever with only half of the number of men assigned. In addition
Sextus was happy. He had found his true vocation in life and left the army a
few months after Cornelius was assigned to a staff officers position with the
legio X Fretensis in Asia Minor. He was now the Quastor to the governor of
Britannia, responsible for the finances of the entire province.

They all stood as Anatolius Petronius
said grace for the meal. As soon as the assembled guests had muttered 'amen'
and had taken their seats, the first course appeared from the kitchen. As the
servants circulated around the table, placing a bowl of soup before each
person, the conversation resumed. Fulvia caught Titus's eye.

"Well Titus, are you looking
forward to joining your legion?"

"Very much Fulvia, I hope that I
will see as much action in Britannia as Cornelius did in Africa, although
without the Greek-Latin 'problems' that Gregory had."

"You shouldn't have a problem
there," Gregory broke in, "the East-West antagonism is pretty much
dead now and there're very few Greeks amongst the junior officers in Britannia
anyway - it's much too cold - they're almost exclusively Latin. The only senior
official in Britannia that I know of who is Greek is the governor himself and
he's been there for years."

"I can confirm that," added
Sextus, "there are plenty of people of Greek ancestry, but most of them
have been on the island for generations. In fact when there are any internal problems
they tend to be between the local people and the Imperial officials, regardless
of whether they are of Greek or Latin origin."

Cornelius put down his soup spoon at
this and addressed Sextus. This was something new to him.

"That's strange. I never noticed
any antagonism when I was there. Apart from the occasional incidents between
drunken troops and local youths, relations were excellent."

"It's only come to my notice over
the last few years," continued Sextus "there has been a growing
feeling that the Empire is more of a burden than a benefit to Britannia,
especially with the trade laws restricting the development of manufacturing
industries. Throughout the current economic recession we've seen a major
increase in support for the Federalist and Radical parties. They will almost
certainly increase the number of seats they hold in the provincial assembly
after the elections in April."

"Which is not necessarily a bad
thing.”Marcus interjected, "the imperial bureaucracy and big business
interests have had a tame assembly and senate for too long. They need to be
more accountable to all the people, not just to the vested interests of the old
aristocratic houses and, big companies with official monopolies."

Marcus inclined his head towards
Gregory, "present company excepted of course. According to my party
colleagues who are already in the assembly, your energetic activities in
Constantinople make you stand out like a lighthouse on a moonless night."

Gregory made a small smile out of one
side of his mouth to acknowledge Marcus's compliment. He took a sip of wine
before entering into the conversation.