Legatus Legionis: Book Two in the Gaius Claudius Scaevola Trilogy (22 page)

Vitellius continues his strange grovelling. He must want something, but whatever it is, it is almost as if everybody thinks he will get it, because suddenly a number of people just below senatorial rank are starting to grovel at his feet.

I don't know how to respond to your enquiry about Quintus. I have tried to find out what I could, and I contacted your people in Egypt, and thanks to Valeria Messalina, I was able to get Polybius to contact the shipping people. What I found is that according to them, judging by the price received there is about eight per cent of the corn and ten percent of the wine unaccounted for, but according to the Egyptians, exactly the correct amounts were sent. I don't know whether the shippers exaggerated the load to charge more, or whether there is connivance with the Egyptians.

I first thought that the shippers would have given the true account, because they might be afraid to lie to Polybius, who is one of Claudius' freedmen secretaries. They are very powerful, and Narcissus has already been party to helping Messalina have more than one person exiled or even executed for stealing from the state. On the other hand, I guess if they were cheating, since Claudius pays our costs when the corn is distributed to the poor, they would be stealing from the state, and would be unlikely to confess. I really don't know what is going on there. Perhaps it was just an honest mistake. If there are any other enquiries you want me to make, let me know.

Quintus also holds a number of evenings, and Lucilla had invited me to many of these. Accordingly, I have seen quite a bit of him. I have tried to ask him about a couple of the transactions, but he was very supercilious, and I got nowhere. I am afraid his attitude is that women should be breeding children, and that is all. I am not quite sure what Lucilla thinks of this, but again, I guess this is none of my business. You might have to come home soon and talk to Quintus.

I love you, and I am thinking of you always,

Your Vipsania.

Gaius found the references to Quintus somewhat frustrating. Eventually Quintus would answer to him, and he had better not play those tactics on him. He might be Lucilla's husband, but it would take more than that to save him.

The news from the other letters was more encouraging. As far as his spies could tell, Vipsania was not receiving visits from senators, and because Gaius was not there, she did not have to carry out formal entertaining. It was not clear whom she was seeing at Quintus' evenings. Whether plots could be carried out under Lucilla's gaze was unclear, but he could hardly keep his wife away from his sister. Anything could be going on at the Imperial Court, but again that was not the place to carry out plots openly.

There was one further problem, namely what to do about Aelius Domitius Falco, the original
Tribunus Laticlavius
of the
Valeria
. He had already sent two Tribunes back to the Claudia, but Falco was more of a problem. The only reason he wished to return him was because he wished to retain Matius and there was only one
Tribunus Laticlavius
per legion. More to the point, Falco was anything but useless, but what could he do? If he sent Falco back to the Claudia, that was effectively labelling him as useless, and that would wreck any future career. On the other hand, if he reduced him to ordinary Tribune, that would be a demotion. Worse, this situation had been going on too long, and the troops were starting to believe that he had no faith in Falco, which would make it impossible for him to command in the field. No matter what he did would seem to be wrong. Still, he had little option but to do something, so he called Falco to his tent.

* * *

Before him was a strange mixture of frustration, disappointment and resignation. Yes, he knew that his
Legatus
had made a specific request to bring his
Tribunus Laticlavius
from the
Claudia
, and that effectively his career was over before it had a chance to get started.

"You present me with something of a problem," Gaius started.

"Yes sir, but with respect, I have more of one."

"Not necessarily," Gaius replied. "I have a proposition for you, and if you accept, your problems will be with the Celts, and my problems will be with our General Staff. Believe me, most who are in the know would prefer yours."

"I'm not sure I understand . . ."

"In the exercises with Matius, you've done quite a bit of improvising."

"Sir, Matius has to expect that the Celts . . ."

"I'm not criticizing!" Gaius interrupted. "If anything, I'm praising you. Basically, you and Matius have done very well."

"Thank you, sir." There was a look of surprise on Falco's face.

"Accordingly, I don't want to lose you, but of course a standard legion has only one
Tribunus Laticlavius
."

"So you wish to demote . . ."

"No!" Gaius held up his hand. "This legion is going to be different, and if you're willing to go along with what I am going to propose, we will have at least two."

Falco looked at him impassively.

"Given half a chance, I do not intend to fight the standard way," Gaius continued, "which is why we have been carrying out all these exercises. Rather than form one big line, I am going to try to be as mobile as possible, and try splitting the legion up into cohort groups, which in turn means I have to find someone to command an independent group of three to four cohorts. That is in principle someone senior to the usual
Tribunus Laticlavius
, and while there is no such rank, in principle if you took this position and were successful, that would be a good start in getting your own legion. Are you interested?"

"Yes sir!" came a rather surprised response.

"Right, then you might as well stay where you are with the first, and you can take the ninth under your wing as well. The Tribune there is a good man, but a bit inexperienced, so he can be your second in command. After I tell him what I have in mind, I want you to get to know him better, and I want you to get on with him. Understand?"

"Yes sir."

"If there are any personal problems, let me know," Gaius said, then remembering his own previous experience, he added, "but basically the responsibility is yours. If you want to command a legion, you have to be able to work with Tribunes, so now's as good a time as any to get started. I'll see that Tribune this evening, so you get on with it tomorrow."

"Yes sir."

"One last thing. I want every Tribune and the first Centurion of each cohort to join me for a meal on Friday evening. Be there. Now, be off with you."

"Yes sir!" Falco saluted, turned and left.

* * *

"To the province, Britain!" Matius said, and raised his cup of wine. It had been his turn to propose a toast, and this always had the possibility of being embarrassing. He had learned that bloodthirsty toasts brought scorn from his
Legatus
, but wishy-washy toasts were no better. This time he was pleased to see Scaevola smile a little.

"Indeed!" Gaius got to his feet. "Now, I've called you all here to let you know what is going to happen next. Next week, provided it doesn't storm, we march, and I want to march quickly. There will be some longer stops where we exercise, and there will be at least three such stops.

"Now, as you know, a legion usually has only one
Tribunus Laticlavius
, and we have two. No, this is not a case that I can't make up my mind, and indeed I am looking for a third equivalent, so the rest of you Tribunes can sharpen up your skills somewhat. Then on top of that, there will be three ordinary Tribunes, so those who miss out will still be involved in the invasion. Why do I need these?

"Well, the standard way Rome fights is to front up and slug it out, with fortifications to back into. The marching camp technique is unbeatable on open terrain, at least as far as we know. However, much of the time in Britain there won't be open terrain; instead there will be reasonably dense forest. Dense forest means we can't form lines anywhere near so readily, and they break up with trees. So, the question is, how do we handle this? The simplest answer is to try to find terrain most suited to our methods, and that will be our first priority, and if we can pull this off, we will be fighting just as usual. However, if the enemy is any good, they'll be trying to ambush us when we can't form lines properly, such as in hilly country with trees and dense scrub. So, how do we defend against that?" He looked around, and pointed to Falco, indicating an answer was required.

"Find them before they find us," came the laconic response.

"Indeed," Gaius nodded, "which gets us to the first set of exercises. There will be a long march to the embarkation point, and since we are nominally in friendly territory we do not expect enemy action. Accordingly, we can use the march for exercises. We shall divide into three cohort groups, and they will, in turn, each have a different role. One will march with the baggage, and will be the target. One will have left and marched ahead, and will attempt to ambush the target. The third will try to protect the target, and may march with it, or may try to seek out the ambushers and ambush them. The key to these exercises is that each group must use its
exploratores
to try to find the other group and/or capture their
exploratores
. The ambushers, by the way, can split any way they like, and leave decoys. We'll have rules regarding capture and engagement; these exercises are designed to help hone the forest skills, and not to kill each other before we get started.

"There's one final point to these cohort groups, and we may even split further. Rather than form one line, it may be preferable to form separate groups that may form small lines with bent sides, or small squares that work in conjunction with each other. The idea is if we can get the enemy to try to flank one group, we may be able to wedge them between their target and another group, in which case we can crush them quickly.

"So, what's the point of what I am trying to say? If we can't form a line, we are going to divide, and when we do, those groups must be able to form different shapes and move in a lot of different ways very quickly, sometimes according to signals from me when they can't see why they are doing it. So, once we get to the coast there will be a lot of further exercises in manoeuvres that most of you won't have seen before. These must be carried out very quickly in dense forest, and we have to know what we can do and what we can't before we embark. So, while you are all thinking that all we have to do is to march to the coast, that is the least of it.

"So, Falco, you will keep the first, and take the fourth and the ninth under your control, subject to my overall orders. Matius, you will take the third, the sixth and the eighth, and the cavalry auxiliaries. The remainder will get a senior Tribune, when I make my selection." He paused, and noticed the interest show on the face of Sextus Rutilius Lupus, the Tribune of the second cohort. This selection was something of a hint that he should make a big effort during the exercises, particularly since he knew his main opposition was at best, solid. This was indeed the intended message.

"Finally, each of these groups will get a secondary Tribune, and that man will be mainly responsible for supporting the senior Tribune, including with the staff matters and supply issues. Nevertheless, should your senior be killed in action, you will step up and take his responsibilities, so don't be lazy during these exercises.

"We march next week. Until then, get to your Centurions, and start sorting out how you are going to carry out the types of manoeuvres I am going to describe next . . .

Chapter 20

The march commenced with the second, fifth and seventh leaving two days before the rest. Their mission was to ambush the Falco's group, while Matius was to attempt to find and intercept the ambushers. Falco set out at a careful pace, with scouts in all directions, and set a solid camp each day. They had been in the forest for five days, and Matius had apparently found the opponents, but they had scattered deeper into the forest.

Falco's group marched on, and as they emerged from the forest there were various sniggers from the men. Some ambush! Ahead, there was a deserted village, through which the road went. This puzzled Gaius: why was this village deserted? On a hunch, he dropped back.

The why became apparent: the first cohort was just emerging from the other side of the village when it became apparent the village was not deserted at all! The ambushers leapt out, and "pretend" vicious fighting began. However, the fourth showed considerable discipline in that the ends of their cohort retreated to the cohorts outside the village, which began circling. It was then that centuries of the fifth cohort emerged from various hiding places that had largely been passed, and they in turn began "attacking" the ninth. Gaius called for the signal to end the exercise.

It took two further days to regroup, with Matius bringing in the "captured" seventh cohort. Gaius then brought all the Tribunes together to his tent for a revision. He began with Falco, and asked him to comment on his own performance. A crestfallen Falco had to admit he had been expecting an ambush in the forest . . .

"Don't worry," Gaius smiled. "What was important about that was you had a manoeuvre in place, so that when the ambush started, everybody knew what to do. Your one fault was, when you saw a deserted village, you should have checked more fully that it really was deserted."

"Yes, sir."

"Don't worry. One of the basic problems with warfare is that the enemy have to have the chance to make some good moves. The fact that you had default manoeuvres in place to cope with an ambush was good. Also, to be fair to you, all the auxiliary scouts were in the other groups, so you were always likely to be a victim. Now, Matius, what happened to you?"