Legatus Legionis: Book Two in the Gaius Claudius Scaevola Trilogy (26 page)

"Their point of view tends not to be in direct opposition to the point of a sword," Vespasian nodded.

"So I came here to check up on the tidal flows," Gaius said. "Now I can see you didn't, so . . ."

"I came to see you," Vespasian interrupted gruffly. "Your legion could be on my right flank, so I thought we might get together and agree some tactical signals in the event we have to coordinate our actions."

"Of course," Gaius said. This was the time to try to be cooperative, even though, since the
Augusta
was ordered to consolidate possession and protect allies on the south coast, the prospect of them even seeing each other was unlikely. "When, and where?"

"My tent, for a meal tonight?"

"You like Pannonian wine?" Gaius offered.

"You just came from there?" Vespasian asked.

"True," Gaius admitted. Of course Vespasian knew, or Sabinus' ability as a staff officer would be rated as totally useless.

"A quiet zone, I gather." Vespasian was fishing.

"Six weeks after I arrived it was," Gaius said cryptically.

"I gather," Vespasian said, in a probing, though cautious voice, "that your actions helped shore up support for Claudius."

"I believe I had a significant role," Gaius responded, as much as a challenge to Vespasian as anything else. The one thing Gaius was not about to do was to let this man gain some ascendancy over him.

"Why?"

"Because it is the duty of the army to support the
Princeps
."

"It is the duty of the army to defeat the enemies of Rome," Vespasian countered in a flat tone. He was looking for the source of the political strength of a potential political ally or foe, Gaius realized.

"And not to fight each other," Gaius countered. He paused, then decided he should make a further attempt at being friendly. He shook his head sadly as he added, "My branch of the Claudian
gens
has been on the wrong side of most of Rome's internal spats. I thought . . ."

"It was time to pick the winning side!" Vespasian grinned, "and win before winning gets too difficult."

"Something like that," Gaius admitted.

"But why back Claudius so quickly, against the Governor of an adjacent region, and a region from where your legion would normally be based, and who could have looked quite favourably on you? Why not wait and see what happened?"

"Because . . ." Gaius paused. How much should he tell? Vespasian was known to be close to Narcissus, but not so close to Claudius. What did that mean? Perhaps he should try his own diversion. He shrugged, and then said, "Perhaps because, as you said, winning then was easy."

"I don't know what you think about Little Boots," Vespasian frowned, "but I can tell you most Romans applauded his demise. Why didn't you think it was time for Rome to get someone vaguely competent?"

Interesting, Gaius thought. From what he had heard, Roman citizens were genuinely hurt by his assassination; it was the rich and privileged who disliked Little Boots. Further, those who hated Little Boots did so because of the actions of Vespasian and his ilk. "I think you'll find Claudius is very competent," Gaius replied.

"Everyone says he's a fool."

"Livia publicly ridiculed him," Gaius countered. "Derision seemed preferable to Claudius than poison, exile, or whatever."

"You've met him?"

"Yes, and corresponded with him."

"You think Claudius is competent?"

"Yes."

"That's good enough for me," Vespasian shrugged, and said, as he got up to leave, "I'll see you at sundown."

* * *

Gaius had decided that he should try to be conciliatory, and in any case there seemed to be little point in arguing about general manoeuvring signals. Accordingly, he had permitted Vespasian to specify a number of general signals and their meaning, until suddenly Vespasian looked up at him.

"You're not saying much?"

"What you've said is quite standard," Gaius shrugged.

"They tell me you've had quite a bit of battle experience," Vespasian said. "You must have something to add."

"Apart from Lussonia," Gaius replied, "my experience has been in the desert. Rivers, forests, swamps, none of them seemed much of a problem in Syria."

"So there's nothing you wish to add?" Vespasian asked.

"I notice so far you've kept clear of cavalry signals," Gaius noted.

"I've never used them much in forests," Vespasian admitted.

"Neither have I," Gaius nodded, "but I intend to use cavalry." He decided not to comment on the fact that Vespasian had seemingly not had much use of cavalry anywhere because he had little combat experience.

"Fair enough," Vespasian nodded. "Since this can't all be one-way traffic, tell me about the unusual cavalry manoeuvres you've been using, and the signals you're using."

"You've seen them?"

"I'm impressed," Vespasian nodded. "I've seen what your men are up to."

"If you think your cavalry are up to this," Gaius started . . .

"None of that!" Vespasian snorted. "They may well not be up to it today, but they'll be masters of it by embarkation."

So Gaius outlined the manoeuvres the twentieth cavalry were required to know better than the backs of their hands.

"One other thing I've watched," Vespasian added, after Gaius had finished, and had opened more wine. "You're manoeuvring cohort groups, separately. Why?"

"I know the dictum of concentrating maximum force at the weakest point," Gaius said, "but the enemy tends to concentrate his forces in the same place, which leads to a general battering. My idea is to force him to extend his lines, or to be outflanked."

"Interesting strategy," Vespasian nodded, "as long as they don't concentrate and pick you off, bit by bit."

"Let 'em try," Gaius shrugged. "Then they fight in one place, and the twentieth has been practicing responses for every contingency I can think of."

"You can't think of everything," Vespasian continued his frown.

"Don't have to," Gaius shrugged. "The opposition, never having seen this before, won't have time to be too innovative."

"You seem confident."

"I intend to win," Gaius said simply.

"And no problems?"

"The key's not to let the bits get out of touch with each other," Gaius replied, "and for them to know what to do if they do. The Roman soldier can move and fight faster than Celts can, because even if, man for man, the Celt is as brave as the Roman, in thousands they're nowhere nearly as well organized, as disciplined, and their leaders won't know how to deal with a highly mobile enemy."

"A disciple of Julius, eh?" Vespasian grinned.

"Alexander wasn't exactly static either," Gaius shrugged.

"Then we'll have to see who's the fastest. A wager, eh?"

"What?

"Second phase we go west. I'll bet I get to the west coast before you do."

"You're on," Gaius shrugged, "for a small bet."

"You think you'll lose?" Vespasian challenged.

"The bet's for pride only," Gaius replied. "If something goes wrong, neither of us wants to even think they might be risking one soldier's life for our silly bet."

"That's fair comment," Vespasian nodded in agreement. "How about some more of that wine?"

Gaius poured. The wine was starting to have a beneficial effect. In the course of time, the two might eventually become friends, but Gaius was only to well aware that Vespasian was suspicious of Gaius' connection with Claudius, and he still felt his brother should command a legion.

* * *

Aulus Plautius called his commanders together for a briefing at a village some distance from the embarkation point. The invasion procedure would be simple, and was imposed as much as anything by the availability of port space. Three legions would have to set off separately, as three legions could not embark from one port on one day. Since congestion would be even worse at the other end, the three legions would land at separate sites. They would depart in order of their number, thus the
Augusta
would lead, followed by the
Gemina Martia,
and finally the
Valeria
.

The
Gemina Martia
would land at Rutupiae, at the northern end of Cantiaci territory. The sea would protect the right flank. The
Augusta
would land at Lemanae, and would have tribes expected to be friendly on its left flank, and because these tribes were expected to be friendly, the
Augusta
would consolidate the alliance, and thus secure the left flank for the invasion force. The
Valeria
would land at Dubrae, which was roughly midway between the other two ports. The legions would secure defensive positions, then the
Augusta
would consolidate the southern flank and thus secure the left flank for the invasion, while the
Gemina Martia
would advance westward until it could wheel north and cross the river Thames. The
Valeria
would march westwards and wheel northwards to support the
Gemina Martia
, unless the
Augusta
got into unexpected difficulties. Gaius smiled to himself. Vespasian would hardly admit he was having unexpected difficulties, unless something was going to be very very wrong with this invasion.

Following the securing of a defensive position there, the
Gemina Martia
and the
Valeria
, supported by the
Hispana
, would advance into the lands of the Catuvellauni and under command of the
Princeps
himself, advance to Camulodunum. That gave five initial objectives: secure fortified bases, keep tribes on the left flank appeased, cross the river upstream of and then cross the Thames, take Camulodunum, then fortify and secure this initial territory. A second phase advance would then commence in early spring of the following year.

On the left flank, in the land of the Atrebates, Vespasian was to use Verica's influence in order to set up Cogidumnus as a client king. Accordingly, while part of the
Augusta
might be used against the Catuvellauni, top priority must be given to securing the Atrebates as allies. By the same token, the Cantiaci and the Regnenses were at present allies, and the invasion was to proceed through their territory. It was imperative that such allies must be treated with respect. All supplies acquired must be paid for, and full discipline must be imposed on the troops. Any behaviour likely to encourage revolt amongst the friendly Britons would be dealt with ruthlessly. Were there any questions? Were there any problems?

There were no problems. Not yet.

* * *

The day of embarkation arrived. Since only the
Augusta
was to depart this day, the other legions kept away, and Gaius elected to stay further away although he asked his tribunes to watch proceedings. The
Augusta
was due to board and the troops formed up in order. However, when Vespasian gave the order to embark, they refused to move. Centurions yelled, they applied the cane, but the troops refused to move, and the scene became more ugly. Rather reluctantly, Vespasian could sense that they were on the verge of mutiny, so he backed off trying to force the embarkation and demanded to know why they refused to move. The answer was simple. Britain was at the edge of the world, they could be swept off, and furthermore, the correct omens had not been read. Without the blessing of the Gods, the crossing was doomed, so they were staying put. Plautius and Vespasian harangued the troops, but they stood unmoved. The Gods had not blessed the expedition with propitious omens. If they missed Britain, if they were swept away . . .

Plautius was not prepared to order a decimation, which he felt could engender an outright mutiny. The alternative was to appeal to the
Princeps
. Plautius drafted up a letter to Claudius.

At first, all Gaius heard was that the troops had refused to embark, and the invasion had been called off for the day. He shook his head in despair, because the refusal to obey orders was bad for discipline unless a suitable example was made of those who refused, so he sent Matius to the staff headquarters to find out what had happened. When he heard what Plautius had done, he was furious. Dealing with the refusal to obey orders was the commander's responsibility, in part Vespasian's, but with Plautius present, it was the commanding General's job. This would never have happened under the first Julius Caesar. In one sense the troops would never have dared, because Caesar would undoubtedly order a decimation, but in another sense, the situation would never arise because the troops would follow Caesar anywhere, and Caesar would be in the first boat. Therein lay the problem. The troops had tremendous loyalty to Caesar because they owed everything they had to him and he won them victory after victory. They hardly knew Plautius, but they knew he had never had a significant victory. His first instinct was to go and confront Plautius, but after a little thought, he decided against it. The damage was now done. The problem was how to repair it.

It was two days later that Gaius finally had an idea, and he drafted a second message that he had sent to Claudius. Word of this got back to Plautius, who immediately requested Gaius' presence.

"And what, exactly, did you have to say?" Plautius asked angrily.

"A suggestion as to how to get the troops to board," Gaius replied. "From Claudius' point of view, this invasion has to proceed, or he is dead."

"Why did you go behind my back?"

"I didn't think about it until your request had gone," Gaius said coldly. "Worse, there's no guarantee Claudius will prevail, so it's imperative the troops don't have time to work out a reason to say no, which means no staff officers knowing." Here was a direct challenge. Plautius would inevitably discuss the issue with his staff officers, and from then on, information would leak.