Marching With Caesar - Civil War (56 page)

I saw that there were men nodding their head in agreement, something that I expected, but what worried me was that some of those expressions were worn by men who were not normally aligned with Cornuficius. I knew I had to tread very carefully, and I made a vow right then to Dis that I would make Cornuficius pay for all that he was putting me through.

“What happens in Armenia very much is our concern, and it has everything to do with the civil war. Caesar can't return to Italy with the situation in Asia so unstable. Not to mention that the whole reason that Pharnaces felt confident enough to try to invade was because of the civil war and our situation here. That makes it very much our concern.”

It was thin; oh, it was very thin but I remained silent, waiting for the others to digest this. I was heartened to see that the men who were not allies of Cornuficius seemed to accept my argument.

Of course, Cornuficius was unmoved. “So you say, Primus Pilus, but that's your opinion. . .”

Before he could say anything more, I cut him off. “No, that's what Caesar has ordered, and that's what's going to be done. Are you refusing a direct order, Decimus Pilus Posterior Cornuficius?”

The silence that followed hung like a wet
sagum
over the room as I waited for his reply. I was gratified to see that he did not look quite as smug or comfortable now, his eyes darting around to the others, looking for support. However, men like Cornuficius only surrounded themselves with people weaker than they were, meaning that men like Considius and Favonius were not likely to stick their necks out at a moment like this. Quickly seeing he was alone, he licked his lips nervously, obviously calculating what his odds were of facing me down. Making his decision, there was no mistaking the bitterness in his tone when he spoke.

“No, Primus Pilus, I'm doing no such thing. I'm simply voicing the concerns that I know many of the men have about our situation.”

“Your concern is duly noted, Pilus Posterior, and you're to be commended for your genuine concern for the welfare of your men; it's an inspiration to us all, I'm sure.”

I made no attempt to hide the sarcasm in my voice and it made me happy to see that my words scored a direct hit, his normally placid features becoming flushed and his lips tightening in anger. He opened his mouth to say something, and for a moment, I thought I had him, but he regained his self-control, instead saying nothing.

Looking around at the rest of the group, I finished, “If there's nothing else to be said, then we have work to do and it won’t get done sitting here.”

Chapter 6- Veni Vidi Vici

Two days later, we left Alexandria, just the men of the 6th, the Jewish contingent and other allied forces, and the cavalry. The men were not in the best of moods, but they marched at the pace Caesar set with no problems, and I was thankful that at the end of the day they were generally too tired to do much complaining. I watched Cornuficius the way a buzzard eyes a dying animal, waiting for him to do anything that I could use to finish him, for that is the conclusion I had come to, that his career in the Legions must end. It was not a decision I came to lightly; even during my problems with Celer, I had never considered taking such a drastic action like what I was contemplating now, but I had seen enough of Cornuficius to know that he was a detriment to the Legions. Even now, after all these years when my passions have cooled, I am comfortable with my decision. I just had to wait for him to make a mistake, one that I could use to achieve my aims. However, he was cautious, knowing that I was watching him, so it became something of a grim game. I would suddenly stop by his Century area whenever he was sitting at a fire with some of the men, hoping to catch him saying something that would put him where I wanted him. Unfortunately, I am hard to miss and he would always be chatting innocently away.

With this private battle playing out, we continued marching, entering the province of Syria, traveling along the coast so that our resupply came from the sea, before turning inland and heading for Ace Ptolemais. At this point, we crossed over a series of mountain ranges, making the going slow and the days long, but it kept the men sufficiently tired so that trouble was kept to a minimum, for which I was thankful. Reaching Ace Ptolemais in early Junius, we made camp outside the city walls, whereupon Caesar took up where he left off in Alexandria, that is to say putting things back in order. During the years of civil war, the running of Roman provinces had not been a high priority of the ruling class, and the civil administration suffered as a result, something that Caesar was determined to put to rights. During our last days in Alexandria, he had disbanded the Egyptian army, establishing the two Legions he left behind, the 28
^th
and 37
^th
as permanent garrisons. Here in Ace Ptolemais, he filled several administrative posts, appointing a number of minor officials to offices that were vacant, along with hearing petitioners, all of which took time. The days passed as he went about his business and we quickly settled into a routine where the men would go into town when they were off duty, unerringly finding the part of town that caters to fleshly desires. Following just as inevitably was trouble, particularly now that there was no fighting going on to keep the men occupied and their bloodlust sated, forcing me to begin making my trips into town with my purse full of coin once again. Trouble with the civilian population was nothing unusual and in reality was to be expected. What was not expected, at least on my part, was an incident that gave me exactly what I needed to destroy Cornuficius, because it happened with our allies, the Jews.

~ ~ ~ ~

“Caesar summons you to attend to him immediately.”

Apollonius looked grave, but try as I might I could not pry a word from his lips as to what it was about, so I was in an agitated state of mind when I arrived. Caesar looked every bit as grim as Apollonius and he was not alone. With him was none other than ben-Judah and Antipater, their moods matching Caesar’s.

I saluted, then Caesar jumped right into the matter. “Pullus, we have a serious problem. Are you aware of a disappearance of one of Antipater’s officers?”

I shook my head. “No, Caesar, this is the first I've heard of it.”

Caesar turned to ben-Judah and said, “Perhaps you should tell him since you're more familiar with the details.”

“Yes, Caesar.”

Ben-Judah turned to me and there was nothing friendly in his eyes as he spoke. “As Caesar said, one of my officers, a man by the name of Joseph of Gaza has disappeared under suspicious circumstances.”

“What makes it suspicious?”

I thought it was a reasonable question, but ben-Judah was clearly irritated. “I was getting to that,” he snapped. Now I was growing angry and seeing this, he softened his tone. “I am sorry, Pullus, I did not mean to speak harshly. It’s just that Joseph was a good friend of mine. Anyway, he was off duty and he was drinking at one of the shops near the forum that’s become a popular place for both your men and mine. While he was there, he got into a game of dice with one of your men and I suspect that is the cause of the trouble.”

“How much did he lose?”

Ben-Judah shook his head. “He didn’t lose. He won, and apparently, won quite a bit.”

I bit back a curse, sure that I knew where this was going, but I was wrong. “So you think he was robbed by one of my men?”

“I wish it were that simple. No, he wasn't robbed because he didn't have any money on his person.”

Now I was completely confused and I said as much.

Ben-Judah glanced at Antipater and Caesar, and Caesar signaled that he should continue. “He wasn't gambling with a man from the ranks. He was gambling with a Centurion. The Centurion gave him a marker to cover his debt, and that’s the only thing of any value that Joseph had with him, besides a few coins of his own.”

I went cold, now understanding why the others were so grave.

“Do you know who it was?”

Ben-Judah hesitated. “While I can't be positive, from the description given to me by some of my men who were there, it is in all likelihood your Centurion, Cornuficius.”

I kept my face composed, but it was difficult, I can tell you. Here was the opportunity I had been waiting for, or so I hoped. That was not something that I wanted Caesar, or the Jews for that matter to know, so I made a show of skepticism.

“I don’t know,” I said slowly, “that doesn’t seem like Cornuficius. Not that he'd gamble and lose,” I said hastily, seeing that I had angered ben-Judah, “but it’s just not his style to do something so risky. He’s usually cleverer than that.”

“It was supposedly quite a lot of money,” countered ben-Judah and I asked how much.

“We don’t know for sure of course, but from what my men overheard, it was in the neighborhood of 5,000 sesterces.”

I was flabbergasted; that was a small fortune, and while Cornuficius could certainly afford to lose that much, that did not mean he would part with it willingly.

I forced my mind to move to another part of the problem. “What were the circumstances of his disappearance? When was he first noticed missing?”

“He didn't leave the wine shop immediately. According to our witnesses, your man Cornuficius left before Joseph, after Joseph refused to continue playing. Cornuficius naturally wanted to win his money back, but that is what he had been trying to do for the last third of a watch that they played, and Joseph finally said ‘enough.’ When Cornuficius left, he was very angry.”

“I can imagine,” I said dryly.

“Joseph left some time after Cornuficius did, and was seen heading towards the Jewish Quarter; he had friends living in the city. They are friends of mine as well, so when he went missing, I immediately went and asked these people. They said he never showed up.”

“And when did you realize he was missing?”

“He was scheduled to be commander of the watch for the second watch for our part of the camp. He never showed up, so we went looking for him. That is when we heard what happened.”

I rubbed my face, forgetting that Caesar was standing there as I thought through what I had heard. I had no doubt about what happened, knowing Cornuficius as I did, but I could not voice that in front of Caesar because it would raise questions I did not wish to answer. I had to appear to have Cornuficius’ well-being in mind, at least at this point, meaning I had to ask a question that I knew would anger ben-Judah and probably Antipater as well. I was not sure how Caesar would react.

“Is it possible that he went to another place to celebrate, drank too much, and is sleeping it off right now?”

“Joseph drinks very sparingly; I have known him for more than ten years and never once seen him drunk. Nor has he ever missed duty before,” ben-Judah said coldly.

“I'm sorry, ben-Judah, but I had to ask. This is one of my Centurions we're talking about.”

I looked over at Caesar, asking him silently for direction. “Pullus, I need you to investigate this, but it needs to be done discreetly.” He turned to Antipater and ben-Judah. "I'm looking to you two to continue your search to try and find your man while Pullus asks some questions. If matters are as you fear, at the very least we need to find a body before we can proceed with any kind of disciplinary action.”

The Jews nodded their understanding. When Caesar asked them to leave so that he could speak to me privately, they did so.

Once they left, Caesar turned back to me and without preface asked me, “I don't know Cornuficius well; he’s not been serving me that long and I've been extremely busy the last few months.” He smiled thinly. “So you're in a better position to know. Do you think he did this?”

I was about to just blurt out that of course I thought he did it, but managed to stop myself.

Pretending to consider this, I answered, “I honestly don't know, Caesar. But I'll find out.”

Putting his hand on my arm, Caesar looked up at me, his eyes boring into mine. “Pullus, I hope I don’t have to tell you how incredibly sensitive this is. If this were a civilian, or even a Gregarius, we could do whatever was necessary to make it go away, but of all the allies for this to happen to, the Jews would have been my last choice. They're as touchy about their honor as we are, and they take any crime perpetrated against them by a non-Jew almost as an insult to the whole group.” He shook his head. “I truly don't understand them, but what I do know about them makes me believe that if things aren't handled properly we'll have no end of trouble. And not just with the army. Do you understand?”

I did not, really, but Caesar saying it was important made it so for me and I told him what he wanted to hear.

Caesar dismissed me, but before I left he told me, “Time is critical here, Pullus. This needs to be resolved as quickly as possible. That means that I'm authorizing you to use whatever means you deem necessary to extract evidence from the men you suspect being involved in this.”

I had just been given permission to torture Cornuficius, and despite how much I loathed the man, it chilled me to think about it.

~ ~ ~ ~

I did not know with whom I could trust this matter among my Centurions, and I wished that I could talk to Cartufenus, but he was back in Alexandria. One thing that I was fairly sure about was that Cornuficius had not done anything to Joseph personally; he was too clever for that. He would have had some of his toadies in his Century do what needed to be done then dispose of the body, but the question was who they would be. Another thing to consider was how to go about asking questions without alerting Cornuficius and alarming him to the point where he ran for his life. I realized that it was extremely important to Caesar and the Jews that Cornuficius be brought to justice, formally and with due process and there was no way to do that if he escaped. I wish I could say that was my motivation as well, but in plain truth I did not just want him gone, I wanted him dead. Summoning Diocles, who I had grown to trust implicitly by this point, I confided in him the situation I was facing, asking him for ideas. It was he who came up with using himself to begin the preliminary questioning, talking to the slaves of the other Centurions along with some of the men with whom he had contact. Being my personal slave and clerk, Diocles was one of the most popular men in the Legion, the Gregarii bribing him for information about duties and such, something that I am sure he did not think I knew, judging by the look of surprise on his face as I dictate this fact. However, it was something I turned a blind eye to because I knew that he would not betray any truly important or sensitive information, therefore it was Diocles who began asking questions.

Somewhat to my surprise, he returned in about two parts of a watch, his manner one of suppressed excitement. “Publius was one of them,” he announced.

Now, there were a number of men named Publius in the Legion, but I knew exactly who he meant; it was my old friend Publius, who I had met the day I was introduced to the Legion. What I did not know at the time was that he was one of Cornuficius’ men, in more ways than one. In fact, Cornuficius had put Publius up to challenging me that day. Publius was Cornuficius’ muscle for keeping the other men in line and for his other schemes, extortion mostly, along with collection of money owed to Cornuficius for gambling debts. To be more accurate, the debts owed to the men Cornuficius used as his fronts for his gambling operations, since it is against regulations for Centurions to gamble with the men. Cornuficius was certainly not the only Centurion who skirted regulations, but every other Centurion I knew only did so occasionally, usually on things like crocodile feedings or something similar, and they did it honestly, winning or losing fair and square. But Cornuficius was not content to trust to Fortuna, preferring instead to rely on men he had trained with loaded dice. I had known, or more correctly suspected, what Cornuficius was up to for some time, yet I had been unable to prove it and frankly, I was more concerned with other matters like keeping as many of my men alive as I could. I supposed that Cornuficius felt comfortable gambling with Joseph because he was a fellow officer, but what puzzled me was how a sharp operator like Cornuficius had managed to lose to someone like Joseph. However, that was not my major concern, and now Diocles had given me a place to start, except I could not just go to Publius, grab him up, then drag him back to my tent; instead I would have to rely on someone I trusted. Thinking about Felix, I decided against it, not because I did not trust him but I did not want to put him in an awkward position with the other Centurions when this came to light. Then an idea struck me, and I told Diocles to go fetch someone.