Thunder of the Gods (21 page)

‘My name is Julius, and for those of you who’ve been asleep for the last hour, I am your new First Spear! If you march and fight like men then you and I will get on well enough. If you fail to do either then you will find me at your back, with my boot, my vine stick or, if need be, with a fucking scourge. I expect some of you to disappoint me, but I only expect you to make that mistake once!’

He paused, looking up and down his cohorts with a grim face before pulling a tablet from his belt.

‘The following centurions, step forward!’

He read out half a dozen names, waiting until the men in question were standing in front him before pronouncing on their fate.

‘Following the advice of one of my centurions who knows most of you rather better than I do, I’ve decided that you’re better suited to assisting First Spear Quintinus here in Antioch than marching into Parthia with the legion. Dismissed.’

Unsure whether to be elated or dejected, the officers followed his pointing arm and walked away towards the barracks, while Julius addressed the remaining officers.

‘There are now precisely enough of you left to command every century in the four cohorts we’re taking with us, but none of you who are left in command have any reason to feel smug. Those were the men I judged least likely to cope with what we’re going to do in the next few weeks, but if I’d had another five good officers up my sleeve, another five of you would have been walking. Bear that in mind before you start relaxing. I’m watching you, and I will deal with any man who lets me down with the harshness you’d expect, given your importance to our effectiveness in battle.’

‘None of them look relax to me. All look like need good shit.’

Sanga nodded at his mate’s whisper, watching as a line of mule carts squeaked onto the parade ground.

‘This ain’t looking good.’

Julius walked over to the closest of the waggons, pulling back the canvas cover to reveal its load, and the veteran craned his neck to see what lay beneath.

‘It’s a pile of long wooden poles. What the fuck we going to do with those, fend the fuckers off?’

‘Silence!
’

The growing rumble of muttered comments died away, and Julius lifted one of the poles from the cart to reveal the truth of the matter. Amazed, Sanga was unable to restrain himself.

‘I’ve already got to carry a shield that’s twice as heavy as it should be, and now they want me to prance about with a ten-foot spear! How the fuck am I supposed to throw that bastard thi—’

‘Silence! The next men to open his mouth without being asked to comment will receive five lashes, here and now! Today of all days you do not want to get on the wrong side of me!’

Julius composed himself before speaking again.

‘Front and centre, Legionary Sanga!’

His face reddening, the soldier marched forward and stamped to attention, knowing what was expected of him.

‘First Spear!’

Julius walked towards him with the outsized weapon held in both hands across his body.

‘You were saying, Legionary?’

Sanga swallowed, feeling a trickle of sweat running down the middle of his back.

‘I was—’

‘Louder, Sanga, let’s all hear what was on your mind.’

‘I was wondering, First Spear, how I could throw such a thing, but now you’ve brought it closer it looks a lot easier.’

The senior centurion looked at him with a pitying expression for a moment.

‘It’s not a throwing spear, you donkey, it’s a thrusting spear! Back in ranks!’

‘If I might have a word with the legion, First Spear?’

Scaurus waited for Sanga to return to his place before addressing his men.

‘Legionaries of the Third Gallic, this is a design of spear that goes back to the days before there was anyone with the leisure to sit and write down all of the battles and wars that are now only remembered in a handful of legends! It was used by the ancient Greeks in their successful wars with Persia …’

‘And when we kicked the shit out of them.’

‘And, as some of you are apparently speculating, when we overran Greece!’

Julius glared at Sanga so fiercely that Quintus turned round and flicked his vine stick out, rapping the hapless soldier on the side of his knee.

‘I won’t bore you with the reasons why a weapon will work under some circumstances and not others, but let me assure you, these spears are going to be a large part of the difference between life and death for all of us when we meet the Parthians on the field of battle! These spears and one or two other ideas I’ve learned from my studies.’

He turned back to Julius with a nod of thanks.

‘Carry on, First Spear.’

‘The first two ranks of every century will give one of their two spears to the two men behind them. They will advance smartly to the closest cart and each man will take one long spear. They will then return to their position with both their long and short spears held in an upright position.
Move!
’

‘He told you what, exactly?’

‘That he has no idea where Tribune Corvus might be if he’s not to be found in Hama, Governor.’

Domitius Dexter stared at the Phrygian, a slow smile spreading across his face.

‘And there was no word of Corvus in Hama?’

‘Not in the city or the fortress, Governor.’

‘Do you believe that the tribune was ordered to travel to the city?’

After a long pause the younger man answered, clearly sickened by the implication of his words.

‘No, sir. I believe he was sent elsewhere.’

‘And did Legatus Scaurus manage to convince you otherwise?’

The Phrygian opened his mouth, then closed it again.

‘Come now, Prefect, I understand your desire not to implicate a fellow military man, but the issues here are bigger than simple loyalty. Did he convince you otherwise?’

‘No, Governor. He did not.’

Dexter smiled triumphantly.

‘As I expected. You are dismissed with my thanks, Prefect. Secretary!’

The prefect saluted, turned and walked towards the huge office’s door, only partially aware of the hubbub behind him.

‘Secretary!
Where is that bloody man? Ah, there you are. Fetch my lictors immediately!’

The front two ranks of the legion had retaken their places with their new spears, as the carts raised clouds of dust in their wake as they rumbled off the parade ground. Unable to help themselves, the legionaries holding the new weapons were looking up at the long iron spearheads ten feet above their heads.

‘Nobody likes change, it seems.’

Standing next to Julius, Scaurus grinned broadly.

‘I know. Although the rest of the legion seems to be enjoying the spectacle well enough.’

Muttering and quiet laughter was spreading across the legion’s line, only the forbidding presence of their officers preventing more widespread mirth from the men not tasked with carrying the new spears. Julius strode forward, bellowing a command at the top of his voice.

‘As you were!’

Waiting until silence had fallen, the legatus stepped forward.

‘Soldiers of the Imperial Third Legion, I have orders to advance into the Parthian kingdom of Adiabene, and to secure our outpost fortress of Nisibis from the siege to which we believe it has been subjected! As many of you know, Nisibis is a mighty fortress, a stronghold whose walls will stand for many months against the most determined of foes. But without our intervention, it will surely eventually fall. Our emperor is a wise man, and he knows that Nisibis will not satisfy this enemy, but will only serve to encourage him to march on our ally, Osrhoene. And when Osrhoene falls, the next natural step for Parthia will be to cross the Euphrates into Syria, with their eyes firmly set on the great city of Antioch! To wait for the Parthian to come to us is to allow him the luxury of more conquest, and to grow in confidence and strength, and so my orders are to cross the river at the first opportunity, seek battle and defeat this aggression before it has the chance to take advantage of that opportunity!’

Complete silence now gripped the thousands of men paraded before him, and Scaurus stalked towards them until he could see the individual hairs in their beards.

‘You heard me! We will be across the Euphrates within a week, and in Nisibis ten days after that, unless we bring this Parthian army to battle …’ He paused theatrically. ‘In which case it will take us ten days and an hour!’

The men closest to him smiled weakly at the joke.

‘I know you’re troubled by the loss of your fellow soldiers in the Sixth Cohort, and in truth you wouldn’t be human if you weren’t! The gods know it troubles me! That a single cohort should be sent to its doom in such an amateur way is beyond belief! But we’re not amateurs, you men and I! We are professional soldiers, and we will make those eastern goat worshippers pay a high price for their fleeting moment of inglorious revenge on Rome!’

He turned to Julius.

‘Get them ready to march.’

The first spear nodded, taking his legatus’s place in front of the legion.

‘Prepare to move! Pack poles, spears, helmets and shields! Any man that leaves anything behind will be pulling double guard duty all the way from here to the river! On your toes, you animals!’

‘Tell me what we’re supposed to do when we get to the barracks again?’

The most senior of Governor Dexter’s lictors scowled without turning to look at his subordinate as they hurried down the road from the city’s western gate towards the Third Legion’s barracks.

‘You heard well enough the last time I told you.’

The man walking beside him shook his head, hefting the bundle of rods that he was carrying onto his other shoulder with careful respect for the axe blade protruding from its middle.

‘I heard it, I just didn’t believe it.’

His superior gritted his teeth before speaking again.

‘Our orders from the governor are clear. We arrest the legion’s legatus, we take him back to the palace and we hand him over to the governor’s men.’

‘And why didn’t he send one of his procurators to make the arrest?’

‘Because, you idiot, it’s more than likely that the soldiers wouldn’t have recognised the man’s authority.’

The other man laughed bitterly.

‘So it’s better for us to have our authority flouted than them?’

The group’s leader stopped walking, turning to his subordinate with a raised finger.

‘Look, as far as I’m concerned—’

A blare of trumpets interrupted him, as the gates of the fortress swung open and, after a moment’s pause, the head of a marching column of men emerged onto the road.

‘We’re too late!’

The senior lictor shook his head angrily.

‘No we’re bloody not. All that’s happened is that this Scaurus has got the shit scared out of him and decided to make a run for it with his men. Come on!’

Leading his reluctant comrade towards the barrack, he ignored the shower of catcalls that rained down on them as the column’s first centuries marched past. Squeezing in through the gateway, he looked around for a moment before his eyes alighted on a group of figures, the junior man’s lips moving as he counted the men still waiting to join the line of march.

‘I thought he was only allowed to take half the legion.’

‘He
is
only allowed to take half the bloody legion.’

The two men strode across the parade ground under the eyes of thousands of men, stopping a few paces from their intended target as Scaurus turned around and smiled at them.

‘Ah, gentlemen. You both look somewhat hot and bothered, but that’s what happens when you go rushing around in a full-weight toga carrying a big bundle of rods and an axe, I suppose. Can I ask someone to get you a cup of water?’

Shaking his head, the chief lictor drew himself up, drawing a breath ready to pronounce the legatus’s arrest, only to find himself silenced by a raised hand.

‘Before you say whatever it is that you’ve come to say, I suggest that you save yourself some wasted breath by reading this.’

He passed the man a scroll, which he unrolled and started to read.

‘Those are my orders, which direct me to take command of the legion and proceed across the frontier into Osrhoene at my earliest opportunity. Once I’ve paid my respects to King Abgar, I am to head straight for Nisibis, defeating any Parthian forces I meet on the way, overcome any siege of the fortress, and then return to the province to await further orders. Note the seal, by the way. It’s not every day that you’ll see the imperial seal on a document. The last time the governor saw it was when I delivered him the paper telling him that he’d been officially relieved of his duties.’

He smiled at the two men again as they looked at him aghast.

‘No, I suspected that hadn’t been communicated very widely. Anyway, read on chief lictor.’

After a moment, the toga-clad official looked up from the scroll in his hands.

‘But this—’

‘Gives me absolute authority over any and all of the emperor’s subjects that I need to further my mission. Including, since you’ve doubtless been sent here to arrest me and therefore significantly impede my mission,
you
. So I suggest you turn around and go back to the governor with that as an explanation for the fact that you don’t have me in your custody.’

‘But
my
authority—’

‘Is granted to you by the emperor, is it not?’

Seeing where Scaurus’s line of argument was taking him, the chief lictor rallied his arguments.

‘Yes, but—’

‘Read the scroll again. Look for the words “obstruction of this officer will be considered grounds for immediate execution”. And consider whether you really want to obstruct me, given that I’m quite possibly marching to my own death in any case, and therefore might not be in the most tolerant frame of mind. If you take my meaning …’

‘If you’re trying to threaten me, Legatus …’

The legion commander laughed softly.

‘Trying to threaten you? Of course I’m not
trying
to threaten you. Consider my threat overt, consider it blatant, consider it bloody handed if you like, given the number of men my orders have killed in the last few years. But consider it quickly, because if you’re still here by the time I’ve counted to fifty, I’m going to take that small but very important sentence in my orders very, very seriously indeed.’