Marius' Mules II: The Belgae (4 page)

Without
waiting for the other three, Fronto started striding purposefully
out from the path in the direction of the approaching legionaries.
After a minute, he became aware that the others had caught up,
Crispus coming alongside in a vaguely undignified scurry, Balbus
lagging a little, and Balventius striding calmly along.

The insignia
became gradually clearer as the four approached and, once he
finally picked out the detail, Fronto came to a sudden halt, as did
his companions.

The
legionaries in front of him were marching not in one column, as it
appeared at a distance, but in two, each column with a width of six
men and trailing off like a glinting armoured ophidian. The arms
are armour they bore were shiny and new, the shields devoid of any
marks, and the banners…

Two new
insignia, both with some kind of Celtic-style horse, fluttered
below the numbers XIII and XIIII.

“
New legions?” Crispus’ tone echoed Fronto’s own
surprise.

The column was
not being led, as was customary, by the officers, but by the
signifers, the eagle standards, and the musicians. The officers
were riding alongside in a small knot, with the cavalry stretched
out behind them.

Fronto stepped
to one side so as not to impede the army, but rather to stand in
the way of the command unit. As he placed his fists on his hips in
a haughty gesture, he was further surprised at the commands being
barked at the men by the lower officers. There was no doubt at all
about what he heard. Those commands were issued in fluent Latin,
but with a pronounced Gaulish accent. He was still staring in
disbelief at the passing legions when he became aware that his
three companions had joined him and the command staff had reined in
before them. He looked up.

“
Fronto! You look bloody disgraceful!”

Quintus
Pedius, one of Caesar’s senior staff stared down at him and a slow
smile began to creep across his face.

“
Not that that’s anything new, of course!”

“
Ha, bloody, ha! What the hell’s going on? Why are you dressing
up the auxilia as legionaries?”

Pedius gave
him a sharp glance.

“
You’d be well advised to sheath that mouth of yours,
Marcus.”

The staff
officer turned to the tribunes behind him.

“
Menenius? Hortius? Get the legions to the nearest appropriate
flat ground, preferably between these other encampments and have a
temporary camp set up for each. Once they’re settling and underway,
I want the two of you at the headquarters. Report to me
there!”

The two men
saluted and rode off to find the primus pilus of each legion. As
they went about their business, Pedius dismounted and gestured
toward the bridge. As the four officers walked steadily back along
their track and the distance between the five men and the legions
increased, the staff officer handed his reins to Crispus and
removed his helmet with a sigh of relief.

“
I need a bath and a shave. And a jug of wine, but that can
wait until I’ve had the bath and the shave. But sadly, both of
those will have to wait until I visit the headquarters. Are you
gentlemen accompanying me?”

Balbus
nodded.

“
We were on our way there anyway.”

“
Good. Now, Fronto, what’s irritated you?”

The
dishevelled legate scratched his bristly chin.

“
They’re Gauls. They’re not Romans, Quintus… they’re Gauls!
What are they doing in legionary equipment? When the ordinary
soldiers find out about this there’ll be riots. It demeans the
whole purpose of the legion. That’s what the auxilia is
for!”

Pedius
sighed.

“
Calm down Fronto. You’re going to have a fit if you go on like
this.”

“
Well?”

Balventius
nodded. “It’s true sir. This is the citizen army. It’s against the
rules to enlist foreigners into it. There’ll be hell!”

Pedius shook
his head.

“
It’s all above board, gentlemen. I can tell you some of it,
but not all. Present company, you see?”

He indicated
Balventius, though respectfully.

Balbus shook
his head.

“
My primus pilus is as solid as they come. Caesar tried to make
him camp prefect, remember? Anything you can say in front of us,
you can say in front of him!”

Pedius
regarded Balventius for a long minute and then nodded his head.

“
Very well. This is in strictest confidence. I expect the
general will put some spin on it for the public, but some of you
will know there’s more anyway. You remember that tribune who
stirred things up in Vesontio last summer?”

“
Salonius? Yes. He scurried off back to Rome with his tail
between his legs as I remember.”

“
He did.” Pedius lowered his voice fractionally.

“
But Caesar thinks the man’s been carrying on his campaign of
disruption in political circles back in Rome. The general has been
blocked with almost every political move he makes. Finally we
managed to find out where we could get to Salonius in private to
‘have a little word’ and before we turned up someone knifed him and
tipped him in the Tiber. Pickpockets was the official line, but
that’s unlikely.”

Crispus bore a
shocked look. Pedius sighed.

“
A man called Clodius, who seems to have a network of spies and
an almost unlimited chest of gold, is stirring things up in Rome
like a madman. And not just against Caesar, but against Crassus and
Pompey too. The general thinks Salonius was an agent of this
Clodius.”

They begun the
descent toward the bridge and Pedius took a deep breath.

“
Caesar needs some serious victories and a lot of money. He
owes important men, but more importantly, he’s losing political
ground. He requested permission of the senate to raised new legions
in Cisalpine Gaul. The senate actually refused him. I’m sure you
can imagine how that went down!”

Fronto winced,
glad he hadn’t been there for that meeting, and Pedius
continued.

“
So Caesar did what he does best. He found a way around the
rules.”

Fronto issued
a small half-smile.

“
I think I can see where this is going…”

Pedius
nodded.

“
Caesar managed to have the Helvetii, the Aedui and a few of
the smaller allied tribes classed as Foederati. If they’re
treaty-bound with Rome their men can theoretically be enlisted into
the legions. It’s not common and not popular, and it’s a very grey
area legally, but it can certainly be done. They wouldn’t let
Caesar raise citizen troops from Cisalpine Gaul, so he used his own
authority to raise two new legions from our allies; mainly the ones
who speak Latin, though. They’re now Roman citizens. There’s been a
shit storm over it in Rome and Caesar’s just dealing with the
aftermath before he joins us.”

Fronto
nodded.

“
We think we know what the general’s planning; if it’s true he
might well need those two new legions.”

Pedius
nodded.

“
Best go see Labienus and inform him of events
then.”

Fronto nodded
as he watched the new ‘Gaulish’ legions marching across the hill
toward the camps. There was no doubt the Gauls fought fiercely, but
should they be legions? He couldn’t shake the feeling there was
trouble in his near future.

Chapter 2

(Vesontio)

“
Praetor: a title granted to the commander of an army. cf the
Praetorian Guard.”

As the party
of officers strode across the square to the main building that had
been commandeered by Caesar for his headquarters almost a year ago,
Fronto became acutely aware of how scruffy he must look compared
with the others. Pedius had just arrived from over two hundred
miles of travel with his legions and he was parade-smart. Fronto
had been here for hours and still looked like he’d been dragged
behind a horse. And his sister wondered why he failed in
politics!

The guards by
the doorway were already at attention, in their prominent position
among the senior staff of the army. Pedius, at the head of the
group, acknowledged them with a slight nod of the head and they
went inside. The headquarters building was in what could only
reasonably be described as ‘organised chaos’. Fronto knew from
experience that the headquarters of a legion ran smoothly and with
the minimum of fuss, since there was a hierarchy that worked with
machine-like precision. The headquarters of a large army was
different, though. There were six legions based around Vesontio,
all with the same hierarchy and, while the general’s command had
its own clerical staff, they spent most of their time trying to
respond to the legionary clerks and filter, prioritise and just
plain argue with them. The net result was that the higher one went
in the military, the messier the paperwork became.

The three men
entered the main room to find Labienus at a wide desk covered in
parchment and wax tablets with the chief quartermaster, Cita, and
the camp prefect, Paetus, opposite him. As he rattled out answers
to their quick-fire questions, they made marks and, without
turning, held out the tablets behind them where a junior clerk
would grasp them and run off to deal with the issue, only to be
replaced by another haggard-looking legionary clerk.

Pedius stopped
in the doorway, his companions behind him, and waited for a moment,
blocking the entrance and exit of various clerks, before clearing
his throat.

Labienus
looked up in surprise.

“
Pedius? Good grief. I wasn’t expecting to see you for a while
yet. Does that mean Caesar’s with you?”

That last
question had a note of desperate hope in it, Fronto noted with a
smile.

“
Not with, I’m afraid; though I doubt he’ll be far behind. Can
we interrupt your burdensome tasks?”

Labienus
nodded; a little too quickly, Fronto thought again.

“
Thank you, gentlemen,” he addressed Cita and Paetus. “We’ll
resume tomorrow morning. I think I need some time to rest
anyway.”

The two
officers stood and bowed to the interim commander. Turning, they
saluted the officers in the doorway, who shuffled out of their way
with some difficulty. Once the others had left, Balventius closed
the door and the other four men walked across to the desk, while he
remained standing by the door like a guard.

Labienus gave
a long-suffering sigh.

“
Almost my entire day now consists of two things: military
bureaucracy like ‘which legion has to produce the engineering
detail to maintain the command section’, and politics, like the
local farmers complaining that the latrines of the Tenth are
emptying into a tributary stream that their wives use to wash
clothes. I just don’t understand how Caesar gets anything
done!”

Pedius
grinned.

“
Because he delegates the irritating parts to us, you know
that.”

“
Ha!”

Labienus
leaned back and gestured to the seats opposite him. As the officers
sat, he looked up at Balventius.

“
Centurion? If you’re here on business, I suggest you sit. No
one will interrupt us with my door shut.”

Balventius
nodded respectfully.

“
Thank you sir, but I’m comfortable standing.”

“
Very well,” Labienus said, stretching, “nice to see we’ve got
all the staff and legates assembled again. Once Caesar arrives, I
very much think we’ll be on the move quickly. There are troubles
stirring.”

“
We’re all aware of that” said Fronto flatly. “And I think
Caesar’s already prepared. Ask Pedius who escorted him back from
Cremona.”

Labienus
turned to his peer and raised an eyebrow inquisitively.

“
I had the honour of escorting the newly-raised Thirteenth and
Fourteenth Legions to camp.”

Labienus sank
miserably back into his chair, visions of a new cartload of
paperwork rolling inexorably toward his desk.

“
And that’s not all…”

Fronto smiled
broadly.

“
They’re vaguely Romanised Gauls, not citizen
troops!”

Labienus face
slipped into bleak misery.

“
There’ll be fights. Complaints… possibly even fatalities.
We’ll have to keep them apart.”

Pedius shook
his head.

“
No. Integration is the key. I’ve sent them to set up between
the existing legions. They may have a funny accent, but Caesar
levied them months ago. They’ve been well trained by veterans at
Cremona. They’ve all taken the oath. Hell, they think of themselves
as Roman. So does Caesar apparently, so we’d better shift our
perspective a little.”

Such news
apparently did little to raise Labienus’ spirits. Pedius smiled
sadly.

“
There’s two more things yet.”

“
Oh good.”

“
Two letters. Sets of orders in fact, from the general himself.
One for you, and one for Crassus.”

Labienus
sighed.

“
I can’t be bothered to read them right now. Just give me the
highlights.”

Pedius
laughed.

“
Well Crassus’ letter orders him and his Seventh legion out to
the north west. He’s to fortify up at the Gaulish Oppidum they call
Cenabum and monitor the activity of the tribes between there and
the sea. We’ve had word that there’s anti-Roman sentiment growing
in the area.