Hosker, G [Sword of Cartimandua 03] Invasion- Caledonia (16 page)

Decius stopped giving instructions to Quintus Augustus and said, “Are you sure that is wise? Arming them? They could turn nasty.”

Marcus shook his head, “No I have met them and they will not besides can you think of a better way of showing that we trust them? They have no defences if they did rebel Macro could take them with one turma and not suffer a casualty. Trust me Decius this is the right way.”

“Sir?”

The marine stood before Marcus. “Sorry we haven’t got to use you before but we need a message sending to the fleet. Can you do that?”

“Yes sir. They will be off that point,” he gestured to the south, “tomorrow morning.”

“Good I want you to go there and ask them to take these slaves off my hand.  I’ll send the prisoners and guards with you.”

“Yes sir.”

Later that night Marcus wrote up his report for the general. So far it had gone better than expected; if the fleet could take the prisoners off his hands then that would free him up to continue his pacification of the Novontae. Decius joined him with two beakers of wine. “Think we deserve this sir.”

“What was the butcher’s bill?”

“Six men dead. Twenty wounded, two seriously.”

“Too many Decius, too many.”

“But sir we killed over four hundred warriors.”

“We may have to do this ten, twenty times. Do the sums, that would mean we would lose one hundred and twenty dead and four hundred wounded. Could we operate effectively then?”

“But reinforcements sir.”

“You know how long it takes to train a recruit and that is when we are in a permanent camp. Here we are on campaign we can’t afford the time. Next time we use two bolt throwers and double the archers. It might take us a little longer but the barbarians are not the most patient of enemies, I suspect they would not bother to wait for us to attack, they would attack us.”

“Perhaps you are right sir.  It just seems a funny way to win the war.”

The next day after Quintus and Vettius had escorted the prisoners to the fleet Marcus and the rest of the ala headed west. As they passed the four villages which had accepted the peace Marcus was pleased to see them waving. It was a good sign. He suspected that word would have spread from village to village about Sulian’s demise. In one way that was good for it gave out the right message about opposing Rome, on the other hand it warned the two hill forts in the next valley of their imminent arrival. They could have more time to prepare for the Romans and create more problems.

Chapter 11

They had just finished the camp when the two turmae returned with the marine. “Any problems?”

“No it went well. We got some supplies from the captain and we gave him your reports.”

“Good get yourself some food and then come to my tent afterwards to discuss the next phase of the campaign.”

The prefect looked round at his decurions. They had grown into an efficient team. They each had friends they preferred to work with, Agrippa and Lentius, Gaius and Macro, Julius and Decius but they could work with any other decurion. They all deferred to Decius but he never took advantage of that. He saw that they were easy in each other’s company. They joked and laughed and took the ribbing which was inevitable in a male society. He could not ask for better officers.

“Gaelwyn has scouted the two hill forts and it seems that they have got wind of our little incursion. Warriors are pouring in to help defend them. The good part of that is that when we defeat them,” his decurions all grinned at each other when he used the positive words, ‘
when we defeat them’
; it was another sign that they would win, “there will be few enemies left to fight and we should be able to negotiate as young Julius so ably demonstrated the day before yesterday. I will not attack until we have another bolt thrower built and while it is being built I want the willow we saw down by the stream cutting and making into man sized shields, not to hold as a shield but to be a barrier to protect the archers and artillery. If we weave the willow we can still see though it but it should stop the arrows that they use. If we get them finished tomorrow then we attack the day after. Any questions?”

“Sir?”

“Yes Decius?”

“You did mention to me about more archers.”

“Good man! Of course. I want one in two of your men armed with a bow. We know they can use them and it demoralises the enemy. In addition Gaelwyn said that the two hill forts are close enough to support each other which means we will have to watch one while we attack the other. We will have fewer troops available.” He was delighted that the idea did not affect them. They were confident enough that they would succeed, no matter what was thrown at them.

The following day the prefect took Decurion Demetrius and Gaelwyn with him while he confirmed the negotiations at the villages which had acceded to the Roman demands. Decius chivvied and chased the men manufacturing the bolt thrower and spare bolts. The rest of the ala practised with their bows.

“Thank you for taking me along sir.”

“You deserve it Julius.  It was a good idea to offer them peace. The sooner we can pacify this area the sooner we can move on to the harder nut which is Caledonia.”

It was a pleasant day to be riding with a pleasant breeze from the south bringing the tang of the sea. The birds were busily singing and everything was green and lush. The three men found that they did not need speech to fill the silence. Eventually Julius ventured. “Sir do you think I have a future in the auxiliary?”

“You have had a letter from your father.”

“How did you know sir?”

“I knew you had had a letter and you have been a little quieter of late as though debating something.”

“Yes sir.  He thinks I ought to return to Rome and take my place in the Senate or perhaps join one of the Emperor’s legions in the east, where I will attract more attention.”

Marcus pondered this for a few moments. “Both good choices and were you my son and I was an important patrician I might make the same suggestions. The east and the Emperor is where the glory is.  Rome is where the power is.  Here we are a backwater at the end of the civilised world. If you were in the east or Rome you would be amongst civilised peoples with all that attends its, fine food, comfort and the potential for great glory.  Here you will never find glory for who cares about Britannia, apart from the general of course. The diving Claudius used it to get himself a brief moment of glory and then promptly forgot about it.”

“So you are saying Rome or the east is a better choice?” Julius was confused. He had expected the prefect to try to talk him out of a move; perhaps he was not bothered if the young man stayed or not.

“No Julius I am saying if I were your father I would suggest those choices.  As a father you want the best for your son in your world. This is my world Julius. I was taken from my family before my eighth summer.  I have never lived anywhere which is civilised. I have never sought glory, fame or power. For me the First Pannonian Cavalry is all I aspire to. Had my family still been alive I might have said that this was part of my journey to a quiet life raising horses with my son but that can never be.” Julius was touched by the sadness in Marcus’ voice. “As for your question which was have you a future then I will give you a totally different answer. I will give you the answer I would give to any of my young decurions, Gaius, Macro, and Domitius, any of them. You have a future in this ala because this is my family. You especially could rise to the highest rank, you could be prefect but that will never bring with it the status f a legionary posting or the glory of the east nor the power of the Senate. But you do have a future here Julius.  A future with comrades who would fight for you, bleed with you and die for the ala.” He looked at the wide eyed young man.  “Does that answer your question?”

“Yes sir. I will write to my father and tell him I am staying in Britannia.”

“Good for that is the answer I wanted.”

Gaelwyn riding behind them smiled. For a Roman Marcus had much of the Brigante about him. He admired the prefect’s sense of family, not just blood but comrades.  He admired the fact that he fought so hard for what he believed in but most of all he admired him because he cared about everyone.

Late in the afternoon they rode back into the camp. Decius had worked hard and they could see the second bolt thrower being assembled next to a pile of bolts. The Decurion Princeps wandered over to the prefect as he rode in.  “How did it go sir?”

“It went well. Young Demetrius had done the hard part. They seemed to quite like him. Perhaps it is his young innocent face.”

“Good job you didn’t send me then. One sight of this ugly gnarled tree trunk of a face and we would have had a war.”

Marcus laughed. “One thing you will learn as a leader is use the weapons you have to their best advantage. When we attack tomorrow it will be you ugly face which leads it.  I hope to terrify them into submission.”

“Did you visit their fort?”

“Aye. They are about two miles apart. It will be difficult for when we attack one the other can attack us.”

Julius was still with them. “Like Vercingetorix and Caesar at Alesia.”

Decius looked up at him, “What? Where?”

“Julius Caesar was attacking the Gauls at their stronghold and he was surrounded by another Gaulish army. He had to fight on two sides. You know your history Julius.”

“Having been given the name Julius my father made me read the Gallic Wars until I could recite it.”

“You have given me an idea. The two forts face each other. They are like the one we destroyed yesterday, one way in and out. They must have had conflict at some time because the gates face each other.  If we make our camp and siege works between them we can turn the bolt throwers to repel attacks. Well done Julius.  I had, to my shame, forgotten Caesar.” Julius blushed, habit he wished he could lose.  “We will also have to dig some ditches to slow down any counterattack.”

Decius groaned. “Oh for the days when we just rode around on our fat arses admiring the scenery.”

Winking at Julius Marcus said, “Funny that.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well Decius that is what young Julius and I did today and it was very pleasant!”

The column took most of the day to reach the belligerent hill forts. Rather than try the diplomatic route straight away Marcus instead, set half the ala to building a camp equidistant from the two hill forts. The other half remained in readiness for any sortie. The barbarians did indeed jeer and shout but the armed warriors kept them at a distance. With this incentive the troopers worked twice as hard and had the camp erected in a time which impressed even Decius. “Looks like the threat of a Novontae arrow up the arse makes them work harder than my vine staff.”

“I want one in three men on duty tonight Decius.  I know we will have tired men tomorrow but we cannot risk a night attack.”

“I’ll rotate them sir.  If we use the hourglass we can make sure that everyone gets some sleep.”

It was while Agrippa and Lentius were on duty, just before dawn that the attack came. Their attackers came from the hill fort to their left, the one with a chief called Moffat. The warriors approached silently and would have made the vallum had one of the attackers not fallen in the ditch, crying out as he fell. There were many alert defenders and the attack was easily beaten off in a shower of javelins. Later when questioned by Decius about the lack of an alarm for the camp Agrippa explained, “It happened too quickly and they just took off when they found their sneak attack had failed. Sorry sir. Out hands were full but they never even looked like they would get over the ditch let alone the vallum.”

Marcus was pleased that they had repelled the warriors. They took the fifteen bodies from the ditch and slung them on the backs of mules. Marcus and Decius led a turma as an escort for the bodies. They approached Moffat’s hill fort and, outside arrow shot they unloaded them. As a trooper led the mules back Decius, Gaelwyn and Marcus approached the gate.

“No further Roman.”

“We have returned the bodies of those foolish warriors who attacked us last night. It was an unprovoked attack.”

The voice bellowed from the tower. “Unprovoked? You build a fort next to our home and you say you are not provoking us?”

“It is our custom to build camps wherever we travel. Our friends do not find it worrying.”

“We are not your friends. Take your customs back over the river to the cowards who like you. We do no not and we want nothing to do with you.”

“Many villages nearby believe we are friends. They have welcomed Rome.”

“Did Sulian welcome Rome? No and where are his bones now? I do not trust you Roman. Now leave my land before we destroy you.”

“I will give you the same warning I gave Sulian. Join with us and become part of Rome; receive the benefits civilisation brings or fight us and all your warriors will be destroyed and your people sold into slavery.”

“Brave words from a handful of horse soldiers. We will fight you and we will keep our freedom.”

“I am sorry to here that Chief Moffat for this will be the last time we will talk. You have just signed your own death warrant.”

As they rode back they heard the gates open and their warriors race out to claim the bodies of their dead.

“Well you warned him fair and square sir.”

“They will fight prefect. While you were talking I could see warriors arming and preparing to attack.”

“Thank you Gaelwyn. Decius as soon as we get back I want two turmae as a mounted response. The rest can dig a ditch, about here. That should be out of arrow range. When that is complete bring up the bolt throwers, wicker protection and the archers we will start the bombardment as we did at Sulian’s.  You can then dig another ditch four hundred paces from the other side of the camp just in case Caolan’s warriors decide to take advantage of our assault. Let Lentius watch that side.”

The barbarians had never witnessed siege works before and they did not know how to react. Inside his stronghold Moffat was having an argument with his headstrong young warriors. “I have seen Romans fight before and they are well organised. They do not fight as we do. Keep to the plan. When they attack us Caolan will attack them while they attack us.”