Hosker, G [Sword of Cartimandua 03] Invasion- Caledonia (32 page)

Julius entered the decurion tent which had been erected in their new camp.  Gaius was sat on his cot and they were alone. “It is good to be back eh Gaius?”

“What, er yes, good to be back.”

Julius stripped off his mail and when he looked up Gaius was still sat turning his pugeo over and over. “What is it Gaius? Are you troubled?”

Gaius looked up, almost seeing the affable young patrician for the first time. “Julius I am troubled. I feel… that is it I don’t know what I feel but I think it is confusion.”

“Ah, “Julius smiled. “Is is Ailis?”

Startled Gaius dropped his knife which Julius picked up and returned to him.  “It is but how did you know?”

Julius smiled, “I think every trooper in the ala knows Gaius.”

“Knows what Julius?”

“That you long for Ailis.”

“How..? But…”

“Have you told her yet?”

“Told her what?”

“That you, that you have feelings for her?”

“I couldn’t do that she might laugh at me.”

“She will not laugh at you believe me besides if you do tell her and she laughs at least you will know but I will wager all my pay for the next two years that she will not.”

Gaius looked up.  Julius never ever gambled. “You are sure?”

“I may be wrong on many things but in this? I am sure.”

The Governor had used the last of the luxuries brought from Rome to provide the food for the feast with the prefects. He asked for Marcus to sit by him as they ate and he questioned him about the province and Marcus’ role in its conquest.  When he had finished he nodded. “You are a man of Britannia as I am.” He looked around and then dropped his voice. “You know that my grandfather was the last King of Britannia?”

“You are the grandson of Cunobelinus?”

“You are the first to know of him.  How did you hear of him?”

“Queen Cartimandua told me of him and then her sister, my wife Macha told my son of the tales of the kings of Britannia.”

“Ah yes.  I am sorry for your loss so you understand my love for this land and that I intended to make it a peaceful country again.”

“Yes.  General Agricola came so close to succeeding.  No offence sir.  When he left the task was unfinished.”

“I take no offence Julius is a great general and I agree with you.  Some say there was jealousy. I prefer to believe that they needed his skills elsewhere.  They were wrong for he should have finished his appointed task here. And now I am to do it with fewer troops.”

“You have a hard task Governor.”

“We have a hard task Prefect for I will be relying on you and your love for Britannia.”

“Governor I would like to retire.  I am no longer a young man and the conquest of the north is a task for a young man. There must be many young men you could appoint to be prefect.  Young men with the energy, drive and ambition that an old man does not have.”

The governor became agitated.  “No, no.  I beg of you.  Just perform one task for me and I will grant you your wish. I had hoped that you would return to the land of the Novontae and build forts to protect the people.”

“You have other auxiliary forces that could carry out the task.”

“True they could carry out the task of building the forts but could they manage the people? Could they protect the people? No that is a task for Marcus Horse and Prefect Marcus.” He paused and spoke quietly again. “I will find a replacement for you and you can train him.  Will you do that for me?”

Marcus found that he like this earnest and passionate man and he remembered the chiefs of the Novontae whom he had promised peace to.  Many of them lay dead, slaughtered by Calgathus’ raiders. He owed it to them. “I will do as you wish sir.  I will pacify the land of the Novontae.”

When they had finished eating the Governor tapped the table with the hilt of his dagger.  “We now come to the main purpose of this gathering although I assume you have all enjoyed the food and the wine.”

“Excellent!”

“Delicious!”

“Make the most of it for I fear they will be the last luxuries for some time.  We will also be losing some of our soldiers to fortify the rest of the Empire.  For the moment the Ninth will be the only legion north of Deva and Lindum.” he pointed to the map, “as you can see now that the fleet has mapped out the island we can see that the Ninth is the legion in half of the province, the half which has yet to be conquered.”

Strabo leaned over to Decius Brutus and said sotto voce, “And you complained about not having enough action!”

“My intention is to send the Batavians and a cohort of the Ninth along the east and north valleys to establish order. Finish the task so admirably started by Perfect Maximunius.  It is infantry country perfectly suited to auxiliaries with legionary support. The Tungrians and the remainder of the Ninth will establish forts along this valley and pacify the tribes in this low lying land. Prefect Maximunius will build a fort in the land of the Novontae.  His task is Herculean I am afraid.  I wish Marcus’ Horse to patrol from coast to coast and prevent incursions by the Caledonii.”

“Well that is easy isn’t it?  It isn’t as though he has given us a hard task has he? Just control the whole of the Novontae and Votadini, not to mention Carvetii and Brigante with less than a thousand men.”

“Don’t forget the fort Decius.  We have to build a fort as well.”

“This gets better and better.” His sarcastic rant over Decius watched the prefect’s face for a clue as to his opinion.  “You seem calm about the whole thing.  Have you put retirement to one side then?”

“No I am still going to retire when I have built the fort and a new prefect appointed.  Do not worry Decius it will not be you.  He wants a younger man.”

“Thank the Allfather for that.” He swallowed a draught from his beaker. “I have been thinking about retirement.  You know you made sense. I just need to find something I could do that wouldn’t make me want to swallow poison.  When you go, I will go.”

“Excellent Decius it would be good to finish the job as we started it, together.”

As they toasted each other the sentry outside said, “Visitor sir.”

“Come in.”

Gaius entered looking both bewildered and apprehensive. “Could I have a word sir?” Decius began to rise. “No Decius I think you might stay.  It might help having my old decurion here.”

“This sounds serious Gaius, take a seat.”

“If you don’t mind sir I’ll stand.”

“Well come on man get it out.”

“Sir I would like permission to marry the, your cousin Ailis.  I realise that marriage is frowned on below the rank of centurion but I wondered sir if you could make an exception because, well sir I want to marry her and…” he began to tail off lamely and then added as a final selling point, “Gaelwyn approves sir.”

They were both desperate to laugh but Gaius suddenly looked like the young boy he had once been and always would be to Marcus. The prefect could see how earnest and serious he was.

“Well if Gaelwyn says he is happy I am certainly not going to risk the old man’s wrath besides, “ he added seriously, “I think it is the best news I have had in a long time and it seems appropriate that we will be returning to the land of Ailis.”

The rest of the evening passed in a drunken blur as the three men celebrated in true auxiliary style.

Epilogue

The wedding was a family affair, a Marcus’ Horse family affair. The whole of the ala witnessed the simple ceremony. Gaelwyn told the decurions about the Brigante custom of bringing gifts so that the couple gained more material objects than either had ever owned.  Gaelwyn, to Decius’ delight, cried like a baby and kept clasping Marcus calling him ‘brother’. As the gifts were given Marcus waited in his dress uniform looking resplendent.  When the couple had received all their presents Marcus walked up to the couple. He leaned down and kissed Ailis on the forehead. Years ago I resigned myself to a life without a family and suddenly I have a cousin, a beautiful cousin and I have in my family a man I would be proud to call son.” He then embraced Gaius who himself was fighting back tears.  Decius sniffed loudly and coughed.  Julius and macro smiled as they down on the sentimental old Decurion Princeps. “Finally I have my gift.” He drew out the Sword of Cartimandua and, turning the hilt towards Gaius said. “This is the Sword of Cartimandua.  This is the sword of the Brigante Royal family.  The Queen gave it into the keeping of her warrior Ulpius Felix; when he lay dying he entrusted it to me for my wife was of the Brigante royal family.  I had thought to take the sword with me to my grave but now I can give to you Gaius for now you are married to the Brigante Royal family and one day your son will have the sword which is rightfully his.”

Before Gaius could refuse the hilt was pressed into his palm and the ala roared out “Marcus! Marcus!”

Outside in the forest Calgathus, Tully and Lulach lay hidden. “What is that? Is it an attack?”

“No my son.  It is the Roman’s celebrating because they think they have won but they have not.  You two have shown me the way we can beat these Romans not in one almighty battle where they can slaughter our men but in pin pricks. In annoying attacks. In battles where they have not had time to prepare.  By attacking those outposts where there are few defenders. We will send our warbands back to the lands of the Novontae and beyond to the land of the Brigante.  We will spread their soldiers so thinly that a warband of women could destroy them.  Today we begin to re-take our land.  Today we begin to free Caledonia.”

Names and places in this novel

Fictional names and places are italicised

Gnaeus Julius Agricola- Roman General and Governor of Britannia from 77 AD to 85 AD

Quintus Petilius Cerialis- Governor of Britannia before Agricola

Marcus Maenius Agrippa- Commander of the Classis Britannica

King Tuanthal Teachtmhar – an exiled Irish king

Sallustius Lucullus
(Grandson of King Cunobelinus) - the governor who succeeded Agricola

King Cunobelinus (Shakespeare’s Cymbeline) - King of Britain who fled to Rome in exile

Marcus Aurelius Maximunius
- Decurion Princeps Pannonian cavalry

Decius Flavius
- Decurion Pannonian cavalry

Julius Demetrius
- Decurion Pannonian cavalry

Gaius Metellus Aurelius
- Decurion Pannonian cavalry

Ailis
- Macha’s cousin

Metellus Glabrio
- Decurion Pannonian cavalry

Cominius Sura
- Prefect Batavian auxiliary

Metellus Gabrus
- Prefect Gallic cavalry

Furius Strabo
- Prefect Batavian Auxiliary

Tulius Broccus
- Prefect of the Ninth Hispana

Macro
- Sergeant, weapon trainer Pannonian Cavalry

Fainch
- Druidic Priestess and witch

Cassius Bassus
- Prefect Gallorum Auxiliary

Caolan
- Novontae war chief

Centurion Aurelius
- trainer for the Usipi

Gwynfor
- king of the Ordovices

Gryffydd
- son of Gwynfor

Agrippa
- Decurion Pannonian cavalry

Inir
- Ordovice warband chief

Adelmar-
Usipi warrior

Pugeo – Roman soldier’s dagger

Bodotria Fluvium- Forth River

Brocavum- Brougham

Caerhun- A settlement close to Conwy (this becomes the Roman fort of Canovium)

Clota Fluvium – River Clyde

Coriosopitum (Corio) - Corbridge

Danum- Doncaster

Derventio- Malton

Deva- Chester

Dunum Fluvius- River Tees

Eboracum- York

Glanibanta- Ambleside

Hen Waliau- Caernarfon

Luguvalium - Carlisle

Mamucium – Manchester

Mona- Holyhead

Morbium- Piercebridge

Taus- the river Solway

Vindonnus- Celtic god of hunting

Wyddfa- Snowdon

Decurion Princeps- senior office in an ala

Author’s Note

One again this is a work of fiction. All the Roman army elements served in Britain at roughly the time the book is set. There are Roman settlements and forts at all the named places. Julius Agricola did lead a force of mainly auxiliaries with a cohort of legionaries to defeat the Ordovices after they destroyed a cavalry squadron.  When Agricola invaded Mona he did have his auxiliaries swim across the Menai Straits. I must confess how they did this with armour is a mystery and Tacitus does not enlighten us.  I have come up with my own solution.

The problem we have with Agricola is that we know what we do because of his son in law Tacitus who annoyingly rarely writes sequentially and never dates events there we have to speculate about many of the events. History is written by the winners; this is as true now as it was it Roman times and when the historian is your son in law one can expect a certain amount of exaggeration. Agricola was appointed to be Governor of Gallia Aquitania but it coincides with an appointment to Rome and overlaps with his time as Governor of Britannia; therefore I have used writer’s licence with the dates.

Holyhead Island is now connected to the island of Anglesey but in Roman times it was a separate entity with the southernmost part being what is now Trearrdur. This is known as Holyhead Island. The cliffs would not have been steep and the water between the two islands would have been easy to cross at low tide. The people of Mona believed in the power of the land which superseded its lack of defensive qualities.

Agricola was certainly an innovative general; the only legion he took whilst campaigning in the north was the Ninth, largely based at Carlisle. The incident with the cavalry rescuing the Ninth from an attack on their camp actually took place as did the mutiny of German Auxiliaries. The use of the fleet, the Classis Britannica, to supply the army was also an actual event and did of course result in the discovery by Agricola that Britain was an island. The site of the battle in which the Scots were finally defeated has never been accurately pinpointed and I have just used a best guess principle. Tacitus constantly talks of Agricola commanding but as auxiliaries were not legionaries it is highly likely he would have delegate command. Certainly he had to, when advancing across so large an area, use and trust his subordinate commanders. The campaigns against the Novontae are notable for the mixture of diplomacy and war. Siege works were found around hill forts but the lack of major archaeological evidence suggests that the people accepted Roman rule well. The naming of units after their commander was not new, Indus Horse was a famous unit from Caesar’s time; as Agricola was known for his touch with the men this seemed an appropriate reward.