Legatus Legionis: Book Two in the Gaius Claudius Scaevola Trilogy (33 page)

Gaius was quite surprised to hear the news about Vibius; he had assumed that once he left the Fulminata, Vibius would forget about him, but apparently that was not so. Assuming the prophecy was wrong and he did return to Rome, he would have to ensure that he did something to help Vibius' career. He was also interested to learn that Vipsania believed that most of the senators accompanying this expedition were as likely as not to have been forming plots to get rid of Claudius. Perhaps he should invite some of the Senators to accompany squads of men on raiding parties, to see what action was really like. The downside, of course, was that the soldiers would feel they had to protect the Senators, which might put them in unnecessary danger, for he had no faith in the Senators' ability to look after themselves once politics became irrelevant.

All the same, he could publicly make an offer to them! Simply watching them try to worm out of it would be extremely satisfying, both to himself and to Claudius.

* * *

Moving a Legion was a ponderous business, but Gaius had made it very clear that he wanted the twentieth to be the fastest to get up and go. Accordingly, the twentieth was the first to head north, needless to say, without any of the Senators.

On the eve of departure, the Legates and the Senators were invited by Claudius to a dinner so the Senators could better get to know the Legates. The formal objective had been a clear failure, although the real objective was almost certainly a success. After the first of the entrees, and when wine was flowing, many of the Senators began making blustering claims to knowledge of matters military, most of which led to less than polite sniggers from the Legates of the ninth and fourteenth.

However, Gaius got to his feet and praised them, and thanked them for their offerings. He was most certain that the
Princeps
would be most pleased to take advantage of their profound knowledge. At this point the other Legates gave Gaius disparaging sneers: you crawling political worm! But Gaius continued: the one weakness they had was that of operational matters, but he offered them the chance to rectify that, and at the same time demonstrate their courage and skill at these matters. The other Legates now gave Gaius looks of disbelief. Gaius continued by proposing that the Senators, particularly Vinicianus, who had been one of the louder ones, accompany the twentieth.

"We are going to send Centuries on raiding missions on small villages," he explained. "If you like to accompany us, you can see real action. We'll give you a horse, a lance, and fit you up with armour. There's no better place to watch a battle than right in the middle of it!"

While the Legates now could hardly contain their laughter, with much hemming and hawing, the Senators declined.

"You mean," frowned the Legate of the fourteenth, "you refuse to give our men the benefit of your expertise in the field?"

"Pigshit! They haven't got any and they know it!" the Legate of the ninth snarled. "Look, come with us, and we'll give you some real experience. Proper uniforms, and we'll put you in the front line. Then you can come face to face with these Celts you seem to denigrate, and buy yourselves bragging rights for years describing how you actually killed some Celts instead of sitting on your arses on the back seats."

"So, here you are," Gaius continued. "Three Legions are offering you the opportunity to get some genuine battlefield experience. What I suggest is that those of you who would prefer to fight from horseback present themselves to Lucius Matius, who will sell you a horse and equipment, the proceeds of the sale going to the disabled soldier's fund for the twentieth. Those of you who would prefer to fight on foot should go to whomever Claudius nominates."

"It's all f for a good c c cause," Claudius offered. "Of c course if you want t to get out of f fighting, a g generous donation to th the p p pension fund for the soldiers w will be accepted." Despite the stuttering, the implication was quite clear: you will now pay for your boasting, or demonstrate there was something behind it. In the spirit of Little Boots, Claudius continued by pointing out he would judge what was genuinely generous, and failure to be generous would lead to an order to fight in a position he nominated, donation or no donation. Considerable amounts of gold were transferred to the soldiers' pension fund, and the Senators were notable for their lack of boasting about military matters thereafter. The senators also began to realize that with three legions prepared to enforce Claudius' imperium, disobeying Claudius right now was not a very good idea.

The twentieth made good progress the first day, but there was virtually no opposition. The next day they split to take four small villages, where the cohorts met only perfunctory resistance at best. This was repeated the following day. As Gaius noted, the villages were small, there were very few soldiers there, and those that were wisely fled once the Romans came into view, or quickly surrendered when it was apparent that their village was an objective. Claudius' policy was firm; a quick surrender guaranteed very favourable treatment. Pillage was strictly forbidden, and once disarmed, the villagers quickly returned to the problems of preparing themselves for the oncoming winter. Acceptance of Roman domination meant that nobody would be enslaved, and, as it turned out, the taxes Rome wanted were no worse, and often better, than the payments Caratacus had demanded.

Some of the soldiers thought that this was too easy, and there was no real fighting. However, as Gaius pointed out to the Tribunes, Caratacus' economic base was disappearing before his eyes; in a week all he would have was a city, a number of soldiers, but no food. He might consider himself a chief or king, but he would only be in charge of problems. Then he would have to fight, but he would fight on Rome's terms.

The march was north and northwest, which left Caratacus' capital unchallenged, but it was an increasingly isolated island in a sea of Roman domination. Finally, the twentieth turned to the East, and on the early afternoon of the last day of the week, the walls of Camulodunum could be seen.

"So, what do you think?" Gaius turned towards Matius.

"I think Caratacus is a fool," Matius replied. "Right now there is one legion in front of him. In another day or so, there will be two more. He should come out and fight now, because it isn't going to get any easier."

"Quite so," Gaius agreed. "What Caratacus thinks is that it will be easier to fight defensively, and that his walls will stop us."

"Then he needed much bigger stone walls," Matius shrugged. "Those walls will take no more than an hour or so to breach."

"Yes, but they would have been more than adequate for any previous battles with other Celts, who don't have our siege engines," Gaius said. "The lesson here that he has yet to learn is that you shouldn't decide your strategy until you know exactly the strengths and weaknesses of your opponent, how he will fight, and what he can achieve that way."

"He won't have seen Roman soldiers before," Matius agreed. "This will be a surprise."

"Perhaps, but he should have tried to gain more knowledge," Gaius pointed out. "In this case, the Roman army hasn't changed much for a century, and he knew about Julius' landing in Britain. If he didn't know how to get around that, he shouldn't have ever contemplated fighting."

"He hasn't had a lot of choice, once we landed," Matius pointed out.

"All he had to do was ally with us before, and this wouldn't have happened."

"That doesn't necessarily follow," Matius countered, then began to look a little apologetic, as he realized that going against his commander might not be a good idea.

"You're free to say what you like," Gaius smiled. "I started this conversation to find out what sort of a commander you'll make if given the chance. So what doesn't necessarily follow?"

"That Claudius wouldn't have invaded anyway. Little Boots set an example, and Claudius needs a victory, and, well, Britain is here, and . . ."

"You may be right," Gaius nodded. "Can you think of anything else?"

"Just one thing," Matius said, then began looking a little embarrassed.

"Which is?"

"You said, sir, that if Caratacus didn't know how to get around the Roman methods, he shouldn't have ever contemplated fighting."

"So?"

"Strictly speaking," Matius continued, "we don't know he hasn't got something up his sleeve. We don't know . . ."

"You're quite correct," Gaius nodded. "Strictly speaking, we don't know he hasn't got some secret weapon, or tactic, or something that will beat us. So what do you suggest?"

"We get on and fight anyway. We can't just turn up and not do anything in case, well . . ."

"Quite correct. As an aside, what do you think the likelihood of Caratacus having such a secret way of beating us?"

"Pretty close to zero, sir."

"So you won't bet on Caratacus?" Gaius grinned.

"No, sir."

"Neither would I," Gaius agreed. "Now, your job in the near future is to get the cavalry ready. I know, cavalry doesn't charge city walls, but we have to assume that there will be fighting or fleeing in the open, and you have to be ready."

"We are ready, sir, but yes, there will be more drills, to get even readier."

"I'm sure you are ready," Gaius nodded, and patted him on the shoulder. "Now, get the other Tribunes together, and tell the scouts I need a report as quickly as possible on what we know about the Celtic defences."

Chapter 26

The Celtic defence appeared to comprise walls around the city, with an outer wooden palisade, then beyond that, a deep ditch with the earth heaped into a mound on the outside. Numerous wooden lances were embedded in this mound, to offer some defence against a massive cavalry charge, although as Matius pointed out, a cavalry charge against a deep ditch was unprofitable anyway, because the horses had to be almost stationary to prevent them falling in and breaking their legs. This ditch went from the edges of a marsh that ran down to the river behind the town, and around to the edge of the essentially impenetrable thicket.

"That ditch happens to be quite convenient for us," Gaius said. "Now, I want fortifications dug along a line here," he said, pointing to a hand-drawn map.

"Isn't that too far away for us to use artillery?" one of the Tribunes asked.

"Yes, it is," Gaius nodded. "The idea is that the distance should be such that our artillery can send only small loads into that trench, and nothing into the city. Now, over here, we shall build a grandstand for the Senators, so they can watch what is going on. The
Gemina Martia
will continue these trenches out to here," he said, again pointing to the map.

"I don't understand," one of the Tribunes said. "Why don't we get closer?"

"So that Caratacus will think we have made a mistake," Gaius explained.

"Suppose we had, then what?"

"Our next move," Gaius continued, "would be to rectify the mistake, which we would do by taking their trench. If we did that, we could bring up the onagers, and smash their walls, and it would be all over."

"So why don't we?"

"Because this isn't just about defeating Caratacus," Gaius smiled. "What I want is for the Senators to start those sort of questions. I want the Senators to start questioning these tactics right now.

"What I then expect to happen," Gaius continued, "is that the Celts will realize that they can't afford for us to march up to their trench and capture it, which we just about could right now, and bring up our onagers. So what I expect they will do is to man their trench with everyone they've got, to repel us if we try."

In the event, Gaius was proven right: within an hour, Celts poured from the city gates and began manning the trenches.

Gaius was also correct with the Senators' reaction. They met together for a meal, and Vinicianus and several others immediately began complaining about lost opportunities. There had been an hour during which the twentieth could have marched up and may well have captured the relatively lightly defended trench. A deputation was sent to Claudius, who refused to see them, and sent them instead to the military commanders.

"So, you've rediscovered some military skill?" Gaius smiled. "There's still time for you to get equipped and . . ."

"You know as well as I do Senators don't fight with common soldiers," Vinicianus scowled, "but that doesn't mean we have to turn down opportunities because you couldn't get off your arse quickly enough."

"So you think that was an opportunity?" Gaius asked.

"It's obvious! If you take that trench, we bring the onagers up and pound down the walls, and the city is ours."

"How many enemy troops were in the trench?"

"I don't know! You're the one that . . ."

"So you send a legion forward against an unknown enemy? How long do you think it would take to get the legions assembled to march forward?"

"I don't know, but weren't they marching anyway?"

"Yes, but you still have to assemble properly to attack a fixed defence," Gaius said. "Now, how long do you think it would take the enemy to come out and fill the trench?"

"Well, it took them an hour. Surely we could have got there in less than that?"

"Yes, but they only took an hour when it became obvious we weren't going to do what you suggest. Had we marched forward, they might have done something quite different."

"So what? We still have to fight them."

"Yes, we do, on our terms," Gaius said. "If we do what you wanted, suppose we take the trench. You would have our men in that trench about thirty meters from the palisade?"

"Well, why not?"

"How many of our legion?"

"What do you mean, how many?"

"All of it? A cohort? What?"

"All of it. We don't want to let them come and massacre a cohort."

"So instead, they start propelling boiling pitch into the trench and seriously injure a legion?"

"They won't do that."

"How do you know?"

"Well . . ."

"I think we can thank you for your military expertise. In the next few days you will see how it should really be done."