Legatus Legionis: Book Two in the Gaius Claudius Scaevola Trilogy (37 page)

"Then I'll . . ."

"I've got a better idea."

"I can't let them . . ."

"Of course you can't, but look at it this way. Your tribe has to pay taxes to Rome, but it can be in kind. Bundle them off as slaves, and with a bit of luck, that'll cover a couple of years of taxes for everybody, and because everybody who's not involved benefits, they'll all be on your side."

"I suppose they would," the Chief nodded.

"What everybody has to see," Gaius continued, "is that they benefit from accepting the Roman presence, and taking advantage of it."

"I suppose," came the less than convinced response.

"Time for you to think about how you can benefit. You realize where you are?"

"Here?" came the puzzled response.

"On the banks of a large river, which happens to be the best, if not the only safe harbour in storms on the lower east coast," Gaius explained. "Now, there are a small number of your men learning how to construct the bridge. You should arrange for them to build a wharf where ships can safely dock, then you can start trading. Shortly, someone I know is coming from Rome, and he will set you up with contacts. You can make a lot of money from this, if you do things properly. Assuming you are interested, that is?"

"I am. I'm very interested."

"Good! Now you should share with the men who will build your wharf, firstly because I want you to reward people who are helping Rome, and secondly because if you don't, they could build another one downstream, which would leave you in unnecessary competition."

"And you?"

"Those men will build a wharf," Gaius smiled, "and I shall personally pay them to build warehouses behind the wharf. I am hoping we can come to amicable agreements as to how to use the wharf and warehouses."

"Of course we can," the Chief nodded. From his point of view, he now understood the deal. As Gaius noted later, had he said all this was for the good of the Celts, or whatever, he would never have been believed. Once he could see a motive that he understood, compliance was no problem. There was a further issue. To do a business deal with an army Legate could never be bad; nobody would dare try stand-over tactics, because no group of criminals could exert more force than a legion. Celts threatening Celts was of little interest to anyone, but Celts threatening Roman interests could lead to slavery or the cross. This was a way of cementing in power and wealth.

* * *

Gradually, the days became longer, the storms less frequent, and ships came from Gaul with additional supplies. It also brought a visit from Plautius, who wished to know how the bridge was progressing.

"Why don't you come and see for yourself?" Gaius suggested. Since Plautius insisted on taking a small group of soldiers who had escorted him, for the sake of formality, Gaius took a similar group of his own soldiers. The bridge was not yet finished, but the pontoons were lashed in place and enough support was in place that a party could cross the river.

"I've also got the Celts to join in the construction, and they are building wharves, and if you look over there, there's a ship unloading right now."

"Well done," Plautius nodded. "You've got all the makings of a transport centre here." He paused, and saw the expression on Gaius' face change. "You see something?"

"Someone," Gaius nodded. "A very good friend." He turned to an
Optio
and said, "See that older man struggling with those crates? He's a very good friend of mine. Send some men down there to give him a hand, and escort him to my hut. When he gets there, make sure he gets some wine."

"Yes sir!" the
Optio
nodded, and took six men with him. Plautius continued examining details of the bridge construction, an act that amused Gaius because he was convinced that Plautius really knew very little about engineering or bridge construction, still he seemed favourably impressed, and his rank gave him the right to waste a little time. Gaius looked over to wharf, and smiled as Timothy seemed to step back to catch his breath, and when Timothy looked up, he waved to him. Timothy seemed to notice the bridge for the first time, and he waved back. Timothy then turned back towards his crate, then looked up, seemed to freeze, then he turned and ran towards the bridge. Two men with knives drawn charged after him. Gaius stared at them; he almost seemed to recognize one of them, but from where?

The two men were clearly more athletic than Timothy was, and it was obvious that they would easily overtake him, but fortunately Timothy had run in the best direction. When the two men saw the seven Roman soldiers, it was equally obvious to them that charging towards seven Roman soldiers with drawn weapons was less than a good idea. They turned and ran towards the north.

The
Optio
grasped Timothy, assured him he was safe, then he sent four men after the other two, however heavy infantry are not fast pursuers, and the men escaped.

Meanwhile, Gaius had excused himself from Plautius and had run towards Timothy.

"You're safe now," he assured the still-panting Timothy. "Who were they, and why were they after you?"

"It's all about the corn," Timothy gasped.

"You mean, they were stealing it?" Gaius shook his head doubtfully.

"Nobody was stealing the corn," Timothy replied. "What happened was this. I informed Quintus that I was going to watch the corn being unloaded at Ostia, I did, and nobody did anything to it. My first thought was that Quintus must be responsible, but I later found that according to the accounts, the corn was still going missing. There was one more shipload coming, so I changed plan. It occurred to me that the right amount of corn might be coming ashore at Ostia, but someone was simply stealing the money later and changing the accounts, so on the last shipment I hid near the granary. The corn arrived, I watched it being recorded, and once it was stored, I sneaked in and brought the records from Ostia. They were ten per cent different. It was then that the two men who had recorded the grain returned. Apparently one had left something behind, and they saw me. Of course, I also saw them. They must have decided that I knew, because they came after me. Fortunately, whatever they forgot was deeper in the granary, and I managed to duck around some sacks and get to the door. I got out and ran, and a couple of soldiers saw me. At that point I thought I was safe."

"So, you think they recognized you?"

"Definitely."

"Do you know who they were?" Gaius asked.

"I had seen them before," Timothy nodded. "One of them was one of Quintus' slaves, and the other I had seen before with Vipsania's father."

"Were either there today?"

"The thinner one was. He pointed me out to the other, who I'd never seen before."

"Optio, get someone to find Matius, and tell him I want some cavalry to go chasing those two. The leaders should come here for a description of who they're looking for." Gaius turned to Timothy, and indicated he should continue.

"I didn't know what to do," Timothy explained. "The man who had been associated with Vipsania's father presumably knew where she was, so it would have been easy for him to ambush me if I went back there. I had to escape, so I came here."

"As did they," Gaius mused, "still I suppose if they knew who you were, it wasn't too difficult to work out you might come here."

"What's it all mean?" Timothy asked.

"I don't know," Gaius admitted. "It could be someone stealing money, but I'm starting to think there's more to it. With Vipsania's father's acquaintance involved, and that soldier who was going to kill you, I'm beginning to suspect the theft was to raise money for another plot."

"How do you know he was a soldier?" Timothy asked.

"I thought I recognized him before," Gaius explained, "except I couldn't remember where. Now I do. He was the soldier that escaped from that time when they tried to coerce me into that ridiculous plot to get rid of Claudius."

"So you think they're still at it?"

"Someone is," Gaius said. "That soldier took a real risk coming here, because if I saw him, he was dead. He wouldn't take a risk like that simply to silence someone who was a witness to someone else stealing money. No, your problem wasn't that you saw the theft; it was that you saw who did it."

"So, what now?"

"We try and capture them. They're not Celts, so they'll have trouble hiding, but I suppose on the other side of the coin, the Celts hardly like us either, so maybe they'll get help. We'll just have to wait and see."

In the event, the men seemed to escape. As Gaius knew only too well, a few gold coins would buy a lot of protection, and probably a fishing boat would be only too happy to take two men over to Gaul.

The incident led to an irritation for Gaius, for if someone was carrying out organized theft to raise money for another move to overthrow Claudius, then it was quite likely this theft was widespread. He should write to Claudius and warn him that there were further moves against him, but what did he really know? Messala's ex-slave and a soldier known to have been a conspirator were involved, but was Messala? That was possible, but hardly proven because if Messala had used this man before, other conspirators would know of his involvement and could encourage, or even force the man to comply with the new conspirators' demands.

Quintus' slave was involved, but was Quintus? He was quite prepared to believe Quintus was inept, or that he was not very good at keeping vital information secret, but that did not make him a conspirator. That Quintus was married to Lucilla meant that he had to be very careful not to make wrongful accusations.

Then there was Vipsania. Was it possible that he was wrong about her after all? He was only too well aware that thinking like this was a poison, but it was a poison he could not leave alone.

There were letters from Vipsania. They seemed so innocent, he felt so badly about his suspecting her, but he could not let it go. The news from the estate passed over him, he had little enthusiasm for the news of the
Princeps'
court, all he could do was look for clues. His mood finally lifted a little through some quite perverse news:

Speaking of Quintus, I gather he has a new scheme in mind. As you will know, one of the reasons for invading Britain was to secure a supply of tin. Apparently tin is found in the extreme southwest, which is where Vespasianus is heading with the Augusta. I think Quintus thinks he can cash in on the very distant relationship and become the major trader in tin. It will be particularly interesting to see what Claudius thinks of that.

Gaius smiled to himself. Quintus was probably going to be out of luck. It was true that military invasions brought the opportunities for riches, but those opportunities did not involve the reason for the action in the first place. If Claudius invaded this island to secure the supply of tin, Claudius would know of its value, and he would have first say as to who had the right to develop it. If Claudius wanted to be generous, he would offer it to senators, to make such senators beholden to him. Still, an interest in tin was harmless enough, and it was possible Quintus could get involved since while Claudius would control the supply of tin, there were many things that could be done with it, and guaranteed access to some tin could bring riches. Since his engine would require quite a lot of bronze, maybe he should take some interest in tin as well. If Vipsania's letter was to be believed, Claudius might grant him some rights to tin or bronze! He glanced through the rest, then his eyes caught the last lines:

Spring will be coming soon, which means a return to campaigning. May the Gods be with you, and bring you victories quickly.

And bring him back to Rome, except the prophecy said he would not return to Rome until Rome fell. That would mean that something quite remarkable was going to happen in the coming year.

Chapter 29

Spring! The breakout was underway. The ninth was now marching north with the east coast on its right flank. Vespasian, having now successfully secured Cogidumnus as a client king and thus having appropriate control over the tribes to his rear, was now marching westward, the south coast on his left flank. The fourteenth was to strike out northwest to the lands of the Cornovii. Its primary role was to secure the left flank of the ninth and also to provide support for Cartimandua, Queen of the Brigantes, who had wisely elected to side with Rome. The twentieth, less a cohort left behind to maintain security at Camulodunum and the Thames harbour, was marching between the second and the fourteenth, directly towards the Dobunni.

Progress for the twentieth was rapid, as the first advance was through the land of the Atrebates, who, in the main, were allied to Rome. However, just as the British as a whole were not united against Rome, tribes of the Atrebates were not united for Rome, and this meant there would be the occasional skirmish. Roman policy was clear here. Tribes that rebelled would be punished mercilessly, but loyal tribes would be encouraged to be loyal. Recalling both Athene's prophecy and Rebecca's advice, Gaius implemented his own policy: after quashing the initial resistance, tribes were advised to become loyal, and if they took the advice, he would overlook the initial resistance. As he explained to Timothy, who was now accompanying him, he saw no reason to impose unnecessary slavery, nor to generate unnecessary hatred. This gave Timothy a slightly misguided feeling of pleasure, for he had initially railed against slavery when he had taught Gaius, and he felt this beneficial outcome was due to his own teaching.

* * *

Gaius strode into one of the villages that had offered particularly stiff resistance. Celtic women and children were cowering against a wall, while the remaining men were herded into a fenced enclosure. There was a noise on his left, and he turned to see a Celt shielding a young girl with his body, while threatening a soldier with a hammer used for beating metal.

"Stop!" Gaius commanded. "Soldier, step back for a minute. You, put down that hammer!"