Marius' Mules II: The Belgae (57 page)

Pomponius
grinned.

“
With pleasure, sir. I’ve had just about all I can take of
drainage diagrams for one evening.”

“
Drainage diagrams?” Labienus raised his eyebrows. “I wasn’t
even aware there was such a thing.”

Pomponius
laughed lightly.

“
How else would we know where to put the pipes and what
diameter of pipe to requisition from the smiths?”

“
Pi…” Labienus shook his head. Time to give that up. Every
question with this young man led to more and more unfathomable
information.

“
Walk with me.”

He turned and
strode down the via principalis toward the west gate, the engineer
falling in alongside him.

“
You’ve seen enough now of Belgic and Gallic oppida to have
formed an opinion of their own construction techniques?”

“
Yes, sir.” The young man nodded.

“
And?”

“
Good grief, sir. How long have you got?”

“
Just in brief, Pomponius.”

“
Well, sir… they’re quite advanced for a so-called barbarian
culture. They know about structural supports, drainage,
load-bearing, and all sorts. Nowhere near our levels, but they have
some intriguing ideas and certainly a grip on the
basics.”

Labienus
nodded. They were approaching the gate now.

“
If they were willing to do so, do you think it would be
possible for you and some of the more engineering-oriented men to
teach these barbarians more than the rudimentary basics; how to
produce an aqueduct, for example?”

Pomponius
laughed.

“
If they’re willing to learn, I see no reason why not, sir? May
I ask why?”

Labienus
smiled.

“
Because it’s time we stopped concentrating on destruction and
began with construction. I have spoken to Mettius and Procillus,
and Caesar has given them instructions as to certain specific
demands and concessions he expects from this council, but our remit
is surprisingly flexible. Caesar was intending to be here, but will
very likely not be, and so it’ll come down to us to decide how we
deal with the Belgae. And I intend to start something
here.”

“
Sir?”

“
A model community. I want to help the Belgae turn Nemetocenna
into something resembling a Roman town; Belgic enough that it still
feels like their own, but civilised enough to show them what peace
with Rome has to offer. And the best way to do that is for Roman
engineers to help, but for the Belgae to do much of the work
themselves.”

Pomponius
nodded.

“
A civil engineering project, sir. I look forward to
it.”

“
Good,” Labienus nodded. “Then we…”

He halted in
mid conversation as there was a call to alarm from the nearby gate.
With Pomponius on his heels, Labienus ran down the last few yards
to the gate where the duty centurion came to attention and
saluted.

“
What’s up?”

“
Three riders sir. Romans, sir.”

Labienus
raised his eyebrows again.

“
Word from Caesar. I wonder what? Open the gates.”

The huge,
wooden doors swung inwards, allowing the commander to see the three
riders in the light cast by the torches around them. They were
clearly regular Roman soldiers, and equally obviously exhausted.
Their mounts steamed as they entered the fort.

Behind them,
the gates were closed, and the riders dropped lightly and
gratefully from their horses. One of them, wearing a harness that
revealed him to be a centurion, strode forward, leaving the reins
of his horse with his companions.

“
Sir!”

He saluted
smartly, his face running with sweat in the torchlight.

“
Centurion? You come unexpected.”

The man
smiled.

“
Begging your pardon, sir, but you have no idea. We’re actually
trying to find the general. Is he here? We’ve visited Noviodunum
and Samarobriva. Wherever we go, Caesar has been and
left.”

Labienus
frowned.

“
Caesar is carrying out what is hopefully the last stage of the
war, out to the east. He will be returning here when that is
complete. I presumed you came from him. Who are you then,
centurion?”

The man
grinned and withdrew a small scroll from his tunic.

“
Then, sir, as the senior officer here, I bring you greetings
from legate Publius Licinius Crassus, quartered in the lands of
Armorica.” He glanced down and read aloud.

“
I am pleased to report the conquest of northwestern Gaul and
the tribes known as the Veneti, the Unelli, the Osismii, the
Curiosolitae, the Sesuvii, the Aulerci, and the Rhedones all now
bow to the power and might of Rome.”

The centurion
looked up from his note.

“
Legate Crassus and the Seventh remain in situ awaiting the
general’s further orders.”

Labienus
blinked.

“
He what?”

“
He reports, sir, that…”

Labienus shook
his head.

“
Yes, centurion, I heard. Thank you. Go and find quarters and
food for your men.”

The officer
saluted, looking slightly crestfallen at the unexpectedly low-key
reception, and led his men up the street toward the quartermaster’s
tent close to the headquarters.

Labienus
turned to Pomponius.

“
One legion! The man had one legion! I can’t even picture
Caesar’s face when he finds out!”

Chapter 20

(On the plain
before the oppidum of Aduatuca)

“
Civitas: Latin name given to a certain class of civil
settlement, often the capital of a tribal group or a former
military base.”

The works of
Tetricus stretched away out of sight in both directions. Caesar
nodded appreciatively as he looked along the line. The ditch was
more than two men deep and the rampart consequently more than two
men high. Surmounted by a palisaded walkway, punctuated with gates,
and peppered with lilia, it was everything a Roman defensive work
should be.

“
And this surrounds them?” The general asked, tapping his
finger to his lip.

Tetricus
nodded.

“
From the River Meuse to the River Sambre is a solid line with
three gates and four redoubts. We’ve got the Eighth, Tenth,
Eleventh, and Thirteenth Legions and most of the support behind
these.”

He turned and
pointed north. “The Sambre is crossable, though with some
difficulty I’m told, so we’ve run another three miles of rampart
and ditch along the shore there with one gate and four redoubts,
though that’s only at a height and depth of six feet. The Ninth
Legion is stationed there and watching the river upstream. The
Meuse is unfordable here and there’s no bridge for several miles in
either direction, but I had redoubts set up there to watch just in
case, manned by the Fourteenth, who crossed on rafts.”

With a nod of
satisfaction, he smiled.

“
Basically, general, there’s no way they can escape. We have
them trapped like rats.”

Caesar nodded
and turned to Fronto, Balbus and Crispus who were standing together
nearby.

“
Have we heard anything from them today?”

Fronto shook
his head. In fact the last eighteen hours since the rampart had
gone up had been disturbingly quiet. The preceding two days had
been painful. The Aduatuci had proved to be a cunning and subtle
adversary; and dangerous. Since the initial archery assault that
had surprised them all, and the night time attack at the rampart,
the security around the camp had tightened. Pickets had been set
and watches kept, but the Aduatuci continually found new and
fascinating ways to harass and wound Caesar’s army.

The second
morning, as the legions were going through the dawn rituals of
washing and breakfasting before the day’s back-breaking work, the
Aduatuci had released one of their cattle pens, goaded, beaten and
stabbed them into a frenzy, and then opened the gate, so that the
stampede of angry and frightened beasts had run amok through the
camp of the Ninth, causing massive destruction and a number of
dreadful wounds.

Tetricus’
workmen had also soon learned what could be considered a ‘safe’
distance from the oppidum, as the natives tested the range of
arrow, slingshot, spear and boulder from the summit.

Then the next
night, while the legions kept a careful watch on the slope in case
of night assaults, camped out in the open before the works, the
Aduatuci had climbed down the damn cliffs, presumably on great
ropes, and had circled wide outside the guard posts to sabotage the
works. The next morning Tetricus had surveyed the defences and
noted with dismay the immense damage wreaked by so few
saboteurs.

The third day
since they arrived, the Aduatuci had discovered with glee that from
the highest point of their defences, arrows had enough height and
power to cross the river and just strike the redoubts on the far
bank of the Meuse. That discovery had led to the use of fire
arrows, two minor disasters, and finally the Fourteenth Legion
pulling a hundred yards further back and constructing new
redoubts.

Since then,
with the completion of the system of defences, things had gone
very, very quiet and the silence was beginning to unnerve the
men.

Fronto
sighed.

“
There’s been no sign of military activity. Actually no sign of
life at all, sir.”

Another nod
from the general, who turned to Tetricus once again.

“
So what is your progress with the next stage?”

The engineer
smiled.

“
We’ve constructed a whole load of new vineae, which should
give us enough cover to get a great number of men close to the
cliffs. The frame of the tower is ready, and so are the wheels and
transport system. It still has to be armour plated and fitted with
the bridge and ladders and so on, but that’s less than a day’s
work. I would say that by tomorrow afternoon we’ll be ready to move
The morning after that, at the latest.

Caesar
frowned.

“
Have the enemy seen our works?”

“
I couldn’t say, sir. Perhaps, if they’re very keen-eyed and
observant, but we’ve not drawn attention to them and they’re behind
our defences.”

The general
tapped his finger to his lip.

“
Is there any way we can keep the tower hidden until the last
minute, or not raise it upright until then? If we can maintain the
element of surprise, I’d very much like to do so.”

Tetricus shook
his head.

“
I’m afraid not, sir. If they don’t know what we’re up to now,
then they will within the hour. There’s just nowhere on this plain
that’s out of sight of that oppidum, and we need to raise the tower
onto the axles now while it’s still a frame. Once we add all the
plating and the rest it’ll just be too heavy to raise.”

Caesar clicked
his tongue irritably.

“
Oh well. If it must be, it must be. But the Belgae tend to use
their time and knowledge to great effect, I’ve noticed; far more so
than the Gauls. I shouldn’t be surprised if they haven’t got a
number of traps waiting for us when we get there.”

Tetricus
nodded. It was possible, but it would only delay the
inevitable.

The bright
mid-morning sun shone down on the plain as Fronto and Crispus stood
on their own, watching the engineering teams hard at work. Caesar
had decided that, if the Aduatuci were to see the work of the Roman
army, then the work should be spectacular. As such, three cohorts
of legionaries had lined up in parade formation, gleaming and
bright, around the engineers and the fruit of their labour.

Behind the
legions, rows of vineae, mobile wooden frames with armoured roofs,
stood waiting, alongside the onagers, ready to be moved into
position.

And in the
centre of this display lay the tower, a heavy wooden frame one
hundred and twenty feet long. A wide trench had been excavated and
the base, with its axles, six great heavy wheels, and braking
mechanism, had been rolled down the gentle slope into it until it
was flush with the ground level. Following that, the tower itself
had been brought from behind the walls, through a gateway and
across the turf causeway, rolled along on thin, smooth logs until
it reached the edge of the trench.

As Fronto
watched, ropes were fed through rings and secured to the frame. At
a call, four centuries of men strode out of the gate and past the
frame to take positions on the ropes.

“
It never fails to amaze me how engineers can construct such
behemoths and make them mobile and flexible” Crispus wondered,
staring at the massive construction.

Fronto
shrugged and then stared at his dead arm for a moment. Recently,
when he shrugged, he wasn’t sure, but he got the impression there
was a small amount of movement in the muscles. Hard to tell.

“
Practice, I guess.”

“
Sorry?”

“
Well,” said Fronto frowning, “a soldier gets better with a
sword by repeatedly hitting things with it and working out new and
inventive ways to use it when he can’t be doing it for real. A
general gets better by studying other successes and failures when
he’s not actually involved in campaign and battle. And I’ve watched
the engineers. They build things at every given opportunity,
whether it’s needed or not and, when they can’t build things, they
sit deep in thought and plan and invent things.”