Marius' Mules V: Hades' Gate (68 page)

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

Cloaca Maxima
: The great sewer of republican Rome that drained the forum into the Tiber.

Contubernium
(pl. Contubernia): the smallest division of unit in the Roman legion, numbering eight men who shared a tent.

Cornu
:
A G-shaped horn-like musical instrument used primarily by the military for relaying signals, along with the buccina. A trumpeter was called a cornicen.

Corona
: Lit: ‘Crowns’. Awards given to military officers. The Corona Muralis and Castrensis were awards for storming enemy walls, while the Aurea was for an outstanding single combat.

Curia
: the meeting place of the senate in the forum of Rome.

Cursus Honorum
: The ladder of political and military positions a noble Roman is expected to ascend.

Decurion
: 1) The civil council of a Roman town. 2) Lesser cavalry officer, serving under a cavalry prefect, with command of thirty two men.

Dolabra
: entrenching tool, carried by a legionary, which served as a shovel, pick and axe combined.

Duplicarius
: A soldier on double the basic pay.

Equestrian
: The often wealthier, though less noble mercantile class, known as knights.

Foederati
: non-Roman states who held treaties with Rome and gained some rights under Roman law.

Gaesatus
: a spearman, usually a mercenary of Gallic origin.

Gladius
:
the Roman army’s standard short, stabbing sword, originally based on a Spanish sword design.

Groma
: the chief surveying instrument of a Roman military engineer, used for marking out straight lines and calculating angles.

Haruspex
(pl. Haruspices): A religious official who confirms the will of the gods through signs and by inspecting the entrails of animals.

Immunes
:
legionary soldiers who possessed specialist skills and were consequently excused the more onerous duties.

Kalends
: the first day of the Roman month, based on the new moon with the ‘nones’ being the half moon around the 5th-7th of the month and the ‘ides’ being the full moon around the 13th-15th.

Labrum
: Large dish on a pedestal filled with fresh water in the hot room of a bath house.

Laconicum
: the steam room or sauna in a Roman bath house.

Laqueus
: a garrotte usually used by gladiators to restrain an opponent’s arm, but also occasionally used to cause death by strangulation.

Legatus
: Commander of a Roman legion

Lilia
(Lit. ‘Lilies’): defensive pits three feet deep with a sharpened stake at the bottom, disguised with undergrowth, to hamper attackers.

Mansio
and
mutatio
: stopping places on the Roman road network for officials, military staff and couriers to stay or exchange horses if necessary.

Mare Nostrum
: Latin name for the Mediterranean Sea (literally ‘Our Sea’)

Mars Gravidus
: an aspect of the Roman war god, ‘he who precedes the army in battle’, was the God prayed to when an army went to war.

Miles
: the Roman name for a soldier, from which we derive the words military and militia among others.

Octodurus
: now Martigny in Switzerland, at the Northern end of the Great Saint Bernard Pass.

Optio
: A legionary centurion’s second in command.

Pilum (p: Pila)
: the army’s standard javelin, with a wooden stock and a long, heavy lead point.

Pilus Prior
: The most senior centurion of a cohort and one of the more senior in a legion.

Praetor
: a title granted to the commander of an army. cf the Praetorian Cohort.

Praetorian Cohort
:
personal bodyguard of a General.

Primus Pilus
: The chief centurion of a legion. Essentially the second in command of a legion.

Pugio
:
the standard broad bladed dagger of the Roman military.

Quadriga
: a chariot drawn by four horses, such as seen at the great races in the circus of Rome.

Samarobriva
: oppidum on the Somme River, now called Amiens.

Scorpion, Ballista & Onager
: Siege engines. The Scorpion was a large crossbow on a stand, the Ballista a giant missile throwing crossbow, and the Onager a stone hurling catapult.

Signifer
:
A century’s standard bearer, also responsible for dealing with pay, burial club and much of a unit’s bureaucracy.

Subura
: a lower-class area of ancient Rome, close to the forum, that was home to the red-light district’.

Testudo
: Lit- Tortoise. Military formation in which a century of men closes up in a rectangle and creates four walls and a roof for the unit with their shields.

Triclinium
: The dining room of a Roman house or villa

Trierarch
: Commander of a Trireme or other Roman military ship.

Turma
: A small detachment of a cavalry ala consisting of thirty two men led by a decurion.

Vexillum
(Pl. Vexilli):
The standard or flag of a legion.

Vindunum
: later the Roman Civitas Cenomanorum, and now Le Mans in France.

Vineae
: moveable wattle and leather wheeled shelters that covered siege works and attacking soldiers from enemy missiles.

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Table of Contents

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Publius Clodius Pulcher: Powerful man in Rome, client of Caesar and conspirator.

Paetus: Former officer, presumed dead, but fled to Rome.

The maps of Marius’ Mules V

Prologue

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen