Legionary

Chapter 24

Centurions Gallus and Brutus flanked Tribunus Nerva at the side of the training court as the trio stonily observed the Gothic examination of the legion. Flies swarmed in the mid-morning heat. Brutus spat one from his lips.

‘Don’t think I can take much more of this, sir.’

‘They want to break us like a wild horse,’ Nerva agreed, his eyes narrowing. ‘They’re prodding in all the right places, for sure.’ He sighed as he watched Wulfric barge one of the centurions from his place, facing his century, to bark his own commands at the men.

‘How did the dust settle then, sir? Are we going to be left with any legionaries at all?’ Gallus asked.

‘Wulfric has taken his orders to mean that everyone else in the empire bar the emperor himself is a second-class citizen. Effectively…we cannot deny him anything he requests. The brief was to have Roman officers and Gothic ranks, but Wulfric has taken the orders and shaped them to his whim.’

‘Does the emperor know how damning this is for his borders?’ Gallus shook his head. ‘They might only be after a handful of our men, but we are already barely a token force.’

Nerva sighed. ‘I think our friend, Senator Tarquitius, has had a little too much bend of Dux Vergilius’ ear. This notion that the Goths will obediently follow a truce when our defences are threadbare is fundamentally flawed. It’s the cheap rhetoric that the politician uses to colour his arguments that’s carried this.’

‘What has a senator got to gain?’ Brutus shrugged. ‘It’ll be Wulfric, Vergilius and the emperor who get the glory of any victories in the field. It’d make me sick like a dog to see a whoreson like Wulfric leading a triumph though,’ he grumbled a little too loud.

‘I’m not sure about this,’ Gallus spoke warily, his tone hushed. Nerva and Brutus turned to him keenly. ‘Sir, I think Tarquitius is being played, just as he in his own way is playing the dux and the emperor. Where Wulfric sits in all of that, I’m not sure. But someone must be pulling all the strings in this mess.’

All three fell silent, looking over to the figure of Wulfric; now resting on the barrier, the Goth observed his guards putting the legionaries through their paces — now they were on their third round of fifty press-ups. The jagged barking of the Goths grated, but the Romans were maintaining their cool despite the blistering heat. Wulfric’s eyes were narrowed and focused. Gallus noticed the sharpness in his expression; for sure, this man was searching for the breaking point of the legion, but he was no brainless lout.

‘What will this mean for the reconquest of Bosporus if we lose number here?’ Gallus asked as he scanned the training field. Scarcely one thousand men, including the latest rabble of recruits. The remaining eight hundred or so of the three cohorts of the legion were still spread thinly along the Danubian watchtowers and fortlets and could not be summoned from those posts.

Nerva turned to look Gallus in the eye. ‘I asked the emperor the very same question. He only said that provision would be made to ensure the mission went ahead. And I think we all know where that path leads to…’ he sighed.

Gallus’ heart sank; foederati, the scourge of the army in recent times. Just as with the new comitatenses legion, the XI Claudia would be topped up with powerful warriors from the forests of Germania and mercenary Goths from the northern plains. They augmented the numbers quickly, but what you got was a throw of the dice; tales of mutiny, anarchy and ill-discipline far outweighed the few success stories.

‘On the bright side, we’ve always got Brutus’ new litter to add to our operative number,’ Nerva added.

‘Not if the two runts who are in the jail are anything to go by,’ Gallus replied. ‘If they can’t control themselves in here they won’t be much use on the battlefield. That one, by the name of Pavo, didn’t even address me by rank this morning.’

Brutus frowned but Nerva cut in before he could speak. ‘I think there might be more to that story than meets the eye. Brutus reckons the lad has potential.’

‘No offence, Brutus, but I’ll believe it when I see it,’ Gallus offered.

‘The lad has had a hard time since he got here,’ Brutus reasoned, then shrugged, ‘but I suppose that’s the point, eh?’