Enemy of Rome

IX

‘They tell me you did well, Verrens.’ The legate’s voice contained a hint of puzzlement as if he couldn’t quite believe what he was saying. Marcus Antonius Primus’s nose twitched as he studied the tall figure who still stank of the alluvial mud clinging to his uniform and armour. Even the perfumed oil lamps that lit the dining room of the opulent villa didn’t dispel the lingering scent of death. From an adjoining room, Valerius heard the soft murmur of the general’s aides as they worked on the next phase of the campaign.

‘Thank you, sir.’ He hid his surprise at the warmth of the welcome. But he had enough experience of the other man’s moods to know that a little praise didn’t make them friends.

‘You took a risk.’ Primus nodded. ‘But it was justified. If Caecina had crossed the Athesis in any force it would have placed us at a grave disadvantage.’ The patrician frowned as he imagined the enemy’s nine or ten legions formed up in their ranks on the flatlands between Patavium and the river. As it was, Gaius Valerius Verrens had presented him with the initiative and an opportunity. He turned to the map of northern Italia which was always near to hand. ‘Instead, I am in a position where audacity and enterprise may win what caution would put at risk.’ He hunched his shoulders and Valerius imagined a great weight bearing down on the figure brooding over the map. Only at that moment did he truly realize how much Primus had invested in this campaign.

‘You mentioned Caecina, General. Not Valens, then?’

Primus looked up from beneath heavy brows, his dark hair flopping over a broad forehead creased with worry lines. ‘We have received information from … sources … close to the enemy camp.’ He didn’t mention the letter which had accompanied the information. He’d yet to decide whether it was genuine or not — and if it was, whether the contents were to be trusted. ‘Fabius Valens remains in Rome with the Emperor, sick or exhausted, our informant cannot decide which. Aulus Caecina Alienus is moving north to concentrate at Hostilia, on the Padus, a five-day march from Cremona. He commands four full legions, substantial cohort elements from three more and he has called the two British detachments south to join them. Only Fifth Alaudae and Twenty-first Rapax remain at Cremona, and three thousand men of the Ninth to hold Placentia.’

Curiosity drew Valerius to his commander’s side. He traced the snaking line of the Padus east from Cremona until he found the tiny dot on the map that represented Hostilia. Primus saw his puzzlement. ‘It is an insignificant place,’ he agreed. ‘A stopping place on the Via Claudia Augusta, nothing more.’

‘This movement would make sense if he still held the crossing of the Athesis, but we are aware of his plan.’ Valerius met his commander’s gaze and shook his head. ‘He can’t ferry his legions over the river now for fear that we’ll fall on them when they’re divided. As it is, Hostilia has no strategic value. I don’t understand it.’

‘Unless he believes I am foolish enough to attack him with a weaker force?’ Primus mused. ‘That proposition might be attractive once we’ve been joined by Seventh Claudia and the Moesian legions.’

‘If he stays where he is,’ Valerius pointed out, ‘he threatens Venetia and the eastern route that General Mucianus must take to join you. Perhaps,’ he said warily, ‘the Emperor-elect is right to urge caution.’

To his surprise, rather than exploding in rage, Primus laughed out loud; true, incredulity was mixed with the humour, but the laugh was genuine enough. ‘By the gods, Verrens you do like to dangle your eggs over the fire. You urge restraint on me three days after you almost had your arse roasted using dismounted cavalrymen to take on a crack legionary cohort. If I didn’t loathe your poxed lawyerly flesh, I might get to like you. You think I don’t know the game you’re playing?’ The patrician face flushed red and it had nothing to do with the wine he was drinking. ‘Keep him on the leash, that fornicating little mummy’s boy Titus told you. Well, Marcus Antonius Primus doesn’t react well to the leash. I was tempted to arrange a nasty accident for you, but I’m glad I didn’t. You see, boy, you may think me a bully and a cheat who likes long odds and short races, but you’re not the only one who’s served. I’m soldier enough to respect courage and loyalty — even in a man who has done me a disservice — cleverness, too, although many would say that’s not something to encourage in a military man. The way you used the ditches to get close enough to the fort to surprise the defenders. Then letting that cohort of the First think they were going to slaughter you so that they opened up to the archers on the flanks. A ruse worthy of Caesar himself.’

‘I was responsible for neither,’ Valerius said. ‘The first was the suggestion of my freedman. The second was his way of stopping me getting myself killed.’

‘So I understand.’ Primus laughed. ‘I’ve already had a complaint from the prefect of the Thracian cavalry demanding I send him the Spaniard’s head on a plate. A barbarian of some resource and a dangerous one at that, if I remember him rightly from the arena.’ His face twisted into a sly smile. ‘He’s the other reason you didn’t have a nasty accident. The man seems to have eyes in the back of his head.’

Valerius didn’t react to the confirmation that Primus had planned to have him killed. ‘I hope the general will reward rather than punish him.’

Primus nodded absently and picked up a wax tablet, inscribing it with short confident strokes of a metal stylus. He handed it to Valerius. ‘Give this to my clerk on the way out and tell the Spaniard he’s fortunate it’s not an execution order. That’s the problem with giving slaves their freedom, they get ideas above their station. Look at that bastard Tigellinus.’ He scowled at the memory of Nero’s freedman who’d risen to become commander of the Praetorian Guard. ‘Asked for fifty thousand to guarantee a not guilty verdict. I told him to go and sodomise himself with a spatha and bribed the quaestor in charge of the count — much good it did me. I’d dance on the bastard’s grave if I could find it.’ Primus blinked, deciding he’d said more than was sensible. ‘Anyway, tell the Spaniard to mind his manners. What was I saying?’

‘That I was about to have a nasty accident.’

The general grinned. ‘Courageous and loyal; honest too, I shouldn’t wonder. I’m not myself, but I admire it in another man. Makes them easier to fleece. That’s why you’re here, because I know you won’t stick a knife in my belly.’ He turned back to the map. ‘That and the fact that the army of Marcus Antonius Primus is not going to be cautious, whatever Vespasian and Mucianus may say. We will move up the Via Postumia to Verona, which is big enough and rich enough to resupply my legions, and if Caecina stays at Hostilia we’ll march up the road and take Cremona before he can react.’

‘And if he crosses the Athesis?’

‘We’ll still have time to about turn and crush him like a nut between the Pannonian legions here and the Moesian legions on their way from Noviodunum. You fought at Bedriacum, so you know the road and the terrain?’ Valerius nodded, trying not to remember the blood-drenched earth, the severed limbs and the strings of blue-veined, flyblown guts. A battle that should never have been fought and was lost from the moment the first trumpet blew. ‘That’s why I want you close, Gaius Valerius Verrens. Because you fought over that ground and may have to again.’

‘Fought and lost,’ Valerius pointed out.

‘But you weren’t fighting for Marcus Antonius Primus,’ the other man said with the certainty of a man who knew he couldn’t lose.

Aulus Vitellius Germanicus Augustus contemplated whether to call a slave or heave himself off the chair. It was becoming more difficult to get up every day and he wondered if, after all, a man could actually be too fat. He’d always looked upon his gluttony as a matter of pride. At Tiberius’s court, during the days when the old pederast had hidden himself away on Capri trying to play hide the sausage with young Gaius, or the sisters, Julia Livilla and the pretty one who’d died, it was a matter of pride to eat and drink more than any other man at the table. Tiberius, who loved excess the way a gambler loved a fixed race, had laughed uproariously and rewarded him with gold and jewels. He sighed. Happy days. Who would have predicted then that the man who would rather foul himself at the table than give way to another would be sitting here, in the great Golden House created to ensure Nero’s immortality?

Eventually he pulled himself up with a groan, deciding it unbecoming for an Emperor to require the help of a servant just to get off his backside. It was almost an hour since he’d eaten, and he was already feeling the pangs, but he would starve himself for another few moments.

He walked carefully across to the great window where he could see over the sprawling parkland that stretched towards the Esquiline Hill. The Esquiline’s red-tiled villas and temples looked down on the stinking rathole of the Subura the way that old snob Galba once looked down his long nose at everyone. To his left, he could just see the outstretched hand of the enormous gilded statue of Nero that towered over the Domus Aurea’s entrance hall. Vitellius had already decided to replace the head with one of his own, but he was uncertain which expression it should wear. Noble, of course, but noble and what? Frowning with the cares of state? How did one portray wisdom? Or statesmanship? He must consult the Imperial sculptors already working on at least a hundred statues and busts that would fill the niches recently vacated by the head of young Otho.

But — and now he experienced a shudder of revulsion and fear — would that ever come to pass? Everything he looked upon from this window, every soul living out their little lives in their little houses, was his to command, but for how long?

It had started so well. Otho, defeated comprehensively on the field at Bedriacum, conveniently committed suicide to save further bloodshed and humiliation. His remaining troops had submitted meekly and took the oath to their new Emperor. Vitellius had wanted to ride into Rome at the head of his army, in a general’s armour and carrying Julius Caesar’s sword. Valens had cleverly pointed out that glorifying a victory in which tens of thousands of Roman citizens died might not be the wisest way to commence his reign. Instead, he’d worn the purple toga signifying his rank and spent a long, wearying day on foot, sustained only by the cheers of the crowds. Following him marched his officers, the eagles of four full legions and the banners of another seven, at the head of thirty thousand legionaries and auxiliaries. At the end, he’d taken his place on the Capitol and watched them march past before sacrificing to Jupiter, best and greatest. It was the most wonderful day of his life, but even then he knew the first stirrings of doubt.

In a matter of days word arrived that the eastern legions had hailed Titus Flavius Vespasian Emperor and Vitellius knew he was in a fight for his very life.

A comforting presence appeared at his side and he didn’t have to look to know it was his wife.

‘You will win, husband.’

Vitellius smiled. She’d sensed his mood. Galeria Fundana had always been able to read his mind. As small in stature as her husband was great, she wore her thick, dark hair tight bound to her head and her words could be as sharp as a wasp’s sting. Her features were angular, almost mannish, and a large wart that disfigured the left side of her chin gave her a … yes, it had to be admitted … a rather startling presence. But he hadn’t married Galeria for her looks. Money and power had been his objectives in negotiating the match with her father. Yet they had developed an unlikely affection based on shared cynicism and she’d borne him a son to be proud of and a daughter to be married off in her turn. If she had been with him in Germania, perhaps things would have turned out differently.

‘Yes, I will win,’ he agreed. ‘Vespasian and his legions are far away in the East. His supporters plot and spy, but for the moment they have little influence.’

‘You allow his brother, Sabinus, and that brat of his too much freedom,’ his wife pointed out. She said it lightly enough, but Vitellius knew the words contained a suggestion that might be turned into action of a different, and potentially fatal, variety.

‘Sabinus is the Flavian insurance policy,’ he snorted. ‘They hope he will bear fruit if Vespasian fails. If the brother had ambitions for the purple I would squash him like a fly in a wine press. Sabinus is an aristocrat, with respect and support in the Senate. In some ways he is more dangerous than the man who tries to replace me. What is Vespasian but a one-time dealer in mules, who once commanded a legion and believes it makes him the greatest soldier in Rome’s history? Yet even now he cowers in Judaea and sends others against me. Should I fear him?’

‘You should be wary of him. The legions of Pannonia and Moesia …’

‘Are closer.’ He nodded, sending the great jowls quivering. ‘I understand that and have made my plans to oppose them. What are they, four legions, perhaps five? While the army of Vitellius will command the equivalent of eight full legions, twelve squadrons of cavalry and thirty auxiliary cohorts. Vespasian’s commander is outnumbered two to one; he would be mad to take on such odds. His only hope is to maintain his position until reinforcements arrive from the East. If he does, he will give me the opportunity to hunt him down and destroy his army.’

It was sensible military thinking, confirmed by all his advisers. Victory was certain. But it had one flaw, understood by both.

‘Yet you will not command them?’

Vitellius stiffened at the implied rebuke. ‘You know I cannot leave Rome now. I have too much work to do here.’ She bowed her head, but he sensed her mood. ‘You were right,’ he sighed. ‘I should never have let Caecina go north without Valens. Together their ambitions cancel each other out. Apart … In any case he is young and impetuous and not half the soldier Valens is.’

‘Not to be trusted, either.’

‘What can I do?’ He cursed the weakness in his voice.

‘You are the Emperor. For now, you must rule. Perhaps later a decision will be required. We will know when the time comes.’

She reached up with her right hand to touch his face, but before he could say anything a bustling presence entered the room. As if by an unspoken agreement Aulus Vitellius Germanicus Augustus and his Empress turned together and met their son with a smile. Ten years old, slim and dark-eyed, with a restless spirit and boundless energy, the boy, called Lucius for his grandfather, opened his mouth to speak before remembering his manners. He bowed deeply at the waist. ‘Stefanus says I have the finest philosophical mind since Seneca,’ he grinned. ‘We debated Aristotle’s theory that the soul is independent of the body. I argued that the soul is part of the heart and ruled by it. At least mine is.’

‘So you’re in love again.’ His mother shook her head in mock despair.

‘And how many times did he have to beat you before he came to this conclusion?’ his father asked.

‘I just thought you should know, and now I must go.’ The boy turned and ran from the room with a last shout across his shoulder. ‘I have a wrestling lesson with Livius and I’m late.’

When he’d gone his parents turned to each other and Vitellius flinched as he recognized the terrible sadness in his wife’s eyes.

‘Whatever happens,’ he promised, ‘I will protect you and the children.’