Justinian

MYAKES

Some of them did. The troopers were young men, Brother Elpidios, and the horsemen from the military districts had been teasing us- they couldn't lose their tongues or their prongs for that. "Toy soldiers," they called us, and "sweets in fancy wrappers" on account of our gaudy surcoats, and other things I won't soil your ears with. We'd had some fights with them, and broken some heads, too.

Me? Shouting to get into a battle? I'd been in a battle, against Neboulos's men, and I found out it was a lot more fun to think about than for real. And I was past thirty by then, too, getting to the age where your blood doesn't boil quite so fast.

I wanted us Romans to win. I didn't want Neboulos's Sklavenoi to- what was the word Justinian used?- to waver, that was it. For one thing, if the special army did a lot of wavering, there weren't enough excubitores to plug the gap they would have made. For another, if they didn't waver that much, my men and I would be fighting the Arabs with the Sklavenoi alongside us. And if they turned their backs and ran then, who'd be left in the lurch? That's right, Brother Elpidios- me and my chums, that's who.

But it didn't happen. That first day, the special army- Eh? What's that, Brother? Justinian has a good deal more to say? All right, read some more of the manuscript. We'll see how what he remembers stacks up against what I recall. Somewhere in there, we might even find some truth.