Hadrian's Consolidation - reboot

[Hecatee]

The sea of Grass, somewhere between the Tyras and the Hispalis, June 180


Had any man been able to see them from above, he’d have been amazed by the display of sheer power put by the Roman army. They seemed to cover the horizon and made a great plume of dust rise in the air behind them.

Four legions of 6500 men, one made of two vexilations, each legion with 4 auxiliary units of some 1500 men each, and the personal guard of the Caesar made for a strong force of some 50000 men of which some ten thousand were mounted, including 2000 heavy cataphractii on the sarmatian pattern. To that a larger than usual number of mules and their drivers had to be added, carrying food for the troops in a region were foraging for anything else than the horses’ feed was impossible.

The cavalry was mainly in the vanguard and on the flanks, with about a thousand horsemen to close the march. In the center the legions did not walk in a single column but as four parallel units, with the infantry of the auxiliary units in a diamond pattern around the legion. The auxiliary units changed position every day so that none would walk more than twice a week into the excrement of the units preceding them...

The wide spacing meant that the men did not walk through too much dust from the previous ranks, but it also made their approach more visible as a larger column of dust rose in the blue sky, making their progress evident to all and appearing as a act of the gods rather than one of men.

Yet this was not something never seen in the region : the larger scythian tribes, with their massive horse herds and the heavy chariots of their families, often made similar dust plumes when they travelled the sea of grass.

This is why the tribes of the steppe had designed tactics to deal with the telltale mark so as to achieve surprise against their foe, and they were about to spring such a trap. The Gothii had found many tribes on their way south, some attached to the concept of land, other not so much for all they cared was grass for their horses. Those tribes, known under the generic name of Scythia, divided themselves in clans and tribes, never very stable, often open to foreigners. Those Scythians living in the west of the Sea of Grass had seen a number of refugees in the last few decades, coming mainly from the Sarmatian noble families that Rome had defeated in the time of the divine Hadrian.

The refugees had become more nomadic than in the past but had given their welcoming neighbors their hatred of Rome and all it represented. Thus while the Gothii had had to fight against the land working Bastarnae, they had found allies in the western Scythians who provided them with intelligence and, more importantly, a cavalry.

Filimer had rejoiced at the news of the alliance, for it offered him opportunities to fight against the Romans on more equal terms. Some ten thousand horsemen, four thousand of which were armored, provided a strong weapon which he intended to use to the fullest, starting on this day…

Now the king of the Gothii stood on a horse along one of his main allies, Gtalos. Neither man intended to fight in the battle, only a large ambush against the rear guard cavalry of the Romans, but it was expected of them to be there for the fight. They had brought five hundred light horsemen with plenty of arrows for their bows, and they expected to fight about two thousand Romans in this hit and run engagement. A second, larger group, camped further back from the Romans with a thousand men.

Sneaking at night close to the Roman encampment, they had found a gully where to hide horse and men until the Romans started their day’s walk : they wanted the legions to raise their dust cloud so as to be able to use it to fall against the rear guard, appearing from the cloud like demons, firing a number of arrows before the Romans even saw their attack, falling back into the dust before they could retaliate : should the Romans come into the cloud they would then be ambushed by the second group…

The Romans had now dismantled their night camp. Their officers made a small group on the side, some two hundred and fifty men with their bodyguards, while the units moved into position for the day : while they usually walked in front of the center right legion, Avidius Cassius thought it good that his men saw him every day. While Filimer did not know the reason, he knew the fact from having had spies study the departure of the legions on five previous days in the last two weeks. He hoped they would fall for his trap…

The last unit had now left some fifteen minutes earlier, and the dust was tick. Of course the ground itself, trampled by so many feets and hoves, gave a clear indication of where the Romans were so visibility was not very important. They also knew from previous observation the depth of the formations on the rear guard, so they did not need to see their targets to lob arrows…

On a sign from Gtalos the warriors mounted their horses with a smile on their face and a bow in their hands. Putting their horses at a rapid pace although not in a gallop, they flew toward their unsuspecting foe….

The attack was perfect. Coming unseen, they unleashed a barrage of arrows : four per horsman, 2000 projectiles targeting close to a thousand men and their beasts. While the armors deflected a lot of the bone-headed arrows, many others found flesh, seeping poison into the wounds for they had been dipped into the terrible decoction of the steppe tribes, a mix of human excrement and serpents poisons and blood…

The alarm was sounded, with the Roman units stopping in place almost a as single man, the legions making wide rectangles to protect the bagages, the auxiliaries making a first line of defense while the cavalry regrouped, ready to come to the help of the attacked forces.

Avidius Cassius and his escort immediately wheeled their horses back toward the back of the formation, from where the signal was coming. Galloping toward the rear guard, they pressed their animals. Avidius Cassius horse took great pleasure in leading the charge, giving it all its energy, a wonder to see. Luckily the Caesar’s guards were almost as well mounted otherwise they would have been left behind. As it was they formed in a diamond formation, with their leader at its head.

It is then that catastrophe happened. Running as hard as it could, the horse missed a somewhat deeper and wetter patch of grass where a century of auxiliaries had taken a piss. Stumbling, it crashed in the grass, its cavalier on his back… Unable to abandon the stirrups in time, the heir to the Empire was crushed by the weight of his animal. Unknown to Filimer, the Gothii had already had a large victory against their foe...

 

[Hecatee]

On the occasion of my birthday a small light update set in my city of Brussels, to whom I've given here a fictious name based on one of the city's etymologies... Enjoy !

Brivoluta, Gallia Belgica, July 180


Amnorix had alway been lucky. Son of the villicus of a large domain in the Senne valley, he had spent his earliest days in the house of his father’s employer for his mother had served as wet nurse to the baby of the domina, born two days later than him. This meant she got fed good food to make sure she had enough milk for the young dominus and her own son.

Amnorix’ luck had held as both him and the young dominus survived the sicknesses of youth and turned into turbulent children running all over the domain under the supervision of their nurses, becoming friends along the way.

Later on his friendship with the young dominus meant he had been authorized to attend to the lessons given by the pedagogue of the child. He had quickly shown good dispositions for his studies even if he was not always as attentive as he should be : the pedagogue’s cane was there for the purpose of teaching him discipline…

Beside the formal lessons that taught him how to read, write and do basic mathematics he was taught by his father who showed him the tricks to running an estate, managing slaves, and other skills expected of a villicus.

The family did not live at the domain : their house was a slightly larger than usual house in the small vicus of Brivoluta, alongside the river. Two dozens families lived there, in the marsh, near a ford and in a spot where fish was abundant : most families lived from the fishing and from providing additional labor to one of the three larger domains that controlled the region.

Amnorix had helped cows give birth, could recognize good wood for building, fish with a spear or a net, identify the good plants that helped stay in health, but knew also Homere and Livius, had read the Commentarii De Bello Gallico and some of the great Cicero’s discourses, in other words he was wise beyond his years.

This had not escaped Publius Claudius Matusegos, a prosperous farmer who was not yet rich enough for the equestrian census but was still one of the dominant land owners of the region. Inviting the father and the son in his tabularium on the 16th anniversary of Amnorix, he made them an offer he could not refuse : he’d send the boy just turned man to the school in Augustodunum, two weeks away from Brivoluta. The Maenianae were famous all over Gaul for offering the best education that could be given.

Matusegos would not even send his son there, for young Petrus’ intellect was a disappointment to his father who reckoned it would be better to invest into a loyal retainer that would keep the families’ fortune safe and improve on it thanks to higher learning. Amnorix would not be learning rethorics or any of the higher arts but would instead spend two years learning the basics of medicine, mechanics and improved agricultural methods…

 

[Hecatee]

Olbia Pontica, on the Euxine sea shore, August 180


Olbia was not an ideal spot for defense. The town was built on a stone ledge on the coast but dominated largely by higher hills that allowed someone to look into the walls at the defenders’ moves or even to put artillery able to destroy beyond the walls in total impunity. Only on one side did its wall have a commanding position on a plain, and of course it had the advantage that the sea side was never threatened by any steppe tribe : only the Romans or, in the olden days, the diadochoi, could have attacked from the sea.

Yet not all was bad : the walls were high and wide, with a good stone facing and recently reinforced with a covered walkway to protect from arrows. Numerous towers strengthened them, with arrow slits at regular intervals to make sure one was able to shoot at the enemy while making return fire uneffective.

It also had the advantage it could be resupplied by sea, meaning it never needed to fear famine. The presence of the Roman fleet had also allowed to move most of the women, children and elderlies to safety in Kalos Limen, in the Chersonesus peninsula, far from the conflict.

The arrival of the men of the I Italica legion had led to a flurry of activity : in three months a number of secondary forts had been built on the ridges outside of the walls, connected by a classical roman vallum system. Lack of wood had prevented the building of a normal palissade, so they had used stones and bricks to build a wall of an height of three men, preceded by a number of traps. In three months they had managed to make Olbia a much stronger place but the plan was not complete : while the front of the new defense seemed solid, the interior was not yet completed and the bastions were not completely protected on all sides despite the fact that an enemy could get between the city walls and the new defenses…

But now time had run out for the Gothii main army had arrived. Tubae had called the men to man their defensive positions and close the doors. Time for battle had arrived. Of course work would keep going on, but it would be slower with the need to keep men on guard or on rest…

--

King Filimer and his ally Gtolos looked at the defenses. While Gtolos had seen cities in his life, and even the great wall of Chersonesus, what they saw now defied their entendment. Oh they understood the principle, but the size of the effort, and the amount of men it must have required, was staggering. And yet they had no choice : they had to find a place for their people, and the land here seemed better than any other for growing wheat.

But it seemed the people from the south, the Romans, did not want them here, preferring the weak Bastarnae tribes to a vigorous neighbor… His Sarmatians allies had inflicted thousand of cuts on their army, killing many of their warriors, but still they kept following the tribe south. And now there was this wall, strong and seemingly impossible to pass…

According to Gtolos this wall was nothing in comparison with the great wall of Chersonesus, and indeed it seemed that determined warriors would be able to cross it easily. Some captured Romans had given information on how it was to be done, with material to fill pits and trenches and scaling ladders to reach the enemy. A number of chariots had already been dismantled to provide the wood for the ladders while women wove baskets that were to be filled with earth, so as to fill in the trench in front of the wall.

He did not know how many soldiers were on the other side but it could not be that many, and so moral was probably low and ready to crumble… The Gods would provide the Gothii with victory, it could not be otherwise… Food was growing somewhat scarce, and only victory would ensure the survival of his people…

Filimer had no choice. The harassment techniques had slowed down the army at his back, which was carefully making its way toward the main Gothii army, but they were no more than five or six days away, progressing faster than the tribe had and walking in a week what his people had taken a month to cross…

Prisoners had told him that the first ambush had had an huge impact on the morale of their pursuers for their commander, son of their king, had been killed. But it had not prevented them from keeping at their pursuit, skirmishing with the Sarmatians all the way. The Romans’ cavalry was good, meaning that the losses were probably light, although they did not have as many horses as their foes and so each dead animal was one cavalryman less for their tribes, which they seemed to call legions.

From what he understood the Romans had sent five of their main tribes against him, identified by totems and all following the emblems of an eagle. A number of smaller tribes, their vassals, were the main providers of their cavalry and seemed loyal to their masters : given the wealth of metal they did carry it made sense to stay with those giving all that iron and gold…

Since neither the vassals collectively known under the name of “auxiliarii” nor the main tribes had any women with them, Filimer supposed they had put their wives and children behind the walls he now faced : taking the town was imperative to take them hostage and negotiate peace and territories with the Romans before their host could crush his Gothii between the wall and their shields…

--

As always the legions walked onward, following the Gothii to the sea. Moral was fluctuant : it had been the normal spirit of an army on the march for the first few weeks, then the maddened anger of grief after the death of the Caesar, and now it was more anger due to fatigue and a somewhat defaillant logistic. Eating the same gruel every day, without variations, and in diminishing rations, was not how to keep an army happy. The legate of the XIII Gemina legion, senior in experience and thus in command of the expedition, knew well that his soldiers could well turn sour against him like legions had done against Lucullus in the far east almost three hundred years before…

But the end was in sight, and he’d told his to his men : in two weeks at most they would be at Olbia Pontica, where battle and food awaited them. Until then he would slow the march down so as not to arrive exhausted, with a large part of his cavalry roaming in front of the rest of the army to prevent foraging by the barbarians, whom he hoped were already hungry…

 

[Hecatee]

sorry for the delay, real life caught me

Volubilis, Mauretania, August 180


Gallienus, imperial doctor, rubbed his neck. He had spent the day in a cow shed and in a temple of Isis with a colleague, investigating a medical mystery.

His emperor had arrived three days before in Volubilis, the south-western most city of the empire. The city was rather isolated at the end of a large plain and was the last outpost of civilization before the lands of the nomadic tribes of the desert. Most trade was going from the city toward the north or the coast : olive oil and grain were the major export of the city.

While Volubilis had briefly been a royal capital some two centuries before, it was now simply a provincial town. A temple had recently been built atop an old tumulus that dominated the center of the city. A new basilica had been erected in the last year, dedicated to the upcoming imperial visit : the building, bordering the forum, was sumptuous. Richly painted, it was dedicated to official public functions such as trials, but also hosted a number of tables for money changers or lawyers ready to draft contracts.

Of course the basilica had hosted a large banquet given by the city to the emperor and its entourage, including Gallienus. The thoughtful city decurions had placed the imperial physician next to the city physician. The man was in charge of the local valetudinarium, which had been gifted to the city some ten years before.

During the meal the two professionals had talked shop. Gallienus was most interested by the description of a plague that had run through the city and justified the building of the valetudinarium. One of the first tasks of the local doctor had done had been to study the sickness through the testimonies of the survivors. To his surprise three elements had come to light : firstly it seemed the plague had started in families living near the main grain granaries. Secondly two areas of the city seemed to have been less afflicted : one was next to the temple of Isis and the second was near a stable in which some sick animals were being tended.

The working theory was that the sickness might have been carried by fleas on rats, which the cats of the sanctuary of Isis might have hunted, protecting the neighboring houses. On the other hand there were no cats in the area near the stable, so another factor must have been at hand.

The next day Gallienus and his colleague had visited the stable and interviewed those who lived there, asking about the sickness of the animals. They were shown a pair of cows with ulcers on their udders. Both physicians moved away in fear. Varus varius ! Yet the caretakers did not seem afraid… Curious but careful, both physicians came back to observe the cows. Gallienus noted the scared hands of the cow’s caretaker. The man explained the sickness, similar to the one that had killed so many others in the city.

Now remained the mystery of why those workers who lived near an animal version of the sickness had not caught it...

 

[Hecatee]

Outskirts of Olbia Pontica, on the Euxine Sea shore, August 180


The Roman cavalry had been the worst hit by the constant harassment from the Sarmatian light cavalry, but it had done its main job of protecting the main body of infantry and keeping the army safe from any devastating ambush. And while they had taken casualties they had taken less than one would have thought, thanks to the armor they wore : horses had been the main fatalities, while men were usually just wounded.

But now the cavalry was happy for their were no place where to flee for their enemy : the final battle was at hand. The legions had deployed in a simple formation a small distance west of the city, with the auxiliary infantry in the front of the line, slightly stronger on the wings than in the center, the heavy infantry some paces behind, ready to intervene once the auxiliaries had taken the brunt of the Gothii assault.

It was the first large battle with the reorganized centuries that included archers , and it had been decided that the archers would be in the back of the auxiliary formations but the front of the legionary ones, maximizing their fire. The artillery had also been deployed on its carts, ready to fire its darts above the heads of the soldiers into the enemy mass.

The cavalry was on the wings, ready to contain the Sarmatians and pursue those who fled. The field would not allow an attack on their back for space was lacking. It would not ready matter as the guarison of Olbia Pontica was ready to sortie when the time was right.

They had suffered rather light losses during the attempted storming of the outer wall, killing or wounding some 4000 barbarians before they had retreated. Luckily most had been from small tribes or groups living on the path Filimer and his men had taken that had aggalmated to the Gothii while not being members of the tribe itself : they had been expendable…

The Sarmatians had concentrated on the right side of the Gothic formation, on the north of the field, making a strong punch with heavy cataphract units, two thousand men strong, in front. The months of battle had been heard on the sea of grass and many warriors, sometime whole clans or tribes, of scythians had joined the barbarian host : they were now close to fifteen thousand horsemen, alongside some fifty thousand infantrymen ready to fight to defend about two time as many women and children who had stayed with the bagages and field defenses surrounding the city.

The battle started with the barbarians walking toward their enemies, who did not move. Then some of the auxiliaries started to make a strange sound, like a wave of noise coming and going again and again, increasing in strength… The Gothii, while being long accustomed to many of the Germans way of war, had never heard the barytus before and the auxiliaries of the Batavii and Treverii cohorts gave a splendid display of this art, which culminated just as the first arrows were fired by their archers.

Most Gothii did not have a shield and the strong points of the roman arrows burrowed deep into their skin, wounding remorselessly while the infantrymen took some elan to throw their pila, adding to the confusion. One unit on the southern end of the roman line also threw weighted darts they called martiobarbules and which they carried inside their shields, each auxiliary soldier adding five projectiles to the chaos. They were an innovation of one of their tribune who had looked for a way to provide his men with short range projectiles they could use in the deep german forests in which they were often forced to operate…

The results were spectacular, creating great gaps in the enemy ranks. Filimer himself got wounded , although not grievously.

While the infantry started to engage in earnest, Gtalo ordered the scythians mounted archers forward to disperse the much smaller cavalry force in front of them. Thousands rode forward in ten waves, bow at the ready : soon they started to receive as good as they gave, the better armor of the Romans being of great help here. Moving away from the battle, the Scythians managed to drag the Romans in pursuit toward the north and open a breach between them and the infantry, giving the cataphractii a spot to hit…

Charging, those had good hope of disrupting the roman line. But Gtalo made a mistake : in order to help the infantry he decided to aim for the space between the rear ranks of the auxiliaries and the front of the legions…

The Romans officers had not had time to prepare the land with much more than a few caltrops, insufficient to block a charge even if it could blunt one. But the officers were well aware of the risk and had planned a contingency plan.

Orders had been given to the archers and artillery : if the signal was given they would have to stop targeting the mass in front of the auxiliaries. Instead, switching their fires, they would make the place between the auxiliaries and the legions a killing field while the three rear ranks of the auxiliaries and the first three ranks of the legion would take defensive positions to repel the enemy cavalry…

Gtalo led his men into the breach, going deep between the lines before turning on the back of the auxiliaries so that as many as possible of his men would hit the enemy at once, hopefully dislocating their formation.

It was a textbook attack… and a textbook failure. The clouds of arrows that slammed into the flank of the cataphractii were deadly, as only arrows fired from close range can be. Horses tumbled on the grass, throwing their riders off, when it was not the riders themselves that were turned into instant porcupines…

Gtalo was amongst the first to die, alongside his close guard. The arrow fire was so dense and so lethal that the archers did not even need to retreat behind the infantrymen : the bone and horn armors of men and especially of horses was not designed to sustain such attack at such an angle : in the steppes the arrow threat came mainly from the sky, shoot from short bows, and the armor was made to deflect them, but not close range lateral fire from powerful infantry bows…

It did not take long for the cataphractii at the back of the formation to see what happened in front, and they choose to flee, warning the scythians horse archers that the battle was lost. The rumour spread like fire in dry summer grass, and soon the whole barbarian cavalry fled. They had not chosen the right side of the battlefield for nothing : it was also the only way toward safety in case of defeat… Unknown from their allies they had also ordered their slaves and retainers to bring the remount horses behind a hill near the fight once the battle began, just so that they may flee if needed…

The auxiliary infantry had a hard time against the Gothii. The barbarians were courageous and the stopping of the rain of arrows gave them renewed spirit that countered the traditional roman advantages of discipline and tactics. This was especially true on the roman left, taken between the charging cavalry on their flank and read and the infantry in front of them. Still they held, centuries switching line once and then a second time. They knew the legions had to cut through the cavalry to reach and help them, so they kept holding their ground…

On the right of the Roman line, the left of the Barbarians, the situation was different : no barbarian cavalry was present and part of the Roman cavalry was able to support their parent auxiliary units with archer fire, although they were forbidden to attempt shock contact with their foe. The goal was to make as many barbarians as possible captive : the hungry slave markets of the Empire needed new energies…

The situation was now a race : would the Gothii be able to break through the center of the Auxiliaries, isolate the roman left and crush it before the second line could react or would the cavalry fight be finished before then, allowing the extraction of the hard pressed cohorts ?

Meanwhile, behind the fight and hidden from sight, the legion in Olbia had sortied on the south of the city, moving to get into a blocking position between the field army’s left and the city’s outer wall, which was defended by the local guarison and civilians wearing helmets and lances to make their enemy believe the legion was still defending the walls.

Their arrival on the battlefield caused great consternation amongst the Gothii, who still kept fighting. To them it was the survival of their tribe that was at stake. They had fled their lands, walked for months, years even, in search of a new land, and they were not going to fail their families who had endured so much !

Filimer and his close guard were seemingly everywhere, giving courage back to faltering warriors, pushing his men to heroic deeds. Bigger men than the romans, more energic than them, his warriors were terrifying but the roman army was worse. Its men had endurance, and left emotions behind as the rhythm of combat entered into them, born of hundreds of hours of drilling and training at the post or against their peers.

The gladii cut, the scutii deflected the swords or hit the faces and shins of their opponents, the men feeling their comrades and the threats more than they saw or heard them. Invisible communication tied the auxiliaries together, making living organisms out of the units. It did not prevent individual heroism and feats of courage and heroism, such as that centurion that covered two of his wounded men in the midst of a group of barbarians until the rest of his men freed him and took the wounded back, or the moment when a contubernia of archers walked directly in front of horsemen to launch a devastating set of arrows, with four of the men being crushed by the dying mounts of their targets…

On the other side too there was heroism, such as when a large warrior, truly a giant in the Romans’ eye, grasped the shield of a roman and used it as a battering ram to open the line of his foes, giving space to his comrades to attack in the gap…

But despite their courage the Gothii could not hope to win. Their left, pushed by the fresh legion from the city, started to break, their fear soon contaminating the center and then the right, which had been so close to winning its part of the battle. Everyone fled either north, leaving family behind, or east to the illusive safety of their camp.

The legions had already started to move, the city guarison mopping up the battlefield, two units moving against the Gothii camp, and the last two full legions pursuing the fugitive with the help of the cavalry.

As the sentries of the city started to cheer for the victory they saw something else appear on the horizon on the seaside : another Roman fleet was coming.

 

[Hecatee]

Luoyang Shi, Serica, August 180


The visit of the western foreigners had changed many things in the empire, and the proof of that lay straight in front of the emperor himself. His highest counselor, Cao Cao, stood in the entrance of the emperor’s own office where Liu Hong awaited him. The rise of Cao Cao had been surprising to many, a combination of guile, trickery, and sheer competence. Once known to be living a scandalous life, he had embraced the change brought by the foreigners and thrived upon it until he had become the leader of all of China, or rather the power behind the throne.

But Liu Hong himself had changed a lot in the last five years. Shocked first by the arrival of the westerners, he had been forced to react. At that time a young official had been making a lot of noise in the capital with his interest for seeing the law upheld. Cao Cao had made himself some powerful enemies but his name had been heard by the emperor who asked to meet him, to the horror of the administration and of the eunuchs faction.

The young man had immediately appealed to the emperor, who had had him promoted for merit, sending a strong signal in the court that change was indeed about to happen. Cao Cao had been given a mission to root out corruption in the court and quickly made a number of shocking discoveries that cost a number of officials their posts and even in some case their heads.

A lot of junior officers flocked to Cao Cao, bringing him proof of malfaisance, seeing in him both an opportunity to redress the empire and to gain imperial favour or promotions. Soon informations arrived to Cao Cao about cases in the provinces where officials abused their authority and caused massive resentment in the population.

Those cases about the provinces he dutifully brought to the officials in charge, who dared not stay inactive or take bribes to protect the culprits. To the great merit of Cao Cao he never called on his colleagues to sentence those files he sent to them but suggested instead they be investigated as well as the source of the information to make sure the emperor’s wrath was not abused.

This probity of Cao Cao won him praise in the provinces, from where many wrote to the emperor to thank him for appointing such a loyal servant. By this point Cao Cao had been active three years and already about a hundred cases had been investigated and tried.

But his big breakthrough was when he managed to indict the court’s chief eunuch, bringing a solid case with many proofs of theft and witnesses which he managed to protect from harm until the trial. The emperor himself took interest in the case, although he did not seat as judge on the case.

After Cao Cao won the trial he was called for an audience with Liu Hong during which he was asked his opinion on a number of topics including the things learned from the westerners. Like every intelligent person at court the official kept abreast of the translation effort made by the westerners that had stayed behind and the serican scholars who had learned the languages in which the books were written.

His answers pleased the emperor who had him promoted again and added to his closest officials, an incredible achievement for an official not yet 30 years old. But it was this youth that was one of his main advantage as it made him much more dynamic than many court officials while also much closer in age to the ruling emperor.

Now he came to his sovereign to inform him that the scholar ambassadors sent to the west five years before had come home, and would be in the capital in a few weeks protected by a strong detachment of cavalry.

 

[Hecatee]

Outskirts of Olbia Pontica, on the Euxine Sea shore, August 180


Marcus Petillius Cerialis looked around him. He’d arrived too late for the battle, but in time for the peace, and he would settle for that. Not that there was to be anything formal about the peace either : the surviving barbarians had fled in the sea of grass, at least those who had found a horse… The rest had mostly been rounded up by the cavalry in the days following the battle. He now had a large amount of girls and children on his arms, and few ideas what to do about them. It was not like during Voltinius and the divine Hadrian’s wars, when the logistics had been prepared to transfer the vanquished to all corners of the empire…

Beside the Caesar wanted to give good prizes to his soldiers, who had had a gruelling campaign and little rewards, even if the barbarians’ camp had wielded a surprisingly high amount of fine silverware and gold vessels that would not have been incongruous in Rome itself, some of them apparently centuries old.

So most captives would be sold, but many of the men would be kept for imperial infrastructure projects. The population was growing in many a place, requiring new roads, new consolidated river banks, new bridges, … The strong back of those slaves would provide for that, under legionary supervision of course.

But this was mainly the details of the peace. He was the Caesar, he must think beyond the now, toward the future. The outcome of the battle showed the great steppes were not conquerable : a foe could always escape, in fact it was only the presence of so much gothic infantry that had allowed any kind of victory… Beside Petilius Cerialis had read the life of Alexander written by Arrianus a few decades before, and knew even that genius had had issues with the tribes.

He’d need a network of walled settlements and large amounts of troops to hold them if he hoped to defend the area in any depth, something he was not keen on doing and the emperor would not approve. Legions would go back to their bases, and auxiliary units would keep patrolling the area in conjunction with bosphorean troops, but that would be it. Northern Germania was much more of a concern anyway and brought much more resources to the empire. He knew that Gaul was now producing surprisingly high amounts of grain, sustaining the growth of many cities and exporting food to Rome in ever larger quantities. Truth be told the bosphorean grain was no longer as vital as it had been…

While this went through the Caesars head, the high command of the army filled in the tent. Time to give them their marching orders…

 

[Hecatee]

A small gallic vicus, mid-August 180


Diviacos looked at the field of cichorium. He’d arrived in the vicus but a few weeks earlier to take the estate of his dead brother and had no choice other than planting cichorium for the season was too late. The field had lain fallow for a year, its last harvest had been the usual grains but no one had used it when Biturix had collapsed on that cursed day of november two years ago.

News had been slow to reach Diviacos, who was working on supervising a gang of slaves hauling ships of the Rhodanus river. Then he’d been unable to come due to previous contracts followed by a sickness that had left him without strengths in a small lodging above a taberna in Arelate.

Luckily a neighbour had used the empty field as pasture for his flock during the year where it had lain empty, meaning that there had not been too much weed to root out before planting the chicory… He’d also been able to call on the support of some of his neighbours to help plant the damn thing for they had finished getting their grain in thanks to a vallus that greatly improved the speed of the harvest. The sense of community was strong in the vicus and Diviacos had promised those who helped would get to share a rather large amphora of wine, which was more than enough motivation for many of the local farmers.

Now Diviacos had two problems : it looked like he’d have a lot of a kind of food he didn't particularly like, and he had no seed grain for the next season. Of course he hoped to sell some of his chicory at the market, but that would probably not be enough.

It felt strange to be back again on a farm after so many years alongside the river. He’d fled to see more of the world, and indeed he’d seen more than most of those living in the farms next door… Arelate, Nemausus, Arausio, Valentia, Vienna, Lugdunum : he’d seen them all, as well as smaller cities such as Alba Helviorum or, on an affluent of the Rhodanus, Vasio Vocontiorum. He’d also done some supervision on slave gangs carrying goods by land, seeing towns such as Forum Neronis, the old Carpenctoracte Meminorum. In other words he felt like a man of the world, unlike those farmers rooted in their lands… And now he was becoming one of them…

Sighing, Diviacos left the field and went back to his farm. At least this would give him time to improve the house before the winter !

 

[Hecatee]

Medulas mine, in Gallaecia, Hispania, September 180


Marcus Aurelius was impressed. The procurator had not lied when talking about “ruina montis” in his description of the gold mines… The work was on a gigantic scale, seemingly ruining whole mountains to get the precious metal that made the province so precious.

The emperor was visiting the mine in company of the local procurator in charge of the exploitation of the site, an equestrian of syrian origin that had taken the position five years before and was nearing the end of his assignment.

“As you can see we use water to dig for us, water being so powerful… But recently we’ve begun to improve the process thanks to the new steam pumps. We can’t use too many for lack of wood to burn, but we use some either to move large quantities of water to fill a retention basin or to compress the water and shoot it out with great strength, which greatly increase the speed at which we can ruin a cliff and start accessing its gold. As a result our usage of slave labour has fallen by one quarter, making the mine much more economic to operate. Truly a splendid innovation, even if I did not believe in it when it was first suggested by the procurator rei machinatori. I guess that’s why he’s got the position while I’m in the administrative branch of the imperial service... “

Smiling, Marcus Aurelius acquiesced. He knew that the empire was changing and that some struggled to find their place in it. But while the man might lack in technical savviness, he was good at his numbers and showed his emperor projections of expected revenues and potential end of exploitation. The last information was not good : the Medullas would be completely exhausted somewhere in the next seventy years, in three or four emperors, which would be a massive loss of income for the empire.

Still, that would be for later. Now the emperor wanted to visit this fantastic place and learn how everything worked…

 

[Hecatee]

Near Carcasso, Gallia, October 180


Marcus Aurelius, emperor of Rome, was resting. Travelling on the safe waters of a canal was always more comfortable than being on saddle or in a car where every dip in the road could be felt in one’s back despite the cushions… Being on water he had none of those problems. It was especially comfortable after the fifteen days it had taken to cross the area between the mine and Burdigala, including the Pyrenees mountains...

The boat was not very wide but still roomy. While not the most ornate thing he’d seen, it was also richly decorated and fit for an emperor, even if said emperor was not one to really like luxury and would not have cared if it had been less ornate.

Here he could read and write in peace or simply admire the landscape through which the canal went, always remembering that this was no usual river but a fully man made waterway. From time to time they had to go through a clever system of doors and pumps actionned by donkeys on the quay.

The inventor of the canal had explained the mechanism at the first of such gates, happy with the interest the emperor was showing for his creation. He’d also explained the issues he’d had with getting enough water for the whole canal, and how he’d found and brought a number of streams and springs together to make a large reservoir near the highest point of the canal, the saddle between two valleys.

The work was truly awe inspiring and in the end the project had not cost as much as one could have expected and was already repaying itself with the small usage tax that was levied on the trade : given how much cheaper it was to carry goods by water rather than by road, the small tax was seen as a small annoyance but not as a burden.

Every day the imperial barge had crossed at least three or four barges, and the canal had not yet operated for a full year… Authorities in Burgdila, which he’d reached after following the coast from northern Hispania to the city on the banks of the Garumna, had told Marcus Aurelius of an increase of wine trade, sending local products to the Mediterranean, and of an increase of trade on the Atlantic sea toward both Hispania and Britannia.

Hispanian and Lusitanian salted fish and garum sauce was now exported north instead of south, through the gulf of Cantabria, and then carried toward the Mediterranean too, arriving somewhat faster and, more importantly, safer in southern Gaul and in Italy. The canal was creating a whole new economic ecosystem.

From Burgdila the imperial party had gone to Tolosa and then onto the canal on their way to Narbona where they’d spend the winter before taking a ship to Rome, concluding the emperor’s tour of his realm after some 3 years on the roads. In those cities too they had heard of booming trade and of a developing countryside, truly the availability of cheaper transport was a boon for the whole region. It would be good to identify new potential canals, especially to develop the new lands in Germania and in the transdanubian provinces…

 

[Hecatee]

Rome, April 181


The Emperor and his entourage walked through the city to high acclamations. He’d spent around three years touring his empire, and had decided to make his return a celebration unlike any ever seen in the history of the empire. It had all the look of a triumph but if so it was a triumph of peace rather than one of war.

Instead of prisoners and booty, of floats depicting battles and captured towns or other traditional elements of victory, the parade showed the gifts bestowed on the emperor during his visits, painted representations of the main towns he had travelled through or of the main episodes of his trip such as the meeting with the Cherusci king or the new canal in southern Gaul. The golden crowns offered by cities, the wonderful glasswork from Colonia Agrippina, books from Alexandria, sculptures from Mesopotamia, …

The sixty years old emperor looked good on his horse, leading the parade. Coming from the north, the cortege entered the city through the Flaminian gate, heading down the wide avenue. At Augustus’ mausoleum all stopped while the emperor and his closest followers walked to the Ara Pacis where priests awaited them with a sacrificial ram. Covering his head with his toga, Marcus Aurelius approached the victim and purified it with the sacred mola salsa. The beast kneeled to the man that would kill him, submitting willingly to his death, a most auspicious sign. Taking a razor sharp blade proffered by an assistant, the emperor slit the throat of the animal with a strong and practised hand, keeping his toga clean and making sure the blood pooled into the silver bassin another assistant held under the wound.

A priest came and carried the animal on the altar, gutting it to look at the viscerae before telling the crowd the Gods were pleased. At that the Emperor went back to his horse and the parade resumed toward the city center, going under the divine Hadrianus’ arche before reaching the site were the column depicting his triumph against the Parthians. Not looking at it, Marcus Aurelius kept going, passing under the divine Claudius’ arche on his way toward the imperial forii, going to the old republican forum, the heart of Rome.

All along the way the crowd cheered their Emperor, some throwing petals on his way. In the old forum the crowd was denser and more demonstrative, except for the senators assembled on the front steps of the Curia Julia, the old senate house : they had to maintain the decorum their position demanded. When he passed in front of it the senators joined the cortege which then turned toward the temple of Peace, erected by the divine Vespasianus a good century before. There awaited another sacrifice, much larger in scale, a true hecatomb of a hundred oxen : there would be meat on the trestles erected on all the streets of the capital !

After the sacrifice the emperor and his suite rode back to the old forum, taking the road that led to the Capitol and the temple of Jupiter, where a final sacrifice to the father of the Gods would be made before going back to the Domus Caesaris.

This was the final moment of glory for the emperor : he would stay in Rome or in a nearby palace for the rest of his days, ruling the empire in the same wise ways for a number of years still, but this tour symbolized what the philosopher emperor brought to the empire : peace.

 

[Hecatee]

Regnum Philippi
Northern Longobardia, May 245


The brachiae launched a new salvo against the wall, the flaming wicker balls making a smoky curve before landing in a crash, sending burning coal all around on the warriors and against the wooden palisade. Scorpions fired their bolts at any defender courageous enough to show his head while archers shoot their own salvos of a mix of burning and traditional arrows at a leisurely rate, just enough to cover the testudo approaching the gate through the earthen bank with a crude ram.

Three legions had been deployed to assault the wall, a large fortification that protected all of the cimbric isthmus, an attempt by the barbarians helped by traitors and defectors to prevent any roman retribution for their raids.

The forests of Germania had always been dangerous for Rome, and the slow progresses the Empire had made during the last century had not taught the barbarians their lesson, which was why the new emperor had decided to launch this expensive operation.

Four legions and their auxiliaries had been engaged in this campaign alongside numerous ships of the Rhine and Gallic fleets, whom the emperor used to carry a large complement of auxiliary forces to the back of the wall. Control of land without control of the sea made the great wall a doomed perspective and the tribes had never shown any naval inclination, none had in fact since the time of the Venetii in the age of the divine Caesar…

Marcus Iulius Philippus Augustus, emperor of Rome since the previous year, was watching the scene unfold before his eyes with attention. Seated on a large platform from which he could see the whole operation, he knew there was not much he could do. Either his soldiers would succeed in breaching the gate or they would be repelled and a new attack would take place within the hour. He was determined to storm the peninsula and finally end any massive threat to the rear of roman Germania : the campaign would finally ensure that all of the lands east of the Albis river and west of the Viadua would be secure. Roads already crisscrossed the lands under roman control, and the last Cherusci king had willed his kingdom to the previous emperor, Clodius Severus Albus, meaning that all the lands were under direct roman control.

Of course the territory needed patrolling, and large numbers of auxiliary units were stationed in the area, but this campaign would also allow the legions to move to the Viadua river. The structure of the army had known no change since the time of the divine Marcus Aurelius, some sixty years before, as the army had been able to victoriously fight every foe it had met : nomadic tribes in Euxine Sea area, probes from the recovering Persian shahanshah in Mesopotamia, nomads in northern Africa and, of course, Germanic tribes had all been defeated at the point of a roman gladius or spatha.

Indeed the divine Augustus would probably instantly recognize the legions given that they were so similar to those of his time. Of course the auxiliaries were more cavalry heavy and the infantry had the added archers units, some of them equipped in the serican way with arcuballistae, especially those fighting against heavy cavalry : the powerful arrows fired directly at the target were devastating even against the best armor, even if slower to fire…

The increased production of iron and the new metalworking techniques developed in the last fifty years meant that equipping the forces was cheaper than before as making armor or weapons did not require as much time as before. The new slitting mills and rolling mills invented during the reign of Titus Valerius Maximus had indeed made making nails, wire for lorica hamata and plates of metal for lorica segmentata quick and cheap beyond dreams. In fact the nails had become a common export item for the oriental trade routes, were a barrel of nails could pay for its half its weight in silk or spices or bunno beans.

Similarly roman wool dresses and tunics flooded the markets outside the empire thanks to the low cost of cloth produced on the mechanical mills invented in the time of the divine Marcus Petillius Cerialis. It seemed every river in the empire was host to dozens of mills of all kind !

The result was a prosperous empire, but not one without its troubles. It was not common knowledge but some gold and silver mines had been closed in recent years, the metal exhausted. Also the communication system of the optical telegraph was a boon to the empire, but also caused news to circulate too fast for proper control, meaning that often rumors troubled the people before the authorities could take measure to maintain the peace…

The importance of rivers for industry also meant that the growth of wealth was unequal. Some of the rich cities of the east now saw themselves competing with the booming cities of Gallia or Britannia, where rivers with permanent flow and sheeps were abundant.

The growth of the industrial equestrian class of the west led those cities to be covered in marble monuments or gifted improvement to river banks to prevent flooding and improve navigability. Where the old eastern elites or the north african land owners offered a temple or a bath complex to their citizens, the western new rich offered a stone quay or a bridge.

The west was thus getting at least as rich as the east, and this changed the dynamics in power, and even if Philippus himself was from an arabian family he knew power was going back west. The next emperors would probably be Gauls of even Germans, unless they were from Brittany !

In Mesopotamia the Persians had been repulsed twice in the last twenty years but were growing stronger every year, although they were under pressure from the North, Scythians and other nomadic tribes putting pressure on the restored Gorgan wall. A minor scythian invasion had been defeated sixty years before by a mostly infantry jewish army under command of the scion of a minor branch of the old royal family who had managed to assemble enough heavy cavalry to hammer the scythian against the anvil made by the Jews and which had then used this victory to begin a policy of consolidation.

It had taken some twenty years but the iranian plateau had been unified again, brigands had been hunted, trade had begun to flow again, and their had been no civil war at the death of Artaxerxes VI of Persia, also called Ardeshir I. His son Ardeshir II had ruled for fifteen years, keeping in line with his name of “the one whose reign is based on honesty and justice”. Population had risen again, new cities had been founded and ancient ones had been restored, and what had been a wasteland had begun to become a threat again for Rome...

 

[Hecatee]

Populonia, Etruria, September 245


Thucer Leixu shoveled another lot of old iron scories into his wheelbarrow, which was about as full as it was going to be and still be in his capacity to move around. Living in the lower area of Populonia, the man did not have far to go. The whole area was covered with the remains of centuries of iron extraction from the raw stones brought over from the island nearby.

From one of the oldest families of Populonia, Thucer had always lived in the city, in the shadow of the ruined temples of its acropolis. The temples showed how rich the city had been once, thanks to the iron trade : the island did not have enough trees to fuel the extraction of metal from ore, so the later had been carried to the beach of Populonia where powerful men had broken the ore into smaller bits that were then melted to extract iron.

But the trade had declined, the mines had been emptied of their riches, and Populonia had become a sleepy fishermen town with only a single smith to carry on the glorious tradition of his forefathers. At least 20 generations of Leixu had worked metal in this place, and Thucer had kept the proud line and hoped his son would follow in his footsteps.

The discovery he’d made a few months before would probably insure his fortune and that of his heirs for generations to come. Learning about the new types of furnaces, Thucer had built one and had thrown in some old skoria as his first test. To his amazement he’d seen a puddle of iron appear, much larger than what he’d expected. So much in fact that it had been almost twice as much iron as he would have gotten from that amount of ore with his old furnace !

He’d melted more ore and had gotten the same result, and an iron of quality as had been proven by his tests of the metal. He’d been able to do both modern cast iron and traditionally worked objects, but with free iron ore ! He just had to ensure he had coal if possible, but even charcoal could do because the new furnace were more efficient than the ancient ones.

Once he’d discovered the situation he’d covertly begun to buy as much of the area as possible, becoming the owner of a large part of the slag area. He now had centuries of already excavated ore at his disposal, without having to pay mining taxes or extraction costs ! Soon he’d be rich beyond measure. He’d already decided he’d rebuild the three temples of the acropolis to thank the gods and his ancestors for this unforeseen boon. Populonia was about to live again !

 

[Hecatee]

Buccula, Marcomania Superior, November 245


Marcus Iulius Philippus Augustus was cold. He disliked Germania, so far from his natal Arabia Felix. Yet the campaign to reduce the cimbrian peninsula had required his personal attention for all of the good season and he’d decided to make Buccula his winter capital.

The city was not yet a hundred years old. Built on orders of the divine Marcus Aurelius, it was equipped with everything that could be expected from a provincial capital : baths, a library, a large forum with a basilica and a temple to the capitoline trinity, and a governor’s palace of proper size that had been appropriated by the emperor.

Contrary to many other cities, the governor’s palace was in its own fortified area inside the perimeter of the city walls, a concession made at the time against the threat of a germanic assault on the city. A large public garden in front of those defenses guaranteed no houses were built near it, and the defenses of the palace had nothing to be ashamed of : they were on top of a large hill which had been made larger still with strong retaining walls supporting a platform on which the palace and a temple to the imperial family had been erected.

A large ramp let to the platform through a double door and was the only access to the upper area beside a hidden staircase that had been built inside the structure of the platform and walled off to hide its existence. The sides of the ramp had been decorated with reliefs of roman soldiers smithing barbarians, putting their villages to the torch or capturing them, as clear a depiction of the power of Rome as had ever been built in the provinces.

There was room enough in the area of the platform to have a full auxiliary cohort live in the service buildings of the palace and train on the large esplanade in front of the palace, with food enough to hold for six months and a well and cisterns to provide water.

The palace itself was rather classic, but had the latest innovations in art and comfort : underfloor heating in the whole building, splendid stained glasses to keep the cold outside, frescoed walls and a number of sculptures to ornate the rooms, running water, its own library, quarters for the administration and for the slaves, …

Underneath the city was laid in the plain following a regular orthogonal plan, the primary decumanus leading from the ramp of the palace on its northern side the the access to the legionary base set on another hill on the south-western side of the city, a second decumanus leading from the northern gate to another on the southern side of the city. Between the two decumani and the main cardo, at the foot of the palace, was the large forum and the usual buildings, including the local curia.

The position of the city on an affluent of the Albis meant that the it had become rather prosperous, to the point it was in truth the true real capital of all of Germania : the older rhenane cities were more in the orbit of Gallia, and the very good communication roads with the south and the north meant the city was a favourite of the emperors. The palace was accordingly grand, luxurious even, and equipped with all the necessary amenities.

Yet the underfloor heating system could not bring the large basilica to a temperature comfortable for the emperor, and thus the cold. At least no bad news contributed to the ambiance, which was a change.

The week before a report had come telling of the difficulties of the spanish gold mines, which seemed to be exhausted. Then it had been a report, only two weeks old, on renewed tension on the mesopotamian border. Thanks to the telegraph system such news arrived fast to the attention of the emperor, but sometime he wished it did not. An engagement of only one or two centuries wasn’t worth his attention.

Sometime he envied the emperors of the past, but he also knew this made his life much easier. He’d had reports on suspected treachery or alleged plotting well before they became dangerous, allowing him and his immediate predecessors to cut the heads of a number of conspiracies before the traitors could coordinate their actions.

This had been the case at the death of the previous emperor, Gaius Aelius Paetus, a distant relative of the divine Hadrian, when a british legion had proclaimed its legate emperor and had murdered the senatorial praefectus of the west, who happened to be visiting the troops at the time.

A frumentarius from the praefectus’ entourage had been able to order the sending of a message to the praefectus annonae, who had contacted the new emperor which sent in turn a message promising promotions for the officers and cash for the men to the commanders of the other legions present on the island, who had then quickly mobilized and marched against the rebellious unit. The speed of the reaction had made the soldiers desert their champion, who’d been sent to Rome in chains alongside all of his officers and most of the senior centurions, there to wait for Philip’s decision.

The rapid resolution of the crisis had been an eye opener for many who had not completely grasped the usefulness and the power of the faster communications. The resilience of the administration had also been noted for one could have expected the murder of one of the four senatorial praefectus to throw the region into chaos.

Of course the rebel legion had been decimated and a new senatorial praefect designated by the Senate upon recommendation from the emperor, and the senate had ordered the death of all the officers except two young tribunes who were shown to have taken no part in the plot but still saw their careers stopped before they could come into the senate… The properties of the condemned had also been confiscated and added to the imperial domain…

Still the information overload at the head of the empire meant that things had to be organized. Not only must the imperial secretariats be reinforced, but new positions had to be created and a formal permanent army concilium with its own staff established. Its task would be to filter information before it reached the emperor, and formulate plans as well as organize the logistics of the whole army.

The call of the ushed got the emperor’s attention. It was time to focus again on the day’s audiences : there was work to be done for the good of the empire.

 

[Hecatee]

Sorry for the delay, I was in Italy (again...) last week and this week end for a conference (I was talking of Byzantine theology in alternate history...) and so was somewhat late in my writing... Still the trip gave me the opportunity to visit a lesser known sanctuary near Rome...

Lanuvium, Latium, March 246


The long procession walked up the street toward the sanctuary in which Juno Sospita was waiting for the offering. Heading the procession was a middle aged man, Publius Licinius Murena, of an old local family dating back to the republican era. He was part of those Licini Murenae that had stayed in the Mons Albani region, keeping large properties in the area while the emperors bought most of the rest of the land. There neighbors had been the divine Julius Caesar, who had a villa on lake Nemi’s shore, or the Antonii family, who had given birth to the emperor Antoninus Pius.

Commodus, the son of the divine Marcus Aurelius, had been born in their local villa, which his father gave him when he reached adulthood, providing him with the necessary fortune required by the census for a senator, the first step of that man’s brief career which had ended in an ambush in Germania in which the 23 years old man had been foolish and yet heroic, dying on a German’s spearpoint and causing incredible grief to his elderly father.

Licinius Murena had been more lucky : he’d survived his stint as an officer in auxiliary units, being based in Alexandria as a junior centurion for three years, promoted and sent to in Mesopotamia for five and then, promoted again following some winning fighting against an eastern intrusion, on the Danube for his last two years of mandatory service as primus pilus of a cohors equitata. He’d then entered the Academia Militaria Practica, becoming a military Tribunus Machinatorum for a legion based in Britannia where he’d served five years.

During this time his elder brother Marcus had died, making him the heir to the family’s fortune. With what he’d made as an officer he had enough to request entering the senate, but this did not interest him. Instead he’d taken a position as procurator sexagenarii that saw him assigned to the province of Norica where he’d supervised his lesser colleagues for two years before coming home, aged 39 years and very rich. Military life had taught him to live frugally, even when posted in the rich east, and he’d not spent much of his large salaries.

His elderly father was delighted to see his son and heir again but had not lived long to enjoy this pleasure, dying a month later but not without extracting a last promise of his son, a promise he was now fulfilling.

The procession was now passing in front of the large portico at the base of the sanctuary’s first terrasse. Many of the shops were still empty. The old temple, often believed the most ancient of the region alongside the sanctuary of Diana on lake Nemi’s shore and Jupiter’s sanctuary on top of the Mons Albanus, had long suffered from neglect as large villa replaced the older farmsteads and the free farmers had been replaced by slaves.

Yet it was no longer in disrepair. Under the personal supervision of Licinius Murena had the temple been restored to its former glory. A new roof had been made in the ancient style, with its open gable. The terracota plaques that adorned it, of which a number had fallen over the centuries, had been replaced by a series of marble carvings. The terrasses had also been repaired, with new mosaics on the ground and in the back of the niches, which had also received new statues to go alongside those offered to the sanctuary by Lucius Licinius Murena, consul in the time of the divine Julius Caesar.

The procession had now arrived at the sacred grotto. The local young virgins carrying baskets of food advanced toward the dark abyss where the sacred snake awaited them. The ritual was old, and had been almost lost : if not for some old writings they would not have known how to venerate Juno Sospita, whose’ impressive statue waited in her temple.

The food had been gifted and the procession now took the direction of the last terrasse, that of the temple itself. There Licinius Murena covered his head with a fold of his narrow-stripped toga, mark of his status as much as the golden ring that shone at his finger, gifted by the emperor himself has he’d been admitted in the equestrian order, two decades earlier.

Taking a blade from the assistant, he turned toward the heifer which obligingly went down on her front paws, a willing sacrifice if one ever saw one. Quickly, in a practiced hand, the nobleman cut the beast’ throat without even a drop of blood on his toga. He then turned toward the crowd while assistants collected the blood and prepared the sacrifice.

“Citizens of Lavinium, my father asked me to restore the ancient temple of our ancestors so that we too may pray for Juno’s benefaction. I am told the sacred snake did eat the offering our children made to him, and that this is a sign of a good harvest. Let’s thus thank the goddess with our heart, and remember my father whose piety led to this auspicious day !”

 

[Hecatee]

Suburbs of Rome, June 246


Syrianus walks carefully. He is not used to be out so late at night, but in this season he had no choice for darkness came very late in this season. And while there is protection in the mere fact of carrying a torch, he knows that in his case it would cause him more harm than good.

Syrianus is a freedman of, as his name indicates, syrian origin. Born a slave, raised in the household of a tanner, he's been sold when he was 10. His new owner was another tanner, who used him to work in the large urine filled vats used to tint clothes : he’d spent hours walking around in the pestilential environment, to the point that his skin itself had decolorated from his feet up to his knees and from his hands up to his elbow.

For six years he’d been used for this task, until he was strong enough to work carrying the urine-filled amphoras from the street to the vats, which he then filled. Often he'd been beaten and, in a number of occasions his drunk master had also raped him, as was his right. Yet with time his master had trusted him enough to go on the collect of the amphorae from the neighborhood, giving him an opportunity to escape the small of the workshop and to gain a few coins which he preciously thesaurised.

It was on one such that he’d heard one of the preachers. The man had been at a street corner, haranguing the crowd, until the vigilae had come and forced him to flee. Curious, Syrianus had asked another bystander what this was all about, and this is how he’d heard of the so called savior of the east for the first time.

He’d seen the preacher again a few weeks later and had listened to him. This time no patrol had forced the man to flee but some well thrown rotten cabbages had shown his preaching was not very well received by the crowd. Undeterred, he’d stepped off from the stone he was standing on with an air of hurt dignity that surprised Syrianus. Curious, he’d gone after the man and had asked his name.

Thus Syrianus learns that the man is called Origen and a priest of the christian cult. He learns about a man son of an unique God that died so that all of mankind sins may be forgotten and discovers that the man is as much of a fanatic as the galles of the cult of Cybel, having cut his manhood to better serve his God and prevent temptation.

While at first afraid of the man’s fiery conviction, Syrianus is nonetheless seduced by the message of this priest and meets him again a number of time before the man offered him to come to mass.

But soon his master got wind of Syrianus’ relations with the cult and beats him, threatening to cut him loose if he does not renounce his criminal beliefs. While no persecution is organised against Jews and Christians, there still remain a formal interdiction for them to hold their cult within the Empire…

Many beatings only make Syrianus’ faith stronger, to the fury of his master. One day he even breaks his cane while hitting his slave. This does release something in him, and scowling he announce that Syrianus is now free and has to leave the premise while remaining his cliens and thus due support and help to his old master.

The 21 years old takes his few belongings with him and spends his first night of freedom sleeping, almost frozen in the december cold, in an alleyway behind a pile of rubbish. Only his long use to the horrid smell of urine makes him able to support the horrendous smell coming from the garbage.

On the next day he looks around for Origen and finds him, and the man points him toward a house where he receives bread and a token for the bath. Once cleaner he comes back to the place where he is given some thin soup and told to do good around him.

That was six months ago, before he’d found a christian tanner who’d accepted to take him in and to provide him with some money and a shelter as long as he works well and pray regularly.

Now, as every other friday evening, he’s repaying his employer’s mercy by going to the ekklesia, the assembly of the faithfuls that takes place in a farm not far from the city walls, next to the entrance to one of the catacombs of the deaths.

There, with a few dozen others, he’ll enjoy a feeling of community and belonging that he’s never felt outside of those meetings. Today the bishop of Rome, Fabianus, will direct the mass : he hopes the blessed man will be able to bring some divine goodwill to the faithfuls...

 

[Hecatee]

A surprise update because I had the time to make it, and it nicely rounds up this rapid look at various religious issues with this series of three posts :

Rome, June 246


The man knocked on the door of a large house a few blocks from the ludus magnus, the training area of the heroes of the flavian amphitheater. A doorman opened cautiously, obviously a veteran of the army, and looked at the visitor. Nodding, he let him in with a greeting : “nama to the lions, under the protection of Jupiter”. The visitor answered : “and nama to the bridegrooms, under the protection of Venus.”

The visitor went through the atrium and turned left to the stairs leading to the sanctuary. Torches illuminated the stairs leading to the main room of the underground temple. A dozen men were already present, most of them in their forties and all of them with the bearing of military men. They mingled without regard for social status, their relationship in the area being linked to their level of initiation in the cult.

The temple was the main one of the cult in the city, and the assembled faithfull concentrated some of the highest ranking member of their group in all of the empire : on this night two lions, three persians, two sun runners and no less than five fathers were expected, along with half a dozen lesser ranking believers of Mithras.

Their leader, the fathers’ father, pater patrum, was the centurion primus pilus of the second cohort of the praetorian guard, currently the acting leader of the whole praetorian guard in the city while most of the guard was on duty with the empire in the far north. The man had reenlisted twice, making him one of the oldest serving man of the whole army, but you could not see his age in his posture or his actions : straight as ever, he radiated energy and self confidence.

“Nama to the fathers, from east to west, under the protection of Saturn” said the visitor to the man. His elder looked at the recently returned officer of the XII legion with a smile : “nama to the lions, under protection of Jupiter. How are you doing today, Statius Sempronius ? I hear you are just returned from Germania ?”

“Indeed, I was replaced in March and went through our family’s lands in Panonia before coming home. I’ll be praetor next year and so have to prepare for my court. I must say I don’t really enjoy the perspective of going back to my law books but wherever the emperor commands I shall go…”

Chuckling, the old soldiers answered : “Well, it means you might well get a province soon enough, and then maybe even get command of a legion before too long should Mithras look upon you with benevolence. The pater in Buccula tells me you have been a true brother to the faithfuls and learned a lot at his side, to the point that you may be ready for introduction to the rank of the persians… but before we talk about that, tell me what news of the campaign ? The telegraphein and the letters don't say as much as the testimony of a man at the heart of the fighting“






For more details on the cult of Mithras :

http://www.tertullian.org/rpearse/mithras/display.php?page=main

 

[Hecatee]

Buccula, Marcomania Superior, late September 246


The army went going through Buccula was an happy army, for it was a victorious army. While the loot had not been very important, being mostly made of slaves, but the three legions had been able to defeat the tribes in the northern peninsula without suffering too many losses. A force made of a number of auxiliary units had been left behind, the remaining population of the area being low enough to only necessitate a light garrison.

Few villages of the area were still standing : the barbarians had been hunted in their marshes, units carrying the Batavi tribes’ heritage proving particularly adept at this kind of terrain. Auxiliary units had roamed the land, forcing the people to look for an illusive safety in the local burgs, wooden fortifications which had proved unable to defend them from the legions’ siege techniques.

While the emperor had pushed for a speedy completion of the campaign, his officers had lavished every kind of techniques to destroy the small fortifications, going so far as ordering a tunnel under the walls of a place of a hundred hearts just to keep their soldiers aware of the technique…

This campaign had thus been, in the Romans’ eyes, mostly a training exercise rather than a full blown war, with the added benefit of the usual rapes and looting that their officers had allowed because they knew there would be little enough gold or precious materials to be had in the houses of those barbarians. Some chiefs had been richer, usually hoarding diplomatic gifts made by the Romans since the time of the divine Augustus and then exchanged from chief to chief to make alliances and ensure the loyalty of their warriors.

The best pieces had of course been reserved for the emperor’s triumph, and included a splendid golden plate with the portrait of the divine Augustus and his divine wife Livia which would take place of pride in the procession he intended to have in Rome.

The population’s exact size before the campaign was not well known, but at least twelve thousand warriors had been slain during the war. At least as many women and children had also perished, and twice as many had been captured and sold to the slavers that, as ever, had been following the armies. Long columns of chained despairing barbarians had gone south toward the larger markets of the empire.

Strategically the victory was significant : from the south of Mauretania one could follow the seas and never leave the Empire except along the eastern and northern reaches of the Pontus Euxinus, and reach the mouth of the large river that marked the north eastern border of the Empire. No invasion could ever come from the west, except by seas that the Roman fleet patrolled. Of course there remained the poorer parts of the island of Britannia, in the far north, and the island of Hibernia, but those could easily be picked whenever an emperor fancied it. It was also true that peace had to be won, rebels crushed, brigands hunted, but overall the empire was at peace in the west and only needed to look to its east to ensure its security…

But for now it was time to go south with all haste : the emperor wanted to be in Rome before winter closed the roads, but he did not want to return without at least his praetorian guard, to give a image of strength : while the triumph would not take place before march or april at the earliest, he still had some fifty days of travel to cover and the risk that the mountains be closed by snow.

The reasons why the emperor wanted to go home were numerous, but all knew that the upcoming year would be very special indeed, and the emperor wanted to be in the capital to personally supervise what promised to be an exceptional moment in the life of the Empire…

 

[Hecatee]

Near the mouth of the Albis river, october 246


The fleet was not large, with only two of the boats equipped with artillery, but it was still a powerful statement of Rome’s commitment to the region. The Albis, which had been a frontier in the time of the divine Augustus, had become one again in its higher reaches but here, near its mouth, both sides were formally Roman territory and it was the job of the Albis fleet to make sure everyone around it understood the situation properly.

The sailors were all experienced, having done the same work on other rivers of the empire and having even supported some imperial campaigns by taking to the northern sea alongside the larger warships of the classis Britannica which had deployed from its base at Gesoriacum to help the Emperor in its war against the tribes of the big peninsula.

The weather was not very good in this season : rain and fog seemed to alternate, conjuring to make the life of the sailors miserable. There was not even enough wind to deploy the ships’ masts, so they all had to take their turn at the oars, all safe those onboard the Vulcanus. Those lucky bastard simply had to toss more fuel into the infernal furnace of their ship. Lighting a fire onboard a ship to make it go forward, none but the fools of Alexandria and the Machinatorum of Rome would think of something like that !

Steam propelled ships had been experimented and tinkered with for almost a century now, at least since the time of the divine Marcus Aurelius, destructor of the Marcomanni and so many other tribes. But most were small, not very powerful nor very reliable, and had to be fit to small ships with little fuel onboard.

The Vulcanus was something else. Financed directly by the imperial purse, it was one of three ships in service with the Albis fleet, for the machinatorii of Rome were trying to settle a discussion between three different kind of propulsion. They were those arguing for a system in which a archimedes vice turned and propelled the ship, although by now the trial had shown it to be the least efficient way. While officially in service, the ship languished in its shipyard after its initial tests had shown it to be such a failure.

Then there were those arguing for a system somewhat derived from the vice which the called the “helice”, which looked a bit like a flower and had to be mounted on a shaft going through the back of the hull. Last but not least were the promoter of the “paddle wheel”, which used watermill like wheels on either side of the ship to move it forward.

The Vulcanus was the testbed for that latest innovation and it made for a strange look indeed ! Yet the crew needed to service it on the water was smaller than on a rowship, leaving more room for fighting men. But it was less practical than the Hephaistos, its sistership testing the helice propulsion system, which had most of its equipment in the back, leaving room for men, cargo and weapons in the front. It could carry four automatic repeating heavy ballistae where the Vulcanus only carried two, and could better fire alongside its flanks although the Vulcanus could also fire to its back, something the Hephaistos could not.

On the other hand the Vulcanus was more stable given the central position of its paddles and and engine, and also needed less water under its keel than the Hephaistos. Some were saying her configuration would be better for the high sea while the Vulcanus was more of a river boat, but its skipper had already found that even that was not guaranteed if the river became too swift or had too many turns : despite having the same size and the same engine, the Hephaistos was faster and more agile than the Vulcanus and could turn much easier, especially as a clever engineer had put its steering oar straight behind the helice, thus making the oar more effective.

 

[Hecatee]

Rhodos, Rhodos island, november 246


The slow season had come to the Mediterranean. Ships were all in port, except for some fishermen in local waters, and everyone enjoyed his home and family, especially those who had made a profit during the sailing season, either as sailors, rowers or merchants. Like always the local olive oil had sold well, as had the perfume made from rose petals since time immemorial.

Menedemos was one of the traders plying his trade all over the Mediterranean. After a season in the western mediterranean two years before and in the Aegean the year after, he had done a year sailing the southern coast of Anatolia, visited the ports of Cyprus and gone as far as Phoenicia, bringing home a number of bales of silks from the far East and lots of amphoras full of dye from Tyre and Byblos. His cousin Sostratos and him had made a tidy profit on the trip, and he enjoyed the season. It had not always been so : while his father had been alive the winter season had been torture to him, but now that he’d inherited the business he enjoyed his time home when he could eat the excellent food prepared by his slave cook Sikon, a master of his craft that sometime forgot he was not the master of the house…

Menedemos was not only a trader but also, in his own way, an innovator in his trade. He did not hesitate to do trips other would not consider, or carry unusual goods, although always luxury goods as those suited his ship better. The Artemisia was of an archaic and rather unusual design which his family was one of the last to use, mixing rowers and sail to always keep moving and be able to reach places the big bellied sail only traders could not get to… Of course it needed a larger complement of sailors, meaning it cost more to operate and thus forced the owner to concentrate on high value low bulk items such as perfumes, glass, exotic pelts, jewels and other rarities.

His cousin Sostratos, co-owner of the business, was more of a philosopher. In another time he’d have studied in Athens, but it had been to Alexandria that he’d been sent by his father to pursue his education. There he’d been exposed to the latest ideas, including those on physics and mechanics : that’s why he’d been pressing Menedemos to look into the potential of a steam ship for trade.

Until now Menedemos had always demurred, because steamships were not reliable, were very costly to build and because the Artemisia did not need replacing. But that had been before… He’d received a report that morning from the carpenter in charge of the ship’s yearly maintenance : a crack had been spotted in the beam of the main keel of the ship, probably dating from that rough beaching on a cyprian beach four months before. While the wood was waterlogged it had not been visible but now that the ship had dried it had become visible : a new ship was necessary.

But should it be a steamship ? And what would she need to look like ? Menedemos know of his almost legendary ancestor, also called Menedemos, who had lived at the time of the diadochi and had created a new type of warship to hunt pirates, in fact he’d had the fellow’s statue in the agora repaired a few years ago as his first official after the death of his father. Creating éa new ship would be similarly an honour for his family and himself, something that could well see him elected to a position as duumvir or even a higher position in the koinon of the rhodians, the government of the whole island that ruled under the roman governor…

His ancestor's innovation had been a light trireme ship, as fast as the pirates' boats but holding more men and having more raw power : it was not built to compete with the heavy warships the hellenistic kings were building at the time, but to hunt smaller and usually faster ships.

As an hybrid design, it had taken the best of two worlds and been economical to build to boost, which was something the authorities of the time had certainly liked about the design !

Now for his steam ship he'd also have to build an hybrid. Steam engines were still too touchy, and probably much more difficult to repair or replace than oars or the rigging of a sail ship...

It would thus have to combine both sail and steam. It would also need a hold to have enough fuel to burn without falling short at sea. Given that it would probably only been fit for the largest harbours, those with enough draft under the keel...

Still it would need to fit with standard shipyards, so it could not be too big, especially as he did not know if engines could be built to fit the largest ships...

So the size of a large trireme and probably with a body similar to one too, so as to fend water easily unlike the traditional cargo carriers. While not deep the hold would be large enough because he would not need to have a hundred and twenty men to man it, probably two dozens would be enough, half what he currently needed.

He'd have to look at how much fuel the engine would use and how much it cost, but he would probably have less to pay than his current high personnel cost. Of course the cost of the ship itself might be the main factor against profitability…