Masters of Rome: VESPASIAN V (Vespasian 5) Read online

  They were surrounded.

  When the first slingshots cracked into the turma from both sides, Sabinus felt an illogical relief: it was not the Lost Dead that faced them but men, live men who could be fought and killed.

  The screaming started; but it was bestial, not human. The slingers were aiming low, at the horses’ legs; they had not come to deal out death, Sabinus realised, but to take captives.

  ‘Atilius!’ Sabinus roared, pointing his sword north, back the way they came. ‘Our only chance is to ride through them together.’

  Atilius yelled at his men to turn; the turma struggled to form line in the hail of shot thwacking in from both sides. Five horses were already down, writhing in shattered-bone agony, their dismounted riders, screaming, struggling to clamber up behind one of their comrades. Two more horses fell thrashing to the ground, hurling one trooper clear but crushing the other; he lay still, his head at an unnatural angle. The unseated man rose shakily to his feet to be punched back, with a sharp howl, arms flailing, body arced over buckled knees, crashing to the ground with a pulped hole where his nose had been.

  Sabinus urged his mount forward. ‘With me!’ Risking the uneven ground he drove his horse into a canter; the surviving troopers followed, unsheathing their cavalry spathae ready to cleave their way through their tormentors, who were now less than fifty paces away.

  Another hail of slingshot scythed through their ranks, bringing down six horses, head first, their muzzles ploughing into the grass as their splintered forelegs collapsed beneath them; the riders cried to their comrades not to leave them behind. But their pleas were in vain.

  A shot fizzed past Sabinus’ knee; the slingers were still aiming low. He kicked his heels and slapped the flat of his blade hard on his mount’s rump; the beast burst into a gallop. The slingers turned and fled. Sabinus’ heart raced, stimulated by hope. But in the instant that he thought they would run their attackers down a new terror sprang from the ground: a double line of spearmen, concealed until now, raised themselves up to kneel on one leg; each supported a long, ash-shafted boar-hunting spear, their butts wedged in the turf and the leaf-shaped, iron heads aimed at the horses’ chests.

  With no time to react, the turma ploughed into the bristling hedge of honed iron. The blades sliced into taut equine muscle, crunched through bone to burst into the cavity housing vital organs beyond. Blood, pressurised by huge hearts working to the limit, exploded from the ghastly rents in the beasts’ chests as they impaled themselves, their momentum forcing in the spearheads until they came to a juddering, haft-bending halt on the iron crosspieces at their base.

  Sabinus was flung forward onto his mount’s neck, his red-plumed helmet spinning away over the enemy line. An instant later he was hurled back as the stricken animal reared, shrieking in agony, yanking the embedded spear from the grip of its blood-spattered wielder and cracking the skull of the man next to him as the beast twisted in its torment.

  Landing with a lung-emptying crunch on his back, Sabinus just had the presence of mind to roll to one side as the dying horse crumpled onto its rump and then tumbled backwards, its legs scrabbling weakly in the air as if it were trying to canter its last.

  Sabinus pulled himself to his knees, gasping for breath, and felt his head crack; a white light streaked across his vision. As he faded into unconsciousness he realised the bitter irony of being led into a trap by a spy passing himself off as a Roman called ‘Alienus’.

  It was a scream that brought Sabinus back to consciousness: a scream of fear, not of pain. He opened his eyes but could see only thick stems of rough grass; he was on his belly, his hands fastened behind his back. His head throbbed. The scream stopped and he could hear a low chanting.

  Trying to ease himself over, he felt his stomach churn and then convulse. A gush of thin vomit sprayed onto the grass; its sour taste lingered on his tongue and its reek, as it dribbled out of his nostrils, turned his insides again, forcing him to heave once more.

  Breathing fast and shallow he forced himself onto his back, spitting out the residue of the noisome fluid. The fog had lifted and the sun was setting. He raised his head; he was within the henge. Blurred figures were moving around. The scream resumed, drowning the chant. One of the figures raised an arm, paused, and then brought it crashing down; the scream was abruptly curtailed, replaced by a long croaking gurgle and then silence.

  He felt the temperature suddenly drop. Now his eyes had begun to focus he could make out the figures. They were filthy. Their hair, dishevelled and matted into clumps, fell halfway down their backs; their beards, twisted into strands, were equally long. They each wore a single, long-sleeved garment, belted at the waist and reaching their ankles, that may have at one time been white but now looked as if patches of mould and mildew had been allowed to fester on them for years.

  Sabinus shivered and let his head slump back onto the grass with a groan; if there was one thing that he feared more than the spirits of this land, it was their servants: the druids.

  ‘You’re awake then, legate,’ a voice said with remarkable cheerfulness.

  Sabinus turned to see Alienus walking towards him. ‘You treacherous little cunt!’

  ‘Hardly; to be treacherous you have to betray your own people. You can’t accuse me of that; I’m a prince of the Atrebates.’ Alienus squatted down next to him. ‘Not all of us have bowed the knee to Rome like my cowardly grandfather or my vainglorious cousin who has stolen my birthright and now rules in my place; they’ve brought shame to my people. Caradoc, or Caratacus as you call him, may have been my people’s enemy but he at least stands up to the invaders. He’s of our blood and would preserve our ways and our gods, and for that he deserves our support to throw you back into the sea.’

  ‘So that you can carry on your petty squabbles living on the fringes of the world?’

  ‘It may be the fringes of your world, but this island is our whole world and before you came we were free to organise our lives according to our own laws and customs. Can you blame us for wanting to keep it that way?’

  ‘No, but you’re being impractical.’ Sabinus shivered again, his toes were frozen. ‘Rome has come to stay and you’ll cause the death of many of your people realising that.’

  ‘Not now that we have you.’

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘Today is the spring equinox; the few survivors from your escort have wetted the altars of our gods with their blood in honour of the day – but not you. You’re the one we came for. We knew that to get you, it had to be before you went out on campaign. You wouldn’t have believed a summons from Plautius after.’

  Sabinus’ teeth started to chatter as a deep chill crept up his legs. ‘How did you forge his seal?’

  ‘If you have access to documents with his seal intact on it then it’s not that difficult; you’ve got three months to work it out.’

  ‘What for? Why not just kill me now?’

  ‘Oh, you’re too precious for that. It would be a waste. The druids have decided that the most potent sacrifice to offer the gods on behalf of Caratacus – to strengthen him in his struggle – is a Roman legate.’ Alienus raised his eyebrows and pointed at Sabinus with a half-smile. ‘That would be you.’ He indicated with his head towards the druids who were standing in the golden rays of the setting sun that flooded through two of the arches in the henge to exactly illuminate the altar stone. ‘And Myrddin, the head of their order, who knows about these things, has decided that the most auspicious day and location for that sacrifice will be the summer solstice in the grove of the sacred springs.’

  Sabinus looked over to the druids as they continued their chant and realised that no heat was coming off the sun’s rays but, rather, a cold power, filled with malice, emanated from the group, chilling its way up him like a series of freezing breaths; and yet Alienus seemed unaffected. Sabinus’ mind started to slow, rendering it incapable of questioning. His eyes began to frost over; with a final effort he spat a weak globule of vomit-tainted saliva into th
e spy’s face. ‘I’ll be gone by then. My brother will come for me.’

  Alienus wiped his cheek with the back of his hand, smiling without humour. ‘Don’t worry, Myrddin wants me to ensure that he does come and that he brings his doomed legion with him. I think you’ll agree that two legates would be much more powerful than one; and a brace of brothers would be the most potent sacrifice to win the gods’ favour for the army that Caratacus is now assembling. And Myrddin always gets what he wants.’

  Sabinus’ vision went white as the coldness settled on his heart; he felt a malevolent presence draw him away from consciousness and he screamed until he was deafened. But no sound emerged from his frozen lips.

  PART I

  BRITANNIA, SPRING AD 45

  CHAPTER I

  VESPASIAN SECURED THE leather thongs of his chinstrap with a tight knot, pulling the articulated cheek-guards close about his face. He shook his head; the helmet stayed firm. Satisfied, he nodded at the slave waiting upon him; the man – in his early twenties – stepped forward and draped a deep red, heavy woollen cloak about his shoulders, fastening it with a bronze brooch in the shape of a Capricorn, the emblem of the II Augusta. Despite the two mobile braziers in the tent, there was a morning chill and Vespasian was pleased with the garment’s extra warmth. He grasped the hilt of his sword, tugged it, checking the weapon was loose in its scabbard, and then glanced at the slave as he stepped back, his task complete. ‘You may go, Hormus.’

  With a short bow, Hormus turned and disappeared through dividing curtains into the sleeping area at the rear of the praetorium tent – the headquarters of the legion and living area of its legate at the heart of the II Augusta’s camp.

  Picking up a cup of warmed wine from a low table, Vespasian strode over to his desk, covered in neat piles of waxed wooden tablets and bundles of scrolls; he sat down and opened the despatch that had caused him a sleepless night. Sipping his morning drink, he reread it a couple of times, his full face drawn into a strained expression, and then clacked the tablet down. ‘Hormus!’

  ‘Yes, master?’ the slave answered, scurrying back through the curtains.

  ‘Take this down and then have a messenger set out with it immediately.’

  Hormus sat at his smaller, secretary’s desk, took up a stylus, poised it over a clean sheet of wax and nodded his readiness to his owner.

  ‘To Gaius Petronius Arbiter, senior tribune of the Fourteenth Gemina, from Titus Flavius Vespasianus, legate of the Second Augusta, greetings.

  ‘My brother, Titus Flavius Sabinus, did not arrive at the Second Augusta’s camp around the time of the spring equinox; nor was there any meeting scheduled here between General Plautius, myself and my brother. I know of Tribune Alienus; he is the grandson of the late Verica of the Atrebates. I vaguely recall coming into contact with him a few times whilst he has been serving on Plautius’ staff during the last two years and I have no reason to doubt his integrity; but neither do I have any reason to believe that his loyalties may not still lie with the rebels. What was he doing leading my brother to a meeting that did not exist? If you are positive that it was to here that they set out fifteen days ago then I can only assume that Alienus was, after all, never truly one of us but, rather, a Britannic spy. Therefore, my brother is either a prisoner or, the gods forbid …’ Vespasian paused, not wanting to say the word that had tormented him all night as he contemplated Sabinus’ possible fate.

  Although Sabinus – almost five years Vespasian’s senior – had terrorised him as a child and treated him with scorn as a young man, their relationship had gradually changed over the last dozen years or so and matured into one of mutual respect. It had been Vespasian’s part in helping his brother recover the lost Eagle of the XVII Legion that had brought the two siblings close enough to communicate without constant bickering. Sabinus had been under threat of death from the Emperor Claudius’ powerful freedman, Narcissus, for his part in the assassination of Caligula; his fellow conspirators had all been executed. However, owing to the intervention of the brothers’ old acquaintance, Pallas, fellow freedman to Narcissus, Sabinus’ role had been covered up and his life spared on condition that the siblings retrieved the final Eagle still missing after the German rebel, Arminius, destroyed three legions in the Teutoburg Forest in the year of Vespasian’s birth, thirty-six years previously.

  Although the Eagle’s return to Rome did not go exactly as planned, it was recovered and the brothers found themselves back in favour with the real power in Rome: not the Emperor but his freedmen. Their success had forced Sabinus to admit that he owed his brother his life and it was with a heavy heart that Vespasian completed his sentence: ‘… dead.’

  Vespasian waved a hand, dismissing his slave, and downed the rest of his wine, praying to Mars, his guardian god, that somehow Sabinus was still alive; although why the Britons would spare any captives he did not know as they were well aware that Plautius refused to bargain with their lives. To be sold into slavery to the tribes in the north or the west was the best that any man could hope for and that was a living death. But, if that was the case, at least there would be a chance of finding him.

  The two guards outside the tent crashing to attention and the sound of someone entering brought him out of his reverie. The prefect of the camp, Maximus, the third most senior officer in the legion, marched briskly in and snapped an immaculate salute honed by almost thirty years of service.

  Vespasian stood out of respect for his junior in rank but senior in experience. ‘Yes, Maximus?’

  ‘The legion is deployed, sir! We’re awaiting your orders should the parley prove to be unsuccessful.’

  ‘Is Cogidubnus talking with them?’

  ‘They wouldn’t allow him and his two bodyguards to enter the fort so he had to negotiate from outside the gate; he’s still up there.’

  ‘Very well; I’m on my way.’

  Vespasian walked out through the gates of the II Augusta’s camp, built on a low flat-topped hill that ran gently down to a stream at its base. The guards on the gate, staring rigidly ahead, presented arms with overemphasised stamps as he passed.

  His primus pilus, Tatius, the most senior centurion of the legion, and his thick-stripe tribune, Valens, were waiting outside along with the thin-stripe tribunes: five of them, teenagers or in their early twenties, and here to learn. A quarter of a mile ahead of them stood another hill, round like a giant molehill, three hundred feet high and half a mile across at its base, which stood apart from the surrounding undulations for no apparent reason other than to provide a formidable fortified refuge; and fortified and formidable it was. Three-quarters of the way up its summit, two great ditches, each ten feet deep, had been carved out of its circumference and filled with fire-hardened, pointed stakes. The slope before them was steep and had been cleared of all trees and bushes, except, as Vespasian had noted on his circuit of the fort upon arrival, the western slope on the far side; that was too steep for an assault and bushes had been allowed to flourish on it. Behind the inner ditch, the excavated earth had been piled up and packed down to make a steep mound on top of which a palisade of thick logs, twice the height of a man, had been constructed. Hundreds of warriors lined its length and behind them, amongst the scores of round huts that covered the summit, waited many more along with their women and children, plenty of whom, Vespasian had learnt from bitter experience, were capable of using a sling or hurling a javelin to deadly effect.

  On the downwards slope between Vespasian and the hill-fort stood the II Augusta in two lines of five cohorts each; rank upon rank of iron-clad heavy infantry, their burnished helmets glowing golden in the newly risen sun as they stood, motionless, beneath their standards fluttering in a chill breeze. Vespasian had ordered this display not because he intended to send the full might of his legion against the enemy; the ditches would make that impracticable and a waste of legionary life. No, the noncitizens of the more expendable Gallic auxiliary cohorts would make the first assault. The parade was purely to intimidate the de
fenders and aid Cogidubnus, the new King of Rome’s allies, the confederation of the Atrebates and the Regni, in his negotiations with the chieftain of this sub-tribe of the Durotriges who had been trapped in their hilltop redoubt by Vespasian’s lightning move inland, to the northwest, in the first days of the new campaigning season.

  The thrust had been initiated by the report from a Britannic spy, in Cogidubnus’ pay, of the muster of a large war band at the fort, perhaps under the command of Caratacus himself, in preparation to strike eastwards, behind the line of the II Augusta’s advance, to harry their supply lines in order to force the legion to turn and deal with them, thus delaying considerably their spring campaign.

  The legion’s arrival and surrounding of the fort the previous evening had been so swift that none of the Britons had managed to escape; those who had made it over the palisade had been quickly cut down or picked up by the legion’s Batavian auxiliary cavalry, which had skirted around the fort specifically to prevent anyone escaping and calling for aid. The spy’s estimate that there were upwards of four thousand men of fighting age within had been confirmed by prisoners less willing to endure the knives of their inquisitors. However, they had all denied Caratacus’ presence to the point of death.

  Caratacus’ plan will not work now, Vespasian thought with a self-congratulatory half-smile, putting his anxiety for his brother to one side and concentrating on the matter in hand. The scene before him would have impressed him four years ago when he had first taken command of the II Augusta, but now, after two seasons’ campaigning in Britannia, it was a common sight for him; he counted them in his head and reckoned that this was his ninth siege.

  Although the defences were almost a mile in circumference, there was but one entrance and that was facing Vespasian; but it was not a straight route up the hill to get there. The crossing points in each ditch were at different points, forcing an attacker to zigzag during the ascent, exposing their flanks to constant missile fire from the men on the walls. Many auxiliaries would die in a frontal assault just to reach the gates and then many more would perish as they tried to batter them down with the ram that stood ready, encased in a wooden housing covered with dampened leather to protect it from the fire-pots that would surely be hurled down from above.