"What is the meaning of this, Commander?" Hamilcar demanded. "I expected you to be ready to march!"
"It is our usual custom to be on the march before dawn, but today we waited for your arrival." He nodded to his trumpeter, who sounded a single note. The unit trumpeters repeated the note and men stooped and jerked tent pegs from the ground. There came a second note and men pulled out the supporting poles. Before Hamilcar's eyes, thousands of tents collapsed as if crushed by the blow of a single, gigantic hand.
Men swarmed over the fallen tents, folded them and loaded them on the pack beasts. With another flourish of trumpets the eagle-bearers marched from the camp gate, followed by the legionaries and auxilia in their units, then the cavalry and finally the noncombatants with the baggage animals. Where moments before there had stood a veritable city, there were now earthen ramparts with no trace of human habitation within. Breaking camp, getting into marching order and getting the whole force moving, a task that took most armies at least an hour and often far longer than that, the Romans had accomplished in perhaps five minutes.
Hamilcar knew now that he had hired some matchless soldiers and he was well pleased with the bargain. Governor Hanno had reported some troubling things about these people, but that was a trifling matter. He wanted to give an oration, to say heroic things about this momentous occasion, but somehow in the presence of these men he did not feel up to it.
Instead he said, simply: "Let's go to Egypt."
Chapter 17
For the first time in more than a hundred years, the Senate of Rome held a meeting in its ancient Curia Hostilia. The building was made of brick and even when it had been abandoned, it was far from being Rome's finest. Still, its tradition was ancient and it was sacred ground. The senators ranged along its benches could smell the new timber of its restored ceiling and roof, and the fresh paint that whitened the walls.
From without came the sound of rebuilding: hammering, sawing, the shouts of team bosses as heavy timbers and stones were raised. The scent of wood smoke and incense was heavy in the air as temples were reconsecrated and resumed their interrupted sacrifices. The augurs were in constant demand to pronounce the will of the gods on this building project or that. One obscure priesthood had even requested that a human sacrifice be performed at the rededication of the forum, as had been done at its founding. The pontifexes had rejected this with disgust. Were they barbarians, they demanded, that they resort to human sacrifice at any but the direst circumstances?
If harmony and coordinated effort seemed to be the mood of the refounded city as a whole, nothing of the sort characterized the Senate. The debates were no less raucous and bitterly divided than they had been in Noricum. Now that the great, irrevocable step had been taken, men were falling prey to second thoughts. Now that huge, warlike preparations were underway, the stakes seemed higher and the rewards or penalties all the greater. These were things worth fighting over, and the Senate fought.
"Just who is in command?" the Consul Norbanus shouted. "Our legions have sailed for Carthage and may even now be marching on Alexandria. Yet my esteemed colleague's son, Marcus Cornelius Scipio, is in the Egyptian capital, apparently acting in some military capacity, as some sort of defense expert! Whose side is he on?"
Publius Gabinius, the Princeps, stood. "Our esteemed Consul," he said, "takes far too seriously a war between mere foreign kings. Our legions did not go to Africa to defend Rome, but to support the Carthaginian Shofet. We all know what that alliance is worth. Hamilcar does not treat it as an alliance at all, but rather as a mere contract securing the services of mercenaries. Well, have we not repaid the insult by taking Italy from beneath his very nose?" This raised a general laugh and cheer.
"As for young Marcus Scipio, it was long Roman practice to attach observers to the staffs of foreign commanders, to learn the arts of war as practiced by people who might someday be our enemies."
"Not when Romans were fighting on the other side!" shouted Norbanus.
"What of that?" Gabinius said with a sneer. "Have we proclaimed Hamilcar a Friend and Ally of Rome?" There were boos and hisses at this outrageous pronouncement. "Had that been the case, then Scipio might have to answer to charges of treason. But Hamilcar and the Egyptian boy-king are nothing to us. Personally, I look forward to receiving Scipio's report on the siege of Alexandria, along with that of Titus Norbanus. How often have we had a detailed military analysis of such an event from both sides? Surely, no one here expects a Scipio, scion of the proudest and most patriotic of families, to take up arms against fellow Romans!" There were mutterings that this was true, but Gabinius would have liked the mutters to be louder. Clearly, not everyone believed in the loyalty of Marcus Cornelius Scipio.
"Let us not waste time on this squabble," said Titus Scaeva. As last year's Consul, he had an important command in the newly built army. Although unarmed, he attended the meeting in his military belt and sagum. "One Roman, whatever his intentions, is going to accomplish little in this affair. We have much to accomplish, though.
"The distinguished Princeps Gabinius says that we have snatched Italy from Carthage, but I say that we have not. Most of the south is not under our control, and it is by way of the south that Carthage is most likely to return. We cannot ignore Liguria and the northwest, either. Remember that Hannibal surprised Rome by crossing the alps, a supposedly impossible feat."
"But that was Hannibal!" shouted an old senator. "This Hamilcar seems to be a fool!"
"Perhaps so. Perhaps not," Scaeva said. "We haven't seen him in command yet. But if he bungles this war, we know that Carthage has a short way with failures, even if they are Shofets. He may be replaced by a competent man. We must not underestimate Carthage."
Gabinius was grateful for the change of subject and for Scaeva's good sense. "Proconsul," he said, "what do you propose?"
"We have a vast army now, although much of it is untried. Carthage lies across the sea, and its possessions in Spain and the old Province are thinly garrisoned. But Sicily is heavily fortified and there are still Carthaginian troops there. I propose an assault on Sicily, now, while most of the Carthaginian soldiers are away in Egypt. Now we can take the island with the legions we have available to us, and take it at much smaller cost than the last time, when Hannibal's father was in command. The nearest menace will be eliminated and we will be in control of the nearest approach to Africa. Let me lead my legions to secure the south of Italy, then cross the Strait of Messina to Sicily!"
There was stunned silence. The audacity of the plan was astounding. Yet it was tempting, for this would be hurting Hamilcar far more than the seizure of Italy had.
The Consul Norbanus leapt to his feet. "This will mean death to our legions in Africa! Four legions! Twenty-four thousand citizens and the same number of allies and attached personnel! We can't sacrifice so many!"
Fierce old Scipio Cyclops stood. "Who is going to kill them? Carthaginians? They are Roman soldiers. They can fight their way back like the ten thousand of Xenophon! I say we place this command in the hands of Proconsul Scaeva. Let us finish securing Italy and go take Sicily! I want to tread the dust of Carthage beneath my feet before I die!" Men roared at these words. Others paled.
The argument raged on.
“There they are.” Marcus Scipio reined his horse as they crested the ridge. The Height was not great, but it was sufficient to give them a view of the two armies facing each other a few leagues west of Alexandria. To the right lay the seashore, where the water was studded with the vessels of the Carthaginian support fleet. Even now, the Alexandrian war fleet rowed to meet it.