"You've seen them?"
"I'm impressed," Vespasian nodded. "I've seen what your men are up to."
"If you think your cavalry are up to this," Gaius started. .
"None of that!" Vespasian snorted. "They may well not be up to it today, but they'll be masters of it by embarkation."
So Gaius outlined the manoeuvres the twentieth cavalry were required to know better than the backs of their hands.
"One other thing I've watched," Vespasian added, after Gaius had finished, and had opened more wine. "You're manoeuvring cohort groups, separately. Why?"
"I know the dictum of concentrating maximum force at the weakest point," Gaius said, "but the enemy tends to concentrate his forces in the same place, which leads to a general battering. My idea is to force him to extend his lines, or to be outflanked."
"Interesting strategy," Vespasian nodded, "as long as they don't concentrate and pick you off, bit by bit."
"Let 'em try," Gaius shrugged. "Then they fight in one place, and the twentieth has been practicing responses for every contingency I can think of."
"You can't think of everything," Vespasian continued his frown.
"Don't have to," Gaius shrugged. "The opposition, never having seen this before, won't have time to be too innovative."
"You seem confident."
"I intend to win," Gaius said simply.
"And no problems?"
"The key's not to let the bits get out of touch with each other," Gaius replied, "and for them to know what to do if they do. The Roman soldier can move and fight faster than Celts can, because even if, man for man, the Celt is as brave as the Roman, in thousands they're nowhere nearly as well organized, as disciplined, and their leaders won't know how to deal with a highly mobile enemy."
"A disciple of Julius, eh?" Vespasian grinned.
"Alexander wasn't exactly static either," Gaius shrugged.
"Then we'll have to see who's the fastest. A wager, eh?"
"What?
"Second phase we go west. I'll bet I get to the west coast before you do."
"You're on," Gaius shrugged, "for a small bet."
"You think you'll lose?" Vespasian challenged.
"The bet's for pride only," Gaius replied. "If something goes wrong, neither of us wants to even think they might be risking one soldier's life for our silly bet."
"That's fair comment," Vespasian nodded in agreement. "How about some more of that wine?"
Gaius poured. The wine was starting to have a beneficial effect. In the course of time, the two might eventually become friends, but Gaius was only to well aware that Vespasian was suspicious of Gaius' connection with Claudius, and he still felt his brother should command a legion.
* * *
Aulus Plautius called his commanders together for a briefing at a village some distance from the embarkation point. The invasion procedure would be simple, and was imposed as much as anything by the availability of port space. Three legions would have to set off separately, as three legions could not embark from one port on one day. Since congestion would be even worse at the other end, the three legions would land at separate sites. They would depart in order of their number, thus the Augusta would lead, followed by the Gemina Martia, and finally the Valeria.
The Gemina Martia would land at Rutupiae, at the northern end of Cantiaci territory. The sea would protect the right flank. The Augusta would land at Lemanae, and would have tribes expected to be friendly on its left flank, and because these tribes were expected to be friendly, the Augusta would consolidate the alliance, and thus secure the left flank for the invasion force. The Valeria would land at Dubrae, which was roughly midway between the other two ports. The legions would secure defensive positions, then the Augusta would consolidate the southern flank and thus secure the left flank for the invasion, while the Gemina Martia would advance westward until it could wheel north and cross the river Thames. The Valeria would march westwards and wheel northwards to support the Gemina Martia, unless the Augusta got into unexpected difficulties. Gaius smiled to himself. Vespasian would hardly admit he was having unexpected difficulties, unless something was going to be very very wrong with this invasion.
Following the securing of a defensive position there, the Gemina Martia and the Valeria, supported by the Hispana, would advance into the lands of the Catuvellauni and under command of the Princeps himself, advance to Camulodunum. That gave five initial objectives: secure fortified bases, keep tribes on the left flank appeased, cross the river upstream of and then cross the Thames, take Camulodunum, then fortify and secure this initial territory. A second phase advance would then commence in early spring of the following year.
On the left flank, in the land of the Atrebates, Vespasian was to use Verica's influence in order to set up Cogidumnus as a client king. Accordingly, while part of the Augusta might be used against the Catuvellauni, top priority must be given to securing the Atrebates as allies. By the same token, the Cantiaci and the Regnenses were at present allies, and the invasion was to proceed through their territory. It was imperative that such allies must be treated with respect. All supplies acquired must be paid for, and full discipline must be imposed on the troops. Any behaviour likely to encourage revolt amongst the friendly Britons would be dealt with ruthlessly. Were there any questions? Were there any problems?
There were no problems. Not yet.
* * *
The day of embarkation arrived. Since only the Augusta was to depart this day, the other legions kept away, and Gaius elected to stay further away although he asked his tribunes to watch proceedings. The Augusta was due to board and the troops formed up in order. However, when Vespasian gave the order to embark, they refused to move. Centurions yelled, they applied the cane, but the troops refused to move, and the scene became more ugly. Rather reluctantly, Vespasian could sense that they were on the verge of mutiny, so he backed off trying to force the embarkation and demanded to know why they refused to move. The answer was simple. Britain was at the edge of the world, they could be swept off, and furthermore, the correct omens had not been read. Without the blessing of the Gods, the crossing was doomed, so they were staying put. Plautius and Vespasian harangued the troops, but they stood unmoved. The Gods had not blessed the expedition with propitious omens. If they missed Britain, if they were swept away. .
Plautius was not prepared to order a decimation, which he felt could engender an outright mutiny. The alternative was to appeal to the Princeps. Plautius drafted up a letter to Claudius.
At first, all Gaius heard was that the troops had refused to embark, and the invasion had been called off for the day. He shook his head in despair, because the refusal to obey orders was bad for discipline unless a suitable example was made of those who refused, so he sent Matius to the staff headquarters to find out what had happened. When he heard what Plautius had done, he was furious. Dealing with the refusal to obey orders was the commander's responsibility, in part Vespasian's, but with Plautius present, it was the commanding General's job. This would never have happened under the first Julius Caesar. In one sense the troops would never have dared, because Caesar would undoubtedly order a decimation, but in another sense, the situation would never arise because the troops would follow Caesar anywhere, and Caesar would be in the first boat. Therein lay the problem. The troops had tremendous loyalty to Caesar because they owed everything they had to him and he won them victory after victory. They hardly knew Plautius, but they knew he had never had a significant victory. His first instinct was to go and confront Plautius, but after a little thought, he decided against it. The damage was now done. The problem was how to repair it.