“I don’t have to tell you that we're going to have to be on our toes,” I began, and was happy to see that at least all the heads were nodding in the right direction.
Normally at this point, I could have counted on Cornuficius to make some sort of comment, and immediately after his mouth opened, men like Annius would be echoing him, but with Cornuficius gone, his former toadies did not have the nerve to say anything on their own, for which I was thankful.
“But that doesn’t mean that we can’t have some fun as well,” I continued, and I was rewarded with smiles all around. “I want two Centurions and two Optios from each Cohort on duty at all times, by the normal watches, and make sure that they’re all from different Centuries. The rest of you can get as soused as the men, as long as you’re sober in time for your turn at duty. Also, I know I’m going to regret this, but tell the men that I'm making my personal supply of wine available to them as well, as my thanks for a job well done.”
I bit back a smile as I saw their reactions, which seemed to waver between approval, apprehension, and a little bit of annoyance at the thought that the men were going to get a reward while they were not, but I was not through.
“Of course, I'm not talking about my Falernian, of which I have three amphorae. That's for you and the Optios to share, alone.”
I had long since exhausted the original supply of Falernian bequeathed to me by Pulcher all those years ago, but I had learned that the judicious use of a good vintage of wine went a long way towards smoothing the road of relationships with others. Falernian is one of the most prized varieties of wine, so I maintained a decent supply of it at all times, even when it cost me dearly. Suddenly I was a good man again, with my Centurions immediately commending my virtue and impeccable manners. Laughing, I called them “liars,” then dismissed them, happy to see that they were now as excited as the men at the thought of taking the next three days in debauching themselves.
~ ~ ~ ~
During that time, the men enjoyed themselves immensely, but I could see that they were ready to march at the end of it, so we wasted no time making preparations to begin the long trek to Dyrrhachium. We would be on the march for almost a month, with the extra burden of watching the prisoners all the way, though I doubted they would try anything rash. It was something I had noticed with people we defeated. Once they were beaten, something seemed to leave their spirit, and they almost always meekly submitted to whatever fate awaited them. These men were no different; they would plod along in chains, with no more than one or two of them making any attempt to escape or even exact vengeance on one of their guards before we cut them down. While I had seen it, I still do not understand it, and it is something that Diocles and I have spent many an evening discussing. Why do some people believe slavery is a better alternative than death? Diocles maintains that my thinking is shaped by the fact that I have never been faced with the choice of death or life as a slave, and he may be right, yet I still cannot imagine that life as a slave would be preferable to an honorable death. In regard to our present situation, the men we were escorting would have their wrists shackled, but their legs would be kept free so that they could march without encumbrance. However, to prevent them from running off, they were all fitted with neck collars with lengths of chain attached, the other end running to the neck collar of another prisoner. In effect, the men were all chained together so that if one tried to run off, every other prisoner would have to do the same thing at the same time. The other problem in moving such a large group of men, who outnumbered us more than five to one, is feeding and watering them. Naturally, they did not receive the same amount of food that we did, but we could not afford to starve them, for a couple of reasons. Most importantly was the fact that we needed them to maintain enough strength so that they could march at a reasonable pace. We did not expect them to be able to match the pace that we could set, but neither did we want to take three months marching, so they had to be strong enough to average at least twenty miles a day, depending on terrain. The second reason was that these men were an investment; the better shape they were in when they arrived at the slave markets, the more we all got paid. This was also the reason why the prisoners were only beaten when absolutely necessary, although along the way we had to make an example of a few of them, executing them for a number of offenses. Meanwhile, Caesar took the cavalry, continuing his tour of Asia, settling affairs, and making appointments to vacant offices. One of the problems of such a long march through the hinterland of the Republic was that we heard nothing in the way of news in the wider world. It was not until we arrived in Dyrrhachium that we learned the news, which had caused Caesar to cut short his work in Asia to return as quickly as he could back to Rome, and also prompted my recall back to the 10th Legion.
~ ~ ~ ~
The men of the 10th had now been simmering in camp for more than a year since Caesar had sent them away from Pharsalus. Despite there being some trouble in the past months, for the most part it had been small-scale and localized to a few men. However, the Tribunes Avienus and Fonteius had continued to agitate the men, telling them that they held legitimate grievances and were owed much by Caesar. This was true as far as it went; Caesar had indeed made promises to the men. Nonetheless, Avienus, Fonteius, and some of the Centurions had convinced them that since Caesar had not produced the promised rewards, they were entitled to take what they wanted. To that end, the men entered the city, going straight to the rich neighborhoods on the Palatine and Janiculum, ransacking houses, and taking everything they could carry off. During their rampage, two former Praetors, men named Cosconius and Galba, were murdered in their homes when they tried to defend their property. Shortly after the men of the 10th began their looting, they were joined by the 8th and 9th, and from all accounts, the city was in terror as the battle-hardened soldiers of Caesar’s army ran rampant through the streets. Only the 7th refused to join their comrades, and when Antonius ordered them to cordon off the city, they obeyed his orders. Rather than fight their comrades, the men of the mutinous Legions left the city, heading south to Campania, where the estates of the wealthy lay undefended, ripe for the picking.
This dire news brought Caesar from Asia, moving even faster than his normal speed, so that he arrived in Rome about the same time as the men returning to their camp from Campania, so loaded down with loot that they needed wagons to carry it all. At first, Caesar refused to go to meet the men, sending instead one of his aides, Gaius Sallustius Crispus, who was authorized by Caesar to promise the sum of 4,000 sesterces per man. Unfortunately, when the men demanded that he produce the sum in cash right then and he was unable to do so, Crispus was thrown out of the camp, and I mean that he was physically manhandled when he was ejected. Caesar then was forced to do something that I know had to rub him raw: going to the camp in person to face the mutinous Legions. All of this took place while we were marching, making the first time that I heard of any of it was when a courier came galloping down the Via Egnatia looking for me, carrying orders to make my way to Rome immediately by the fastest possible means. Naturally, this meant by horseback, and accompanying the orders was written authorization from Caesar himself to exchange mounts at government way stations, with the highest priority. The orders did not state why I was so urgently needed, while the courier could only tell me that there had been trouble with the 10th, but could provide no specifics. I did not have time for anything other than a hasty meeting with the Centurions, where I turned over command of the 6th to Valens, who was the senior ranking Centurion, and whose performance over the last few months had erased my earlier low opinion of him and his abilities.