‘Perhaps it would be better if we could discuss matters more privately,’ suggested Spartacus.
‘Of course, of course,’ said Patelli, quickly regaining his composure and clapping his hands at his servants. ‘Stop what you are doing and bring us wine and sweet meats to my office. Hurry, hurry!’
His office was a large room that had marble tiles on the floor, a massive wooden desk, richly adorned bronze seats and couches around the walls. Patelli sat behind his expansive desk and invited us to sit. Spartacus did so directly opposite him. The rest of us sat behind Spartacus on the bronze seats that were first put in place by servants.
Patelli had recovered from his shock and now the slippery businessman in him took over. I noticed that he frequently brought his hands together in front of him as he talked, then placed them on the table, before once again bringing them together. A clerk stood on his right side taking notes as the negotiations got under way.
‘Your coming is fortuitous, general,’ said Patelli, ‘for it means that we no longer have to leave. I take it that you do not mean to burn the town.’
‘I have not decided, but when I do you shall be the first to know. Where is the garrison and governor.’
Patelli raised his hands in exclamation. ‘He and his soldiers left yesterday, leaving the town at, er, your mercy. But to business. How may I be of assistance to you?’
‘I intend to move my army to Sicily. For this I will need to hire your ships.’
Patelli nodded gravely. ‘I see. And what sort of figures are we talking about?’
Spartacus turned and looked at Godarz, while behind us a host of slaves came into the room carrying platters filed with sweat meats, pastries, fresh fruit and nuts, while others brought jugs of wine.
Godarz reeled off the figures. ‘Nearly sixty thousand people, four thousand horses and around ten thousand other livestock, plus wagons, carts and supplies for the army.’
Patelli’s eyes lit up when he was told this, for such an immense load of people and animals would mean a lot of ships, and a lot of ships would mean much gold flowing into Cilician coffers. As we drank his superb wine and ate his exquisite morsels, he sat back in his chair and placed his hands on his portly belly. He smiled.
‘My friends, this is truly a great day. For Sandon, our god of war, has smiled upon you all. Only the Cilicians can fulfill such a mighty task, and I want you to know that subject to an equitable price being agreed, you can look forward to being in Sicily within three months.’
‘Three months?’ Spartacus was surprised at this. ‘Why so long?’
‘Unfortunately, my friends, we are fulfilling a previously agreed and paid for contract with the Romans.’
‘I thought you were at war with the Romans?’ spat Akmon, wine running down his tunic.
‘Rome rules the land, we rule the sea. Whatever the Romans say, they need our ships to supply them with,’ he looked sheepish, ‘slaves, and sometimes to transport their troops.’
‘What troops?’ I asked.
Patelli looked alarmed. ‘So many questions, and yet I do not know all your names.’
I stood and pointed at Akmon. ‘This man is second to General Spartacus. His name is Akmon and he is a Thracian like my lord. Godarz,’ I looked at my fellow Parthian, ‘is the quartermaster general of the army. While this man, named Domitus, is a Roman and our loyal comrade.’ Domitus tipped his silver goblet at me.
‘And you?’ queried Patelli.
‘My name is Prince Pacorus, and I command the army’s horseman.’
Patelli nodded. ‘You are the Parthian, the one who rides a white horse.’
I sat back down. ‘Yes.’
‘Your fame precedes you, and I thank you for the introductions. But the fact is that my hands are tied until we transport the army of General Lucullus from Macedonia to the port of Brundisium, for we have been paid in advance for our services.’
My heart sank and I felt sick to my stomach. So Crassus had been telling the truth and a new army was indeed coming to southern Italy. We were at the end of a peninsula with no way of escaping. We had one Roman army directly to the north and another would soon be marching west to join it. We were truly trapped, and to make matters worse we were at the mercy of this greedy pirate who sat opposite us.
To his credit, Spartacus betrayed no emotion as he stood and nodded his head to Patelli. ‘Thank you for your time. I await your decision as to the price of renting your ships and a date when you can transport us to Sicily. My camp will be north of Rhegium.’
Later that day, at a meeting of the war council, Spartacus was in a subdued mood, no doubt reflecting on how he had allowed himself to be boxed in by the legions of Crassus, which were hovering to the north. Too far away to be of immediate danger, but casting a dark shadow over us all.
‘There is nothing to stop us attacking Crassus while we wait for these pirates to assemble their ships,’ said Akmon.
‘That would certainly give us the advantage,’ I added. ‘At the very least my horse could harry him and keep him on the defensive.’
‘What do your scouts report at the moment?’ asked Spartacus.
I shrugged. ‘Nothing. They are sitting in their camp doing nothing. And when they send out cavalry patrols they retreat as soon as they see any of my men.’
‘He’s waiting for reinforcements to arrive from Brundisium, that’s why he’s quiet,’ said Akmon. ‘And that’s why we should attack.’
Spartacus drummed his fingers on the table, while outside the wind lashed the outside of the tent. Winter in Bruttium was mostly mild I was told, but was prone to frequent and violent storms, one of which was now blasting our living quarters with high winds and a heavy downpour. Godarz had organised the building of temporary stables for the horses, made from the logs and wicker panels, as I suspected that Spartacus would not budge from this place of his own volition. I was proved right.
He made a fist and slammed it on the table. ‘No! We stay here as long as the Romans remain where they are. If we advance north and defeat Crassus, what then? If we destroy him, we will still have to come back here if we want to get to Sicily. We will be shedding blood for nothing.’
‘And once those reinforcements arrive we will be shedding a lot more blood,’ added Akmon, grimly.
‘It’s three hundred miles between here and Brundisium,’ snapped Spartacus. ‘We will have plenty of time to decide what to do.’
‘Do you trust that pirate, Spartacus?’ asked Castus.
‘Not really, but I can see that he is a greedy little bastard and he knows that we have a lot of gold. That’s why he will do business with us. In the meantime, we stay here and keep our swords sharp.’
The enforced stay meant we could devote more time to training and drills, and as an added bonus we practised on the seashore, the long, narrow beaches of mainly sand with a sprinkling of pebbles being ideal for the horses to stretch their legs. We planted targets in the sea, ran our mounts along the wet sand at the water’s edge and loosed arrows at circles of tightly packed straw strung between two poles standing in the water, while on other beaches Burebista’s dragon fought mock battles with their lances tipped with bundles of cloth and used small, long sacks crammed full of leaves instead of swords for close-quarter combat. It was great fun and all the horsemen and women wanted to take part in the ‘sack battles’. On one occasion a thousand horsemen on a ten-mile stretch of beach fought a mock battle, though what started out as a serious drill aimed at perfecting company level manoeuvres descending into hilarity as companies tried to outflank each other and ended up riding their horses into the sea until the water lapped around the beasts’ shoulders, with men hitting each other with sacks soaked in seawater. Gallia’s women took part and hit their opponents with gusto, until the sacks burst and the whole beach was covered with leaves. Afterwards we groomed and tended the horses, collected driftwood and had a giant feast after I gave orders that several bulls were to be slaughtered. As we watched the sun go down in the western sky, over a calm and smooth sea, I held Gallia close and wrapped her in my cloak.