The Fall of Veii- Part 2

by Francis Mulhern

  “Maximus” the boy said as a smaller boy gripped his hand, the older boy’s eyes not leaving Marcus’ face as the hands wrapped together.

  “Maximus, a strong name” Marcus said as he looked back at the returning Centurion who had brought two soldiers with clasps and chains from the tents beyond his vision. “And this is your brother?” Marcus said more softly as the younger child, his red rimmed eyes looking up at his older brother, took a deep breath and a small line of tears fell from his eyes. Maximus nodded curtly and his eyes too filled with tears. Marcus heard the Centurion arrive.

  “Chain him up” he said as he pointed to the teacher.

  “No” cried the man, as he tried to rise.

  Marcus kicked him in the chest and he fell to the floor, instantly set upon by the two legionaries with the chains. “You have committed a despicable act Fertivus of Faleria. Bringing these children to the camp of an enemy at time of war” he shook his head as the soldiers watched him, many grinning as the teacher now sobbed more loudly than the children had done.

  “We are Romans, not some barbarian scum who would treat with fools to enslave children. We follow the rules of war to the letter, following the laws of the gods and acting with piety in all our ways. What disasters did you try to bring on us for this despicable act? What gods did you think we would anger and call down their wrath for taking mere babes into our prison?” He turned angrily to the teacher and spat at him. “I curse you, you dog, for putting your own life ahead of these noble children. I curse you for bringing the name of Rome in your plans and I curse you for being the coward who would hide behind these children to save your own skin.” The soldiers fell into a cold silence as the teacher, his eyes bulging from his head, stared up at Marcus.

  “No. Please” screamed the man as his head was cracked by the butt of a spear from one of the soldiers, the dull snap causing the teacher to curl up into a ball and whimper like a dog.

  “Maximus” Marcus said as the boy stepped back, another cry starting from his brother’s lips. “Rome will do no harm to children” he said softly. “Know that we will only do harm to those who oppose us in war and stand against the rules laid out by the gods” he added as he knelt on one knee in front of the boy. His eyes scanned the group of children, all staring at him as if they were unsure what was going to happen next.

  “Centurion” Marcus said as he stood. “Detail three men to take these boys and this creature” he said with a nod to the whimpering teacher “back to the city.” At this Maximus took a small step forwards and spat at the teacher, the small gesture causing a few angry shouts from the boys behind him as they started to curse the man who had led them to the Roman camp.

  “And give these boys some sticks with which to beat some sense into this dog as they go” Marcus smiled as Maximus held his gaze and returned it with a beaming smile.

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  Chapter 25

  Apuleius sat and took in the information, his eyes fixed on the table in front of him as he listened. The story of the teacher trying to buy his own life with the children of the leaders at Faleria had reached Rome two days earlier, the people praising Camillus as a true father of Rome and singing his name in the streets for hours as they praised his noble words and consideration for the ethics of war. But within another day the leaders of Faleria had sued for peace, their anger at Rome abated by the gesture of kindness from Camillus. The acceptance of the surrender had angered many of the Roman leaders, some saying that it denied their soldiers their right to spoils and payment for their days of warfare against the city. Yet others had proclaimed it a great victory, one with hardly any loss of life and another city annexed into the Roman alliance. Rome was, once again, full of talk of Marcus Furius Camillus and Apuleius had become more and more angry as the fickle Romans began to support him once again. Without hesitating he had raised his claims against Camillus for with-holding spoils from Veii and had paid a large fee to two patricians to get the case brought forward to the day after Marcus arrived back in Rome from Faleria.

  “Dead?” he asked.

  “As close to death as the slave could see” came the reply.

  Apuleius wasn’t sure if smiling was the right thing to do, but his lip curled as he thought about the news. “And he won’t attend?”

  “No”

  Apuleius sat and placed a silver coin on the table, the elderly slave woman slipping it quickly into her wrinkled hand as she eyed him cautiously.

  “Who will defend him?” he asked in a low whisper as he closed his eyes and began to consider his argument and how best to play this new information.

  “His friend, the military man Scipio” came the tight lipped reply as the woman glanced around the room. Nodding, Apuleius gave no reply and she nervously clenched her fingers as she watched his face, his eyes closed and breathing very slow.

  “Good” came the reply as his eyes slowly opened and the pupils dilated to fix her in a cool stare. “Here” he said, taking another silver coin and sliding it across the table with a single finger.

  The old woman took if gratefully and her eyes flicked to the door. “Yes you may leave” came the reply which sent her scuttling cross the floor and out of the room.

  So, Camillus had fallen to another family tragedy, another infant who would not make it to his Toga Virilis. Surely this was a sign from the gods that the man had fallen from their grace. Apuleius picked up a stylus and began to write his speech, it would be humble but it would be as sharp as a blade in a dark alley. If the gods had decided that Camillus was unworthy then it would be he, Apuleius, that would be the light of the people and destroy the myth that only the patricians could be close to the gods. Thoughts of the challenges to the five Tribunes ran through his head as he contemplated how he could work such words into his speech. As he wrote the door opened slowly with a knock and a small man peered around the door, his grin splitting his face and showing two missing teeth from his lower jaw.

  “Master” said the man with twinkling eyes. “There is more news” he said as Apuleius put down the stylus and looked at him quizzically. “Camillus has been to the new temple to Juno and was challenged about the doors by one of your men” he said with a leer as his head nodded enthusiastically. “It is said that he claimed loudly that he knew nothing of the doors and that some treachery was afoot, but master” the man said as he wrung his hands and his tongue ran along his lower lip. “As he stepped from the temple he stumbled, master, just as he was claiming the goddess’s protection. It’s a sign” the man said with a long stare at Apuleius.

  Apuleius picked up the stylus and placed it on the wax, the grin spreading across his face. “Get me the best wine Memux” he said as the slave nodded happily and made to leave. “Wait” came voice of his master. “Get some of the cheap wine for yourself and pick any of the new slave girls, you deserve it” said Apuleius as the slave’s eyes widened and he left muttering thanks to his master.

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  “I will not waste my time Scipio” Marcus said in a low voice, his eyes still red from lack of sleep.

  “But Camillus, Marcus” he replied. “If you do not appear at today’s trial they will impeach you. You will be found guilty and ordered to pay an enormous fine. It will bankrupt you” Scipio argued.

  “I will not go. The gods know that I am not to blame for this trick from the plebeians. I won’t lower myself to their schemes” he replied as he turned back from the door and moved into the dark room.

  “This is madness” Scipio called.

  “Then who will stand by me?” Marcus called over his shoulder. “All my so called friends have disappeared, all forsaken me and left me at the hands of lawyers who use trickery and words to do what no man can do with a sword. I will not lower myself to it. If they find me guilty I will choose to leave Rome for good – see how they fare without me” he added with venom.

  Scipio stood and watched as his friend disappeared around a corner, the door sl
ave looking anxiously to Scipio and then back into the gloomy interior as the silence of the interior was suddenly cut by the singing of the mourning song. It had been days since the death of Marcus’ youngest son but the house was still shrouded in darkness, the oils and candles were spread around the Atrium and into the house in the old style and the slaves all wore a dark headband as befitted the occasion. Scipio shook his head angrily but turned on his heel and left. If Marcus wouldn’t fight for himself then there was nothing he could do, he would have to stand up and claim that the accusations were lies with no proof that they were not. He shook his head again and grunted in frustration as a sense of foreboding came over him. Had the goddess forsaken him as quickly as his friends had done? What was it that Marcus had done to deserve such losses and such enemies when he had done everything that the goddess had requested from him?

  Quietly he loped along towards the forum and the waiting crowds who had turned up to listen to the trial of Marcus Furius Camillus.

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  The long trail of wagons slid silently through the gates of Rome, the ex-soldiers hired as guards walking slowly and deliberately alongside the goods they had to protect. Crowds had gathered and lined the roads, women crying, children shouting and some of the older men of Rome standing with long Reeds which they waved at the wagons as they trundled past as a sign of sorrow at their leaving.

  Scipio walked silently beside Marcus. As they crossed the bridge towards the gate he turned to look over his shoulder at the crowd who followed them along the road. The plebeian leaders walked with folded arms, a sign of their anger at Marcus’ decision to leave Rome, the old sign of banishment plain to see for all despite the fact that Marcus had made it clear that he had chosen exile and had not accepted any of the arguments against him.

  As the men reached the gate the lines of patricians grew thicker, those who were happy to see Marcus leave standing silently with arms folded and cold, hard, looks on their faces. Marcus didn’t look at the faces of men he knew, but he saw who they were, some of them he had called friend when he celebrated his triumph, others he had been wary of and now knew why. The anger of the people had turned into riots following the decision of the court, the fine of ten thousand Denarii was beyond belief to most people. Some of his closest friends had offered to pay the fine for him, including Narcius who appeared at his door with two trunks of treasures from his own personal belongings. But Marcus had refused. His anger was hidden under the pain he felt for the loss of his third child and the near loss of his beloved Livia. To him a self imposed exile was the honourable thing to do, paying the fine would be seen as admission of guilt and he simply would not allow it.

  At the Porta Trigemina he turned, the faces of the people behind him hard as they stood and watched the wagons rolling away into the distance. Marcus looked up at the walls of Rome and then down at the faces of the men standing closest to him. Scipio shook his hand and some of his soldiers cheered his name, Narcius, Fasculus and Mella cheering the loudest, as a chorus of booing appeared from the back of the crowd.

  Marcus raised his hands as if in prayer and turned to the crowd scanning their faces before he turned his face towards the Capitolium, the final location at the end of his triumph only weeks before.

  “City of Rome I love thee” he said loudly. “I have been thy servant and true to your laws and customs” he said as people in the crowd jeered him whilst others hushed them with long hissing. “Gods of Rome” he said as his eyes moved up to the heavens. “I have been your faithful and true servant” he added as he cowed his head. “But your people have grown and in that growth they have bad blood. Bad blood which would see your favourites cast aside to pursue their own greed.” Catcalls and boo’s continued to be interspersed with the calls for silence as people strained to hear what Marcus had to say.

  “Greed it is that has forced me to leave my beloved city. Greed from men who do not understand what it is to love a City more than they love themselves. Greed for the death of the laws and rules set down by our founder Romulus and his brother Remus. Greed that has driven them to accuse men of honour of deception and theft. Well I call on you Jupiter, greatest of the gods, and you divine Juno and Fortuna who has looked over my family and friends to look at these people of Rome” he said as he moved his body to face back into Rome as he closed his eyes. As he opened his eyes he spoke even more loudly. “I call on the gods of Rome and our founding fathers to teach these ungrateful people that they need Marcus Furius Camillus more than they know.”

  He finished to a chorus of noise as he turned slowly and set off, pulling the cord from around his neck on which hung the carved figure of the Eagle. Ahead of him his only surviving son, Lucius, stood waiting for him and Marcus stopped and placed the cord over the boys head with a smile. “The goddess will look after us son” he smiled as the boy gripped his hand and they turned their backs on Rome.

  THE END

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  Historical notes

  In this story I had an enormous amount of ‘history’ to fit into a few pages, and as such I have shortened and changed a few timelines to make the story work more seamlessly. In doing so I hope to have created a good background to the times in which Marcus lived, especially the plotting and scheming of both patricians and plebeians alike.

  The siege at Veii took some ten years and evidence of what Marcus did for that time is almost non-existent, so I brought elements of the timelines closer together to fit with the story in The Fall of Veii, part one.

  As stated the siege lasted ten years and during this time the plebeians argued against maintaining the siege in the same terms as I have outlined – the main protagonists are real people from the period. I changed the years of the Tribunes slightly to fit my story, with a few of the battles prior to the fall of Veii changing too. As an example Sergius and Virginius’ story is a real event, but this happened four or five years into the siege at Veii and so it didn’t fit with my desire to use it as a part of Apuleius’ anger against the patricians and plot to impeach Marcus. By changing the dates slightly I was also able to add more background to the siege and move Marcus into a position where his continued successes as a soldier outshone many of his peers. In fact it was the losses suffered by Titinius and Genucius which led to Marcus being made Dictator so I changed the order slightly to make my story and characters fit more seamlessly.

  As I wrote of the siege I wondered how Veii could hold out for so long with a wall of Romans surrounding them and it made sense to consider that somebody was allowing food and weapons to enter the city. Linking this to Javenoli was always my plan, and adding his nephew Caelio into the inner circle of Marcus allowed me to build more mystery with regard to if, and how, Javenoli must meet his comeuppance. That subject will be dealt with in a later story.

  The stories of the two-headed calf and the waters of the Alban Lake are both true. Livy tells us of the calf, but doesn’t explain what the Romans made of it – the description in the story is my own. It struck me that as the early Romans were so superstitious it would make sense for Marcus to use the lowering of the waters and the link to the statue of Juno in the City as ways to strike fear into the hearts of the people in Veii. The prophecy of the water in the Lake is also given to us by Livy, though there is no description of how the waters were removed or who had uttered the prophecy, again I developed that as a backdrop to the more important story of the tunnel through which the Romans entered Veii. The story of the soothsayer at Veii is also described in various accounts; some say he was a ‘plant’ by the Senate or a man who had been planted by Marcus himself to support the story of entering through the tunnels. I chose to describe it differently to link to the clever way that Marcus had used religion to create fear in Veii by using the ceremony to Juno and calling for her to leave the city along with the water spirits from the lake. Seeing the gods leave the city through the falling of the water in the lake would have had quite an effect on the people in th
e city.

  The ongoing dispute between plebeians and patricians plays out as I have written, with constant arguing for more rights for the plebeians from their tribunes. As also stated, the patricians used every trick they could to hold on to power, calling on plagues and bad winters as signs that the gods were not happy that plebeians had been given the consulship in 399 BC. Evidence suggests that Calvus, as the first plebeian consular tribune did such a good job that the following year five of the six tribunes were plebeian. In an effort to regain power patricians used a reading of the Sibylline books and a delegation to Delphi to create a story in which the gods were confused about who led Rome and demanded a return to patrician only Tribunes. I chose to touch on this as a bone of contention for men like Apuleius, for whom the window of opportunity given to Rufus, Calvus and his fellow plebeians had seemed to close three years later when he came to prominence. The tensions in Rome must have been extremely taught at the period and I chose to make Apuleius have a deep ‘hatred’ of the patrician clans and at the same time a personal, and passionate, dislike for Marcus because of the love that the people seemed to show towards him.

  There were battles at Faleria and Capena, though they were probably in 401 BC and 398 BC, not 396 BC as I have portrayed them to fit into a tighter storyline. Marcus did defeat both, and it seems he defeated Capena twice, ruthlessly destroying the town for a second time in 398 BC for their continued support to Veii. It was clear that he used clever tactics to defeat Capena and his military status was high and growing at the time.

  There are different versions of the story of the tunnels at Veii, and I chose one in which Marcus was compelled to enter the city himself and to take the entrails of the bull in his own hands within the temple. In my mind Marcus is driven by the prophecy to destroy Veii and so he must lead the attack himself to fulfil his destiny. The Romans slaughtered the entire male population of Veii and sold the women and children as slaves, with so many slaves being captured that prices fell to an all time low and many of the remaining captives were actually given Roman citizenship rather than be sent back to Veii.