‘Arius, good to see you. I wondered when you were coming back. Have you secured a ship?’
The former slave clambered down from the vehicle and directed his servants to take the cart around the side to the stables and unload it there. Once the vehicle had rattled off out of sight and the three men were alone, Arius bowed his head to Fronto and then straightened.
‘ The courier vessel Demeter’s Pride leaves Tarraco for Massilia in two days’ time as long as the weather holds. No merchants are planning to sail this next week as the reports are of violent storms all along the coasts of Hispania and Narbonensis. Only the courier ship will go, as they are required to on the governor’s orders That means you’ll be paying through the nose I’m afraid. It’s almost three times the price of a normal commercial transport, unless you’re willing to put off your journey?’
‘No. We go a s soon as we can, now.’
Galronus gave him a dubious look. ‘Even with big storms at sea. Fronto? I’ve seen the smallest breakers turn you white as a toga.’
‘I don’t care. Even if I’m ill all the way, I want to get to Massilia .’
‘We could still ride?’
Fronto shook his head. ‘Apart from shaking up my wound all the way, I’m nervous about passing through Narbonensis. If the senate have finally decided to pursue my interests outside Italia, the first places they will look are around Gaul because of my connection with Caesar. Let’s avoid trouble as far as we can. No one will be looking for me at sea.’
‘Alright,’ Galronus stretched. ‘We go on the Demeter’s Pride. She has room?’
Arius nodded. ‘I’ve tentatively booked your passage. I felt sure you’d want me to.’
‘Good man,’ Fronto confirmed, then frowned at the look on the former slave’s face. ‘Something troubling you, Arius?’
‘Tarraco is full of news, master Fronto. And not good news, I fear. About Caesar and Rome.’
‘Oh?’ Fronto and Galronus stepped forward, all attention now.
‘ The senate apparently ordered Caesar to stand down his armies and return to Rome. In response, the proconsul refused and demanded the consulate in absentia for the coming Januarius.’
‘Same old argument,’ Fronto sighed.
‘Not quite, sir. A senator called Curio apparently tried to mediate and demand that both Caesar and Pompey stand down, but not only did Caesar refuse, so did Pompey, and the consuls refused to back the proposal as they’re both in Pompey’s purse. The senate have demanded a legion from each of them to send to Parthia, and Caesar’s sent the Fifteenth and Pompey’s First who’ve been with him in response, but the rest of the proconsul’s legions…’
Fronto shrugged. ‘The senate can’t touch him while he’s up in Gaul. He’ll figure a way out.’
‘But that’s it, sir. He’s not there. That’s the b ig news. No one can confirm it for g ods’ truth , but the big rumour in the city is that Caesar’s taken his army back to Cisalpine Gaul. He’s distributed his legions around the Alpes and the north of Italia. If all the rumour’s true, Caesar ’s at Ravenna on the Italian coast now with the Thirteenth. They say he’s taken the best men from all his armies and turned the Thirteenth into the biggest, strongest legion Rome’s ever seen. ’
Fronto turned a horrified expression on Galronus and the Remi shrugged, unconcerned. ‘What? He’s still governor of the province. He’s allowed to have his legions there.’
Fronto shook his head. ‘Not like this, Galronus. Ravenna’s maybe twenty miles from the border. He’s put together a strong veteran legion and moved it up to the Roman border. He’s testing the senate. It’s a deliberate threat. And Pompey’s unlikely to back dow n. It’s a dangerous provocation . It’s not far off being an act of war , in fact . I think we need to get back to Massilia, Galronus. Sounds like Italia’s on the brink of disaster .’
* * *
Fronto and Galronus urged their mounts on to greater speed, hurtling up the slope from the port of Massilia. Their goods were being transported slowly by cart behind them, but Fronto had been desperate to arriv e as soon as possible. Massilia was alive with news. All of Arius’ rumour , i t seemed , had been accurate. Caesar was at Ravenna with a legion of almost double strength. Ten thousand men, each a powerful veteran of a decade of war , armed and equipped for battle. In response, it appeared that Pompey was gathering men in Italia. The two legions bound for Parthia by senatorial order had been waylaid by the consuls and remained on Italian soil under Pompey’s command. It was like a game of latrunculi, with two of the most powerful players in the world, and no good could possibly come of it. Romans all over the independent city of Massilia were mobilising, either heading for Cisalpine Gaul and the general they had served in previous years, or fleeing back to Rome. Everyone seemed sure that Massilia would soon be involved, for all their nominal independence. They had signed a contract with Rome, yet their city was so close to lands under Caesar ’s control .
Fronto slid from Bucephalus and left Galronus to tie up the beasts, running in through the door even as the slave opened it to the new arrivals.
‘Lucilia?’
‘Marcus?’ Fronto’s wife came hurrying from a side room into the atrium, the two boys shouting in glee as they ran into the room from some hidden play place. Fronto dropped to a knee and embraced the children, kissing them both on the forehead, and then looking up at Lucilia as he held them tight. Behind his wife, Balbus and Catháin appeared in surprise.
‘Pack your things.’
‘What? Marcus, make sense. What is happening?’
‘Lucilia, pack the most important things and be prepared to leave. There’s a ship in the port called the Demeter’s Pride and she leaves for Tarraco in Hispania in the morning. I want you and the boys on it. And the servants. And everyone else in the villa. You included,’ he added, glancing up at Balbus.
‘Marcus, you’re scaring me,’ Lucilia said, her tone breathless.
‘Good. You should be scared. Everyone should be damned terrified . You’ve heard about Caesar?’
Balbus nodded.
‘ Well, Pompey’s arming himself in Rome and he controls the consuls. Do you think for a minute they’re going to acquiesce to Caesar?’
‘No,’ agreed the old man , ‘ a nd Caesar cannot bow to them. They’re at an impasse.’
‘You know what that means?’ Fronto said quietly. ‘Caesar has his veterans a spear’s throw from the Rubicon. Pompey will push him, he’ll march south, and the shit will truly rain down on us all.’
He turned back to his wife again as Galronus arrived in the room behind him. ‘Lucilia, lis ten to me. You and the family – mother and Faleria too – y ou all have to go. I’ve secured the Demeter’s Pride for you all. It’s a fast courier and will be in Tarraco in three days, weather allowing. A man called Arius Rustius will meet you at the port with a wagon , and he’ll take you somewhere safe – a villa near Tarraco that I sort of own.’
‘ Sort of own?’
‘Long story, Lucilia, but it’ll be safe. Massilia is close to Caesar’s legions, but declared for the senate. This place is going to be Hades incarnate soon, and you need to be gone when that happens, all of you.’
‘Then you can come with us, Marcus. You have to come with us.’
‘No, I can’t.’
‘Marcus…’
Balbus reached forward and put his hand on his daughter’s shoulder. ‘Marcus has gambled all your futures on Caesar. He had to. Now he’s bound to Caesar. If you r children are to have a future in Rome, it’s all dependent on Caesar’s success. Marcus has to go.’
‘No, Marcus. You can’t . You can’t . You cannot go running off to that man when he threatens Rome itself. Sell your sword to the senate instead. They might lift your exile.’
‘ It’s decided, Lucilia. Go to Tarraco. I’ll come there as soon as I can, I promise. You have to get the children away from here, somewhere safe. Tarraco is that place. Arius will protect you.’
‘But what is going to happen?
’ Lucilia said, her face pale and horrified.
‘Simple,’ Fronto said. ‘ Caesar will wait until the election of the consuls in the new year , and if he is n ot made one of them then he will give the order and he and the Thirteenth will cross the Rubicon and march on Rome as Sulla did all those years ago.’
‘And then?’
‘And then Rome will be at war with her own greatest general.’
THE END.
Author’s Note
Pax Gallica is the ninth book in the Marius’ Mules series (which is intended to run to a final book 15). That means we are almost two thirds of the way through Fronto’s saga. But it is also something of a milestone for me, being the 20 th book I’ve released, a fact that staggers me even to consider it. That so many readers have stuck with me through this many books (9 or 20, either way) humbles me. I do appreciate you all. I really do.
Marius’ Mules 9’s story was inevitable. There is a hole, you see. Several holes in fact. I had intended from the early days of the series to release one book for each year of Caesar’s diaries (the Gallic Wars and the Civil War). That was all well and good all the way to book 7. Last year’s research was rather challenging for Sons of Taranis, for the diaries of the time were not written in great detail by Caesar himself, but sort of dashed out urgently in almost note form by his ghost writer Hirtius. And with the exception of a few bits of stomping around and shouting at Gauls, the only major event of fifty one was the siege of Uxellodunum. I didn’t mind, though, as I had a story to tell that took us away from the drab lack of action in Gaul. I needed certain things to happen to Fronto in order to bring about the second half of the series. Then I came to write volume 9, and the realisation hit me that the previous year was action packed compared to 50BC . I brushed aside the temptation to write a spin off of the Asterix books (also set in Gaul in 50), and decided that I could fill the hole left by Hirtius, who more or less mentions this year only in passing.
You see, I had a hole in the geography I’ve put forward. We’ve visited Gaul repeatedly. We’ve done the lands of the Belgae in several books. We’ve done Italy on occasion and Britain once. We’ve even dipped across the Rhine into Germany. But Caesar divides France into three peoples. The Belgae, the Gauls and the Aquitanii (modern Aquitaine and the Pyrenees.) And yes, I had Crassus stomping around there briefly making his presence felt, but we never rea lly explored the land or its people as we did with the Gauls and the Belgae. So I felt that gap needed to be addressed. It was time to write about them, especially as pretty much the only thing Hirtius tells us after Uxellodunum is that Caesar toured Aquitania. No more detail than that!
Moreover, I had a gap in my history. Here and there, along the way from book 1 to book 8 I have dipped momentarily into Fronto’s past. I’ve mentioned fragments of his time in Spain and hinted at interesting things. And the history of his friend Verginius, Faleria’s former suitor, had been touched on occasionally. It was a story that had to come out eventually. Hey presto. Here was Fronto with a year to kill, a stone’s throw away from his old stomping ground. The plot more or less wrote itself, as I’d had portions of it in mind for years, including the history of the two Romans. The inclusion of Galronus to give it extra volume was great fun.
The most challenging part was to start with Verginius the Smiling k ing , as a thoroughly dislikeable villain and gradually, through the course of the revelation and beyond, to make him seem reasonable and understandable, and maybe even a little sympathetic in the end. Certainly, I felt sorry for him at the end. For all his faults, he displayed so many of those traits endemic of a true Roman of his time. Of course, another troublesome aspect was trying to trickle in appropriate information without making it blindingly obvious who the smiling king was from the get-go. Hopefully I hit the balance. Only you the readers know.
There seems to be far less known, or at least recorded in scholarly works, about the Aquitanii than their cousins across the rest of France and Belgium, so there is a little poetic license in my portrayal. I chose to make the mountain tribes slightly different from their lowland kin. It made sense to me and still does. The idea for Verginius’ gathering of the tribes under one ruler comes mostly from the nature of the Convenae. As their very name suggests, they were formed from an amalgam of other tribes. Tradition puts their formation down to Pompey, but that is in no way confirmed and is mere speculation. I have chosen to make it the work of a Romano-Gallic rebel rather than Pompey, but the idea is still the same. I have a passing familiarity with lower Aquitania, and not a lot of experience with the Pyrenees except at their extreme eastern end, but when we head for Tarraco? Oh my.
Tarragona is one of my favourite places, as regular readers might have discerned. It appears time and again in my books, though this is the first time we see it directly. Tarragona is full of Roman remains, and the form of the Roman city can still be seen today, maps and models of this provincial capital not being hard to find. However, if you look at any map of Roman Tarraco, you are invariably looking at a map of the Imperial era city, and not the republic. Many of the city’s great buildings were not in evidence at the time, from the amphitheatre to the theatre, the circus and the aqueduct. I have taken great pains, including stomping around the city myself, examining sunlight angles and relative heights, to reconstruct a theoretical republican city before these great structures were built, and yet to allude to their future existence where possible. Tarraco was an extremely important city throughout Rome’s presence in Iberia, and was the first major settlement in Spain founded by a Roman.
The villa I use nearby is the one still visitable at Els Munts, Altafulla. If you go to Tarragona, I highly recommend hiring a car and driving out to some of the remains in the area. Els Munts is a stunning villa but, once again, mostly of a later date. In fact there is no evidence that the villa existed in republican times, but many of these villas had republican predecessors, so I have chosen to create an early history for Els Munts. It fitted my requirements in every other way, and I’d been referring to it since the end of book 1 when Fronto went there with the body of Longinus.
The quarry is still there. It is now called El Medol, and is a supremely impressive sight. Now, of course, it is overgrown and full of trees, but it is not hard to mentally strip them out and see it as it once was. The quarry is now much longer, cut into the hill, than my vague horseshoe shape, and there are areas that have been cut away all around the edge. But the quarry was used throughout Tarraco’s life , and so the republican quarry had to be much smaller logically. There were several quarries in use around the city, including one close to the aqueduct , from which it was built, but El Medol remains the most impressive.
Essentially, if I have achieved what I set out to do with this volume, I have created a bridge between the two great works of Caesar, leading us from the last throes of the Gallic Wars, in my entirely fictional Aquitanian uprising, to the very first salvoes of the Civil War, with Caesar poised to cross the Rubicon. In the process I needed to bind Fronto to Caesar’s cause, a task I began in the previous book with his exile . And while I looked at it, I realised just how much of Fronto’s past could come to light here. From his adherence to Nemesis and Fortuna through his service in Spain under Caesar to the mysterious death of Verginius and so much more , I’ve taken the best opportunity I’ll ever get to fill in the blanks.
You now know most of Fronto’s life and, if I’m to be brutally honest, in doing all this I’ve had the perfect opportunity to explain away tiny flaws that have lived throughout the series, such as why Fronto does not bear one of the great patrician names, yet claims patrician blood. It’s all good, folks. I’ve tweaked and played and had so much fun with one of my favourite bad guys I’ve ever written.
And now, as you’re well aware, I’ve left our hero once more almost intact, rushing off to Caesar with his closest friend and preparing to cross that most famous river in Roman history, for all its diminutive and unimpressive size: the Rubicon.
From here on, things are ab
out to become extremely brutal. Fronto wil l be back next year in book 10. Until then, there will be other adventures to follow as I move onto book 21. More Tales of the Empire are coming, Rufinus is back next year in Praetorian 3, the kids’ adventures will be abroad again in Pirate Legion, and there are other projects on the go. But never fear – Fronto will be back within the year facing off against his own people as the civil war begins in earnest.
Thank you for reading. I hope you enjoyed it.
Vale
Simon Turney
September 2016
Marius' Mules IX: Pax Gallica Page 45
