by Geoff Fabron
Cornelius skimmed through the chapters he had previously read on the train until he got up to date with the war of 1895. It had been sparked off by the Saxon desire to bring the Duchies along the Rhine under her control and to reduce imperial influence. Following her victory the Empire strengthened its hold over the Duchies foreign and trade policies.
17th January 1920
Minden, Saxony
It was pouring with rain as Cornelius strode across the city square towards the castle entrance. He did not spot Katherine outside, but found her sheltering just inside the gate house. As he came up to her she glanced at the large clock tower which dominated the square. It began to ring out the chimes for ten o'clock.
"Right on time," she said with an approving smile, "are you always this punctual?"
"I try to be," Cornelius replied shaking the rain off his overcoat, "I'm glad that the ambassador and your brother didn't suggest a tour of the local battlefields, we would get soaked!"
"I hope that you aren't angry at being fostered onto me," Katherine said, "my brother is constantly trying to 'involve' me with young men. He feels that a woman of my age should be happily married and since our fathers death he has felt responsible for my welfare."
"No, I'm not angry," replied Cornelius, "my mother has been trying to marry me off to a childhood friend for years, so I know how you feel."
"In that case," said Katherine happily, "let me show you around the museum."
The original castle had been built in 1250 but had been changed and added to so much over the centuries that its first owner would have barely recognised it now. A number of interior buildings had been added to house the museum exhibits recently and it was to these that Katherine led Cornelius. The first had a statue of an ancient barbarian warrior chief with an axe in one hand and three Roman Eagle standards in the other. They stopped before it.
"Now I can guess who this is," said Cornelius. "Arminius, with the Eagles of the XVII, XVIII and XIX legions, destroyed in Teutoburgerwald in 9 AD."
Katherine gave a little clap. "Well done. I thought that the memory of that defeat would have been erased from imperial text books a long time ago."
"Oh no," said Cornelius, refusing to rise to her playful taunts, "we have always believed in learning from our mistakes. That is one of the Empires greatest strengths."
"And what did you learn from this defeat?" asked Katherine.
Cornelius stood looking at the statue for a moment, and then spoke solemnly.
"Arminius was an officer of auxiliaries in the Roman Army. He actually led Quinctilius Varus and his three Legions into an ambush whilst they were on their way to their winter quarters on the Rhine." He paused for a few seconds in contemplation. "Out of some 18,000 troops and 12,000 civilians only a few hundred reached the fortress of Aliso on the Rhine, the German tribesmen sacrificed the prisoners to their pagan gods in the forest." He then turned to Katherine and put his face close to hers.
"Of course," he said as a wide grin split his face, "the main lesson was never to trust a German!"
Katherine smiled back at him. "I suppose I deserve that," she said. "I'm afraid I like to see what a person’s reaction is when they are provoked. Not a particularly endearing trait I'm afraid."
"At least it shows some spirit," replied Cornelius.
"I'm glad you think so," said Katherine, "most Saxon men feel threatened by an assertive woman. Are Roman women as submissive as their Saxon counter-parts?"
"Not all of them." said Cornelius, his hand moving to his ribs in memory of Fulvia's elbow.
"Enough of Arminius," said Katherine, "let's move on to the next exhibit."
They moved through to another hall, this one dominated by a large map of Europe and bearing the title 'Germanic Kingdoms. Sixth Century AD'.
"The Great German Kingdoms before their destruction by the Eastern Empire," said Katherine with a note of pride.
"The Western Empire on the eve of its re-conquest from the Barbarian invaders," corrected Cornelius mischievously.
Katherine gave Cornelius a dirty look and poked her tongue out at him.
"The Germanic armies defended the Western Empire from the Huns and other barbarians for over a century," argued Katherine, "before Constantinople decided it wanted the West back!"
To defuse a potential argument, Cornelius shifted the conversation.
"It was a turning point in history," he admitted, "if the Emperor Justinians' armies had not defeated the Germans then the Empire would probably not exist today in its present form."
"He was lucky that he had two generals like Belisarius and Narses," said Katherine pointing to two statues to the right of the map. Cornelius walked over to inspect them.
"I'm surprised that you have these here considering what they did," he said. "Between them they destroyed the Germanic Kingdoms in the Western Empire and allowed the Rhine frontier to be re-established."
She came over and joined him before the two long dead Roman Generals.
"You learn from your mistakes and we honour worthy foes." Katherine said to him.
Cornelius turned to look at her. The lights in the hall reflected in her eyes and held him temporarily spellbound as they had done at the Counts home. Once again he realised that he was staring at Katherine and as before said the first thing that came into his head.
"We should all learn from history, and show respect towards those who were our enemies," he said quickly, tearing his eyes away from Katherine and back to the statues," then perhaps they would not remain our enemies anymore and war would cease."
He had not meant to say that. It sounded very philosophical and Cornelius had never been one to dwell on such things or to engage in discussions on the meaning of life. Katherine was still looking at him but the smile had faded to be replaced by another expression that was thoughtful and serious.
"You're right Cornelius," she said with a note of deep sadness, "we should learn, but I fear that history will continue to repeat itself because nobody pays attention to the lessons it teaches."
The smile came back as quickly as it had disappeared. She took his arm and started to guide him to the next exhibit.
"Come! We still have thirteen hundred years of history to get through before lunch," she stopped and said to Cornelius. "You do realise that you're buying lunch as well I hope?"
"Of course," answered Cornelius, who had not realised anything of the sort but was not adverse to the idea of either lunch or Katherine's arm in his.
She showed Cornelius each part of the museum in chronological order covering the Viking invasions, the Turkish wars and the Roman Colonies across the Atlantic’s War of Independence. They were standing before a large sculpture of the 'Flame of Freedom', a gift from the United Provinces to Saxony following their independence when a man came up to Katherine and started talking to her in German. Cornelius had only mastered a few words of German so far, but since Katherine was fluent in both Latin and Greek he had not found this a shortcoming up to now.
The man was in his fifties and the left side of his face was badly scared. He spoke harshly to Katherine, pointing and gesticulating towards Cornelius. Katherine was obviously unsettled by this and Cornelius moved to intervene, but Katherine motioned him back. She spoke firmly to the man. Cornelius could not follow but did catch her brothers’ name. At that the man became silent, but the look of anger was still in his eyes. He bowed curtly to Katherine and walked away.
"What was that all about?" asked Cornelius. Katherine was visibly upset. She took a couple of deep breaths to calm herself down before replying.
"He wanted to know what a Saxon woman was doing with a Roman, although he put it rather more crudely than that!"
"There are many Saxons who haven't forgotten the last war," she continued, "and regard any contact with Romans as a betrayal of those who died."
Cornelius thought about this for a moment.
"Would you like me to go?" he asked gently, "I don't want to cause you any problems with your p
eople."
"No!" Katherine said emphatically. "The problem is his, not mine and certainly not yours!" She forced a smile back to her face and took his arm again. "Let's move on."
The incident muted the atmosphere but they carried on. The last part of the tour was outside in the castle courtyard where there was a large memorial to those who had died in the last war. Katherine was about to lead Cornelius off to have lunch when he asked her to wait for a few moments. The rain had stopped and he walked over to the large grey obelisk. In front of it where there was an inscription written in German, Cornelius came to attention and bowed his head. He could not read the inscription. He did not need to. Every military post in the Empire had a memorial and they all said the same thing, even if the language and the words were different.
After a few silent prayers to the memory of the men represented by the stone before him, he turned to rejoin Katherine when he saw him. A few yards away was the man who had accosted Katherine earlier. He was staring at him, but without the belligerence he had before. He saw beyond the Roman that he hated to the soldier who had also seen friends die beside him in battle. He looked at the memorial, then nodded his head towards Cornelius and turned away.
Katherine had been watching from the edge of the courtyard. As he rejoined her she took his hand and spoke quietly to him. "Why did you do that?"
Cornelius did not look at her, but stared back at the grey obelisk he had just left.
"No matter who wins a war, the ones who die lose - whatever uniform they wear."
"You've lost friends?" Katherine asked. Cornelius turned towards her.
"I lost nearly half of the men in my unit in 10 minutes. They weren't friends in the normal sense but they were men I commanded and I was responsible for them."
"I'm sorry," she said and squeezed his hand gently. There did not seem to be anything else that she could say and Cornelius appeared to be withdrawn in his thoughts. Katherine decided to change the subject. "I'm hungry, let's go and eat."
Cornelius smiled back at her and nodded. She took his arm and they moved off towards the restaurant in the castle.
Chapter Four
2nd February 1920
Isca, Britannia
Titus Petronius watched the legionaries being drilled by the training centurions. One group in full combat equipment was tackling the obstacle course whilst another was practising parade ground drill whilst in the distance he could hear shots from the firing range. Despite all the activity, the field of Mars looked empty. The training grounds used by the imperial army were called the field of Mars after the original exercise area in Rome. The name had been brought back into use about forty years ago when Emperor Philip had re-organised the army.
As part of his policy to reconcile the Eastern and Western halves of the Empire, Philip had taken advantage of the renewed interest and reverence for the early centuries to bring back many of the traditions of the early Empire. Because many of these were Western or Latin in origin it had helped to placate those who felt that the Eastern Greeks had had too much influence following Philips triumph in the civil war. The renaming of the army training grounds was a minor change compared with the others that Philip had introduced. The legions had regained their old titles, the 2nd legion becoming the legio II Augusta and entitled to bear the battle honours won by that unit since the time of Julius Caesar. But it was the return of the Eagles that received the most publicity.
The Eagle standard of the legions had been withdrawn during the religious wars of the 17th century. During those bloody and vicious conflicts that had split Christendom a cult had grown up in the military that had married the old pagan gods to Christian theology with the Eagle as its symbol. The authorities and the church had ruthlessly suppressed the cult and the Eagles had been withdrawn and melted down, their gold being used to make ornaments for St Sophia in Constantinople. Now the battle flags of the legions were topped by their traditional emblem and the soldiers of the Empire once more followed the Eagle into battle, although they were gilded steel and not solid gold anymore.
The legion was the backbone of the regular forces, and each one was a small self contained army with its own aircraft, artillery and landships in addition to the legionary infantry. Supporting the legions were regiments of 'auxilia palatina', small mobile forces of infantry and armoured motor carriages named after the elite field formations of the fourth century and the 'cataphract' armoured regiments of tracked landships named after the heavy cavalry of the early Empire.
Backing up the regular army were the provincial auxiliaries, cohorts of infantry, cavalry and artillery used for garrison and para-military duties and to support the Legions in time of war. Recruited from the local population and paid for by the province, about half of the auxiliaries were part time reservists.
"Enjoying the wide open spaces?"
Titus turned and saw that Virius Primus, another junior tribune had joined him while he had been watching the centurions put the men through their paces.
"It does look empty doesn't it," agreed Titus.
"With the moratorium on recruitment and the reduction in the training schedule it's not going to get any better." Virius said angrily. "This is the last group of recruits that we have. When they finish their basic training at the end of the month, Mars will get even less use."
Titus remembered the words that Uncle Tiberius had spoken last year. "How can we prepare for war if we cannot train," he muttered.
"Bloodsucking politicians!" Virius spat on the ground.
Virius Primus was dark haired and stocky with a scar above his right eyebrow. He came from Pannonia and was vocal in his support of the Traditionalist party. Normally Titus would not have associated with somebody as extreme as Virius, but they were the only two junior tribunes in the legion. Virius had arrived a month before Titus and had befriended him on his arrival. They spent much of their off duty time together exploring the taverns and women of the local town.
"Without the army the Empire is nothing!" exclaimed Virius, "and they let it shrink and rot because a fat, lazy bureaucrat says that there is no money. I tell you Titus the army will not stand for it!"
Titus looked around nervously. "Be careful what you say Virius. If the peregrini hear you saying such things you could get arrested!"
The peregrini were the Empires secret police. Their prime responsibility was to pre-empt revolts by the army. Since the time of Caesar, the army had had a major say in who ruled the Empire. Unpopular Emperors had been deposed by rebellious troops, who often raised their own commander to the throne, and even popular, successful Emperors had to be on guard against ambitious or jealous generals. Emperors who wished to keep their throne ensured that the peregrini were well funded.
Virius dismissed Titus's fears. "We know who their agents in this legion are. When the army faces a threat greater than the Saxons, Turks and Arabs combined, we will not be stopped by the peregrini!"
The 'we' that Virius referred to was a group of officers from the second Augusta that met on a regular basis to 'discuss' developments in military science. It was a cover for Virius and other traditionalists in the legion. Titus had been along to a few of the 'meetings', and although he was in agreement with their concerns regarding cuts in the army, he felt uneasy about the solutions being 'suggested'. Titus had kept his unease to himself, not wishing to disrupt his friendship with his fellow tribune. Virius regarded his silence as agreement and now viewed Titus as a de-facto member of the traditionalist group.
They turned their attention back to the training ground and watched as a recruit was berated for not meeting his centurions’ high standard. Titus commented that at least the quality of the training was still being maintained.
"True," replied Virius, "but what good is that if we are not allowed to put it into practice."
"What do you mean?"
"There was another raid last night," explained Virius. "Hiberian pirates looted a village no more than twenty miles from here. Killed any who protested, ravi
shed any women who took their fancy and just destroyed for the fun of it."
The Hibernians had been raiding the coast of Britannia long before the Romans had arrived. Hibernia was a loose confederation of clans under a High King, who was chosen by the clan chiefs. The clans were independent and wary of any central authority, happy to raid each other, the Caledonians and Britannia when bored with fishing or farming their own lands. The prime requirement for a candidate to be elected High King was his inability to exercise any effective control over the clans.
"That close!" exclaimed Titus. "Why weren't they caught on their way back? The navy has some patrol ships at Abonae."
"Economic cut backs," said Virius. "The navy ships have been laid up for the winter with their boilers closed down. By the time a ship could have raised steam, the Hibernians could have been at home in bed after a hard nights work!"
"What about us!" persisted Titus. "The legion has two squadrons of aircraft. They could have intercepted them."
"True they could have," said Virius, "if there was enough fuel. By the time the sun rose and the aircraft could take off, the pirates would have been half way across the sea. The Legate reckoned that we would have used up half our months allocation of aviation fuel searching for them."
"He was also worried about recognising the culprits if the pilots found them." Virius added, not attempting to hide the disgust in his voice.
