Fortune's Favorites

by Colleen McCullough

  By the end of Quinctilis it was glaringly obvious even to the most obtuse senator that the consuls Gellius and Clodianus were incapable of halting Spartacus. With Philippus leading the chorus (difficult for him, since Gellius and Clodianus belonged to Pompey as much as he did himself), the Senate tactfully told the consuls that they were being removed from command in the war against Spartacus; they were needed in Rome to govern, and it was now clear that the war should go to a man endowed with a full proconsular imperium-a man who had personal access to retired veterans and the clout to inspire them to return to the eagles. A man with a good war record, and preferably of Sullan convictions. A man who not only belonged to the Senate, but had been at the least a praetor.

  Of course everyone inside the Senate and outside it knew that there was only one candidate for the job, only one candidate sitting idle in Rome without province abroad or war of some kind already on his hands, only one candidate with the necessary veteran resources and war record: Marcus Licinius Crassus. Urban praetor the year before, he had declined to take a governorship, pleading as his excuse the fact that Rome needed him more at home than in some foreign place. In anyone else such lethargy and lack of true political zeal would have been instantly condemned; but Marcus Crassus was allowed his foibles. Had to be allowed them! Most of the Senate was in debt to him for some trifling loan or another.

  Not that he agitated for the job. That was not his style. Instead he sat back in his suite of offices behind the Macellum Cuppedenis and waited. A suite of offices sounded most imposing-until the curious man visited Crassus's establishment. No expensive pictures hung on its walls, no comfortable couches were positioned around, no spacious halls permitted clients to cluster and chat, no servants hovered to offer Falernian wine or rare cheeses. Such was known to happen: Titus Pomponius Atticus, for instance-that ex-partner of Crassus's who now so loathed him-conducted his multifarious businesses in exquisite premises. Crassus, however, did not even begin to understand the need a harried businessman's animus might have to surround itself with beautiful comfortable things. To Crassus wasted space was wasted money, money spent on pretty offices was wasted money. When he was in his suite of rooms he occupied a desk in one corner of a crowded hall, shoved about or sidled around by all the toiling accountants, scribes and secretaries who shared the same area; it may have been just a trifle inconvenient, but it meant his staff was permanently under his eye-and his eye missed nothing.

  No, he didn't agitate for the job, and he had no need to buy himself a senatorial lobby. Let Pompeius Magnus waste his money on that sort of exercise! Not necessary when one was willing to lend a needy senator whatever amount of cash he wanted-and interest-free. Pompeius would never see his money back. Whereas Crassus could call in his loans at any time and not be out of purse.

  In September the Senate finally acted. Marcus Licinius Crassus was asked if he would assume a full proconsular imperium, take unto himself eight legions, and command in the war against the Thracian gladiator Spartacus. It took him several days to reply, which he finally did in the House with all his customary brevity and deliberateness. To Caesar, watching appreciatively from his seat on the opposite side of the Curia Hostilia, it was a lesson in the power of presence and the powerful stench of money.

  Crassus was quite tall but never looked it, so wide was he. Not that he was fat. Rather, he was built like an ox, with thick wrists and big hands, a mighty neck and shoulders. In a toga he was sheer bulk until one saw the muscles in the exposed right forearm, felt the solid oak of it in a handshake. His face was big and broad, expressionless but not unpleasantly so, and the light grey eyes had a habit of resting upon their objective with a mild kindness. Hair and brows were pale brown, not quite mouse-colored, and his skin went dark in the sun quickly.

  He spoke now in his normal voice, which was surprisingly high (Apollonius of Molon would have said that was because his neck was short, reflected Caesar), and said, “Conscript Fathers, I am sensible of the honor you accord me in offering me this high command. I would like to accept, but... "

  He paused, gaze ambling affably from one face to another. “I am a humble man, and I am very aware that whatever influence I have is due to a thousand men of the knightly order who cannot make their presence directly felt inside this House. I could not accept this high command without being sure that they consented to it. Therefore I humbly ask this House to present a senatus consultum to the Assembly of the People. If that body votes me my command, I will be happy to accept."

  Clever Crassus! applauded Caesar.

  If the Senate gave, the Senate could take away. As it had in the case of Gellius and Clodianus. But if the Assembly of the People was asked to ratify a decree handed down from the Senate-and did ratify it-then only the Assembly of the People could unmake it. Not impossible, by any means. But between the tribunes of the plebs drawn claw and fang by Sulla and the general apathy of the House in making decisions, a law passed in the Assembly of the People would put Crassus in a very strong position. Clever, clever Crassus!

  No one was surprised when the House obediently handed down its senatus consultant, nor when the Assembly of the People voted overwhelmingly to ratify it. Marcus Licinius Crassus was more solidly commander in the war against Spartacus than Pompey in Nearer Spain; Pompey's imperium was bestowed by Senate alone, it was not a law on Rome's tablets.

  With the same efficiency that had made a huge success out of an enterprise as dubious as training dirt-cheap slaves in expensive skills, Marcus Crassus went to work at once upon this new challenge.

  The first thing he did was to announce the names of his legates: Lucius Quinctius, that fifty-two-year-old nuisance to consuls and law courts; Marcus Mummius, almost of praetor's age; Quintus Marcius Rufus, somewhat younger but in the Senate; Gaius Pomptinus, a young Military Man; and Quintus Arrius, the only veteran of the war against Spartacus whom Crassus cared to keep.

  He then declared that as the consuls' legions were reduced from four to two by casualties and desertions, he would use only the top twelve of the twenty-four tribunes of the soldiers, but not the present year's tribunes of the soldiers; their term was almost expired, and he thought nothing would be worse for these unsatisfactory legions than to change their immediate commanders scarcely a month into the campaign. Therefore he would call up next year's tribunes of the soldiers early. He also asked for one of next year's quaestors by name-Gnaeus Tremellius Scrofa, of an old praetorian family.

  In the meantime he removed himself to Capua and sent out agents among his veteran soldiers from the days when he fought Carbo and the Samnites. He needed to enlist six legions very quickly. Some of his critics remembered that his soldiers hadn't liked his reluctance to share the spoils of towns like Tuder, and predicted that he would get few volunteers. But whether it was memories or hearts the years had softened, his veterans flocked to Crassus's eagles. By the beginning of November, when word had come that the Spartacani had turned around and were heading back down the Via Aemilia again, Crassus was almost ready to move.

  First, however, it was time to deal with the remnants of the consuls' legions, who had never been shifted from the camp at Firmum Picenum after the combined defeat of Gellius and Clodianus. They comprised twenty cohorts (which were the number of cohorts in two legions) but were the survivors of four legions, so few of them had fought together as a legionary unit. It had not been possible to transfer them to Capua until Crassus's own six legions were formed and organized; so few legions had been raised during the past years that half of the camps around Capua had been closed and dismantled.

  When Crassus sent Marcus Mummius and the twelve tribunes of the soldiers to pick up these twenty cohorts from Firmum Picenum, he was aware that Spartacus and his Spartacani were drawing close to Ariminum. Mummius was issued strict orders. He was to avoid any sort of contact with Spartacus, thought to be still well to the north of Firmum Picenum. Unfortunately for Mummius, Spartacus had moved his troops independently of his camp followers and his baggage tr
ain once he reached Ariminum, knowing that a threat to his rear was nonexistent. Thus it was that at about the same moment as Mummius arrived at the camp built by Gellius and Clodianus, so did the leading echelons of the Spartacani.

  A clash was inevitable. Mummius did his best, but there was little either he or his tribunes of the soldiers (Caesar was among them) could do. None of them knew the troops, the troops had never been properly trained, and they feared Spartacus the way children feared nursery bogeys. To call what ensued a battle was impossible; the Spartacani just rolled through the camp as if it didn't exist, while the panicked soldiers of the consuls' legions scattered in all directions. They threw down their weapons and pulled off their shirts of mail and helmets, anything which would slow their flight; the tardy perished, the fleet of foot got away. Not bothering to pursue, the Spartacani streamed onward, merely pausing to pick up abandoned arms and armor and strip the corpses of those who had not escaped.

  "There was nothing you could have done to avert this," said Caesar to Mummius. "The fault lay in our intelligence."

  "Marcus Crassus will be furious!" cried Mummius, despairing.

  "I'd call that an understatement," said Caesar grimly. "But the Spartacani are an undisciplined lot, all the same."

  "Over a hundred thousand!"

  They were camped atop a hill not far from the vast collection of people still rolling southward; Caesar, whose eyes saw into far distances, pointed.

  "Of soldiers he has not more than eighty thousand, maybe less. What we're looking at now are camp followers- women, children, even men who don't seem to be bearing arms. And there are at least fifty thousand of them. Spartacus has a millstone around his neck. He has to drag the families and personal effects of his soldiers with him. You're looking at a homeless people, not an army, Mummius."

  Mummius turned away. "Well, there's no reason to linger here. Marcus Crassus has to be informed what happened. The sooner, the better."

  "The Spartacani will be gone in a day or two. Might I suggest that we remain here until they are gone, then gather up the men of the consuls' legions? If they're let, they'll disappear forever. I think Marcus Crassus would be better pleased to see them, whatever their state of disarray," said Caesar.

  Arrested, Mummius looked at his senior tribune of the soldiers. “You're a thinking sort of fellow, Caesar, aren't you? You're quite right. We should round the wretches up and bring them back with us. Otherwise our general's fury will know no bounds."

  Five cohorts lay dead among the ruins of the camp, as did most of the centurions. Fifteen cohorts had survived. It took Mummius eleven days to track them down and muster them, not as difficult a task as Mummius for one had feared; their wits were more scattered than their persons.

  Clad only in tunics and sandals, the fifteen cohorts were marched to Crassus, now in camp outside Bovianum. He had caught a detachment of Spartacani which had wandered off to the west of the main body and killed six thousand, but Spartacus himself was now well on his way toward Venusia, and Crassus had not deemed it clever to follow him into country unfavorable to a much smaller force. It was now the beginning of December, but as the calendar was forty days ahead of the seasons, winter was yet to come.

  The general listened to Mummius in an ominous silence. Then: "I do not hold you to blame, Marcus Mummius," he said, "but what am I to do with fifteen cohorts of men who cannot be trusted and have no stomach for a fight?"

  No one answered. Crassus knew exactly what he was going to do, despite his question. Every man present understood that, but no man present other than Crassus knew what he was going to do.

  Slowly the mild eyes traveled from one face to another, lingered upon Caesar's, moved on.

  "How many are they by head?" he asked.

  "Seven thousand five hundred, Marcus Crassus. Five hundred soldiers to the cohort," said Mummius.

  "I will decimate them," said Crassus.

  A profound silence fell; no one moved a muscle.

  "Parade the whole army tomorrow at sunrise and have everything ready. Caesar, you are a pontifex, you will officiate. Choose your victim for the sacrifice. Ought it to be to Jupiter Optimus Maximus, or to some other god?"

  "I think we should offer to Jupiter Stator, Marcus Crassus. He is the stayer of fleeing soldiers. And to Sol Indiges. And Bellona. The victim ought to be a black bull calf."

  “Mummius, your tribunes of the soldiers will see to the lots. Except for Caesar."

  After which the general dismissed his staff, who moved out of the command tent without finding a single word to say to each other. Decimation!

  At sunrise Crassus's six legions were assembled side by side in their ranks; facing them, paraded in ten rows each of seven hundred and fifty men, stood the soldiers who were to be decimated. Mummius had worked feverishly to devise the quickest and simplest method of procedure, as the most important numerical division for decimation was the decury of ten men; it went without saying that Crassus himself had been an enormous help with the logistics.

  They stood as Mummius and his tribunes of the soldiers had rounded them up, clad only in tunics and sandals, but each man held a cudgel in his right hand and had been numbered off from one to ten for the lots. Branded cowards, they looked cowards, for not one among them could stand without visibly shaking, every face was a study in terror, and the sweat rolled off them despite the early morning chill.

  "Poor things," said Caesar to his fellow tribune of the soldiers, Gaius Popillius. "I don't know which appalls them more-the thought of being the one to die, or the thought of being one of the nine who must kill him. They're not warlike."

  "They're too young," said Popillius, a little sadly.

  "That's usually an advantage," said Caesar, who wore his pontifical toga today, a rich and striking garment composed entirely of broad scarlet and purple stripes. "What does one know at seventeen or eighteen? There are no wives and children at home to worry about. Youth is turbulent, in need of an outlet for violent impulses. Better battle than wine and women and tavern brawls-in battle, the State at least gets something out of them that's useful to the State."

  "You're a hard man," said Popillius.

  "No. Just a practical one."

  Crassus was ready to begin. Caesar moved to where the ritual trappings were laid out, drawing a fold of toga over his head. Every legion carried its own priest and augur, and it was one of the military augurs who inspected the black bull calf's liver. But because decimation was confined to the imperium of a proconsular general, it required a higher religious authority than legionary Religious, which was why Caesar had been deputed, and why Caesar had to verify the augur's findings. Having announced in a loud voice that Jupiter Stator, Sol Indiges and Bellona were willing to accept the sacrifice, he then said the concluding prayers. And nodded to Crassus that he could begin.

  Assured of divine approval, Crassus spoke. A tall tribunal had been erected to one side of the guilty cohorts, on which stood Crassus and his legates. The only tribune of the soldiers who was a part of this group was Caesar, the officiating priest; the rest of them were clustered around a table in the middle of the space between the veteran legions and the cohorts to be decimated, for it was their duty to apportion the lots.

  "Legates, tribunes, cadets, centurions and men of the ranks," cried Crassus in his high, carrying voice, "you are gathered here today to witness a punishment so rare and so severe that it is many generations since it was last exacted. Decimation is reserved for soldiers who have proven themselves unworthy to be members of Rome's legions, who have deserted their eagles in the most craven and unpardonable fashion. I have ordered that the fifteen cohorts standing here in their tunics shall be decimated for very good reason: since they were inducted into military service at the beginning of this year they have consistently fled from the scene of every battle they were asked to fight. And now in their last debacle they have committed the ultimate soldier's crime-they abandoned their weapons and armor on the field for the enemy to pick up and use. N
one of them deserves to live, but it is not within my power to execute every single man. That is the prerogative of the Senate, and the Senate alone. So I will exercise my right as the proconsular commander-in-chief to decimate their ranks, hoping that by doing so, I will inspire those men left alive to fight in future like Roman soldiers-and to show the rest of you, my loyal and constant followers, that I will not tolerate cowardice! And may all our gods bear witness that I will have avenged the good name and honor of every Roman soldier!"

  As Crassus reached his peroration, Caesar tensed. If the men of the six legions assembled to watch cheered, then Crassus had the army's consent; but if his speech was greeted by silence, he was going to be in for a mutinous campaign. No one ever liked decimation. That was why no general practiced it. Was Crassus, so shrewd in business and politics, as shrewd in his judgement of Rome's veteran soldiers?

  The six legions cheered wholeheartedly. Watching him closely, Caesar saw a tiny sagging of relief in Crassus; so even he had not been sure!

  The dispersal of the lots began. There were seven hundred and fifty decuries, which meant that seven hundred and fifty men would die. A very long drawn-out procedure which Crassus and Mummius had speeded up with some excellent organization. In a huge basket lay seven hundred and fifty tablets-seventy-five of them were numbered I, seventy-five were numbered II, and so on, up to the number X. They had been thrown in at random, then shuffled well. The tribune of the soldiers Gaius Popillius had been deputed to count seventy-five of these jumbled little two-inch squares of thin wood into each of ten smaller baskets, one of which he gave to each of the ten remaining tribunes of the soldiers to disperse.

  That was why the guilty cohorts had been arranged in ten well-spaced rows, seventy-five well-spaced decuries to the row. A tribune of the soldiers simply walked from one end of his row to the other, stopping before each decury and pulling a tablet from his basket. He called out the number, the man allocated it stepped forward, and he then passed on to the next decury.