Chapter III
"Do not say all that you know, but always know what you say" -Appius Claudius
Junius was ill the next morning, as we walked to the Via Pretoria for our rendezvous with Procillus. Over-refreshed the night before, he had slept or been unconscious, until I roused him with difficulty, anxious not to be late. His nausea and vomiting however irritated me intensely, although I said nothing. Happily, the weather was good, the sky had cleared, and an early but warm sun had risen to cheer us on our way. Not that there was much cheer in Junius' eyes that day.
'By Bacchus why didn't they water the wine? I'll never drink again!' he said with an alcoholic's remorse.
'More importantly, did you win?'
'Haven't got the faintest idea, but we certainly put away a few jugs of the local wine. Procillus is a pleasant fellow, you know. Paid for all the wine and helped me home afterwards. Lends a reality to the expression "an officer and a patrician". By Jupiter, I think I'm still drunk!'
I looked at my friend and decided it was not worth telling him about what had happened to me. It was not the right time. I had killed two legionary soldiers and if anyone suspected me, the penalty would have been my life. I kept quiet.
Procillus was late. We waited almost an hour for the Tribune to appear. He looked as hung-over as Junius. I was not looking forward to a day reminiscing over the previous night but there was no way to avoid it. It was almost as if I took refuge in thoughts of Hypsicratea and they kept asking me what was wrong. I would stare at the ground ruminating and could hardly concentrate on the task.
The day was a waste of time in respect of gathering news but it was a distraction from the tedium of the long march. At each stop, we questioned the men of the Lucullan legion about supplies and equipment and they of course, suspected nothing. Procillus dealt with the officers and we dealt with the men.
We had a general impression however of a tension in the legion, a rising conflict that simmered beneath an otherwise bland external veneer of efficiency.
By the evening, we were able to share a meal with some of the rankers in the Lucullan legion.
'What this army needs is to go home,' the burly Decurion said, though a mouthful of wheat porridge. We sat around a fire, drinking wine that Junius and I had brought with us and none of the assembled soldiers bothered to water it down.
'Petronius is right,' said his friend, an Optio from their first century, first cohort.
'What do you mean?' Junius asked, stringing them along.
'Well, the way I see it, is that we have been out here for five years and now we're going into a fight we can't win. If the Armenians don’t kill us in the battle, we'll end up even further from home and don't think the General will stop there. See what I mean?'
'No,' I said.
'The Parthians! That's what's on his mind and I can tell you that even if we win against Tigranes, he will want to go further afield. I don't know anyone in the legion who wants it and most of us are due to retire and get our piece of land and pension.'
'But you'll make a fortune. The Armenians are rich and if we take Tigranocerta, the Armenian city, it will be Saturnalia all the way home,' Junius said.
'What about the ones who aren't about to retire? They have no reason to refuse to fight,' I asked.
'Are you joking? Most of the newer soldiers are scared stiff. The veterans in this legion are what holds us together and the others have little experience. The original men who came at Lucullus' expense at the beginning have been diluted to the point of being only half of the force. The rest are fresh recruits since Cabira and most of them were left over from previous legions under the old governor.'
'Tell me Petronius,' I said trying to sound non-committal, 'There's no talk of mutiny or anything is there?'
'Keep your bleeding voice down will you! That word can have you flogged for sedition if it is even just heard on the lips of a legionary.'
'Sorry, I was only asking because some of our lads have been talking that way.'
'Look Veridius, all I'm saying is that when the time comes there will be a lot of people in this legion who won't want to fight. This is the point. The Armenians have a vast army and they'll crush us. If they don't, then all we have to look forward to is being forced to march on and on, no back pay, no retirement. What do you think we'll do?'
Junius was angry at this point. I could see it in his face. The colour change had occurred gradually while Petronius spoke but I knew him well enough to recognise the signs.
'Look here, do you mean there are plans for a "refusal to fight" or not. You know what I mean. I have to tell the other lads in the Ninth and they won't want to be the only ones to do what we talked about. They need to know what your legion is going to do first. They will stand with you I'm sure,' I said.
'I signed up to fight for the honour of Rome. I didn't do it to sit here with a bunch of mutineers and hear this shit,' Junius said, suddenly to my utter and complete consternation.
'Steady on friend,' Petronius said, 'we're only talking.'
'My friend has had a bad day. He doesn't mean anything by it. Do you?' I said, leaning on Junius' foot with mine, to warn him. He was silent for a moment as it sunk in what his outburst had done. He looked as puzzled by his outburst as I was.
'Err, no, I was just kidding, testing you if you like,' Junius said realising that his temper had got the better of him. The men gathered around the fire all looked askance at my friend and he for his part tried to smile back at them.
'How do we know you're really from the Ninth? You could be spies sent to trap us,' Petronius said, his eyes narrowing and a scowl dawning slowly on his fat wrinkled face.
'Nonsense,' I said with as much confidence in my voice as I could muster, 'How else could we find out what you fellows are going to do if we don't ask. We have to return and let our men know what's what or you won't have any support. I'm sure that if two legions refuse then the rest will follow. We're doing a survey of equipment and will be able to talk to the other legions in the next few days.'
'I don't trust these two,’ a voice said from the back and there was a murmur starting that neither Junius nor I were particularly happy with.
'Well we must be going,' I said and stood up.
'Not so fast,' the Optio said with his hand on his sword.
I drew my sword fast. I held it at the throat of the nearest man and noted with satisfaction that Junius had drawn his almost as fast.
'We don't want any trouble here. We're going to leave now and if any man among you follows me, I will defend myself. I'm the Ninth Legion's sword champion and I don't take prisoners,' I said, aware that we were outnumbered five to one.
'Let them go,' Petronius said, 'there's nothing they can do anyway. There are far too many people involved already and if word gets out among the veterans in the other legions, they'll think the same as us. Let them go.'
He looked me in the eye and added, 'If I ever see either of you on a battlefield, you'd better watch your backs, we don't like spies and they get what they deserve.'
We backed away and began bickering.
'I knew exactly what I was doing and you had to open your mouth about the honour of fighting for Rome! What possessed you to do such a stupid thing?'
'I couldn't help it, I just got angry. Those bastards are trying to start a mutiny and we're sitting nice as pie and drinking wine with them! I could have cut their throats.'
'They outnumbered us by about five or six to one!'
'I don't care. I'm not very good at this and all I want is to go back to a bit of proper soldiering. I wish you hadn't said yes to this. Our names will be dirt tomorrow, even in our own legion.'
We met Procillus in the same spot on the Via Praetoria the next morning. He had had a similar but less potentially violent experience.
'The officers in the Lucullan are about ready to mutiny. They have it in mind to wait until we are near Tigranocerta and then start a full-scale withdrawal, leaving the General on his own w
ith any loyal troops, but they think they will take most of the army with them. It seems scarcely possible. They wanted our legion to give a guarantee that if they did that we would follow.'
'We had the same experience but the orator here started talking about the honour of Rome and that put an end to our mission!' I said, looking at Junius who was blushing.
'It wasn't my fault,' he said, 'I hate deserters and mutineers.'
'You didn't have to say so to their faces.'
'There's no other way. Traitors have to be faced down.'
'Excuse me chaps?' it was Procillus, 'When you have quite finished, we need to go back and report our findings to Lucullus, 'I don't think we need to know much more. What he will do about this I have no idea. We're marching to battle with soldiers who have every intention of running all the way back to Rome.'