As his gaze settled on two small clay figurines that stood on his desk, his eyes narrowed. Here he was, Fergus thought, as he took another sip of wine. Here he was at the age of thirty-two, commander and legate of the Twentieth Legion, a legion he had joined as a common soldier; as an eighteen-year old recruit. It was the legion his grandfather Corbulo had first served in sixty years ago and it had a proud history. And now he had made it to the very top. His dream had become reality. He had made something of himself. He had risen from the lowest rank to the highest rank in the legion. It was an astonishing and meteoric rise, but he could not have done it without his father having been a senator or Hadrian’s influence and friendship. He could not have done it without the inspiration his grandfather had provided. Would Marcus and Corbulo be proud? With a contented look, Fergus raised his cup in the air, as if saluting an imaginary friend. Then he sighed. He was not only legate of the Twentieth Legion, but also the head of his family and owner of the family farm on Vectis, responsible for all who lived there. One day, when he finally retired, it would be to Vectis, where he would retreat with Galena and where he would grow old with her. But that too could wait. He was still only thirty-two.
On the table, a scroll suddenly caught his eye and reaching out, he plucked it from the pile. It was a letter and, as he peered closer at the seal, he saw that it had come all the way from Rome. With a frown, Fergus broke the seal and unrolled the parchment.
Lady Claudia to Fergus, legate of the Twentieth Legion at Deva Victrix, Britannia. Greetings Fergus. I am writing to you because I have heard about the death of your father Marcus and would like to convey my deepest sympathies. I knew your father well and loved him dearly. He was an honourable man, who served Rome faithfully and it is with great sadness, that I heard about his death. You and Kyna have my condolences and my prayers. I also wish to inform you, in case you are not aware, that emperor Hadrian and his praetorian prefect Attianus have been consolidating their power. Nigrinus, Quietus, Palma and Celsus, the principal leaders of the War Party, have all been executed on Hadrian’s orders. The charges were for plotting to assassinate the new emperor, although there were no trials. I must too, add the sad news that my, and your father’s old friend, Paulinus, chief magistrate of the Imperial Fiscus has also been murdered. Paulinus was a good man and did not deserve his fate. I am told that they had to drag him kicking and screaming out of the Temple of Saturn in Rome before he was killed. I know you and I come from opposing factions in the senate, but I would like to ask you, out of respect to your father, that we bury these differences, now that we have a new emperor. Your father Marcus was a great man, representing the true heart and nobility of Rome. I recognised that the first time I met him.
I want you to know that I shall soon be leaving Rome and returning to Britannia and I will be bringing Ahern, your half-brother with me. Please let Kyna know for, I know how much she will be missing him. It would give me great pleasure if we could meet when I return to Britannia. Please write as soon as you can and let me know. Your most loyal friend, Claudia.
Lowering the letter Fergus suddenly became aware of Hera, his Mesopotamian slave standing and staring at him from the doorway to his family’s quarters.
“You. Look. Sad. Master,” the little girl said in broken Latin.
“No,” Fergus said as a broad smile appeared on his lips. “No Hera. I am not sad. I am a happy man. Everything is as it should be.”
Author’s Notes
One of the things that I have tried to reveal throughout the whole Veteran of Rome series is the process of Romanisation that took place in many Roman provinces with Britannia being just one example. In Britannia most people’s lives would have at first been relatively unaffected by Roman rule. The people by and large would have gone on living as per before in their small scattered settlements, living off the land, honouring their own gods and maintaining their tribal traditions. Contact with real Romans would have been limited. Taxes would have been imposed on them by a centralised and sophisticated Roman bureaucracy but it’s likely the locals already paid some form of tax to their own kings before Roman rule.
As Roman rule endured however the locals would have started to notice changes. Hardened roads would have appeared making it easier to travel. New towns would have appeared - markets would have suddenly been filled with strange new and exotic foreign goods. Long distance travel would suddenly have become more feasible. New techniques of farming, building, new technology and new industries would have appeared creating work and growing wealth. Whereas before the locals would have likely produced only enough food to feed themselves and their community the Romans would have encouraged local farmers to maximise their surplus production of food and sell it in the market to feed the thousands of troops stationed in the province. A similar revolution would have occurred in mining with the Romans pushing production of gold, lead and silver to the limits to pay for the army upkeep. No doubt some smart local entrepreneurs would quickly have become very wealthy under Roman rule as I have tried to show with Dylis and the farm on Vectis.
The phycological impact on the local populace must have been immense. Seeing a bath house and piped running water for the first time must have been an amazing experience on par with eating garum and sweet apples. We can only guess at what the locals really made of it all, but I suspect most would have liked what they saw and would have taken quickly to the new way of life filled with new possibilities and opportunities.
This leads me to Corbulo and his family. Corbulo would have been a full Roman of Italian stock originating from the small town of Falacrinea, near Narnia, seventy-five miles north east of Rome in central Italy (yes, it’s mentioned in chapter 15 of Caledonia). Marcus his son however would have been half of Italian stock and half Celt. Fergus, Corbulo’s grandson, would have been only a quarter of Italian stock and three quarters Celt and Fergus’s daughters only an eighth of Italian stock. Yet it is Fergus, Galena and their daughters who are almost fully Romanised and it is Fergus who rises to one of the highest military positions possible. I have done that because I wanted to show that within a few generations of the start of Roman rule, local men would have been playing a large role in the running and security of the provincial administration. This is highly likely. It shows the success of the Romanisation process and it reveals one of the secrets to the longevity of Roman rule. Over time as they became more integrated the local populations would have tacitly started to support Rome and defend their new way of life. In this period before the rise of the nation state, what the Roman empire did was in effect divide Europe into those who were growing increasingly prosperous and sophisticated and those that were not. The ones on the outside increasingly coveted what the populations in the empire had thus eventually leading to the catastrophe of the fifth century when the Germanic and central Asian tribes mucked it up for all of us.
Veterans of Rome is book nine and the final book in the Veteran of Rome series. What next? Well I shall soon be embarking on a brand-new Roman series that will follow Corbulo’s paternal ancestors through their long and arduous fight against Hannibal during the epic 2nd Punic War. There is going to be a lot of fighting during this – Rome’s finest hour. The link between Corbulo and his ancestors is referred to in chapter twenty of this book. The first book in the new series will hopefully be ready by Christmas 2018. I hope you will read it.
William Kelso, London, June 2018
MAJOR PARTICIPANTS IN “VETERANS OF ROME”
Corbulo, Marcus and Fergus’s family
Kyna, wife of Marcus, mother of Fergus
Corbulo, Marcus’s father, Fergus’s grandfather
Ahern, Kyna’s son by another man. Jowan forced to adopt him
Elsa, orphaned daughter of Lucius, but adopted by Marcus and his family
Cassius, Elsa’s husband and Marcus’s secretary
Armin, orphaned little brother of Elsa
Galena, wife of Fergus
Briana, Fergus and Galena’s first daughter
Efa, Fergus and Galena’s second daughter
Gitta, Fergus and Galena’s third daughter
Aina, Fergus and Galena’s fourth daughter
Athena, Fergus and Galena’s fifth daughter
Indus, Marcus’s Batavian bodyguard in Rome and ex-soldier
Aledus, Friend and army buddy of Fergus
Dylis, Marcus’s half-sister, adopted by Corbulo
Cunomoltus, Marcus’s half-brother, illegitimate son of Corbulo
Jowan, Dylis’s husband
Petrus, Christian boy rescued by Corbulo
Imperial family
Marcus Ulpius Traianus, Emperor of Rome (Trajan) AD 98 - 117
Plotina Pompeia, Empress of Rome, Emperor Trajan’s wife
Salonia Matidia, Trajan’s niece
Members of the Peace Party
Publius Aelius Hadrianus, (Hadrian) Leader of the peace party
Adalwolf, German amber and slave trader, but also guide, advisor and translator for Hadrian
Vibia Sabina , Hadrian’s wife
Publius Acilius Attianus, Hadrian’s old childhood guardian (Jointly with Trajan)
Marcus Aemilius Papus, friend of Hadrian
Quintus Sosius Senecio, soldier and supporter of Hadrian
Aulus Platorius Nepos, Roman politician and soldier
Admiral Quintus Marcius Turbo, close friend of Trajan and Hadrian
Members of the War Party
Gaius Avidius Nigrinus, Senator, leading citizen in Rome and close friend of Trajan. Leader of the war party and potential successor to Trajan
Lady Claudia, a high-born aristocrat and old acquaintance of Marcus
Paulinus Picardus Taliare, one of Rome’s finance ministers, in charge of the state treasury
Aulus Cornelius Palma, conqueror of Arabia Nabataea and sworn enemy of Hadrian
Lucius Pubilius Celsus, Senator and ex Consul; bitter enemy of Hadrian
Lusius Quietus, Berber prince and Roman citizen from Mauretania in northern Africa, a successful and popular Roman military leader
Marcus, Fergus’s father, senator and supporter of the War Party
The Armenians and Parthians
Osroes I, King of Kings of Parthia
Parthamasiris, Nephew of Osroes, who became king of Armenia
Parthamaspates, Parthian vassal king, installed by Trajan
Volagases III, rival Parthian king to Osroes, rules in eastern Parthia
Sanatruces, nephew to the king of kings Osroes
The Fourth “Scythica” Legion
Gellius, legionary legate of the Fourth legion
Britannicus, a young tribune angusticlavii with the Fourth Legion
Dio, a veteran centurion in the Fourth Legion
Other Characters
Cunitius, a private investigator and one-time enemy of Marcus
Heron of Alexandria, a Greek mathematician, engineer and inventor
Similis, ex-prefect of Egypt, placed in charge of all security matters in Rome whilst Trajan is away in the east
Alexandros, Greek captain of the ship Hermes that sailed to Hyperborea with Marcus
Cora, Alexandros’s wife
Calista, Alexandros’s daughter
Jodoc, Calista’s husband
Senovarus, Marcus’s defence lawyer in Londinium
Felix, A member of the speculatores, law enforcers
Ninian, Dylis’s business agent and grain broker
Hedwig, Batavian officer served with Marcus in the 2nd Batavian auxiliary cohort
Wolfgang, Hedwig’s nephew
Marcus Appius Bradua, Roman governor of Britannia
GLOSSARY
Adiabene, region in north-eastern Iraq
Aerarium, State treasury for Senatorial provinces
Aesculapius, The god of healing
Agora, market place and public space
Agrimensore, A land surveyor
Albania, Roman client kingdom at the southern foot hills of the Caucasus
Aila, Red sea port now called Aqaba in Jordan
Alae, Cavalry unit
Alani, A Scythian people living on the steppes to the north of the Caucasus
Armorica, Region of north-west France
Amphorae, a large two-handled storage jar having an oval body
Antioch, Near Antakya, Turkey
Aqua Sulis, Bath, England
Aquila, a sacred gold and silver eagle standard, one for each legion
Aquilifer, a legionary eagle standard bearer
Aquincum, Modern Budapest, Hungary
Arabia Nabataea, modern day Jordan and northern Saudi Arabia
Araxes river, also known as the Aras. Former border between the USSR and Iran
Arcidava, Fort in the Banat region of Dacia
Argiletum, Street of the booksellers in ancient Rome
Artaxata, ancient capital of the kingdom of Armenia
Asses, Roman copper coins, money
Athena, Greek goddess and protector of Athens
Babylon, city 50 miles/80 km south of Bagdad
Babylonia, region around Babylon, Mesopotamia
Balearic isles, Islands of the eastern cost of Spain.
Ballista, Roman artillery catapult
Banat, Region of Dacia, Romania and Serbia
Batavorum Lugdunum. Near Katwijk, the Netherlands
Berzobis, Fort in the Banat region of Dacia
Bonnensis, Bonn, Germany. Full name
Burdigala, Roman city close to modern Bordeaux, France
Bostra, a Roman occupied town in Jordan
Byre houses, crude barbarian dwellings made of wood, thatch and mud
Caledonia, Scotland
Camulodunum, Colchester, England
Capitoline Hill, One of the seven hills of ancient Rome
Carnuntum, Roman settlement just east of Vienna, Austria
Carrobalista, Roman artillery catapults/crossbows mounted on wagons
Castra, Fort
Caltrops, small spiked metal anti cavalry and personnel weapons
Cataphracts heavily armoured shock cavalry
Cappadocia, Roman province in central and eastern Turkey
Caucasian Gates, Darial Gorge Georgia/Russia border
Centurion, Roman officer in charge of a company of about 80 legionaries
Cella, internal space in a temple
Chaboras river, now known as the Khabur river, tributary to the Euphrates
Charax, near modern day Basra
Chatti Confederation, Germanic tribal confederation
Cilicia, Roman province in modern Turkey
Circesium, a town now called Buseira in Syria
Classis Germanica, Roman fleet based on the Rhine
Classis Pannonica, Roman fleet based on the Danube at Carnuntum
Cohort, Roman military unit equivalent to a battalion of around 500 men
Colchis, land around the south-eastern part of the Black sea
Colonia Agrippina, Cologne, Germany
Commagene, Roman province
Consul, Governor of a province.
Contubernium, Eight-man legionary infantry squad. Barrack room/tent group room
Cornucopia, horn
Corona Muralis, Roman military decoration
Cornicen, Trumpeter and signaller
Cuirassed armour, Expensive chest armour that followed the muscles of the chest
Cyrenaica, eastern part of Libya
Currach, Celtic boat
Cataphract, type of heavily armoured cavalry
Ctesiphon, Parthian winter capital, near modern Baghdad
Dacia(n), The area in Romania where the Dacians lived
Decanus, Corporal, squad leader
Decurion, Roman cavalry officer
Demeter, Greek goddess of agriculture
Denarii, Roman money
Derbent, claims to be oldest town in Russia, on the Caspian-sea
Deva Victrix, Chester, UK
Diane, the Goddess of the hunt
Do
mitian, Emperor from AD 81 – 96
Doura Europus, Near to Salihiye in eastern Syria
Draco banner, Dacian coloured banner made of cloth
Edessa, Sanliurfa, now in southeastern Turkey
Emporium, Marketplace
Elegeia, Armenian town in the region of Erzurum
Eleusinion, Temple of Demeter, Athens
Eponymous Archon of Athens, The city’s ruler and mayor
Equestrian Order, The Order of Knights – minor Roman aristocracy
Equites, Individual men of the Equestrian Order
Erebus, the Greek god of darkness and son of Chaos
Euphrates, major river in Iraq, Syria and Turkey
Falx, Curved Dacian sword
Fallujah, Fallujah in Iraq
Fibula, A brooch or pin used by the Romans to fasten clothing
Fiscus, The Roman state treasury controlled by the emperor and not the senate
Focale, Roman army neck scarf
Fortuna, The Goddess of Fortune
Forum Boarium, The ancient cattle market of Rome
Forum Romanum, Political centre of ancient Rome, area of government buildings
Frisii, Tribe of Frisians who lived in the northern Netherlands
Gabala, ancient capital of Caucasian Albania
Gades, Cadiz, southern Spain
Garum, Roman fermented fish sauce
Gladius, Standard Roman army short stabbing sword
Greaves, Armour that protects the legs
Hatra, Hatra in Iraq
Hellenistic, Greek
Hengistbury Head, Ancient Celtic trading post near Christchurch, UK
Hermes - Messenger of the gods
Hibernia, Ireland
Hispania, Spain
Hyrcanian Ocean, Caspian Sea
Hyperborea, Mythical land beyond the north wind
Iberia, Spain but also a small Roman client kingdom south of the Caucasus
Imaginifer, Roman army standard bearer carrying an image of the emperor
Imagine, image of the emperor
Imperator, Latin for commander/emperor, used to hail the Roman emperor
Intentio, the reason for the trial and the charges against the defendant