Alex Scarrow - Gates of Rome

‘The Senate needs men far younger than I.’ Crassus smiled. ‘Anyway, I don’t plan to die. Caligula will want to keep me alive to execute alongside Lepidus in some elaborate public display.’

Cato looked at Atellus. ‘Then we must be sure General Lepidus will make his move quickly.’

‘He will,’ smiled Atellus. ‘He’s already nervous about his meetings with you last year, Crassus. He has no wish to be made a martyr.’

‘And his legions?’

‘There’s no love lost between the Tenth, Eleventh and the Guard.’

Cato nodded. ‘Then it looks like this is our time.’

‘When will you present this evidence to Caligula?’ asked Cicero.

‘On my return to the palace.’ He looked at Crassus. ‘They will come for you tonight. Are you ready for that?’

‘My affairs are all in order.’

‘Atellus, you should leave immediately then, and carry the news back to General Lepidus that arrests of suspected traitors are being made in Rome this very evening. That’ll put the wind up him.’

‘It certainly will.’

Cato held the scrolls of correspondence in his hand. ‘As soon as Caligula sees these letters, he’ll issue an order for Lepidus’s immediate arrest. I suspect the arrest order and a party of Praetorians will arrive not very long after you.’

Atellus grinned. ‘There’ll be no sleep for him tonight.’

‘Let’s just hope he decides to go on the offensive, and not turn and run.’ He addressed the senators. ‘You two should go into hiding. As soon as Crassus is revealed as a conspirator, Caligula may decide to round up the rest of the surviving Senate. Pick friends you can trust and stay out of sight until you hear that Caligula is dead.’

‘What about me?’ asked Macro.

‘I want you to look after our new friends. Keep them safe. As soon as I have convinced Caligula to move the Guard out to confront Lepidus, I’ll send for you.’

‘How will you get us into the palace?’ asked Maddy.

Cato gave it a moment’s thought. ‘You’ll be my property. And Macro’ll be bringing you into the palace grounds for safekeeping. A perfectly sensible thing for me to ask permission to arrange. There will be riots and unrest in the city when the people witness the majority of Caligula’s Praetorians marching out.’

He took a deep breath. ‘Tonight and for the next few days, few weeks, this city will be in a state of anarchy. Even after Caligula is dead, it will be a dangerous time. General Lepidus’s men, the Praetorians and every other legion near Italy will be mobilizing to put their candidate on the throne. We need the Senate re-established quickly… and order restored fast if we’re to avoid a civil war.’

‘Rome’s sickly enough without the prospect of that,’ said Paulus.

‘Quite. All of you should use tonight to prepare for this. Macro… you should make sure you have extra food in and be ready to fortify your apartments. This city will descend into Hell. The collegia will almost certainly make use of the chaos to raid and loot and settle old scores.’

‘Right you are.’

‘If we’re very lucky,’ said Cato, ‘the majority of the bloodshed will be outside Rome. The Tenth, Eleventh and the Guard will incapacitate each other. The Palace Cohort will be right here in the city under my command, Caligula will be dead and we will have a small window of time to restore a Republic.’

Cicero looked at him. ‘For a few days, Cato, you understand… you will in effect be the Protector of Rome. Quite possibly the only cohesive military force within a hundred miles of Rome.

‘It takes a strong will to voluntarily surrender that kind of power back to the people.’

‘Now’s not the best time to start doubting me, Cicero.’

The politician looked taken aback. ‘I was just say-’

Macro spat a curse. ‘I’d trust Cato with my life!’

Cato glanced at Maddy, at Liam. A momentary meeting of eyes, a fleeting understanding.

‘This was not meant to be. Caligula has to go before it’s too late for Rome.’

‘What if…’ Fronto began.

‘Go on, Fronto.’

‘Thank you, sir… I just thought it might be worth saying. What if Caligula… really is, well, you know… a god?’

Atellus snorted with laughter.

‘That’s not such a stupid question,’ replied Cato. ‘Soldiers are a superstitious lot. Something we should be mindful of. A bad omen… a rumour, something as trivial as that can swing the allegiance of them at a time like this.’

‘Most of ’em are semi-literate, wine-swilling knuckle-draggers,’ grunted Macro, wiping his nose on the back of his hand. Cato looked at him, shook his head and smiled.

Macro scowled back. ‘And what’s that look supposed to mean?’

AD 54, Rome

Late afternoon sunlight painted the clay-brick walls of every building a warm peach and cast violet shadows into every narrow alley and rat run. The streets were busy with vendors packing up their shop fronts and pulling shutter doors to for the approaching evening.

Liam and Bob flanked Macro; Maddy and Sal a few steps behind.

‘What was it like in the legions?’ asked Liam. Macro repeated the question.

Liam nodded. ‘I’ve seen some…’ He was going to say ‘films’, but stopped himself. Only Cato knew where and when they’d come from. That might change at some point, but for now, the fact that they’d come from some place beyond the known Roman world was enough to share.

‘Well,’ Macro shrugged. ‘I’ll be honest, I probably moaned all the way through my twenty-five years in the Second. It was either hard work or damned boring. And plenty of years spent shivering in cold, damp places I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy.’ He smiled wistfully. ‘But I’d have those days back if I could.’

They stepped aside for a pair of Caligula’s acolytes wearing long green robes. It was approaching evening prayers and the calling horns would be sounding across the roof tiles soon.

‘Why?’

‘I miss the… I don’t know. I suppose I miss the sense of brotherhood. They really are an ugly, stupid, foul-smelling lot of lowlifes… the lads in any legion. Not the sort you’d want to bring home to meet the family, if you get my meaning. But…’ He shook his head, looking for a way to make his point. ‘But together… you and those men, you’re something more. Part of something greater. Do you understand?’

Liam nodded. He thought he probably did. He and the girls, Bob and Becks, even computer-Bob, they were their very own ‘unit’… sort of. With someone else by your side, someone you know would throw down their life to save yours, somehow it made staring into a hopeless abyss possible.

Macro echoed his thoughts. ‘Back then… I would have died for any one of my lads. And I know they’d have done the same, followed me into Hell itself if I’d ordered it. But now…?’ He shrugged sadly. ‘I see faces I recognize every so often. Lads retired from the legions, or even deserters. Just thugs and crooks some of them now. A lot of them hired men in the various collegia. I’d kill them without a second thought if I needed to.’

‘How long did you and Cato serve together?’

‘Oh now, I suppose it must have been about twelve years.’ He laughed. ‘Good times then. Most of it. Well… some of it. He came as a freshly freed slave from the imperial household of the Julii. As thin as a strip of willow and soft as a peach. And completely clueless about army life. I thought the lad wouldn’t last a week.’ He looked at Liam. ‘I’ve told you that already, haven’t I?’

Liam nodded.

‘I suppose I took pity on him at first. Took him under my wing, taught him how to become a soldier. And in return he taught me how to read.’ He laughed. ‘Made this dumb old centurion appreciate some of the finer things in life.’