Gordon Doherty - The Scourge of Thracia

‘And in reserve?’ Gallus asked in a tone that suggested he felt not a drop of intimidation in the presence of Emperor Valens’ direct subordinate.

Traianus grinned wryly, tapping the map just south of the Shipka Pass. ‘The Great Northern Camp.’

All of Pavo’s senses latched onto this. At once he saw how close to the Shipka Pass the camp was — barely a day’s march — and thought of Felicia. A cold stone of angst settled in his belly as he fretted for her safety.

‘Seven legions are stationed at the camp, ready to answer the call for reinforcements from any of the passes,’ Traianus said with confidence.

But Pavo thought of the glass-eyed old man’s words back at the deserted apartment, and other hearsay that he had picked up on since arriving back in Constantinople. Some say the legions out there are in disarray. Men and units patched together from the survivors of Ad Salices — limitanei and comitatenses forged together in something of a rabble.

‘Seven legions, sir?’ Gallus asked. ‘I had heard mixed reports.’

Traianus’ confidence faltered and he nodded briskly. ‘They are far from full strength, Tribunus, and most of them are somewhat pragmatic in their composition. Many fine cohorts — indeed, entire legions — were lost at Ad Salices, as you know,’ he and Gallus shared a solemn look of understanding and recollection. ‘Old legions have been laid to rest, their surviving vexillationes and leaderless cohorts have been merged with others in an effort to re-establish at least a core to the Thracian army.’

‘I understand, sir,’ Gallus nodded.

‘And that’s where you and your men come into play. You are to march your men to the great camp.’

Pavo’s ears pricked up. The magister militum’s words were like an elixir to his fears. Felicia!

But Gallus’ response was at odds with Pavo’s feelings. ‘The XI Claudia have just returned from the jaws of the Persian Shahanshah, and you plan to merge us into some other legion’s standard, sweep our proud history away like-’

‘The XI Claudia will live on, Tribunus,’ Traianus chuckled with a contented look on his face. The man was clearly encouraged by Gallus’ fiery response. ‘At the Great Northern Camp, you will find three new cohorts awaiting you. Your ranks will be what they once were.’

Gallus offered no response, and Pavo saw a look of near-disbelief on the tribunus’ face. The XI Claudia had been in tatters for years, losing men on the battlefield as fast as it could recruit replacements, always well below its on-paper strength of some seventeen hundred men. Now it seemed that the guttering flame was to be rekindled in full.

‘ Magister Equitum Saturninus commands the Great Camp, and he will furnish you with your new men and further orders.’ Traianus then stretched the bronze hand out to the empire’s eastern desert borders. There, a cluster of wooden figures stood. These figures were legionaries too, but taller and broader than those in Thracia. And in their centre was a fine, plumed rider. Traianus hooked them across the map, bringing them to the Diocese of Thracia. ‘As you know, Emperor Valens is already gathering his Praesental Army in the east. Some thirty thousand men. . yet he will not be able to bring them to these lands until spring at the earliest.’

Pavo nodded along with the others. He recalled Valens telling them just this before they set sail from Antioch. Keep the mountain passes secure until I arrive, then we will rid Thracia of the Gothic blight.

But when Traianus swept the cane out again, this time to the west, Pavo frowned. There, far beyond Pannonia and the upper stretches of the Danubius, a thick blue line snaked south to north. The River Rhenus. Stationed along this great waterway was another cluster of the broad, tall legionary pieces and another plumed figure on horseback. Traianus gathered these with the bronze hand and swept them towards Thracia, following the banks of the Rhenus, then the Danubius, then down through the passes that snaked through the Dioceses of Pannonia and Dacia. ‘What you might not know is that Emperor Valens has called upon his western counterpart. Emperor Gratian will bring his Praesental Army to Thracia also.’

Pavo gawped at the two model armies, trying to imagine what such a force might look like. Sixty thousand men. The Praesental Armies of East and West were the core of the empire’s finest soldiers. Many legions of comitatenses , elite auxilia palatinae infantry and scholae palatinae cavalry, specialist troops and siege engineers. Together, they could surely end the strife in Thracia, maybe even recover the northern chunk of the diocese — the lost province of Moesia between the Haemus Mountains and the River Danubius, including Durostorum and the XI Claudia fort.

He glanced across to Gallus, expecting to see at least a glimmer of enthusiasm from the iron tribunus. But instead, Gallus’ face was ashen, fixed on the figure of the Western Emperor and his army. Then once, twice and again, Pavo noticed Gallus’ top lip twitch, betraying gritted teeth behind.

Later that day, as the sun was setting, Pavo wandered alone in the quieter streets of the city’s north-eastern wards. They were to set off for the Great Northern Camp in the morning, and he hoped a stroll would tire him enough to enjoy a good sleep. Just a few dozing drunks and enthusiastic traders were to be seen, and the market babble was replaced by cicada chatter, sailing from the gardens, orchards and groves dotted in between the great marble structures of this, the finer quarter of the capital. He bought a small loaf of fresh bread from a baker, then set off again, tearing off and eating pieces of it absently. His thoughts flashed again with the promise of what lay ahead: Felicia and the Great Northern Camp. This stirred a frisson of anxiety and excitement in his belly and when he looked up, he realised he had strolled to the Augusteum — the site of that curious dream that morning. The majestic square was bathed in deep-orange light and deserted, the only sign of life being just the few sentries on the walls of the Imperial Palace area that formed the square’s eastern edge. The light of the setting sun glimmered on the tip of the Milliareum Aureum — the gilded bronze column used as a starting point for measuring distances from the capital. The Hippodrome nearby the square’s western edge was for once free of cheering crowds, with only the sound of the imperial banners rippling gently in the warm breeze from the Golden Horn. Resting in the shade of the magnificent Baths of Zeuxippus by the square’s southern edge was a series of small, stone tables and benches, each with a latrunculi board painted onto its surface. He sat at one of these chewing on his bread, looking out across the square and wondering: all those years ago, the day he had been sold into slavery, had there really been someone watching him so keenly from the shadows? His eyes swept round to the point where the slave-trading platform had been set up that day, right at the centre. Then on to the painted colonnade on the north edge of the square. Just like the dream, pools of shadow lay beside each column. He peered into the deepest shadow, trying to conjure the image from the dream and place it there. An odd chill passed over him as he did so. For a moment, dream and reality became one as he gazed into the blackness, the shadows forming shapes of all those long dead. Tarquitius, Salvian. . Father. Nightmares of Father’s fate had haunted him for years. Was this dream of the shadow-man another that would blight him relentlessly? A sudden pluck overcame him at the thought. He stopped chewing, tossed the last morsel of bread to a sparrow that had been eyeing him, then stood.

‘To Hades with nightmares,’ he affirmed, looking off to the north-western sky and thinking of what lay ahead. ‘Felicia, I’m coming for you.’ Then he glanced once more at his bracelet and shouted aloud so his words echoed: ‘And Dexion; if you are out there, I will find you.’