R. Peake - Marching With Caesar - Conquest of Gaul

This flummoxed Atilius for a moment, then he shrugged and retorted, “I don’t know, but it doesn’t matter. It’s still a myth.”

We mercilessly hooted at this, but Atilius was nothing if he was not stubborn; it was not often that he ventured an idea of his own, so when he did he was not going to let something as trivial as logic get in the way.

“It exists all right, but the reason nobody has ever set foot on it and lived to tell the tale is because of the huge monsters that are between the coast of Gaul and Britannia. If they don’t get you going over, they get you coming back.” Vellusius was no less certain than Atilius, and this idea had the merit of not being overtly ridiculous. We all knew as a matter of course that there are huge monsters that roam the waves, preying on those unfortunate souls who wander too far from the sight of shore. That is why so few who venture far out to sea return.

“That’s all nonsense,” this was Calienus, who had dropped by our tent to chat with his old friends. He still carried a slight limp from the wound he had suffered, but it did not slow him down and if it pained him, he kept it to himself. “There’re no monsters at sea. It’s on the island itself. The men of Britannia are giants, the shortest is more than ten feet tall.”

“And how could you possibly know this?” demanded Vibius, who apparently was none too pleased that the thunder of his announcement was taken over by speculation about the fate that awaited us. The fact was that we absolutely believed him. All of us were convinced that Caesar was intent on going to Britannia, so we had moved onto the next logical subject, and that was what awaited us when we got there.

“From Gisela,” Calienus said seriously.

Gisela was a girl who had joined the camp followers in the last year. She was a Suessiones, and was much different than most of the other women who were part of the contingent of people following the army. Where they were dark, she was extremely fair, with hair the color of copper and freckles sprinkled across her nose, which unlike our proud Roman noses was more snubbed, although for some strange reason it enhanced her beauty rather than detracted from it. She had a wondrous figure, but her most striking feature were her eyes, a green that was almost as rich and deep as the grass that grew in her country. She was a sensation, and could have had her choice of any man in the Legion, Tribunes included, except for some reasons that none of us could understand, she chose to be Calienus’ woman. We regularly cursed his luck.

“She had a kinsman who married a woman from the Menapii tribe, and they do business with the people on the island. He told her, and she told me. She said that he told her that they’re all huge, and they practice a religion that requires them to sacrifice a human being on special days.” That struck us to silence; although we had heard of peoples who practiced such rituals, we had not heard of what he described next. “After the person is sacrificed, every one of the tribe has to eat a piece of the flesh of the person.”

There were exclamations of disgust at that, and I searched Calienus’ face intently for a clue that he was trying to put one over on us, but his face was deadly serious. With that piece of good news, he bade us goodnight to ponder our fates.

Reaching the coast at a point far to the north of Samarobriva, the army took notice that we were the farthest west and north than we had been in the three almost full years of campaigning in Gaul to that point. I mentioned some time ago that our principal observation was that winter comes earlier the farther north you get, though for what reason I cannot say, and now we had the added element of the wind coming off of the ocean. We were told that this spot we were at was the point closest to Britannia, and we waited there a few days as Caesar sent word to find every available transport ship. At the same time he sent one of his Tribunes, Gaius Volusenus, to reconnoiter the coast of Britannia to find a suitable landing area. Caesar’s fame always preceded him wherever he went, and this time was no exception. The camp was abuzz with the news that a ship arrived, carrying emissaries from the tribes that lived on the island, and we all sought excuses to be near the Praetorium when they were presented to Caesar. It should not surprise anyone to know that, with men dropping all pretense of work to come running to examine our guests, there was spirited wagering going on about their appearance. That story of the ten foot tall men was about to be put to the test; surely, men argued, that if there were such specimens of manhood to be found on the island the Britons would send these men as the emissaries to Caesar. There was the usual announcement at the gate that there were visitors on official business, requesting an audience with Caesar, which was promptly granted. The gates swung open, with the men standing on the tips of their toes to be one of the first to glimpse the delegation. After all, there was now money at stake and such is the nature of man that each of us feel we must be the first to know which way the dice falls when we have coin riding on it. The delegation was mounted, if one could call it that, on some of the smallest horses we had ever seen, with great shaggy coats and long unkempt tails. In dress, I could see the similarities between themselves and their Gallic cousins, but that is where the resemblance ended. Meanwhile, the crowd of men alternately let out groans of disappointment or yells of exultation, depending on which way they bet, because they were by all appearances normal-sized men, not a giant in the lot. This racket clearly confused our guests, who peered at us with what looked like mild concern at our behavior. Primus Pilus Favonius started bellowing out orders to disperse, and we quickly returned to our normal duties. What struck me and my friends the most was not so much what they wore in the way of clothes but the way in which they decorated their faces. We would come to know this style very well over the course of the next two seasons, but this was the first time we saw any men who put designs on their face and chests using some sort of blue paint.

The emissaries had gotten wind of Caesar’s intentions, via traders and I suspect spies among the Gallic tribes along the coast who had developed a lucrative partnership with the Britons on the island and did not want to see it disrupted. These Britons offered their obedience to Rome, which Caesar accepted, while in order to assure their good faith, he sent back with them to Britannia a Gaul named Commius. Caesar had selected Commius as king of the Atrebates and considered the man a friend who supposedly carried some influence with the tribes of Britannia. Also working in our favor was the submission of the Morini, the tribe in whose lands we were camped, and who fought us the year before. They were now coming as supplicants begging forgiveness, claiming that they were led astray by the firebrands and hotheads in their tribe. This was a welcome development, since it did not make any of us sleep easier knowing that we were surrounded by a tribe that had been our bitter enemy not so long ago. While these diplomatic events were taking place, the shipping that Caesar needed to accomplish his goal was being assembled, except it was not of sufficient numbers to carry the whole army, in one trip anyway. Five days after he departed, Volusenus’ ship sailed back up the estuary and into the harbor that our camp overlooked, reporting to Caesar that he had found a suitable landing for the Legions that Caesar would bring with him. There was much speculation, and much wagering, on which Legions would be asked to accompany Caesar on this momentous event, and it is fair to say that the 10th considered their inclusion to be as close to certain as possible. This did not make us any more popular with the rest of the army, yet they were forced to accept, however grudgingly, that Caesar trusted us above all others in his army, a fact that we were always quick to point out whenever we had the opportunity. Many a brawl was started in this manner during the winter months.