Джерейнт Джонс - Siege

The fort then held out for several weeks, and in this time a number of frustrated tribes began to leave the battlefield. Arminius decided that starving the garrison was now his best course, and to this end he left a force between Aliso and the Rhine to block the Romans’ way to safety, while he himself left the site to shore up support for his war against Rome.

Aliso’s commander Caedicius did not expect that a rescue would come from across the Rhine, or that the garrison would survive winter, and so the prefect planned to break out of the siege. Following reconnaissance by his scouts – who made note of the German dispositions and routines – the Romans waited for their chance to slip away. This eventually came under the cover of a heavy storm. According to Dio, the fort’s occupants succeeded in making it past the enemy’s first and second outposts before they were discovered by the tribesmen. As I have written it, this detection was supposedly caused by the panicked shouting of civilians as they failed to keep up with the vanguard. Dio says that, surrounded and attacked on all sides, Prefect Caedicius ordered that the civilians should abandon their possessions. When they did so, the Germans became distracted enough by this loot that the Roman force was able to cut its way clear. Dio goes on to say that the garrison in the fort of Vetera – modern day Xanten – learned of what was happening to the east, and sent units across the Rhine to see Aliso’s refugees safely home.

Personally, I believe that there must have been some early co-ordination in this. The flight from Aliso took place at night and under heavy storm, and so I have to think that the soldiers on the Rhine would have been at least warned of such a breakout attempt, and stood ready to support it. Given the conditions, and that it took place on the opposite side of the Rhine by some miles, it’s hard to think that the garrison at Vetera only became aware of the breakout by chance.

On the subject of distances from the Rhine, there is some debate as to the exact location of Aliso, but Haltern looks like a good bet. For the purposes of this book, I didn’t see anything to be gained by nailing my colours to the wall as far as an exact site went. I write stories rather than lessons, and so in this book I have simplified when it suited, exaggerated when it suited, and flat out invented when it suited – there’s nothing in the classical texts about murders in the Fort of Aliso. That’s all from my deranged little mind, and I implore readers to remember that books like this are fiction , and should not be swallowed whole as historical record. There are plenty of excellent non-fiction works about the Roman Army – too many for me to list, in fact. If you’d like to know more about the ones that I use when writing, please feel free to ask me online.

I’ve used ‘supposedly’ a couple of times in this note, and for what I believe is good reason. We only have a couple of primary sources to draw upon when it comes to the siege of Aliso, and even these tend to be written decades or more after the date of events. If you want to hear an unbiased opinion about military campaigns in 2018, then I don’t think that taking news from a single media outlet is a good idea, and I’m sure that this would have applied a couple of thousand years ago, too. Just because there is a surviving record doesn’t make it fact, or even accurate. I’m sure the capacity to bullshit and twist the truth was as alive then as it is now.

The great thing about writing historical fiction is that you get to interpret what we do have – and fill in the blanks of what we don’t – with your own mind. I’m sure that there are plenty of other minds that would fill them in differently to how I do, but great! That’s what makes things interesting.

Micon, Stumps, Titus, and the rest of Felix’s cronies are all fictional characters, but each are rooted in the personalities of soldiers that I was privileged to serve and fight alongside. Nothing gives me more pleasure than to talk with veterans, or to read the accounts that they have left behind, and I am convinced that the spirit and the nature of ‘the soldier’ transcends time. Regardless of the uniform, regardless of the weapons, there is a commonality to the men and women that bear arms and kill.

And killing is something that Felix wished he had seen an end of, but with Arminius and his army undefeated, and with the vengeful legion that he deserted marching towards him, there’s still a lot more blood to shed.

Thanks to Rowland White, Jillian Taylor, Sharan Matharu, the Michael Joseph team at large, and to everyone at Penguin who made Siege possible; from drawing up contracts to distributing copies, there are so many people involved in the process and I’m grateful to every single one of you.

Bear hugs to my agents Rowan, Rory, and to the extended family at Furniss Lawton. Lots of love to my flesh and blood in Wales. I wouldn’t be able to do what I do without the help of all of you, and I rather like what I’m doing, so cheers!

Finally, thank you to all of the historians and archaeologists out there. Any book like this would be impossible without you.

Geraint Jones deployed as an infantry soldier on three tours of duty to Iraq and Afghanistan. For his actions in Basra, Geraint was awarded the General Officer Commanding’s Commendation. Upon leaving the military, Geraint worked to protect commercial shipping against Somali and Nigerian based piracy. He now writes full-time and can be found across social media @grjbooks.

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PENGUIN BOOKS

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First published 2018

Copyright © Geraint Jones, 2018

The moral right of the author has been asserted

Cover photo © Stephen Mulcahey/Trevillion Images

ISBN: 978-1-405-93162-5