Colleen McCullough - 5. Caesar

"I see no reason why the Aedui should acknowledge an Arvernian as high king and commander-in-chief!" Litaviccus declared to the thanes assembled in Bibracte. "If the Aedui wish to belong to the new and independent nation of Gaul, they must bow to the will of the majority," said Cathbad from the dais he shared with Vercingetorix. That had started the Aeduan discontent. When the Aeduan nobles came into their own council hall, they discovered that two men only were to preside in state and that neither man was an Aeduan. To have to argue from the floor of the chamber looking up at an Arvernian was intolerable! Too huge an insult to suffer! "And on whose say-so does the majority want Vercingetorix?" Litaviccus demanded. "Has there been an election? If there has, the Aedui weren't invited! All we know is that Cathbad insisted a small group of thanes none of whom were Aedui! should bend the left knee to Vercingetorix as their king! We haven't! And nor will we!" "Litaviccus, Litaviccus!" cried Cathbad, rising to his feet. "If we are to win if we are to strike out as one united nation someone has to be king of it until the wars to secure our autonomy are over! Then we'll have the leisure to sit down in a full council of all the peoples and determine the permanent structure our government should own. The Tuatha elected Vercingetorix to hold our peoples together in the meantime." "Oh, I see! So it happened at Carnutum, did it?" sneered Cotus, getting up. "A Druid plot to elevate one of our traditional enemies to the high throne!" "There was no plot, there is no plot," said Cathbad patiently. "What every Aeduan present here today must remember is that it was not an Aeduan who offered himself to the peoples of Gaul. It was not an Aeduan who inspired this convulsion of resistance which is making Caesar's life such a misery. It was not an Aeduan who went among the peoples of Gaul to drum up support. It was an Arvernian. It was Vercingetorix!" "Without the Aedui, your united Gaul doesn't stand a chance," Convictolavus said, ranging himself alongside Litaviccus and Corus. "Without the Aedui, there would have been no victory at Gergovia." "And without the Aedui," said Litaviccus, drawing himself up proudly, "your so-called united Gaul is as hollow as a wicker man! Without the Aedui, you can't succeed! All we have to do to bring you down is apologize to Caesar and go back to work for the Romans. Give them food, give them cavalry, give them infantry, give them information. Especially give them information!" Vercingetorix got up and walked to the edge of the dais on which until this day no men save Aedui had presided. Or (which the Aedui chose not to remember) Caesar. "No one is denying the importance of the Aedui," he said in ringing tones. "No one wants to diminish the Aedui, least of all I. But I am the King of Gaul! There can be no getting around that, nor any possibility that the rest of the peoples of Gaul would be willing to replace me with one of you. You have great ambitions, Litaviccus. You have proven immensely valuable to our cause. I am the last man here to deny that. But it is not your face the peoples of Gaul see beneath a crown. For I will wear a crown, not a white ribbon like those who rule in the East!" Cathbad came to stand beside him. "The answer is simple," he said. "Every people in free Gaul is represented here today except for the Remi, the Lingones and the Treveri. The Treveri send their apologies and their good wishes. They can't leave their lands because the Germans are raiding constantly for horses. As for the Remi and the Lingones, they're Rome's creatures. Their doom will come. So we will take the vote. Not to choose a king! There is only one candidate, Vercingetorix. The vote will be a simple yes or no. Is Vercingetorix the King of Gaul, or is he not?" The vote was overwhelming. Only the Aedui voted no. And there on the dais after the vote was taken, Cathbad took an object from under a white veil adorned with mistletoe: a jeweled golden helmet with a jeweled golden wing on either side. Vercingetorix knelt, Cathbad crowned him. When the thanes went down on their left knees, the Aedui capitulated and knelt too. "We can wait," whispered Litaviccus to Cotus. "Let him be the sacrificial victim! If he can use us, we can use him." Of these undercurrents Vercingetorix was well aware, but chose to ignore them. Once Gaul was rid of Rome and Caesar, he could devote his energies to defending his right to wear a crown. "Each people will send ten hostages of highest rank to be held in Gergovia," said the King of Gaul, who had talked this over with Cathbad before the meeting. Evidence of mistrust, said Cathbad. Evidence of prudence, said Vercingetorix. "It is not my intention to increase the size of my infantry army before the muster in Carnutum, for I am not about to pit our strength against Caesar's army in pitched battle. But I am calling for fifteen thousand extra horse warriors to be provided at once. Such is my command as your king. With these and the cavalry I already have, I will prevent the Romans from foraging at all." His voice swelled. "Further than that, I require a sacrifice. I command that every people anywhere in Caesar's line of march must destroy their villages, their barns, their silos. Those of us who have been in this business from the beginning have already done that. But I now command it of the Aedui, the Mandubii, the Ambarri, the Sequani and the Segusiavi. My other peoples " "Do you hear that? I command!' 'My other peoples!' " growled Litaviccus. " will feed and shelter those who must suffer in order to make the Romans suffer. It is the only way. Valor on the field is not enough. We do not fight cowards, we do not fight mythical Scandian berserkers, we not fight simpletons. Our enemy is great, brave, clever. So we must fight with every weapon in our arsenal. We must be greater, braver, cleverer. We scorch our hallowed earth, we dig our crops under, we burn anything which might aid Caesar's army or let it eat. The price is well worth it, fellow Gauls. The price is liberty, true independence, our own nation! Free men in a free country!" "Free men in a free country!" howled the thanes, pounding their feet on the hollow wooden floor until it roared; then the feet fell into a rhythm and pounded the martial roll of a thousand drums while Vercingetorix, crown blazing, stared down at them. "Litaviccus, I command you to send ten thousand Aeduan infantry and eight hundred Aeduan horsemen to the lands of the Allobroges. Make war on them until they join us," said the King. "Do you require me to lead them in person?" Vercingetorix smiled. "My dear Litaviccus, you're far too valuable to waste on the Allobroges," he said gently. "One of your brothers will do." The King of Gaul raised his voice. "I have learned," he shouted, "that the Romans have commenced their march out of our lands and into the Province! The tide which began to turn with our victory at Gergovia is flooding in!"

Caesar's army was together again, though the Fifteenth Legion was no more; its men, seasoned now, were slipped into the other ten to plump them out, particularly among the more than decimated Eighth. With Labienus, Trebonius, Quintus Cicero, Fabius, Sextius, Hirtius, Decimus Brutus, Mark Antony and several other legates, it marched with everything it owned eastward from Agedincum into the lands of the ever-loyal Lingones. "What a nice, fat bait we must look," said Caesar to Trebonius with satisfaction. "Ten legions, six thousand horse, all the baggage." "Of which horse, two thousand are Germans," said Trebonius, grinning and turning to look at Labienus. "What do you think of our new German cavalry, Titus?" "Worth every sestertius paid to mount them," said Labienus, grunting in content. The horse's teeth bared. "Though I imagine, Caesar, that your name isn't being uttered with love among our seriously offended military tribunes!" Caesar laughed, raised his brows. Sixteen hundred Germans had been waiting at Agedincum, and Trebonius had striven mightily to exchange their nags for Remi steeds. Not that the Remi held back. They were charging such an inflated price for their horses that they were prepared to give up every beast they had save the breeding stock. Simply, the Remi didn't have quite enough reserves. When Caesar arrived, he solved the shortfall by compelling all his military tribunes to give up their high-stepping Italian beauties in exchange for German nags, Public Horses or no. The shriek of anguish could be heard for miles, but Caesar was unmoved. "You can do your jobs from the backs of nags just as well as you can on Pegasus," he said. "Needs must, so tacete, ineptes!" The Roman snake, fifteen miles long, scales glittering, wound its way eastward with two thousand German and four thousand Remi horsemen fussing about its sides.