Jack Whyte - The Skystone

"Forfeit!" Gaius Gallus's shocked tone reflected the astonishment of everyone there. "You mean you're bankrupt? Cleaned out?" It was Terra who responded. "No, far from it. But we are out of business. " He cleared his throat and then continued. "We've been losing a lot of shipping to pirates, recently. Too much. "

"How much?" This was Varo again.

"Seven ships in the last two months. "

"Seven?"

"Seven. One ship, one crew and one cargo every eight days, and it grows worse all the time. One of those ships was a quadrireme. The others were four triremes and two biremes — big ships, big cargoes, big losses. "

"By the Christ!" Varo was outraged. "Nobody can sustain losses like that! Where was the navy?"

"Where it always is — at sea. " The sigh that followed this was short and frustrated. "It's not the navy's fault, Quintus. They can't do a damn thing. They're powerless. Too few ships, too much sea and too many pirates. " He paused and looked at each of us individually. "Tell them, Firma. " His brother stood up and moved closer to the fire, holding his hands out to the heat and speaking down into the heart of the fire.

"It's no exaggeration. There is not a single safe route for shipping left anywhere in the world. Not one. It's not general knowledge, of course, because the ports are still full of vessels loading and unloading. Hundreds of ships are getting through safely. But there are hundreds more being taken, and every one of them is owned by merchants like us who can no longer afford the risks. The money-lenders and the bankers have closed their coffers and are concentrating only on collecting bad debts. Even the Seneca family have closed down their maritime operations, and they were our bankers, world-wide. "

I felt the hair on my neck prickle at the mention of the Seneca name and glanced at Caius, but he had other things on his mind.

"So, " Terra continued, "we are out of the marine mercantile business, as are most of our major competitors. " He sat down again and his brother took up his point, almost without pause.

"In other words, my friends, the Empire is out of the trading business, and you know what that means. "

Plautus, who had sat still during all of this, was blinking in perplexity, a worried frown bisecting his forehead. "I don't know, " he said. "What does that mean?"

Firma looked him straight in the eye. "It means dissolution, my friend — gradual, at first, but definite, progressive disintegration. Break-up. The end. "

Poor Plautus was baffled. "The end of what, in the name of God?" Firma snorted with disgust. "Of everything! The end of the chain of supply that keeps the Roman Mob fed and clothed. The end of the web of commerce that keeps the Empire from collapsing. The end of the status quo. The end of Rome's dominion. Shall I go on? Caius, here, has been prophesying it for years, and we have all been laughing at him and calling him an alarmist. "

"But what about the government?" This voice belonged to Quintus Varo. "Can't they do anything to help you?"

Terra's raised, sardonic eyebrow was eloquent. "Ah, yes, of course. The government. They have a lot to say about helping us. For one thing, they are graciously allowing us to remain operative — fully operational and fully liable — in spite of the fact that we choose to opt out. The government has ordered us to continue trading, to continue losing all our investments, and threatens us with seizure and confiscation of all our property if we refuse to obey. " Shocked silence greeted this remark.

"About a week before we left to come here, " he continued, "we received advance notice from a trusted friend that a military detachment was on its way to visit us, 'to help us protect our interests. ' We tidied up our affairs as well as we could in a week, collected our collectable assets —

again, as many as we could assemble — cleaned out our vaults, signed a voluntary legal transfer of our fleet to the imperial government and left town before the military arrived. " He eyed us all again. "Everything we could not realize and carry with us has been forfeited as penalty for our crime of non-performance. We are outlaws now — proscribed fugitives. Does that answer your question, Quintus?"

"By God's wounds, this is infernal!" Varo was on his feet, glowering around him, his eye finally settling on Tonius, the only military officer present. "Is this true, Cicero?"

"Don't breathe fire at Tonius, Varo, " Terra said. "We are not even from his district. "

Tonius got up and went to pick out a new log to throw on the fire before he answered Varo's question.

"Let's say it doesn't surprise me, Quintus. I suppose it had to come to this, or something like it, although I hadn't seen it before now. " He looked around at all of us. "They feel they have to blame somebody, so they're blaming the merchants for the breakdown, on the sea, at least. But it's not only the sea routes that are closed. Land caravans are almost an extinct phenomenon. Time was when we could dispatch a maniple to escort a major caravan and protect it. Now it takes an army. And even then there are no guarantees. "

Gaius Gallus spoke up. "It's true. It's affecting everyone. I have three warehouses filled to the roofs with tiles. They've been waiting for shipment for almost six months. To Gaul. Straight across the narrows. There are no ships available, or willing, to take them. Tiles! Clay roofing tiles. " Poor Varo was almost spluttering in his hopeless efforts to comprehend what was being said here. "But... but... what does it all mean? You mean... you mean the government's impotent? That it's victimizing innocent merchants, making scapegoats out of them, and there's nothing anyone can do? What about the army?" He was looking in bewilderment from me to Tonius and back to me. "Why doesn't the army do something? They've done it before. Elect a new Emperor and form a new government! Why not?"

Gaius Gallus shook his head. "It's no good, Varo. That won't work. It's too late. No new government could undo the damage done already. Even the idea that an army can elect an emperor is an admission of the futility of the whole thing." He pointed a thumb towards Caius. "Ask Britannicus."

All eyes switched to Caius, who sighed deeply as though suddenly feeling the weight of his age. "What do you want me to tell you, Quintus?" he asked. "That they are wrong? That all is right with the Empire and the world? You want me to change my opinion after all the years you've known me?" He shook his head. "No, my friend. They are right. They are right. The signs are all around us, everywhere, world-wide. I had no idea until now that they were so bad, so strong, so final. But I've seen it coming — we all have, from time to time, if we will but admit it. Rome has finally starved the whole world into rebellion. And it is happening today. "

"But not here in Britain, " said Plautus.

"No, Plautus. Not here in Britain. But Britain stands alone in that. "

"Britain will always stand alone!" This was Tonius Cicero, and Caius took him up on his comment.

"How so, Tonius?"

"Because Britain is an island — surrounded by water — defensible. "

"Against whom?"

"Against all comers!" There was anger in Cicero's voice.

"Even Romans?" Caius was gently mocking.

"Even Romans!" Angry still, but now he looked uncomfortable.

"That's treasonous talk, my friend. It could get you killed. " Cicero's face was flushed. "This whole conversation is treasonous, Caius. According to those maggots in Rome and in Londinium, Terra and Firma commit treason by refusing to bankrupt themselves throwing good money after bad. By refusing to destroy themselves to provide an illusion of normality for faceless thieves who live in terror of the Mob, the Mob that wants everything for nothing. Why do you people think the Emperor and his Court live in Constantinople? They decided long ago that they wanted nothing to do with Rome and her sweaty, evil-tempered, vile-smelling citizenry. Think about that!" He glowered at the faces that watched him, as if defying any of us to disagree with him. "According to the maggots, none of us around this fire has any right to life. We exist for their benefit. And at their pleasure. Faugh! It makes me want to spew to think that SPQR, the symbol of the Senate and the People of Rome, was once the greatest symbol of freedom and the rights of free men in history! The people in Rome are a herd of murderous, carnivorous cattle, and the Senate is a eunuch! If it be treason to refuse to sacrifice everything we hold noble to the gluttonous maw of the Roman Mob, then I am a traitor!" At the end of this outburst there was another period of silence. Tonius had risen to his feet, and now he subsided into his seat, his face flushed, angry and defiant.