The Sword and the Throne by Henry Venmore-Rowland

Author:Henry Venmore-Rowland
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781788632515
Publisher: Canelo Digital Publishing Ltd
Published: 2018-09-30T16:00:00+00:00

XIV

That was the only conclusion I could reach as we beat a hasty and bloody retreat back to Cremona, with the praetorians following us nearly all the way. Thank the gods we had destroyed most of the enemy cavalry, or the retreat could have turned into a rout. Why had Agricola betrayed me?

I thought back to our conversation that moonlit night by the old ferry. He had seemed strangely nervous, but then I had put that down to his being shaken after finding himself surrounded by dozens of suspicious soldiers. The news that his wife Domitia did not approve of my son as a suitor was also a shock, but I could understand. Did my boyhood friend think the same way, or was I just being paranoid, blaming the defeat on anyone but myself? After all, my feint had worked, drawing in and obliterating the enemy cavalry, and Otho was certainly impetuous enough to throw his whole army in to repulse an ambush.

But it was the fact that the cavalry had stopped by the altar that convinced me my friend had sided with his emperor rather than his friend; or, as Agricola might have seen it, I realized, with the legitimate emperor rather than a gluttonous rebel. I had described the place to him to the last detail, explaining that my cavalry would withdraw beyond the grove and then my infantry would pounce. Agricola must have informed the cavalry commander about the altar and told him to go no further. The stationary cavalry had lured in me and my infantry, so both the cavalries had taken turns at being bait. I had hoped to destroy their cavalry and any other troops Otho was foolish enough to send my way; but my old general, my closest friend and the emperor I despised had conspired together to turn the ambushers into the ambushed, using the praetorians as a distraction while the rest of their army crept up under the cover of the high wheat fields.

‘I thought he was your friend,’ Publilius said.

Cerberus spat. ‘Some friend.’

‘He was my friend… I mean he is my friend,’ I said.

‘Then why would he betray you?’ Cerberus replied.

‘I don’t know. Otho’s pirates had killed his mother, I thought that was surely enough reason for Agricola to want to help us.’

‘But he’s a praetor, a leading member of the Senate. He’s one of the establishment that stood by and did nothing when Galba was murdered. I reckon Otho bought your friend’s loyalty, then he used your friendship against you,’ Cerberus opined.

‘He wouldn’t do that to me! Julius Agricola wouldn’t sell his loyalty to anyone.’

‘He just did.’

‘Maybe Otho has his family hostage in Rome,’ Publilius suggested. ‘That’s as good a way as any to make sure the men on your own side stay loyal.’

‘Maybe,’ I conceded sullenly. But I knew in my heart of hearts that Agricola was old-fashioned enough to side with Otho simply because he was emperor, even if he had murdered his way on to the throne.

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