Marius' Mules XI_Tides of War by S. J. A. Turney

Author:S. J. A. Turney [Turney, S. J. A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Goodreads: 40724899
Publisher: Victrix Books
Published: 2018-07-26T00:00:00+00:00

Pelusium, Aegyptus.

‘Divine daughter of the endless river and queen of the world, your brother’s forces are arrayed in key positions across the delta and in great strength here, here, and particularly here,’ the general said, stabbing the map with his index finger.

The queen leaned back, still seeming languid and sultry even in a hard campaign chair in her office. It showed a certain level of progress to Cleopatra’s mind that at least her functionaries and officers alike had begun to refer to Ptolemy as her brother now, rather than her husband. Months of civil war it had taken to finally change that perception. She would change it further, yet… from brother to corpse.

Months earlier their disagreement had reached critical levels and Ptolemy, maddened child that he was, had gathered troops, preparing to oust his sister/wife/queen from her throne and rule alone. Recognising her relatively poor position in the political and military game, and understanding when it was wiser to retreat and regroup, the queen had fled Thebes before her brother’s army had arrived to ‘deal with her’. Knowing that Aegyptus was largely in his grasp and that it would take careful alliances and wise manoeuvres to gain a foothold, she had taken her court, her small force and a wagon train of enough gold to make Midas sweat and travelled east and north, through Judea, to Syria where the wealth she carried had bought her a sizeable mercenary army.

There, she had received news of the Roman generals’ movements in Macedonia and Illyricum, and had begun to form her plan even from the start. The one thing she knew as they had returned south at the head of her force, was that she still was not militarily strong enough to oppose Ptolemy, especially with his general Achillas at the helm. However, she was confident that she would be powerful enough that the wily Achillas would also be reluctant to launch an all-out attack on her. The dance of war and politics would go on until one of them had the edge.

That edge lay with Rome. She knew it and, even if her brother was too short-sighted and stupid to do so, she knew Achillas knew it too. Ptolemy and his general would be playing a careful game. They were watching what happened between Rome’s two great lions so that they knew who to ingratiate their selves with in order to achieve overall ascendance. Cleopatra, on the other hand, knew that preparation was everything. She had placed her coins on Caesar and, no matter what had happened at Dyrrachium, she was still convinced he was the horse to win this particular race.

She realised suddenly that long moments had passed, and her general was waiting, looking uncomfortable.

‘Have you found him?’

The officer nodded. ‘Then send him in,’ the queen commanded.

The man who entered as the general left offered no deference to the commander, though he bowed with relative respect to the queen. He was of middling height and had sandy coloured, short and neat hair.

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