Total War Rome: Destroy Carthage by David Gibbins

Author:David Gibbins
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw
Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books

11

The messenger who had dismounted from his horse hurried towards them, putting his right hand on his chest in salute. He was a man Fabius knew and trusted, Quintus Appius Probus, an experienced legionary of the old guard who had been made a messenger because he could ride and had been wounded in the leg. ‘I have news from Cauca. The oppidum has fallen.’

Ennius looked at him sharply. ‘Fallen? But my catapults weren’t ready. Without them, they’d never have breached the walls.’

‘They didn’t have to. It was a negotiated capitulation.’

‘Negotiated? Lucius Licinius Lucullus? That’s one for the books.’

‘It wasn’t the general who did the talking. It was the senior tribune on his staff, Sextus Julius Caesar.’

‘Ah,’ Ennius replied. ‘Julia’s brother.’ He turned to Scipio. ‘He’s a linguist, and can speak their language. One of their household slaves in Rome was an old Celtiberian chieftain, a warrior whom Hannibal brought over to his cause when he marched through here with his elephants on the way to Rome. Do you remember him, Scipio? He taught us how to use the Iberian double-edged sword.’

Scipio nodded, and then peered at the man. ‘You look troubled, Quintus Appius. There’s more to tell, isn’t there? You can speak freely. You have my word.’

Quintus cleared his throat. ‘Sextus guaranteed the safety of the people in return for them allowing a Roman garrison to occupy the oppidum. Lucullus himself led them in. But it was a maniple from the new legion, the men Lucullus himself had recruited from the fourth district in Rome, promising them plunder and then press-ganging those who refused to volunteer. I grew up on the edge of that quarter, and I know what they’re like. They make the best legionaries if trained with an iron hand, the worst if not. The only action these men have ever seen is gang warfare in Rome after the chariot races; the only discipline the lashes from the military proctors when they were herded into the ships for Iberia.’

Scipio’s jaw was set grimly. ‘So what happened?’

Lucullus allowed them to plunder the oppidum. But we all know that the Celtiberians have little to offer. They’re shepherds and cattle-herders, not traders. These new recruits have been spoiled by stories of loot from Macedonia, and think every foreign city is heaped high with gold and silver. But when they found nothing in Cauca, Lucullus gave them second best. He is a good enough general to know that men sent to war who have not yet killed will want their bloodlust satiated, and then when they have done so it will occupy their thoughts for days to come, until they want more.’

Scipio stepped back, shutting his eyes for a moment and pinching the top of his nose. ‘Don’t tell me.’

‘All of the male inhabitants. They rounded them up and hacked them to death, and then set fire to the place.’

‘Jupiter above,’ Ennius muttered.

Scipio took a deep breath, and gritted his teeth. ‘How long ago?’

‘Six hours. I came as fast as I could. I am to warn you that Lucullus is on his way here, and his men will expect more of the same.

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