The Sword of Jupiter (Imperium #1) - Chapter 35

Instead of staying in the palace, Ky relocated to the Seventh Legion’s camp, since they were the closest to where the Picts were being set up. Before settling down for the night, he made a ride through the Pict camps, to check on the conditions. Despite protests from both his lictores and Velius, Ky only took his three guards currently on duty.

While he had put them between two legions to keep an eye on the Picts, just in case, he didn’t want them to feel like prisoners either since one of the keys to bringing them to Devnum to train was to build a working relationship between them and the Romans. He and his men and been in and out of the Picts as they traveled south, which Ky hoped would breed enough familiarity that they wouldn’t take it as some kind of prison guard looking over them.

Velius’s men did a good job and most of the camp was set up and ready to go, following the regulations Ky had given them for sanitation, with latrines separated from the rest of the camp and any water sources and tents in organized rows. Ky could see several wagons of grain and other foodstuffs moving into the camp, as well. The Picts themselves were well behaved, with mostly women lining up to get their allotment.

The one thing Ky hadn’t expected to see was Roman merchants setting up just outside the camps as they had with the other legions, considering the prejudices that most Romans would have for the Picts. There were fewer of them than with the Roman legions, but there were some and Ky imagined once the Pict civilians started working and bringing in additional earnings that they could spend, there would be more.

Seeing them gave Ky hope and an idea. Although the Romans had a real grievance with the Picts, because of border clashes and raids, those were mostly farmers and traders near the border. The people of Devnum had never experienced that and most would have had no contact with a Pict before now. The biggest driver of their prejudice was just unfamiliarity, seeing them not as people but as just something foreign.

While the Picts would probably see the money as the biggest benefit they could get from their dependents getting wage work, Ky had a feeling their creating regular contact between Picts and Romans would be of bigger value long term. Familiarity would help get rid of a lot of the prejudice that the Romans had. There’d be hardcore holdouts, but the ones who had daily contact would quickly grow used to them. Ky sent a messenger back to town to request Hortensius met him at the Seventh Legion's camp when he was finished here.

Ky finished his tour, occasionally having a word with a warrior here or there that he had met on the journey, before stopping at the tent Llassar had set up in. It was the same as the rest of the Picts, which said something about the man. Roman commanders tended to travel in style and always set up in such a way as to remind all of their men that they were still in charge. It would be unthinkable for a Roman legate commanding an equal number of men to live among them in the same condition.

The only real tell that a commander was living here were the messengers gathered outside, waiting to be sent on this or that errand.

Ky slid off his horse as Llassar came outside.

“Are your people settling in well?”

“Yes,” Llassar said, in his usual laconic fashion.

“Is there anything your men need?”

“They want to know when they will be allowed to go into the forests and hunt.”

“I’m not sure that’s a good idea. It isn’t that I don’t trust your people, but the warriors will need to begin training with their Roman counterparts so we can work effectively together. We can have more food brought in, if there’s not enough.”

“There is enough, but most of the men do not want to live off of Roman charity.”

“I see,” Ky said.

It made sense. Picts were used to a harder lifestyle and in the north, owing someone else was much more serious than it was in Rome.

“The food being brought in now is only for the first few days, as we get organized. Your men will be paid the same as the Romans and we will try and get those payments started soon so they can buy their own food off the merchants setting up outside your camps. Beyond that, I am working on getting wage work set up in town for any of their dependents that want to help bring in money for their families. Within a week or two we should be able to cut off the supply drops and the men should be able to pay their own way.”

“On the back of Roman coin.”

“Yes, but we’ll be here until the ground thaws and the death worshipers start moving. With this many people, around a city of even more people, I’m not sure how practical living off the land will be. We are paying your men the exact same as we pay a Roman soldier and asking them to live under the same conditions. Except for these first few days while things get settled, we are not offering anything for your men except equality with their Roman counterparts.”

Llassar was quiet for a moment and then nodded in reply.

“I think it would be helpful if you could convince as many of the civilians as possible to take the work we’re finding in town. Besides the money, which I’m sure your people will find useful, I think their intermingling with Roman civilians will make these experiences easier on both them and your people.”

“I will speak with them. Are the Roman soldiers allowed to go into the town or do they only deal with the merchants that will come to them?”

Ky had hoped to keep the Pict warriors at least separated for a while, since he could think of several nightmare scenarios of men going into the city, drinking, or getting into arguments, and the consequences that would come from either scenario. Familiarity might be the best way to lessen tensions between the Picts and Romans, but if that familiarity involved people getting hurt or killed, it would backfire on them. On the other hand, he had just finished saying he was offering equality with their Roman equals.

“Yes, a handful are given passes to go to town for the day, although they’re required to return to camp that evening. I think we should wait a few days before offering the same thing to your men. You understand that they will be required to follow Roman rules and customs while you’re in Roman lands, and will be subject to Roman laws and punishment.”

“Yes.”

While he appreciated Llassar always going right to the point, he sometimes wished the man would use a few more words when discussing a topic.

“You also understand that it is unlikely many Romans will speak the Pict language? If men who don’t speak Latin go into town, then they might find communicating difficult.”

“Yes.”

“Fine. On average a Roman legion gives out fifty passes a day. Once your men start receiving pay, you can do the same and allow fifty of your men to go into town for whatever they need, as long as it doesn’t interfere with training. This wouldn’t include women or dependents or finding work, of course.”

“Alright,” Llassar said.

“I’ll be staying with the Seventh Legion for now. If you need anything, please send a messenger to me and we’ll get it sorted.”

“Fine. Goodbye,” Llassar said, going back into his tent with that terse farewell.

Ky repressed a sigh and remounted, heading back to the Seventh Legion. He was going to have to let the city guard know about the Picts and make sure everyone was on their best behavior and, if a Pict did get out of line, that they worked to keep the situation from escalating out of control. The whole situation was a powder-keg waiting to explode, but as with everything else recently, he had little choice.

“Consul,” Hortensius said when Ky walked into his tent.

Ky was a little surprised. The man who had become the de facto head of Rome’s industrial efforts had a lot to do and Ky hadn’t expected him to drop everything and come to him right away, although he might not have made that clear to his lictores, who sometimes were a little more zealous in carrying out orders than was necessary.

“I’m sorry if we interrupted you from anything,” Ky said. “I was hoping to talk to you today, but I wasn’t expecting you to drop everything and come right away.”

“It isn’t a problem, Consul. Most of what I do is supervise my various foreman and managers and if I did a good job in hiring the right men, then that shouldn’t leave me with a lot of work.”

“Well then hopefully you did a good job hiring the right men. I wanted to talk to you about the need for wage laborers now that slaves are being freed, or at least leaving to join the legions. How are we doing on labor?”

“Not well. I’m sure you’re aware of how much of our industry was driven by slave labor, which is why you had so much pushback on the package of laws you passed. We’ve begun hiring on the backs of the new government contracts, but there is a lot of demand for labor at the moment.”

“I might have a fix for you, then. We unexpectedly ended up with a lot of dependents when the Picts agreed to send warriors back with us to join the war effort. They’re willing to work and don’t want to be reliant on the Emperor’s charity for food and supplies, and that many people left at loose ends can become a problem if they have nothing to do. I’m hoping they might be a solution to your labor problem.”

“Maybe. I’m guessing many do not speak Latin?”

“You’d be correct. They will, in at large, be willing to learn.”

“I’m also guessing they are overwhelmingly female?”

“Yes. I’m not sure how that’s a concern.”

“There are some industries where we will have issues bringing in female workers, such as in the forges. Some of the owners will take whatever they can get, but there is a general belief that women cannot do that type of work. Other employment, like with carpenters, goods transportation, and fabric manufacturing will take them more easily. Come spring, we will need most of them to help with planting, but for now, the manpower we need is more physical than time-consuming.”

“If they really need manpower, I’m sure they’ll figure out a way to make it work.”

“Probably. I’m assuming you want these people employed as quickly as possible?”

“You’d assume correctly.”

“Then I should return to Devnum now and see what I can do.”

“Thank you, Hortensius. I know we’ve been asking a lot of you since I arrived, and while I can’t promise those requests will lessen, I can tell you that both the Emperor and I are aware of how hard you are working for the Empire.”

“It’s my pleasure, Consul,” he said, bowing before turning and leaving the tent.

Ky watched him leave, mentally checking off one box of his ever-growing list of things to do. Tensions were still high in Devnum since his return and he knew that Silo and his people were out there trying to make them worse. He only hoped he was right and once Romans started having regular contact with the Picts, some of that tension would drop off.

***

“This has gone too far,” the hooded man said. “You told me you could block him! Now, not only has he outlawed our biggest source of labor, but he’s just marched down with five thousand fucking barbarians.”

A group of ten men huddled in a small villa on the outskirts of Devnum, the lights low more out of paranoia than any actual security. This was their biggest gathering yet and every one of the men present was on edge. They knew that Ramirez had heard about their meetings and his agents were out looking for them, and if the truth of what they were doing came out, no level of status would shield them from the Emperor’s retribution.

“You should be very careful,” Silo said. “If word got out about all of your pathetic attempts on our new Consul’s life, yours would become very short. The Emperor hasn’t held onto control this long because he and his advisors are idiots.”

“Can you block this new alliance?” The hooded man asked.

“No. This is new and nothing our laws even considered, let alone lay down rules on how to handle it. The Emperor has made the agreement by himself and is working out the details now. Unless there is an uprising, this will happen, and once the borders are open and his new barbarian friends start crossing the border, we might never get control back.

“The odds are not good for us,” Eborius said. “The men of the First and Second Legions are ready, but we were already outnumbered before the Emperor started arming prisoners and slaves and a legion’s worth of Picts arrived. Even with Pius, we don’t have enough men to defeat the other legions, if they decide to stay loyal.”

“None of the other legates will support you?”

“No. Velius and Aelius are in the Consul’s pocket and he raised an optio to legate and gave that fool Auspex command after Catilina’s death.”

“What about the legion on the border?” Silo asked. “Are they reliable?”

“Vibius is young and allowed the barbarians to cross the border, even giving a century to help with the march. I wouldn’t count on them,” Eborius said.

“It doesn’t matter, we don’t need to defeat them in battle,” the hooded man said. “We just need to show the mob that it’s possible to stand up to the Emperor. They are as furious at the new laws and barbarians as the rest of us. Once we begin, they’ll join your men in the streets. The Consul is weak. He’ll hesitate before sending men in to put down civilians. By then the Emperor and his lackeys will be dead and Rome will be ours.”

“We tried to get a mob to block the forum and keep the vote on the new laws from happening,” one of the lesser senators said. “We weren’t able to get more than a handful of men and most of the people didn’t care about the slaves being taken away. They were more concerned about the rumors of new work in the factories and mills, and seemed to support the Consul.”

“Silo, don’t let this toad speak again,” the hooded man said. “Of course the mob doesn’t care about slaves. Even an idiot should have realized that. Barbarians walking through the markets, shoulder to shoulder with their wives and children is another matter, however. I know the people and I’m telling you that they will stand with us.”

“If they don’t?” Eborius asked. “I’m not questioning your judgment, but as a commander, I must take into account all possibilities, no matter how little the chance that they happen is.”

“It doesn’t matter,” the hooded man said. “Just make sure the Emperor and his senators die and nothing else matters. Once he’s gone, we can get rid of his Consul and begin putting things back the way they should be.”

“Will the guards that Ramirez added to the palace be an issue?” Silo asked.

“No. There aren’t enough to stop my men. The only thing that could be of concern is the Consul himself. We have heard whispers from his barbarians of his attack on their village, and that no weapon could touch him. If he is in the palace, he could cause enough of a problem to keep us from reaching the Emperor,” Eborius said.

“I might be able to do something about that,” the hooded man said. “I can create enough of a diversion to keep him out of the city for a night, but it has to happen soon, before his barbarians can start getting settled.”

“Then do it. Unless we hear from you, we will march tomorrow night.”

“May the gods smile down on us,” Silo said, with each man bowing his heads in silent prayers to the gods.