The Sword of Jupiter (Imperium #1) - Chapter 25

The day was getting late by the time Ky got back. He headed straight to the Emperor’s audience chamber, where they’d arranged for the meeting with the military commanders. Ky had gotten the message back from the Emperor, agreeing to his final notes. With that, he was able to work with the AI while they rode, making the last adjustments to their plan.

The extended back and forth with the Emperor had been the easy part. Now he had to sit down with the military commanders and get everything put into action. As expected, the legionary commanders who’d stormed out of the previous military council didn’t show up. While it was an affront to the Emperor and punishable by dismissal, he and the Emperor had discussed this inevitable development.

They’d agreed to let the matter lie. Like most legions, the majority of their men were loyal to them above the Empire itself. Punishing them would permanently alienate the Legates and possibly push things into outright mutiny. They really needed these trained men and both Ky and the Emperor thought there was still a chance, however slim, to bring them back into the fold.

“I’m sorry for keeping you all so late,” Ky said as he sat down at the right-hand side of the Emperor.

“We all know how busy your schedule has kept you, Consul.”

“Thank you, Emperor. I know some of you already suspect what this meeting is about, but I’ll go ahead and lay it out. We’ve spoken about potential changes to the legions and I’ve given each of you an opportunity to have your say. The Emperor and I have also spent quite some time discussing these changes, and we’ve made the final decisions on what’s going to happen. I’ll have full written reports for each of you tonight with detailed instructions, but I wanted to lay the new changes out for you in person, in case you have questions. These will all go into effect immediately, although we have built-in some lead time for the larger changes.”

“I’m sure we’ll be able to make it work,” Aelius said.

“I’m sure you will,” the Emperor said. “I want to make it clear that everything Ky presents now has my full support and agreement.”

“First is the largest change. As of now, each Legate controlled their assigned legions independently. That worked fine when forces had to fight completely cut off in the far reaches of the Empire, but it has also led to some of the larger military losses Rome has suffered, as well as a few Civil Wars. We don’t need Legates who operate personal fiefdoms all of their own and we don’t want our legions’ quality governed solely by their commander. To that end, we are going to go to a centralized command. We are creating a new position of Prime Legate, who will be in overall command of Rome’s military, under the direct supervision of the Emperor himself. This Legate will control no operational forces. His main task will be the strategic coordination of Rome’s forces, leaving tactical matters to his field commanders. He will be served by a staff that will include men trained by Ramirez in the use of intelligence, men trained in supply and logistics, and men trained in strategic planning. While we already have some men with experience in this area, we will have to teach some of the men we need, enough to fill these positions. I will give you a list of the number of men and positions we need filled for you to recommend applicants under your command. This will be an important job and, if we get the right people, they will make your jobs easier, so it’s important these are the right men. Don’t try getting rid of those you don’t want in your command.”

“We wouldn’t do that,” Velius said.

“While I trust each of you to not do this, it isn’t an unheard-of thing, so I wanted to state it outright. Velius, we will be promoting you to the position of Prime Legate. I know you would prefer to stay in the field and I know some of the rest of you feel you might be better suited for this role, but this is the decision we made. I promise there will be other chances for advancement for each of you.”

“Velius has the most experience of any of us in field command,” Aelius said. “It’s the right choice.”

“Eborius would not agree with that,” Auspex said.

“I know he wouldn’t, and that’s one of the reasons among many why he isn’t being given this position. We need someone who sees the job as working with other commanders, not ruling over them. Velius, we will be promoting Gordianus to Legate and give him your legion.”

“He’s a good man,” Velius said. “He’s up to the job.”

“Good. That gives us three legions, not counting our two missing Legate’s commands, under your command. We’re going to recreate the Fifth Legion and place it under Ursinus's command. We’ve talked about taking men from each of your commands to make the core of the Fifth Legion, and then filling out the differences with slaves who agree to take up arms in exchange for their freedom, and captured men who switch sides. You need to go through each of your cohorts and decide who you’ll be sending over. Remember at some point you’re going to expect Ursinus to protect your flank, so don’t send him only the dregs. We want no more than half of any century to be made up of new men, which will be split evenly between prisoners and slaves. We need a list of these by the end of this week, so we can start having them split off and set up camp with Ursinus's legion and begin training together. Once the new laws pass, we’re going to start getting new men into the ranks right away, so your legions all need to be ready.”

Ky stopped to make sure each of the men understood.

“The next change will be at the legion level. Right now, the Legates use their cohort commanders as their command staff. Those men need to focus on their cohorts. Just like the Prime Legates command, I want each of you to put together a command staff of men who understand tactical strategy, logistics, and intelligence. They will be able to work with their opposites in the Prime Legates staff to put plans into motion and will be where future Prime command staff will pull manpower from. These men will help their Legate put into practice their orders and plan out their assigned missions.”

“Do we really need this much manpower for planning?” Velius asked. “A full-strength legion is usually five-thousand men. Not an overwhelming number for any Legate to control.”

“As we manage to increase manpower, we’ll also be increasing the size of legions, eventually to double that number. Eventually, the prime Legate will give commands to corps commanders, each who controls a set number of legions, each of which is broken into their cohorts, and centuries, and so on. It seems excessive now, when you’re talking about tightly fighting formations who pack shoulder to shoulder to fight, and it is. You will see as we progress and new technologies are added, this structure will make more sense. For now, however, we will have legates report directly to the prime Legate. The additional staff manpower might be more than is needed, but we also need to learn, in practice, how to work with these new structures. It’s better to do that now, when we don’t need it, rather than later, when mistakes are amplified.”

Ky looked to Velius to see if his answer was satisfactory.

“What about the Fourth?” Velius asked.

The Fourth Legion was the one that still manned the wall that marked the northern boundary of Roman territory with that of the Picts. It was led by a Legate named Vibius Sepurcius Ennodius. He was fairly young, although not as young as Auspex. He’d seen his share of fighting but wasn’t of the same group that Eborius and Pius came up through the ranks with. The Emperor thought he’d be loyal to the Empire, but Ky wasn’t willing to bet on that. There’d been too many with a reason to be loyal to the Empire, if only to protect themselves from the coming Carthaginian hordes, who’d instead clung tightly to personal power regardless of the risks.

“The Emperor sent a man up to talk to Vibius, but I plan on making a trip to the north soon. Unless something changes radically in the north, we’ll have to leave at least one legion on the wall to keep from having to fight in two directions. He’ll still fall under the new organizational structure under you, and we’re also planning on changing out a portion of his legionaries with new men as well.”

“And if he isn’t with us?” Aelius asked.

“We’ll deal with that when we come to it.”

That answer didn’t seem to satisfy anyone in the room, least of all Ky himself, but they all recognized that it was how things would have to be for now.

“The next will not directly affect any of you, but I wanted to address it with you now, so that you were all aware of it. Currently, the Praetorian Guard is little more than a personal force to protect the Emperor and the palace grounds and is small enough to regularly need manpower drawn from the city guard. We plan on expanding that. Most of the expansion will be recruits from the city guard, although we will offer some men from the legions the option of switching to the Praetorian in leadership promotions. We will be expanding the guard to be an Empire-wide police force.”

The volume of noise that assaulted Ky from around the room forced him to stop, even though it wasn’t unexpected. The Emperor had been against this idea when Ky had first proposed it and even Ky himself had to admit that there were more than just public relations problems with it. The Emperor held up a hand for silence, which everyone obeyed after enough of a pause to make sure Ky and the Emperor understood they were serious in the decision.

“I understand your concerns,” the Emperor said. “In fact, I share them. When Ky first brought this idea to me, I was against it. I ask that you hear him out first, before you pass judgment.”

“I can tell you whatever complaints you have for this idea, the Emperor beat you to them,” Ky said when all the eyes were back on him. “I understand that none of you would be happy with a para-military force enforcing the Emperor’s personal rule across the Empire, and I will tell you that is not what this is.”

“We all know that the Emperor is a good man and would not use a force like this to tighten his grip on the people,” Aelius said. “My concern is with whoever comes after him. Systems like this outlive the Emperor who creates them, and there’s no guarantee that a future Emperor would be as noble. I don’t want to fight to keep from becoming part of the Carthaginian Hegemony just to become a copy of it all on our own.”

“I agree, which is why this force will not be solely answerable to the Emperor. While the Emperor and his appointed men will administer it, the Senate will have a say over its funding and leadership. We haven’t worked out the exact details yet, but every so many years, the Emperor will be required to get approval from the Senate to continue operating the guard in its new capacity. If they don’t approve, it goes back to its previous size and mandate.”

“Do we really want to give those vipers a say in anything that involves defending the Empire?”

“They already have a say in military budgets,” Ramirez said. “I’ll say I agreed with this when the Emperor mentioned it to me. The Senate is already on the verge of mutiny because of the new laws, this would push them over the edge. The loyalist faction might have the upper hand, but that doesn’t mean they won’t make trouble for us.”

“Isn’t the Senate one of the groups the Praetorians will be keeping an eye on? Is it smart to give those same people a say in their administration?”

“I want to be clear about something,” Ramirez said. “This will not be an organization to spy on anyone, despite what my normal reputation suggests. This is an armed police force, similar to various city guards, but with a wider mandate. While the various city guards do a fine job of keeping the law inside their walls, in between cities things have become less secure. In times past, the legions would patrol the roads between cities, but their numbers have dwindled and they’ve been needed for external threats more than internal ones for a long time now. Robbers and cutthroats have realized this, and things are getting out of control.”

“Which is our way in on this,” Ky said. “The Senate has been asking for the Emperor to do something on this for years, especially those representing the mines and merchants. Right now all shipments get sent in batches protected by private guards, slowing down commerce and costing these men a significant amount of money.”

“So this will save a lot of people a lot of money and help the Empire’s commerce overall, aside from the lives it will save?” Velius asked.

“Yes, but it’s more than that. We’re still a year or more away from being able to put it into effect, but one of the things I am planning is a form of fast, long-distance communication, replacing the much slower messengers, at least inside Rome’s borders. This will require stations along the road, and those stations need to be manned, since intercepting signals will be something new we will have to take into account. The Praetorians are the ones we plan on assigning that task.”

“I’m still not sure I see the need for this,” Velius said, “But I don’t have any specific problem with it, beyond a concern any time the Senate is involved in anything. I do agree that the legions have more things to worry about than taking up policing duties.”

“Next item. As of now, all siege equipment and weapons like catapults are more or less an ad hoc affair. In the 7th Legion, both are commanded at the legion level, with their own chains of command and answering to the Legate. In the 9th, the cavalry answers to Aelius, but siege equipment is handled on the cohort level. This won’t work. Both groups will be getting a series of changes that will alter how they are used, and their organization needs to change to follow suit. All legions will need to set up both groups in the same manner as the 7th, with each being their own specialized command team and legionnaires, not an afterthought to the infantry.”

“When you say changes are coming, are you talking about those smoke pots we fired off during the battle?” Velius asked.

“No. That was a gimmick. The cavalry will be getting the most immediate change. I’ve already given designs to your craftsmen and the senior cavalry officers in the 7th for an extension of the saddle. It’s called stirrups, and it’s simply a leather loop that extends down from the saddle at one end and a metal half-circle on the other end for the rider to put his foot in. Right now, you stay on the animal’s back by squeezing your legs hard against its side and holding on tight. That’s fine for riding around town, but it’s difficult to keep from getting knocked off in combat. With a slightly more secure saddle design, these loops will make it a lot easier to stay in the saddle and avoid getting knocked off. It will also allow the rider to do things like lean further to one side of the animal at a gallop, stand in the saddle and, with some training, even fire a bow with much more accuracy.”

“Right now our horseman mostly perform screening functions and riding down broken lines, with occasional charges on the rear of a phalanx, if they can manage it. If we wanted horse archers, we’d have to train them. That will take time.”

“Yes, and I wasn’t thinking that. Horse archers might work for skirmishers but we aren’t set up to do what the Pantheon’s did. They were predominantly mounted cavalry, so they could fight battles that way. Rome’s armies are focused around heavy infantry. While this isn’t the time to radically change Rome’s tactical doctrine, I wouldn’t suggest it even if there was time. My long-range plans make that style of tactic less valuable as we integrate more changes and besides, the Pantheon’s were defeated in the end.”

“So beyond help in maintaining control, which is still a big help, and some additional options for mounted skirmishers, what is the big advantage of this? From the way you presented it, you made it sound like it would have a much more significant impact.”

“It will. The biggest impact will be the cavalry’s ability to maneuver around phalanxes and get themselves in position to flank the infantry blocks without luck, as well as outmaneuver enemy cavalry. Right now cavalry formations charge in more or less straight lines or shallow curves, to make sure riders aren’t unseated. The stirrup makes it possible for the horse to make sharp turns without losing balance. This opens the door up to wheeling cavalry charges, where your men can ride out and sweep in at an angle or cut inside of an opposing cavalry. I’ve drawn up some diagrams and notes for how this is done, but they'll still take practice. Once the cavalry cohorts for each legion are reformed, they can begin to practice these new maneuvers, so they are familiar with them. I’d also recommend you and your sub-commanders attend some of these practices. Once you understand what they’re capable of, you’ll be able to better deploy your mounted forces to take advantage of the changes.”

Lartius, the seventh legion’s cavalry commander raised a hand. He’d been quiet up to this point, seated behind his Legate as were most the subordinates who’d been invited.

Once Ky indicated he should speak, Lartius said, “I’ve already started looking over some of the notes your man passed out before you got here. If these devices do what you say they can do, I can already think of some alterations to these maneuvers that might give us even more capability.”

“Excellent,” Ky said. “Most of this information I am presenting is from others’ work or theoretical, at least to me. Until I met the Emperor’s daughter and her guards, I hadn’t ever ridden a horse, let alone commanded mounted men in combat. I welcome any input, from any of you, on how to take these ideas and expand them. You have real expertise in the field and will better know how to put these new techniques into practice, especially once you start working with them in training. The first batches of new saddles should be ready soon. Please try these out and make any suggestions of how you think we can improve on them. Perhaps you can get together with the cavalry commanders from the other legions after they have had an opportunity to work with them, and see if you can work out a doctrine for our forces to use.”

“We will do our best, Consul.”

Ky was genuinely surprised with how quickly they were taking the ideas and thinking about improving them, although he shouldn’t have been. He had a bad habit of thinking of Romans as a whole as primitive and needed precise guidance, despite how often he’d been surprised by the specific Romans he’d known who’d shown themselves to be every bit as intelligent and able to adapt as anyone from his time. It was easy to think of primitive people as being something less than people of his time when really the only thing that separated them was technology and science. He needed to stop thinking like that and trust the Romans to make the most of what they were given, if he was going to really make this work.

What he’d said about everything he’d presented being theoretical wasn’t wrong, and it didn’t just apply to the military. He’d been handing out designs and new ideas but he needed to also go back to these people and follow up with them. He needed to be asking their advice on how things were working and if there was anything they saw that should be changed or adapted.

“The last thing that I wanted to discuss is the changes intended for the conscripted forces. As I said at the military council, I still plan on those being used in the upcoming battle, but not as disposable front-line units. Partly because we need all the manpower we can get on civilian and military engineering and production to waste any lives but mostly because it is wasteful and wrong. Instead, I want to begin rotating the conscripts through regular training as archers.”

That got everyone’s attention, although not in a positive way.

“Consul, I’m not sure you understand the time it takes to train an archer,” Velius said. “It takes hundreds of hours for a man to become proficient enough to be useful in battle. We don’t have the time or the manpower to train all of our conscripts as archers.”

“I am aware of that, and I wasn’t speaking of archers as you have now. Some of you know of the new arcuballista I’ve started having the blacksmiths produce. These are the weapons we’ll be training the conscripts to use. As a whole, they’re fairly simple weapons, you point them at what you want to kill, and pull the release mechanism. I know you have something similar now, but these will be far more effective and easier to use. There is some skill at longer ranges, but I’ve included something called a 'sight,' which is an adjustable strip of metal that aids the shooter in where to aim. It isn’t perfect, but for massed fire on a large group of men, which we will certainly be facing, it should be enough. It’s why I want them to rotate through training as soon as possible. They need to be minimally familiar with the weapons, drill on how to properly reload and the like. Once you see the first models and have a chance to fire them yourself, I think you’ll see the simplicity behind them.”

“If this works, then we will be able to support our troops, which is good. Archers, however, are no substitute for infantry,” Velius said.

“I know. In the end, it will come to infantry versus infantry. Eventually, I will be able to alter those calculations, but not in time for this battle. We will have advanced knowledge of enemy movements and position, just like the battle outside the walls. Hopefully, we will be able to set favorable conditions to counter their manpower advantage. You should all understand I am not providing sure victory. This will be a difficult thing even with the improvements I am introducing. It’s why I am so desperate to get as many men in our formations as possible.”

“We don’t expect miracles, Consul,” the Emperor said. “I think every man here understands the advantages you’ve given us, and how hopeless our situation would be without them.”

Nods around the table signaled the other’s agreements, but Ky was still conflicted. Lately, the AI had made the argument for retreating to civilizations further from the Carthaginians. It accepted that eventual conflict with them was inevitable, but it believed that running was the most strategic move to keep Ky alive, which was its prime operating objective. Ky had stood firm. Something told him these were the people to put his faith in. He just hoped they weren’t making a mistake putting their faith in him.

Emperor’s Quarters, Devnum

Lucilla stood at her father’s window and stared out at the palace complex plaza, dark except for the flicker of light from the guard’s torches.

“What troubles you?” her father asked behind her.

“Nothing,” she said softly.

“You forget I’ve known you your entire life girl. Don’t think you can start fooling me now. You’re thinking about him?”

She didn’t ask who her father meant by ‘him’. She’d spent most mornings since noticing the Consul’s morning walks watching for him, waiting to join him. Her father had already commented on her routine more than once, teasing her.

“He’s taking on too much. I’m just concerned for him, that’s all. You’ve said yourself we’ll need him if we’re going to win this war.”

“So your concern is only for the fate of the Empire, is it?”

“What else would it be,” she asked, still not turning to look at her father. “My brother will have to succeed you one day, hopefully a long time from now. I was just hoping there would be an Empire left for him to rule by then.”

“Now you’re not even trying,” he said, coming behind her and putting a hand on one shoulder, turning her around. “Do you think I’m so blind that I don’t see the way you look at him? I wasn’t always an old man, you know.”

“I … It’s not possible. With everything in front of us, he has enough to worry about without me distracting him.”

“Speaking as someone who has had a lot of responsibilities, a partner is never a burden or a distraction. I can’t tell you the number of times just having your mother with me helped me through tough moments. Besides, I don’t think he’ll see it as a distraction.”

“You think so?”

“He’s different from us, no doubt, so he may not respond how you expect him to, but I’ve seen his eyes watching you when he thinks you aren’t looking.”

“What should I do?”

“Sometimes I forget how sheltered you are, always in the palace around people who serve us. You’ve missed a lot. Just be honest with him. You’d be surprised how far that goes.”

“I’ll think about it,” she said, turning and looking back out into the night.