Re: IB SAI AAR - The Nowhere Legion
I remember Aemilianus standing there in that campaign tent, the oil lamps throwing flickering shadows about the leather walls, the heat oppressive, the sweat of bodies rank about me, and the faces all hard and stern, his words slowly falling about us. He talked simply in that unadorned way soldiers have when important things need to be said and, although he phrased those words to the Dux seated above him on that rough dais, it was to us, the line officers, that he really spoke and what he said chilled me to the bone despite all that heat and stench of too many men packed together.
He told us that it was Providence herself which had first alerted the remaining Romans to the advancing army. After we had marched away into the black dust of the Harra, he had sent out regular patrols deep into the deserts and dunes about the fort. In truth, he had not expected much - he was merely keen to keep the few irregulars he had left occupied rather than let them stew in the large confines of an almost empty fort. The wounded were being tended to by the slaves and the few medici left behind while the hangers-on, the families, and the rest remained closeted inside the walls, hugging the shade or making rough palm-leaf shelters now that all the tents were packed up and gone. That first day had been a long dry one riddled with endless flies and he had spent it pacing idly about the parapets wondering on our fate. Little by little, the patrols returned all baked and exhausted by the day’s heat and glaring at him for sending them on a beggar’s scavenge into nothing and nowhere.
Dusk arrived and word came to him that the last patrol - under Secundus and his contubernales - had not yet returned. At first he had not been too concerned. The man was a mischief-maker and had probably swiped the last of the wine and now they were all drunk behind some dune or other sleeping off the fumes. The other numeri remained blithe too as they loitered inside the fort, shooting up the targets or gambling what little silver coin they had left. A fight had broken out after dark and he had battered the belligerents into sense before ordering them to clean out the latrine pits against one wall. It was then - as the bruised irregulars had slouched off cursing him under their breath - that he had sensed something - more a feeling than a thought - and even as he had that sense, even as he had turned around, he saw others in the fort look up slowly as if sniffing the air.
That was when he saw the dark figures sliding like shadows back into the fort - and he knew, he knew, without asking that something was wrong. Others felt it too and all around Nasranum men stiffened and moved to the parapets not even needing his orders or his approval. Silence descended over everything. The moon hung above like a frozen pearl. Stars glittered with all the cold harsh light of frost on a black shield. The slaves and the others all tensed and crouched low as if seeking to avoid a doom which was nothing more than a smell, a hint, in the cold night.
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Secundus was brief and harsh with his words despite the sweat on his brow and the shaking on his limbs. He told Aemilianus - even as his tent-mates slumped to the ground about him - that they had wandered out father than normal - more out of boredom than anything else - and dusk had come swiftly as it was wont to do in the Harra. There on the lip of a distant dune they had paused as the purple shift draped the sky above them. Far far in the east in that deeper purple, that wine-dark purple only the poets sing of, the brittle light of Venus emerged like a baleful eye. It was then as the dusk deepened into night and as they all paused on that little dune, passing the water-skins about with half-biting curses, that he, Secundus, saw something. It was a darker shadow far off in the south-east. A mass of low cloud - that rare of all shapes here in the Black Desert - hovering on the distant inky horizon. And while the others about him laughed and drank, some slumping down into the sand in relief, others looking back to an unseen fort and the prospect of food and sleep, that he, Secundus, had stood out deeper along the dune, his eyes on that slow roiling cloud, as it drifted like a titan’s breath under the dusk and the deepening night. He watched and frowned as the dark of the desert engulfed him and his tent-mates until they were all alone in a brittle night which threatened to shatter if the merest breath fell upon it.
It was then that Secundus saw that thing he had been hunting for - there under that drift of dark cloud, spun about like a lazy dark cloth - he saw its underbelly wink fitfully as if alive. It seemed to glow with an inconstant light. In and out flashing with a muted charm which reminded him of those distant torch processions which had wound down the low hills at night outside the old village he hailed from. That cloud glowed in its underbelly with soft and faded reflections otherwise unseen deep in the Harra.
So, yes, averred Aemilianus now, as we stood deep in the oily fug of the campaign tent and listened to his words, it was Providence which had aided them that night - for without that drift of cloud, Secundus would never have seen that massed army so far away camping all warm in its tents and amid its supplies and its lit fires. Without that slight rag of low cloud, none of them would have ever have known in time what it was that bore down upon them. Providence gifted his poor irregulars a boon and now they had raced back to the fort in a silent and deadly pack, out of breath, grim-eyed, and holding their weapons tight as only dead men do.
It was an entire army moving westwards. Secundus had had the sense to leave one man behind on that dune with orders to report back in the morning once the sun had risen and that unseen force far in the east was on the move. When that man later arrived all dusty and bedraggled what he reported beggared belief.
It was thousands and thousands of Saraceni in a huge mass moving with the discipline of a regular army. Infantry under gaily-coloured standards, archers, slingers, spearmen, all marching through the Harra kicking up a dust cloud like the plume from an earthquake. All around rode and cantered the famed Saraceni horse - clad in flowing robes which glittered with half-concealed mail and scale corselets. There were hundreds upon hundreds of light horse who flitted up and down the columns, camel riders all labouring under their braying beasts, and the armoured cataphracts moving in a stately fashion with the sunlight glittering from contus tip and shield rim and helmet peak. And there in amongst all these Saraceni, were the Persians, cool, aloof, riding the proud dark Nissaean horses under the banners and standards of their Shapur, their King of Kings. All mixed up in it all were the supply trains - mules and camels laden with food and water and fodder - while trailing behind trudged the eternal cloak of traders, beggars, thieves, fanatics and craftsmen, on foot, atop mules, in carts dragged by slaves, or simply running alongside the laughing warriors of the deep deserts.
And it was all marching straight towards Nasranum and less than two days’ march away.
Providence had graced him a day and it was a day he did not mean to gamble away in indecision.
‘So you vacated the fort?’ asked Cassianus frowning, his voice now neutral and calm.
‘What choice did I have?’ he replied, with a Gallic shrug of his shoulders. ‘Think about it for a moment - I had less than a hundred irregulars. Men good for nothing but skirmishing and hunting and laughing at dice. How could I hold a fort built to hold a legion? It was an impossible task - but here is the rub: this army was simply too huge for Nasranum. I knew that the moment word came back from that solitary scout. This was not an army assembled to take Nasranum - not at all. No. This was an army assembled for something much, much, larger. We were just in its way. We were just a rat in the shadow of a predator hunting for something else - so I knew then what I had to do.’
He paused then and faced us all as if we were his judge and executioner. Not one face did he not look into - look into and hold its gaze as if daring that man to challenge him. Not one of us did. Not Angelus. Not Parthenius. Not the Illyrian guards. And not we, the Ducenarii of the Quinta. And finally not Cassianus, that Armenian trapped now in the frame of a mountaineer and the shade of a coward.
‘By emptying this castellum and retreating to the Nabatean Tower, I allowed that army to pass unconcerned by us. It had no need to siege the fort for it was empty. It had no need to break the gates for I left them open. It had no need to butcher us all for we were nothing but gnats holed up in a ruin apart from its march . . . This army swept on by us like a great behemoth of dust and shrieks and the clatter of arms. Its scouts encircled our ruin but laughed at our pitiful state. The great generals cantered through the open gates praising the Christian god and the mercy of His Son, Jesu. The beggars and the whores and the merchants drifted on in its wake, curious and eager to explore the empty fort, this fort of oblivion, and in one entire day this army arrived, entered, and then left our Nasranum without pause to drift westwards, all wreathed in dust and motion, like a storm that will never blow itself out.’
And we all knew then without Aemilianus speaking the words that the trap of the Merchant’s Bane held a deeper lure; a darker coil within itself that this Kalb had spun about us. We knew then in that hot and drowsy campaign tent as the lights flickered and gave everything an ugly inconstant cast, as the sweat dripped like spoilt honey from our brows, we knew that the Dog had baited us away from the fort not to destroy us - not at all - but merely to distract us. Distract us as if were nothing more than an annoyance not worth the effort of besieging and destroying. And I remembered his laughter as the Persian officers grabbed his bridle and yanked his horse about after the thunder of the charge where our silver statues had crushed those Saraceni. I remembered that victory at Mercator Plaga and the ‘gift’ of those supplies to us and now I knew just how deep and corrosive such a ‘victory’ can be.
I saw that truth in the eyes of the men around me then. It rooted there like a canker. That we had been baited away like a fool in the agora to the mocking laughter of the merchants and the idle nobles; that we had been teased with as if we were of no import; that finally we had been toyed with and tossed aside and held to no account. And I saw Angelus look down slowly then all his hard grace and Syrian mockery fading like mist before the dawn. I saw the stillness in the face of Parthenius and watched the light in his eyes dull as if he were dying in his soul. I felt the breath of a dozen men about drain away in a choric surrender. I saw up upon that wooden dais the Armenian Roman look down upon his ivory baton as if it were now a cursed thing like a frozen white serpent in his grasp. He gazed at it and I saw his lips curl with disdain at his own hubris then; his own naivety and pride . . .
And I? I remember seeing Aemilianus all alone in that spot he had stood into to break from the guards at his shoulder. He stood there having uttered words which in their simplicity broke us all deep inside, in that hard place we all called valour and honour, and I remember how he neither shirked from that speech nor softened its import.
The shadows gutted up along the walls of the tent and I remembered looking all along the row of the standards and seeing them fade one after the other into darkness and doubt and self-loathing until even the eagle itself, that golden raptor ever the guardian and spirit of the legion, vanished in a sudden inky blackness as if it had never existed . . .
Re: IB SAI AAR - The Nowhere Legion
mhm ^^ I'll feast on this delicious meal after class tomorrow :D +rep already because I know it will be of the same quality as before ;)
Re: IB SAI AAR - The Nowhere Legion
Thanks, Boustrophedon! Hope the update satisfies your palate!
Re: IB SAI AAR - The Nowhere Legion
Why? Why must you keep showing us up?! We writers who try so hard, and yet when I come on this thread and read this, it makes me want to weep at my own childish scribbles. Nonetheless, an excellent post, as always, and in spite of my tears I bid thee produce more of the same.
Re: IB SAI AAR - The Nowhere Legion
:eek: Oh my but so worth the wait and the weird this is I'm happily rereading the kindle version now and that is just as good with a second reading if not better.
Re: IB SAI AAR - The Nowhere Legion
Thanks Longovicum :shifty:, for the hours of fascinating reading, 'The Nowhere Legion', is really a little masterpiece and like all the good books I hope it will never end!
Great initiative the Antology! I like the idea and the spirt behind the idea!!!
...Returning to the story: now what can do the Armenian? He lost not only the face but probably also the respect of his men! he lost his reputation....but now what such a man can do?.....and is there something that he can do?......waiting for the light, by SBH!!!
I have to spread more rep....:disgust:...the rules of TWC are boring!!!!
Re: IB SAI AAR - The Nowhere Legion
What the others said... +rep
edit...spread rep!?!.. to whom I say!?...Whom?...sigh
Re: IB SAI AAR - The Nowhere Legion
Quote:
Originally Posted by
McScottish
Why? Why must you keep showing us up?! We writers who try so hard, and yet when I come on this thread and read this, it makes me want to weep at my own childish scribbles. Nonetheless, an excellent post, as always, and in spite of my tears I bid thee produce more of the same.
Childish scribbles? Indeed not! Quite the opposite - not to mention the diversity of your AARs in terms of period and character voices. Indeed, it is I, sir, who feel honoured to have you as a reader here :thumbsup2
Quote:
Originally Posted by
ybbon66
:eek: Oh my but so worth the wait and the weird this is I'm happily rereading the kindle version now and that is just as good with a second reading if not better.
Ah, I did wonder how the Kindle version would hold up as a single long read instead of short updates. Good to hear it is worth a second read! You have my thanks for that!
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Diocle
Thanks Longovicum :shifty:, for the hours of fascinating reading, 'The Nowhere Legion', is really a little masterpiece and like all the good books I hope it will never end!
Great initiative the Antology! I like the idea and the spirt behind the idea!!!
...Returning to the story: now what can do the Armenian? He lost not only the face but probably also the respect of his men! he lost his reputation....but now what such a man can do?.....and is there something that he can do?......waiting for the light, by SBH!!!
I have to spread more rep....:disgust:...the rules of TWC are boring!!!!
Longovicium? Who the devil is that, I wonder? And more to the point, can you tell where in the empire the fort named Longovicium resides and why a military fort in the empire has the word 'ship' in it, Diocle? Knonfoda - stay out of this - this is Diocle's test!!!
As for the story, there is always something which can be done as long as hope remains . . . ;)
Quote:
Originally Posted by
ReD_OcToBeR
What the others said... +rep
edit...spread rep!?!.. to whom I say!?...Whom?...sigh
Thanks, ReD_OcToBeR - appreciate the support!
Re: IB SAI AAR - The Nowhere Legion
Just read latest up date, fantastic..I must confess I had missed a few in the middle when I was ill. But what is I hear a kindle version, where might one acquire this?
Re: IB SAI AAR - The Nowhere Legion
Ask and you shall receive!
https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/TheWracked
The code for a free download of Book One is as follows: SW42E - enter it at the purchase page and it will discount the $1.99 fee. All I ask is a review if you have the time!
Re: IB SAI AAR - The Nowhere Legion
.......:).............I'm here dear SBH!....Almost here!.....wait only few seconds my dear!...
.....I'm almost here my dear friend!!!:)....
I'm here finally, excuse me my dear!......:).........Clarissimus your question was easy: Longovicium was the Auxiliary Fort of Lanchester! It was quoted in Notitia Dignitatum and Cosmography of Ravenna, its name comes from the word 'Longo' that, in the language of the barbarian Britons, was similar to the word ship, and from the noble Roman word 'Vicus' = village, deformed by those barbarians in 'vicium' :disgust:.
Are you happy dominus and friend? :)........
.....Dominus?....Dominus Clarissimus?........Where is Longovicum?....He vanished!!!..:(..........
.......give a car to a man......and he won't stand still for a moment longer! They become all hyperkinetic!.......:hmm:
......well at home now, by feet obviously!!!.......Damn..cars!:disgust:
Re: IB SAI AAR - The Nowhere Legion
Just downloaded your first TNL book with the coupon and will read it and then write a review :) Congrats again on this achievement! I believe there was only writer before you who wrote AARs and then published something, but you're publishing an AAR and that is a first in its own right ;)
Re: IB SAI AAR - The Nowhere Legion
Quote:
Originally Posted by
SeniorBatavianHorse
Ask and you shall receive!
https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/TheWracked
The code for a free download of Book One is as follows:
SW42E - enter it at the purchase page and it will discount the $1.99 fee. All I ask is a review if you have the time!
Excellent you can publish via Amazon also I signed up for that, although I am very far from ready to publish my books...it would probably help if I could decide which one to complete first
Re: IB SAI AAR - The Nowhere Legion
I look forward to reading your own work! Sign me up and I will review your first publishing effort.
Re: IB SAI AAR - The Nowhere Legion
I wouldn't hold your breathe it will be a while yet, besides I want to complete my MA first, who'd by a book on Classical History from the uneducated
Re: IB SAI AAR - The Nowhere Legion
Me - if I know the writer!
Re: IB SAI AAR - The Nowhere Legion
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Boustrophedon
Just downloaded your first TNL book with the coupon and will read it and then write a review :) Congrats again on this achievement! I believe there was only writer before you who wrote AARs and then published something, but you're publishing an AAR and that is a first in its own right ;)
It's an exciting prospect and one everyone here who aspires to writing should have a bash at! The epub market is going to revolutionise reading/writing so I see a natural evolution from writing an AAR here to moving it onto a larger reading forum through the internet. And thanks for downloading Book One! If you want to download the rest I can PM you a coupon for those too.
Re: IB SAI AAR - The Nowhere Legion
It is a great idea, just don't let everyone know about coupons- the whole world will PM you:laughter:
Sadly the rules dictate I cannot reward your ideas with more REP, but if anyone else deserves any I will come back to you, after spreading it
Re: IB SAI AAR - The Nowhere Legion
I know but the coupons are only for people here as they have read it anyway and I would appreciate their reviews on the Smashwords site!
Re: IB SAI AAR - The Nowhere Legion
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Diocle
.......:).............I'm here dear SBH!....Almost here!.....wait only few seconds my dear!...
.....I'm almost here my dear friend!!!:)....
I'm here finally, excuse me my dear!......:).........Clarissimus your question was easy: Longovicium was the Auxiliary Fort of Lanchester! It was quoted in Notitia Dignitatum and Cosmography of Ravenna, its name comes from the word 'Longo' that, in the language of the barbarian Britons, was similar to the word ship, and from the noble Roman word 'Vicus' = village, deformed by those barbarians in 'vicium' :disgust:.
Are you happy dominus and friend? :)........
.....Dominus?....Dominus Clarissimus?........Where is Longovicum?....He vanished!!!..:(..........
.......give a car to a man......and he won't stand still for a moment longer! They become all hyperkinetic!.......:hmm:
......well at home now, by feet obviously!!!.......Damn..cars!:disgust:
Longovicium is indeed now the village of Lanchester where I grew up as a child into that sullen age of a teenager. It is named after the late Roman auxiliaries who were stationed there - but, my dear Diocle, you missed the most important part! I copy an entry elsewhere and paste it here:
Longovicium - The place of the ship-fighters
The Roman name for the fort at Lanchester is known from two classical sources; in the Notitia Dignitatum the name appears Longouico between the entries for MAGIS (Burrow Walls, Cumbria) and DERVENTIO (Malton, North Yorkshire), while in the Ravenna Cosmology (R&C#133) it is listed as Lineoiugla - probably corrupt - between the VINDOLANDA (Chesterholm, Northumberland) and VINOVIVM (Binchester, Durham) entries.
The name Longovicium is a compound word derived from the Celtic longo- 'ship' and Latin vicium 'street-settlement', which seems to imply that the Roman inhabitants of the place perhaps had some connection with the Classis Brittannica (the British fleet), or had seen praiseworthy action against a sea-borne attack on a previous posting; a possible translation might be 'the place of the ship-fighters'. The modern name is first recorded on a document dating to 1196, where it appears Langecestr 'the long Roman fort or stronghold', from Old English lang+ceaster, however, the first element may be a contraction of the original Roman name for the fort.
I often wandered about the low hills and woods here playing near that unexcavated fort which the farmer always banned anyone from exploring!