Tales of Ancient Rome: Lions in the Valley

Lydia, Talig and four of the men were in town, and Lydia was looking at cloth to buy for winter cloaks.

Suddenly, Lydia dropped the cloth, ran into the middle of the market, and started screaming at a man. Talig didn't know what happened. "What the Hades is she doing?" The men followed her, confused.

"Do you know me?"

The man in the middle of the market looked at her like she was a crazy women, slightly alarmed by this women who came out of nowhere to shout at him. He pushed her out the way, and he and his three men continued on.

She recovered, and leapt back in front of him, "DO YOU KNOW ME?"SIZE="4">

He went to push her aside again, but she was more collected now, and deflected his arm a little upward, while slipping under it. "DO YOU KNOW ME?"SIZE="5">

"No, I don't know you, you crazy bitch!"

"You went to the Goths. You bought slaves there. I AM ONE OF THE SLAVES YOU BOUGHT!"FACE="ARIAL">SIZE="4">"

Talig and the men individually, and collectively, thought, "Oh Gods, she's going to do it."

She did a straight strike with her dagger directly to the carotid instead of a slash, and instead of pulling out and spinning away, she stayed there with her arm extended and the blade held in place in his throat. He grabbed for his throat and managed to get the dagger out. In a few heart beats he was on the ground dead and she was standing over him, glaring down in hatred at him.

The two groups of men stood staring at each other. It wasn't cowardice. It was just a job too big for either group to handle right then. The Aquitani men wanted to wipe these crazy people who had just killed their Chieftain's brother off the face of the earth, but they weren't sure if they had enough men to get the job done and get the Chieftain's brother back to the Chieftain. For Talig and his men, they knew they could kill these three men, but there was a whole valley full of Aquitani who were going to find out what happened to their man. On Market Day, the town would have plenty of Aquitani shopping in it. They couldn't kill them all. The Aquitani gathered up their dead man, and backed out of the plaza. At the same time Talig grabbed the girl and shoved her behind the men, and they too backed out of the plaza. Both groups starring at each other the whole time as they backed away.

Talig burst into the atrium. Salidia was with the steward. "She did it again! And this time EVERYBODY SAW IT!"

"You can write," he said, pointing to a table in the corner. "You make a message to Selenius (Imperator [Commander] of the local Legion) and tell him to get his ass down here, or we're all dead men."

Ever since Salidia had hired Talig, he had been respectful to her. Now he burst in here giving her orders.........and she DID EXACTLY WHAT HE TOLD HER TO DO!

"You tell him to send his equites (cavalry) down here first, or we'll all be crossing StyxFACE="GEORGIA"> by the time he gets here. And tell him those equites better be dragging the mastiffs (The original "Dogs of War") behind them because we're going to need all the help we can get 'till the Legionnaires get here."

Jabbing the vellum with his finger, he said, "You make the marks here telling him it was the damn Aquitani from south of the village so he knows what happened if we're all dead by the time he gets here."

His men had all crowded into the room by then. He turned to them, "Who can ride?" All of them could bounce along on the back of a farm horse, but only a few were trained to sit a wheeling horse and effectively wield a sword. The five mercenaries among her men all raised their hands.

Talig waved his arm at another group near the door. "Get the horses ready."

"Cetus, as soon as she gets that message made, you get it to Selenius, and tell him to move his ass. Take the horse you think is fastest. And Cetus, if he's off in the countryside chasing barbarians, then find a temple and pray for us because we'll all be on the shores of Hades FACE="GEORGIA">by then." "Atus, as soon as she's finished making the message, get her to Selenius's camp." "Presphene, get her (pointing to Lydia) to Selenius now." Lydia shouted, "Talig, I must stand by Salidia." Talig stopped a moment. That was a true thing she said. Lydia was obligated to defend her Mistress to the death. "Atus, Presphene, wait till the message is done and take them both to Selenius."

"Well, that takes care of all the horses. Anyone who wants to try to ride out of here on the back of a cow is welcome. Titus, Lucius, get the slaves out of the stables (The original stables had been converted into slave quarters when Salidia first bought the villa) and drive them north up the road. Tell them they are free. I want to get them out of here. I don't want them to join up with the Aquitani when they get here. Make sure you drive them away. If any of them hang around, kill them."

"Rufus, find all the servants who are loyal to us and tell them to make a run for it. The Aquitani are going to be searching for Romans and they won't bother with anyone dressed as one of the local tribes who speaks one of the local languages. They'll be ignored as long as they aren't standing along side of one of us Romans. Tell them to get as far away from the villa as they can. Up the Via Agrippa would be good. You know where all their houses are on the side of the villa. Check there, too."

Putting his arm around the man, he said, "Caius, old friend, we'll make our stand in the stable. It has the thickest walls, the windows are barred, it's long and narrow, and the roof has been reinforced to keep the slaves from breaking out and escaping. We'll make them crowd into that narrow building and fight us back for every inch of it. Get the women and small children to the back. Put the boys big enough to wield a sword in front, and give them any spare weapons you have. When we go down, they can defend their mothers and sisters as best they can. Tell them to work as teams. Set up what barricades you can. I'd like to fight them one man at a time if I could. Take Aurelius and set the place up as best you can."

"I wish some of you had the good sense to become archers instead of swordsman. Didn't I see somebody out hunting rabbits?" Gadius half heartedly raised his hand. "Ah, Gadius, can you shoot one of those things without accidentally shooting me in the ass? That a man! Set up a platform as high as you can in the back of the stable. Shoot over our heads into the Aquitani, especially any that try to get around us on the sides. Do the best you can on arrows." Winking at the man he said, "And Gadius, try not to shoot any of us in the ass."

"Some of you have got pretty big asses, Talig. You're asking a lot," Gadius joked, relieving the tension of the situation for everyone.

"Not many of us left. Marcus, you're going to have to run to the houses and tell the women to get themselves and their children to the stable. Tell them to bring any weapons in the house to the stable with them. Some bread and water would be useful. But this isn't a picnic. I'm guessing 2 to 3 hours till they get here, but I want everybody inside within an hour, so it's what they and their children can gather up in their arms and that's it's. No back and forth for two trips. Don't miss anybody. Check every place you can. Check the outhouses in case somebody had plopped his ass down and is taking all day about it."

"Andeocene, I guess you've seen everybody's' weapons by now, and know where they all are. (Andeocene had the steadiest hand, and a lot of the men asked him to put the finishing touch on their weapons when they were sharpened.) See what weapons you can find in the villa, the torture room, the tack room. Check any place you can think of. Bring them to Caius in the stable. I want everyone in there in an hour. Don't get caught out there alone."

"My son, today you will join the men and be a boy no longer. Bring my things back to Caius in the stables. Find yourself grieves and manica (arm guards) that fit the best you can. I'm going to the front wall to watch for the Aquitani. I'll be back when they're in sight." He leaned down to kiss the boy on the forehead. "Love you. Bring some water with you."

Three quarters of the way to soldier's camp, Salidia and the other three saw Selenius and his equites galloping up the road toward them. Cetus was way in the back bringing up the rear on a spent horse. Selenius pulled up next to her. She pointed back down the road. In tears, she cried, "Save them, Selie!"SIZE="4"> On fresh mounts, Selenius and his men raced up the road. Salidia and the others followed behind him on their exhausted horses.

When Selenius got to the villa, the Aquitani Chieftain (civitates) and five clan leaders (pagi) were on a nearby knoll overlooking the villa, watching their men below and directing the fight from there. Their mounts were fresher than Selenius's and they escaped when Selenius's men surged up to the villa. About three hundred and forty of the Aquitani vassals were inside the villa grounds. They were crowded around a long narrow building trying to fight their way in through a single doorway, so most were milling around outside. Some had a large, heavy work table they were using as a battering ram to break in the back wall. Selenius had gotten there just in time to prevent them from breaking through the roof. His men had no problem cutting down the smaller Aquitani force.

The next day he would march eight cohorts south of the village and raze their land, killing all the men he could find, and taking the women and slaves captive. Some of the Aquitani were mounted and had a long head start, so they escaped. These included the Chieftains.

The matter of justice was simple for Selenius. The world consisted of Romans and barbarians. These people had attacked a Roman citizen. Worse, they had attacked a Patrician, and that decided that. An attack against a Patrician was not tolerated any place in the Roman empire, and it would have provoked massive retaliation. But the issue was never in doubt: Salidia was his best friend since childhood. The Aquitani men: he took no prisoners. That was his friend they attacked and the Aquitani men paid for it. He would awarded Salidia their forfeit land and slaves. The women he would sell. He told Talig the defense was excellent and congratulated him on it.

In the stable, Gadius lay dead in the back with two arrows in him. He was killed when the Aquitani at the door shouted that there was an archer shooting them from the back of the building. Two Aquitani with bows were found and they were able to stand at the doorway and shoot him over the heads of their men. They stayed at the edges of the doorway and rained arrows into the back for the rest of the fight. Three women, four children, seven older boys were dead back there, another five of the older boys were wounded. The older boys had tried to protect their mothers and sisters from the arrows with shields, and many were mowed down as they stood in front of their families. Working as a team, one Aquitani would shoot at a family member to the side of the boy, and the second Aquitani would shoot the boy when he reached over with his shield to try to protect his mother or sister or younger brother from the first of the arrows. The "Surrrupp," "Surrrupp," of their paired arrows could be heard throughout the fight. And the boys fell one after the other.

When Salidia and Lydia arrived at the villa they found Andeocene outside. He had made it back in time, but was the last man in, and he turned to stand in front of the doorway, next to Caius. They were the first men to face the Aquitani, and these two men had stood longest at the center of the fight, filling the doorway with dead Aquitani before the Aquitani got a foothold inside. When Andeocene was wounded, one of the Aquitani managed to grab his arm guard and they pulled him outside.

When Salidia entered the building, she found Talig sitting on the floor with Caius cradled in his lap. Caius had stood at the center of the defenses he had erected inside the building, with Andeocene at his side. Aurelius lay dead nearby. When Caius was wounded, Aurelius had bent down to try to pull his friend to safety. It was a dangerous move to bend down like that before the enemy, and he didn't make it.

Salidia knelt down beside Talig. Caius was dead but Talig talked to him, "Who will I argue with now, old friend? Who will I talk with at night about the old times?" Caius, the wise old "peacemaker" of the group, had been Salidia's favorite of the men. He was the second fastest man there and he spent long, patient hours practicing with her and Lydia. When the Phoenicians had attacked them on the galley a year ago, it had been Caius who stood over her and protected her during the fight. She put her hand on Talig's arm. "I'll take care of him for you." He looked at her with tears in his eyes. "How can he go on his journey without me? We always go everywhere together." Talig got up, bent over and put his hand on the man's shoulder. "Good bye, for now, my old friend."

Talig walked to the back and stooped down to Gadius. "I gave you bad advice, my friend. I sent you to your death and I didn't mean that to happen. I'm sorry for that, Gadius. I hope,...you can forgive me. But you did good. You killed four of them, and left others with only one arm to use. Pretty good for a rabbit hunter. You killed the man who killed Caius, and then the one that bent over to get Aurelius and I am forever in your debt for that." He brushed the hair from Gadius's face and closed the man's eyes.

On the way back, he stopped and knelt by Aurelius. He stroked the man's cheek. "Such a loyal and true friend. He was my friend too. Thank you for what you did. That was so brave what you tried to do." His hand cradling the man's cheek, he closed his eyes and sobbed once, picturing in his mind the scene once more. Caius being stabbed in the side of his chest, falling. Gadius shouting from the back, "Caius,"SIZE="4"> rage on his face, putting an arrow thought the face of the man who had stabbed Caius. Aurelius leaning over in front of the Aquitani, reaching for Caius who was still alive, grabbing his breast plate and beginning to tug and pull Caius back to safety. Andeocene wounded as he tried to shield Aurelius and Caius, using his shield held in front of Aurelius and Caius to protect them rather than himself. The Aquitani leaning over to stab Aurelius through the back of his neck, and on down through the torso. Gadius's arrow slamming into the Aquitani's neck just to the side of the breast plate before he could straighten up, and driving down into his chest. He, Talig, too far away to do anything. The pile of bodies on the floor making the footing unsafe to get to Andeocene and help him without tripping as he struggled with the Aquitani who were pulling him out the door. The four dead men joined together, laying on and next to each other in front of the door.

When he walked outside, he saw Lydia sitting at the bottom of a open door by the wall. Andeocene hung with his arms hooked over the back of the door. The Aquitani had hoisted him up on the door, and stabbed him hundreds of times. Lydia sat at the bottom of the door, with Andeocene's foot held to her face, crying, blood smeared on her face and hands. Her first day with these men, it was Andeocene who had sharpened her knife for her. He always sharpened her knife for her. He was the one who always got her all the things she needed. She always felt he took care of her, from her first day with them when he got her a warm wool stuffed pallet to replace to her straw stuffed one. When they would all gather at night to talk, besides Talig, she would most often sit down on the ground beside him and lay her head against his leg as she listened to the men talk and he stroked her hair. Lydia felt he was like an uncle to her, and she loved him with all her heart. Caius was her second favorite. Fast Caius, he was so patient with her, spending hour after hour practicing with her. Instead of complaining, he would offer jokes and things to make her laugh. He was so good to her.

Talig walked over to them, and reached up to put his hand on Andeocene's face. "So brave. So brave and unselfish. Good, sweet Andeocene, so good to us all."

"Oh, Talig, they hurt him so much."

"I want my Ande back," she sobbed.

"Oh, Talig, it's all my fault."

He leaned over and held her shoulder a while as she cried.

"No one blames you, girl.