Arthur Britannicus by Paul Bannister Read Free Book Online Page B

then they’d….. a ripple of guilty starts ran around the room as the daydreamers saw the centurion glaring at them. “Pay close attention,” he warned. Next, the sergeant picked up a lead-weighted throwing dart. “Six of these. Clip them to the back of your shield. At my word, you hurl them at the hairies. They carry a hell of a lot further than a javelin. On your belt, you’ll wear this – and don’t stab yourself with it.” He lifted a foot-long knife with a crescent-shaped pommel. “This is your pugio, your punching knife, and more politicians have been assassinated with them than anything else, so don’t forget to wear it when you’re all senators.”
    Carausius tried to take everything in. There was a military pack which the soldiers hefted on a short carrying pole, plus a water skin, cooking kit, cloak bag, entrenching tools and even a six-foot heavy stake that would form part of the rampart in a marching camp. In full parade gear the Mules of Marius, as the soldiers ironically called themselves after the emperor who’d reformed the army, hefted about 80lbs of equipment. Each man carried about two weeks’ worth of basic food supplies, including precious salt and an anchovy-and-fish sauce to flavour his food. Last, in his personal purse, usually worn in front at the waist, he kept his coins and personal small treasures.  “That purse,” grinned the centurion, “is called a scrotum and the scabbard for your sword is a vagina, and don’t let them get together or you’ll get no rest!”
    In the barracks, talking to the other young recruits in his eight-man section, Carausius learned more about his new life. Legionaries were not just soldiers, it seemed. They were manufacturers, labourers and builders of roads, bridges and forts. To the local populace, they acted as customs officers, tax collectors, administrators, and police officers. Recently, they’d been permitted to marry, so the row of small wooden houses in Forum Hadriani where they’d kept their concubines, were being rebuilt in stone with a pleasant bath house attached.
    One high-class concubine, Lautissima Laurea, ‘Most Magnificent Lauren,’ as the troops called her, had prevailed on several senior officers susceptible to her charms to build her a special love nest. Envious mere footsloggers were not allowed to sample Laurea’s tempting goods, though they had glimpsed her gilded nipples under her filmy kirtle, but they avidly discussed the rumours. The best were that she had a ‘love swing’ above her silk-cushioned couch, enough scented oils and love potions to float a trireme and, since two soldiers had spotted a plump tribune thrillingly dressed and painted like a Frankish whore, they believed she had a whole wardrobe of role-playing costumes. What they didn’t know was that the concubine made a nice side income selling a peep show to a few of the locals, who took turns watching the officers’ antics through a hidden spyhole.
    Those peeping civilians were playing with fire, for they would have been severely punished if their secret had reached military ears. The army had not gone soft. There were formidable disciplinary actions for wayward soldiers, and civilians were far less well regarded and faced even worse punishments.  Carausius and his fellow recruits learned some harsh facts. Desertion, the crime most feared by the officers, called for the offender to be clubbed to death by his fellow legionaries, on the premise that the coward’s action had put them all at risk. Mutiny, too, called for the worst punishment, and a general could order the decimation of a rebellious legion, when every tenth man selected by an officer walking down the ranks would be cudgelled to death by the previous nine of his comrades. It was a terrible vengeance designed to keep the rest of the troops obedient.
    Lesser crimes drew fines, extra duties, demotion or mere reduced rations. The punishment for some minor crimes was to order the soldier to sleep