Marius' Mules: Prelude to War by S.J.A. Turney Read Free Book Online Page B

had taken many days of careful eavesdropping, edging around direct questions and prying into incoming and outgoing documents for him to learn the timings and specific details of Milo’s trip. That he had to travel to Lanuvio to appoint a priest was a matter of extreme fortune, given that he would have to pass close to Clodius’ country estate and only outside Rome could there be any hope of direct confrontation.
    Paetus had managed with ease to have himself appointed to a role in the trip, sent out ahead to prepare the house in Lanuvio. He had entrusted that task to six of his men and sent them on as ordered, where they would be even now, preparing a dinner for Milo and his wife. Another four occupied the landing of the brick insula on whose upper landing he stood, waiting tensely with their leader.
    As for the other two…
    The second part of the plan had been the troublesome part: how to get Clodius to go to his estate and be there at just the time Milo passed through town? In the end, once more, Fortuna had dropped the answer into his lap. The council of Aricia had sent a missive to Clodius, seeking the backing of Caesar now that their erstwhile sponsor Crassus decorated the sands of Parthia with his entrails. They sought his judgment on a simple matter, not really worthy of his time and which they could easily have sorted themselves. But it had been an opportunity to claim an allegiance, and they had taken it.
    By pure chance, the courier bearing the letter had been mugged in the street only fifty paces from Clodius’ door, and Paetus’ men who had been watching the place happened to reach the body first, going through its purse and satchel and taking anything of value.
    They had brought the letter to Paetus, the seal of the ordo of Aricia already broken and, as he had read it, a smile spread slowly across his face. It had been a simple job to write out a direct copy with only a few minor adjustments and fake the wax seal on the altered copy.
    A hired courier was given the new copy and delivered it to Clodius as the council of Aricia had originally intended. For ease and realism, the contents of the missive had been exactly the same, down to the names and the flattery, but Paetus had taken the liberty of adding a date and time to the invitation.
    All that had remained was to watch with a grin as the courier was entertained in Clodius’ guardroom until a reply had been drafted and the man sent back south with it. He had known that Clodius would accept, of course. The monster was currently seeking high office in the city, just like Milo, and everything he could do to improve the public’s perception of him was important.
    And so the encounter had been set up - partially by the hand of Paetus and partially by Fortuna in her blessed wisdom.
    All that had remained was to hope that the timings he had both learned and selected were right and that the two mortal enemies did not simply pass one another unnoticed.
    Paetus grinned.
    The shouts from the Rome direction labelled the approaching column as Milo’s own. He even recognised the voice: Eudamus the Thracian - one of the most feared gladiators ever to walk the sands and undoubtedly the man at the front of the column, along with his ever-present compatriot, the Spanish gladiator Birria…
    … and two others. Tapapius and Gamburio - specially selected by Paetus from his own group.
    Milo‘s men were ordering the public aside and kicking the poor out of the way in a manner unlikely to win the politician many friends in Bovillae. But then he would not be seeking the support of a town that played host to Clodius’ country estate.
    Paetus’ head snapped round. Only a few dozen paces down the street a sizeable group of riders had trotted into the town, many of them with the look of fighters. Even from here, Paetus could see Clodius at their head, all invincible imperiousness and haughty superiority, his pet knight and two plebs with him, a gang of armed ruffians behind.
    In