"He's taught me about military things," Gaius replied. "He's given me training in weapons, and he taught me about how the legions work."
"I see. He must have thought something of you?"
"I believe so, yes. Anyway, how do I get permission to. ?"
"Tell me about this difficult decision you wish to look up?" The old man stared, then seemed to soften, as he added, "I might be able to tell you where to find what you're looking for."
"As I understand it, the legion had advanced too far into the German forest, Tiberius had left its rear flank unguarded, and he suspected a trap," Gaius said earnestly. "He could do three things when he reached a river. He could go upstream, downstream, or go back. I want to know why he chose as he did."
"Why?"
"To know how commanders think."
"You think you might command one day?" the old man challenged.
"I doubt it," Gaius said sadly, then added in a determined tone, "but if I get any chance at all, I'm going to get it right."
"For the Princeps' journals, look in the second alcove on the right," the old man pointed. "For your first enquiry, you'll find someone around the first corner to the left. Ask him, and if he can stop stuttering, he'll tell you."
"Thank you." Gaius bowed his head respectfully, then as the old man gave a smile of almost disbelief, he walked in the direction of the pointed finger. The first corner to the left was obvious, but when he turned it there was nobody in sight. He walked on a little, passed the first row of shelves and kept walking, and was wondering what to do next when he heard a sound behind him. He turned to face the man, and his first impression was that somehow this man was strangely awkward, although had he been pressed he would have had considerable difficulty in explaining why he thought that. He was not standing straight, and while his eyes were darting furtively, as if he was not supposed to be there, there was also something strangely imperious about him.
"G..Greetings." The stutterer!
"Greetings," Gaius replied very respectfully. "Excuse me, but I was told you could help me."
"H how?"
Gaius explained what he was looking for. The man nodded, reached up and half pulled out one scroll, then he tugged Gaius' arm and led him to the other. As he came out of the library bay he seemed to stoop slightly and he began to shuffle. Again, when he reached the alcove, he straightened a little, then climbed to reach one of the highest scrolls, which he pulled out. "Th..there's a t..table there." he pointed.
"Thank you," Gaius said, and placed his first lot of scrolls on the designated table. He then recovered the German campaign scroll, and sat down to read.
It took longer to find the discussion on the size of the Earth within the scroll than to follow the argument. Once pointed out, it was obvious. There was a place far up the Nile where, on the summer solstice, the sun at noon was directly overhead. They knew that because the sun would shine on the bottom of a well. At the same time but a large distance to the north, they measured the length of the shadow from a vertical stick. Now, provided that the plumb bob at each point pointed to the centre of the sphere, the sun, a stick and the centre lay on a straight line at the first point, but the sun made an angle with the centre-stick line at the second point. The size of the angle was known from the size of the shadow, and from this, the size of the angle between the two stick-centre lines was known. That told what angle the arc of the circle represented, and they knew the length. Multiply it out to a whole circle, and the Earth had a circumference of thirty-seven thousand kilometres. Gaius was fascinated. Simple geometry!
But that was enough of that. He had to read the other scroll. He found the section quickly enough, and read the arguments. What was strange, he thought, was that each argument was reasonably persuasive and, what was more annoying, it was not clear why the given decision was made. Nor was it clear why Tiberius went so far into the forest. If it was to catch the Germans and teach them a lesson, why did he not go straight back the way he had come? The counter argument was, the Germans would catch them, but surely that was the object! Unless Tiberius was too weak to deal with them, but if that were the case, why go so far? As he sat back to puzzle on this, he suddenly realized that the issue was not quite as clear as he expected it to be.
"G g got what you w want?"
"I found the item, thank you," Gaius replied, "but I'm not too sure how much it helps."
"Th th that's what often h happens." The smile of almost condescension suddenly disappeared as the man must have seen someone approaching. "P p please, don't tell where I am!" With that he turned into an alcove.
An imperious young man strode into the room, his glance sweeping over the boy without a sign of acknowledgement.
"Where are you?" he sneered slowly. Silence. Again he said in a teasing tone, "Claudius!"
"Yes sir!" Gaius offered.
"Who are you?" The expression was that of someone who had just discovered a roach.
"Claudius, sir."
"Oh, you would be, wouldn't you. And what snivelling idiot let you in here?"
Gaius looked out the corner of his eye to see the old man nod imperceptibly. "He did," Gaius offered.
The young man gave a cruel sneer then turned his head to follow the finger. He saw the old man, together with a challenging look his face. "Oh!" he said, and gave a visible start, almost of fear. "I suppose that's all right then." He paused, then added harshly, "I don't suppose you've seen that stuttering fool Claudius?"
"I've seen no stuttering fool," Gaius replied calmly.
The man stared at him almost in disbelief, but before he could say anything further, a voice could be heard outside the library, "Gaius! Get your arse out here or I'll. ."
It was never clear what the threat entailed, because the imperious young man spun on his heel and rushed towards the doorway. There was an immediate sound of running and a sequence of cries of pain, diminishing in intensity as the footsteps clearly took the additional person away from the library as quickly as humanly possible.
"Th thank you."
Gaius looked up and smiled. "I merely told the truth," he shrugged.
"I d d do stutter."
"Yes, but if you knew where these scrolls were, you can't be a fool," Gaius shrugged. "I guess you're Claudius?"
"I g guess you're G gaius Claudius?"
"Fairly obvious, isn't it?"
"If y you like, I'll get you some more scrolls? Y you might find them interesting."
"I'd like that," Gaius replied, "but that noise before was my Grammaticus. I think he'll be back, and he'll be angry."
"G g gaius'll put the fear of the G gods into him," Gaius' new friend grinned. "He won't dare!"
Claudius was correct. Gaius was able to spend the remains of the afternoon in the library, reading about things he had never considered to exist, and to which his Grammaticus had certainly never alluded.
When he did return to his quarters, his Grammaticus was furious, and after bawling Gaius out for not being available, he lashed out with a whip several times. Gaius had to bear this; his father had ordered him to obey. Eventually, as blood began to run down Gaius' legs, the Grammaticus stopped and stormed out of the room. Just as Gaius was beginning to rub something on his legs a young man entered, carrying a scroll for Gaius to read. Gaius thanked him, and sat down to read.
First there was a note. "If you want to know the size of the Earth, why not know the size of everything else! — C". Gaius smiled, and looked at the scroll. It was a description of work by the Greek Aristarchus. Almost three hundred years ago he had worked out by geometry that the Moon was about half the size of the Earth. Two people watched an eclipse of the Moon from different parts of Greece, and they carefully measured the angles just as the eclipse started. They then had two angles and the distance between themselves, so the distance, hence the size of the Moon could be measured.