Fronto felt the colour rise to his face and once more damned his own blood for it.
“She’s good Caesar. Look, I’m sorry about this, but there’s some bad news we have to deliver before anything else happens.”
Caesar nodded. “Best get on with it then.”
Fronto looked at Galronus, who shrugged uncertainly. Turning back to the general, he clenched his fists by his side.
“It’s about your nephew, Caesar.”
“Young Pinarius? I’d assumed he’d come with you. Don’t tell me the half-wit’s got himself waylaid.”
“I’m sorry, Caesar, but it’s worse than that. I’m afraid he’s dead.”
“Dead?” The general never even flinched. His eyebrow arched slightly, but the only other sign that the news was of import was a slight whitening of the knuckles as he gripped his own elbows. “How?”
“He was found in a tavern cellar in Vienna, general. He had been stabbed deliberately. I saw the body myself. I’d put good money on the murder weapon being a standard issue pugio, the blow delivered by a professional hand, and I have some theories as to the reason. Galronus and I have been mulling it over as we travelled. There’s these two centurions…”
“It’s damned inconvenient.”
Fronto blinked. “Caesar?”
The general unfolded his arms and tapped his chin with two fingers thoughtfully.
“Very inconvenient. Oh, not for you, of course. I’m sure you’ll be happier without a senior tribune for the Tenth. And Priscus will be happy not to have to deal with him. But I’ll have to write to his mother and his wife. Young Domitia will be beside herself. Pinarius may have been a waste of good skin and bone, but she loved him for some reason, and he gave her a son. Inconvenient.”
“’Inconvenient’?” Fronto said with a dangerous edge to his tone.
“Indeed. Oh Fronto, stop looking so offended. You’ve barely met the man. I doubt he’d have lasted very long out here anyway. Julia pushed me into giving him a term in command, and my sister usually gets what she wants in the end. Now perhaps I’ll get no more family members foisted on me.”
Fronto felt the old familiar anger rising and it was with some difficulty that he forced his abhorrence at the general’s off-hand, casual dismissal of the matter down into his deep, seething soul, where it could fester until the next time he had cause to explode at the Republic’s favourite son. It would only be a matter of time, after all.
“Do you wish an investigation into the matter?” he asked tightly.
“If you want to, be my guest, Marcus, but don’t let it interfere with more important matters. Great things are afoot. The Germanic tribes are moving and threatening our hard-won peace. I’m interested to see what the Gallic noblemen have to say to me before we consider repeating our chastisement of Ariovistus, however.”
Fronto’s hard gaze remained on the general. “What is the current situation then, Caesar? Are we to move out shortly? I’ve not seen signs of decamping.”
The general shook his head and folded his arms again.
“The Gallic tribes near the Rhenus have a large force of Germanic tribesmen encamped in their lands. Mostly they are bulk infantry of the type we have encountered before, though apparently, these tribes…” he closed his eyes in a moment of recall “the Ubii, the Usipetes and the Tencteri — also have a form of cavalry. I am led to believe that they do not use their horse the same as us, but dismount for the fight. I enquired of my sources as to how effective that could possibly be, but I am given to understand that they are fearsome indeed.”
Fronto nodded. “So what are the local Gauls doing about them?”
“Mostly cowering in their huts” Caesar said, surprisingly without a sneer. “These trans-Rhenal tribes have a dangerous reputation, Marcus. They have been preying on the more peaceful tribes for centuries. I understand that their people divide into two groups and alternate annually between breeding horses and feed animals, and raiding and fighting. Essentially, their tribes have not seen a peaceful season in a hundred generations.”
Galronus, next to Fronto, nodded.
“The Tencteri I am particularly familiar with, general. They are bred for war. They live for war and pillage. They have learned these ways from the Suevi, a tribe that lives in the wastes beyond, to the east, and whom you should pray to your Gods that you never meet. I have heard tales in Rome that the Germanic tribes are all six feet tall or more, with the bodies of Vulcan, flame red hair, and are weaned on the blood of their enemies. Not so for many tribes, but the Suevi are the source of those tales. Among the Belgae they are the ghouls of childhood tales.”
Caesar nodded thoughtfully. “Fortunate for us, then, that we face only these other three tribes. What do you think of them, master Galronus?”
“The Tencteri are dangerous and warlike, and the Usipetes almost the same. The Ubii are more civilized. They have traded with the Belgae for many decades, and have often shown restraint. However, if they have crossed the Rhenus, it is because the Suevi forced them, and that will mean they are desperate. And desperate men are unpredictable and dangerous.”
Fronto tried to take it all in but, as was often the case in briefings such as this, the names battered at his skull, refusing to sink into the brain matter within. His soldier’s brain distilled it for him in the moment’s silence that followed.
“So you’re telling me that the Suevi are essentially monsters from nightmare, and they have pushed three tribes that are lesser-nightmare-monsters across the river, where they’ve frightened the locals enough that they hide? Is that the upshot?”
Caesar smiled benevolently.
“Succinct as ever, Marcus. But furthermore, I received visitors from those tribes on whose lands they settled. Two days ago, men came to seek our help.”
The general’s smile was the old wolf grin that Fronto recognised instantly. It was that satisfied smile Caesar wore when everything he’d pushed for and hoped for had fallen into place, giving him exactly what he wanted.
“They asked you to go to war with these Uspi-thingies and their friends?”
“They had sent their own ambassadors, offering the invaders chattels, food, weapons, warriors, herds and much more just to return across the Rhenus; a cowardly offer, of course. These tribes are unwilling to return to their own lands, as their nightmare enemies from the east await them there. But even should they not be, why would they leave the lands of men so weak as to try and buy their absence? No, the Ubii and their allies simply accepted such weakness for what it was, and expanded the area of land they were depredating to take in more Gallic tribes.”
“We’ve pacified Gaul and thus left it open to new predators” Fronto said quietly. “We’ve killed off or conscripted so many of their warriors they no longer have the strength to defend themselves from other tribes. It is not weakness that drove them to it, Caesar. It was our conquest that did that.”
A tiny flash of flint passed across Caesar’s eyes, but his smile, cold though it was, was quick to come.
“You have a way with words, Fronto. If only you could dress them up a little, what an orator you would make in the senate. But your words I accept as a possibility. I would then urge you to question why, when our conquest was complete and all rebellion had ended, I continued to keep all eight legions wintered in the north of Gaul? We must hold on to the peace with a warlike hand, Marcus.”
Fronto nodded wearily. He’d wished he could have thought of that when discussing the motives of the general with Balbus. It made so much sense when the general said it.
“So what’s next, Caesar? We march on them?”
Caesar shook his head. “Not yet, Marcus. I have sent out couriers to summon the Gallic council to Divoduron. Gaul is under Roman protection,” his eyes flicked uncertainly to Galronus for a moment and then back, “but it is still important for the kings and chieftains of Gaul to make the decisions about their lands and people. We can help, advise, support and protect, but, within the aegis of the RomanRepublic, these people still rule themselves. The Gallic council must decide what to do about the invaders and make a formal request of myself as the Proconsul. Only then can we legitimately move.”