“But as a strategic asset, how would you rate archers?”
“Not that high. They need to be mobile to keep in range of the enemy, and if the direction should shift, they’re next to useless.”
“How about if the bow’s range and power was magnified by a factor of five?”
“That would be interesting, but I doubt you could produce that.”
“Then you need to be convinced. Come on,” I said, leading him out of the camp.
“Where are we going?”
“To find a Yew tree.”
“A what?” said a bemused Gaius, as he ran to catch up with me.
It was easier said than done. There were extensive forests here, but finding a decent Yew tree was hard. But I was successful within the hour. There was a grove of them, and I was able to cut several lengths. Gaius sat on a fallen log at watched me with a frown on his face.
My boosted mind told me that in the good old days, a skilled bowyer could make a decent bow in a few hours. It took me longer than that.
In the end, I had a bow that was around the same length as I was high, plus I had cut several arrow shafts that were each around a metre long.
“What are you doing?”
“One of the simpler longbow designs is known as the self bow, by definition made from a single piece of wood. Traditional English longbows are self bows made from yew wood. The bow-stave is cut from the radius of the tree so that sapwood (on the outside of the tree) becomes the back and forms about one third of the total thickness; the remaining two thirds or so is heartwood (50/50 is about the maximum sapwood/heartwood ratio generally used). Yew sapwood is good only in tension, while the heartwood is good in compression.”
“Traditional English? What are you talking about; what is English?”
“Ah, sorry, foot in mouth again. This weapon was made here, in these islands, but not yet.”
“Not yet? Just what are you blethering about?”
“Gaius, listen to me. You wanted to know what I am, well, I’m a...” I struggled to think how I could explain what I really was.
“Look, didn’t Caesar Augustus found the Cohortes Urbanae in Rome?”
“What of it?”
“What is their role?”
“To keep the peace and prevent crimes. There was a political motive to counter-balance the influence of the Praetorian Guard.”
“Okay, forget the last bit; well, what I do is like the Urban Cohort. Only my jurisdiction is rather more widespread.”
“You mean you work for the Emperor?”
“No; I don’t.”
“Then, for whom do you work?”
“It’s complicated.”
He sat there, regarding me with a slight smile.
“Try me.”
“If you could travel anywhere in the world, instantly; where would you go?”
He said nothing for a moment.
“Home,” he eventually said.
“Which is where?”
“South of Italy, near the smoky mountain – Vesuvius.”
“Was your family affected by the eruption back, twenty years ago?”
He frowned.
“How did you know of this?”
“Were they?”
“No, they were too far to the north.”
“Good, but Pompeii and Herculaneum weren’t so fortunate. They were covered by the pyroclastic flow. Indeed, they won’t be fully discovered for many centuries.”]
His frown was even deeper.
“How....?”
I held up a hand.
“Right, that’s where you would go, if you could. Now, say you had the ability to go forward and backwards in time. When would you visit, if you could?”
“When?”
“Yes, what period in history would you like to see for yourself?”
“That’s a tricky question; there are so many. I’d like to see what happened to Julius Caesar in the senate that day he was assassinated. I’d also like to see the truth about this Jewish God-man.”
“Fine, now say you could go back and prevent Julius from being killed. What would it do to the future?”
“I don’t understand.”
“Say you went back, laid in wait and saved Julius Caesar’s life. How different would the future after that moment be?”
“Ah, I now see what you’re getting at. It would be very different, wouldn’t it?”
I smiled.
“I knew you were intelligent. Okay, then let me tell you the truth. As odd as it might sound, I am like one of the Cohortes Urbanae, but my organisation is more the Cohortes Tempore. My job is to travel through time to points of potential danger and prevent any change from happening. For example, if you managed to go back to the time of Julius’ death, then someone like me would be there to stop you illegally altering time. I’m here to prevent something almost as bad from happening.”
He stared at me with a dead-pan expression.
“Not a goddess, then?”
“No.”
He nodded, frowning slightly.
“Can you prove this?”
“Ask me a question.”
“When does Emperor Trajan die?”
“He rules for nineteen years.”
“How does he die?”
“Edema.”
“What’s that?”
“Pooling of the intestinal fluids; often associated with cardiac problems and liver failure.”
He nodded, looking grave.
“Who succeeds?”
“Hadrian.”
“You’re joking?”
I shook my head.
“What happens to the Roman Empire?”
“Like all empires, it will decline and fall.”
“When?”
“Not for a while. Not in your lifetime.”
He laughed without humour.
“This is fantastic. You are from the future, or the past?”
“This body belongs here. It is not possible for the human body to travel through time, but my agency can transfer the mind into a body made in the relevant time period.”
“You didn’t answer the question.”
“The future.”
“How long?”
“Two thousand years.”
He laughed again, shaking his head.
“I think I preferred thinking you to be a goddess.”
“I can understand that.”
“So, going back to my previous question; for whom do you work?”
“I suppose I work for the man in charge of the Cohortes Tempore.”
“Who’s to say he’s on the right side?”
“Ah, there are checks and balances. It was explained to me, but I’m afraid even I found it rather complicated.”
“So, what’s your case here?”
“You know of Dacia?”
“I do, it’s at the eastern side of the empire. What about it?”
“There is an uprising soon. Trajan squashes it, but if these weapons and those trained to use them reach the area in any numbers, the legions will lose and the Dacians will defeat the emperor and sweep towards Rome. This is to be prevented.”
“This bow is that dangerous?”
By this time, I had completed one boy. I had affixed the iron heads to some of the shafts, and was putting the flights in place.
“Do you know any archers?”
“Not personally, but I’m sure we can find some. How many do you want?”
“One will do.”
Three hours later, a bemused single archer reported to Gaius’ tent. I was with him. The man saw me and immediately smirked. No doubt the rumours of my beating the local champion were circulating, but the soldiers were more ready to think of sex.
“You can shoot that thing?” I asked, nodding at the bow he held in his hand.
He nodded in that self-assured way a professional considers his own craft.
“May I see your bow?” I asked.
The man glanced at Gaius first and then handed it over.
It was a recurve, composite bow. In other words, it was made from several different raw materials. The Romans used archers as a more mobile force that the English archers. The longbow was too big and cumbersome to be used in such a fashion, but it was more effective from the static positions.