Julius Caesar was long dead, murdered by his friends and enemies in the Senate. His legacy would continue, and the Roman civilization would become a benchmark against which future civilisations would be judged.
Indeed, it could be argued that the Roman Empire never really died but simply shifted from being a secular empire to a religious one. For as soon as Emperor Constantine legitimised the Christian faith, he successfully undermined its freedom by transferring control from the hands of the Almighty into the hands of the successive Popes of Rome.
The Roman Catholic Church was, and still is, the direct descendant of the Roman Empire. There might be no emperor anymore, but the role of Pope was the same in everything but name. However, that wasn’t to happen for a few centuries yet, so our job was to identify who it was we were up against.
In attempting to identify our enemies, we were convinced that whoever they were had certain factors that determined their focus.
They were anti-Western Europe and equally anti-American. We were aware that they were hostile towards established religions, specifically Judaism and Christianity. They showed a total disregard for collateral damage amongst the indigenous peoples of the zones in which they sought to alter. The years since Christ were regularly patrolled, so most momentous events, key individuals and their ancestors were relatively secure. However, several suspect groups came to mind, not least some extreme Muslim groups and the more diverse Eastern religious groups. It made little sense, until one looked at the politics of that time and the potential for a dramatic swing of influence from Europe to more Eastern powers. Let’s face it; we just didn’t know who we were up against.
With the benefit of hindsight, we were able to see that the vulnerable time seemed to be just after Christ’s birth and life, when the Greek and Roman influence was at their height. The Romans may have taken the lead in terms of administration and power, but the academic and cultural force still lay with the Greeks.
Paul’s letters show that there was a real thirst for knowledge amongst the Greeks, so if an idea or belief was to be debated, the language would be Greek, and not Latin. The Romans may be the military power, administrating vast regions of the known world, but Latin wasn’t the language of the Empire’s intelligencia, but Greek.
In order to dominate the Mediterranean region, control of the ports along the coast was vital to the Romans. Cleopatra was dead, so the lands around the coast and the River Nile were firmly in Roman control. Yet to the east and west of the Empire, still tribes and whole areas had yet to be tamed. Britannia was one of those areas. Peopled by many different tribes that had never thought of combining against their new enemy, the might and discipline of the Romans gradually reduced their resistance and introduced the conquered people to their version of civilisation. Yet it was not from here the threat was to be born, but from the other extreme in a land called Dacia on the Black Sea, now Romania.
Strangely, I had to make my way to Londinium, the last known location of an agent who passed information relating to a training encampment that appeared to be training a few archers in the use of what was described as an English Longbow. Britannia was too far from Rome to be a threat, but the yew and traditional woods used in the construction of the bow and arrows grew here. Therefore, we suspected that skilled craftsmen, recruited by our enemies, were now in England a thousand years earlier, training assassins in the skills of the bowman.
Trajan was responsible for one of the high points of the Empire. His legacy was to ensure, despite some terrible rulers and events, the Roman Empire would last for another four hundred years, before finally losing its glory to swathes of invaders from the east and north.
The eastern border was a melting pot of tribal discord, with powerful kings flexing their muscles to rid themselves of Rome’s Yoke. Trajan was to prevent this from happening, ensuring that Pax Romana would remain in place for a long time, forming what became known as our history.
If Trajan was to fail, then Constantine would never rule, and if he never became Emperor, then the Christian faith would never be legitimised, or not in such style.
Could our enemies be simply opposed to the Church of Rome?
That was an amazing idea, for the Roman Catholic Church dominated European history right up to the present day, despite the rise of the Protestants and reformations in various countries; it still maintained a vice-like grip of the hearts, minds and souls of millions. Had Western Europeans failed to cross the oceans to colonise or otherwise interfere with a myriad of nations and peoples, then the Roman Catholic Church wouldn’t have expanded to cover the globe. Had Saladin achieved even greater success in the Holy Lands, then perhaps the spread of Christianity might have stopped within a few European states that seemed to redefine religion as another political force.
To try to identify a group with an axe to grind against the Catholic Church was a definite challenge, as there would be too many to count. Indeed, there was a theory that it was not atheists or radical Muslims who were our perpetrators, but fundamental Christians from what have become known as developing nations.
If the power of the Roman Church was never to rise, then the underground church would remain underground and radical. No longer would the acceptance that happened under Emperor Constantine render the movement virtually sterile and impotent. How can a radical movement be radical if it is socially desirable and fashionable?
The radical church would grow, and the power base would shift from Rome. The question was quite simple, to where would the power go?
Would the world be a better place without the Roman Catholic Church? What would replace it, and would it be any better?
There were no easy answers, and there were as many theories as there were questions. It was not, fortunately, my job to find the answers, but to remove the threats that caused them.
Our agent returned to the centre, as his construct was murdered somewhere in England. He was so traumatised that he had declined to return to the time of his death. His debrief had told us a little, and not unreasonably, he had elected to block all memories from his mind after his debrief was over.
“It seems the enemy identified him as an agent long before they took him out,” Michael said.
“So, what could he tell us?”
“He was following a lead to a ship in the Thames. Even back then London was a thriving port, so the Thames was navigable for the larger merchant vessels from all over the empire. All he had was a merchant who was Phoenician by birth and Roman by resettlement with the name of Glax. The ship was suspected to be used in the transportation of newly trained recruits destined for the eastern fringes of the Empire. They’d enter what you would know as the Black Sea and off load their passengers on the northern shores.”
I regarded the map on his desk.
“Dacia?”
“Possibly, or the Crimea Peninsular; it was a particularly troublesome spot, so if the Romans failed to quell the rebellion in the East, then who knows what might have happened. Certainly they would have had to divert precious legions to guard the eastern borders, leaving the south and north relatively unguarded.”
“Do we know the name of the ship?”
“No, just the name - Glax. It seems this Glax had a warehouse from which he distributed genuine wares that his ships brought in from all over the Mediterranean region. So, there were fine wines, herbs and spices, as well as fine cloth and trinkets for the women. He shouldn’t be too hard to find.”
Intrigued and challenged, I decided to return to several months before the event of his death. However, I wasn’t going straight to London, as my research had given me a real insight into a more effective method of meeting the right people.