Fronto fixed his gaze on the road ahead and grunted.
“I think at this point, I’d pick up my dice and my remaining denarii and go home!”
* * * * *
Antebrogius the Remi chieftain bowed deeply to Fronto in the bright morning light as the man left Caesar’s tent. The legate of the Tenth nodded back absently, stepping aside to let him return to his town with his accompanying warriors. Waiting only a moment, tapping his foot on the springy turf, he entered without knocking.
Caesar looked up in surprise from the documents on his desk.
“Fronto? I didn’t send for you?”
The legate nodded.
“I know, general, but I need to go through a few things.”
Caesar pushed aside the lists he had been examining and sat back, folding his arms.
“Go ahead, then. This can wait.”
“I’ve been looking at the campaign maps of the Belgae lands and there’s just no way we can move on the army while protecting the lands of the Remi, and those defensive garrisons you were talking about will be fine for the look of things, but they’d be slaughtered to a man if the main host of Belgae suddenly hove into view.”
Caesar nodded quietly and thoughtfully.
“Give me specifics, Fronto.”
“Well…” the legate said, wandering across to Caesar’s map, hanging on the wall of the command tent, and illustrating his points with a finger.
“We’re here in the south, where the Remi are.” He pointed further up. “The Belgae are massing to the north. That’s where we’ll have to go to fight them.”
He waved his arm vaguely to the left.
“Yet there’s a lot of Remi land over here, away from the area the two armies will meet, but with a lot of borders with the enemy. We cannot be sure the entire force is massing in the one place. If we march north and find only three quarters of the enemy, it’s possible the other quarter will sweep west and south and extinguish the Remi and our garrisons and sever our supply lines.”
Caesar smiled.
“And you think I’ve not planned for this?”
“Well unless Crassus is really hiding just over those hills out there, or you’ve got two more magic new legions hidden outside, then that would mean splitting the army. And the odds are already bad enough.”
The general’s smile was starting to irk him as it always did at times like this. It seemed vaguely smug.
“What!”
Caesar sighed.
“We have a secret ally. I’m trying not to reveal too many of the tricks I have hidden up my sleeve, Marcus. It’s a surprise and I want it to stay like that. The more people know about it, the more chance there is of word reaching the Belgae and of them being prepared.”
Fronto grumbled.
“I’m not going to run and tell the bloody Belgae, am I?”
“I suppose not. You remember the half dozen riders I sent out from Vesontio?”
Fronto nodded.
“To your niece in Rome, yes.”
For a moment, Caesar looked nonplussed. Just for a fraction of a second, before an ophidian smile slithered across his face again.
“Yes. Not all to Atia, though. Two to Rome. Three to Bibracte.”
“Bibracte?”
Fronto’s mind rushed ahead.
“You called on the Aedui for help. You’ve got Divitiacus’ Gauls coming up as a second army?”
The smile widened on the general’s face. Fronto could understand that, but couldn’t quite lose the image of that moment of blankness just now regarding the couriers. It nagged at him.
“They should already be encamped maybe ten miles from the edge of Remi territory in the lands of the Parisii, just north of Lutetia.”
Fronto frowned.
“And if there isn’t another army out there? What’s Divitiacus to do then?”
Caesar smiled an unpleasant smile.
“Then he has orders to burn the enemy lands to a cinder until there is. He’s got to attract their attention. We need to split the enemy up and even the odds a little. Cracks widening, remember?”
Fronto nodded slowly.
“I can see that, yes.”
In the privacy of his own head, he added ‘but I wouldn’t approve of scorching the land to attract their attention. One day we might need these people.’
There was a moment’s silence and then Caesar stretched.
“I’ve been thinking about Paetus and I’ve decided what we should do. I can’t be certain whether Clodius is the hub of all my troubles, or merely a piece in the game of someone more dangerous. Clodius is certainly disrupting things for myself and many of my allies, but two things nag at me about it.”
Fronto raised an eyebrow.
“Firstly,” the general said quietly, “I wouldn’t have credited him with enough intelligence to create a network of men, even in provincial armies, stirring up trouble. Clodius always struck me as a thug; a blunt tool. He’s ambitious, but I can’t believe he’s clever enough to work out how to play men like Crassus, Pompey and myself off to achieve his goals. That sounds to me like someone else pulling his strings.”
Fronto nodded slowly.
“That would mean someone more powerful than Clodius too.”
“And richer,” added the general. “That’s the other thing. Clodius isn’t from a great line like Crassus. His family were of middling importance like mine and I had to borrow to the point of bankruptcy to get where I am. So where does Clodius’ money come from?”
Fronto sighed.
“So it looks like Clodius is himself being used.”
“Yes. So we need to employ Paetus not for disinformation, but to try and discern more about what’s happening in Rome. I can get a good sense of what’s going on when I’m there, but I can only get to Rome in the winter. For the summer, I have to be here. We need to somehow flush Clodius’ patron, if he has one, out into the open.”
Fronto nodded.
“So what do we know about Clodius that we can use?”
Caesar sighed.
“It’s not something I try to advertise, but the man seduced my wife.”
Fronto blinked.
“He seduced Calpurnia?”
Caesar rolled his eyes.
“Gods, Fronto, no! My former wife, Pompeia. Don’t you pay any attention to what goes on in Rome? Didn’t you even wonder why I divorced her?”
In the privacy of his own head, Fronto trotted through several very unkind responses while deliberately keeping his expression blank.
“I try not to pry, Caesar.”
He frowned.
“So the question is: did he do that to get to you, in which case he was already conspiring against you years ago, or is what he’s doing now is some sort of weird revenge?”
“It was the reason for our divorce four years ago, as I said. I divested myself of her, but actually helped Clodius avoid prosecution to keep the scandal as detached from me as possible.” Caesar frowned. “He can’t want revenge… I saved him from trial. At the time I very much blamed Pompeia but, in retrospect, with what has been happening this past year in Rome, I’m starting to wonder whether perhaps it was all down to Clodius.”
Fronto tapped his finger on the table.
“Perhaps Pompeia is the key? She’s not remarried, has she? Perhaps she’s still in league with the man? Or at least perhaps he is interested in her? We need to know more before you decide what to do. Could you ask her about him?”
Caesar laughed a laugh with no humour.
“Pompeia will not exchange a single word with me. I’m afraid I was quite unkind when we parted. Besides, Calpurnia and I have only been married two years. She may take exception if I communicate with Pompeia.”
“Hmm.” Fronto drew a deep breath, once again thanking Nemesis, his patron Goddess, that he’d managed to remain blissfully single for so long. “You need to find out more about Clodius. Pompeia might have the information you seek, but won’t speak to you. I do believe the answer’s staring you in the face, Caesar.”