Chapter 13

Northern Italy

Ky broke off mid-sentence as the flap to his command tent was pushed aside, revealing a dust-covered Aelius, looking weary from the road. Both he and Marcus, whom Ky had been speaking with, turned to the ninth legion legate as the man entered.

“Aelius, welcome to Italia,” Ky said, stepping forward to grasp the new arrival’s arm. “I hope the journey wasn’t too arduous.”

“The roads are clear at least, Consul,” Aelius replied, grasping Ky’s forearm in the Roman version of a handshake. “But the people ... that’s another matter.”

“I received your messengers, but I’d like to hear it from you first-hand,” Ky said. “Do you need refreshments or anything before you start? I know the road has already turned hot.”

“No, Consul, thank you,” Aelius said. “As instructed, we stopped at the first major village in Italia, the one you reported as empty when the main force came through a month ago. It was reoccupied, and I brought forward only one century of men, in hopes that I would not create an incident. Clearly, my hope was wrong, for which I apologize. The leaders of the village were instantly hostile as soon as we arrived. We reiterated our goal of only assisting them, and not occupying their village as invaders, but they would have none of it. Before our conversation concluded, they attacked us without warning or provocation. It was madness. My men were armed and armored, and they came at us with farming implements, knives, and even stones. There were too many of them to attempt to de-escalate the situation. I’m sorry to report that I was forced to use more lethal measures as I fought my way out of town. Even with that, and the casualties that resulted, they continued to attack, like wild animals. A few of my men were injured before we were able to retreat from the village.”

Aelius paused. Ky could see the scene playing out in the legate’s head, and his regret at having lost control of the situation. Aelius was a good man, and Ky knew he took failure personally.

“I brought up the rest of the cohort and returned to the village, imposing martial law, and treating the injured and dying as best I could, while rounding up the instigators, but the damage was done. It is unlikely we will ever find a friend in that village in our lifetime. I apologize, Consul. I failed you.”

“Don’t beat yourself up too badly, Aelius. We have had numerous similar failures of our own, which is why you were sent for in the first place. Marcus and I were, in fact, just discussing this very problem when you arrived,” Ky said, before turning to Marcus, “Would you mind sharing what you were telling me with Aelius?”

“Certainly,” the legate said. “As the Consul said, what you encountered is what we have been struggling with across Italia. The people see us as invaders, not liberators, and have been resisting us as such. It seems they view the Carthaginians as the ‘true’ rulers of Italia. The war our ancestors fought and Roman rule of this area was a long time ago, well outside of any living memory, and they don’t see us as Romans, or even a Roman legacy. While this was true in other areas, such as Hispania, which continued to resist Carthaginian rule in spite of that, here, it seems they’ve come to embrace that rule. We thought offers of assistance might show them we were different, but clearly, that hasn’t worked either.”

“Clearly not,” Aelius said. “You had another thought, I take it?”

“I do. I think the Consul was on the right track but didn’t go far enough. At least, not far enough to convince them we were serious about our intent. Instead of simply offering help and then leaving again, we should establish a permanent presence in the major villages. For now, it would have to be a large force, meaning a century at a time, to keep the villagers from acting impulsively and attacking us, but make ourselves permanent, or at least semi-permanent. At first, we will probably have to set up secure camps outside the villages, again for safety, but ultimately, the goal would be to rent or build a large enough structure in town that we can operate as part of their community, not as outsiders. And we don’t just offer to fix things, since we’ve had any offers turned down before, but start fixing things that need doing on our own. We have to make sure we are seen as there to assist, and not act as guards watching over a prison. We can patrol and assist the village with security as they request it, but otherwise, we leave that to the villagers. Instead, we focus on tangible and visible things we can build and repair, making it known again and again that we are there only to help. Start actually being beneficial to the community.”

“That’s easier said than done,” Aelius replied, looking skeptical. “We’ll get hate at first.”

“Of course we will,” Marcus agreed. “But if we start solving problems and making these people’s lives easier, it will start to change their minds.”

“The phrase I believe you’re looking for is that we will begin a campaign of ‘hearts and minds,’” Ky offered, repeating the words Sophus fed to him, although lacking the history behind the phrase the AI included. “It’s been attempted before, with mixed results. A lot depends on how many insurgents remain in the surrounding hills, and what actions they take. We will still have to patrol the surrounding areas, removing as many remaining Carthaginian elements as possible to keep them from poisoning the well, as it were.”

“Exactly so, and our assistance will need to be more than just small things. The projects will have to be large enough that they can’t be ignored or taken down easily by the disaffected, but important enough that they can’t be seen as just monument building by conquerors,” Marcus continued. “We’ll also need to put in requisitions for larger amounts of supplies, and soon, since the levels we’ll need are greater than what we have on hand. In time, I imagine we can buy much of what we’ll need locally, further helping our credibility by putting gold into their hands outside of charity, but I wouldn’t want to rely on that right away. I imagine much we attempt to buy now will be either unavailable or otherwise tainted or damaged to ensure failure on our part.”

“It might work,” Aelius conceded, “but, based on what I encountered, even with enough men positioned at each major village, we’re going to have run-ins, probably violent ones, before we start convincing anyone to accept our help, or even believe we mean what we’re offering.”

“That’s true,” Ky admitted, “but we’re having run-ins now. Violent ones. This is the best plan I’ve heard so far. Changing minds is rarely easy, but it’s the only way we’re going to secure our rear from constant insurrection. I’m pulling Auspex’s legion back to assist you, which will give you two and a half legions to spread through the villages stretching back to Gaul. I will stay here with you a little while longer and leave the push south to Bomilcar and the seventh legion, although when they reach Rome, I’m going to have to shift my flag south.”

Ky stopped and considered, working through the disposition of men and forces, Sophus overlaying maps and positioning across Ky’s vision as he worked out specifics. He saw the look that passed between the legates as he fell silent, staring off into seemingly nothing, but they’d seen him do this before. For now, they still considered it just one of his foibles as a commander, which he was willing to accept.

“I know you’re senior, Aelius, but I would like to put Marcus in overall command of coordinating your various efforts and making sure that all of the units we scatter about have enough supplies to get the job done,” Ky finally said. “Hopefully, this will secure enough of our rear that we can start moving south again and catch up to our original timetable. If you do see success and we’re able to reduce our forces, I plan on pulling both you and Auspex out, bringing your men to Africa, and leaving Marcus behind, if he’s still needed. Hopefully, by that point, Cormac will have had success in Hispania and you will have your remaining cohorts freed up and sent to join you.”

“If we don’t, that will leave you with one legion for pushing out the last of the Carthaginians,” Marcus said, his voice betraying a hint of concern.

“I know,” Ky replied, his tone grim. “But one legion and a secure rear is better than three legions with absolute chaos and no reasonable supply lines beyond what we can ship, which is still too limited for large-scale operations at this distance. We’ll have to make it work.”

“Understood, Consul. We will make this work,” Aelius said.

“I know you will,” Ky replied. “Now, go get some rest. You’ve been on the road all day, and your men are probably worn out. Marcus will begin drawing up plans and we can discuss the details tomorrow.”

Devnum

The knock at the door made Lucilla jump.

She had been sitting, not in the dark, but at least alone, thinking for almost an hour. Since her conversation with Ky, she had stepped up her efforts to find men to help with the defense in Italia, and she had hit a brick wall every time. She still had feelers out, but none felt promising. She had been going through lists of more and more untenable plans, not committing them to paper or even saying them out loud to Sophus because of how bad the ideas had been. But she was desperate for a way to help Ky, to protect him, and her brain wouldn’t let go of the problem.

“Enter,” she commanded, sitting up in her chair.

The heavy oak door swung open, and Lucilla was surprised to see Fiacha, the senior Ulaid senator, and Rotri, the senior Caledonian senator, coming through her door together.

While there wasn’t animosity between their two peoples, which were in truth more alike than they were like her own people, these two men, in particular, had never gotten along. Something about their personalities didn’t mix, and she’d watched several times as they’d sent proxies to negotiate for them rather than speaking to each other one-on-one.

To see them together was ... concerning.

“Please, sit,” she said, gesturing to the chairs across from her desk. “To what do I owe the honor of this visit from both of you together?”

The men exchanged a brief, uneasy glance before Rotri cleared his throat. “We come bearing the responses from our respective leaders to your recent requests for additional manpower.”

“I see. And what was their response?” Lucilla asked, preparing herself for disappointment.

“I am afraid both have declined to provide more direct aid at this time,” Rotri said.

“Both of our peoples have been devastated by the fight against the Carthaginians already, to a lesser or greater degree,” Fiacha said, eliciting a frown and a side-eyed glance from Rotri, who recognized the last sentence for the cheap shot it was. “We’ve also both given up large amounts of manpower already, limiting our ability to recover from those deprivations, not to mention needing to do the work necessary to simply maintain our populaces. We did so under promises of technological marvels that would help our people become more efficient, which would require less manpower than ever before.”