Empire's Gate

Empire’s Gate

The Roman Sky: Book I

John W. Egan

Published by John W. Egan

www.historicalalternatives.blogspot.com

Copyright 2020 John W. Egan

All rights reserved. No part of this publication can be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, written, recording or otherwise without the prior written permission of the copyright holder.

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ISBN 978-0-9958474-9-1

Edited by Nicki Richards, www.richardscorrections.com

1st Edition: November 2020

Published by John W. Egan

Dedication

Acknowledgements

Maps

Glossary

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

The Dawn of the Airborne – A short story

About John W Egan

Also by John W Egan

Dedication

To Mairi, who encouraged me to take up writing, and to Sheila, who encourages me to keep writing.

Acknowledgments

This novel evolved from a series of short stories written over three years in the Stittsville Creative Writing Group.

My friend and fellow author, John W. Partington, wanted this story to be my first novel. He has strong opinions about its plot and characters, and was always willing to discuss what ideas and approach to use.

My beta readers, Mike, Larry, and RJ, saw the errors I missed and had great questions about the characters, events, and details of this alternative world.

My editor, Nicki, had the sharp eyes, valuable mark up, and kind as well as constructive comments that an author needs.

My thanks to all of you,

John

The United Roman Empire

Anno Augusti 516, 4th Year of Justinian, Augustus and Emperor

Glossary

Below are the translations and meanings of Latin and Gothic words used in the story, as well as English words that have a specific meaning in this story.

Roman Army Ranks

Centurion - Commands a century of three Eagles, seventy-two sagittarii, and twelve crew

Decanus - Commands a tent group of eight soldiers or sagittarii (plural is decani)

Dux - Commander of a wing of an army, or a region

Eques - Basic rank for cavalryman (plural is equites)

Legate - Commands a legion of six cohorts plus other assets

Magister Militum - Commander of an army

Magister Officiorum - Financial and administrative official of the Roman Empire, a civilian

Optio Primus - Primary second-in-command of century, commands a tertia and airship

Optio Secundus - Secondary second-in-command of century, commands a tertia and airship

Pedes - Basic rank for a soldier (plural is pedites)

Prefect - Commands a legion’s support element and is legion’s third-in-command

Sagittarius - Basic rank for airborne soldier-archers (plural is sagittarii)

Tribune - Commands a Cohort of six centuries, or a tagma of four alae Vicarius - Second-in-Command of a cohort (plural is vicarii)

Roman Army Formations

Ala -One hundred twenty riders and horses in four turmae (plural is alae)

Incendiaria Century - Three Phoenixes, six specialists, and thirty-six crew

Incendiaria Cohort - Eighteen Phoenixes, thirty-eight specialists, and two hundred sixteen crew

Legio - Legion of three thousand soldiers, cavalrymen, or sagittarii in six cohorts

Missile Cohort - Thirty-six ballistae and thirty-six scorpio plus crews and support element

Pedestris Century - Eighty soldiers in ten tent groups, including the centurion who commands it

Pedestris Cohort - Four hundred and eighty soldiers, commanded by the senior centurion

Sagittarius Century - Three Eagles, sixty sagittarii, and twelve crew Sagittarius Cohort - Eighteen Eagles, three hundred sixty-two sagittarii and seventy-two crew

Schola Volucris - School for training airborne crews, specialists, and sagittarii

Tagma -Four hundred eighty cavalrymen and horses in four alae (plural is tagmata)

Tent Group - Eight soldiers, sagittarii, or airship’s crew, specialists, and commander

Tertia - A third of a sagittarius century, twenty-four sagittarii (plural is tertiae)

Turma - Thirty cavalrymen or ten Ravens (plural is turmae)

War Flock - Temporary grouping of two to twelve sagittarius and incendiary centuries

Gothic Army Ranks and Formations

Harjis - The Gothic Army

Thiufa - An army of fifteen hundred or more soldiers or cavalry Thiufadus - An equivalent to a Roman Legate-Magister combination

Roman Military Unit Formal Titles

Legio # Equestris N - Mounted Legion (a legion’s number is put before its category)

Legio # Pedestris N - Foot Legion (a legion’s dedication is named after its category)

Legio # Volucris N - Airborne Legion, such as Legio IV Volucris Anastasius

Cohort # N - The cohort category is dropped, and some cohorts have their own dedications

Tagma # N - Same as for a cohort

Century # (Cohort #) - Century (cohort) number or its centurion’s name is added if it is needed

Ala # (Tagma #) - Same convention as for a century (cohort)

Terms

Achaean Fire - A sticky, flammable liquid that floated on water. Equivalent of Greek Fire

Anno Augusti - In the year of Augustus. Years are dated from when Emperor Augustus died

Ballista - A bolt launcher that resembles a large crossbow (plural is ballistae)

Ballistarius - Sagittarius or soldier trained to operate a ballista (plural is ballistarii)

Banner - A legate’s, tribune’s, or centurion’s flag

Blade-tip - An arrow with two blades on its arrowhead, used to slice through a target

Bucellarius - Soldier or cavalryman kept and paid by a senior officer (plural is bucellarii)

Buccina - A G-shaped brass horn with a four-foot diameter (plural is buccinae)

Buccinator - A musician who plays a buccina

Cataphractus - A completely armoured rider and horse (plural is cataphracti)

Chemist - Chemical specialist in the production of sulphuric acid and hydrogen gas

Dromon - Roman sea class warship with lateen sail, forty oars, and eighty soldiers

Ducemculi - A game played on an eight-by-twelve square grid with sixteen pieces aside

Eagle - Roman airship that carries twenty sagittarii and four crew Field Army - Paid by and serves the Emperor anywhere in the Empire or elsewhere

Frontier Army - Paid by a province and serves the Emperor only within that province

Follis - A Roman forty nummi bronze coin (plural is folles)

Gothia - Latin equivalent of the Gothic Gut’thiuda

Gut’thiuda - The Gothic People, also known as the Kingdom of the Goths, and Gothia

Helm - Steers the airship and commands the pedallers

Mechanic - Mechanical specialist for the drive, steering, and structure of an airship

Navigator - Commands an airship and its crew as well as being its navigator

Nidus Nest - a long-term site with security and a full range of facilities for airships

Nummus - A Roman one nummus copper coin (plural is nummi)

Mare Nostrum - Mediterranean Sea

Parca - One of the three Fates (Parcae) who spin, measure, and cut the thread of life

Pedaller - Sagittarius who pedals airship’s chain-drive to power the twin propellers

Perch - A temporary landing site from which airships remains ready to lift

Phoenix - Roman airship that carries twenty-four fire urns, each one a hundred pounds

Pyrrha - Roman term for a Persian airship that carries a ton of rocks (plural is Pyrrhae)

Raven - Small Roman airship that carries two officers, four crew, and four Sagittarii

Roost - A short-term landing site with some security and limited facilities for airships

Scorpio - A torsion spring catapult that hurls one-hundred-pound projectiles

Servant - Freeman or slave paid by owning tent group, and allowed a dagger

Signaller - Sagittarius trained to send and read flag signals and messages

Silk - Roman slang for a Persian airship

Solidus - Roman gold coin worth one hundred eighty Folles (plural is solidi)

Solvo! Release! - The order to loose an arrow or a bolt

Specialist - Doctor, Engineer, or a soldier trained and paid to do skilled work

Spike-tip - An arrow with a steel spike for its arrowhead, used to puncture armour

Tablet - A letter written on a thin wood shingle instead of paper

Tent group - A section of eight soldiers

Tent mate - A soldier in one’s tent group

Tormentum - Roman term for a Persian airship that has four ballistae (plural is Tormenta)

Tribulus - Four spikes welded together so one spike always points up (plural is tribuli)

Chapter One

Sagittarii, halt! Packs off! Stretch and drink! Decanus Andreas commanded.

Cillian stopped and straightened up. Sweat clung to his beard; it was not so much the marching as it was the uncomfortably warm and humid afternoon. He swung the bulging pack off his back by its shoulder straps, around to his front, and let it drop a few inches to the road. In all, two dozen packs thumped on the dusty stone blocks. Two dozen young men sighed with a relief that bordered on pleasure.

A breeze caught the soaked back of Cillian’s tunic. He stretched the wet cloth tight against his skin to enjoy the cool sensation. Older soldiers often complained that they should have kept the satchel, net, and forked pole. Cillian thought of his pack’s weight hanging off a pole that rested on his shoulder—he did not see how that would be better.

Added to his pack’s usual load was his helmet and chainmail, tucked under his rolled cloak. His armour seemed heavier to carry than to wear, but he was less overheated than if he had worn it. Cillian thanked Minerva that aside from his dagger the only other weapon he carried was his sword, although having its scabbard suspended at an angle from a sword belt instead of hanging down from a cross-strap on his shoulder still felt odd. He was also thankful that three months ago he had kept his old boots instead of accepting a new pair. Otherwise, his feet would have been chafed and blistered by the new boots’ stiff leather soles and upper-halves on this march today. And his feet had lost their hardness after three months without a long march.

Cillian and the other men with him had started their day aboard an old galley on the Mare Nostrum. They had disembarked at Theodoria where Decanus Andreas appeared and claimed them. He marched them up this road to where it met another stone-surfaced road like the stem of the letter T, where they now stood. The other road came out of the mountains to the north, ran past this junction and crossed the Orontes River on a stone arch bridge, a half-mile to the south. The road continued a short distance after the bridge to a wide gate in a stone wall that paralleled the river. Once through that gate, the road became a main street in the city of Antioch.

Set back from the other side of the road was an eight-foot-deep ditch backed by an eight-foot-high earthen berm topped by a palisade. It marked the southern boundary of what had been Campus Martius, a square-mile of hard-packed dirt—the training ground for the garrison at Antioch. This fortified enclosure held the legion to which Cillian was assigned. The main gate faced the junction, but the gates and side-door were kept shut, preventing any glimpse of what was inside.

Cillian pulled his canteen up and took in a mouthful of water. He scanned the top of the wall as he leaned back. He was too close now to see what he had seen a mile back, where the road rose over a ridge. From there, Decanus Andreas had pointed out this large enclosure to them and what lay within it—large envelopes of waxy cloth stretched tight by hydrogen gas. A hundred such envelopes, tethered to the ground, bobbed gently in their rows. They reminded him of the dolphins that followed their ship on the voyage to Theodoria. Cillian thought it was fitting that the ichthys, the symbol for a fish, was also the symbol for an airship and for his new legion, Legio IV Volucris, the Fourth Airborne Legion.

Unable to see anything of the airships now, Cillian capped his canteen and let it hang from its cross-strap. On the far bank of the Orontes, another wall hid Antioch’s view. The stone wall was made of fresh-cut blocks that glowed in the afternoon sun. The rooftops and domes that peeked above the wall hinted at the many public buildings, temples, and baths for which Antioch was famous.

A mountainous ridge rose behind Antioch. Patches of grey rock among the dark green firs indicated the steeper slopes while troughs of white rock marked the sections that had collapsed during the earthquake, four years ago. Most of Antioch had collapsed. Over half of its citizens had died. The city was largely rebuilt within two years of its destruction when it was flattened again by another earthquake. And so Emperor Justinian spent another fortune to aid the city’s second, rapid restoration. It was another of his engineering feats, and this one earned him praise from the city’s survivors and from many citizens throughout the empire.

This section of the city’s new wall stood a hundred feet back from the river and footings of the old wall. A busy market filled the strip between the new wall and the edge of the river’s slow waters. Merchants, citizens, and slaves swarmed among the carts and tables. There were also a few soldiers. Some of those soldiers would be watchmen, tasked to deter thieves and deal with vendors and customers who came to blows during bargaining.

Antioch, the Orontes, and the ridge reminded Cillian of Carnuntum, the Danube, and the Hundslagen back home in Pannonia despite the difference in their architecture, size, and vegetation. It also brought meaning to the expressions he had heard all his life—that Carnuntum was the Antioch of the North and that Antioch was the Third City of the Empire.

With his legs astride and pressed against his pack, Cillian stretched his back, neck, and shoulders once more. Theodoria was fifteen miles from Antioch according to the milestone at this junction, but three months of not marching until today made it feel longer.

Out of practice, are we? Justus laughed at Cillian’s discomfort while he also stretched. Of average height and build, the olive-skinned man with black hair was a true Roman, a citizen of that city. He often praised its urban lifestyle as the ideal for being civilized. Although Cillian was a tall, pale northerner with black hair and a red beard, who spoke Latin with a Pannonian accent, Justus and he got on as if they had grown up together.

Cillian groaned. We were stuck on that ship for half of April, packed like fish in a net.

After they had finished training as archers for the airships and as light infantry on the ground, they were sent from the school, Schola Volucris at Pergamun, to the port of Pitane. It was a day’s march from the school. Three days later, they boarded an old cargo ship that creeped its way along the Eastern edge of Mare Nostrum to the port of Theodoria. The bulky vessel was already crowded with two hundred soldiers when it stopped for them. Every soldier and sagittarius on board was a newly trained replacement for the legions in Syria. But, unlike the soldiers on that ship, the sagittarii were not new to the Roman Army.

Each sagittarius had to have served at least two years in the Army to be selected to go to the Schola. Cillian had served two years as a soldier with Legio XXII Pedestris in Moesia. He and his fellow graduates made their difference in experience and status clear to the ship’s crew and new soldiers. But now, Cillian’s stiff back and legs tempered the superiority he had felt and his satisfaction at having reached this new beginning in his life, a new destiny. He was about to reach down to his pack when he saw Decanus Andreas put on his helmet.

Andreas adjusted his helmet so the pair of short feathers mounted upright on the band in front of the crest were centred above his nose. The two feathers were dyed white to signify his rank as a Decanus. A helmet was only worn in the garrison for occasions such as a parade, guard duty, or reporting to an officer above the rank of centurion.

Cillian remained upright and waited.

Decanus Andreas’s voice snapped like a whip. Sagittarii!

They all came to attention.

Satisfied with their quick reaction, Andreas smiled and held up the sealed tablet that Julian, their senior graduate, had given to him at Theodoria. They knew the tablet contained their names, ages, and a short assessment on each of them. It was intended to help the receiving legions decide on where to place them. Cillian and the others with him had been through this process before as new soldiers at their previous legions.

While I find out who’s going where, Andreas said, Sagittarius Didius will be in charge of you.

Didius had been with Andreas at the quay that morning. A tall, young man with black hair and beard, brown eyes, and dark complexion. He was the opposite of Andreas, who had a brown beard and hair, blue eyes, and fair complexion. Andreas was friendly enough, but had said little in his Macedonian-accented Latin, while Didius had spoken with each of them in turn during the march, in Greek as easily as in Latin, both with an Armenian accent. Didius was either being friendly or finding out things about them to share with his comrades back in the cohorts. It was a maxim that soldiers liked to know things before their officers did.

Didius! Andreas addressed his assistant now. After they get their packs off the road, they can buy something to eat and drink, but they’re to be quick about it and return here to eat.

By the time Andreas was across the road and at the palisade’s gate, the sagittarii had their packs lined up in two rows on a weed-covered mound beside the corner of the two roads.

Didius walked over to where Andreas had stood and took over that spot. Get your coins out if you want to eat. You should have something left from your travel allowance for one more meal. You’ll be on rations tomorrow, so there’s no need to hold back.

Cillian pulled a pouch out of his pack and shook out the few coins in it. He and the others were to

have been paid before they left the Schola, but the pay was late as usual. They would have been given a travel allowance in any case, since it was not possible to carry and cook rations on this trip. He picked out a follis. It should be enough for two meals and as many drinks, he thought, even if the prices here were as inflated as they had been at Constantinople and outside the garrison in Moesia. Merchants were always after the soldiers’ coin.

A glance at the remaining coins in his hand confirmed that soon he would have to use one of the gold solidi from the coin belt he wore under his tunic. He would have to find a coin changer who would exchange it for the one hundred and eighty bronze folles it was worth and charge him no more than five folles. While his coin pouch would bulge and coin belt sag for a week or two, both would steadily lighten. A solidus usually lasted him a month, sometimes six weeks. As a soldier, he was paid four solidi every four months. As a Sagittarius, he would get five solidi each pay.

He slid the pouch back in the pack and took out the tablet his mother had sent him.

Castus, a clerk at the Schola Volucris, had unexpectedly appeared at the dock in Theodoria and handed Cillian the tablet. Castus said it arrived at the school after Cillian left, but since he was to come here to deliver their files to their new legion, he brought the tablet too. Cillian took the tablet and asked how he had got there ahead of them. Castus said that while he had set sail from Pitane a week behind them, he had come on a Dromon class warship. Much faster than their heavy, rounded-hull vessel, it overtook them this morning and reached Theodoria first.

Cillian recalled seeing the sleek ninety-foot-long vessel with its oars pulled in and lateen sails full and tight as it sliced past their plodding cargo ship. He thanked Castus, but the clerk refused any payment, insisting that the passage of personal mail was the duty of every sagittarius. Before Cillian could open his mother’s letter, he and the other sagittarii were formed up by Andreas and marched off.

It occurred to Cillian that he could read the tablet now, without the distraction of prying eyes or crude speculations on what messages it contained. He had a proposal to make. Didius, I can stand watch on the packs, if someone comes back straight away to replace me.

Any takers? Didius asked the others.

Gregor spoke up immediately. If you make sure I’m first, I’ll do it.

Didius nodded in agreement before Gregor had finished speaking.

Thanks, Cillian said to them both.

I hope I remember to come back for you, Gregor said from over his shoulder as he and the others headed to carts and vendors clustered along the side of the road that led into Antioch. Gregor was always joking. A shorter, paler version of Justus, he was the only other actual Roman from Rome itself among them. Gregor was also the son of a retired Centurion, as was Cillian.

While the others followed Didius to what he claimed were the better food carts and wine stalls, Cillian sat down beside the packs. He studied the pair of thin, wood shingles that were bound by a two-hole stitched spine and closed by a seam of wax. It covered his open hand.