Iron Shaft: Tertius

By John Hulme

In this letter to his patron in Rome, the soldier Iron Shaft tells us about the Druids. Julius Caesar has marched his legions into Gaul and is recovering from his first major battle. His German enemy, Ariovistus, is invading the northern Gallic tribes and threatening to move south. He must be stopped. But before the next battle there is one small matter to take care of first; the Spring of Epona must be restarted. The black Derwid Druid sect must be driven away from this sacred site and the waters hidden in the rock made flow again. Only Iron Shaft has the means to do this so the white Druid sect sends in two of its best agents, a high Druid priest and - a beautiful, seductive girl with enough charms to make any normal man do anything she asks. Iron Shaft, as this letter shows, is not any normal man, and must use all his considerable powers to service the Druids, help Julius Caesar overcome a mutiny, defeat the German enemy - and - get the girl. He is not called Iron Shaft for nothing!

• Language: English
• Publisher: John Hulme
• Release date: May 21, 2014
• ISBN: 9781311264800

John Hulme

John Hulme is a retired Professor, now living and writing in Florida. He was educated in England - a long time ago - and arrived on the shores of New York carrying a single suitcase and lots of ideas. He has written several hardcover science books and was an early user of the fledgling internet as a teaching tool. Before retirement he wrote a set of fictional science stories about Gregor Mendel - the person who discovered genetics, which he is now converting into ebooks. Since retirement he has started on a long-cherished writing project of historical fiction - which you may be seeing soon.

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Iron Shaft : Tertius

Being the Third Letter of a Roman soldier, Metilius Crispus Hispanus (also known as Iron Shaft) to his patron L. Cornelius Pusio written in the time of Julius Caesar.

Translated, edited and told to you

by

John Hulme

historian and scholar.

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2014 John Hulme

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner without written permission from the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews..

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Table of Contents

Editor’s Foreword

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Map

About the Author

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Editor’s Foreword

Translating and editing this, the third letter written by the ex-Roman soldier, Iron Shaft, presented a number of unique difficulties. His previous two letters were clearly written in a type of primitive vulgar camp Latin that he had acquired while serving in the legions. While many parts of such a narrative are difficult to translate into modern English, at least the style was consistent, and had a certain rhythm.

At the beginning of this letter his style suddenly changes. At first I thought that someone else had written it for him, but, it appears, he had been simply trying to modify his grammar and make it into one slightly more classical. Fortunately he did not try this for too long, as his grasp of classical Latin was very weak and he made a lot of mistakes that are confounding and confusing.

A second unique difficulty was the missing sections of text. Fairly large chunks of this manuscript are either physically missing, or were copied so badly from the original letters that they cannot be properly translated. Fortunately one of these sections occurs early in the letter and does not seem to have affected the later parts of the story, but one vital section, towards the end of the manuscript, contained an important description of a piece of equipment whose workings were critical to the reader’s understanding of the events that followed.

Translating this one section took more time than almost all the rest of the manuscript! I don’t think that, despite help from some noted Latin scholars and military historians, we have got it completely right, but, by understanding the text around it, we can make some reasonably safe educational guesses. Let’s see what you think!

Editing this letter was much more enjoyable than editing his first letter. By this, the third letter in the series, the ex-soldier was starting to feel more confidence in his writing and was gaining more self-assurance in his ability to tell an interesting tale and expand his story beyond a simple recounting of events. It was fun to put his words into the equivalent modern English and try to recapture for a twenty-first century audience the spirit and intent of a first century author.

As before, there are many words in this manuscript that were either slang, compound words, abbreviations or military terms that have no modern equivalent. It has proved difficult to know what to do with them. A literal translation (even if I could work it out) makes no sense to the modern reader, so I have taken a middle ground and included some of these words (with my attempted translations) to give you a bit of the flavor, but tried very hard not to litter the narrative with a lot of unnecessary explanations or footnotes (those words in square-brackets [xxx]) that slow down the story. I hope I have found the right balance.

If you have read the previous two letters (Primus and Secundus) you will need very little background information before reading this story. After fighting his battle against the Helvetii tribe in Gaul, Caesar decided to push his legions north and east towards the River Rhine to where German tribes, under the leadership of a Suebi King called Ariovistus, had crossed the river and were occupying the lands of some of the native tribes.

In his own account, Caesar gives some interesting if weak excuses for fighting the Germans, most of which were intended for domestic consumption among his fellow Senators in Rome. They are a fascinating look into the mind of Julius Caesar and modern psychologists and politicians could learn a lot from studying them, however, they are clearly not the real reasons for his aggression. Fortunately we now have a less-varnished account from somehow who was there, but saw things from a different perspective.

Read on, and find out what really happened!

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(return to Table of Contents)

Tertius One:

Metilius Crispus Hispanus to his L. Cornelius Pusio honored son of Lucius, greetings.

I pray to all the gods that you are in good health and it is my special wish that fortune favors your latest venture. Marcellus is a most distinguished and honorable man and you are wise to seize the opportunity he lays on your table. With all your talents and the presence of your clients, of which you have many, I know, Jupiter be praised, you will certainly enjoy a most successful endeavor.

Since your friend, Crispinus is to shortly return to you and indicates a desire to leave before the Kalends, I gladly grasp this chance, my lord, to greet you and thank your mother for her magnificent and unexpected gift of two sagaciae and three palliola. Cloaks of such quality and repair are not easy to obtain here and the re-stitching on the edge is almost impossible to see, if the garment is worn carefully. She is a noble and most generous matron, as your father often described her.

Forgive me, noble Lucius, but I am forbidden by the oaths I took before Mithras from answering your question about the mysteries. When you go over the bull for the first time, and later, when you reach the grade of Nymphus, much will be told to you that will calm your spirit and clear your conscience on this matter. Fear nothing. Those of us who wear the lion’s head upon our chest will always protect equal followers of the Savior from Death. Some say that the powers of Mithras rival those of Iuppiter Tonans himself [Jupiter the Thunderer – ed.]. For now, while you still wear the toga, you should humbly worship at the lares of your mother and sacrifice at your chosen temples. The desires of our many Roman gods seem easily satisfied by the correct performance of ceremonies and by the generous gifts you make to the priests and acolytes that guide you along their paths.

But once you strap on the caligae and take up your sword suddenly your city-understanding of the wishes, will and wisdom of the gods becomes much less certain and a lot less clear. Does Mars direct the course of every pilum into the chest of your enemy? Does Apollo love you so much he will deflect the slashing ax of the barbarian away from your head and onto that of the man fighting beside you? Is that man loved less or are you loved more? And what of your enemy?

I have fought against men who, that morning, had sacrificed ten goats to the glory of Toutatis, a fierce and vengeful Gaulish god of war, and later in the battle that followed - I killed them all. Which god was more powerful and protective, theirs or mine? I am still alive and suffering in this ancient body while their spirits are now free from care and being served horns of beer by naked women while sitting at the feet of their divinity. Who then was the victor?

Poets and philosophers try to answer these questions and interpret the heavenly world by studying the actions and consequences of those of us trapped on this earthly world. A destructive storm shows us the displeasure of Thor or Intarabus while a killing plague is the vengeance of Hygeia brought upon us mortals for not accurately following her desires in the matter of archaic ritual.

Warriors hate to displease the gods, in any way. Caesar, not a particularly brave warrior himself but a leader of many fierce warriors, took considerable care over the nurturing of the many gods he met or knew personally and consulted them on any important matter that affected him or his legions. Unlike the poets and philosophers, however, he was not satisfied with simply interpreting the wishes of the gods, he also to found ways to change their needs so that they more closely matched his own. For Caesar religion was not a matter of subjugation to powerful Olympian forces it was a way to suppress any other will than his own.

In his battle against Ariovistus during his first campaign in Gaul neither side wanted to fight. It was near the end of the season in which Lucius Calpurnius Piso Caesoninus and Aulus Gabinius were Consuls in Rome [58 BC – ed.], and his Helvetii allies were already returning to their own lands. Caesar had brought us all north, into the lands of the Sequani to punish, or so he said, the barbarian Germans who were occupying territory on the wrong side of the Rhine River. But, as the days shortened and winter approached, the leader of the Suebii tribes refused to lead his warriors out from their protected camps and onto the reluctant swords of the Legio X [10th Legion - ed.] It was time to turn to the gods and ask for their help.

[gap in the text – ed.]

Excuse the stain of ink on this parchment, I beg you noble Lucius. Your friend Crispinus arrived a short while ago and he began to read my words as I was writing them to you. He partook of some of my better wine and offered me some advice as to the nature and choice of my Latin. As he is a personal friend of yours, I have naturally acceded to his superior knowledge in these matters. He also asked me: Who was Ariovistus? Clearly he has not read the Commentaries of the Divius Julius as written for him by his Greek slave Phrixos.

Forgive me. A knight of your superior education does not need me to explain the history of Caesar or his campaigns in Gaul. Such history, thanks to words I helped write, is well known by anyone of the superior social classes and of course, your family. Your father must have told you of his role many times. However it is possible you will be showing this poor letter to your dear Mother, or to such clients as Cripinus who have not the benefit of your knowledge of Roman history. Perhaps, if it is to your liking, I should place my discussion of religion, Caesar and his victory against the barbarian Germans in the context of a broader tale.

So, I will sharpen a new reed and while Crispinus sleeps away the fumes of my better wine, I will take my thoughts back to the time when I was still a simple soldier in Caesar’s Bull-X Legion and much of our mutual glory still lay in the future.

We were in Gaul. That spring Gaius Julius Caesar had left Rome in somewhat of a hurry and joined us, his famous Legio X, near Lacus Lemannus [Lake Geneva – ed.]. No doubt he would have been content to administer his Proconsulship of the Narbonese Province in trans-alpine Gaul without unnecessary conflict, and we could have enjoyed a peaceful life in one of Rome’s oldest colonies. The women were warm and willing, the food good and spring was coming. Unfortunately, so were the Helvetii.

Alliances among and between the tribes of Gaul are impossible to understand, but it appeared that the Helvetii were on their way to a giant feast hosted by a devious champion of the Aeduean tribe in which large amounts of gold, silver and other valuables would be given and exchanged. Then, they were going to fight the Suebii Germans who had recently crossed the Rhine river and were now occupying land that once belonged to the Sequani.

We were but one Legion, while the Helvetii and their fellow tribes may have numbered in the hundreds of thousands. They were fierce warriors who were not afraid of us or our reputation and we should have left them well alone. Unfortunately they were carrying with them many valuable gifts that they intended to give away and exchange at their giant feast. Knowledge of this wealth reached the ear of Caesar and he hurried north to our camp on Lacus Lemannus to seize his share.

With foolish haste he raised two more Legions, the Legio XI and the Legio XII [11th and 12th Legions - ed.] and then sent for the old Consular Legions, the VIIth, VIIIth and IXth [7th, 9th, and 9th - ed.]who were in comfortable winter quarters by the sea and did not like being brought north and into danger. With these very inferior forces we followed the migrating Helvetii north, up the banks of the Greasy River [Saone – ed.]and, were slowly starving to death. The angry Helvetii eventually trapped our inferior forces into battle. We almost lost Caesar’s first set-piece encounter near the Gaulish oppidium of Bibracte. We were only saved by my own quick thinking and by the talents of Brocchus, one of my tent-mates.

At the end of the battle, which only came about when our enemy refused to fight after darkness began to fall, we stormed the camp of the Helvetii. We captured most of their women and all of their treasure. This brought great pleasure to Caesar and did not disappoint us common soldiers.

As he did so well, Caesar then began to talk. He talked with our allies, the Aeduii, Sequani and the Boii. He talked with the tribal leaders of the Helvetii and Tulingi and, as he always did, he negotiated his way out of his current difficulties. Our allies rewarded our recent enemies, our recent enemies rewarded us and we rewarded no one but ourselves, and Caesar. With much celebration it was decided that the Helvetii, still too powerful to remain in the lands of our allies, would move east, back in the direction from which they came. This track would also take them to the southern flank of our mutual enemies – the Suebii Germans – who were occupying the eastern lands of our allies the Sequani. Our Legions would become the other arm of a pincer movement and attack the German barbarians from the west and north driving them back across the Rhine River and returning them to their own barbaric lands.

Such was the plan.

While our exalted and gold encrusted leaders plotted the course of our future we men made of lesser clay had more immediate concerns. After any great battle there is much to be done. Our wounded comrades need to be treated, our dead have to be burned and buried according to ritual, our Legion rolls need to be adjusted, payments made and gaps closed. Weapons have to be recovered, repaired and resharpened. Losses have to be accounted for and a fountain of ink has to be spilt by all the librarii, tabulariiactuaii and exacti all under the careful eye of the cornicularius [chief clerk – ed.] while all is recorded and accounted for. Ink and Blood; the two most important fluids in a Roman Legion.

When the praefectus castorum [camp prefect – ed.] is finally satisfied that all is in order comes the division of the spoils. Naturally, Caesar kept most of the gold. He was always in debt and needed wagons of coin to bribe his allies in Rome. However, no leader, not even one as astute as the Divius Julius, can possibly prevent us soldiers from collecting the small chaff that falls into our hands during the heat of battle.

After a sword thrust that killed a large Gaul and just as the enemy was retreating, I had taken a few moments to search a rich corpse right at my feet. Among his collection of wooden and hairy charms, which I naturally threw away, was a single, large gold coin. This coin was Gaulish and was marked on both sides with strange designs. It was not flat, but shaped like a small bowl. This was the first of these coins I was to see, but it was not to be the last. Before my centurion saw me, I slipped the coin into my belt and finished the battle.

Now came the official division of the possessions captured from the Helvetii camp. This was done in the old way. Sadly most of the women were returned to their own warriors and the stocks of food and wine had already been appropriated and vanished. No Legatus will ever try to keep food from a staving army that has just finished fighting. All that was left were large piles of clothing, leather, harnesses, metal work, domestic items and some base coinage of little value. According to rank and cohort, the legion soldiers were paraded before these piles of loot and each man was allowed to walk among them, picking up what he fancied and taking only as much as he could carry in his arms.

He was then paraded before the signifer of his cohort and the value of the goods in his arms was assessed. This amount was then deducted from his savings and he was free to use or sell what he has collected, usually at a profit.

When it came to my turn, I wandered among the piles of leather looking to replace my belt harness. That was when I saw a considerable pile of bronze tunic-broaches and cloak-broaches of distinctive beauty and some decent value. A quantity of these would sell quite well among the tents, and even among the officers where such clothing fasteners were always being lost or broken. Unfortunately it was almost impossible to carry more than a dozen of these small items in my two hands.

Looking around I saw another pile of cooking pots and strange metal bowls: just what I wanted. I quickly chose the largest of these bowls; one that was very old, dirty, made of some base metal and carved with wavy designs. Nothing special, I thought, but deep enough to carry a large quantity of the broaches. It did. I filled the bowl with valuable bronze and staggered over to the signifer to pay the legion from my savings.

He sniffed: "Is that all you could find, Iron Shaft? I heard you were wounded. Why didn’t you get some of those new tunics? What is this, a dirty bowl and some ladies jewelry? Was that wound in your head? I assess you ten sestertii." With a second sniff he marked this amount against my name in his rolls and I walked away from his table a happy man. Each of the broaches I was carrying was of excellent workmanship and would sell in the camp for at least a denarius, or more. It is accepted that the signifer will not deduct more than a modest amount in payment for your share of the loot. That is understood. It is the unofficial way of rewarding those who have fought so bravely. In this case I had been particularly fortunate.

What did you get? asked Calvus of our tent when I got back to the lines. He looked at my bowl of broaches and made the first offer. "I need a good heavy broach to clasp my sagum, what have you got? We went through my collection together and a deal was made. It was not the last such deal I made that day and by nightfall I had sold at considerable profit at least ten.

Not everyone was as satisfied as I was by the division of the Helvetii spoils. Over in the camps of the Legio XI and Legio XII there was rage.

Caesar, when he first raised these pitiful legions had not done a very good job. The men he brought under the