Iron Shaft: Primus

By John Hulme

This is the story that Julius Caesar never wanted told. For almost two thousand years the famous Roman dictator has had a monopoly on history. His was the only version we could read of the many battles he fought in pre-Christian Gaul (modern France) before returning to Rome and becoming one of Shakespeare's popular heroes. Now, spattered with blood, sex and intrigue we have the letters of Iron Shaft - a soldier in the famous Roman Tenth Legion, who tells a very different tale. With a sharp sword and a sharper pen he stabs right into the guts of his enemies and gives us the lust, the reasons and - the truth. He was there. He made it happen. A penetrating account of how he made his enemies shiver and their daughters quiver. He was called Iron Shaft for a good reason!

• Language: English
• Publisher: John Hulme
• Release date: May 21, 2014
• ISBN: 9781311882189

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.

Book preview

Iron Shaft : Primus

Being the First 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..

~~~ooo~~~

Table of Contents

Foreword

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Afterword

Map

About the Author

~~~ooo~~~

Foreword

Two thousand years ago a retired soldier sat at a rough wooden table, took a primitive reed pen in his hands and wrote the words you are about to study. This man, who was known by the nickname Iron Shaft, had served for over 25 years in the Legions of Rome during the time of Julius Caesar. They give a firsthand account of both the actual events of this important era, and what it was like to serve in one of history’s most impressive military machines. As such, they are probably unique.

At its peak the Roman Empire ruled from the frigid borders of Scotland in Britain to the steaming cataracts of the Nile in Egypt, and everything in-between. It was able to do so largely because of the ruthless efficiency of the Roman Legion. These soldiers, their training, their equipment, their officers and their tactics were unrivaled and almost unbeatable. Legionaries marched up the un-scalable slopes of Masada and across the un-crossable rivers of Germany fighting everyone and anyone who got in their way. They were the iron fist enforcing the Imperial policies set by a handful of toga-wearing men in a small town on the banks of the Tiber River. It was a very impressive achievement that lasted, roughly, from 700BC to 476AD.

In the beginning Rome was ruled by Kings. These eventually gave way, in 510BC, to a Republic in which power gradually became centered on, organized and administered by a wealthy class of patricians who annually elected two Consuls to hold executive power. They also organized and ran the army. In the beginning this was a citizen army made up of farmers who expected to be sent home after the current crisis was over. Slowly, however, this army became more professional and permanent. It learnt to adapt battle-winning techniques from its enemies, evolved the use of a short, stabbing, Spanish sword, and, most importantly, developed a systematic method of training men to fight as a disciplined, unified force that held its ground even when faced by overwhelming odds. And, succeed.

Just as the Roman Legion was achieving its maximum degree of efficiency and ruthlessness, along came an individual who knew how to use it both for the glory of Rome, and for himself. This man was Gaius Julius Caesar.

During a critical part of his political rise to supreme power as Dictator of Rome, Julius Caesar conducted a multi-year war against Gaul (roughly modern France), the tribes of Germany and the island nation that would one day become Britain. His legions marched, camped, fought, marched again and fought again until Roman civilization had been ruthlessly imposed upon people who didn’t need it, or want it, until they tried it. These were important years in the expansion of the Roman Empire and the creation of a legacy; an imposed civilization that still affects our lives today.

There is only one account of that war, the one written by Julius Caesar himself! During the time he spent with the Legions in Gaul, he sent regular dispatches back to the Senators and citizens of Rome telling them how well he was doing, how many battles he was winning and how the glory of Roman culture and civilization was being planted in all these vast territories. Caesar’s Gallic Wars (Commentarii de Bello Gallico) as complied by his friends, after his death, became the standard work read and reread for the next 2,000 years by, priests, historians, scholars, army officers and every schoolboy in the English Public school system – it still is today.

There is only one problem about this – Caesar was not necessarily writing factual history. He was a very able and very clever politician who understood the meaning of spin long before American politicians discovered how useful it was in promoting their own careers. He was writing for an audience he wanted to impress. He wanted defeats to look like victories and victories to look like moments of outstanding genius by someone who should definitely be made the supreme leader back in his hometown. Until the discovery of the letters presented here, his was the only version of this critical part of history that has come down to us.

It is a bit like historians in the year 4,010 AD trying to reconstruct what the Vietnam war was all about and having to depend on Richard Nixon’s memoirs as their only source material!

Fortunately we now have the letters of Iron Shaft. These appear to be letters written by a retired soldier who had served in the 10th Legion from the time of its formation in 59 BC to, possibly, the battle of Actium in 31 BC. They were sent to the son of an old comrade who was about to join the army and set off for war. They tell the story of army life and the life of Julius Caesar from a very different and enlightening perspective: one that gives us a new insight into both the famous historical characters of the time and their gritty roles in march of history.

These letters came to light in a strange and interesting way that is a story unto itself. They are not original. Nothing from that time has succeeded in defeating the destructive forces of mold, insects, decay, theft and willful neglect. They are copies, possibly made by an apprentice cleric in a monastery as part of an exercise in learning Latin.

Translating and editing these unusual documents has presented a number of difficulties. Iron Shaft, the original author, was the uneducated son of a provincial farmer, who certainly did not use classical Latin either in his everyday speech or in his letter writing. Cicero would have had a very, very hard time understanding him. Latin scholars have not made much effort in trying to interpret the vulgar, common Latin language used by such everyday citizens, so huge gaps remain in our understanding of words and phrases that would have been taken for granted by men and women walking the streets of any Roman town. Also, as explained by St. Jerome, spoken Latin changes constantly as you pass from one district to another and from one period to another, so, what was clear in Tarentum would have been a mystery in Ticinum (southern and northern towns in Roman Italy).

Slang that was common and universally understood in its day, makes absolutely no sense 2,000 years later in a totally different culture. This difficulty is compounded by the fact that Iron Shaft littered his letters with common military language and terms that every soldier would have understood instantly but is now gobbledygook! Imagine a Chinese scholar in the year 4,010 AD trying to make sense of this English sentence from the Vietnam War: We heloed in for about 5 klicks spraying Charley with 50mm rounds. Best of luck!

Even simpler Latin forms are not what the classicist expects. The phrase on the white tablet would be written by Cicero as in alba tabula, but by Iron Shaft as in tabula in albo (on the tablet, on the white surface, which is charmingly quaint when first encountered but becomes very annoying after the first 10 pages! It gets worse!

Iron Shaft probably used a type of writing known today as ‘Old Roman Cursive’, used military shorthand, did not put gaps between his words, did not use any kind of punctuation and used large numbers of abbreviations. So, the translator first has to take the line - ‘DMGVALERIVSGFGALERIAVICTOR’ – and know to separate it into ‘D. M. G. VALERIVS G. F. GALERIA VICTOR’ before even attempting to translate the five abbreviations and changes in word order, into the modern English phrase ‘To the spirits of the departed; Gaius Valerius Victor (of the voting tribe Galeria)’. And that was one of the easiest! Throw in all too common spelling mistakes and common pronunciation changes (it quod instead of id quod) and suddenly the translator and editors are faced with blocks of text that take days, weeks or never to interpret properly.

Names, dates, money, distances, measures, and clothes were all different in Roman times to those used today, but at least historians know what they are and what they mean. In presenting these letters to you, therefore, I have preserved the use original terms, and hence give you the flavor of what is being said, along with modern interpretations so that a 20th century reader can understand what is going on. This is always an uneasy compromise and as time went on I found myself using more and more modern terms so as not to interrupt the flow of the story or narrative with unnecessary explanations. This seems the best way to go, but again, it is an uncomfortable compromise.

Enjoy!

~~~ooo~~~

Chapter 1

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