Read Marius' Mules VI: Caesar's Vow Online

Authors: S.J.A. Turney

Tags: #army, #Vercingetorix, #roman, #Caesar, #Rome, #Gaul, #Legions

Marius' Mules VI: Caesar's Vow (65 page)

BOOK: Marius' Mules VI: Caesar's Vow
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Orichalcum
: a lost metal, possibly a mix of gold and silver, or possibly akin to brass.

Pilum (p: Pila)
: the army’s standard javelin, with a wooden stock and a long, heavy lead point.

Pilus Prior
: The most senior centurion of a cohort and one of the more senior in a legion.

Praetor
: a title granted to the commander of an army. cf the Praetorian Cohort.

Praetorian Cohort
:
personal bodyguard of a General.

Proconsul
: Former consul and governor of a proconsular province.

Primus Pilus
: The chief centurion of a legion. Essentially the second in command of a legion.

Pugio
:
the standard broad bladed dagger of the Roman military.

Quadriga
: a chariot drawn by four horses, such as seen at the great races in the circus of Rome.

Samarobriva
: oppidum on the Somme River, now called Amiens.

Scorpion, Ballista & Onager
: Siege engines. The Scorpion was a large crossbow on a stand, the Ballista a giant missile throwing crossbow, and the Onager a stone hurling catapult.

Signifer
:
A century’s standard bearer, also responsible for dealing with pay, burial club and much of a unit’s bureaucracy.

Subura
: a lower-class area of ancient Rome, close to the forum, that was home to the red-light district’.

Testudo
: Lit- Tortoise. Military formation in which a century of men closes up in a rectangle and creates four walls and a roof for the unit with their shields.

Triclinium
: The dining room of a Roman house or villa.

Trierarch
: Commander of a Trireme or other Roman military ship.

Tuba
: A Roman musical instrument – a straight horn.

Turma
: A small detachment of a cavalry ala consisting of thirty two men led by a decurion.

Vexillum
(Pl. Vexilli):
The standard or flag of a legion.

Vindunum
: later the Roman Civitas Cenomanorum, and now Le Mans in France.

Vineae
: moveable wattle and leather wheeled shelters that covered siege works and attacking soldiers from enemy missiles.

 

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The Roman Empire is crumbling, and a shadow looms in the east. 376 AD: the Eastern Roman Empire is alone against the tide of barbarians swelling on her borders. Emperor Valens juggles the paltry border defences to stave off invasion from the Goths north of the Danube. Meanwhile, in Constantinople, a pact between faith and politics spawns a lethal plot that will bring the dark and massive hordes from the east crashing down on these struggling borders. The fates conspire to see Numerius Vitellius Pavo, enslaved as a boy after the death of his legionary father, thrust into the limitanei, the border legions, just before they are sent to recapture the long-lost eastern Kingdom of Bosporus. He is cast into the jaws of this plot, so twisted that the survival of the entire Roman world hangs in the balance.

Table of Contents

***

***
Prologue
Chapter One
Bibracte, in the lands of the Aedui of central Gaul
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Epilogue
Author’s Note
Glossary of Terms
BOOK: Marius' Mules VI: Caesar's Vow
13.66Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
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