Chapter 95: Each One’s Trick
Caesar decided that he had to do something about the fear of the Germans that was spreading throughout the legion.
Just as he was about to take action, Marcus visited his headquarters and suggested a good idea.
Caesar combined Marcus’ suggestion with his own plan and executed it.
He immediately convened a commanders’ meeting.
Normally, only the legionnaires, the cohort leaders, and the first centurion of the first cohort could participate in the commanders’ meeting.
But this time, all the centurions who were not eligible to participate were also summoned so that Caesar’s words could reach all the soldiers as quickly as possible.
The centurions looked at each other nervously in the ominous atmosphere.
Caesar randomly picked one person and asked him.
“I’ve heard that there’s been an unpleasant incident in the army lately. There’s an unbelievable rumor that the soldiers are reluctant to go to war. Do you know why?”
“Uh? No, well…”
“It’s unacceptable for Roman soldiers to refuse to go to war because they are afraid of the enemy. But unfortunately, it seems that there are quite a few people among these officers who have such unacceptable thoughts! You can be afraid if we face an enemy that is too powerful for us.
Being fearless is not courage but recklessness. If the enemy was worthy of being feared, I wouldn’t be angry.
But who are you afraid of? Just some barbarians from the north who lose their courage before fighting us. It’s a shame for our great ancestors.”
The centurions and even the cohort leaders couldn’t say a word of defense.
Caesar scolded his subordinates for their mental state while also encouraging them that they had nothing to fear from their opponents.
“Rome has always felt an unreasonable fear of the Germans who were bigger than us. That’s why we suffered a humiliating defeat. But what about the most recent battle? Marius completely annihilated the Cimbri and Teutoni tribes who dared to invade Rome.
Now these two tribes no longer exist in this world. Their foolish choice of opposing Rome came back as a harsh price of their tribe’s extinction.
You are afraid of those who are no different from those who have disappeared from history by our ancestors!
Just think again how easily we crushed the Helvetii who fought fiercely with the Germans. And we have a warrior in our army who has never lost to a German warrior. Let’s hear from him, an experienced person, whether Germany is really a scary opponent or not. Spartacus, the centurion of the 12th legion!”
“Yes, I will tell you nothing but the truth without a grain of falsehood about what you ask me, Imperator.”
As Spartacus stood up from his seat, everyone’s eyes naturally focused on him.
Some of them admired him for his brilliant performance in the battle with the Helvetii.
Those who had seen his gladiator fights also looked at him with similar expressions.
Even those who had not seen his fight with the Helvetii knew his feats well.
And those who knew Spartacus’ prowess could easily guess how he fought.
They had already agreed on what to say, but Caesar pretended to ask him earnestly in a serious voice.
“Spartacus, you never lost in dozens of gladiator fights. How many times did you fight against German gladiators?”
“I don’t remember the exact number, but I think it was more than five times.”
“Tell me how you felt then. It’s different from a one-on-one fight and a group fight, but it would be a great help if you could share your general impression when fighting Germany. And if you had any memorable or dangerous enemies among German gladiators, tell me that too.”
“Yes. The German gladiators I faced were generally tall and had strong impressions. They seemed confident in their strength and stamina. But I don’t have any memorable enemies. I don’t remember having more than ten exchanges with German gladiators.”
The centurions gasped at Spartacus’ calm explanation.
Spartacus’ gladiator record was all recorded.
There was no exaggeration or lie in it.
Spartacus’ fervent fan, a young centurion, whispered to his colleague next to him and his voice was low in the meeting room.
“It’s true. I saw his fight too. It ended in just three exchanges. The German gladiator was huge but he passed out without even knowing how he lost. The Gallic gladiators actually put up a better fight.”
“What? Then the Germans are just empty grape skins with big mouths? Did we get scared for nothing?”
“Actually, as the Imperator said, we easily crushed the Helvetii who fought with Germany. If you think about it, they might not be that great.”
Caesar didn’t stop the centurions from murmuring on purpose.
The noise grew louder and created an atmosphere that they had been unnecessarily intimidated.
Soon Caesar smiled satisfactorily and emphasized again.
“Have you all regained your composure? The Germans were annihilated by us in a group fight, and they couldn’t beat our Roman gladiator in a one-on-one fight.
Being big and strong was certainly an advantage in combat. But more important than that were the skills honed by training, the will to win, and the favor of the gods.
“You, who are here, have undergone the most rigorous training and have outstanding pride as Roman soldiers. Moreover, we have already proven that we have the blessing of the gods by defeating the Helvetii with ease.”
Caesar paused and looked around at the audience.
Unlike before, there was no fear on the faces of the centurions.
But this was only enough to get rid of their reluctance to fight.
Caesar did not stop here and intended to boost the morale of the soldiers even more.
“But there may still be some soldiers who are not completely confident. For them, I declare here in advance. Before engaging in battle with Ariovistus, I will propose to him that we each send our best warrior for a one-on-one duel. The Germans claim that they are superior to anyone else, but everyone will see how hollow and false that is.”
Caesar’s words completely restored the commanders’ spirits.
The confident attitude of the supreme commander naturally spread to his subordinates.
Caesar’s speech reached the ears of all the soldiers in less than a day.
The soldiers who had been depressed a day ago reversed their morale in an instant.
All eight legions sent representatives to apologize for their weakness and swore to fight with their lives.
As the legion’s morale soared to the sky, Caesar immediately initiated action.
The Roman legion left Bibracte and headed northeast, where Ariovistus was.
There was no problem with the marching route as it was flat and the supply was pre-arranged with four tribes.
Caesar occasionally asked Marcus for his opinion while marching toward his destination.
It seemed more like he wanted to confirm that he was right than to seek wisdom.
It was not a bad deal for Marcus either, as he could hear Caesar’s thoughts that were not written in Gallic Wars.
Besides, it was better for adjusting the situation to express his opinion openly.
Marcus had to show his presence in this expedition, achieve his goal, and control the situation so that it would flow exactly as history did.
To do that, he had to guide the events to flow identically to history from the beginning to the development.
He would have some autonomy in his actions after the actual battle began, but until then he had to be very careful.
‘If I mess up and Caesar fails to subjugate Gaul, it would be a disaster.’
If Marcus could stay with him from start to finish, it might be different, but he could only stay for up to two years at most.
But for Marcus’s future plans, Caesar had to subjugate Gaul without fail.
Otherwise, all his plans would be twisted.
No, if he didn’t get his hands on Gaul’s farmland and resources, his plans might go beyond being distorted and Rome might not last.
He had to be careful twice or three times to avoid such a situation.
‘I have Gallic Wars, the best guidebook for this expedition, so there’s no need to change history.’
It was easier for Marcus to impress Caesar by letting things go as they should.
Of course, he intended to avoid any unnecessary damage.
He had planned from the beginning to use some minor changes that would not affect the flow of Gaul’s expedition to gain benefits.
One of them was developing the area he was heading to now.
The area currently occupied by Ariovistus’s Suebi tribe was northeast of Bibracte, which is now called Alsace.
It was a unique iron ore deposit in Gaul, but no one knew this fact at that time.
Marcus’s biggest goal for following this Gallic expedition was securing Alsace and Lorraine regions.
He had already obtained permission from Caesar to take possession of the resources from this place.
But when Ariovistus was driven out, those who would actually exercise control over Alsace would be the Sequani tribe.
So Marcus had already concluded an agreement with them while staying in Bibracte.
The terms of the agreement were as follows:
He would develop Alsace region in exchange for Sequani tribe being responsible for ensuring the safety of trade routes.
As a reward, Marcus would help influential members of Sequani tribe obtain Roman citizenship.
The task of transporting resources from Alsace was also entrusted to Sequani tribe for a fair price.
They couldn’t even mine iron buried in Alsace with their own technology anyway.
If they could drive out Suebi tribe and get some monetary benefits as well, they had no reason to refuse.
To implement this agreement, Marcus had to completely smash Ariovistus.
He had to show an overwhelming superiority of power so that Sequani tribe wouldn’t have any other thoughts.
While Marcus was planning for the future, the Roman army continued to move forward.
Soon, the distance between them and Ariovistus’s army was reduced to about a day’s march, and Caesar stopped marching and ordered to build a camp.
When the camp was almost finished, Ariovistus sent an envoy.
It seemed like a belated move, but Caesar decided to listen to what the envoy had to say.
“What did he say?”
Caesar asked lightly in response to Marcus’s question.
“What do you think he said?”
“Probably something like this: We have entered his territory, so now we can talk, something like that.”
“That’s right. But we should still hear what they have to say. So I agreed to meet on a hill located in the center of both armies five days later. He also insisted that cavalry would be better than infantry for escort.”
“He’s too obvious.”
There was a widespread belief that the Roman army was vulnerable to cavalry.
On the contrary, the Germans had many more people who were familiar with horses than the Romans.
Of course, there were Gallic cavalry units as Caesar’s reinforcements, but there was no Roman commander who would go to the meeting place with Gallic escort.
Ariovistus probably expected Caesar to bring soldiers who were not accustomed to horses.
But there was one thing that Ariovistus missed.
It was the fact that the Roman cavalry had greatly improved thanks to the stirrups made by Marcus.
Pompey also prepared a plan to train archers using stirrups, so the Roman cavalry was in a completely different state than before.
The Gauls and Germans, who had not fought with Rome recently, did not notice this change.
Even in the battle with the Helvetii, they did not use cavalry actively due to terrain problems, so this information did not spread widely.
That’s why Caesar could confidently accept Ariovistus’s proposal.
“If you don’t mind, Marcus, would you like to come with me? Of course, with Spartacus.”
“I was going to ask you for that. I wanted to see the leader of the enemy army that I will fight in the future.”
“The enemy you will fight···Don’t you think the meeting will end well?”
“Do you have even a speck of hope for that, Caesar?”
Caesar answered Marcus’s question with a bitter smile.
Both of them were sure that they had no choice but to fight anyway.
But they agreed to the meeting because they had to keep up appearances.
Rome had always tried to improve relations with its neighbors.
But this time, the Suebi tribe plundered and demanded submission from the Haedui tribe, who were friends of Rome. He had to know that this was something Rome could not tolerate as an ally. Their demands were the same as before. Release the hostages of Haedui tribe and refrain from expanding their territory toward Gaul.”
The interpreter translated Ariovistus’s words verbatim.
Ariovistus snorted at Caesar’s words. He tapped his staff with his hand and retorted.
“You talk as if we invaded Gaul arbitrarily, but this is different from the truth. We crossed the Rhine at the request of Sequani tribe.
But now they say they can’t handle it and ask us to go back? Does Rome really think this is fair?
And you say I chose to be hostile to Rome, but well···If I kill you here, wouldn’t the Senate be happy and try to strengthen their friendship with me?”
This time Caesar was quite surprised.
He didn’t expect Ariovistus to know about his confrontation with the Senate.
He was a man who could grasp the flow of Roman politics, so he could be a bigger threat than expected.
‘It would be better to deal with him here.’
Caesar glanced at Marcus next to him.
Marcus nodded slightly.
They never intended to resolve things through negotiation in the first place.
Caesar, who was looking for an excuse to break off the talks, saw a good sight.
The ten cavalrymen who escorted Ariovistus started throwing stones at the Roman cavalry.
It was a trivial quarrel, but Caesar defined it as a preemptive attack by the Suebi tribe.
“They provoked us with violence after asking for a meeting. This is a heinous act that will anger the gods.”
“Violence? How ridiculous. Are the Roman soldiers whining about being hit by a few pebbles? If they are such weaklings, they are not qualified to negotiate with us in the first place.”
Ariovistus, who underestimated the Roman army’s strength, realized Caesar’s intention but decided to go along with it.
He had no intention of securing his position by negotiating with Rome either.
He had fought hard for fourteen years since he crossed into Gaul to get where he was now.
He had no intention of giving it up easily, no matter what anyone said.
And if he defeated the Roman army here, the territories of Haedui and Sequani tribes would surely belong to Suebi tribe.
Then Ariovistus could claim to be the king of Gaul and Germania, and no one could deny his authority.
As both sides became determined to fight, the ten cavalrymen who were guarding them naturally drew their weapons.
Ariovistus felt a sudden impulse to attack Caesar here, but he restrained himself.
The posture of the Roman soldiers with ridiculous devices on their horses looked surprisingly stable, and attacking an enemy at the meeting place was a dishonorable thing to do.
He left a harsh word and turned his horse around.
“Now that we have returned to our camps, there is nothing left but war. I will make you regret your recklessness for challenging us.”
“Wait!”
Caesar stopped Ariovistus, who was about to leave, and made him an offer.
Ariovistus’s eyes widened as he heard the offer he had never imagined.
He soon burst into a loud laugh.
“Hahaha! Are you insane? Fine. I accept, of course. We have no reason to refuse.”
The area that Marcus wants to take over is Alsace above.
The Roman army that left Bibracte went there and confronted Suebi tribe, a branch of Germans.
<Chapter 95. Each One’s Aim> End
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