Old Gnaeus Florus heard a knock at his door and saw Tertullus and Verus standing there.
"We need to come in, Gnaeus," Tertullus said.
Florus stepped back from his door as the two men entered. A former First Rank and Camp Prefect, he had made the same type of call on too many families. He gestured to a table and waited for his visitors to sit. His wife, his daughter, daughter-in-law, and two grandchildren grouped around him. Ten-year-old Gnaeus stood beside his grandfather as though mounting guard.
"Father isn't coming back," he whispered.
"Gnaeus, hush!" his grandmother said.
"Your grandson is right, Flavia," Tertullus said.
The women cried out and burst into tears. Old Florus drew a ragged breath and scrubbed his face with his calloused hands.
"The first battle or did we have another?" he asked.
"There was another battle, outside Artaxata," Tertullus said. "We won again, but I've never seen casualties like this. It's almost not possible."
Verus slid a tablet across the table.
"They found this in the mail," he said. "He must have wrote it the day before."
Old Florus clutched the tablet to his chest as tears streamed down his face.
"Come see me tomorrow and we can discuss funeral and pension and any other questions," Tertullus said. "We have to get to Aemilius Burrus' family now."
"Thank you," the old man whispered.
The two men saw themselves out and crossed the hall to knock on Keziah's door. She blanched as she saw them and guessed their errand.
"Aelius and Aeneas are not on the list," Tertullus said. "Aemilius is."
She reached for her shawl.
"Euodia will not take this well," she said.
"There's something else you should know, though," Tertullus said.
She waited.
"With so many men dead or crippled, Aelius is likely First Rank. That puts a lot on you."
"I'm already doing it," she said. "Melita, Vinicia, and Julia deal with babies and illness. I'm handling the rest of it."
....
Bolt and Victoria looked over the casualty returns for XII Fulminata and Cohors II Italica. All three Centurions ahead of Cornelius had been killed or succumbed to injuries. He was now Primus Pilus of Cohors II.
"I'd say congratulations, but I'm not sure that's even proper," Bolt said to him.
"It's not," Cornelius said. "Those were good men and now they're gone."
"Along with so many others," Crispinus said.
Bolt looked from Cornelius to Crispinus and Verus.
"That brings up another thing," he said. "Centurions can marry. Their wives will get their pension or land grants. It's the lower ranks I'm worried about. The camp families are on their own."
"Usually, the squads take care of them," Verus said.
"The men are here," Victoria said. "The families are back home."
"We need to do something," Bolt said. "I know Marius will have some ideas. Victory, can you get a message to him?"
"I will," she said.
YOU ARE READING
Domina Victrix
Historical FictionDescendants of Triumvir Mark Antony through his little-known first wife, young cousins, Victoria and Marcus, have always known they were heirs to a mixed-blessing heritage. Roman men were expected to brutally dominate their families and the world a...
