"I just wish I knew why he did it." Whilehis face was now uncovered, he refused to look me in the eye. "Hewasn't even a very good Legionary," he mumbled, shaking his head ashe tried to understand what would essentially be a mystery thatwould never be solved.
"Gaius." I attempted to explain, although Icannot say that I understood myself. "Valens chose to sacrificehimself for you. It was his decision, not yours."
"But why?" he asked me, and now he did lookat me, searching my face.
I wished I could comfort him with an answer,but instead, I could only repeat myself.
"It was his choice. He obviously believedthat your life was worth saving. Valens sacrificed himself to makesure that you continue to lead your Century. And," I felt compelledto add, "if the Fates decree it, perhaps to lead a Cohort. Or evena Legion."
Gaius shook his head violently.
"I don't want to lead a Legion. Ever," hesaid fervently. "A Cohort? Maybe. But never a Legion. That's justtoo much responsibility. But I still don't understand, Uncle Titus.Why me? Why was I saved? What makes me any better than Valens?"
I will admit that now my patience wasbeginning to wear thin, so I may have spoken a trifle sharply as Ishot back, "You are better than Valens! That's what herecognized, and why he made his choice! And now you owe him a debt,and the way to repay that debt is to continue to lead your men insuch a way that there will be more Valenses who are willing tosacrifice themselves for their comrades."
Grabbing him by the shoulders, I turned himso that he had no choice but to look at me, and I finished, "Don'twaste this, nephew. You've been given a gift beyond price, and nowyou owe it to yourself and to Valens' memory to set an example thatwould make him proud."
Swallowing hard, Gaius finally gave me ananswer in the form of a simple nod. I could tell that he was stilltroubled, and I imagine that it continues to this day, although hedoes not mention it in any of his letters now. Understanding thatnothing more I could say was going to change anything in his mind,I moved on.
"The important thing is that you're aliveand were the first through," I told him. "And I have some good newsabout that."
"I don't care about the coronamurales anymore," Gaius said wearily, and that was enough tomake my temper flare.
"Well, you should," I snapped. "Because ifthings go badly when I go to Rome, you're going to need as manypositive entries in your record as you can get." I softened mytone, but just a fraction because I needed to impress on him theimportance of what I was saying. "You not only earned that award,the best part is that there's no way for Augustus to question howyou came by it, because we have an independent witness whosetestimony will be impossible to impeach."
Gaius looked confused, which wasunderstandable.
"The only people who saw who went throughthe breach first were the Moesians and my own men. It was dark, andbetween that and the smoke, nobody outside the walls could havebeen a witness."
"True," I conceded, "but see that man overthere?" I indicated where Charax's body was lying on the ground,covered by his cloak as men were making the preparation for hisburial rites.
Like us, Charax had informed me that theMoesians were cremated, but then their remains were placed in anurn that was entombed in a dug out burial chamber in the ground.Gaius looked over, but I could see that his puzzlement onlyincreased.
"His name was Charax," I continued. "He wasthe elder of Naissus that came to me and tried to keep us fromtaking the town. He was there when you came through the breach, andkilled Aderbal."
"Who?"
"The Moesian that Valens saved you from whenyou slipped," I explained. "Aderbal was the leader of the ambushthat took the standard. Charax saw everything, but in the fighting,he was knocked unconscious. Since we had spoken before, he asked tospeak to me."
The frown that creased Gaius' face waseerily reminiscent of the look that Scribonius wore so often as helooked back at the body, clearly trying to puzzle out the parts ofthe story I was not filling in.
"He must have been badly wounded then," hecommented, then turned back to face me.
I actually opened my mouth to correct him,and tell him the whole story, but decided that could wait foranother time.
Instead, I told him, "What's important isthat Charax told us what he saw, and he said it in the presence ofwitnesses that aren't attached to me in any way." Looking about, Ifinally spotted the Tribune for whom I was looking and pointed athim with my chin. "Lucullus was there, along with two Gregarii, andI already had them write their statements. Diocles took them, andI'm sure they're already filed in the Praetorium. So there'sreally no reason not to award you the corona."
"I suppose that's something," Gaius finallyadmitted.
I knew that was the most I was going to getout of him at that point.
"Go to the baths and get cleaned up," I toldhim, but he shook his head.
"Not until the men are done with their fun.In fact, I need to get back there and make sure they don't doanything stupid." He gave me a lopsided grin. "At least, morestupid than usual. By now, most of them have a skin full and areabout ready to start fighting each other, so I better be there tostop them."
Although it was difficult, I did not preventhim from going, knowing he was right and that he was simply doinghis job. I sat and watched him walk back into the town, my mindalready beginning to move to the moment when I could no longerdelay going to Rome to face my fate.
Chapter 4 Who Was Titus Pullus?
We stayed at Naissus for two more daysbefore resuming our march to Siscia. Normally we would have beenslowed by the prisoners, but the presence of the wagons bearing themoney meant that our pace essentially remained the same. What weleft behind was a gutted, empty town; the only thing I did not havethe men do was to
