The Gladiator

Cato nodded. Yet he still felt uneasy. He had no idea quite how many slaves there were on the island. If they did manage to organise, and find a leader, then they would pose a grave danger to Roman interests in Crete. Nor were slaves the only concern. There were brigands up in the hills, criminals, runaway slaves and outcasts, who would be sure to exploit the chaos. If the slaves and the brigands made common cause, then nothing short of a major campaign would ensure that the island remained part of the empire.

He shifted and shuffled back to prop himself up against the stump of a felled tree. 'I think we should get some rest now, sir. We've been on the go for the best part of two days without sleep. I'll take the first watch. I'll wake you when it's time for your turn.'

'Fair enough, but make sure that you do. I can't afford to have you too tired to offer me help when we reach Gortyna.'

'I'll wake you, sir. On my word.'

'Very well.' Sempronius cast his eyes about the ground and then picked a spot by the next tree, where there was a soft mound of pine needles. He pulled his cloak around him and settled down, resting his head on a root. After a while, his breathing be came steady and deep until he began to snore.

Cato leaned his head back and stared up at the heavens. It was a clear night, and stars and moon gleamed against a pitch-black backdrop. The view helped to calm his troubled mind for a moment and he wished that Julia was with him, nestled into the crook of his arm, her hair brushing softly against his chin. For a moment he recalled the aroma of her favourite scent and smiled faintly. Then a distant light caught his attention and he lowered his gaze and stared out across the dark landscape. A fire was flaring up on the plain, some miles away, and as he watched the flames spread quickly until a who le building was engulfed. He watched for a while longer, with a growing sense of foreboding in his heart.

Senator Sempronius took over and woke Cato just before dawn.

Cato stirred, and found that he lay under the senator's cloak. He nodded towards it and muttered his thanks.

'You needed it more than me.' Sempronius smiled. 'It was easy enough to walk up and down to stay warm. Actually, it reminded me of my days as a junior tribune in the Ninth Legion on the Rhine.

Not much comfort there, I can tell you. But I forget, you were stationed on the same frontier, weren't you?'

'Yes, sir. Once you've spent one winter there you never want to experience another. Cold as Hades.'

'Yes, I remember.' Sempronius shivered, and then offered Cato his hand.' Come, we have to go.'

Cato groaned as he rose to his feet. His injured leg felt stiff and immediately began to throb as he put weight on it.

Sempronius regarded him anxiously. 'Bad?'

'I've had worse. As long as I get the wound cleaned and rested for a few days I'll be fine.'

'Rest is something that will be in short supply, I fear.'

He clambered up on to the horse's back and then leaned down to help Cato up. The horse staggered a little as it adjusted to the additional weight. Once Cato had tucked an arm around his waist, Sempronius clicked his tongue and walked the horse back down the track towards the road. As they emerged from the pine trees, Cato glanced in the direction of the fire he had seen the previous night, but there was nothing more than a blackened shell remaining. Several other burned-out buildings dotted the surrounding landscape, and a column of distant figures picked its way across a field. Whether they were slaves or civilians, Cato could not tell. The road ahead of them was clear, and Sempronius turned the horse towards Gortyna once again and proceeded at a steady trot.

They sighted several more bands of people as the sun rose and bathed the province in a warm glow. Along the road they also encountered a few more survivors picking over the remains of their property as they looked for valuables. Some just sat and stared vacantly as the horse rode by, while others held out their hands and begged for food. Sempronius did his best to ignore them as he stared ahead and kicked his heels in to move on as swiftly as possible. Now and again they came across bodies bearing sword and knife wounds, adding yet more death to the number of those killed by the earthquake. As the morning wore on, Cato wondered if there was anything that the senator and he could do to help restore order to the province in the face of such destruction and loss of life. The task looked quite hopeless.

At last, shortly before midday, the road curved round a hill and there ahead of them lay the provincial capital of Gortyna. The city spread across the plain with a fortified acropolis on a hill to the north.

The wall was pierced by gaps where sections had collapsed. There were still some sentries on the main gate where the road entered the city. Beyond the wall they could see that nearly all the roofs had been damaged and there were gaping holes amid the red tiles of the largest public buildings and temples that remained standing. To one side of the city stood a sprawl of tents and makeshift shelters where smoke from small cooking fires trailed up into the blue sky.

Sempronius had raised a hand to shade his eyes as they approached the city. 'Seems to be less damage than we saw at Matala.'

'There would be. The people here did not have to cope with the wave as well. A small mercy perhaps.'

The sentries at the gate stirred warily as the two men on horseback clopped along the paved road towards the gate. When the horse was no more than fifty feet away their leader raised his arm and called out. 'That's close enough. What is your business here?'

Sempronius held out the hand with his ring. 'I am Senator Lucius Sempronius, come to see the governor of the province.'

The sentry leaned to one side and pointed at Cato. 'Who's that?'

'Centurion Cato. We were travelling to Rome by ship when the wave struck.'

'Wave?'The sentry approached cautiously as Sempronius reined in a short distance from the gate. 'We've heard that a wave had struck the coast, sir, but the stories we've been hearing are, well, a bit wild.

Entire ports and coastal villages destroyed.'

'It's true,' Sempronius replied. 'We landed at Matala, what's left of it. That's where we learned that the governor was injured. I've come to see what the situation is.'

'It's bad enough, sir. There's hardly an officer left in the garrison; most of them were at the governor's palace when the earthquake struck. Only a handful of his guests escaped from the banquet hall when the ro of fell in and buried the rest.'

'Where is the governor?'

'He's at the palace stables, sir. The stables survived well enough to be used as a hospital. That's where we've been taking the injured.'

Sempronius paused a moment. 'What's his condition?'

The sentry pursed his lips.' The official word is that he'll recover.'

'But?'

The sentry glanced round and then lowered his voice. 'That's not what my mate in the palace guard says. If you want to speak to the governor, you'd best do it quickly, sir.'

'Very well, let us pass.'

The sentry nodded and turned to call to his men.' Open the gate!'

There was a deep groan as the men thrust against the timbers of the right-hand door and it began to open. The groan changed into a grating sound and then a shrill squeal before it came to rest and would not budge any further. There was a gap just wide enough for the horse to pass through and the sentry shrugged apologetically.

'Sorry, sir, but the masonry has shifted and that's as far as she'll move.'

Sempronius nodded his thanks and edged the horse through the gap. Inside the city was the familiar panorama of shattered buildings and rubble strewn across the paved main street. There were more people amid the ruins and damaged buildings than there had been at Matala, and for the first time Cato began to feel a small measure of hope. Some settlements had evidently not been as badly affected as he had feared, but then, he mused, Matala had prepared him for the worst. The horse picked its way along the main street towards the heart of the city, past a marketplace where scores of stalls had collapsed and their ruined wares lay strewn about them, picked over by survivors. As they approached the centre of the city, the large civic buildings crowded the street on either side, and where they had collapsed Cato saw that great columns of stone had toppled like skittles, their sections laying scattered across the street and the steps leading up to where the temple doors had stood.