The Gladiator

Sempronius sighed wearily.' Not a great help, then.'

'I can only hope they prove me wrong.'

The conversation was interrupted by three distant blasts on a trumpet, the alarm signal that Macro had arranged. He rose quickly to his feet, followed by the others, and abandoned the meal as they made their way out of the administration building and across the acropolis to the tower above the main gate. Men were stumbling out of their barracks, kit in hand, and racing to their positions on the wall. Macro ran up the worn stone stairs and emerged on to the platform, hurrying across to the parapet. Below him the city sprawled across the plain. One of the men who had been on watch thrust his arm out towards the west.

'Over there, sir.'

Macro shaded his eyes as he stared into the setting sun. At first the glare concealed the approaching enemy from sight. He was surprised that the rebels were coming from the west. Marcellus's column had been massacred away to the east. Where had they been? he wondered. Then he dismissed the concern as his eyes began to pick out the details of the enemy marching across the plain towards the city. There were two columns, one making directly for Gortyna and the other angling to the south to march round the city and take up position to the west, Macro guessed.

'Ajax has finally decided to take the bull by the horns.'

'Yes,' Sempronius replied, panting as he caught up. 'So it seems. An apposite metaphor, by the way'

'Really?' Macro glanced at his superior.

'This is the island where bull-leaping had its origins, Macro. In the old times, that was the phrase used to describe the moment when the acrobat was ready to face a charging bull and grabbed its horns at the last moment before somersaulting over the bull's back.'

Macro stared at the senator for a moment. Cato was going to have a lot in common with his prospective father-in-law. The two of them were sure to spend many long winters' evenings together swapping such useless nuggets of information. He sighed. 'That's fascinating, sir.'

Julia glanced sidelong and smiled at Macro as her father continued.

'The trouble is that the metaphor is the wrong way round. It is we who are facing the bull, not Ajax. And I fear that unless we are all as nimble and determined as the proverbial acrobat, we are going to be ground into the dust by the first charge.'

Macro shook his head.' No, sir. I ain't going down that easy. The rebels are just slaves. They lack training and there's no question of them having any siege equipment. For the moment, we have the advantage.'

'I hope you are right.'

They continued to watch as the slave army deployed around the city. The clouds of dust kicked up by their feet and the hooves and wheels of the sprawling baggage train filled the air with a warm orange haze. Sempronius told his daughter to remain on the acropolis while he and Macro made their way down to the city gate to inspect their opponents more closely. Macro made a hasty calculation of the size of the enemy force before the light made estimation too difficult.

The slaves marched in loose bands of varying size, and here and there amongst them the rays of the setting sun gleamed off burnished helmets, armour and weapons.

'There must be over twenty thousand of them, sir.' Macro spoke quietly so that his words would not be overheard by the nearest sentry. 'Maybe as many as thirty thousand.'

Sempronius puffed his cheeks out as he beheld the multitude settling around the city's walls. 'They would never believe this in Rome. An army of slaves? The idea is preposterous.'

'Yet there it is, sir.'

'Quite.'

As they watched the slaves fall out of their columns and begin to make camp, a sudden movement caught Macro's eye. He turned his head slightly to see a party of horsemen emerge from the slave host, trotting casually towards the city. Sempronius saw them a moment later and muttered, 'Ajax?'

'Who else?'

They watched as the party of riders reined in some distance beyond the range of any archers on the wall. A single man came forward. Thin and sinewy, he wore the scale armour vest of a Roman officer over a light blue tunic. One of the garrison's handful of archers casually strung an arrow and began to take aim.

'Lower that bow!' Macro bellowed at him.' No one is to shoot without orders!'

The rider slowed his horse to a walk a short distance away and turned it to make his way along the wall, one hand resting on his hip as he surveyed the faces of the defenders with haughty disdain.

Macro silently gave thanks that he had not yet given the order for the caltrops to be sown in the grass around the city. That was one surprise he most definitely wanted to save for the right moment.

'General Ajax sends his greetings to his former masters!' the rider called out in a clear, pleasant voice.

Sempronius turned to Macro with an amused expression. 'General Ajax? It seems the gladiator has aspirations.'

The slave called out to the defenders again.' The general wishes to speak with the man who calls himself the governor of the province, Senator Sempronius.'

Sempronius sniffed with irritation.

Macro smiled. 'And he's well informed. I wonder what he wants to discuss?'

There was a moment of silence before Sempronius gave a resigned shrug. 'There's only way to find out.'

He turned away from the parapet and made for the stairs that led down to the gates.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Ajax, in the company of Kharim, watched the progress of his envoy carefully. Chilo had proved himself brave enough since he had joined the small band of fugitives that had attached themselves to Ajax since the first days of the revolt. But there was a certain carelessness to his bravery that Ajax had noted during the very first skirmish they had fought with a Roman patrol. It was almost as if Chilo had no fear of death, even as he loved his new life, free from the terrible constraints of slavery. In the ranks of Ajax's closest lieutenants, Chilo was clearly the most popular with the rest of the army. Chilo had been born free, the son of an Athe nian merchant. When his father's business partner disappeared with every last piece of silver just before the a

All this Ajax had learned over the camp fire as he led his growing band of runaway slaves across the ruined province. But of his years of servitude Chilo had said little, and when he did speak of them his eyes burned with an intense hatred — a sentiment that Ajax could readily understand. He had long since come to understand the difference between men who were born slaves and those who had be come slaves. There was a degree of acceptance of their condition in the former. They had joined his army to be sure, and fought well enough, but the majority lacked the fanaticism of Chilo and the others who had borne slavery as a mark of shame. Every slight and injustice that they endured had burned its way into their souls. It was like a slow poison, Ajax had realised once, when reflecting on his own experience.

His father had commandeda small fleet of pirate ships that had defied the Roman navy for many years before they had finally been trapped and destroyed in a bay on the Illyrian coast. His father had paid the price for defying Rome by being crucified. Ajax and the others who had been captured were sold into slavery. It was ironic that he had been bought by the owner of a gladiator school and trained as a fighter, and now he was repaying his former masters for the skills he had learned in the arena by causing them as much suffering as possible. Every Roman he killed, every estate he sacked and every breath of free air that he drew slowly drained away the poison of slavery.