Heir of Aurelian

Primus stood outside the makeshift fortifications that had been established with the intent of keeping the northern tribes beyond the newly reconquered Antonine’s wall. He gazed over the edge of the wooden palisade with a stern glare, watching and waiting for any sign of an enemy attack.

Though the Antonine’s Wall had been reconquered in the name of Rome, it would need significant work to be made into a barrier that could contain the northern tribes. For the time being, the Imperial Legate was the leading officer in charge of the Diocese of Britannia, a region that was previously abandoned by the western Romans.

However, with the return of Roman troops to the shores of Britannia, the warring tribes and criminal elements were quickly expunged from the territory. Now the borders of Britannia stretched further than they had ever done so before. Primus had truly earned his place in history, and yet he did not sit back and rely on his past laurels.

Instead, he took charge of the reconstruction of his territory. While gazing over the wall, an officer beneath his command approached the Imperial Legate and saluted the man before voicing his concerns.

“Sir, we have just received word from Rome that the Eastern Roman Army has attacked Illyricum. It appears that during our campaign to retake the Antonine wall, there has been a conflict brewing, instigated by the Persian King.  The Imperator has not issued us any orders. What shall we do?”

Primus thought about this grave news for only a brief moment before making up his mind.

“We will maintain our reconstruction efforts here in Britannia. We can not abandon the region now that we have finally reincorporated it into the Empire. As for the war with the east, I am sure Marcellus is capable enough to defeat the enemy, even if he is outnumbered.”

In agreement with his orders, the officer nodded his head. The men of the legions stationed in Britannia were exhausted from a bloody campaign. The last thing they needed was to pack up their stuff and sail for Rome just so they could embark on another brutal campaign.

Thus, While Marcellus prepared his forces to meet the Legions of the East, who sought to sail to Italia and lay siege to its capital. The Legions of Britannia were licking their wounds and reconstructing Antonine’s wall so that it could effectively hold the northern tribes beyond the barrier for an eternity.

—

While Primus was licking his wounds in Britannia, and Marcellus was preparing for a major battle against the Eastern Roman Army led by its regent. Ordius was stationed in Southern Gaul. Ever since, the northern regions had been purged of the Franks and given to the Suebi to defend. The Imperial Legate had lived a rather comfortable life.

Though he had raised several legions, and trained them properly. He had few barbarians to eliminate, what with the Suebi warrior keeping them east of the Rhine. Thus, he had led his forces to focus on eliminating the Bagaudae who had plagued the war-torn region of Gaul for far too long.

At the moment, he was sitting on horseback, while leading one of his legions to a Bagaudae encampment. It was a makeshift fortress which stood upon a hilltop. In the past, such a stronghold would have cost the western roman forces considerable resources to lay siege to.

However, with the rearmament of the Roman Legions under Marcellus’ reign, the peasant insurgents did not stand a chance. Despite this, they foolishly clung onto the ramparts of their wooden walls. Firing arrows down upon the Roman soldiers.

Ordius took one look at this structure and thought it was an eyesore that needed to be burnt to the ground. Thus, he gave the order to build a trebuchet. While out of range of the enemy’s rain of arrows. The Roman engineers began properly constructing a siege engine. Meanwhile, the crossbowmen among his ranks hid behind large rectangular shields and fired their bolts upon the defenders.

The bolts used by the forces in Gaul were not designed with armor penetration in mind, after all they were fighting mostly tribes and brigands, thus they used a normal bolt head, but the power behind the crossbow was enough to quickly dispatch any Bagaudae unfortunate enough to feel its sting to the afterlife.

The peasant insurgents had fear in their hearts as the crossbow bolts shot straight through their torsos, causing bodies to tumble off the edge of the poorly constructed ramparts. Despite this, they did not wave the white flag. They knew they would either emerge victorious, or be slain by the western roman legion.

The battle waged on for some time before the trebuchet was constructed, where the large stone projectiles were coated in pitch, and lit aflame before being thrown towards the makeshift fortress. When the Bagaudae gazed upon the flaming 90kg projectiles which propelled through the air and barrelled towards their poor fortifications, they nearly shat their pants.

Without a second’s notice, the flaming stones tore apart the walls, which were furnished from wooden logs. The fire spreading across the fortress and consumed everything in its path. The more fiery stones that were cast upon the makeshift fortress, the quicker the fire spread, causing the survivors within the encampment to rush out of the holes in their walls, and towards the Roman soldiers who raised their shields in the plains below.

Ordius quickly ordered his soldiers to stand together as they united against the rampaging Bagaudae.

“Stand your ground and send every last one of these bastards to hell where they belong!”

The Roman soldiers quickly formed a shieldwall as the Bagaudae crashed against it. With a push of their scutum, the western roman soldiers plunged their blades into the guts of the enemy, before withdrawing them. Spewing forth blood and other bodily fluids all over the grass below.

Though the  Bagaudae tried their best to resist, they were mainly equipped with axes and clubs. They struggled to kill the heavily armored roman infantry, who continued to thrust their blades in the torsos of those foolish enough to bear their arms against them.

This was just an average day in the Diocese of Gaul, and Ordius was leading the charge to purge a nuisance that had persisted in the borders of Rome since the Crisis of the Third Century. If Primus were to be remembered for reclaiming and reconstructing Antonine’s wall. Then Ordius would be remembered as the general who finally eliminated the rats known as the Bagaudae.

—

Perhaps the only other region of conflict that Western Rome was seeing in its war against the eastern half of the Empire was within the Diocese of Africae. The Eastern Roman troops, within their section of North Africa, had been given the order to march on Carnifex’s army. However, Carnifex was a seasoned General who had been protecting western Rome’s north African territory for years.

Currently, he was standing on a desert plain, with his soldiers in a tight formation. Meanwhile, on the opposite side of his army, were those that belonged to eastern Rome. The two roman forces stood silently, waiting for one another to make the first move. Ultimately, after an hour of standing and waiting, Carnifex had enough, and raised the white flag in an attempt to negotiate with the Eastern Roman General.

Upon seeing the sight of this, the eastern roman general also raised a white flag, and met with Carnifex between the two armies. The two generals, each of which were adorned with gilded helmets, stood across from one another with the same stoic gaze.  After several moments of silence, Carnifex spoke first.

“Take your armies and march them back to the lands that you have come from. Do this, and I promise I won’t march my armies into your lands. You can live out the rest of this petty conflict peacefully, without the need for bloodshed. Why should either of us care about the foolish squabbles between a usurper and a foreign regent?”

Upon hearing this, the Eastern Roman General continued to have a flawless poker face, however after several moments of awkward silence, he nodded his head before turning away from Carnifex and marching back to his forces.

Carnifex had to admit, this man was an even greater stoic than he was. Perhaps the two of them could share a drink after their masters stopped killing each other. Truthfully, he did not know if the eastern Roman general had agreed to his terms, or if he was preparing to attack. Thus, he quickly returned to his own army, where his lead officer quickly asked about what they had agreed to.

“So, what happened? Will they return to their side of the border?”

Carnifex could only sigh before admitting the truth.

“I don’t know. Be prepared for war just in case.”

The western Roman Army sat back and waited for merely five minutes before the Eastern Roman Army turned their backs and marched back the way they had come from. Carnifex remained stoic, despite feeling excitement deep within his heart.

He was lucky the Eastern Roman General shared a similar mindset as him. Thus, the war that was about to take place in north Africa was narrowly avoided by two stoics, who did not see a need to come to arms with one another.