“Tell him to buy the caravan from this man and resell it later for what he can get. He will be paid the difference with a draft on the Imperial Treasury.”
“It shall be done, sir.” Josiah did not quibble, but departed with the caravan master.
Constantine watched silently while Dacius rolled up the maps and put them back in their container. He was waiting for the old centurion’s verdict on his proposed action, but when Dacius spoke, his words were more of a soliloquy.
“So the young eagle spreads its wings,” he said with a smile, then added: “We shall soon see how sharp are its claws.”
Days of habd riding lay behind Constantine and his command when they drew rein on the west bank of the Euphrates, not far from where the great river angled sharply northward toward the Taurus mountain range. At this point they were a good day’s ride west of their original destination of Circesium, where the eastern Roman frontier crossed the Euphrates.
Roman province of Syria Palaestina
The decision to turn northward had been made on the basis of disturbing rumors concerning a Roman disaster, which they had heard at an oasis on one of the ancient caravan routes by which the people of the TigrisEuphrates basin had communicated with what for centuries had been called Canaan, but was now the Roman province of Syria Palaestina. Across the broad flood of the Euphrates they could see the walls of the Roman fortress guarding the area, but it appeared to be strangely deserted.
“What do you make of it?” More and more as the days passed the younger officer had assumed the habit of command with the full approval of the grizzled centurion, who had been the first to realize that the fledgling was now fully able to leave the nest.
“Either they have evacuated the fortress,” Dacius said, “or they expect to be besieged.”
“We’ll cross and see which it is. Send three turmae over to hold the east bank and scout the countryside.”
So close had horses and riders become in the weeks since they had left Egypt that the crossing was accomplished almost without command. Constantine went over with the first of the men and, when all were across, ordered the trumpeter to marshal the troop into formation in a single column. Then, with the eagles of Rome at the head of the column and their banners proudly flying in the afternoon breeze, they approached the fortifications guarding the river crossing. They were still a good arrow range from it, however, when Constantine ordered the column to halt and rode up almost to the gates of the palisaded area that was typical of a Roman frontier fortress. He was accompanied only by his two standard bearers and, at his nod, the trumpeter blew a blast.
Read More about Lucius Catullus grimly
