The Eagle Flies! A Julius Caesar Timeline.

Dirk

Banned
1 Day Before the Nones of Maius, 710 AUC​

The litter bearers' feet touched solid ground on the other side of the Tiber, and they began to make the by now well worn way to the stately villa that Cleopatra occupied. It was early afternoon before a market day, so carts full of wine casks, firewood, and in-season crops crowded the roads leading to Rome. Chickens fluttered and clucked in their wicker cages, the earthy smell of too many mushrooms for any number of Romans to eat drifted through the air, and there were even cursing, hurrying men riding four-mule gigs driving the blocks of glacier ice cut from the Alps that wealthy Romans consumed.

Servilia lay back in her litter, content to wait. She did a lot of waiting now, as opposed to her usual thinking. With her son gone, why think and feel the pain instead of wait for a bath or a meal or a social engagement? Is this what all those vapid cunts in my life have felt? she thought. Empty...loss. How other noble girls felt about losing their girlish freedom and virginity to some evil old ugly man, so Servilia thought about losing her son.

Caesar.... Her mouth pursed and her eyes narrowed in...anger? Was it really anger? The warmth coming from her lap and bringing a flush to her cheeks said no. Ecastor, but he could still make her feel like a girl, though she was a few months shy of fifty! She did not hate him like she had hated her half-brother Cato, and she did not feel disappointment in or pity for him, as she had her late husband Silanus. It was...humiliation. She'd been utterly dominated by him, from start to finish, and she was still infatuated.

She lay an arm over her eyes and let out a long sigh that was almost a moan.

"Do you need anything, Domina?" the young body servant asked timidly, head down. She was a new, beautiful Greek thing, but hadn't yet learned Servilia's temperament.

"No," she snapped out, voice lashing like a whip, and the girl flinched back. When Servilia sighed again, she didn't say anything.


The night before, Cleopatra had thrown her going-away party, and invited all the leading ladies of Roman society, Servilia second among them. Caesar's wife Calpurnia was of course the first and most honored lady among them, but Servilia had caught Cleopatra's eye twinkling and they'd had a good laugh about it afterwards. Any woman who knew what was what knew that Cleopatra and Servilia were the queen bees.

Servilia had been expecting this invitation, of course. One last meeting between the two of them privately before her new friend quit Rome, maybe for forever. She saw through her litter's hangings that the villa's courtyard was packed with carts piled high with boxes and chests and gilt couches and chairs dyed with real Tyrian Purple and real clear glass tabletops, and bundles and sacks to be carried by the servants, and one huge chest of iron that Servilia knew contained the crown jewels, the idols of Cleopatra's gods, and a tiny part of the treasury of Egypt. So the Queen was ready to leave.

A mincing steward bowed respectfully before her and led the way to the Queen's chambers, a complex of a dozen rooms that took up about half the villa. Servilia blinked in brief surprised when she saw how bare and white the walls were. Her entire experience of the place had been full of rich cloth-of-gold curtains hanging from the ceilings and embossed gem-inlaid murals of silver and brass nailed to the walls.

They still walked on the same pearly marble slabs, though, for Caesar spared no expense where his public image was concerned, and eventually came to her rooms. There she knelt with the boy in front of her, both heads bowed in prayer to the bearded Serapis.

Servilia watched and waited. The boy, though a little more than a month shy of three, looked to be about four years old. The wide, all-seeing eyes that stared out of his head were a green-flecked version of Caesar's own pale grey and the thick golden hair atop his head was Caesar's.

The finished within a few minutes and Cleopatra looked up and smiled in delight. "Servilia, welcome!" she rose and, steering the boy with her hands on his shoulders, went to the woman. "I was just praying for safe journey," she said in the halting, accented Latin that she was trying to perfect. Cleopatra knew Attic Greek, Asian Greek, Demotic Egyptian, the old Ancient Egyptian used by the priests, and Hebrew, but she could not for the life of her get a good grasp on Latin.

Still Servilia understood her, and answered in Greek. "I too pray that you reach your kingdom on calm seas. You have Neptune's blessings."

"Caesarion, where are your manners? Greet our guest."

The boy looked up into her eyes fearlessly and he intoned seriously, in perfect Latin, "Welcome, lady Servilia." Though his voice was lilting and high, it carried an ominous weight to it. Caesar in the flesh, Servilia thought, and almost shuddered. There was only one difference, and that was that Caesarion's skin was a baby-smooth milk-white, whereas Caesar's was rough and brown from the march.

"Why thank you very much, Prince of Egypt," Servilia said with a smile, ignoring the eeriness. What harm was this beautiful, polite little boy? "Tell me," she pouted, "will you miss your father dreadfully?"

Caesarion considered her for a moment, and then it looked as if he decided to tell her, as if he'd already learned how and when to lie. "Mama says he'll visit us after he's done with the Parthians."

"True, true," Servilia nodded, amazed, and then her voice was drowned by his alien-sounding, Egyptian cries of delight as he saw his tutor and then ran two him. The two dropped out of sight and Servilia shook her head, chuckling.

"He have the effect on much people," Cleopatra said with difficulty, smiling. "Come, sister." She took Servilia's arm and led her to the triclinium, were two simple Roman couches, with which the house had originally been furnished, lay waiting.

"You're all packed, then. Leaving us here in this little village while you go off to Alexandria!"

Now it was Cleopatra's turn to chuckle in that girlish voice she had, tossing her dark hair back. "Alexandria is...be--Alexandria be big and white and open, but Alexandria is--be empty." She shook her head and switched to Greek. "I only saw after meeting Caesar and learning from him how empty Alexandria is. The boulevards are wide and lined with palms, and the monuments and temples and statues are big and white and clean, but it's all the same people. Rome...in Rome a man is a slave one day and owns ten buildings the next, or the other way around. I haven't even stepped foot in the city and I know that it's life and death, win and lose, day in and day out. In Egypt if you're a Macedonian, you're a Macedonian, and you'll be on top no matter how much money you lose. If you're a Jew you're a Jew, and you'll be in the middle and in the army no matter what you do. In Rome it's different."

Servilia nodded slowly. "You see that side of us, but you don't see what I see. In Rome, everybody is out to make it big and make it quick. Everybody."
 

Grouchio

Sooo.....

I'm guessing everyone's too busy with summer jobs to help me with this collaboration...

Welp. It's gonna be a while folks. I can't do this myself...
 

Emperor Casey

Banned
Grouchio said:
Sooo.....

I'm guessing everyone's too busy with summer jobs to help me with this collaboration...

Welp. It's gonna be a while folks. I can't do this myself...
Click to expand...

I can try and have something up later maybe about the early stages of the campaign. Sorry I have indeed been busy
 
Julius Caesar

Julius Caesar

I've been busy until now. I signed up to help, but haven't been able to as of late. I can possibly start contributing in like 3 days.
 

Emperor Casey

Banned
The Dacian Wars: Take Your Stance​

Caesar’s plan called for a staged offensive into Thrace to lure the Dacian King out of his homeland across the Danube to do battle with him while 6 legions to the west moved on the Danube to create a massive flanking maneuver, trapping the enemy army. A daring plan to say the least but one that was worthy of Julius Caesar and one that he hoped would spell an end to the Dacian menace for the foreseeable future.

The flanking force consisted of 6 legions and an army of auxiliaries from Spain and Gaul; the total force numbered some 45,000 men. Symbolically lead by the 10th Legion it planned to accomplish its goal regardless of the cost both to itself and to the enemy be they man, woman or child. Lead by Gaius Asinius Pollio, an old acquaintance of Caesar’s, had proven himself in the civil war when he cleared Sicily and Africa of Pompeian forces. He was loyal and an able bodied general but would be nicknamed the map maker by his troops fore he would spend many night time hours in his tent writing about the ongoing events. The coming campaigns would certainly provide the material that made up the bulk of his collection titled The Campaigns and Wars of Julius Caesar.

The force could count upon a steadfast and competent commander, not the juridical commanders that Caesar had defeated during the civil war. He would soon learn the admiration of his men is the coming advance on the Danube.
The campaign season started off smoothly as the legions marched out towards the general direction of the Danube River, their first goal. The tribes that were just beyond the Roman borders capitulated quickly knowing full well the capabilities of their Roman invaders. It was only when the army advanced into the area of the Daesitiate and Scordisci tribes that they encountered serious resistance.

Having banded together to fight the Roman war machine the tribes refused to give battle and instead conducted a destructive guerilla war against the invaders. Every village they came upon was burned to the ground and all the livestock had their throats slit and were rotting. Pollio would later describe the scene as “looking as though Hades himself had sprung from the Earth to reap his anger upon the countryside.”

As the tribes retreated back towards the Danube more tribes flocked to their army. Those tribes like the Breuci, Cornacates and even the Amantini donated much needed troops and supplies to the Celtic force. The enemy force is estimated to have been upwards of 150,000 men, although it is largely believed to be an exaggeration, the meaning is clear, a large force wanted to repel the Romans.

The barbarians were bleeding the Romans dry, at every turn they harassed their enemy and killed any unlucky forager that wandered to far from their legionary escorts. However there was a flaw with the plan. Not unlike the Roman general and dictator Quintus Fabius Maximus who had earned the sudoname “the Delayer” for his guerilla campaign against Hannibal Barca in the Second Punic War, the Celts suffered from impatience within. Some of the tribes wanted to pursue a more aggressive campaign against Rome and defeat them in an open field battle while the others wanted to continue the existing strategy.

Fighting soon broke out in the Celtic camp and the Amantini and Breuci left to fight the Romans on their own. The other tribes that remained were disheartened by the loss of so many fighters and began to have doubts about whether they would actually succeed. The various tribal chieftains agreed that the best course of action would be to fall back to the Danube while the tribes that had left stalled the Romans.

The Roman army would finally catch up to the begotten tribes along the river Save. The tribal armies assembled themselves with their backs to the river prepared to face the Roman occupiers. General Pollio’s forces had suffered since the onset of the campaign mainly from the Celtic mercenaries due to their colleagues hatred and disgust for what they see as the highest betrayal.

The Romans assembled themselves in a single line with their Gallic and Iberian troops ahead. Their slow march towards the barbarians was halted when the enemy hurled themselves headlong into the auxiliaries with a mighty roar. The sudden rush surprised the auxiliaries to the breaking point. At this time Pollio had assembled the mighty Roman legions into a series of wedge formations.

What the barbarians failed to notice was the fact that the auxiliaries were slowly pulling back towards the flanks allowing them to access the legions. It was then that the slaughter ensued. Tired from their initial onslaught the Celts threw themselves onto the wedges and falling upon the blades of the Romans. Inch by bloody inch they were pushed back to the river bank. The wagon lagger that was placed along the bank produced the greatest travesty of the battle. As the Celts were pushed back into the wall of wagons they were trapped. The Romans did not show mercy as they cut down all they found no matter how young or old.

The Romans sent forward messengers following the victory to give the gift of the chieftains’ heads to their compatriots on the Danube as a warning both of their capability and the fate that awaited them once the Romans arrived. The loot captured during and following the battle was transported back to Roman territory along the Adriatic as to not slow down the advance.

As the troops celebrated their victory they laughed admirably as their general was already in his tent writing away.

As news of the battle spread forth numerous tribes surrendered themselves to the Romans to avoid a similar fate and even contributed troops and supplies to the army as it advanced. With the barbarian force rapidly retreating to the Danube most of the farms and villages remained whole and untouched by their scorched earth campaign. To make matters worse they were unable to find a suitable crossing for them all; this coupled with the ever approaching Roman army forced them to make a fateful decision. They would deconstruct their wagons to make rafts, but that would mean not everyone or all the supplies would make it to safety in time. Despite the costs they got to work.

Things only went from bad to worse as the rough currents sank some of the rafts, drowning their occupants. The currents also had the effect of sweeping those that did make it across farther downstream forcing those who were still waiting to follow along. About mid-way through the second day the reports showed that Roman cavalry was closing in on the groups that were left, mostly women and children. Panic ensued and some tried to cross the river but were quickly swept away. The advance Roman party descended on those that remained and butchered them, those warriors that were still remaining were thrown into the river, their bodies floating past their friends and families that had made it across.

The first part of their campaign was complete, now the legions had to construct river boats for themselves to meet up with Julius Caesar and complete the Dacian Wars.
 
Last edited:

Emperor Casey

Banned
Sorry everyone for the delay. There should be a map and an update coming up soon :D

Don't forget to comment with any suggestions or comments!
 

Dirk

Banned
The Dacian Wars: The Gladius Strikes​

-MAP OF DACIA AND ENVIRONS-
Burebista's past campaigns traced in purple with years accompanying. If you look closely you'll find Oescus and Sarmizegetusa​

While Gaius Asinius Pollio and his legions were busying themselves with drawing the Dacians into a pitched battle and succeeding, the great man himself was rolling over northern Thrace and all of Moesia, his legions easily covering their normal thirty miles per day.

In this war, just as it had been in Gaul, there was a young, talent king trying to unite a dozen squabbling tribes into a power mighty enough to defy Rome. Caesar had labored to his wit's end to subvert wily Vercingetorix through diplomacy, but his efforts had failed due to the unity of the Gauls' religion and the idiotic mistakes of a certain general of his--Titus Labienus, a cruel man whose end at the Battle of Munda had thoroughly satisfied Caesar. Now in this war, against Burebista, Caesar was using mostly veteran men who were in high fettle and knew his talent for keeping them alive.

He also faced Burebista, who had as some of his most powerful "allies" kings who lived on Rome's side of the Danube. Caesar used his ideal of psychological warfare to the fullest, using any way he could to get the most efficient campaign possible.

Before leaving Rome he'd bought several Thracian and Dacian slaves to teach him those languages--he sent three who tried to trick him to rot in the mines of Hispania--and by now he spoke both without an accent and as fluently as a native. The kings he met in parley--many of only two or three small valleys, but some over entire other peoples--were surprised by his knowledge, and it did much to alleviate their fear of being subdued and enslaved. Reasoning that allowing Caesar's legions to roll through peacefully, as news had said they had, instead of resisting and being slaughtered and dispersed also had something to do with it.

Thus a good deal of Burebista's support was evaporating before his very eyes, and he knew that time, unless winter would come tomorrow, was against him. He decided to act. Dacia, though a land of crags and ravines, was also wildly rich. Not as fertile as the great Pannonian plain to the west, it was yet much more easily defensible, and its people multiplied without the constant fear of raids and genocide. The mountain life also made its people tall and strong, and most Romans would have called them giants, though Caesar's legions were mostly boys from Cisalpine Gaul with mostly Gallic blood in them, and were just as big.

Burebista called for a great muster at his capital of Sarmizegetusa, and gave out the news that Caesar was molesting and devastating his allies in Thrace and Moesia. The allies and tributaries of Burebista viewed this as a stain on their honor, for their had sworn to protect those tribes across the Danube, and they flocked to his banner like vengeful men to a hanging. At Sarmizegetus in late June a little more than a hundred thousand Dacians had gathered, and set off under Burebista and his allies to war.

They passed directly south into the lands of the Iazyges and were joined by those warriors, cousins to the Dacians. They crossed the Danube at Oescus and continued south.

Caesar, meanwhile, had continued his tour of the regions at a steady pace, using his thousands of legionaries to build roads throughout the confusion of swamps, hills, ravines, and rocky crags. This did even more to boost Roman reputation through the region, for they brought wealth and took nothing while Burebista had brought death and took tribute. When news came, as Caesar had known it would, that Burebista was marching south, not a few Thracians and Moesians decided to join him, either out of gratitude to Caesar or fear of Burebista.

While marching down the Iatrus river valley in battle formation and with the Danube in sight, Caesar stumbled upon Burebista and had the fight of his life--or so it seemed to Burebista at the moment. The Dacians had few scouts, and cavalry was exclusively a privilege of the nobility, who would fight from horseback. For Roman armies scouting was imperative, and any decent general would give up his own horse before seeing his army scoutless in any territory, let alone in the heart of barbarian territory and five hundred miles from meaningful civilization.

Thus Caesar had known Burebista's location ahead of time, and ordered his men to act like panicked green recruits. He was lucky in that the support of the Thracian and Moesian tribes had almost doubled his numbers of cavalry, allowing him to keep more than half of it hidden on the hills on his left flank, ready to flank Burebista's forces at any time. Caesar then put the visible half of his cavalry to the left too, but on a small bald hill right next to his main force, as any sane man would do with a river to his right.

Burebista responded by doing the same, putting his horses on his own right, but overshooting the Roman left. Burebista had just about twice the numbers as the Romans, and so his infantry stretched his line much longer than the Roman. Because of this he was supremely confident, viewing Caesar as a pampered boy who'd let his victories against those sissified Gauls go to his head. Caesar let him think just that, sitting on a horse under an umbrella behind his army, pretending to dance with fret instead of behaving as calm as he was inside.

Though Burebista had had no formal training in warfare, experience brought wisdom of a sort, and of course he'd heard tales of wars in far away land--on of which was the Second Punic War, in Italy, and how Hannibal had surrounded and destroyed a Roman army larger than his own. Well! If Hannibal could defeat the Romans back when they were tough with half the numbers, the great Burebista could defeat them under some sissy with twice the men, and real men at that!

Burebista and his leaders and his men, devoutly religious that they were, knelt as the priests of Daka the Wolf God daubed their foreheads with the blood of a wolf sacrificed for this battle. And then they fought.

The Dacian infantry advanced to battle with the Roman troops, with the Dacian right swinging toward the center as they drew almost level with the Romans, effectively flanking them and facing the side of the Roman cavalry. The Roman cavalry, playing their role, shied frantically from the deadly Dacian falces, and quickly turned tail and bolted back to the Roman baggage camp, clearly visible and defenseless some miles away. The Dacian cavalry, which had been sticking with the rightmost of the infantry and waiting to attack the Roman rear and take Caesar alive saw their chance to neutralize a threat and capture valuable horses, and took it.

They followed the Roman cavalry off the field...and left the other half of the Roman cavalry free to descend on and devastate the Dacian rear. With their line only eight deep, just like the Roman, news and panic quickly spread--they were surrounded! At the walls of the Roman camp the Dacian cavalry faced stones and spears thrown by the servants and prostitutes, now behind hastily closed gates. Burebista, as a noble of course leading the cavalry, turned and was shocked to see Romans surrounding his men, instead of the other way round! He raced his eyes back to the battle with his men following him, and the other half of the Roman cavalry emerging from the camp behind them to give chase.

The Dacian left was still doing well, but the right had been rolled over and the center was in the process of doing so. Only the tribesmen there withdrew from battle in order instead of retreating frantically, and this allowed those Romans opposing them to turn and fall on the Dacian center from the other side, finishing it off for good. When Burebista saw this he turned his flagging horse to the Danube and made for it and Dacia. Caesar had ordered his men to pursue him but let him go, and now he shouted the order again. Burebista and his men rode even harder, not understanding the harsh Latin, and left their horses and armor to the Romans as they swam for safety.

baddle.png

Caesar broke camp quickly and pursued the surviving Dacian infantry at a leisurely pace through the rest of the day and all the next night, until the dead tired Dacian crossed the ford at Oescus. With the Dacians crushed and out of Moesia and good reports coming in from Pollio, Caesar set up camp directly in front of the ford and allowed his men some rest.

It was no part of his plan to capture or kill Burebista and allow another leader to rise, or to kill so many Dacians that the entire population rose against him as soon as he crossed the Danube. A little under half the Dacian infantry, and most of the cavalry, had survived the battle, though all had been humiliated. They would head the blame on Burebista, of course, and confidence in him would sink rapidly. Some tribes would go over to Caesar, and many others would ignore Burebista's musters or set off to campaign and raid on their own, undermining the centrality of Dacia. In addition, many leaders would return with many peasant men dead, and resentment against the chieftains and kings who for the most part had survived unscathed would develop.

It has played out well, Caesar nodded to himself. And now imagine Burebista's surprise, he smirked to himself, when he gets to Sarmizegetusa and sees Pollio's legions downriver, to the west.

baddle.png
 

Grouchio

I wonder if Dacian/Thracian falxmen will be used extensively as auxilla in later campaigns? Those powerful swords can make mincemeat out of armored Parthians!


Thraikioi_rhomphaiaphoroi_by_RevoltingFriendship.jpg



falx_02.jpg
 

Emperor Casey

Banned
I am sure Caesar would love them. Sorry I won't be updating tonight due to my boss keeping me at work for almost 2 hours after I was suppose to be done
 
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