John the Baptist's Advice to Soldiers
Occurs after "A New Couple"
From my WIP follow-on to Cloak and Stola, but may change. I already published a version of this at fanfiction.net. Cloak and Stola can be seen as a prequel, but it isn’t necessary to read that first.
Fortis has a de facto marriage to Fidela, whom he bought on time as a slave. Illeus, who is much better off, bought her from her master for Fortis, and Fortis is paying him back. Technically, Fidela is Fortis’s contubernalis, which is a relationship between a slave and either another slave or a free person, and has none of the legal rights of marriage. Rank and file Roman legion soldiers are not allowed legally recognized marriage (conubia) during their time of service.
John the Baptist’s words are based on Luke 3:7-14.
Their monthly training march was planned for the next day, so the soldiers who normally stayed in Procerus' household were staying in the barracks. They dispersed to their usual eight-man squads. This time it was going to be the short march, around 16 miles down to the Jordan River, full armor, weapons, and pack, five hours or less. Then stop for lunch and rest, and march back at a much more relaxed pace, with breaks, and wagons for their packs.
This march had an additional purpose, though. They were to intimidate the locals around Galilee. The soldiers were looking forward to "visiting" the settlements along the lake on the way back.
Their centurion was going to pay a little visit to Tetrarch Herod's court in Tiberias, along their route, to make sure he remembered just who was in charge. He had put his second, Illeus, in charge of the march.
"Procerus," said Illeus, "you have much more experience. You should be doing this, not me."
"I can only write my name and I can barely read," he said. "And in Latin only. This is as far as I'm going to get – a decanus, in charge of a squad."
"Let me help you. I can teach you."
Procerus chuckled. "If Sophie can't do it, you sure can't."
Illius smirked. "I guess I don't have her… enticements," he agreed.
"You just remember me on your way up, estate boy," he said.
As they marched down to the Jordan, the road seemed to clear as if by magic, and the beaches seemed to have become suddenly unpopular. Once they got there, Illeus had the decani settle the men in groups to eat, and then meet with them in his tent.
"We're going to rest and feed the men here," he told them. "There will be wagons available for them to offload their packs when we get to Tiberius on the way back. The centurion wants the men to be less encumbered in case they need to 'requisition supplies' or 'services' on their way back to the barracks. The locals need to know who's in charge."
Procerus stayed in the tent after the other decani had filed out. He knew how Illeus felt about things like this. "They'll be tired. It's still 30 miles of marching, even if some of it's without the pack and not at training pace. And they haven't been worked up by bloodlust."
Fortis came into the tent, then. "You should see this, Illeus. It's a Jewish holy man. He's dunking people in the river."
He pulled Illeus and Procerus outside the tent. “This is Amos. He speaks Jewish. And he got his diploma from the Samaritan auxiliaries. He's a Roman citizen now."
Amos was even older and more grizzled than Procerus. He'd reenlisted, this time in the Roman legion. "It's called Aramaic," he said.
Then Amos translated: "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?"
Illeus frowned. "Is he talking about us?"
"Maybe," said Amos. "We might be the coming wrath, but the brood of vipers are the Jews. Our prophets like to tell us how awful we are."
"Yup. Here it comes: 'Produce good fruits as evidence of your repentance; and do not begin to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father,' for I tell you, God can raise up children to Abraham from these stones.'"
"So all the bastards belong to Abraham? I knew they were all Jewish," said Procerus.
Amos grinned. "Abraham had some 'stones'."
"Even now the axe lies at the root of the trees. Therefore every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire," he continued translating.
"And now that he's got them good and riled up, they're worried. They want to know what to do."
"Didn't he already answer that? Good fruits?" asked Fortis.
"Oh, he's got to be much more specific than that," said Amos.
Fortis nodded. He assumed the prophet was talking about a non-animal sacrifice, but the actual form usually mattered. Should they bring grain, or olives, or figs, or something else? And how much? And where should it be brought?
"Whoever has two tunics should share with the person who has none. And whoever has food should do likewise," translated Amos.
"That's not a sacrifice," said Fortis.
"Good fruits means virtuous deeds, not a sacrifice," said Illeus, understanding. "He's naming the duties due to a kinsman."
"Not exactly," said Amos. "The 'person who has none' doesn't need to be a kinsman."
"I know," said Illeus. "One can have duties to countrymen as well. Or even just the duties of contract."
At the mention of contract, Fortis' attention became even more focused. "So he's telling them to honor contracts, even for the poor? That's good."
Amos looked at the other soldiers. "No. He just means anyone. Who doesn't have a tunic or food. Anyone."
"That doesn't make any sense. How am I supposed to do that?" asked Fortis. "I haven't even finished paying off on my wi-, er, contubernalis yet. Or is he saying only the rich are going to survive the coming wrath? That's nothing new."
Fortis didn't know Amos well enough to be comfortable calling Fidela his wife around him.
Illeus pointed, then. "Maybe you're right. Those people look rich."
"They're sure not popular," said Fortis. "Listen to that." The crowd seemed angry at them.
Procerus shook his head. "It's the same everywhere. The locals never like their countrymen who collect the taxes for us."
"He's shushing the crowd," said Amos. "They're asking what they should do."
"Feed the poor, wasn't it?" said Fortis.
"Quit collecting taxes for Rome, I bet," said Procerus.
"Stop collecting more than what is prescribed," translated Amos.
"Well," said Illeus, "I can't argue with that."
"I've got one," said Procerus. "What should we soldiers do? Ask him that, Amos."
But at that, Amos seemed to get uncomfortable.
"I'll do it," said Illeus. "He understands Greek, doesn't he?"
At that, the Jewish madman looked right at Illeus. "Do you have a question, sir?" he asked in Greek.
The whole crowd turned then to look at the century of Roman soldiers, sitting in groups of eight on the ground, eating. The atmosphere became very tense. Everyone was quiet.
"Decani," he said, "alert."
Ten men, one of them Procerus, stood at attention and each repeated the order to the men in their contubernium. Their men stood in parade formation, at alert.
Then Illeus gave another command, also copied by the decani, and one after another, the soldiers of each contubernium pounded their spears on the ground, and then stood at alert. It had the intended effect. The crowd, which had tried to ignore the soldiers, was now fixed on them, aware that a fully armed century stood prepared to fight right next to them.
Rattling spears. Literally.
Then Illeus decided to go ahead and ask his question. "And soldiers?" he asked, in Greek. "What is it that we should do?"
The strange prophet had kept his eyes on him the whole time, and while Illeus had cowed the crowd, the prophet showed no sign of fear at all. "Do your job and no more. Don't threaten people or make false accusations to get more than you are due. Be satisfied with your wages."
At that, Illeus sucked in a breath. He knew what his men were expecting to do on the way back. What they were expecting as their due. And he knew that part of this exercise was a show of Roman power. He had the decani put the men back at parade rest, and called them to him again.
"We're giving the men a bonus," he told them. He made a show of counting coins into the hand of each decanus.
"Let your men spend their bonus as they will, but there will be no requisitioning, of anything. If there has been no requisitioning, you can stop by to get a gold coin for yourself alone. We will stop at Tiberius, Magdala, and Gennesaret for weapons drill. And we will start with the first one here, right now. The men can finish eating afterwards."
By the time the men had finished their drill, and then their food, the prophet and his followers had moved out of sight.
It was after dark before Illeus got back to their household. As the centurion’s second, he'd had several things to take care of, even after distributing the rest of the bonus to the decani who had kept the soldiers' shopping in Tiberius, Magdala, and Gennesaret strictly limited to the amount of their bonuses.
He was the last of the soldiers from their household to show up, and Sophie and the women had already fed the others. He sat at the table in the kitchen, and Sophie served him.
Procerus and Fortis and Tritius came to sit with him. Fortis, of course, had given his bonus to Sophie to pay down Fidela's contract. Tritius had bought some beads for his wife, and Procerus had bought several playthings for his kids.
"I wouldn't dare pick something out for you without checking first," he told Sophie, handing his wife the gold coin he still had left.
Then he turned to Illeus. "That was a surprise. Change of plans from the centurion? How much was your bonus?"
Illeus shook his head. "No bonus," he said, but he looked troubled.
"What's wrong?" asked Procerus. The festive mood around the table faded away.
"I – we weren't supposed to do that. There was no change of plans from the centurion, no bonus."
"Then where did you get the coin…?" Procerus petered out as he realized.
"You spent your own money?" he asked.
Illeus nodded. His right elbow was on the table, and he was rubbing his forehead with his right hand, as if he had a headache. "But that's not the problem. It's the centurion. I thought the drills would be enough of a show of strength, but the centurion expected to make some coin himself on this march, and that didn't happen. And… I have less than 100 denarii left. That won't be enough."
Loved it, Ms. Mary. 👏