The Eternal Empire (7 page)

The next chapter explored the background
to the last war between Saxony and the Empire. The new ‘Golden Age of Rome’, as
the second half of the 19
^th
Century was being called, was viewed
with some alarm by those outside the Imperial borders. They feared a Rome that
was developing an economic domination with an arrogance to match. The revival
of interest within the Empire of the ‘glories of the Pax Romanum’ of the early
centuries of the Caesars certainly gave rise to a sense of superiority and
distain within the Empire for those outside the frontiers. This naturally gave
rise to a reaction amongst the Germans, Arabs and Turks bordering the Empire,
but especially the Saxons as the most powerful of the Germanic States. A period
of rising tensions, border incidents and rabid reporting by the press of both
sides fuelled a explosive atmosphere and eventually a spark set off the
explosion.

The war of 1895 was brief and,
especially for the Saxons, bloody. Initial advances over the Rhine were
outflanked by the Legions who used recent developments in military technology
to outclass their opponents. Decisively beaten, Saxony had to accept an
humilating peace treaty that clearly broadcast to the world that Rome had won.

Following the war, trade and commerce
picked up again and helped to feed the economic boon of the next two decades.
The book, published in 1916 ended on an optimistic note of continuous economic
growth and prosperity for all.

Cornelius closed the book and wrote down
his final notes. ‘Well,’ he said to himself as he reviewed what he had written,
“when we are at peace and trade together we both benefit, but when we are at
war all we get is death, destruction and a generation of bitterness.” He sighed
at his summary. “Bloody obvious really, you would have thought any intelligent
person – Roman or Saxon - could spot that, yet we struggle to!”

7th
January 1920

Roman
Embassy, Minden, Saxony

The Roman Embassy in the Saxon Capital
was situated along the Visurgis River, close to the buildings which housed the
various departments of the Saxon government. It was a large complex and all the
imperial citizens who worked for the embassy lived within its high walls.
Cornelius Petronius had just finished unpacking his clothes when there was a
knock at his door. He opened it to find one of the legionaries from the embassy
guard unit standing outside. He came to attention and gave Cornelius a salute,
right fist to his left breast.

"The ambassadors’ compliments,
sir", he said in clipped tones, "he would like to see you in his
office as soon as possible."

"Thank you. Please tell the
ambassador that I shall see him shortly," replied Cornelius.

"Yes sir", the legionary
saluted once again and marched away down the corridor. Cornelius closed the
door and went to the bathroom for a quick wash. It was mid afternoon and he was
not due to report to the ambassador until the following morning. Why the hurry?

The main embassy offices were located
in a large four storey building along the river front, on the other side of the
complex from the apartment that Cornelius had been allocated. The mild December
weather had given way to a bitterly cold January and snow was falling lightly
over the city. Cornelius put on a heavy coat before setting off to see the
ambassador. The route to the offices were well sign posted, which was just as
well. The buildings in the embassy grounds had developed in a rather haphazard
manner over the course of the two centuries that the Empire and Saxony had had
formal diplomatic relations. Away from the river and the main offices were a
maze of small villas and tenements that were home to the several hundred men
and women who represented the Empire in the Kingdom of Saxony.

As soon as Cornelius arrived at the
building another legionary took his coat and escorted him up to the first floor
and straight in to see Isaac Taronites, the Emperors ambassador to the Court of
the King of the Saxons.

Taronites was in his late forties and
had been the ambassador in Saxony for the last five years. He was of medium
height with a dark complexion, and obviously kept himself in good shape. The
ambassador had been in conversation with another man but stood and smiled at
Cornelius as he was shown in.

"Cornelius Petronius. Welcome to
Saxony," he said and came round his desk to shake hands. "I trust
that you are settling in all right."

"Yes, thank you ambassador,"
said Cornelius, "the accommodation is perfectly adequate for my needs,
although I could've used a little more time before reporting for duty. I was
quite surprised by this summons."

"That's my fault I'm afraid."
The speaker was a tall man who had been pouring drinks over at the corner
cabinet. Cornelius had not noticed him when he had entered. He came over to the
two men with a drink in each hand, one of which he gave to Cornelius.

"Some mulled wine to warm you
up," he said.

"Let me introduce you," said
the ambassador, "this is legate Lucullus Drusus. He's in charge of the
legionary guard unit at the embassy."

They shook hands.

"That's my official title, but
everyone knows that I'm more interested in the Saxon armed forces than the
handful of legionaries at the embassy."

"It's common knowledge that our
embassies gather intelligence in the countries in which they are
situated," said Cornelius, "but how does that affect me?"

The ambassador signalled them to sit
down and he returned to the chair behind his desk. Cornelius sipped the hot
wine and felt the sweet warm liquid ease the cold out of his body. The
ambassador took a sheet of paper from his desk. It had the imperial seal
embossed on the bottom.

"Your main job is to assist me in
the trade negotiations which are due to start next month," said Taronites,
"but we also need somebody to assist Lucullus. You are to be his
deputy."

"There must be some mistake,"
said Cornelius after a moment, "I'm no spy".

"We're not looking for a
spy," said Lucullus with a smile, "all I need is a trained staff
officer to help me collate the information that comes into the embassy and send
reports to Constantinople."

"I have your file here," said
the ambassador, "you were on the staff of the legio X Fretensis in Asia
Minor. Your last commander says that you were an exceptional analyst."

The two men looked at Cornelius
expectantly. "Do I have a choice?" he said.

"Not really," admitted the
ambassador "but it will be a secondary role to that of the trade
negotiations."

"The reason for the urgency,"
Lucullus broke in, "is that tomorrow I'm going to Constantinople and won't
be back for at least two months, possibly longer. With the recent budget
reductions the army can't afford to send a replacement."

"Tomorrow! How am I going to find
out what needs to be done before you leave?"

"We have a long night ahead of us
Cornelius," said Lucullus. "I've arranged for supper to be sent to my
office. I suggest we go and get started."

Eight hours later, Cornelius was trying
to stay awake. The supper plates were lying on the legates desk amidst piles of
papers, maps and charts. They had gone through the files that Lucullus had kept
and the type of information Cornelius could expect to receive and how often,
but not where it was coming from.

"You don't need to know - and it's
best that you don't - how the information comes into this office," the
legate informed him, "there's a centurion who deals with our sources. All
you need to do is update the files, analyse the data and look for anything of
interest."

Lucullus had given him a list of files
to read in the coming week for background information. Organisation and
distribution of the Saxon army, weapons, factories, production plans, naval
ship data, senior officer profiles - the list went on. By the time he had
finished with all of these Cornelius would know more about the Saxon military
machine than the Saxon war minister.

8th
January 1920

Constantinople

Some twelve hundred miles away Marcus
Metellus was also settling into his new accommodation. Unfortunately, due to
the high rents charged for apartments in the Capital, Marcus could only afford
a single room in an old tenement building some distance from the assembly.
However like Cornelius, Marcus also received a knock at his door just as he was
finishing his unpacking, but unlike his friend he opened the door to a
civilian.

"If I'm at the right place, you
must be Marcus Metellus, representative for Constanius," said the stranger
at the door.

"You have the right place,"
replied Marcus guardedly.

"My name's Magnus Lepidus and I'm the
representative for Camulodunum in Britannia. John Phocas sent me to welcome you
to the city and to fill you in on what has been happening."

Marcus shook hands and invited his
colleague from the Modernist Party into his small room. John Phocas was the party
leader and the only person in Constantinople that Marcus had sent his new
address to. They sat down on a couple of chairs, which apart from a bed, table,
wardrobe and wash stand were the only pieces of furniture in the room.

"I'm afraid that I'm unable to
offer you any refreshments," begun Marcus, "I've not had time to find
the local shops."

Magnus waved a hand dismissively.
"No problem, once we have finished our business I'll take you to a nice
little tavern about two minutes from here." Then he abruptly stopped
speaking and was deep in thought for a few seconds.

"What am I saying!" he said
standing up. "Get your coat Marcus, we'll go to the tavern now. We can
discuss the political situation over a few bottles of cheap wine like real
intellectuals!"

Marcus quickly agreed, and grabbed his
room keys off the table and his coat from the hook on the back of the door.
This Magnus seemed quite an agreeable fellow.

By the third bottle Marcus and Magnus
were talking as though they had known each other for years. Marcus did not
consider the wine cheap, but in Constantinople everything was more expensive
than in the provinces. Luckily Magnus was buying tonight, which as he was
drinking twice as much as Marcus was just as well.

Magnus described the meeting that John
Phocas and the other party leaders had had with Emperor Alexander just before
Christmas.

"What the Emperor said was that
the assembly must pass laws to stimulate the economy so that there is more
money to tax."

"Just like that?" said
Marcus.

"Not in those exact words,"
said Magnus, "but that was the gist of it. Old Opus from the Treasury was
not happy with the way Alexander explained the situation, but he couldn't do
much about it".

"What was the party leaders
reaction?" asked Marcus.

Magnus held up a hand in front of his
face and spread his fingers. He started to count them off with his other hand.

"The Senatorial Party thought that
it was a brilliant idea. They always think that what the Emperor suggests is a
brilliant idea, unless it affects their money or privileges. Anyway, there's as
much chance of one of those has-beens thinking of an idea to stimulate the
economy as I have of staying sober tonight". He drained his glass and
counted off the second finger. Marcus refilled his glass.

"The Equestrians immediately put
forward their standard proposal to remove all price and wage controls and to
open up the transport monopolies to private business. Now, we Modernists have
nothing against that in principle, but they are just interested in making as
much money as they can by raising prices, cutting wages and milking the railway
cash cow." He counted off the third finger after draining another glass.

"The Traditionalists blamed
everything on the collapse of the moral fibre of the Empire and demanded a
stricter enforcement of existing economic laws. A right bunch of idiots they
are!” Magnus had another drink before continuing.

 "However, to give them their due,
they did raise the issue of the military not being paid and said that it was a
disgrace to the honour of every Roman! I don't know about it being a disgrace
to Roman honour, but pissing off half a million men with guns by withholding
their pay doesn't strike me as being a particularly intelligent thing to
do." He counted off the fourth finger while Marcus refilled his glass.

"The Radicals said that the
economy was doomed unless the peasants and the factory workers were allowed a
say in how the economy and government was run. In their opinion, the Empire in
its current form only exists to benefit the parasites in the aristocracy and
rich merchants. Their only suggestion was to destroy the entire economy and to
start again with everybody having an equal share."  He had got to his
thumb now. He drained another glass. Marcus refilled it.

"The Federalists believe that
everything is too centralised and bogged down by bureaucracy -  a view that we
share. They want each province to run its own affairs, set its own taxes,
customs duty, and so on." Magnus looked carefully at the hand in front of
him and tried to focus. He mentally counted all four fingers and thumb and then
went back to the first finger again.