Tarantium Aeternus

You sigh as you take a sip of some well watered wine. Having been in this time period for several months now, you’ve gotten used to the fact that Romans water their wine down so much. Apparently they think it’s unhealthy or something.

In any case, you turn your attention to the street beside you and observe the passing traffic. You had decided to have lunch in the city today since you had a strategy meeting with Strabo later today. You had noticed some interesting things among the people of Tarentum. As you sat there listening to conversations, you noticed that many people had begun to refer to Tarentum as Tarantium. You have no idea why, maybe they were starting to craft some sort of independent identity of themselves.

Your attention is grabbed by a cluster of people in richly coloured clothes. They were probably wearing linen since you doubt anyone could afford blues that vibrant that would take to wool. You noted that a lot of new people had been moving in since you’d essentially conquered the city. Enough that there wasn’t any more space inside the walls for new houses. Tevron himself had mentioned that he’d need to expand and that he was considering either going south into the empty space on the coast of the Mediterranean or north around the ‘Little Sea’ as locals called it. Tarentum was unique in that the land had segregated off a section of sea from the Mediterranean to the point where modern geographers would consider it a lagoon. You wonder at what it would be like to build the city around that lagoon, and more importantly, if you could make it a fresh water lagoon and attach holy significance to it like the Ganges in India.

“Umm sir?” asked a man off to your left. You turn in your chair and notice a cluster of people, some of whom were wearing legion belts. The man who had spoken was, himself, wearing a legion belt with a sword slipped into it.

“Can I help you?” you ask politely but also in a manner that a general might if a private walked up to him.

“I uhh, we that is . . . we were hoping if we could have a moment of your time?” The spokesman asked. You could tell they were all very nervous about this, but whatever it was it was enough that they were bravely facing you.

“You have it” you say, gesturing for the man to proceed.

“Sir, we know about the plans for Sicily” the spokesman stated and you suppressed an annoyed grimace, that information wasn’t supposed to get out. “And there were plenty of us that are worried,” he continued. “You see, we’ve all built lives here. Our families moved in here, some of us have our own houses, and wives or husbands from the city” the man explained “Patrika just had a baby yesterday, a girl” the man said with a fond smile. You have no idea who this Patrika is but you smile with him anyway. She was either a wife or a comrade, it mattered little. “What I’m trying to say, sir, is that we don’t want to abandon Tarentum, which we’d have to do if we invaded Sicily,” he said. And that was the crux of the issue then wasn’t it.

“When soldiers are called to war, they can’t pick and choose their deployments” you say with a sigh. Technically not true, depending on who you ask, and what time period they are from but still.

“It’s not that!” the spokesman exclaimed, looking frantic. “If it was just an invasion of Sicily, we’d do it with no problem! But it isn't, is it sir? You intend to swap Tarentum out for the formidable island fortress, where you could have all the time and space in the world to hide in” the spokesmen said. You had to hand it to him, he was quick on the uptake.

“Sicily would, indeed, be a massive coup for us, a power base where we’d be able to easily defeat any attacker who would have to come by sea” you agreed, thinking about the man’s words.

“There’s no room on the ships for families sir” the man said softly, almost ashamed of what he said. “We’d have to detach ourselves from our whole lives for good, most likely” he added. “Patrika would never see her daughter again” he finished. That last comment stung and you took a long moment to truly think about the issue. It was true that Sicily would be a great bastion to launch the reconquest of Italy from, but then when these people so clearly identify with Tarentum, would they accept it if you ruled them from Rome?

“I will take your words under consideration soldier, but know that I alone make the decisions regarding when, where and whom to strike” you say “Eventually, all of Italy will be assailed whether tomorrow and next century, it is inevitable that the war will come” you add before looking the man in the eye. “If that will be all, I have other affairs to tend to” you say, getting up and leaving your half drunk wine on the table as you left.

****

You sigh as you watch the city from the top of a house. A pair of children ran through a yard, chasing each other and laughing like mad before their mother finally caught up to them. The woman grabbed one of the two children, hoisting them up into her arms while the other hugged her leg. You didn’t miss the legion belt the woman wore, hidden as it was by the children clambering all over her.

“What’s got you in such a mood?” came the soft voice of Artemis. You don’t need to ask, the soul bond you have with her would have told her.

“They don’t want to leave” you say softly.

“Most people don’t like having to leave their families behind” Artemis agreed.

“If we attack Sicily, we likely aren’t coming back, and I can’t really afford to row their wives and kids over as well” you say. Artemis said nothing for a moment, merely joined you, entwining her fingers with yours.

“Why Rome?” she asked softly, putting her head on your shoulder.

“What do you mean?” you ask as you try to awkwardly look down at the woman.

“Why are you so fixated on remaking the empire of some city state on the other side of the country?” She asked, looking up at you with her beautiful silver eyes.

“That’s the whole point of this” you tell her “The whole reason I’m here” you add “The whole point of this . . . game” you mutter with a heavy sigh.

“Do you think I’m a game?” Artemis asked. She knew the answer to her own question but she wasn’t asking for herself.

“No,” you tell her.

“Rome was a city state first before it became an empire” she said, turning to face you and forcing you to face her. “If some random Italian city can conquer the world when massive powerhouses like Carthage and even the Greeks tried to conquer her, we can too” Artemis said, eyes burning with determination.

“When did Tarentum become ‘us’?” you ask with a confused frown.

“When it became the city my first born child was conceived in, and when it became the city that my first born child will be born in” Artemis told you with a smirk. You snorted in amusement at the fox’s words.

“They keep calling it Tarantium” you say, turning back to the street to observe some more.

“I’ve heard that too, sounds like a combination of the Roman word for the town mixed with the greek one” Artemis replied. “Roman, Tarantine . . . what’s the difference?” she asked, putting one hand on her hip.

“The whole point of this was to rebuild the Roman Empire” you mutter.

“If you wanted Roman you should have picked Fortuna to be your wife, or Mars, or made your own pantheon from scratch with mortals” Artemis snapped at you. “But you chose me, a Greek, and you have two Romans, a Mesopotamian, and a Celt” she told you. “We most definitely are not Roman any more” she said “That city had its day and now it’s over . . . it’s time for someone else to move in and have a go” she said.

“You should give all the speeches dear, nobody would ever say no” you say with a soft smile. Artemis grinned at you in reply, her tail swishing behind her.

****

You arrive outside your strategy room to find Ishtar just leaving, a dopey grin on her face as she wiped either saliva or cum off of her face with her sleeve. You stare after her as she left, before turning back and entering the strategy room.

“Ahh, you’re here, good,” Strabo grunted as you enter, your boots clacking on the marble floors. You take a moment to look around and find Strabo, immaculately dressed and the map on the table in the middle of the room completely straight. Other than the smell, and Ishtar’s state as she left you’d have no idea anything happened in this room. Strabo wasn’t even out of breath.

“You were expecting me to not show up for my own strategy meeting?” you ask with a smirk. Strabo merely grunted in response as he looked over the map of Sicily.

“I’m concerned about this whole invasion plan” he said instead, sweeping a hand over the map.

“Me too” you say as you take a look at the map yourself.

“What’s this about invading Sicily?” came a feminine voice from behind you. You turn and narrow your eyes at Mars as she waltzed into the room like she owned it. The former war god stopped at the table and inspected the map with a critical eye.

“And you are?” Strabo asked with a grunt. This, apparently, was enough to bring Mars back to the reality of her situation as she snapped her attention first to Strabo and then to you.

“Mars, god of war” the woman introduced.

“Not right now you aren’t” you say calmly. The woman’s face pulled into an annoyed frown as she regarded you for a moment.

“If you want my advice attacking Sicily is a great idea, from there we can establish a neigh unassailable base to gather our strength, and it is sure to have many Romans willing to fight for our cause” the ‘war god’ said, walking around the table to get a better look at different parts of the map. “Here in particular is a good place to strike first” she said, thumbing Syracuse. Or rather, just above Syracuse because trying to enact an opposed naval invasion in this day and age would go about as well as it did for the Persians at Marathon and Athens. Neither of those battles were victories for the Persians.

“Is that so” you mutter while giving the woman a flat stare, “Strabo, your concerns?” you ask.

“Sicily is currently in the hands of the Vandals, even if we did take it from them, they would send reinforcements” he explained. “If that were the worst of it, I would still be concerned, but not as much as if you factor in that the Greeks want Italy as well and would send a fleet to take Sicily from us and would no doubt be backed up by Odoacer and his Federates” Strabo continued. “A man of mine has told me that the damned king can muster at least a hundred ships and probably more, while I’ve heard from a reliable source that the Vandals can muster two hundred, and the Greeks can field twice that” Strabo told you and you cringe. If that report was accurate then the Eastern Empire would be able to field five hundred warships once Odoacer has added his own. Even half that is still two hundred too many.

“We’d be in a three front war almost instantly, and two of those are against regional super powers” you muse.

“How many legions do we have? We can take those poultry forces” Mars said, putting her hands on the table to pour over the map. Unfortunately her cleavage wasn’t properly fastened down and that gave you a great view of her cleavage.

“We have two legions” you say “possibly three by the time we invade, depending on how good Strabo thinks the new recruits handle the training” you add.

“We can have six thousand by campaigning season,” Strabo reported. “Ten if we want meat shields as well” he added

“I’m actually impressed you can get us six thousand” you say to him “I hadn’t realised we were pulling so many recruits” you add. “Either way, we are currently in a rather secure part of Italy, and most of it is either sympathetic to our cause or practically a part of it” you explain, snapping your fingers and making a map of Italy appear. You point to the Stiletto heel of the high-heeled boot that is the Italian Peninsula. “Everything to our east is guarded by us here and Brundisium to the north, we take those, and the land is locked down tighter than a christian virgin” you say and get a snort from Strabo.

“I would rate that as a better strategy, we have fields and manpower right here” Strabo commented. “If we could secure Brundisium as well, we’d have trade very much locked down” he added.

“I think we should return our focus on pretending to be mercenaries for a bit, protecting trade caravans we are setting up as we basically steal the trade out from under Odoacers’ nose” you say.

“All the while getting the people to associate our men for protection and security, so that when we move we will have an easy time of absorption” Strabo carried on.

“And this will help us take Rome?” Mars asked, butting into the conversation. You stop and stare at Strabo for a moment before turning to look at Mars.

“I suppose . . . eventually” you reply before turning your attention back to the map.

“Eventually!? We should prioritise getting Rome back! It is the seat of The Empire!” the woman exclaimed.

“No” you say in a soft voice that cuts through the room harder than the loudest shout. “No” you say again, raising your head to look at Strabo first before turning your gaze to Mars and then back to Strabo. “We are in the seat of The Empire” you say, nodding as you finally come to a decision. A decision practically made for you by Artemis earlier. “The Tarantine Empire”

“All hail” Strabo said softly. “All hail the Empire of Tarantium” he said.