Autumn Days I

“What is the purpose of this?” Strabo asked as he observed Vera with a critical eye. You are currently having the girl model a Gambeson tunic. The tunic itself was dyed a deep, earthy red, almost Burgundy.

“It’s a Gambeson” you say “quilted linen armour” you explain. “It’s cheaper and considerably faster to produce than maille, but it’s mostly intended to be under armour or auxiliary armour” you add “It might turn a blade, blunt an arrow but I’d rather my men go into battle with the neigh impossible to replace maille” you say. The Gambeson came down to Vera’s knees, seperating into segments so that she could still move easily while affording her maximum protection.

“And the leather straps?” Strabo asked. As part of Vera’s outfit, you had included a leather rig, straps that tighten around the bust line of a woman.

“I’ve recently come into a new found understanding of the female form, still working on the mind” you reply, getting a huff of amusement from the venerable soldier.

“Let me know when you do,” he commented.

“Ladies have two lumps of fat bolted to their chest, it can get uncomfortable, to downright painful in strenuous situations, thus, support” you explain, nodding at the girl “How are you finding the outfit?” you ask your model.

“It’s actually comfortable,” she said with some surprise. “The maille kinda chafed a little, especially since I had to wear it a little tighter cause . . . you know” she explained.

“Put the maille on over it” Strabo ordered. Vera nodded and expertly tied her hair into a bun before putting a cloth cap on. Then she grabbed a maille tunic that had been waiting on a rack nearby, slipped it on over her head, let it settle and then tied on the leather belt of the legion. Lastly, the girl slipped the cap off again and donned her helmet to complete the look. You decided that it was important to revive the tradition of wearing a spangly belt, even though it’s main purpose was to keep everything in order, soldiers wearing it off duty were immediately recognised as members of the legion; their legion, cohort, century, and contubernium numbers on the brass plates that adorned the straps hanging from the belt.

“Well, it doesn’t chafe” Vera noted, patting herself down to make sure the belt was taking a bit more of the weight. You grab a spatha you had procured earlier for this moment. Striding forward, you took a big swing and slammed the edge of the blade into the girl’s stomach with a resounding clink as it met the maille. Vera staggered back a step before blinking a few times and petting her stomach down. “Barely felt it” she commented and a surprised blink. You hand the blade off to Strabo who looked it over before nodding.

“I’m convinced” he muttered before giving Vera another nod. The two of you turn and leave the armoury you had set up for this purpose, walking out onto the streets of Tarentum.

“I suppose the next target might be Sicily” you say with a sigh “Buggered if I know how we’re going to accomplish that” you add.

“We’d need ships, and more men” Strabo informed you in his usual gruff tone. “We’ve filled out the first legion and now I’m taking some of the better soldiers and training them up as centurions for more legions” he told you “We get more recruits every day, too many for us to keep up with” he added. You had organised the legions based off of Gaius Marius’s system with two thousand men per legion and approximately five hundred support staff, totally twenty five hundred men. In your version of the legion though, there were no non-combatants.

“Yeah, this is one difficult job we have here” you mutter.

“It helps that our enemy thought it was a good idea to go on a murderous rampage to make specifically Romans fear him” Strabo told you “I still remember him murdering Count Brucilias” he added before sighing. “Sicily is governed by the Vandals right now” Strabo told you “They . . .” he paused, stopping to stare into space for a moment “Are strong warriors” he finally said in a small voice.

“You were at Rome?” you ask, frowning as you realised the Vandal sacking of Rome was only twenty years ago.

“Yes, but the Vandals weren’t as much of an issue as everyone seems to believe” Strabo told you “They looted the place, sure, took everything that looked silver or gold” he added “But the real damage was done by the plebs afterwards . . .” he said, trailing off “They had been . . . angry . . . at the Emperor’s **** . . . took it out on the city and its inhabitants” he told you before sighing deeply “Not a night I ever wanted to remember but one I can never forget” he said very quietly “I killed so many Romans that night” he practically whispered. You lay a hand on his shoulder and smile at him.

“This madness will end, I will end it” you declare. Strabo merely nodded before composing himself. “You ought to find yourself a lady friend you know” you tell the man. Strabo huffed before shaking your hand off.

“I don’t need to ‘find’ a woman, they come to me plenty enough, I just choose not to partake” he told you with a faux annoyed air about him. You laugh before clapping him on the back.

“Good man” you tell him “good man” the two of you resume your walk down the cobbled streets of Tarentum. Idly, you notice some of the boards being taken off some of the windows, women hanging fresh and clean linen out on lines over the street with small smiles on their faces.

“What enticed you to come up with that ‘gambeson’ anyway?” Strabo asked, nodding his head to direct your attention towards a pair of kids playing in the street. You smile at the display, a pair of girls with sticks in one hand and basket lids in the other play fighting.

“Tevron is spouting all sorts of work programs in a **** bid to find work that doesn’t involve women selling themselves on the streets so they may feed themselves” You tell him.

“Ahh, so he finally got his nose out of his damn metal works?” Strabo grunted.

“I believe it’s being named ‘The Works’ rather simple and easy to remember if you ask me” you reply. “It took me reminding him he has a city to lead, but honestly this is on me, I provided him with the documents that caused his distraction” you say.

“Hey mister!” one of the girls said, trotting happily over to you with her friend/sister meekly trailing behind. “You’re in tha legion ain’t ya!?” the precocious little girl asked.

“That I am little one” Strabo replied, smiling warmly at the girl.

“Can I join! I wanna be like them!” she asked. You chuckle lightly as you watch the interaction.

“Of course you can, but you have to be sixteen first” Strabo told the girl. She frowned in concentration, counting on her fingers as she did the math.

“But that’s eight years!” she angrily stated.

“Eight years you get to play with your friend here” Strabo told her “won’t be much time for play when you join up, it’s all chores” he continued, patting the girl on the head as she muttered grumpily. “If you really want to, you’ll be happy to wait, if not, you’ll find something you actually want to do by then” he said “Now run along and don’t hurt yourselves” he said, making a shooing motion. The precocious girl, seemingly now remembering her game, hurriedly turned away and trotted happily back to the spot she had been playing at. Her friend made to go after her but stopped and turned back to you, giving a shy little smile and a wave before her friend’s annoyed voice **** her to turn back and trot back to her friend.

“That was horribly cute” you say and Strabo chuckled.

“Children are a magical beast” he agreed

“And a fearsome one requireing the would be parent to battle day and night for many a year” you say. Strabo nodded, chuckling some more.

“That they are, but well worth the effort” he said, you merely nod, happy in the knowledge that the city was ever so slowly coming to life around you.