"Somtow Sucharitkul - Aquila" - читать интересную книгу автора (Sucharitkul Somtom)

down to compose a letter to Caesar asking for help. I retired my
legion to the next town, Trajanopolis (ah, human vanity) and
prepared for reinforcements.
Some weeks later came the reply, as I was having my back
rubbed in the local baths:



To Titus Papinianus, Dux of the Thirty-fourth, greeting:
Well, Titus old boy, got more than you bargained for, eh?
Well, there's not too much I can do. Terra Nova's acting up—for
some reason the Seminolii (who are a union of the southeastern
savages, formed when we drove the Chrichii, the Chirochii, and
the Choctavii southwards, and these barbarians interbred with
certain of our runaway Nubian slaves) think there's something
wrong with our teaching them to take baths and go to the circus
and so on. Trajan is busy quelling them—only the northern
provinces, Iracuavia and Lacotia, are friendly.
So I'm afraid there's little I can do, unless I want to expose
some other border elsewhere.
A curiosity, though, Titus. In his last shipment of entertainers
for the arena, the impresario Lucretius Lupus, who is vacationing
in Terra Nova, sent me a whole tribe of Lacotians. Their leader,
Aquila (actually some barbaric tongue-twister, but it means
eagle) was the very man who defeated Pomponius Piso
thirty-five years ago. They were supposed to do battle against
Numidian archers in the Coliseum, but... why not?
I'm sending them on the next ship. Who knows, perhaps these
Lacotians may know something— and they're screamingly funny
besides. Fight well —come back with your shield or on it, as the
saying goes.
Ave atque vale,
Titus Flavius Domitianus, Caesar, Augustus, Imperator, Pater
Patriae, Pater Maximus Candidusque, and various other titles,
your Emperor and God.



Apparently I was a victim of the purge, after all. But at least I
would fulfill my childhood dream of meeting one of those
legendary Terra Novan savages face to face, before I died
gloriously in battle.


CHAPTER III




IT HAD BEEN AN EXHAUSTING DAY. WE HAD