Last week on Reunion in Legio I: Aeneas and his legion attack the Celtic fort. During the attack Aeneas’ Commanding officer is disarmed by a Celtic warrior. Breaking all legionary rules Aeneas brakes formation to save his Senior Centurion.

And now episode three: “The Centurion”

Aeneas hurled his pilum at the Celtic warrior. The barbarian fell with a cry. Aeneas called for help. Within a minute a small detachment of legionarys came to his aid and carried the Senior Centurion off of the field of battle towards the Roman field hospital.

As the Centurion was brought into the hospital tent all unoccupied healers started rushing around the Centurion like ants around a bread crumb, gathering herbs from various jars, preparing a bed, and collecting tools.

The Centurion was in a state of shock. He looked as if he could barely feel anything. His ankle twitched pain. He was placed on a bed and covered with some blankets. After a few minutes he blacked out. 

Meanwhile Aeneas waited outside the field hospital for about two hours before he was called in. Aeneas walked into the tent expecting an honorable discharge for breaking rank but when he saw the senior centurion lying in the cot with no helmet covering his face Aeneas almost fell over in shock. In front of him was Markus Alburtis an old friend he hadn’t seen since Aeneas and his family had moved from downtown Rome to Ostia. Markus stood there looking equally shocked.  “What is your name Legionary?” asked Markus. Aeneas considered his options. He could give the fake name that he enlisted under, or he could give his real name. “Aeneas Flavius sir.” “Is it really you Aeneas?” asked Markus. “Yes” said Aeneas still in shock. 

As Markus looked up at Aeneas the Centurion realized how strange this was. When he Markus was a child he had always looked up to Aeneas and never made any major decisions without consulting him first. Yet now HE was in command. In fact he was one of Rome’s most respected soldiers and Aeneas was just a legionary. After a few minutes of talking a healer came into the tent to take a look at Markus. He concluded that Markus would be unable to fight for the next few days. Out in the wilderness it would take the Romans a week to get a temporary commander and by that time Markus would be in fighting condition. A decision had to be made about who would take over temporarily.

Now that the legion knew that Aeneas was the son of a legate, upon Markus’ recommendation, the low level legionary was being considered for the command position. The commanders decided to test his ability on a raid. Their goal was the Celtic ballistae. These powerful weapons were able to penetrate the Roman testudo formation making it impossible to advance successfully on the fort. The plan was to send an elite squad of praetorians to scale the wall and sabotage the Celtic ballistae. 

The briefing was held in the officer’s tent. Aeneas arrived early in the morning expecting to be informed of the details of his first command. But yet again his day refused to be normal as in front of him was an old friend, Lucius Urbanus, and an old enemy, Claudius Maximus.

Thank you very much for reading! I release a new episode every Saturday. If
there is anything you can think of that I can do to make the story better
please let me know via owl or comments. That’s all for today folks! Good bye
and Ave.