Chapter 214: Breathing Room 2
Chapter 214: Breathing Room 2
The eastern province that Marcus was managing had a very different atmosphere from the Roman mainland.
The invasion of the Huns was something that happened far away in Gaul, and since it was said to be resolved, the provincial people quickly regained their sense of stability.
It also helped that Marcus had almost annihilated the vanguard of the Huns and the Scythians.
They said that they were the ones who terrorized Rome, but in reality, a large army of 60,000 fell prey to Marcus’s strategy and were swept away in vain.
Of course, the cavalrymen who were wiped out in the east were poorly armed, and more than half of them were not Huns but Scythians, but ordinary citizens did not pay attention to such details.
What mattered to them was the belief that the eastern province was a safe place unlike the Roman mainland.
This naturally led to support for Marcus, and it made his position more solid, as he was already ruling like a king of the east.
On the streets of Antioch, which regained its vitality, people freely exchanged stories as before.
Some said that the war seemed to end more easily than they thought, and some said that it was too early to judge.
But there was also a common phrase that came out.
“Marcus’s term must continue until the threat of the Huns is completely gone!”
Not only the local nobles, but also common people and merchants openly talked about this as they walked around.
In fact, this was an indisputable claim.
Caesar had already extended his term as governor of Gaul for another 10 years under the pretext of rebuilding Gaul and defending the north.
Sextus also officially received the governor’s seat for the defense of Greece.
In this situation, there was no reason for the residents of the east to be happy about Marcus’s term ending.
Marcus did not bother to ask for an extension of his term.
He only wrote a detailed report on wiping out the Hun detachment and submitted it to the Senate.
The effect was more than enough.
Cato, who was already wary of Caesar’s popularity becoming unbearable, decided to make the most of this opportunity.
“The main force of the Huns has retreated, but we don’t know when they will attack again. Now Gaul has been attacked, but next time we don’t know where will be attacked.
In this situation, Marcus, who repelled the Huns, cannot leave his position! If he hadn’t been there, the eastern province might have been trampled under the hooves of the Huns like Gaul. Therefore, I think we should grant him equal or more authority than Caesar!”
There were no citizens who opposed it.
It took less than three days for Cato to pass a bill to extend Marcus’s governorship.
With this, Marcus was able to continue to exert his influence in the east until the threat of the Huns disappeared completely.
In fact, it was a good thing to say until the threat of the Huns ended, but this was almost indefinite.
As long as the Huns were not completely exterminated, it was possible to stay put by using the excuse that the crisis was not over yet.
The aristocratic faction also knew this fact, but they did not care much.
They trusted Marcus, but they also felt the need to establish their authority as an aristocratic faction in this way.
Anyway, in Rome’s power structure, even if Marcus’s governorship ended, the eastern province was still his territory.
So it seemed better to balance with Caesar by keeping him in office as a formal governor.
Caesar was currently trying to rule Gaul more efficiently than before by putting Vercingetorix in charge of Gaul’s reconstruction and defense.
Gaul had been divided and opposed each other for a long time, eroding their potential.
But after the war with Rome and the subsequent raid by the Huns, most of the major tribes that had been strong lost their power.
Moreover, there were many small tribes that had been driven out of their homeland and scattered here and there by the Huns.
They united with each other and fought together and carried out operations while developing friendly feelings for each other.
After the Huns retreated, Rome quickly resumed land cultivation as they had done before by building large cities in various places according to their own style to rebuild Gaul.
As a result, Gaul was able to walk on the path of integration much faster than in its original history.
Moreover, with Vercingetorix as a clear center point, this trend received even more momentum.
Cato and Cicero became more and more worried about Caesar’s actions.
They had given him strength to save Rome from crisis, but they wondered if it was too much.
‘If he really wants to become king at this rate, we might not be able to stop him.’
It felt like the anxiety they had had for a long time was becoming a reality.
They had expected that Caesar’s power would weaken because Gaul and Germania suffered almost catastrophic damage, but that was too naive.
Cato counted the gains Caesar had made from this war and almost swore out loud.
First of all, he received the title of hero who saved Rome by pushing back 200,000 Huns.
He was already popular with the people, and this gave him wings.
On top of that, he won the civil war against Sextus and completely made the populist faction his own.
That’s not all.
He made Vercingetorix a senator of the Senate and opened the way for other provincial-born senators to emerge.
This made it possible for a third faction to emerge besides the populist and aristocratic factions.
If these new senators came into politics in the future, they would naturally flock to Caesar and Vercingetorix.
As a noble faction, they naturally envisioned a future where they would be at a disadvantage in terms of power.
That’s why Cato had once again put Marcus at the forefront, as he had always done, to counter Caesar.
It was a hundred times better than Caesar’s monopoly, even if Marcus grew so big that the Senate couldn’t control him.
Besides, if he made Surenas a senator who followed Marcus, he would have an effective way to check Vercingetorix.
Unfortunately, this was all the Senate could do now.
While Rome was busy, Marcus faced a serious problem.
It was none other than the large-scale transport operation he had ordered before.
He had received a report from Septimus that was below his expectations and summoned his staff.
It was time to make a precise decision on his future course of action.
Publius, Surenas, and Antonius took their seats in the conference room of the Antioch palace.
Marcus opened the conversation.
“As I said before, the operation I had in mind was to go up the Black Sea and hit the Hunnic base directly. But it seems that it will take more time to secure enough ships.”
Surenas looked puzzled by the unexpected remark.
“Didn’t you order the shipbuilding from before, even though you planned this operation recently? It’s surprising that it still takes a lot of time.”
“They couldn’t stock up on supplies as much as they expected because they were supporting the large-scale operation that took place in Gaul. Well, I was the one who ordered them to cooperate as a priority, so it’s not a matter of blaming anyone.”
“It was an unavoidable problem. It must have been more urgent at that time. I think you made the right decision.”
Marcus nodded as if he agreed.
The Eastern Province did not send troops directly to the Rhine River northward operation, but instead transported a large amount of food and supplies.
A lot of food that Cleopatra and Arsinoe had brought with them flowed back to Rome.
So it was inevitable that the shipbuilding would be delayed and the stockpiled supplies would not be abundant.
Publius looked over the report with many numbers on it with a grim face.
“Then we’ll have to wait at least two more years at best.”
He couldn’t help but look unhappy.
Given the location of the Eastern Province, going through the sea was the best way to attack the Pontic Plain.
Otherwise, they had to cross the Caucasus Mountains or go around through the Karen Kingdom.
But it was not easy for heavily armed cavalry to cross the Caucasus Mountains, and going around through Karen would take too much time.
Even if they attacked that way, they couldn’t surprise them, so the Huns could just migrate to another area.
Neither option was very appealing.
“Then we’ll have to sort out the soldiers who can be mobilized for now. They might move first, you know.”
“Yeah. Even if we can’t bring enough troops to hit their base, we should be able to support them if other areas are attacked. And we also need to keep some troops on the border.”
Of course, none of them here expected the Huns to stay quiet.
The people below could relax, but those above could never let their guard down for a moment.
There was a very low chance, but there was no law that prevented the Hunnic main force from changing direction and entering the Karen or Suren Kingdoms.
They couldn’t neglect local defense just because Greece or Gaul seemed less likely to be attacked right now.
Marcus looked at Publius and Antonius once and continued.
“You two will have to take care of border defense. The chances of their main force coming down are low, but there’s no guarantee they won’t send bait like before.”
“Leave it to us.”
“If they come, we won’t let any of them live like last time.”
The two answered with confident voices.
Marcus didn’t say anything more.
The two had excellent military talents and surprisingly matched well.
He believed that they would be able to defend the border perfectly if they combined their abilities.
“And we need to get as much help as possible from our allies. Egypt is fine since both pharaohs are here, but someone from here needs to go to Nabataea. I think Surenas is the best candidate for that.”
“Do I have to go to Nabataea and get support troops and food from Arabia?”
“Yeah. If they seem reluctant, remind them of your position. They’ll get what I mean.”
“Shakilavil must have heard about it by now. He must be eagerly waiting for his turn.”
Marcus had previously promised one seat each in the Senate to Shakilavil, the highest nobleman in Arabia and the power behind Nabataea.
He had said that it was not time yet and asked him to wait a little, but now the way was open for powerful people from the provinces to enter the Senate.
So he thought it would be more effective if Surenas, who was also a party to that, went there himself.
Surenas also guessed Marcus’s intention and willingly accepted the role.
“If we get additional support from Egypt, Nabataea, and Arabia, we can form more legions and secure the supplies we need for a large-scale expedition. It won’t be a big problem even if the timing is delayed by two years or so.”
No matter how strong the Huns were, it was almost impossible to collapse Gaul, Greece, and the Syrian Province in a short period of time.
So when the time for the decisive battle came, it would be the year after next.
A blueprint for the future war began to take shape in Marcus’s head.
※※※
The wind of chaos that started when the Huns came to the west became a fierce storm that swept all the surrounding areas.
The ones who suffered the most damage were, of course, Germania and Gaul.
But there were those who had their lands taken away by the Huns before them.
They were the Slavs and Sarmatians who had been living in the east of Germania.
The nomadic Sarmatians mostly surrendered to the Huns and became their subordinates, but those who refused to submit were driven out of their homeland.
Considering that the Huns were the ones who completely destroyed Sarmatia in the original history, it was a rather sad fate.
The Slavic and Sarmatian refugees who had no place to go tried to enter Germania at first, but they failed to achieve their goal because they were blocked by the Roman defense.
After hearing that the Huns were trying to invade Germania, they quickly changed their course and headed for Greece.
But Greece was not a place where they could easily settle down.
Sextus, the governor of Greece, feared that the province’s rule would be unstable if a large number of refugees came in and denied their entry.
In fact, it was not possible to accept them blindly since they came from the Hunnic sphere of influence.
There was no way to know how many enemy spies were mixed among them.
In the end, the refugees who had nowhere else to go decided to take over Greece by force.
Sextus fought a battle to stop the two refugee tribes at once.
He had grown through the battle with Caesar, so the refugees with poor weapons were not very difficult opponents for him.
The battle was fierce but one-sided, and after that, the Slavs and Sarmatians gave up on entering Greece and changed their direction again.
Sextus mobilized all his clients to replenish his defense forces, but he did not chase them further.
It was when Caesar started the Rhine River northward operation and drove away the Hunnic main force.
Finally, the Slavs and Sarmatians who were really cornered attacked the Dacian Kingdom, which had just established a new kingdom and entered a revival period.
The Dacian Kingdom, located in modern Romania, was a powerful country with many strong warriors, but the Slavic and Sarmatian tribes had no more room to retreat.
The battle was fierce and neither side had a clear advantage.
But as the war dragged on, it was natural that the defending side would have more benefits.
Rome, which had been watching the situation here, also thought so.
At that moment, a variable that made all those expectations futile intervened.
A hundred thousand Hunnic cavalry led by Batur himself invaded the Dacian Kingdom.
The Greek front. The fuse of Act 2 was lit.