PROLOGUE
Anno 106 A.C.
It was almost dark when the emperor finally came to his tent. He was tired and hungry but happy the waiting had come to an end. He would resume their advance north in the morning. His army was in place, the legions further down the Danuvius had already started their advance towards the gorges. His own two legions were waiting for him on the other side. It was time.
He took off his helmet, ruffled his sweaty hair and bent a little to get under the flapped doors of the entrance. Once inside he stopped in surprise. He had visitors:
“Plinius, my friend! What are you doing here, at this forsaken end of the world? I don’t recall asking for a public speaking.”
“I salute you, Caesar! I didn’t think so. I just came as a friend.”
The two men embraced with obvious pleasure.
“Plinius, did the senate sent you to check on me?”
The younger man laughed.
“Of course not. I just wanted to see you before you crossed the river.”
“So, the Senate DID send you to check on me. Come here, sit down. Are you hungry? I am starving.”
Plinius nodded and sat down at the small table. Several servants brought bread, cheese, grapes and wine in short order. The dinner was simple but surprisingly tasty and the wine even more so. Once they were done with it, the emperor stood up and stepped out of the tent, looking at his friend over the shoulder in invitation. Plinius quickly grabbed his wine goblet and followed.
They climbed together the soft slope and stopped at the ridge.“Wow,” exclaimed the statesman in wonder.
At their feet, the old river Danuvius came out staggering through the mouth of a hideous creature with stone fangs, shook its wild, wet mane and continued its majestic journey to the east. The Big River was a great view in itself but what made the Roman orator gasp in wonder was the splendid construction that spanned the water like a delicate belt encircling the waist of a beautiful woman. He could barely see its end through the evening mist and whistled softly.
“So, it is ready.”
The emperor laughed.
“Don’t act so surprised, it is the bridge you came to see!”
His friend smiled but couldn’t take his eyes off the beautiful construction.
“It is wonderful. And so long.”
“A 3600 pedes long, twenty-span bridge on stone piers. You can truly say it is a wonder, there is no other bridge in the world like it. Just don’t ask Apollodorus for more details because you might be still here when we come back.”
Plinius shook his head.
“I won’t. But your chief engineer is a genius.”
“He is. But this you are also forbidden to tell him.”
The two men remained quiet for a while, than Plinius broke the silence:
“Trajan, do you hate them?”
The emperor raised his eyebrows in surprise.
“What? No. Why do you think that? I admire them.”
“Then why are you going after them again? You defeated and humiliated them already.”
The emperor frowned.
“They are not defeated.”
It was Plinius’ turn to raise his eyebrows.
“What do you mean? You made them beg for peace three years ago.”
“But, you see my friend, this is where you are wrong. There is no such thing as defeat, not with them there isn’t. They will never cease fighting. The only way to make them stop is to kill them.”
“You cannot kill them all.”
“Maybe not. But I will try.”
Plinius shuddered involuntarily. Trajan continued:
“There will never be peace at the eastern border as long as they are still here. And there will not be another Varus disaster, not as long as I am the Roman Emperor. Because this is what is going to happen if they are allowed to breathe. We cannot tame them, nobody can. We cannot colonize them, not in the good, old, Roman fashion. There is no other way. I will kill their warriors and I will destroy their temples. And at the end, when I am done with that, I will burn Sarmisegetusa.”
The night had fallen over them and only the ghostly braziers placed every fifty pedes on Apollodorus’ bridge showed the direction into the hostile quiet of the Dacian land.
