Tales of Ancient Rome: Salidia and Lydia

"Oh, this feels so good," Salidia thought. Winter still had time to go, but Salidia had lucked out with mild weather for her entire trip, and today was the best day yet, almost like spring.

"I'd love to do this every day when the weather turns warm again," she thought. The warm sun on her face, the gentle rocking of the ship, the lap of waves against the bow, and the sound of sea gulls in the distance embraced her and filled her senses.

Salidia, her men, and the slaves she had just bought, were on a Phoenician galley on the return trip from Massilla, a port town down on the coast from her villa in Aballo (Avallon, France). She had gone down to the coast to buy specally trained slaves, where she had gotten twenty capable of doing such work as repairing wagon wheels or assisting a carpenter. She also stumbled upon two exquisitely soft wool gown for herself, and three tunics of the same luxurious fleece for Selenius, her childhood friend and now Imperator (Commander) of the local Legion.

She and the men with her, her bodyguards, were lounging on boxes, on the deck, leaning on the rail, any place comfortable, soaking up the warm sunlight and just lolling the time away until the journey was over. "If only those nit-wits would settle down," she thought peevishly. One after the other, the mercenaries with her, all of them, had to squirm and clunk about, disturbing her enjoyment of the rare day. She glanced at her other men, ex-gladiators and veterans of the Legions; they had the good sense to relax and enjoy this break from the usual routine. She didn't know what it was, maybe something about the personalities of men who choose to be mercenaries, but they had to clunk and shuffle around while everyone else laid back to soak up the good weather. "Those guys can't ever just sit down and relax. They always have to be fidgeting around," she thought, annoyed at the mercenaries for disturbing the tranquility of the rare afternoon.

Finally, with some satisfaction, she noted they too settled down. "Ohh! Damn!" One was at it again. "What is that jerk doing now," she wondered, seeing one of them starting to shuffle and rustle about again. A chill ran up her spine.face="Arial>size="11"> She stopped breathing and her stomach knotted up. The man was trying to signal Talig, being real sneaky about it! Talig, the Captain of her bodyguards, was gazing out to sea. The mercenary, Cetus, knocked a wine skin off the box he was sitting on. Talig looked in the direction of the noise. Salidia saw Talig's expression suddenly change, becoming alert, eyes widening. Salidia noticed then that all the mercenaries were looking at Talig. Cetus flicked his eyes toward the Phoenicians, all of whom were at the stern of the ship. Talig looked at them, got an angry look on his face, and looked again at Cetus. He nodded to Cetus. The nod was more a drawn out blink of the eyes, and an almost imperceptible dip of the jaw. Talig glanced at the nearby group of three veteran ex-Legionnaires who were sitting together to the right of Cetus, and then back at Cetus. She saw Cetus do that same nod which was more just a slow blink of the eye. Then Talig glanced at two of the ex-gladiators who were sitting together on the other side. Again Cetus nodded. The other mercenaries had also seen Talig's gesture to the veterans and ex-gladiators, and they were already trying to alert the veterans and ex-gladiators before Cetus passed on Talig's silent.

Salidia remembered hearing that Cetus had served on a galley, and then she recalled he had been curious about the weapons stored on deck when they first came aboard, but she hadn't paid much attention to it. There were several caches of arms scattered across the deck. She wished someone would include her in all this nodding and blinking back and forth, but she took her cue from her men, who were acting nonchalantly, and she remained in her casual position.

Talig was sitting next to his best friend, Caius. He nudged Caius, who looked at him, and then Talig glanced at the Phoenicians and then at Salidia. Caius followed Talig's gaze. For the first time, Talig noticed that Salidia was staring at him. He stared back at her, stuck his tongue in the side of his cheek, and made a long, protracted blink. She hoped the gesture meant, "Something's odd, but it's alright and I'm on it," but whatever the gesture meant, she was thankful he just made a calm response to her stare. His calmness reassured her.

None of her men acted alarmed. All stayed relaxed. But they all causally shifted positions to be within reach of their swords. Not all at once, but one by one. Salidia slowly put her hand to her waist, and felt a flood of relief to feel her dagger there, just where it was supposed to be. Right now, she felt glad that in the last few months Talig had been showing her tricks to using a knife, and that she had gotten into the habit of wearing one at her waist.

Talig got up and causally sauntered over to the ship's rail near Salidia, and gazed out to sea as he leaned on the bulwark. She felt much better with her best man at her side, but her heart was still pounding. There were more than twice as many Phoenicians as her men, but an angry part of her felt her men could smash the Phoenicians. "Let these bastards try fucking around with my men, and it will be the last fucking thing they do," she thought to herself.

When she fled Rome to escape the murderous Caligula, she picked the best man she could think of to head her bodyguards, the famous ex-gladiator Talig, a Dimachaeri*; and she charged him with assembling a corps of twelve as body guards for her trip to Gaul. Three were other ex-gladiators whom she recognized from the Colosseum. She had seen them fight dozens of times, and kill every man they fought. Practiced killers. They were the best of the best, and all had been awarded their freedom because of their exceptional abilities. With the four gladiators alone, she felt she could kill these bastards if they threatened her. Yet......she was still scared.

"Ohhho," she turned her head, startled. Movement out of the corner of her eye surprised her, and she turned to see a group of three Phoneticians walk toward her men and then start to reset the rigging on the mainsail near two of her mercenaries. A moment later another group of four Phoenicians walked to the other side of her men, and began to batten down the hold. Frightened by their approach, she looked back at her men and realized someone must have alerted the other three ex-Legionnaires because they had shifted positions to be next to their weapons. A moment later, Caius got up and went to the rail on the other side of her to piss off the side of the ship.

Other groups of Phoenicians had drifted onto the deck and surrounded her men by pretending to engage in diversionary tasks like shifting cargo or coiling ropes. Each of the places the Phoenicians choose to work at their fake tasks was next to one of the caches of weapons which were stored on deck. They were waiting for the last group of their men to get into position behind Salidia's men. The ship was a stage where two groups of men were trying to fool each other.

"Awhh," she screamed, jumping to her feet and grabbing her knife as the deck suddenly exploded into rushing, shouting men. Striking first, her men sprung on the Phoenicians with their weapons in their hands while the Phoenicians still had coils of rope or freight boxes in their hands. Two Phoenicians fell spewing blood across the deck, stabbed by her men, before they reached their swords. Another Phoenician ran unarmed back to the stern when one of her veterans cut him off from reaching his arms.

Three Phoenicians were running at her. She jerked her dagger up over her shoulder, ready to stab them when they got close. In rage, she wanted to kill one before they killed her. From the side Caius suddenly jumped in front of her, his attack bringing them to a stop. Before they could encircle Caius, one of Salidia's ex-Legionnaires, Rufus, charged the three Phoenicians from the back, pinning them between himself and Caius.

Talig was a ~blur~ of motion. He sprung at a group of three Phoenicians nearest him. Choosing the throat as his target, he struck at the man to the left of him with such hand speed that it beat the man's reaction time. In a well practiced move, the thrust initiated an instantaneous swing of his arm to the right and he twisted his body to continue the swing of his sword across the throat of the man in front of him. The two moves happened so fast, it just looked like a flashing swing of his arm to the right. Talig's hand speed was so great, neither man had time to raise their arms in defense. His arm just shot from one to the other. Only their eyes had time to react. In the same motion, he continued it's momentum by jumping toward the man on his right with an outstretched right arm. The whole thing looked like one flash to his right. The third man had time to take half a step backwards, and to start to raise his sword in front of his throat for protection. Talig simply made a back and forth stab around the man's swords to the unprotected side of the man's neck before the Phoenician could move to block Talig greater speed.

Then Talig spun and jumped at the group pinned between Caius and the ex-Legionnaire. Two were fighting Caius, one the Legionnaire. Salidia was behind Caius, wanting to help him with her dagger held overhead and looking for a chance to stab at the Phoenicians, but she lacked the fighting skills to know what to do. In a step Talig was behind the two on Caius, stabbing one in the back before the man knew Talig was behind him and the second in the side as he turned too late to face the new comer. The veteran killed the third. Caius stationed himself in front of Salidia again, her bodyguard for the fight. Talig pivoted again and sprinted for two in the back of the ship who were also running toward Caius and Salidia, the Legionnaire, Rufus, following right behind him. Seeing Talig and Rufus running at them, the Phoenicians stopped in their tracks, and dropped their weapons and fearfully got down on their knees.

Talig used the same blinding speed that Salidia had seen time and again in the Colosseum. The first time Talig had appeared in the arena, the crowd hadn't cheered. It went dead silent, no one in the stands moving, and then roared. He was the fastest man anybody ever remembered seeing.

In less than a minute, more than half the Phoenicians were dead and the others had dropped their swords. The Phoenicians had planned on surprising Salidia's men, killing them and robbing them; but her men had turned the tables on them, catching them while they were still engaged in their diversionary tasks. None of her men were hurt. They had fought the Phoenicians as if they were children. Salidia paid good money to hire the best swords available in Rome, and it was money well spent. Her men were formidable, each of them.

They backed the surviving Phoenicians into a small group near the stern. Salidia burst through the ring of her men and stormed up to the captain. In a rage, she snarled at him, "You bastard," she snarled in rage and jerked her dagger into his belly three times, as hard as she could, as fast as she could, grunting with each thrust. He fell to the deck, moaning. She glared down at him in hatred, and then kicked him in the face. Turning to two Phoenicians on her left, she growled in a guttural tone, "Throw him overboard!"

As the still conscious captain was being carried to the rail, Cetus said to her, "We need the rest to sail the ship," afraid she would kill more of the sailors She angerly grunted, "Hummp." Then she softened, some of her rage discharged, and said, "You're a good man, Cetus. How did you know?"

"We got on ship; I saw the arms." He made a gesture with arms and shoulders, implying, "Of course!" "They get rusty fast up on desk! So I asked one of them why the arms were on deck, and he tells me, 'We want to be ready if we run into pirates' Mistress, if an Athenian Trireme hove around that point of land over there this very instant, at Battle Stroke, it would take them well over an hour to run us down and come abeam. How fast did he think oar and sail can go? So I started to watch them. Then they got all together at the stern. There's no reason to do that in the middle of the day. So that's when I let Talig and the others know."

"Good man, Cetus," she repeated, "When we get to shore take whatever you want from the captain's things." "Thank you, Mistress," he answered, smiling, thinking of all the valuables usually stored in a captain's cabin.

She looked across the ship at the dead Phoenicians lying on the deck, and felt invincible. With her eyes ablaze and excited by the victory, she felt a heart pounding thrill and a thirst to crush anyone who opposed her.

A little later she said to Talig, "When we get home, let's increase the time you and I spend training. When I saw the Phoenicians running at me, I forgot everything you taught me, and stood there with the dagger stuck up into the air. I wanted to kill one of them, but didn't know what to do." He chucked, "Yeah, I saw you waving the dagger around. What did you think you were doing? Swatting flies?" The two laughed.

"I wanted to help Caius. Don't make fun of me, you big goon."

"Awh, don't feel bad. Looking at you waving that dagger around so mad, I think you must have scared one of them so bad he was afraid to go around to the left and get Caius from the side. You looked so mean, it looked like you were ready to stick anything you could reach," he laughed. He was having great fun at her expense. "You looked so angry, I was afraid you might stab me or Caius by mistake," he said, laughing away.

Then he soften, starting to feel a little bad that he might have hurt her feelings. He smiled at her, "They had swords; you had a knife. Sure, it can be done, I fought with a small buckler and dagger, but we've got to make you a lot stronger and faster. A lot faster. It's going to take a lot of time for you on the training ground. I get to order you around some more, Mistress! This is going to be fun," he chuckled. She slapped him on the arm with a smile.

When they reached the port leading to Aballo, they pulled into the next cove, and ground the ship on shore. They herded the surviving Phoenicians to the back of the ship, and ransacked the galley. The men kept anything they wanted from the ship. A pile of arms, clothing, and personal items was growing in front of the slaves she bought in Massilla, who were expected to carry the booty. The gold and silver they found was gathered together in one spot. There was enough cash on the galley to pay for her trip four times over. Apparently, her Phoenician trader was a busy little pirate on the side, and he must have robbed and murdered several passengers before Salidia came aboard his ship. Salidia kept half the money, gave her men 1 part of 4, and she would use 1 part of 4 to build the men better quarters. They set the front of the galley ablaze and sat on the beach watching the Phoenicians jumping off the stern of the boat and splashing around in the water, too frightened to come ashore while Salidia's men were sitting on the sand. Two of the crew couldn't swim and they ran back and forth across the stern not knowing what to do as the fire approached them. Salidia's men bet on which of the floundering men would be the last to drown.

(*Dimachaeri> were gladiators who used speed as a weapon. Usually armed with a small buckler and dagger or two swords, and no body armour, they depended upon their speed and reflexes to avoid opponents blows. Talig was one of these. Dimachaeri were expected to streak in to an opponent, find a chink in their armor, and strike. They typically fought heavily armoured opponents, who's armour slowed them down. The contest hinged on the speed and endurance of the two fighters, one vulnerable but fast, the other almost impregnable but slow.

Unlike today's custom of pairing evenly matched opponents against each other, the Roman's usually paired men with very unequal abilities against each. Each man had different strengths and weakness, and the contest hinged on who could best use his strength against the other's weakness. The most common type of match was between a "small shield," a lightly armoured man, against a "large shield," a heavy armoured man. Roman contests were than between two different types of strengths,i.e., speed versus muscle; and the type of strengths involved depended upon the type of gladiators em