The Empire Strikes Back - An SPQR AAR (with all assorted gadgets)

[A Terribly Harmful Name]

Archesilaos scratched the back of his head, then wavered, then reminded of his duty. The inspiration of the moment left him aloof for a few seconds before he could realize the audience was waiting for him to continue, and that he best do it for the sake of his image as a historian. Continuing, he set himself on an eloquent mood to impress the audience.

“Legate, wake up!” – A voice cried in the tent.
“Yes… hmm, huh? Marcus!” – The figure of a man, relatively tall for a Roman and young in looks and manner opened his eyes and inquired the disturber.

The tent was a typical Roman tent, but this one was relatively large and special: thanks to the love of standardization found in the Roman army, it was a methodically organized and clean tent of large proportions compared to the others on the field, reserved for the soldiers. On the center was a table and a few improvised wooden benches and apparatus, presumably a tactical map, which also happened to be the most precious part of the cargo thanks to the lack of reliable geographers. It came straight from Rome, where a Greek master had sold it to the Senate for no less than 1000 Denarii. Grudgingly paying the bill, the Censor Plebeivs Dentatus consented in giving it to the young Cornelius Scipio, warning him that his political future was at stake with the Campaign and that not even his name would save him if he lost on the South.

Lvcivs Cornelivs Scipio was a man of ambition: young, he was since an early age tutored by Greeks from Italia in all sorts of cultured gadgets and wisdom. At 11 he held a sword for the first time, and had intensive training sections that only the warlike patrician clans of Rome could afford. His father, and in his absence, his close adult male relatives, taught him how to duck and dodge javelins and thrusts, how to stab with a Gladius and how to throw a spear into the distance. All of this was coupled with classes on personal defense, which included holding a large thureos shield which the very young Scipio could barely stand, then defend against the blows of his trainer like any common soldier.

It was true that Scipio would probably not use any of these skills: he was the son of the most ambitious and growing aristocratic family and gens of Rome, and the last assignment he could think of was of a common soldier. He would never share his room with the Plebeii on foot, but rather fight on horseback; but given the Roman tradition and the urge of his own family to learn every art, from the art of philosophy to the art of killing, he became skilled in the ways of the common legionary in a manner that many on his future battle lines would never be.

When he was 15, his father Barbatus, already an elderly figure, introduced him to horseback riding. Giving him a pony, and later a horse of Campanian breed, Scipio’s youthful energies were gathered towards charging, using a lance and controlling his mount. The best riders from Campania taught him how to hold the lance and fight mounted, and taught him essential precautions: “never fight on horse like you would on foot” – They told him, around the campfires – “On horseback, you are a big and easy target for your foes. Avoid a prolonged melee and rally your companions away for another charge. This is where strength lies: during the charge, you are unstoppable.”

Now, the ambitious young Scipio was alone on the world, and the Paterfamilias of the Scipiones. Thanks to his influence and lineage, he was able to convince the Senate to allow him to lead the army against Pyrrhus; many were opposed to allowing a young man to lead such an expedition, but the aristocratic factions in the Senate convinced most that the worst part of the Epirote war was done, that Tarentum would be an easy target, and that the Consuls and Praetores best be left managing the Res Publica instead of following such undertakings. It was how Scipio gained his first command, and on the year of 272 B.C., his army was ready to march on Tarentum. Men from all the Res Publica were levied for the undertaking, and a new legion, the Legio I, would be under Scipio's Command.