Stories Thread

[everyone]

Spring 258,
Liguria Again

Manius Claudius muttered under his breath, "damned place".

Consul Manius was here 8 years ago, when he was still a minor Tribunus under the Command of Consul Cnaeus Cornlius Scipio Asina. And that was also when Consul Asina died in battle against the Ligurians.

He trudged along a dirt path, along with the rest of Legio I Apulia under his command. The same 8 years ago, Consul Asina marched the same legion along the dirt path towards Segesta. However then, Segesta was ruled by a chieftain who was mentally insane; and had believed that the world would end in a great wine-flooding.

along the dirt path are small plots of land, each owned by farmers and their families; slowly being taken over by the Roman colonisers for the agriculture industry. Some farmers, rarely seeing outsiders, stopped their work, or awoken from their siesta, at started gazing in amazement at the greatest fighting force of the known world; the Roman legion. Faces of both the inexperienced and the grizzled fill the ranks, some of them had been serving in the legion for over 15 years; others had just been conscripted from Latium a few months ago.

Regardless of the soldier's backgrounds; they are all headed towards the north. To aid the city of Massilia, an ally of Rome. Heading this expedition is the Consul Manius Claudius.

In a loud, unwavering and piercing voice which had not been heard in Legio I for 8 years, Manius Claudius yelled "pick up the pace!" Both veterans and recruits obeyed the order; the recruits did so out of fear for they had never heard nor seen the stern side of Manius Claudius; the veterans done so from lifted morale, for that order reminds them of the day when Legio I was the most glorious Legion under the command of Consul Asina; and when Manius Claudius was their stern drillmaster.

[everyone]

Spring 259
Shipwreck
(part of event 2)

A storm brews. a small fleet of the finest Punic warships were sailing along the Campanian coast. the fleet in its former greatness had been reduced to a pathetic state after a defeat by pirates. They had been ordered south to Sicily from Corsica to defend the former in case the Senate and People of Rome decides to search for the sanctuary where Ceres resides on the island, in the process capturing it.

The tempest whips up fiercest of winds; the Punic sailors on board the fleet pray to the omnipotent Baal to protect them, but either the deity appears to be deaf, or that they have sinned greatly and therefore he sent the storm to punish them.

The fleet was tossed off course by the storm, and had crashed onto an area of the Campanian coast. Authorities had been informed and people restricted from the area from the fear that the ships may be looted. The crew has been arrested under the pretext of them being spies; for the cities of Rome and Carthage are at war.

Consul Manius Claudius, deciding this to be a major case to examine; rides from his office in the Campus Martius in Rome, south to the site of the wreck....