Nancy Jardine Author

Sunday Greetings to you!

Sunday means a day free of an official #A2ZChallenge post but on yesterday's F is for Fortuna post I promised today would be an excerpt from #Agricola's Bane, Book 4 of my Celtic Fervour Series Clan Saga - the excerpt indicating that the gods and the goddesses permeated every single happening in a day for my character General Gnaeus Iulius Agricola.  

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Agricola importunes many different gods and goddesses depending on what choices he himself has made, or needs to make, but also according to the circumstances he finds himself in.

When writing these scenes, I wanted to convey that for the Ancient Roman (like Agricola) it wasn't a case of taking full responsibility for a decision and then accepting that maybe some more thought would have resulted in a different outcome. No matter what a person chose to do, it seems as though the normal progression was to constantly fret and wonder if that choice pleased a particular god or goddess, or perhaps even the whole pantheon of gods. It's not a way of thinking that most would have today, so it really is quite tricky to get into the mindset of the Ancient Roman.  

Enjoy! 

Agricola did not even try to prevent deep sarcasm from creeping in to his reply. “Sometimes plans change, Flavus. The men are well-trained to adapt to whatever the gods send their way!”

The hurt squirming of Flavus’ lips set him to stride about again. Agricola observed the tribune over his curled fingers, while his short sharp-breaths warmed the tips. Changing and adapting plans was a daily occurrence. He had too many concerns to occupy his thoughts, and no time to be bothered with one small detachment being late. Though, of course, the confirmed loss of one of his best mining specialist…and maybe at the whim of Mercurius more than two handfuls of mounts…was something he ought to be informed about. Barbarian’s balls! He would cut them off when he caught the culprits.

His foray into Taexali territory had been conducted in a light manner, to cover the ground quickly, but hopes of acquiring new equine stock had been well and truly dashed. By Annonaria’s bountiful breasts and Fortuna’s stinking virtues! What he had done to incur the disfavour of the dual-role goddess? Perhaps ordering the two cohorts of the Legio IX out of his current Well of Ythan camp the previous day had been hasty, given the way the days had turned out? His shiver of anxiety brought forth the regulatory response from Flavus.

“Sir?”

The boy worried about a patrol of eleven men. He had ordered out a thousand.

He shook off his pessimistic thoughts on realising that the sleet had again abated, and that the grey above him was a shade lighter. Perhaps cursing Fortuna was the answer?

“Think positively, Flavus.”

“Yes, sir.”

Titus Sicinia Flavus was probably incapable of any useful thought, the response given being no more than a learned reaction.

News of the Legio IX cohorts’ success would come soon. Their task was simple: aid the mariner auxiliaries who had berthed along the coastline to quell any native Vacomagi unrest. Early information had indicted that treaties would be signed without much bloodshed, though better still none at all.

The approach of a capsarius, a medical assistant he knew was assigned to the senior medicus of the Legio IX, interrupted his long drawn-out conversation with Flavus.

“This top one gives the latest names and the numbers of those now able to move on from our last camp at Durno, sir.” The medical orderly handed over a single board.

“And those?” Agricola indicated the bundle of wooden boards still in the soldier’s hands.

“These are the details of the dead, and the others who cannot move on yet.”

“In the name of Aesculapius! What still ails them?”

Till tomorrow and more #A2ZChallenge posts...enjoy the day. 

Slainthe!