Heir of Aurelian

Chapter 140 Marching to War

Marcellus stood in his villa dressed in nothing but a subligoria, as two of his many slaves slowly equipped his clothing and armor onto his body. Like any other morning, the first thing he did was get dressed. However, In these treacherous times, it was better to be safe than sorry and because of this; he treated his daily life as if he were in an active war zone. Which meant he war his armor from the second he got up in the morning, until the moment he went to bed.

The two young slave women were completely nude as they began to dress their master. Marcellus had always instructed his slaves in a way that cemented his authority. That was what he referred to as the first law of the household.

Essentially, this meant that Marcellus, as the head of the house, was the first to bathe in the morning, the first to get dressed, and the first to eat. Thus, despite already being awake before him, the girls had yet to put on any clothes themselves.

Their first task was to dress Marcellus in a pair of Tyrian purple trousers, along with matching socks. From there, they adorned his chiseled chest with a Tyrian purple tunic, which had golden embroidery across its length.

Purple was the color of emperors, and though as a utilitarian Marcellus favored a practical approach to attire, he still needed to show off to his soldiers that he was the embodiment of imperial majesty. Thus, like many other emperors of the era, he dressed in mostly purple clothing.

After the slave girls had finished dressing Marcellus in his base layer of clothing, they first attached a bronze manica to his right arm. The Manica was a piece of arm armor made of overlapping segmented bands, which protected the wearer’s sword arm. It scaled from the height of the biceps, down to the wrist. Because it was segmented, it was highly flexible, despite providing near-plate level protection.

After equipping the manica on the right arm. The slave girls placed a padded and quilted linen vest over Marcellus’ chest. This vest was known as a subarmalis. It was akin to the later era Gambeson used by medieval knights as an additional layer of defense.

This Subarmalis had been dyed a Tyrian Purple color with golden embellishments. However, its most notable feature was the two sets of pteruges that hung from both the shoulders and the waist. The pteruges were rectangular leather straps, which acted as an additional barrier of protection for the thighs and biceps.

These pteruges were made of brown leather, with golden tassels that dangled from the edges. Which, when paired with his belt and baldric, matched perfectly. Finally came the primary body armor, which in the past came in the form of a brass Lorica Squamata. However, for the sake of this campaign, Sigefrida had commissioned a special piece of armor for Marcellus.

Lorica Musculata, or the muscle cuirass as it was known in layman’s terms, was a piece of armor used by Roman Generals and emperors for centuries. Its design was made popular by Greek Hoplites, and though it was true that it was a type of armor commonly associated with the ancient Greeks of the classical, and Hellenistic era, its origins were actually in the Archaic Age of Greek history.

The armor provided superior protection to all the other pieces that Marcellus had available to him. The reason for this was simply because it was a solid bronze cuirass. Its design was not like other forms of armor which used overlapping scales, plates, or rings to protect the user. Thus, it was a lot more difficult to penetrate through.

Sigefrida, who was deeply intimate with Marcellus’ body, had commissioned this cuirass to match the appearance of his actual six-pack. It also had a pair of bronze plates attached to the shoulders to provide additional protection.

Once the lorica musculata had been properly adorned, the slaves wrapped a pair of Tyrian Purple leg-wraps over Marcellus’ shins, before adorning the intricately carved bronze greaves. Which displayed the might of Sol Invictus. After applying the shin wraps, they placed the brown leather shoes over his feet. Before topping off his outfit with a Tyrian Purple cloak that had golden embellishment on the edges.

Finally, after the rest of the clothing and armor was finished being applied to Marcellus’ body, his Slaves brought forth the Helmet, which Marcellus denied wearing for the time being, instead he gazed upon it with his own eyes. The Helmet was a berkasovo helmet, or at least that is what it would become later known as in life.

However, unlike the standard issue variation of the helmet, or even the heavily gilded version which generals like to wear. This helm was truly unique, as if partially inspired from the helmet worn by Aurelian, the vertical plume was replaced with radiate spikes that formed a golden mohawk on the top of his gilded helmet. While the cheek plates overlapped a gilded face mask which obscured Marcellus’ true facial features, with a rather bland face carving.

On the helmet itself were purple gemstones encrusted both sides below the mohawk. Marcellus wasn’t just going into this war as representative of the West, but as a Representative of the old religion which founded the Empire, and built it into what it was during its glory days.

This helmet was a statement to the Christians in the east that he was not going to allow the ancient religion of Rome to fade away silently into the night. After ensuring that his entire armor was equipped, Marcellus dismissed the slaves, where Placidia and Sigefrida quickly entered the room to gaze upon their man, who was about to march to war.

The two women were practically in tears, and why wouldn’t they be? They were both pregnant, and the father of their unborn children was about to march to war against an army was outnumbered his own by the tens of thousands.  Sigefrida was the first to comment on the man’s appearance as she rubbed her hand along the polished bronze muscles.

“You look really good. If only we had time, I would strip you out of your armor, and make love to you right here and now!”

Marcellus merely chuckled when he heard this, before grabbing hold of the Suebi beauty’s chin and kissing her passionately. By doing so, he immediately invoked feelings of envy within Placidia’s heart, who approached the man, and stole his attention. Placidia quickly dragged Marcellus’ lips away from Sigefrida’s and violated his mouth with a kiss of her own. In response to this, Marcellus merely chuckled before scolding the girl.

“You always were a jealous one…”

Rather than laugh at his joke, tears formed in the young woman’s hazel eyes as she nodded her head in agreement with the man’s words. Marcellus sighed heavily and hugged the two women tightly before releasing them. He said nothing as he walked to the exit of the mansion, where Placidia and Sigefrida followed him like loyal hounds. Once he opened the door, he turned around one last time before saying his goodbyes.

“You two behave yourselves while I’m away. I promise I will try to end this war as quickly as possible, and when I do, I will bring back that Persian bastard’s head on a plate!”

After saying this, Marcellus shut the door behind him, not waiting for the response from either of the two women, who only ended up weeping after he was gone. Marcellus quickly descended from his villa, and gazed up into the higher reaches of the city, where the Royal Palace was still being constructed.

He could only sigh once more than he felt the rainfall from the heavens above. It was autumn, and he knew that meant that soon, the roads would be difficult to traverse. Nevertheless, he did not let that stop him. Sarus was waiting for the Imperator as he stepped outside his door, along with several other officers within Marcellus’ Army. When the man approached him, Sarus was quick to report the current status.

“We have five legions ready to move out at a moment’s notice. What are your orders, Imperator?”

Marcellus gazed into the distance where he planned to meet the enemy on an opposed landing, and did not hesitate to speak his mind.

“Forward March!”

In response to these orders, Sarus called out to his troops, who played the proper instruments which signalled to march. Marcellus used the stirrups to mount his horse, which was covered in brass scale barding, before adorning his helmet upon his head.

Though the rain continued to fall, it merely pattered against the top of his helmet, along with every other soldier in his army, who was now marching to a battle against a numerically superior foe. Luckily Marcellus had spent the last year or so building his army, and equipping them with the best gear. Or else they would never stand a chance in this war.

However, gazing upon his legionaries, who were all equipped with the best weapons and armor money could buy, he felt pretty good about his chances of winning this campaign. Hell, he might even be looking forward to the action if he was being honest with himself.