Caesar Ascending-Pandya Read online

  Caesar Ascending – Pandya

  By R.W. Peake

  Also by R.W Peake

  Marching With Caesar® – Birth of the 10th

  Marching With Caesar – Conquest of Gaul

  Marching With Caesar – Civil War

  Marching With Caesar – Antony and Cleopatra, Parts I & II

  Marching With Caesar – Rise of Augustus

  Marching With Caesar – Last Campaign

  Marching With Caesar – Rebellion

  Marching With Caesar – A New Era

  Marching With Caesar – Pax Romana

  Marching With Caesar – Fraternitas

  Marching With Caesar – Vengeance

  Marching With Caesar – Rise of Germanicus

  Marching With Caesar – Revolt of the Legions

  Marching With Caesar – Avenging Varus, Part I

  Marching With Caesar – Avenging Varus Part II

  Caesar Triumphant

  Caesar Ascending – Invasion of Parthia

  Caesar Ascending – Conquest of Parthia

  Caesar Ascending – India

  Critical praise for the Marching with Caesar series:

  Marching With Caesar-Antony and Cleopatra: Part I-Antony

  “Peake has become a master of depicting Roman military life and action, and in this latest novel he proves adept at evoking the subtleties of his characters, often with an understated humour and surprising pathos. Very highly recommended.”

  Marching With Caesar-Civil War

  "Fans of the author will be delighted that Peake’s writing has gone from strength to strength in this, the second volume...Peake manages to portray Pullus and all his fellow soldiers with a marvelous feeling of reality quite apart from the star historical name... There’s history here, and character, and action enough for three novels, and all of it can be enjoyed even if readers haven’t seen the first volume yet. Very highly recommended."

  ~The Historical Novel Society

  “The hinge of history pivoted on the career of Julius Caesar, as Rome’s Republic became an Empire, but the muscle to swing that gateway came from soldiers like Titus Pullus. What an amazing story from a student now become the master of historical fiction at its best.”

  ~Professor Frank Holt, University of Houston

  Caesar Ascending – Pandya by R.W. Peake

  Copyright © 2019 by R.W. Peake

  All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Cover by Laura Prevost

  Cover Artwork Copyright © 2019 R. W. Peake

  All Rights Reserved

  Foreword

  With this next chapter in the saga of Caesar Ascending, which has become something much bigger than I ever thought possible, I want to offer something of a warning to my readers. I’m often asked, “How do you write these stories? What’s your process?” To which my honest answer has been, “I have no idea,” which has been the best explanation I can offer; once I get immersed in a story, during the dark hours of the night while I toss and turn (I’m a very light sleeper, a habit that I picked up more than thirty years ago), my mind is busy at work, although I’m not aware of it. Then, when I get up the next morning, I sit down, and the continuation of the story that I apparently have been composing in my head comes pouring out. That has been the best explanation I can offer, until I read something a few months ago which makes sense to me. A literary critic was offering up his theory of the two types of writers, “planners” and “pantsers,” and as I read, I realized that I am the latter, which I’ll explain, and why it’s germane to Caesar Ascending-Pandya.

  “Planners” are those writers who, before they write a word of prose, map out their story, creating an outline and plot points. They know where their story is going, the roadblocks their characters are going to encounter, and the dramatic interaction between those characters.

  I’m not one of those; I’m a “pantser,” although I will say that in the original seven volumes of Marching With Caesar, I knew where my character, who I now refer to as Titus the Elder, would end up. However, as most long-time readers know, this alternate history series began as a “mad scientist experiment” on my blog, where I wondered, “If the Legions of Rome faced the samurai of Japan, who would win?”…and I ended up writing what will still be the end of the Caesar Ascending series, Caesar Triumphant, which means I knew how what would become this series would end. I just had no idea readers would be so interested in “What happened in those ten years before they get to Japan?” So, in that sense, I’m perhaps not a pure “pantser,” as in someone who creates a story by the “seat of their pants,” where they allow the story to take on a life of its own, and they simply follow where it takes them. In this article, the author mentioned George R.R. Martin as a “pantser,” which is one reason why his fans are left waiting as one deadline after another passes by. I only became aware of Mr. Martin’s work through the HBO series, and once I took a look at his actual works, my first thought was, “Whew! He’s not the only one who writes really long books.” Like him, albeit in a different genre, I prefer to allow a story to grow and progress organically, but behind that growth is my own particular method for growing it.

  Which leads to my “warning” about Caesar Ascending-Pandya. When I return to this alternate world where Caesar lives and is doing his damnedest to outdo Alexander the Great, I do a whole lot of “What do you think might happen?” kind of thinking. And, as I thought about it, I realized that, along with the challenge of taking such a vast swathe of territory and the different cultures that come with it, there’s the even greater challenge of holding it. Consequently, it made sense to me that, here in the third and fourth year of this ten-year saga, Caesar and his Legions would be confronted by a number of internal challenges that doesn’t result in the kind of fighting my readers have come to expect from my stories, but they are no less of a threat, and in my conception, would be just as difficult, and crucial to overcome.

  One struggle that readers might find somewhat surprising, and mundane, is how Caesar’s Legions must struggle with acclimating to a radically different environment as they move south towards the Equator, which they didn’t know existed. What they would know is that, compared to the arid heat of much of Parthia, the sub-tropical climate of India would pose a real challenge, and in this I’m speaking from experience. As most of my readers know, I was born, raised, and essentially spent fifty years in Houston, Texas, and as much as I love my hometown, I’m not stupid; I know that to most visitors from more temperate climes, it’s a hellish mixture of heat and humidity, where the ambient temperature can be 72 degrees, but you’re still sweating. Growing up in it as I did, it wasn’t something I noticed; not once in my childhood do I remember thinking, “Wow, it’s way too humid to go outside and play today.” However, once I removed myself from that environment for a long enough period of time then returned to it, I realized just how harsh this kind of climate can be to the uninitiated. It saps the energy, you basically stay damp all the time, and you have to essentially pick your poison when it comes to strenuous activities outside; mornings the temperature is lower but the humidity significantly higher, while late in the day it’s the opposite. Personally, I have more problem coping with damp heat than dry heat, and I have air conditioning and modern fabrics that help alleviate the conditions, neither of which Titus and his comrades would have.

  So, I thought, what would it be like for men who had just spent two years in an equally hot environment but one that was significantly less humid? The first thing that came to mind was how I would have responded if the only clothing I had was made of wool, and how I’d be willing to try any other kind of fabric, because I can’t think of anything worse than being stuck wearing something that actually traps your body heat and takes a long time to dry out. And, as my ever-alert editor, Beth Lynne pointed out, one reason that people in hotter climes tend to favor spicier food isn’t just because they have a fixation on sticking a flamethrower in their mouth, but that it induces sweating, which is our system’s way of cooling the body. Trying to imagine how much of a challenge it would be to compensate for this radical change in environment is an example of how I try to immerse myself in this world as I think, “What would I do if I was in command?” These are all of the things that a man like Gaius Julius Caesar, and the men who march for him, would have to confront, and overcome if they’re to be successful in achieving their goal, whatever that may be.

  In closing, I’d like to thank Beth Lynne; at some point, I know it sounds trite and repetitive, but I can’t express what a great job she does putting up with my obsessive behavior on things like what I described above, and how she “gets” me in my role as a teller of stories. And, to Laura Prevost, thanks for another great cover that I think conveys the exotic nature of this new land of India in which Titus and his comrades find themselves.

  Semper Fidelis,

  R.W. Peake

  September, 2019

  Historical Notes

  As I explained in Caesar Ascending-India, while I try to ground all of my work, even this alternate history series, in the historical record as much as I can, this foray by Caesar and his Legions into India has taken me into some uncharted territory. If anything, what this exercise has shown me is how little I know about ancient India, particularly the era of the First Century BCE, and unfortunately, there isn’t a whole lot of detailed
historical record to go on. As a result, as I did with Abhiraka, King of Bharuch, who was in fact one of those men known as a Western Satrap, I took a real figure from history, Puddapandyan and the first King of Pandya, uprooted him, and moved him about a century earlier. Which, in turn, means that the development of what would become the Pandyan Empire is already well underway in this story. And, as I did in the previous book, for this I ask my readers’ forgiveness; since I never imagined that I would be filling in the ten years prior to Caesar Triumphant, I freely admit that I was a bit cavalier in using some of the cultures and kingdoms that Caesar and his Legions would encounter as I mapped his imaginary progress across the vastness of Asia.

  With that out of the way, the cities and towns that Titus Pullus and his fellow Legionaries will encounter are all real, although in all but one case, the names have changed over the millennia. The city of Muziris existed, although today it’s called Kodungallar, which is located at 10.233761°N 76.194634°E, while the ancient city was apparently closer to the shoreline. It was an important trading post, situated on the confluence of the Periyar River and the Arabian Sea, and the Greek name, Pseudostoma, is an apt description even today. Using Google Earth, one can see the opening that is barely two hundred yards across, while the actual entrance to the river is some eighteen miles south, and is more than a quarter-mile across. When I first examined this area as I was in the process of deciding exactly where a general like Caesar would want to conduct an amphibious assault, I was certain that this had to be a manmade canal that paralleled the coast north for eighteen miles, until I referred to the incomparable Barrington Atlas, and saw the ancient name, which literally means “False Mouth,” so despite undoubtedly being improved over the centuries, this unique condition is a natural occurrence.

  Of the other towns that play a role, Kalliena and Honnavar, they both exist today, and while the former is now known as Kalyan, the latter Honnavar has been known by that name for more than two thousand years. My description of the conditions at Honnavar, specifically the mouth into what appears to be a natural harbor created by the Sharavati River that’s protected by a sandbar is based on Google Earth, but I am working off the assumption that the conditions are essentially unchanged.

  The city of Karoura is something of a riddle, not whether it existed, but where it was located. Every online reference I could find to the ancient city places it at modern-day Karur, which is located at 10.95°N 78.08°E; however, the Barrington Atlas places Karoura much closer to the coast, and located on the Periyar/Pseudostoma River, at the base of the Western Ghat Mountains, and I chose to use the Barrington location.

  As far as the makeup of the Pandyan army, this proved to be one of the most difficult aspects of trying to keep this story even somewhat authentic. Specifically, there is very little primary source material about the Pandyan “grunt” who would be facing Titus and his Legionaries, but from what I could glean, their “armor” essentially consisted of using leather in the wrapping of their turbans, a spear and a wicker shield. As I mentioned in the Foreword, having grown up in what has the distinction of being the most air-conditioned city in the world in Houston, the idea of wearing heavy chainmail or a cuirass is not appealing in the least. However, I just couldn’t bring myself to depict the Pandyans as not wearing any kind of protective armor, so I have them wearing leather lamellar armor. We also know that the northern part of Indian, down to Bharuch, was more heavily under Greek influence, while southern India relied on elephants and missile troops, with their infantry being not much more than fodder. While Bharuch was an amalgam of two cultures, the Pandya I have created is almost purely southern Indian, presenting Caesar and his Legions with a decidedly different tactical problem than the Parthians and the Indo-Greeks.

  Finally, this is as much a cultural note as a historical one, and it concerns something that I actually encountered in my previous life working in the software industry, during a time when we began moving our development efforts “offshore” to India. It was during our first meeting with executives from the company we would be contracting with that I noticed something that I considered odd, because they seemed to be having the exact opposite reaction to our conversation than one would expect, at least from a Western perspective. After all, why would someone respond to, “We’re very excited to work with your company” by shaking their heads? And, why would they be nodding their heads when we said, “But the rate you’re asking for is too high”? Thanks to the patience and understanding of a gentleman named Vimaldeep Singh, with whom I developed a good relationship during this process, I learned a valuable lesson, that not all of our gestures are universal, that in some places, nodding one’s head is the exact opposite of what we in the West have come to learn is a signal of acceptance. Now, I have no idea whether those customs were in place back then, but since this is my “world,” I decided to use it, as a reminder as much to myself as to my readers that the manner in which we communicate is as widely varied and different as human beings themselves. Sometimes, you have to actually have a conversation to find that common ground.

  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 1

  “I never thought I would say this,” Quintus Balbus muttered, then paused long enough to wipe the sweat dripping from his face with a rag that was already close to sodden, “but I’d rather be in fucking Parthia than this cachole.”

  This elicited a humorless laugh from the man sitting across from him, who reminded Balbus, “You said that yesterday.”

  “And,” the third member of the party added, “the day before that.”

  “So?” Balbus shot back defensively. “It doesn’t make it any less true.”

  This, Titus Pullus understood, was nothing more than the simple truth, and he was every bit as miserable as his Primus Pilus Posterior; he was also aware that Sextus Scribonius, his Secundus Pilus Prior and the man sitting next to the other two at the table, felt the same way.

  “Even when there’s a breeze, it doesn’t really help all that much,” Scribonius complained. Then he plucked at his soldier’s tunic as he admitted, “Although now that we’re wearing cotton instead of wool, it’s more bearable.”

  Despite his general discontent, even Balbus couldn’t argue this point, and as miserable as not just weather conditions were here in Bharuch but the overall situation with Caesar’s army, switching out the type of fabric worn by the Legions had been a gift from the gods. Otherwise, things, while not quite as dire as they had been, were still somewhat unsettled. On this late afternoon in the month the Romans called December, the three men were sitting on a veranda, open on four sides but with an ornate roof that extended to the building that served as Pullus’ quarters, watching the afternoon rain coming down while drinking what had become their beverage of choice, which the natives called sura. Not, it should be said, that it was a natural transition for Romans to make, going from wine made from the grape, with perhaps a few spices thrown in, to this concoction of rice, wheat, some grapes, and what the locals referred to as “sugar,” a cane-like plant that grew in abundance in the lands on the far side of the Ganges, and was one of the several major imports of Bharuch. However, when the amphorae of wine ran out, and given that there was no resupply coming from Parthia for the foreseeable future, it was not long before the conquerors turned to this drink. As they had learned the first few days after the city had fallen, it was incredibly potent, far more so than wine, but that was only partially responsible for what had taken place during the attack on the city. Through a process of trial and error, each of them had discovered what their particular limit with sura was, so on this day, they were being judicious with the beverage, especially since Diocles was watching them keenly. Somewhat to the Greek’s surprise, it wasn’t Balbus who he had to moderate most closely, despite the Centurion’s well-deserved reputation for debauchery. Instead, it was his master, which wasn’t really the proper term since the relationship between Pullus and Diocles could hardly be described as a master and slave, who had proven to have developed a taste for the beverage, to the point where he had wrought a fair amount of havoc when in its grips.