Alex Gough - Carbo and the Thief: And Other Tales of Ancient Rome

Carbo and the Thief

And Other Tales of Ancient Rome

By Alex Gough

Alex Gough 2014

Alex Gough has asserted his rights under the Copyright, Design and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the author of this work.

To Abigail

Also by Alex Gough

Watchmen of Rome

Gaius Valerius Carbo has returned to the heart of the Empire after 25 years serving in the legions. He just wants to retire in peace. But his friends are gone, his family are dead, and his home now belongs to someone else.

When local thugs attack the tavern where he is resting, he finds himself caught up in the fight, and inadvertently becomes the new owner of the building - and the enemies that come with it.

His world is turned upside down when he is confronted with a face from his past. He had sworn to protect and look after his childhood friend Rufa after her father died alongside him in battle.

But now she has been sold into slavery, and is on the run from her mistress, Elissa. Elissa is a powerful priestess who is organising a cult to try and destroy Rome from within.

Can Carbo protect Rufa - and Rome - from Elissas evil plan?

Or will her following be too strong for the Watchmen of Rome?

Watchmen of Rome is available in paperback or kindle formats here

Praise for Watchmen of Rome

An action adventure plot at its best, with a pace that doesn't let up throughout...the book is one of the better reads in the genre and I would urge anyone to take a chance and give it a read. If you love Rome, action, adventure, intrigue and comedy even, you'll enjoy it. SJA Turney, author of the bestselling Marius Mules series.

From reviews on amazon.co.uk

I honestly thought it was superb. It had everything to make me want to keep reading it and I thought it was well written, well researched and highly entertaining.

Bought this in the first instance for hubby. He absolutely loved it and devoured it within 48 hours. Outstanding. Highly recommended.

Excellent book - couldn't put it down! The genuine historical content is interesting but doesnt take away from excellent characters and plot. Looking forward to his next book.

Loved it.

CONTENTS

Carbo and the Thief

The legionary looked dead, Felix thought. In reality he was dead drunk, he knew. He had been watching him all evening, following him through the alleyways of Divodorum Mediomatricorum. The streets were full, legionaries on leave blowing their donatives, veterans spending their pensions, and local bartenders, hawkers and prostitutes willingly accepting their cash. Felix had eyes only for this one though.

It was only a few hours earlier, as the sun was descending, that Felix had been sitting beneath the aqueduct, hands outstretched, pleading for alms. There were so many beggars, some much more deserving than he. Amputee veterans, skinny mothers with emaciated babies, the elderly, the blind, the infirm. He knew many by name, many more by sight, liked a handful, hated more. When it came down to it though, each had to look after their own. Felix had a younger sister, Tullia, who was his sole responsibility. He wasn't quite sure how old she was, but he thought he had seen around ten summers, and Tullia a couple less. She was certainly too young to survive without him.

So Felix's daily existence was hand to mouth, subsistence achieved by begging, petty theft and the occasional coin from running an errand for a shopkeeper or porter. Surplus was rare, and was stored against the common situation where a day of toil left him empty-handed. Today was a day of surplus, two copper coins burning a hole in a hidden pocket inside his tunic. A rich young man, probably an equestrian, had given him a note to take to a certain house, with express instructions that it should be handed to the mistress of the house, and no one else.

It had taken some persuasion to get the porter to summon her, and when the pretty matron had arrived, she had looked down at him with contempt. She had taken the rolled note from him with reluctance and a wrinkled nose, but her face lit up when she saw the seal. She tore the note open and beamed with delight as she read. Then she had bade the porter to tip him two asses and had wandered away distractedly into the house. The porter had passed over the two coppers coins, and sent him on his way, with the admonishment to tell no one about the message.

Felix was young, but he wasn't stupid. Life on the streets gave no shelter from exposure to suffering, violence or adult pleasures. Many was the time that Felix had sheltered with Tullia in a tomb, disused warehouse or temple portico, crammed in with strangers who shared every aspect of their lives. So he figured out that the married matron who resided in the sumptuous domus he had just visited was carrying out some illicit activity with the young nobleman he had acted as courier for. He filed it away in his mind for possible future use, although what use that could be, he wasn't sure. No one was likely to believe a street urchin with any allegations of wrong doing, and if the miscreants feared even doubt being sown, then they would have no problem in hiring someone to do away with him and dump his body in the Tiber. All in all, trouble like that was best avoided, and he would just enjoy the fortune that the two copper coins represented to him.

He had planned to spend the evening with Tullia, relieving Servilia, the old blind lady who kindly cared for her, from her baby sitting duties. They had sat beneath the aqueduct with palms out, three among a crowd of many, unsuccessfully importuning the passers by as the sun sank in the sky. When the alms for the old lady were low, Felix often contributed some of his own supplies to her, food or a coin. She was the exception to his rule of everyone looking after their own. He told himself it was not sentimentality, but the vital role she played in providing childcare for Tullia.

Then Felix met the legionary.

The soldier, tall and skinny with a scar on one cheek, had looked their way when Felix called out for pity. He had leaned over, laughed, and spat on Tullia. Tullia took the insult with equanimity, nothing new for her. The blind lady put a protective arm around the little girl. Felix bridled at the insult, though was powerless to attempt redress. But then he became transfixed by the bulla dangling on a chain from the soldier's neck.

The bulla was a common enough charm. Worn by male children to ward them against evil spirits, this soldier seemed to be attached enough to his to wear it as an adult. Many legionaries were understandably superstitious, so maybe this one felt it brought him luck, despite the obvious teasing wearing the childish symbol would bring him.

The bulla was in the shape of a winged penis with a bulbous tip, and looked like it was made of solid silver. So maybe it was more than just luck for which it was worn - it had value too. One of the wings was broken halfway down, and there was a notch in the shaft of the disproportionate phallus.

The legionary saw Felix staring at the charm, and put a hand to it protectively. He signed a curse towards them, and wandered away, a slight stagger in his stride suggesting that he had started the night's drinking early. Felix averted his eyes until the legionary was some distance away, then stared at the retreating back, mind whirling. He placed a hand on the blind lady's arm.

Servilia, will you mind Tullia, for a bit longer for me, please?

Of course, dear, said Servilia.

Where are you going, Felix? asked Tullia, petulantly.

I have ... something to do.

So Felix had followed the legionary from tavern to tavern, watching him get drunker and drunker as his purse got lighter and lighter. There was a short stay in a brothel, remarkably short, Felix had thought, having a rough idea of what was supposed to happen in there, and then the legionary in fouler temper had emerged and headed for another tavern and another drink.