Clash of Eagles (55 page)

In Cahokia, the exact dates of spring, midsummer, harvest, and midwinter are determined by the position of the sun on the horizon at sunrise and sunset, as measured from the Circle of the Cedars.

In order to maintain the alignment of the lunar cycles with the annual solar cycle, a thirteenth month is added into the Cahokian calendar every three years. This is the
Dancing Moon.
As its name implies, the Dancing Moon can be inserted into the Cahokian calendar at the most convenient time, as chosen by the shamans.

Other ceremonies and celebrations occur during the Cahokian year but are scheduled when the signs, time, and weather are right, at times that may appear arbitrary to the uninitiated.

After the death of Septimius Severus in A.D. 211, the bloody civil war between his sons Caracalla and Geta nearly destroyed the Imperium. No one then alive could have foreseen that that decadelong firestorm would forge a new, stronger Roma that would last another thousand years.

Once the turbulence subsided and the rebuilding began, Roma’s new Imperator and Senate did their utmost to prevent such a calamity from ever happening again. A thoughtful and intelligent Imperator, Geta proposed a number of civil reforms designed to limit his own powers and those of his successors, and having lived in terror of the vicious and predatory Caracalla for the previous ten years, the Senate was only too happy to pass those reforms into law. By and large Geta succeeded in stabilizing the Imperium and returning it to its former greatness, but further military reforms were needed in the centuries that followed to prevent the Roman army from growing too strong and again playing a political role. Key to the successful preservation of the Pax Romana was deterring individual legions from aligning themselves with pretenders to the Imperial throne. This had the useful secondary effect of strengthening Roma’s borders against the threats of barbarian invasion.

And so by A.D. 1218 the army has been reformed and streamlined while maintaining those elements which enabled Roma to establish a mighty Imperium in the first place. The legionary structure is largely intact, but mobility between ranks and the assignation of commanding
officers is now almost entirely merit-based, reducing the opportunities for ambitious young consuls or governors to seize control of their local legions and mount a bid for the Imperial purple. Rather than being kept separate, legionaries and auxiliaries are combined within their cohorts and considered equal members of their units, reducing the risk of mutiny. Finally, officers and soldiers are now permitted to marry and to take leave between campaigns, and they receive sizable bonuses in money and land upon honorable retirement from the army.

A glossary of Roman terms, Latin translations, and military terminology appears below. Many aspects of Roman warfare have remained unchanged since classical times, but language does evolve, and in a few cases the meanings of words have migrated from their original usage in the Republic and the early Empire.

Aquila:
The Eagle, the standard of a Roman legion. Often golden or gilded and carried proudly into battle; the loss of an Eagle is one of the greatest shames that can befall a legion.

Aquilifer:
Eagle bearer; the legionary tasked with carrying the legion’s standard into battle (plural: aquiliferi).

Auxiliaries:
Noncitizen troops in the Roman army, drawn from peoples in the provinces of the Imperium. Career soldiers trained to the same standards as legionaries, they can expect to receive citizenship at the end of their twenty-five-year service. Originally kept in their own separate units, auxiliaries have now been integrated into the regular legionary cohorts.

Ballista:
Siege engine; a tension- or spring-powered catapult that fires bolts, arrows, or other pointy missiles of wood and metal. Resembles a giant crossbow and often is mounted in a wooden frame or carried in a cart.

Basilica:
Public building or hall used for business and legal matters, generally situated in or near the Forum.

Braccae:
Celtic woolen trousers, held up with a drawstring.

Camp Prefect:
Also known as praefectus castrorum. Third in command of a Roman legion, after the legate (Praetor) and the First Tribune. Often an enlisted man who has worked his way up through the ranks from centurion.

Campus Martius:
Field of Mars; an area originally situated outside the walls of Roma and used for military training, parades, and triumphs, later absorbed into the city.

Cardo:
Colloquial term for the wide main street oriented north-south in Roman cities, military fortresses, and marching camps (more formally known as the Via Praetoria/Via Decumana).

Castra:
Military marching camp; temporary accommodation for a legion, often rebuilt each night on the march.

Centurion:
Professional army officer in command of a century.

Century:
Army company, ideally eighty to a hundred men.

Close order:
Infantry formation, with men massed at a separation often as small as eighteen inches, making a phalanx or another close formation difficult to penetrate or break up.

Cohort:
Tactical unit of a Roman legion; each cohort consists of six centuries. Sometimes the First Cohort in a legion is double-strength.

Consul:
High-ranking civil official, annually elected during the times of the Roman Republic, appointed during the early Empire, and, after the civil reforms of Geta, now once again elected into office, but for a two-year term.

Contubernium:
Squad of eight legionaries who serve together, bunk together in a single tent (in a castra) or building (in a fortress barracks), and often are disciplined together for infractions (plural: contubernia).

Cuneus:
Literally, “wedge” or “pig’s head”; dense military formation used to smash through an enemy’s battle line or break through a gap.

Curia:
Roman Senate House, assembly hall.

Dignitas:
Dignity.

Eruptio:
Literally “eruption”; sudden sally or sortie, unexpected military breakout.

Forum:
Public square or plaza, often a marketplace.

Gens:
Family; often used in a larger sense akin to a clan or tribe.

Gladius:
Roman sword (plural: gladii).

Greek fire:
Liquid incendiary, probably based on naphtha and/or sulfur, although the recipe was lost in Europa and is a closely guarded secret in Nova Hesperia.

Imperator:
Emperor; Roman commander in chief.

Imperium:
Empire; executive power, the sovereignty of the state.

Intervallum:
Walkway or area just inside the exterior fortifications of a castra; in other words, the space between the ramparts and the blocks of tents.

Lares:
Roman household gods, domestic deities, guardians of the hearth.

Legate:
Senior commander of a legion, more completely known as legatus legionis. By the thirteenth century, “legate” and “Praetor” are synonymous.

Legion:
Army unit of several thousand men consisting of ten cohorts, each of six centuries.

Legionary:
Professional soldier in the Roman army. A Roman citizen, highly trained, who serves for twenty-five years.

Mare:
Sea.

Medicus:
Military doctor, field surgeon, or orderly.

Onager:
Siege engine; torsion-powered, single-armed catapult that launches rocks or other nonpointy missiles. Literally translates to “wild ass” because of its bucking motion when fired. Often mounted in a square wooden frame.

Open order:
Infantry formation, with soldiers in battle lines separated by up to six feet and often staggered, providing room to maneuver, shoot arrows, throw pila, or swing gladii and switch or change ranks.

Orbis:
Literally, “circle”; a defensive military formation in the shape of a circle or square, adopted when under attack from a numerically superior force.

Patrician:
Aristocratic, upper-class, or ruling-class Roman citizen.

Phalanx:
Tight mass of heavy infantry in close order, moving and fighting as one.

Pilum:
Roman heavy spear or javelin (plural: pila).

Pleb:
Plebeian; ordinary Roman citizen, as distinct from patrician.

Praetor:
Roman general, commander of a legion or of an entire army. In the Republic and early Empire the term was also used for some senior magistrates and consuls; the latter usage has died out by the time of Hadrianus III, and only legionary commanders are referred to as Praetors.

Praetorium:
Praetor’s tent within a castra or residence within a fortress, situated at the center of the encampment.

Pugio:
Dagger carried by legionaries; Roman stabbing weapon.

Roma:
The city of Roma, capital of the Roman Imperium, although often used as shorthand to mean the Imperium as a whole.

Senior Centurion:
Also known as the primus pilus. The most experienced and highly valued centurion in the legion, he commands the first century within the First Cohort.

Sesterces:
Silver coins, Roman currency.

Signifer:
Standard-bearer; the legionary tasked with carrying a signum for a century (plural: signiferi).

Signum:
A century’s standard, usually consisting of a number of metal disks and other insignia mounted on a pole (plural: signa).

Subura:
Notorious slum and red-light district within the Urbs Roma.

Testudo:
Literally, “tortoise”; Roman infantry formation in which soldiers in close order protect themselves by holding shields over their heads and around them, enclosing them within a protective roof and wall of metal.

Tribune:
Roman officer, midway in rank between the legion commander and his centurions. Originally a more generalized military staff officer; by A.D. 1218 the tribunes have administrative and operational responsibilities for specific cohorts within their legion.

Urbs:
City.

If there are two books that have changed my life, they are Jared Diamond’s
Guns, Germs, and Steel
and Charles C. Mann’s
1491: New Revelations of the Americas before Columbus.
Although the genesis of all the ideas in
Clash of Eagles
is now hazy, these two books certainly primed my obsession with the pre-Columbian civilizations of North (and South) America. Then I read Timothy Pauketat’s astonishing book
Ancient Cahokia and the Mississippians,
and I was well on my way. A partial list of books I have found useful in researching and writing the Cahokian and Native American aspects of
Clash of Eagles
would include the following: