Throughout Northern Gaul, everyone was preparing for war. Likewise, in Rome, news was being greatly awaited for the happenings of the North. For the Praetors Julianus and Terpus had now concentrating a huge army on the Southern borders of Belgica, perhaps relying on sheer numbers to defeat him.

Marius Manus of course had other ideas. Marius had served as a solider in the reconquest of the Belgic Provinces, where he was latter rewarded with a Praetorship. Throughout these years, , Manus had established quite a few allies in the Gauls. Having placed aristocratic Gauls that would later be loyal to the Praetor of Gaul's cause as King, he has begun calling up their forces, restoring to their armies the arms which had been seized during the campaigns under the military consul, A.Titus Sabaco. But there had been the setback with the early invasion of the Imperialist forces; this had narrowed the Gallic forces under Marius to be about 30,000 un number - 5,000 from Gaul, 15,000 from Belgica, 5000 cavalry from both combined, and a further 5000 from across the Rhine. The quality and loyalty would remain a matter that would vex friend and foe alike, until these warriors were tested in battle's forging heat.

Now with the Imperialists preparing for war to Marius' South and South West, he set about a simple strategy; based on the huge flaw that the Praetors coming after him had left in their preparations. His first order of business was, through the Remi, to encourage the parts of Gaul held by the Imperialist army into revolt, while in the north apply a scorched earth policy. All the cities and villages, crops and roman fortifications were all put to the torch by the legions and the gallic forces. Marius himself, with these labors done, began to move, by forced marches, with all the Gauls and Romans south, undetected by the Imperialist into Western Germania Superior where the XIXth and their General (A Augustus Vitellius) met up with Marius' forces. He had managed by the use of simple boot leather to negate the Imperialist strategy of overwhelming him

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Diviaco, the Remi king who had gained his position of authority through the graces of the Romans had they had begun the invasion of Belgica. The King had been sent across the Rhine to meet with the leaders of Germanic tribes of the Ubii and Suebi - the two most powerful northern tribes which had yet been unaffected by the initial invasion earlier by Praetor Julianus and the Army of the Danube.

The Remi king was serving as ambassador from Marius Manus - his mission quite simple. Offer a treaty with their tribes and grant them title of "friend and ally of the Roman people" if they would aid Marius in this war briefly. The terms were that Marius would not in the future bring or order and army to cross the Rhine and war against them. In return, these Germanii would be required to cross the Rhine into Belgica, and attack the Roman Imperialist Army when they reached it, in order to hold them up and further delay their abilities to track Marius and his movement south. Further, they should use their influence to guarantee Manus' Armies march though Western Germania Superior and back into Roman territory. Any grounds they captured fighting against Julianus and Terpus they would be granted.

With Diviaco having secured this temporary treaty between the Marian forces and the Germanii, he headed off with his cavalry guard back to meet up with the Roman column back on the Roman side of the Rhine. S. Marius Manus calculated that he could afford to "concede what he had, as in reality it had never been his to give! for their part, the leaders of the various tribes had their own agendas too. For them, the "alliance" was a way to remove "Rome" in the form of Marius' legions from their environs.

The various tribes would happily allow the Praetor to pass through their lands, but they had no intention of getting involved in a war that they knew offered them no long-term advantage. They knew what had happened to those that had sought advantage from the last Civil war. Rome had repaid them in full measure for their perfidious rebellions and attacks. enough for these men that Roman troops went to fight Roman troops far, far away. they could always seek gain if and when the situation became more clear to them.

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The Marian forces consisting of now four legions (IX, XIII, XXXIII, XIX) and 30,000 Allied forces from Gaul, Belgica and Germania were making their way down upon the Eastern margins of the Rhine's watershed, and on towards the Alps. If the pass through the alps had been left unprotected, as he thought, then Marius' entire route south to Cisalpine Gaul would be uncontested and easily hidden from imperial scouts who looked in totally the wrong area for his legions.

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Praetor Maxus' Forced March
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“Praetor, Praetor!”

Praetor Scipio Maxus turned around and saw an officer running towards him.

“Praetor, a messenger at the gates, he’s asking for you..it sounds urgent sir.” still breathing heavily from running, the Praetor told him to get back to work.

The Praetor turned around and walked towards the gates of the camp, where he saw the messenger seated on his horse. When the Praetor arrived at the gates, the messenger got off his horse:

“Salute Praetor Maxus, I have a message from Praetor Marius Manus. He told me it was urgent and that I should wait for your reply, sir”

The messenger handed over the letter that was written and sealed by Praetor Manus.

“Officer, find this man a tent where he can sleep for this night, and get him some food.”

The officer nodded his head and lead the messenger to his tent.

The Praetor looked at the letter, and then returned to his tent, where he opened it, and read it. Moments later the Praetor closed the letter again, just staring at the candlelight that stood on his table next to his bed.

“Sir, your diner”, an centurion came in carrying a silver plate with a nice cooked diner on it.

The Praetor didn’t seem to take notice off the centurion.

“Excuse me sir, your diner, it’s ready.’

The Praetor now turned his face and told the centurion to put it on table.

“Do you need anything else sir?” The centurion asked.

“No, thank you, you can go now centurion.” Replied Scipio Maxus.

The Praetor started to eat his dinner, it smelled good, and it probably tasted good, but the Praetor didn’t care, he just kept staring at the candlelight.

That same night he wrote a letter back to Praetor Manus, that he was going to give to the messenger first thing in the morning.

Then he wrote letters for all his legions. Next thing he did, was composing a list of the things that the legion was supposed to do tomorrow.

Then he called one of his servants to take away the silver plate and the rests of his diner.

He blew out the candlelight, took off his armor, and his sword, and placed it all on a chair.

After that he finally went to sleep.

The Praetor was up quite early, only few men were already awake, and so the Praetor got dressed, went outside handed over the letters for his legions to his messengers, then went to the other messenger and gave him the letter that was meant for Praetor Manus. After handing out the letters he placed the list, that he had made the evening before, on the wooden board in the centre of the camp.

Of course his servants were already awake, and they had made the Praetor a small breakfast.

When the Praetor finished his breakfast, the men started to gather at the board, where they all read the list. Most of them seemed to be confused, but eventually did what was on the list: ‘break up the camp, we’re moving on’

Not long after, the general rushed towards the Praetors tent, where he got all the explanation he needed. Both officers and centurions were informed after this little meeting between the general, and the Praetor.

Just an hour later the Praetor inspected his troops, finally he took stand on some higher ground where everyone could see him.

“Soldiers, officers and centurions, I owe you some explanation why we suddenly have to leave.

Yesterday evening I got a letter from Praetor Marius asking for our help. I’m willing to give him that help, and that’s why we go north. All the legions under my command will gather in South Dalmatia, where we will start our march all together.

We will march on the border of Noricum and Etrusca, and so on to Eastern Rhaetia. We’re we will make a hold for a few days to gain strength. Our final goal will be Rhaetia. After his speech the Praetor gave the order to leave from Southern Dalmatia.

Weeks went by when they finally reached the borders of Rheatia. The soldiers were tired for they only had about 7 hours of sleep a day. It was important that they got in Salona in time.

Salona was the town where all the legions would come together. Salona had been in hands of Greek colonists for about 300 years. Now it was a Roman town with good roads that went in and out the city. The city that once was a Greek settlement had grown into a nice Roman town with a good economy. No wonder this was the place where the legions would come together, here they could sleep, eat, trade, and get supplies from the market in the centre of the town.

The legions of Scipio Maxus arrived as first, soon afterwards the other legions arrived too, tough some of them arrived 20 days later for some of them were further removed from South Dalmatia. When the legions were together they stayed a week longer, to get them supplies, weapons, clothing and food.

At the end of the week the 3 legions started their next long march. The weather was quite good and the legions didn’t suffer from the rain. Just when they were about to cross the border of North Dalmatia and Noricum/Etrusca it started to rain heavily, so the march got stuck, and soldiers had to put up their camp until the weather got better. The soldiers used the time to rest, train, play and gain their strength. When the sun was shining again, the soldiers broke up their camps, and marched on, passing Noricum at their right, and Etrusca on their left.

After 2 months they finally reached Eastern Rhaetia some men got ill, and needed medical care. Others had terrible pain at their feet. Luckily the Praetor and the general agreed to give the men 2 hours of rest before they had to put up the camp that would be little fortified afterwards. This camp would be a temporary base for the 3 legions. When the camp was built, the Praetor called his Officers and his General together. He informed them on what the real goal would be:

“Officers and General, I haven’t been completely honest with you. We are marching towards this region to join with our comrades of praetor S. Marius Manus' legions. By a brilliant feat of deception he has managed to escape from those that would have destroyed his army!.”

“General would you be so kind to get a messenger in here, thank you.”

The Praetor saluted the officers and his general, and they left the Praetors tent.

Scipio Maxus sat on his table again, took a piece of paper and wrote:

“Avé Praetor Manus,

We have successfully reached Eastern Rhaetia,

Some men are ill, but they are going to be alright, we haven’t got any losses…not yet.

When you have further updates on this matter, you can sent a letter, with this letter I will sent also my personal messenger to you, only he knows where the camp is situated.

Good luck Praetor Manus,

Vae Victis,

Praetor A. Scipio Maxus”.

While all this was being done, Marius received word from Praetor Maxus that his Army was on the way from the East, as per ordered by their commander, Marius Manus. Soon these legions too would reach the Alps and help to divide the Imperial forces in Rome with their much greater Army that now sat in Gaul, still thinking that their enemy was to their north. The furious pace of advance made Marius feel confident that the great vistas of martial glory he hoped for, were finally within his reach.

The legions of A. Maximus Terpus and T. Sarius Julianus, had been decisively outpaced, of that he was sure. Now his scouts were deployed to the South, it was now that Marius became aware that other too were capable of deception!

The pass he had intended top pass through was defended! Not some small force of militia, but by a legionary force of substantial numbers. To reach Cisalpine Gaul, as his plan called for, S. Marius Manus would have to storm fortifications that had obviously been prepared for several months prior to their discovery.

The scouts were not able to probe far enough South to discover more than the fact that there was certainly more than one legion guarding the pass. However the Imperial troops also had scouts out, unhampered by the nature of a single narrow mountain pass. these troops, fighting hard discovered that S. Marius Manus had managed to get his entire army to the gates of Italia itself. they also detected the approach of Praetor Maxus' three legions too.

Of course nothing in war is "free", in gaining this information, several Imperial scouts were killed in skirmishes. There shields immediately identified them as members of two separate Consular legions!

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By: Scipio Marius Manus, Antoninus Scipio Maxus, GMs