Chapter 53 Wrath of an Emperor

Having escaped from the cisterns, Placidia held Aeliana in her arms. Despite being a teenage girl, it was not too difficult to lift the woman; she had lost so much weight since her captivity that even someone like Placidia, who did not exercise in the slightest, was capable of carrying her to safety. Unfortunately, their guard had stayed behind to deal with the hounds, and if the blood-curdling screams that had recently vanished were anything to go by, they were likely already dead.

Tears streamed down Placidia’s eyes as she mustered all her strength to carry the woman out of the city and to her son. Who was sitting outside the city’s gates besieging it as she pondered these thoughts within her young mind. She would not accept any other outcome than reuniting Marcellus with his mother.

Because of this, she strode through the streets, with the woman in her arms, trying desperately to hide from the patrols that were out and about searching for the two women. Placidia was not too familiar with Ravenna as she normally lived in Rome, however, she and her men had prepared this escape thoroughly, and had listed a series of posterns that they could hopefully make use of to escape. Unfortunately, they were relying on the three guards to ambush and defeat the security at the postern of their choosing. Now, Placidia would have to rely on a distraction.

As a result, when she neared the postern that she had marked as being the least secure during her preparations, she placed Aeliana in a safe and hidden location; she had no choice but to cause a disturbance if she wanted the three men who were guarding the area to run off. Luckily for her, they had planned a contingency in case something went wrong and they didn’t have enough men to capture the postern.

Near this postern was a warehouse filled with the city’s grain. If she were to light it on fire, it would draw all men within the vicinity. Because of this, the young woman stealthily approached the grain silo, which was protected by only a few men. As with any siege, those posted in seemingly safe locations were busy drinking and gambling. Because of this, they did not notice the girl’s approach.

Placidia could see the oil lamp in use by the roman sentries to illuminate their game. This was the object that she needed to light the grain supply. Unfortunately, she did not know how she would get her hands on the item in question. Perhaps God was on her side, because immediately after thinking of this, one man stumbled to his feet, it was clear that he was heavily intoxicated. Because of this, his fellow sentries immediately called out to him with a hint of worry.

“What the hell are you doing?”

In response to this, the sentry made a rude gesture before fumbling over his words.

“Imma bout to piss myself!”

The other two soldiers laughed at the man while one of them handed him the oil lamp.

“You stupid drunk, take this, or else you’re bound to fall into a pool of your own urine!”

The man tried to shake off the request, but his friends were adamant as such he held onto the oil lantern in one hand, and used the other to press against the wall, thus stabilizing him on his journey to find a spot to relieve himself.

While the man was in the middle of letting out a stream, Placidia approached him from behind with a heavy rock in her hands. The man was completely clueless that he was about to be ambushed. Before he could even react, the girl had smashed the rock into the man’s head and thoroughly knocked him unconscious. After doing so, she seized the lantern before throwing it into the grain warehouse’s window. The grain immediately caught fire from the burning oil, which alarmed the sentries.

“Oi! What the fuck did you do?”

“Fucking dumbass! How the hell did you manage to light the warehouse on fire? Somebody help!”

The men quickly investigated the scene, but all they found was their comrade lying unconscious in a pool of his own urine, with the warehouse lit on fire. As for Placidia, she had long since absconded into the darkness. The flames quickly spread, consuming the city’s grain supply, while the soldiers at the postern quickly ran off to aid in putting out the fire.

Placidia knew this was the opportune moment, and grabbed ahold of Aeliana who was lying with a lifeless expression on her gaunt face, and dragged her off to the postern, where she quickly unlocked, and exited, leaving the gate open as she did so. A smile was on the girl’s face as she comforted the woman in her arms.

“Just you wait Placidia, you will be reunited with Marcellus soon enough…”

—

While Placidia was enacting her escape from Ravenna, Marcellus was hard at work. Unlike the Romans under Olympius’ command, Marcellus was extremely strict about the use of alcohol while on campaign. As a result, his men were stone cold sober as they kept watch during the night. Marcellus himself was in his command tent with his officers nearby, planning out the siege that would take place on the next day.

“I expect Honorius will use my mother as a bargaining token. However, I have already executed his messenger. If my mother is still alive, she has suffered dearly over these past few months, and is as good as dead. No, I will not negotiate. Tomorrow at dawn we will begin our bombardment. The catapults we have constructed will launch their projectiles into the city. The battering ram will crash at the gate, and our men will ascend the ladders and onto the ramparts. This siege is simple. We have ten times the men that Honorius has, so we will use our numerical advantage to storm the city as quickly as possible. Any questions?”

Not a single officer gathered in the room had questioned Marcellus’ orders. A frontal assault would be costly, but it would be the quickest way to take the city. They were about to agree to the proposed plan. When the tent flaps opened, revealing a centurion who had a panicked expression on his face. The man did not wait for the generals to inquire about his disruption and instead stated what the scouts had reported.

“Emperor Marcellus, the city’s grain supply is on fire, and the postern is open! We don’t know who is responsible, but an opportunity has presented itself!”

Marcellus was a man who could adapt to the circumstances. If they did not take advantage of this situation, they would have to risk losing thousands of men tomorrow morning. He was decisive in his action, believing even if Olympius and Honorius were planning a trap, that he and his soldiers could easily overcome it.

“Quickly, wake the men, and prepare them for combat! Ordius, I want you to take our most elite soldiers and secure the postern. Once you have taken it, infiltrate the city and open the gates! We must act fast! Succeed in this endeavor and we can take the city with minimal losses!”

Ordius saluted Marcellus and nodded his head before responding in the affirmative.

“Yes, sir!”

After saying this, Ordius scrambled his men, and quickly led them to the postern. With any luck, they could sneak into the city and act as normal members of Honorius’ army. By the time they struck, it would be too late for the enemy to adequately respond.

As for Marcellus, he quickly gathered the troops in silence. His actions needed to be covert to not alert the sentries of the loyalist army who stood upon the ramparts. It was during this time that another group of scouts had encountered Placidia and Aeliana and led them into the encampment. They quickly found Marcellus rallying the army, where the man gazed in awe upon witnessing his foster sister and his mother.

Because both Marcellus and Placidia were both raised by Stilicho, the man thought of the girl as the little sister he had never had. To see her clutching his emaciated mother in her arms nearly brought the man to tears. He quickly rushed over and grabbed hold of his mother, where the woman gazed at her son in disbelief. She was so feeble she could hardly speak.

“M…Marcellus… is… that you?”

By now Marcellus was choking back his tears, and instead wore a bitter smile on his face as he stroked the woman’s greasy hair.

“Yes mother, it’s me? What have they done to you?”

A slight smile curved itself upon the woman’s gaunt lips as she weakly reached up her hand and caressed her precious son’s warm cheek. There was a hint of sorrow in her eyes as she spoke to him.

“I’m sorry, Marcellus… I have caused you so much trouble… and I’m afraid … I’m afraid that I will be leaving you behind to clean up the mess…”

Marcellus could no longer hold back the tears as he called out to his mother, who was dying in his arms.

“No mother, I’m sorry, I should have protected you! Mother, don’t leave me!”

The woman said once last phrase before shutting her eyes for eternity.

“I… love you…”

After saying this, Aeliana passed from the world, leaving her son and Placidia in tears. Placidia quickly grabbed hold of Marcellus’ side and attempted to comfort him, but by now rage had consumed the man’s mind. Marcellus shook Placidia away before letting go of his mother’s, where the body was quickly tended to by his troops. Marcellus merely wiped the tears from his eyes and gazed towards the city of Ravenna with a hatred that burned brighter than a thousand stars. In that moment, he made a solemn vow on how he would deal with the city of Ravenna and all the men who still stood guard.

“I’m going to kill them all, every last one of them. History shall remember this day, as the day Emperor Titus Claudius Marcellus rose to power, and purged the Capital of its corruption. Hear my orders. Every last man who swears his loyalty to Honorius shall be given no quarter. Kill them all!”

With Marcellus’ orders, the soldiers beneath his command unsheathed their blades and shouted their war cries. The siege of Ravenna had only now just begun, and the wrath of an emperor would resound throughout history.