• Sign up or login, and you'll have full access to opportunities of forum.

It Happened In Namur

Go to CruxDreams.com
Wragg134 said:
I'm not sure that I can follow Repertor's applause, Shastar....

So how about a nice bit of British understatement?

Ahem.

I say, Shastar, old bean, that story was an absolute top hole corker. Dashed if I didn't enjoy it, thoroughly.

:)
Click to expand...

Thank you, Wragg. Most credit should go to Barb, who played her role... admirably, as usual ! And don't forget Eul, too. I really enjoyed this and I'm happy that we could share it ! :)

Now it will take me some time to recollect everything and turn it over to Madi after a little bit of editing.
 
Not something a girl could pass the time doing herself :p

Actually, it sets my naughty mind thinking of a way Wragg's butler could,
by ordering a few spare chambermaids,
keep opened bottles of wine from going sour ;)
 
Shastar, like Sir Wragg, I can't top Repertor's applause.
So, how about some Okie understatement?:devil:
:clapping:
:goodjob:
Also, thanks go out to Barb, and Eul!
:beer::clapping:
 
Loxuru said:
Intelligence reports show troop concentrations near Atuatuca, probably Eburonii stragglers gathering. No real threat, and Julius Ceasar is hanging around there. Others mention Nervii of Boduognat operating near the Sabis River. That's near the Scaldis, not near the Mosa, so probably they are more interested in tempting the Menapii, than checking the Romans. They are all too far away and not considered a threat for Tullius' position.

Tullius and his legion can go on having fun with - I mean retrieve information from - their female captives.
Click to expand...

Great story, Shastar (and also for the replies of his victims Barbaria, Eulalia and Dorothea).:clapping::clapping:

Allow me the liberty to add a epilogue.

A few time ago (see above), I refered to intelligence reports about the moves of Boduognat and his Nervii. Reports that apparently passed unnoticed to Tullius.

It was a complete surprise. Ambiorix had been slain, but Boduognat and his Nervii were still around. No one knew exactly where they were. Tullius had heard Boduognat was around Artuatuca, somewhere in the Ardenne Forest, to far east from where Julius Caesar was. Caesar, who had moved northward in order to seize the gold of Gallia Aurica, had heard Boduognat and his Nervii were near the Sabis river, tempting the Menapii. Both Caesar and Tullius had thought the other one knew, and as none of them considered the Nervii positions as I direct threat, so they failed to inform each other. The presence of Nervii so far west, suited Caesar, because his strategy consisted of taking on one Belgae tribe (Ambiorix’ Eburonii), while pushing on a war between both other ones, and then making peace with the exhausted victor. Ceasar had no resources to fight the three tribes in one campaign.

Ceasar had followed the Mosa downstream from Namur and had taken a tribute river, the Yakara, to Atuatuca, where he ordered to search the numerous tumuli in order to find hidden gold. Actually, he had invaded the north of Gaul with unsufficient intelligence. The eager for the gold had made him incautious. He had to trust local scouts and spies, but these proved to be unreliable.

Neither Caesar nor Tullius knew that 'Atuatuca' was also the name of another place, later known as Tudinium Castellum, an eagle’s nest high above the Samar river, and the real stronghold of Boduognat? Bad knowledge of the geography by the Romans had allowed the Nervii to create confusion between Samar and Sabis, and between the different locations of Atuatuca. The confusion created by the Belgae spies has been so effective, that even today’s historians are still debating about which river was the Sabis/Samar and about the location of Atuatuca.

Convinced that the main force of the Nervii were operating beyond the Mosa/Scaldis watershed, and anyway far away enough (and wishfully acknowledging it), Roman intelligence had left Tudinium Castellum as a blind spot. Too bad, as from there, the Samar river leads directly to Namur, through a deep, narrow, misty, wooded valley. It took the Nervii only two days of marching. They took Tulius’ army, completely distracted by having fun with their female captives, by a full surprise. No quarter was given.

The capture of Namur by the Nervii brought Caesar into problems. The campaigning season was about to finish, and now he would have to fight his way back through the Mosa valley, or to go around, westward, along the sea, but then he had to march through Menapii territory, a confrontation he always had wanted to avoid. To make things worse, straggling Eburonii got organized into effective guerrilla, and one night they succeeded in burning down Atuatuca, discarding the option for Caesar to make of the city his winter quarters.

Much of Caesar’s troops consisted of mercenaries, who were not eager to die for a lost cause. His army fell apart as soon as the dead count started rising and the winter cold and food shortages came in. Besieged, and with no possibility for getting relieved and with no way out, Julius Caesar eventually was left no other choice than saving the honour. He took his own life with his gladius.

In Rome, the news of his death was received with relief. Julius Caesar, opportunist and a war criminal to such an extent that it even shocked Roman standards of warfare, was no longer. The Senate took over power, and reinstalled the republic, blocking the way for other opportunistic candidate-dictators.

The Roman Republic finally rose from its ashes. The forthcoming centuries it would expand from Hibernia to the Pontus, and evolve to a stronghold of peace of prosperity in Europe for the next millennia.

Thanks to the resistance of Barbaria, Eulalia and Dorothea, Belgae women, the bravest of all Gaul women, who took away the attention of Tullius’ garrison in Namur long enough to allow the Nervii to overrun the Romans completely by surprise making a premature end to the rise to power of a certain Julius Caesar.

(something for July 21st , Belgium’s National Day).:beer:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom