"You men know how these things work. You are citizens and voters. We will make the marches and do the fighting. We will fight our way to the very gates of Carthage. We will have the war all but won. And then what will happen? Why, the Senate, that glorious body of old men, will send out one of their own to take over command. They will set me aside and put some fat-bottomed old politician over you, the hardest-fighting army Rome has ever seen, so that some old family time-server can be in on the kill and claim all the loot. Are you going to let this happen?" First the men grumbled, then they shouted, "No! Never!"
Niger turned to Cato and said in a low voice: "I thought he had already extorted this command from theSenate. That he and his father were to have control of the war until its conclusion."
Cato, more politically astute than his friend, answered: "These men don't understand senatorial politics. They just know that their vote doesn't count for much. He's making them co-conspirators with him. When the time comes, they will back him against the Senate itself."
"But will we back him then?" Niger asked, deeply disturbed.
"That will depend upon where our interests lie. This is the new age. We will never betray Rome. But this is a new Rome. Will we side with the Rome of the Senate and the old families? Or with the new Rome of Titus Norbanus? We will have to see when we stand before the gates of Carthage. In the meantime, I suggest that we take direction from those men out there. Let's agree with what they decide, if we value our lives."
Lentulus Niger nodded, but he was still unsettled. Things were changing too fast. He had begun this campaign when Rome was united in purpose, in devotion to the will of the gods and in obligation to the revered ancestors. Now it was breaking up into the squabbles of rival families, of rival voting blocs, of old and new families, of—he could think of no other term—rival warlords.
The soldiers made their decision plain. Once again, they chanted: "Im-per-a-tor! Im-per-a-tor! Im-per-a-tor!"