"Please do not think me rude if I observe that these are vaunting words from a people who were thought extinct until last year, and who have yet to display an unshakable grip upon the peninsula of Italy."
Norbanus smiled. "Tomorrow I'll assemble my legions and put them through their paces for your entertainment. Once you have seen them, tell me whether you think Rome cannot deliver on her promises."
CHAPTER FIVE
The scene was bizarre, in some ways comical. The beach was lined with frameworks where men sat on staggered benches, pulling at oars under the direction of rowing masters, while hortators set the time with trilling flutes. There was cursing and yelps of pain and bursts of laughter as men fouled one another's oar or fell from their benches.
Other frameworks held the skeletons of ships in the building process. The sound of hammering competed with the voices and the flutes, and over all hung the smell of pitch boiling in pots.
"What energy these people have!" Zeno marveled. "And what audacity! They are going to challenge the greatest naval power in the world, and they haven't so much as an hour's experience at sea."
"Until a year ago," Izates said, "no Roman had even seen the sea."
"Exactly. They think they can do anything."
"Such confidence is unwise. It smacks of hubris. The ancient tragedies are full of stories of men who thought thus highly of themselves. The gods put them in their place."
The rowers were men contributed by the municipalities of Italy, now eager to gain favor with the new masters.
"It looks," Izates said, "like all the madmen in the world assembled on one beach."
"And yet there are at least five other such beaches in Italy," Zeno observed, "with at least an equal number of madmen upon each."
"Thousands of hayseed landsmen," Izates mused, "sitting on shore, rowing phantom galleys. It is a scene worthy of Aristophanes."
"They did this once before, in their first war with Carthage. They were successful that time."
"According to my reading," Izates countered, "they also met with several naval disasters during those years. It does little good to defeat your enemy in a sea battle, only to lose your entire fleet to a storm any fisherman could have seen coming."
"They couldn't become competent seamen all at once."
A line of four-wheeled wagons rumbled past them. The beds held Rostra: ships' rams cast in bronze by Campanian foundries. No two were alike: The heads of real or mythical beasts were most favored, but they saw one cast as Jove's thunderbolt, another that was a godlike fist. Men trudged by dragging carts heaped with coils of rope, and lines of workmen shouldered long masts and yards.
"Between restoring the cities and building this fleet," Izates said, "Italy will be denuded of timber."
Amazing as the work itself was, Zeno found the organization the Romans brought to the process no less remarkable. A senator aided by a staff of distinguished equites oversaw each shipyard. These men directed a staff of shipbuilders hired from Greece, Rhodes, Cyprus and other parts of the eastern sea. The rowing masters were likewise Greeks skilled in this demanding craft, for rowing a three-banked ship of war was not a matter of simply tugging upon an oar. Rather, it was a highly skilled trade and rowers were usually free men, rarely slaves or prisoners.
So painstaking were the organizers that they had already established a guild for the rowers to join, complete with its own tutelary deities and special festivals. Rowers were to have quasimilitary status, half legionary pay and limited citizenship upon discharge, to be upgraded to full citizenship depending upon how valuable their service should prove. Nothing was overlooked.
"The schedule calls for maneuvers to begin in the harbor by the next full moon," Zeno said. "Naval operations to commence on the full moon following."
"They're dreaming," Izates said. "They can't attain competence in so short a time, and Carthage may not allow them the leisure in any case. Hamilcar's fleet could show up in the harbor tomorrow."
"He won't try operations in Italy until he's taken Sicily back. No Carthaginian general since Hannibal has shown any real boldness or originality. It's always a slow, predictable process by regular stages."
"Maybe so," Izates allowed, "but Carthage is immensely rich and has tremendous resources. These Romans have accomplished what they have through sheer audacity. That is not a quality that prevails in the long run. Carthage can afford to lose possessions. She can even afford to lose a string of battles. With so much wealth to hire foreign mercenaries, Carthage will scarcely feel the casualties. They'll crucify a few generals and raise another army, build another navy."