Final Campaign

Also by R.W Peake
Marching withCaesar®-Conquest ofGaul
Marching with Caesar-Civil War
Marching with Caesar-Antony and Cleopatra,Parts I & II
Marching With Caesar-Rise of Augustus
Caesar Triumphant


Critical praise for the Marching with Caesarseries:
Marching With Caesar-Antony and Cleopatra:Part I-Antony
“Peake has become a master of depictingRoman military life and action, and in this latest novel he provesadept at evoking the subtleties of his characters, often with anunderstated humour and surprising pathos. Very highlyrecommended.”
Marching With Caesar-Civil War
"Fans of the author will bedelighted that Peake’s writing has gone from strength tostrength in this, the second volume...Peake manages to portrayPullus and all his fellow soldiers with a marvelous feeling ofreality quite apart from the star historicalname... There’s history here, and character, and action enough forthree novels, and all of it can be enjoyed even if readers haven’tseen the first volume yet. Very highly recommended."
~The Historical Novel Society
“The hinge of history pivoted on thecareer of Julius Caesar, as Rome’s Republic became an Empire, butthe muscle to swing that gateway came from soldiers like TitusPullus. What an amazing story from a student now become the masterof historical fiction at its best.”
~Professor Frank Holt, University ofHouston


MARCHING WITH CAESAR
Last Campaign
By R.W. Peake


Marching withCaesar® –Last Campaign by R.W.Peake
Copyright © 2013 by R.W. Peake
Smashwords Edition
Cover Artwork by Marina Shipova
Cover Artwork Copyright ©2013 by R.W. Peake
This ebook is licensed for your personalenjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away toother people. If you would like to share this book with anotherperson, please purchase an additional copy for each person. Ifyou’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was notpurchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.comand purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard workof this author.
All rights reserved. This book or anyportion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any mannerwhatsoever without the express written permission of the publisherexcept for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Printed in the United States of America
First Printing, 2013


For John Somers, USN
1924-2013
And
Robert “Curtis” Graham, MSGT, USMC (Ret.)
1945-2013
They Will Be Missed


Foreword
Well, here we are. At the end of a long,long journey that began with a wide-eyed but ambitious young man,eager to make his fortune. In many ways, I feel like thisdescription suits both the character of Titus Pullus, and me, hiscreator. While it hasn’t taken 42 years, I do feel that thedevelopment, and all that I have learned in the subsequenteighteen-plus months, parallels the journey of Titus Pullus.
So much has happened since I releasedMarching With Caesar®-Conquestof Gaul, in April of 2012, that it’s hard to distinguish fact fromfiction. Readers took to my story of a simple, but remarkable manwho was a witness to the most turbulent and historically impactfulperiod of Roman history, when the Republic died and became the new,budding Empire. And they took to it in a way that surpassed even mywildest imaginings, and for that I have you, dear readers, tothank. You’ve not only enabled me to continue along this new path,what will be in essence my fourth and final career, but you’vevalidated something that I found hard to believe when I heard itfrom others, that I have a talent for telling a story. I epitomizethe truism that it’s better late than never, and in all honesty Idon’t know if I would have been ready for a life as a full-timewriter and all that comes with it before now. Regardless of when ithappened, I am extraordinarily thankful that it happened at all,and that all the “problems” I have are what would be consideredgood problems to have.
Although Final Campaign is the end of Titus’journey, it’s not the end of the Marching WithCaesar® series; I am alreadyhard at work on what right now I am calling “Next Generation”, withTitus’ nephew and heir Gaius Porcinus and his family as the focalpoint of the story. For Final Campaign, I used the same sourcesthat have fueled the previous five(!) books, relying heavily on theworks of Cassius Dio, who provides the only narrative about thetrial of Marcus Primus. My characterization of Marcus Primus in thebook is wholly my own, although I have to believe that it’s notthat far off the mark; anyone who was stupid enough to cross theman who was known as Augustus by this point can’t have been thebrightest spark in the fire, so to speak. Also, my conjecture aboutthe real target of the trial and everything involved in that isalso my own invention, but the events that transpired from thetrial, concerning the main actors in this drama, are all real.
In late September and October of this year,I had the opportunity to travel through a part of the countrysidethat is a feature of this book, along with the previous book, Riseof Augustus, and although it doesn’t have a direct impact that canbe seen in the pages of Final Campaign, it not only will be veryuseful for the next installment, it gave me a deeper appreciationof all the challenges Titus and the men of the Legions faced.Particularly in the area around modern-day Sisak, or Siscia as itwas known then, about 60 kilometers south of Zagreb, it’s easy tosee why both Augustus and Tiberius had trouble keeping the areapacified. It’s a terrain made for an insurgency, with steep,forested slopes, pocket valleys and hidden draws, where smallgroups of men can hide for days without detection, even withtoday’s technology. It’s easy to imagine how difficult it had to befor the men of the Legions.
My location and description of Serdica issomewhat problematic, and I would like to take a moment to explain.Serdica is modern-day Sofia, Bulgaria, and although my descriptionof the terrain is accurate, the fact is that the modern city ofSofia is located more than ten miles from the base of the mountainsto the south that play a role in the story. Consequently, I movedthe location of the ancient city a