Fifth Letter of Titus Valerius Ahenobarbus to the Senate of Saia
~ read furthermore at the delegate house of Lutetia and in the public square.
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Consul fathers, I regret to write of ill tidings in Taria and the west. Having gathered the hosts of Aureia and Amorion and made course forthwith at the counsel of the Imperial Legate of Interaltia Horatius Servilius Lucens to arrest the advance of the accursed Rota and his forces who had seeking plunder thrust their way therein, all seemed set in course by Fate for us to see a swift end to the barbarian incursion. As events in the Aeterni (of which our Lord Emperor may at some length speak in due time ) attest, one valian is worth at least three barbarian warriors. In his discipline, breeding and civilised virtue he is far in advance of his Alteni (and here we speak of the untamed Alteni beyond the frontier) contemporary, who's stunted, slooping posture, tawdry attire and matted, unwashed hair attests to his paucity of life and manner. There was no doubt whatever that met with the combined might of the provinces of Taria Rota could do naught but scurry away, as Adenacarius has scurried away before the Emperor's advance, tail between his legs.
Yet as we were making our way along the imperial road to Valerium, having good cause to trust the honour of one beloved of our late Lord Carian and his love and devotion to Valia and the civilisation of Holy Saia and having received word from him that the enemy was yet despoiling the villages of Interaltia. Word reached us from the good delegate Surinus, a notable merchant who for the sake of Empire took post in Vincentia of all places, and his men that Lucens, the cur, had come to him as he mustered his host at Valerium and revealed his true intentions. Forsaking love of country and all principles of the common good of Valia and the Empire, Lucens boldly he declared to Surinus that he had been in league with Scaius Rota from the first, and intended to use the horde as a weapon, to destroy the armies of his countrymen and then claim the imperial throne for himself. He chortled so I hear, that using the legions entrusted to him to protect the Empire by the late Carian, he had instead used them to cut of news of the barbarians advance while passing false messages to those he professed as friends and allies that they might for a time be deceived.
It is fortunate then that a merchant proved more honourable and virtuous than the servile Lucens, who craven at the face of savage Alteni seeks to see himself propped up on the throne of better men, some of them raised up to the order of the gods themselves, as the puppet of an upstart barbarian king. How low indeed would Valia have fallen for such an abomination to come to pass. I have enclosed within the words of the barbarian witch (I note such superstitious practices as sorcery being a vitium against the gods and subject to legal sanction in the Empire, that he keeps a person of such low class as a retainer speaks of his base quality) Rota deems fit to make his chief counsellor, who with honeyed words alien to forthright Valian speech announces Rota's league with Lucens and begs the people of the Empire to hand over their possessions and land, their children's inheritance, to strangers come for afar as armed beggars, or rather thieves. Honourable men all, consul fathers, you cannot help to be left aghast at the audacity of this creature and of the legate who has abetted him. Honour be given to Cordius Surinus who loyal to the last immediately denounced Lucens as what he is, a traitor.
Yet have confidence, their schemes wrought in the dark and in the impious sanctuaries of foreign gods and far from Caelus' light and Pallater's virtue have been revealed. Even as word reached us on the march of Lucens base treachery we received notification of merchants being turned back from Felentium by the forces of Lucens and from our scouts of barbarians being ferried across the Primus aided by Lucen's own forces, having passed through Interaltia in the vast territories beyond the Primus unchallenged and unchecked by the very man entrusted to that task by the late Carian. We have immediately taken action to address this treason, for contrariwise to the barbarians' own public murmurings professing some measure of strategic genius (when the ill-omened circumstances that beset us are entirely due to the treason of Lucens, for Rota's march across Interaltia would have been impossible if he had remained loyal) our host and that of the barbarians gravitate towards each other with our auxiliaries being in constant contact with the enemy cavalry and skirmishers. Far from circumventing our host concealed from our gaze, our clash has been expedited by the betrayal of a watchman on the Empires walls.
Keeping due strategic silence on the precise parameters of our course. We inform you that having received word of the unwarranted panic of some in Lutetia, who scandalised by such an unexpected course of events (for who would think Lucen's a traitor before his true depraved nature became known, he is indeed worse than a prostitute for he has whored out his loyalty and his honour and not merely his flesh) have sought solace in Amorian villas and other such redoubts far from the barbarian frontier, we condescended to offer parley to Rota. For his witch has said " Rota came with an army, but it was an army of flight. We have seen shadows in the northeast, far past Altenland, demons of destruction so vile that they caused a flight of thousands westward" and further professed that Rota retains some measure of loyalty to the Empire saying "We have no quarrel with any Valian". Thinking then that perhaps our entirely legitimate decretal instructing Rota to renew the submission of Taglarika to the Empire upon his succession to its client-kingship, which invariably had to pass through the domain of the revealed traitor Lucens, had been altered by the cur, who already at that time was covetous of the imperial throne, we deemed direct negotiations a reasonable course. Truly, if the barbarian spoke the true intentions of Rota then what cause for quarrel remains, for we would have been both aggrieved by Horatius Servilius Lucens and recourse would remain to serve the Empire still, and be rewarded with the lands they crave from the traitorous client states in the east who turned to the bosom of Ashrai or with some other recompense. We are not unreasonable to those whose actions are the fault of others, and whose love of the Empire remains true.
Yet Rota refused our offer, for having tasted plunder has has deemed hastening to Lutetia the better part over maintaining the fable of a loyal misunderstood servant of Valia. His witches talk of poor, huddled masses of Alteni seeking security in the bosom of Empire have been sadly proven nothing buy scanty lies. Yet no Valian knew these to be anything other than thus, for sorceresses and other such infamous practitioners of superstition are known for their untrustworthiness, together with a myriad of other moral faults intrinsic to such impious folk. So it is then that our host is arrayed to contend with Rota even as the Aetherian legions hasten to reinforce, and then (may the gods be good) we shall contend with the traitor legions if they maintain that personal loyalty to their legate surpasses loyalty to the Empire that all might be set in right order once again in the west and then in the Empire as a whole. We instruct the sacred college to offer sacrifice to Titis Ultrix that she may guide our spears to avenge the great betrayal of Lucens, and to Caelus Stator that by his almighty power the barbarian advance may be halted. Beseeching the divine assistance, we shall punish the insolent barbarian for his transgressions and then turn the wrath of the Empire betrayed against its betrayer. Lut us endeavor to see Lucens and Rota brought before the Temple of Caelus in our Emperors triumph to meet the end deserved by all the greatest enemies of Holy Saia.
Ever loyal to the Empire,
Glory to our Great and Pacifying Emperor - Praetorius.
Titus Valerius Ahenobarbus.
