“The weight of the Empire is not upon your shoulders, little brother, so you cannot know the burden that it is to me.” Galen’s voice was a whisper in the gloom. “There are ten thousand details to keep in mind, a hundred interests to satisfy with every decision. It is not as I had imagined it when we set out from Saguntum. I am a powerful man; some would say a god. Yet there are so many things, so; many pressing factors over which I have no control.“

Galen felt his brother turn and sit on the ledge that ran around the edge of the temple.

“Each day I struggle, and the thousands of men who are my hands and feet, spread across all the Empire, struggle. Every day the tide of time and men washes away a little more of the edifice that we maintain. Every day we pile on more bricks, more mortar, more blood. And the tide keeps wearing away at the rocks, the stones, until there is nothing left.” Though his words were those of despair, Maxian could sense no defeat in his brother’s voice.

“This can end, my brother. The Empire can know peace again, free from fear of barbarian invasion, even of civil war.” In the darkness, Galen’s voice assumed the cadence of an orator, though it remained low and direct. “After hundreds of years of strife, the West is at peace. Beyond the Rhenus the Franks and Germans are quiet. They have at last attained some semblance of civilization. They live in towns, welcome merchants, till the soil and build homes of stone and wood. To the west there is only endless ocean, to the south only vast deserts. Only in the east do enemies remain.”

Maxian, sitting quietly in the darkness, stirred. “The barbarians we saw today, in the vision?”

Galen laughed. “No, the Avars and their subject tribes are an annoyance, not a threat. They have overrun most of Thrace and Moesia, but they will not hold that land long. The true enemy, my brothers, waits in the true East, in Persia. Even today, though we saw it not in the vision, one Persian army is encamped on the eastern shore of the Pro-pontis, viewing the ancient walls of Constantinople with avaricious eyes. Another is gathering in northern Syria, preparing to strike at Egypt. By good luck, my brother Emperor is still in possession of a strong fleet, and the Persians have none. So they are held at bay-for now.“

Maxian spoke. “Then by use of this device, you will coordinate the relief of the city with Heraclius? Some thousands of men could be sent, I suppose, upon our fleet to reinforce the city and convince the barbarians to abandon the siege.”

“In a way,” Galen answered, his voice smiling, “we will convince them to abandon the siege. But, still, the real enemy is not the horse-riders but Persia. It is Persia that we must defeat to attain a true peace for the Empire. Peace for both the East and the West. Your plan is fair, my brother, – but far too limited in scope. Heraclius and I, through our letters, have struck upon a permanent solution.”

It was quiet in the circle of the temple, though now the moon had settled below the great oak and yew trees. A silver light filled the temple and Maxian could see both of his brothers. The healer suddenly felt cold and there was a sensation much like that which had pervaded the boathouse in Ostia. With slightly trembling fingers he drew his own cape closer and wished for a heavier wrap. The wind died down.

“My brother Emperor proposes, and I agree, that Rome and Constantinople-both Empires-must invade Persia itself and destroy it. Once this is done, there shall be no treaty, no border agreements, no tribute. Persia will be a province of the Empire and will serve us forever. Then there shall be peace.”

Maxian coughed, his throat constricted by an unreasoning fear. He spoke, though-unaccountably-it was a struggle to force the words from his lips. “Brother, this is… an unwise plan. The West is only beginning to recover from the plagues and the last civil war. Our realm is at peace, true, but the people are still recovering, the army is still rebuilding. An effort to raise the siege of the city of Constantine, yes, I agree it must be done. But to invade Persia itself? That would be mad…”

He stopped, coughing. A sense of great pressure surrounded him, more than could be accounted for by the angry look on his brother’s face. Maxian held up a hand for a moment, all his attention focussed inward. His mind was flooded with confusion and unsettling images, but he managed to calm his conscious thought with the Meditation of Asklepios. Once he began its well-remembered lines the confusion faded and the pressure eased. It did not depart, but now he could feel its boundaries and strength.

With an effort of will, he spoke again: “Persia is vast and its armies uncountable. It has been at peace for decades. Chrosoes is a strong king, ably served by his generals. It is wealthy even by the standards of Rome. To assail it, you would need tens or hundreds of thousands of men. The cities of the West are still half empty from the plague, the cities of the East no better. Where will you find the men to fight for you without baring our throats to the barbarians?”

Galen gave a sharp nod, saying, “A cogent point, brother, and one that Aurelian and I have been pondering for some days. Our most recent calculations show that we can field a temporary army, a vexillation if you will, of almost sixty thousand men to fight alongside Heraclius in the East. Ah, now hold your peace, we have thought upon this most carefully.”

The Emperor stood and began pacing, his sandals making a light slapping sound on the marble tiles of the temple floor. “In the West, there are currently fourteen legions deployed from Africa to Pannonia to Britain. Beyond these forces, we have many other garrisons scattered about. Too, we count several tribes in Africa and Germania as our allies. By the count of the Office of the Equites, the Western Empire commands just over one hundred thousand men under arms. We are removing none of these legions from their duties; instead we will withdraw select units and cohorts from them. At the same time, we are instituting what Aurelian here, with his penchant for invention, calls a levy, to replace all of those men with fresh recruits. While the expedition is in the East, the remaining veterans here in the West will train a whole new army.“

Maxian shook his head in amazement, saying “And where do you expect to find an extra sixty thousand citizens of suitable age and temperament for the legions? Do not forget, brother, that I was at your side on the march from Saguntum to Mediolanum to Rome. I have seen the empty cities and barren fields turning back to forest.”

Aurelian coughed expectantly. Galen turned a little to look at him, his face shadowed in the moonlight. He gestured to his brother to proceed. Aurelian clasped his hands before him, then said, “We, ah, we do not intend to induct citizens into the army. We intend to, well, to induct slaves and noncitizens.”

Maxian flinched as if struck. A white-hot pain shot through the side of his head as the strange pressure that he had felt all around him in the temple suddenly became unbearable. A vast sense of crushing weight bore down on him, and his mind struggled to resist it. For a long moment of silence, he battled within himself to speak, to regain control of his limbs. As if from a great distance, he looked down upon himself sitting in the little temple, facing his brothers in the darkness. For a brief moment, as his sight hung suspended in the evening air, he caught a glimpse of a vast whirlpool of smoke and dull sullen fire spreading out from the three of them over the land and the sea. In the smoke, faces and phantasms roiled, indistinct.

Then there was a popping sensation and the pressure was gone.

“Slaves?” he croaked, barely able to speak. ‘The Senate will have a fit to hear of it…“

Galen smiled, his teeth glinting in the moonlight. “The prospect of Persian gold and estates and military commands pleases them more than the induction of slaves and non-citizens does. The beauty of Aurelian’s plan is that the levy is not voluntary. Each province and city must provide its share, and since the levy is not upon the citizens, they will support it wholeheartedly. Sixty thousand fresh legionnaires in the West will make a great difference, both now and in the future, when they are done with their service.“