The Inquest by Stephen Dando-Collins

campaign, but like many of the officers of the 12th he was blamed for the disaster that had befallen his legion. Transferred out to garrison duty on the Euphrates with the 4th Scydiica, he had spent five backwater years cursing General Petus for his cowardice, cursing General Corbulo for unfairly demoting him, cursing General Gallus for his ineptitude, and cursing the Jews for their rebellion. All in all, there were few people Titus Gallo did not blame for his situation, and there was not a Roman officer above the rank of centurion he would put his faith in, or a Jew he would trust. As far as Centurion Gallo was concerned this mission to Judea with Questor Varro had been sent by the gods to make up for past disappointments.
    The 4th Scythica had become the butt of jokes among the other legions of the East. “The Tuskless Boars’ and ‘the Sleeping Boars’ they called Gallo’s unit, because the legion had notdistinguished itself in combat in living memory. As far as Gallo was concerned there was nothing tuskless or sleepy about the men he led. The legionaries of the 4th Scythica marching into Galilee and Judea with him were eager for action, conscripts from Cisalpine Gaul enrolled the previous year. Gallo had been drilling them mercilessly ever since in the hope of a call to service against the Jewish rebels. Before long, he hoped, he would put that training to the test.
    After Gallo had been riding for a little over an hour, the questor’s column came in sight. The centurion and the two troopers soon moved off the road, allowing the leading elements of the column to pass. As the group of officers drew level, the centurion urged his horse forward and eased in beside the questor and made his report on the move.
    “There are several old marching camps at the courier station which would be suitable for the night, questor. I have marked out our camp site in one of them. There will be only an hour or two’s digging for the men. And your man Callidus said to tell you that the supply situation is adequate.”
    Varro was hauling supplies with him, but where possible he wanted to live off the land as they journeyed south. He knew from reports from Caesarea, the Judean capital, that food stocks in much of the war-ravaged province had been exhausted, and the time would come when he would have to rely on the supplies he carried with him.
    “Very good, centurion,” Julius Varro acknowledged.
    As Centurion Gallo took up position in the group of riders behind the senior officers, the tribune Martius, riding on Varro’s far side, leaned closer to the questor. “You know, Julius, I have been thinking,” Martius said. “I read the Lucius letter last night, after we dined.”
    This surprised Varro. Martius had consumed a large amount of wine at dinner—apparently not enough to dull his brain. “What was your impression of it, Marcus?”
    “Informative. You had noted that this Jesus of Nazareth used several different names? What is more, one of his deputies, Simon the Galilean, was also called Petra, or Cephas, as the Greeks say. I ask you, why would you call a man ‘rock’?”
    “I have no idea,” Varro confessed.
    “Well, it is apparent to me that these people were engaged in secretive, seditious activities. Why else would they use false names, code names? Answer me that.”
    “That is one of the many answers we are marching to Galilee and Judea to find, Marcus. It would not be wise to judge too soon. Would you not agree?
    “Perhaps,” Martius returned with a shrug. He had already made up his mind that these Nazarenes had been nothing more than covert revolutionaries who had shrouded their activities in a religious veil.
     
    Just before midday they reached a horse-changing station operated by the Cursus Publicus , Rome’s state courier service. The outpost was on a ridge looking out over the Mediterranean Sea. As Centurion Gallo had advised, there were the remains of several legion marching camps around about the