Agrippa:  The Man.  The Jurist.  The Commander...

Agrippa the Commander.
Lucius Vipsanius Agrippa has done his share of fighting, both on land and sea.  Serving under Marcus Porcius Cato in Rome's year-long campaign to rid Mare Nostra of piracy, Agrippa has taken the fight to the pirates both on the high sea, and on the land.  Here's an excerpt from his siege of a pirate stronghold, after a day of hard fighting...

Agrippa thought on it.  "The men have fought hard today and we have had a great success.  I want you to spread the word that I am quite pleased with the outcome today.  But we are all tired, hungry and most importantly, outnumbered.  That I do not want you to spread.  We will make camp away from the wall and wait for our wounded men to heal.  Once our numbers increase and our men are well rested, we attack.  In the meantime we will need fresh water and food.  We will have to subsist on wild greens, berries, and fish for now.  Make sure that the marines receive fresh water and food as well.  I want them to stand watch over the harbor.  We will run attacks by land in the day and by water at night to keep the pirates off guard.  Keep abreast of the mood of the men.  If they become bored, we will swap them with the ground troops.  After the men have eaten, we will begin to cut down those trees over there and build a fortress of our own."

 "Aye, Commander", Quadratus began eyeing the trees to which Agrippa referred.

 

"For our first attack tonight, we will send our fastest liburnae into the harbor.  I want it to damage one of the pirate ships by ramming it, if it can do so safely.  We cannot afford to lose any ships.  The objective is to keep the pirates guessing as to our next move.  If the liburnae sees any supplies that it can obtain easily, take them.  We may be here for a while." 

 

Quadratus shook his head in confirmation.

 

"Tomorrow afternoon, we will move the 7 remaining ballistae into position and launch missiles into the fortress."  Agrippa took the scroll from Quadratus and wrote some notes on it with a piece of charred wood, rolled it up in reverse, scooped up a glob of mud and sealed the scroll with his signet ring.  "Make sure the spotter gets this message back to the fleet."

 

"Aye, sir.  Will do.  If I may sir, what about the enemy captives?"

 

"Round them up.  We will interrogate them.  Find out what they know.", Agrippa winked at Quadratus.  "I need to eat first.  Torture is hard work, especially on an empty stomach.".

Read the entire post here.


Agrippa the Jurist.
Republic Reborn isn't all about just battles.  There's the political side as well.  And one of THE best ways to assure one's ascent in the political arena is by becoming an accompolished advocate in Rome's courts.

Just one small excerpt from a recent case of his:

Lucius Vipsanius Agrippa sat next to Titus Labienus Rabienus and Marcus and listened to the argument presented by Quintus Sextus Valerius.  Publius Servilius Casca and Calpurnia sat behind Agrippa.  Calpurnia was holding the tiny infant in her arms.  Labienus whispered into Agrippa's ear during the monologue.  Once Valerius was done and had sat down, Agrippa leaned over to Labienus and whispered, "He's a ferocious little twunt."  Labienus whispered back, "With a pen."  Agrippa suppressed a smile and arose from his chair, walked out from behind the defense table and turned  to address the iudex and jurists.  Agrippa did not take these insults to his client or his client's wife lightly.  He could feel the anger arising from within himself, but pushed his deadly anger back down into that dark place from which it would escape from time to time.  Intentionally softening the features of his rugged face, Agrippa began.

 

"Venerable Iudex and members of the jury, my name is Lucius Vipsanius Agrippa, some of you may know me.  I have defended Roma against the pirate scourge and now I am here to defend this decent Roman citizen, Publius Servilius Casca, of an ancient and noble Roman family, against horrible, false accusations.  I am also here to defend the reputation of this poor, unfortunate Roman matrona, Calpurnia Pisonis, and to prevent this tiny, precious infant from being separated from his loving mother.  I stand before you here today to discuss a case, not of lust, debauchery and infidelity, but one of love, abuse, and most foul torture.  The love between two people very much meant to be together and the abuse one woman, one sweet innocent woman, had to endure during a five-year marriage from Hades.

 

"The prosecutor, Sextus Valerius, would lead you to believe that Calpurnia is some low-born whore, neh, dog in heat, who has violated the sanctity of marriage and the sacred trust of being a Roman matrona. He would also have you to believe that I will spin some falsehood about this dear, lovely woman. The truth is this, that Calpurnia had to endure twice-daily beatings ..."
Read the entire account here.