Chapter 62: Thrax

The Thracians were a particularly fierce culture with their affinity in violence and conflict. They associated themselves with the god of war, Ares, from the Greek Mythology who was born in this world full of stories about strife. The god of war was said to have been born in Thrace, thus its citizens heavily worshiped the god; and due to this, many of the Balkan city states hated them in revulsion for having such a barbaric god.

The Greek and the Roman view the Thracians as mere bloodthirsty barbarians because of how undeveloped and uncivilized they lived. Most of the Thracians lived in settlements that were surrounded by wooden walls and wooden houses. The privileged citizens had stone walled houses but had haystacks as their roofs. Their leadership structure revolved in the physical prowess of a person, which decided who would be the chiefs in their dozens of tribes. 

After a month had passed since Thrax's return from Magus Academy; his life had turned upside-down. Before he had been considered a normal youth, slightly better than some from the Maedi Tribe, but nothing outstanding. However, when he showed off his new found strength, none of his peers in the same age had been able to beat him. Even those who were a couple of years older than him and some adults had been beaten to a pulp. He was now the pride of the Maedi tribe.

In the first week of Thrax's return, he didn't waste time taking the initiation test to become one of the Thracian's Warriors. Usually, this ritual was only allowed to be done by those who were eighteen years of age because they involved dangerous activities, which could cost a person's life. Thrax insisted and after being allowed by one of the village elders, Thrax attempted and finished the ritual, receiving the highest appreciation from the elders in both wilderness survival and weapon combat tests.

In the following week, the Getae, a northern tribe who were sworn enemies of the Tharcians, attempted a raid in one of their neighboring village tribes. Fortunately, Thrax was staying there doing some spear training and he almost single-handedly protected the whole village before reinforcements arrived, causing his popularity to rise even further.

The seven days experience at Magus Academy not only made him physically stronger, but his skills with spear even exceeded some of those Thracians spearmen. In less than a month his name began to be sung by the tribal members, calling him Thrax, the son of Ares.

Right now, Thrax may still not be the strongest fighter within his tribe, however, his deeds had put him on a pedestal that some only dared to dream. This fifteen-year-old boy had the same martial prowess of a veteran Thracian warrior and because of that, he had also been given the honor of being a part of the most influential Thracian warriors. With such titles, popularity, strength, at such a young age, his prospective future caused many of the tribal chiefs to send their daughters to him to rope him in whatever plans they may have.

It wasn't only the many chiefs that had thrown their daughters at Thrax, since their culture valued martial prowess above all, a lot of women also threw themselves at Thrax. For Thracians males, it was normal to have dozens of women as concubines since a good tree meant good seeds, but Thrax decided not to accept any of the marriage invitations and ignored all of those beautiful, plump women for one particular woman. Sura, the most beautiful girl in his tribe whom he had liked since childhood, which the party was more than happy to accept.

Two months had passed since Thrax's return from the Magus Academy, and he lived like a chief. Preparations for his wedding were underway, he drank ale from morning until evening, feasted and trained in the honor of the god of war, Ares. His blissful life, however, had come to a halt when a cavalry wearing red armor coupled with thick metals on the chests entered the Maedi tribe.

Not a single one from the Thracians would fail to recognize where this cavalry came from. They were the Romans.

As of the moment, the Romans and Thracians were enjoying a ceasefire to recoup their losses and focus their attention elsewhere. They had never been on friendly terms because the Romans had tried to subjugate not only them but including neighboring factions several times. The Thracians hated the Romans with all of their being because whenever they were invaded by the Romans, these Romans never occupied their lands except that they took a lot of the young, male and female to become slaves in Roma, toiling for their pig masters. The arrival of the Romans was met with fierce riot from the citizens, and a lot of warriors from the Maedi tribe returned from hunting and readied their weapons in hand.

Fortunately, the Romans didn't draw their gladius and the current village chief knew better. The village chief invited the Romans in front of his personal residence to have a public forum. With this, none of his citizens would dare attack the Romans but still a large number had gathered surrounding the Romans.

"Get out, pigs! Roman scum! Slave drivers!" shouted some of the Maedi residents, attempting to expel the Romans.

"Hold your fucking tounges! Let the Roman have his say!" An elder Maedi exclaimed at the protesting residents before entering the tent.

Several neighboring chiefs, as well as renowned warriors, including Thrax attended the public forum and stood in the middle to have a discussion with the envoy from Roma.

"Stay your business in an honest tongue for we are honest people," said the Maedi chief. 

The Roman calvary stood stoic, not a bit fazed despite the unending hurls of insults from the citizens around them. If it weren't for one of the tribal elders a battle would have definitely occurred. Thrax stood on the side as he listened to the Roman envoy, who was ready to convey his message.

The envoy stepped forward and removed his helmet, he announced, "My name is Claudius Glabber. I'll keep this brief since we Romans and Thracians have deep grievances. I came here to tell you that we have decided to put such matters aside in order to unite for a just cause—"

"You push your way into our lands, and now you are asking for our help?" an elder said, cutting off the Roman envoy.

"Indeed. We have reason to believe that Mithridates and his army would be attacking from the east encroaching from the black sea," replied the envoy.

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Another elder snapped, "But they are far removed from our village! How does it involve us?"

The Roman envoy said calmly,"The Getae has caught wind of this and started to take advantage of the upcoming chaos. We have received reports that barbarian hordes are starting to amass north, which is barely half a week's march from your village."

The Maedi chief's brows frowned. "How many?" 

"Thousands," the Roman envoy replied. After saying that, the people started shouting again, some were already picking up stones, throwing at the Romans, thick heavy metal armor. The Roman envoy was undaunted and shouted, "Align yourselves with Rome! Pledge your service to the auxiliary and join us in our campaign!"

The rioting became louder and some people were already shouting 'Kill these pigs!' and 'They are here to make us slaves!' 

Thrax, who had been staying silent all this time, suddenly spoke, "To what end?" 

The people stopped rioting, wanting to hear what their prospective leader thought. Thrax exclaimed louder, "TO WHAT END!"

The Maedi citizens became speechless, waiting for the Roman envoy to answer. "Victory, of course."

"And how is that to be measured? What does your victory mean? The Getae have raided our villages, raped our women and killed the young. Each time we push them back, we only see them return in greater numbers!"

The Maedi chief, standing next to Thrax, said while nodding, "He is young and speaks out of turn, yet the truth falls from his mouth."

"It doesn't matter, for death to the Getae is what we want!" said the Roman envoy. He shouted once more and the people started cheering, "Death to the Getae!" 

Thrax stepped forward and continued, "If we are to align with Rome, what will happen to our young, women and elders left behind?"

"They will be under Rome's protection. I promise," said the Roman envoy without flinching.

Seeing how confident the Roman envoy answered, Thrax thought of Julian and unconsciously believed this person. With the increasing frequency of raids from Getae, he knew something had to be done so that his people could finally have some peace. 

It wasn't only him that had the same thought, Thrax's feelings were shared with all the other Thracian warriors. Indeed they valued warring but what good would that be if they went out and the people they cared for would be attacked while they were away If he had to be in the front line to take care of the problem, he would gladly do so as long he was sure that their homes would be protected.

The rioting died down.

"Very well," said the Maedi chief. "We will align ourselves for the sake of our survival."

On that same night, hundreds of thracian warriors from several villages and tribes gathered to form a Roman escort. Before leaving, Thrax gave a bracelet to Sura fashioned from the bones of animals he had hunted while Sura gave Thrax a shield she had the forge made. These two had already received the blessing to be married, however, the ritual had to be delayed due to the upcoming war. That didn't matter to Thrax though as he considered this girl already his wife. Thrax picked up his spear and Sura's shield, ready to go to war.

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