“We will march in two days, at dawn,” Pompey said. “I have spies out already on the road with orders to meet the main force when we get close. Tactics for the battle will have to wait on better information. You are dismissed. Tribune Caesar, I’d like a word with you, if you could stay.”

Lepidus stood with the other legates, beginning a conversation with two of them as they passed out of the room. Before their voices had faded, Julius heard him laugh at some witticism and saw Pompey stiffen in irritation.

“He’s the eyes and ears of Cato, that one,” Pompey said to Crassus. “You can be sure he’s taking little notes of everything we do to report back when we come home.”

Crassus shrugged. “Send him back to Rome, then. I’ll put my seal on it and we can beat the rebels with seven legions as easily as eight.”

Pompey shook his head. “Maybe, but there are other reports I haven’t mentioned. Julius, this is to go no further, understand? There’s no point having the rumors all over the camp before tomorrow, which is what would happen if I told the others, especially Lepidus. The slave army has grown alarmingly. I’m getting reports of more than fifty thousand. Hundreds of farms and estates have been stripped. There is no way back for them now and that will make for desperate fighting. They know how we punish escaped slaves and the rebellion won’t end without a massive show of force. I think we’re going to need every legion we have.”

Julius whistled softly. “We can’t depend on a rout,” he said.

Pompey frowned. “It doesn’t look like it, no. I’d expect them to fold and run on the first attack except for the fact that they have women and children with them and nowhere to go if they lose. Those gladiators have brought off more than one success already, and they must be more than a rabble.” He snorted softly. “If I didn’t know better, I’d wonder if Cato was hoping to see us lose, but, no, that’s too much even for him. They could still turn south again, and from Ariminum the whole country is open. They have to be crushed and I need good commanders to do it, Julius.”

“I have more than two thousand under the Primigenia eagle,” Julius replied. He chose not to mention that Cato had supplied half of them to protect his son. Renius had trained them to exhaustion, but they were still of poor quality compared to the established legions. He wondered how many were waiting for the right moment to put a knife in him. Such men at his back didn’t inspire confidence, for all his assurances to Renius that they would become Primigenia.