[b][center][u]Caesena Muster[/u][/center][/b]

The town of Caesena appeared much as Toxilus remembered it. Greek, Roman and Gallic architecture fought each other through fleeting streets of cobbled stone and houses of thatch. Pillars lined the bigger roadways, and off to the north-easterly corner, a twenty foot marble statue of Athena looked on with indifference. 

What the Etruscan really noted though, was that the town's walls were still as low as they had been the last time he visited. A mere ten feet of stone defended Caesena from the hordes of Gauls that ravaged it frequently. True though it was, that since Rome's conquest of the area a century previous, the town suffered less incursions, it still held a recent history of being stormed by armies. With Hannibal on the horizon, it seemed this history would be expanded slightly. 

"Home," Larth muttered. The man rode upon a gracefully built mount, clad in the colours of his office's finery. 

"For you, perhaps," Toxilus added. "For me, this is just another part of our great Empire."

"Empire, now?" Larth mused, raising an eyebrow.

Toxilus felt a heat of embarassment for getting carried away, "Republic. Empire. It's all the same to me, old friend." 

Larth seemed troubled by this, but he shrugged it off after a moment. "Where's the Consul?" 

The Legatus scanned the rolling fields surrounding the town, and saw no sign of Consul M. Cossus Argentus's troops. 

"He'll come," Toxilus said. "Unless he wants the Republic to burn under us."

"So it is a Republic?" Larth chuckled. 

Toxilus sighed heavily, and urged his horse onwards towards the town. 

At his back, two and a half thousand infantry marched. On his wings, a thousand light horse circled. The Legatus would not let them rest; tonight they would establish camp, outside the town's walls, and then the drilling would commence. His men had come some ways into becoming considered 'professional', but there was still much work to be done.