"David Drake - Belisarius 6 - The Dance Of Time" - читать интересную книгу автора (Drake David)

the general asked you to, lad. Kept the Malwa confused, thinking Belisarius was still here, while he
marched in secret to the northeast. Did it as well as he could have possibly hoped."

They had reached one of the covered portions of the trench, Calopodius sensed. He couldn't see the
earth-covered logs which gave some protection from enemy fire, of course. But the quality of sound was
a bit different within a shelter than in an open trench. That was just one of the many little auditory
subtleties which Calopodius had begun noticing lately.

He had not noticed it in times past, before he lost his eyes. In the first days after Belisarius and the main
army left Sukkur on their secret, forced march to outflank the Malwa in thePunjab , Calopodius had
noticed very little, in truth. He had had neither the time nor the inclination to ponder the subtleties of sense
perception. He had been far too excited by his new and unexpected command and by the challenge it
posed.

Martial glory.The blind young man in the covered trench stopped for a moment, staring through sightless
eyes at a wall of earth and timber bracing. Remembering, and wondering.

The martial glory Calopodius had sought, when he left a new wife inConstantinople , had certainly come
to him. Of that, he had no doubt at all. His own soldiers thought so, and said so often enoughтАФthose
who had survivedтАФand Calopodius was quite certain that his praises would soon be spoken in the
Senate.

Precious few of theRoman Empire 's most illustrious families had achieved any notable feats of arms in
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the great war against the Malwa. Beginning with the top commander Belisarius himself, born into the
lower Thracian nobility, it had been largely a war fought by men from low stations in life. Commoners, in
the main. AgathiusтАФthe now-famous hero of Anatha and the DamтАФhad been born into a baker'sfamily,
about as menial a position as any short of outright slavery.

Other than Sittas, who was now leading Belisarius' cataphracts in thePunjab , almost no Greek
noblemen had fought in the Malwa war. And even Sittas, before the Indus campaign, had spent the war
commanding the garrison inConstantinople which overawed the hostile aristocracy and kept the dynasty
on the throne.

Had it been worth it?

Reaching up and touching gently the emptiness which had once been his eyes, Calopodius was still not
sure. Like many other young members of the nobility, he had been swept up with enthusiasm after the
news came that Belisarius had shattered the Malwa inMesopotamia . Let the adult members of the
aristocracy whine and complain in their salons. The youth were burning to serve.

And serve they had... but only as couriers, in the beginning. It hadn't taken Calopodius long to realize
that Belisarius intended to use him and his high-born fellows mainly for liaison with the haughty Persians,
who were even more obsessed with nobility of blood-line than Greeks. The posts carried prestigeтАФthe
couriers rode just behind Belisarius himself in formationтАФbut little in the way of actual responsibility.