This article lists the various minor fictional characters who appear in Give Me Back My Legions!. These characters play, at best, a peripheral role in the novel. While they were usually given a name, some weren't. Most were simply mentioned or had a very brief, unimportant speaking role that did not impact the plot, and never appeared again.
Blackie[]
Blackie was one of the dogs in Segestes' household. Segestes' daughter Thusnelda shed a nostalgic tear as she left Blackie and all else behind to abscond with Arminius.[1]
Lucius Caedicius[]
Lucius Caedicius was a Roman prefect in Germany. He told Governor Varus how the North Sea waves dwarfed anything on the Mediterranean Sea, and informed the governor that the locals used barter for trade, as coinage was not yet widely available.[2]
Marcus Calvisius[]
Marcus Calvisius (b. c. 45 BC) was a centurion in Legion XVIII. He judged the new cavalry commander Vala Numonius as "not bad," but declared that anyone who was not already familiar with Germany could not understand it.[3]
Chlodovegius[]
Chlodovegius (b. c. 20 BC) was a German auxiliary serving with Roman forces against Pannonian rebels. He was eager to attain Roman citizenship and adopt their culture, as he told his superior Arminius. The latter, who was already a Roman citizen, did not share his views on Germany's Romanization with Chlodovegius.[4]
Ingaevonus[]
Ingaevonus was a German from whom Caldus Caelius was assigned to collect taxes. Ingaevonus did not understand the concept of taxes, and only paid due to threat of violence.[5] Approximately two years later, Ingaevonus remembered Caelius' face when the latter was a prisoner after the slaughter of the legions. Ingaevonus indicated that he would torture Caelius to death very slowly. After the German walked away to plan this procedure, Caelius avoided this fate by bashing his own brains out against a large metal chain.
Lance and Speedy[]
Lance and Speedy were hunting dogs belonging to Arminius' family. When Arminius returned from the Pannonian war, the two dogs took a moment to recognize him, but recognize him they did. This put Arminius in mind of a Greek story where about a man whose dog remembered its master, even after he had been away adventuring for years and years.[6]
Masua[]
Masua was a close confidant of Segestes. He journeyed to Varus' camp, evading attempts by Arminius to kill him, to warn the general that Arminius was plotting treachery. It was all in vain, as Varus simply dismissed this as Segestes slandering a rival.[7] Segestes and Masua later visited Varus together, and met Sigimerus and Arminius who were already there, making for an awkward moment. Once again, the two men vainly attempted to make Varus see the truth.
Titus Minucius Basilus[]
Titus Minucius Basilus was a tribune serving with Roman forces putting down a Pannonian uprising in AD 7. One evening he was interrupted at supper by Arminius, an officer with the German auxiliaries attached to his unit. Arminius explained how his betrothed's father had broken off the engagement and given her to another. When Minucius incredulously asked whether he just had to drop everything in the middle of a campaign and go home, Arminius indicated that it touched on his honor and that it would be a distraction to him in a fight. Minucius, seeing that Arminius would leave with permission or without, sourly granted him leave stating that if they couldn't win short one officer of auxiliaries, then, by Jupiter, they didn't deserve to win at all.
Sigifredus[]
Sigifredus (b. and d. AD 9), the first child of Arminius and Thusnelda, was born shortly after the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest. Arminius gave his son the name Sigifredus in memory of his victory.[8] Sadly, the infant died not long after, of a flux of the bowels.[9]
Literary comment[]
Harry Turtledove confirms in the Historical Note that Sigifredus is fictional.
Veleda[]
Veleda was the wife of Sigimerus and the mother of Flavus and Arminius. Her talents included weaving. She enthusiastically welcomed her younger son home from the Pannonian war, and informed him that there was still time to elope with Thusnelda despite her betrothal to Tudrus. Along with the menfolk, she reacted with revulsion to Arminius' accounts of the homosexual behavior condoned in Roman society.[10]
Literary comment[]
Surviving primary sources do not mention Arminius' mother. The name Veleda may be a reference to a same-named Bructeri shamaness who was a prominent symbol of the Batavian rebellion of AD 69–70, fought in what is now the Netherlands.
References[]
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