‘No. I have few friends. But I need someone to support me today. You have no reason to love me, Brigonius, I know that. But I have dealt with you on business matters these last two decades and I know you to be an honest man.’ Even now she was arrogant, faintly mocking.

‘I would not see even you sit alone in a time of trial, Claudia Severa. But don’t read any more into it than that.’

‘I wouldn’t dream of it.’

Sabinus cleared his throat. ‘Perhaps we should start—’

‘Start what?’ Severa snapped, immediately on the attack. ‘Is this a court, Iulius Sabinus?’

Primigenius stood up, cadaver-thin. ‘I believe we are all hoping to avoid the necessity of a trial, madam. But there is unpleasantness to be dealt with nevertheless.’

Severa snorted. ‘I wonder if you can speak one word truthfully, you snake.’

Sabinus snapped, ‘Let’s get this over.’

From a table before him Primigenius picked up a battered leather wallet. ‘Do you recognise this?’ He opened it and withdrew a document. It was a parchment, worn with age. It bore only a few lines, Brigonius could see, written out in an awkward hand.

He did not need Lepidina’s gasp to tell him what it was.

Severa asked menacingly, ‘How did you get that?’ She turned and swept her glare around the room. ‘Which of you is the frumentarius who rummaged through an old woman’s belongings?’ There was an uncomfortable silence. The frumentarii were one of Hadrian’s more unwelcome and un-Roman innovations, a secret police force he used against rivals and enemies.

When nobody answered Sabinus said sternly, ‘Madam, what is important now is not how this document was obtained but what it contains.’

‘It is a prophecy,’ Primigenius said. He paraded it around the room as if displaying it to a court. ‘It has been in the lady’s family for generations. It was in her possession long before the Emperor came to Britain. And, look here.’ He read out the crucial lines, about the little Greek, the noose of stone. ‘This lady believed herself in possession of a prophecy which foretold the Emperor’s decision to build the Wall. And she resolved she was going to use it to make herself rich.’ He pointed an accusing finger at Severa. ‘Tell us this document is a forgery, madam, a clumsy fake.’

Brigonius saw that in fact this was a way out for Severa; if she denied the Prophecy was genuine then she would be portrayed as a foolish old woman who merely got lucky, and she might, might walk out of here without a severe punishment. But she would not do this; Primigenius evidently knew her and her pride well.

Severa said coolly, ‘Get to the point, you ridiculous snake. What is it you are accusing me of?’