A month after the Emperor’s return to Rome Agrippina was brought to Claudius to find him busily engaged in preparations for his triumph, scheduled for the following year. ‘There’s so much to do,’ he told her, fussing over heaps of correspondence. ‘So many details to organise! And it’s hard to delegate. Even Narcissus, whom I value dearly, is a Greek, and understands little of the tradition, not to say the archaism, with which Rome runs its affairs.

‘And I am also busy composing the dedicatory inscription for my triumphal arches.’ He showed her a rough outline. ‘You can see half of it is taken up by my own formal names, pah! But I have chosen the words carefully, I think. I mention the formal submission of eleven kings. The invasion was carried out without loss of honour to Rome, for it was a response to the breaking of treaties by British princes - it was, you know! Roman wars are always legal. And here I show that Roman rule is now extended to the barbarians across the sea.’ Barbari Transoceanum.

‘Where will your arches be?’

‘The Senate has awarded me three - in Rome, and on the coast of the Ocean, perhaps where Plautius made his first landing, and perhaps one in Cunobelin’s capital.’

Agrippina said boldly, ‘There will be few celebrations in Britain.’

‘Why so?’

‘Your invasion was brutal. You care nothing for our culture, our identity. You want only the wealth you can extract.’

Claudius sat back and pursed his lips. ‘So we are bandits. Violent robbers. But that is the way of things. On your island, you Britons have fallen behind the march of Europe. We have literacy; we have law; we have records; we have a political system which does not depend on the idiosyncrasies of its leader - at least not entirely. For all the undoubted qualities of your culture, in this new world Britain is an anachronism. And in the collision of an advanced culture with a lesser, only one outcome is possible.

‘Times change, Agrippina! Once Rome was a vibrant, ancient Republic, and no one would have believed that democrats would abandon democracy - and yet in the tensions of global power Romans yielded to emperors. But the sun continues to rise and set even so. If we suppress your British identity, good: shed it! The future belongs to Rome - and you are a Roman now.’

She nodded, listening carefully. ‘I value your words, sir, but—’

‘“But you are a pompous old fool!”’ He sat back with a sigh. ‘You see, I am such a wise ruler that I can even finish your sentences for you. And what of you two? I saw the bond between you, even in that difficult night in Camulodunum. Is love blossoming here in the sweet light of Rome?’