‘If,’ Brigonius said. ‘You’re a gambler, Severa! And if Hadrian decides on turf as he did in Germany?’

‘You mustn’t think like that, Brigonius. You must be positive - seize this chance - and deal with the consequences later.’

In any event they would have no access to the Emperor until he reached the colonia of Camulodunum. And it was going to take many days for the imperial circus to travel that far, Brigonius learned. The whole purpose of the trip was for the people to see Hadrian. There would be stops in the new city of Londinium and elsewhere, so the wealthier citizens of the towns, already heavily taxed in this heavily militarised province, could feel they got their money’s worth from the huge expense of this visit.

Rather than wait, Severa decided that she, her daughter and Brigonius would go on ahead. Arriving early at Camulodunum they would have more time to prepare their pitch.

On his journey south Brigonius had travelled fast and light. He rode all the way, changing his horses at roadside inns - mansiones, as they were called, stations primarily intended for official despatch riders and the cursus publicus, the fast public postal service. But he didn’t sleep in the inns. He had a leather tent, in fact a Roman army surplus item he’d purchased at Vindolanda. He didn’t like towns; he had been happy to sleep in fields with his own small fire and his horse tethered nearby. Cheaper too.

Going back with two Roman ladies was a different matter. They weren’t about to sleep in a field; the question never even arose. Severa lavished money to hire a new carriage, slaves and horses. Then, armed with a schematic map of the province, she plotted out a route. From Rutupiae they would travel west through Durovernum and along the south bank of the Tamesis estuary - said to be the route once taken by Claudius’s conquering army - and then via smaller towns to Londinium. There they would cross the river by the Romans’ new wooden bridge, and head north.

This route would incidentally take them through the homelands of several British nations, including Brigonius’s own ancestral people the Catuvellaunians. But these were not marked on Severa’s map, which showed only the Romans’ new towns, their roads, and the rivers with their new Latin names.

So they set off. They rolled through peaceful farmland. The fields were marked out by hedgerows or stone walls, given over on this summer’s day to wheat or barley. Away from the towns, the buildings were mostly round thatched houses; here and there smoke seeped into the sky.