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Back Emperor
Chapters (76)
  1. Title Page
  2. Copyright Page
  3. I
  4. II
  5. III
  6. I - INVADER AD 43-70
  7. I
  8. II
  9. III
  10. IV
  11. V
  12. VI
  13. VII
  14. VIII
  15. IX
  16. X
  17. XI
  18. XII
  19. XIII
  20. XIV
  21. XV
  22. XVI
  23. XVII
  24. XVIII
  25. XIX
  26. XX
  27. XXI
  28. XXII
  29. XXIII
  30. XXIV
  31. XXV
  32. XXVI
  33. II - BUILDER AD 122-138
  34. I
  35. II
  36. III
  37. IV
  38. V
  39. VI
  40. VII
  41. VIII
  42. IX
  43. X
  44. XI
  45. XII
  46. XIII
  47. XIV
  48. XV
  49. XVI
  50. XVII
  51. XVIII
  52. XIX
  53. XX
  54. XXI
  55. III - EMPEROR AD 314—337
  56. I
  57. II
  58. III
  59. IV
  60. V
  61. VI
  62. VII
  63. VIII
  64. IX
  65. X
  66. XI
  67. XII
  68. XIII
  69. XIV
  70. XV
  71. EPILOGUE
  72. I
  73. II
  74. III
  75. IV
  76. Afterword

In the back of the carriage, Lepidina puzzled out a fresh bit of word-play in Ovid’s poetry and laughed softly, her voice light as a bird’s.

V

V

Unlike most other British towns Londinium had not been founded on the site of an older settlement. When Claudius came this way there had been nothing at all, Severa said, nothing but the mud huts of a few fisher-folk. Now along the shining river barges and sea-going ships cruised purposefully, and docks sprawled along both north and south banks of the river, with cranes rising like gaunt birds. Beyond a hinterland of warehouses and granaries there were signs of still more impressive buildings under construction.

Using her sketchy map Severa showed him why Londinium had risen. ‘You see, the river is tidal, all the way to this point, and navigable much further inland. And the city itself is a node of road systems that arrow off across the island north, west, east and south. It is a natural port for trade with Gaul and further afield ...’

It was a port for an imperial province, Brigonius saw, a port for continental trade. Britain did not need Londinium; Britannia did.

After a final overnight stop they approached Camulodunum. It was early in the morning. As they neared the town the road, growing busier, was lined with tombstones, urns half-buried in the ground. Severa told Brigonius that the Romans didn’t allow burials within a town’s boundary, so cemeteries grew up on the major routes out of town.

The wall of Camulodunum itself became visible, a dark line cutting across rising ground. For miles around the wall, however, Brigonius made out roundhouses, barns and earthworks, most of them abandoned. The Roman town seemed to have been planted on a low hill, overlooking what had once been a much more extensive settlement, now disappearing under the plough.

Outside the town they glimpsed a vast walled structure of bright new stone, too small to be a town, the wrong shape to be a fort. It turned out to be an arena where chariot races were run, under the auspices of priests from the town’s temple. Brigonius was amazed at the extravagance. But the arena’s upkeep was paid for by the betting on the races, and the eyes of Severa, an instinctive gambler, lit up at the thought.

Severa sent a slave running ahead to prepare for their arrival. As a result they were met on the road by one Flavius Karus, whom Severa introduced as a lawyer with whom she had corresponded over the business of Hadrian’s frontier works.