‘Such is life, I fear, but he was not fool enough to argue with nine legions. He waited for a day or two, hoping that the decision would change, which shows how little he knows of our princeps.’

‘Without wishing in any way to criticise, it might not be wise to let him wander off?’ Crispinus suggested.

‘No longer a concern. I am unsure of the details, but there appears to have been some treachery on the part of the deposed king. He tried to make off, and some of the singulares Augusti caught him and killed him.’

‘Ah well.’

‘Quite. They are shifting the ropes to the next position, I see.’ Hadrian’s face was eager, for he dearly loved all aspects of engineering. ‘Perhaps we could take a closer look?’

Such a request was, of course, an order, so Crispinus led the way, beckoning to a few officers and his escort to join them. Others led horses for when they were needed, since the acting governor was bound to want to tour all the camps and siege works. As they walked, Hadrian asked question after question, but interrupted himself whenever he saw something of interest.

‘The men appear in fine fettle. Have you had much trouble with sickness? Sieges do tend to draw pestilence.’

‘So far we have been fortunate,’ Crispinus told him. There were over five hundred men in the hospitals, a mixture of the wounded, mostly from arrows, the more numerous victims of accidents, inevitable with so much construction, and various ailments. A dozen men in the eastern camp had gone down with dysentery since yesterday, which was worrying, but on the whole the numbers were not bad for a campaigning army, and especially one stuck in the same position for so long.

‘Ah, Caecilius,’ Hadrian greeted the primus pilus. ‘See you have been busy.’ Then he asked about how the new ramp was built, its strengths and weaknesses, and how they had calculated the angle of the ramp, the height of the tower and the positioning of the ram. Crispinus did not pay too close attention, since he had already gone through all these things with his officers and it was too late to change anything now. Hadrian was patient, letting the senior centurion break off to give orders, and laughing and joking with the men. When the ropes had been shifted to the next position, he insisted on taking his place in one of the gangs, which meant that Crispinus must do the same, so in turn half a dozen senior officers took their places on the cable and hauled when the primus pilus shouted at them.

‘Go, on, put your backs into it!’ Caecilius bellowed at them. Men grunted as they tugged. ‘You can do better than that!’

‘I think he means you,’ Hadrian said to Crispinus before the next heave, and men grinned.

‘How long to get it in place?’ Hadrian asked Caecilius when they had got the tower to the next stage and were shifting the ropes.