“You can’t do that! My father will have your—”

“You’re in, boy. In front of witnesses,” Renius replied. “These men will swear it was voluntary. When we dismiss you, you’ll be free to run and tell your father how proud you are.”

Cato’s son glared at the older men, his confidence surging back. “My name will be off that scroll before sundown,” he said.

Renius stepped close to him again. “Tell him Renius took the name. He’ll know me. Tell him you’ll always be known as the boy who tried to back out of serving the city in the legions. He’ll be destroyed if something like that gets out, wouldn’t you say? You think you’ll follow in his footsteps after shame like that? The Senate doesn’t like cowards, boy.”

The young man paled with anger and frustration. “I will . . .” He paused and a terrible doubt crept into his face.

“What you’ll do is stand by this eagle until we’re ready to give you the oath. Until I’m told different, you’re the first recruit of the day.”

“You can’t stop me leaving!” Germinius replied, his voice cracking.

“Disobeying a lawful order? I’ll have you whipped if you take another step away from me. Stand to attention before I lose my patience!”

The bark of an order held Germinius in impotent rage. Under Renius’s eye, he drew himself straight. At his side, his friends began to edge away.

“Your names!” Renius snapped, freezing them. They looked mutely at him and he shrugged.

“Mark them down as legionaries two and three of the day. That will serve, now I know your faces. Stand straight for the crowd, boys.” He turned to the soldiers of Primigenia behind him for a moment, ignoring their amazement.

“If they run,” he said clearly, “I want them dragged back and flogged on the field. It’ll cost us a few recruits, but the others might as well see there’s a hard side to all that glory.”

The three young Romans faced the crowd stiffly, and Renius looked surprised as Brutus drew him a few steps out of their hearing.

“Cato will go berserk,” Brutus muttered. “Of all legions, he won’t want his son in this one.”

Renius cleared his throat and spat on the dusty grass of the field. “He won’t want him branded a coward, either. It’s your choice, but you’ll gain nothing by letting them go now. He may try to buy you off or he may endure it. We’ll know in a day or two.”

Brutus looked closely at the old gladiator and shook his head in disbelief. “You’ve forced this on me now, so I’ll see it through.”

Renius glanced at him. “If you’d hit him, his father would have killed you.”

“You didn’t know who he was when you stopped me!” Brutus retorted.