‘Perhaps. But if you co-operate we can finish Bannus off sooner rather than later.’

‘But we know nothing of Bannus!’ the priest protested, struggling to contain his rage.’You cannot hold our people in this manner. We’ll protest to the procurator.’

‘You can do what you like, but those men are coming with me.’

‘Who will run their businesses and tend their crops while they are gone?’

‘That’s your problem, priest, not mine.’ Parmenion turned to Cato. ‘Get ‘em on their feet. We’re heading back to the column.’

The five men were pinioned between two lines of soldiers as they headed back to the square.The priest and the other village elders bustled after the Roman troops, shouting and gesticulating angrily. Parmenion ignored them, and Cato tried to follow his lead, facing straight ahead as the other soldiers tramped along at his back. When they emerged into the square the soldiers were already looking their way, to see what the shouting was about. Parmenion directed his men to take the prisoners over to where the groom was holding his horse and Cato’s. The priest hurried alongside, still protesting that the men’s families would be ruined in their absence. His words had no effect and Parmenion ignored him as he bellowed orders for his officers to get the column ready to move.

The priest suddenly stopped shouting and stared past Parmenion, towards the synagogue, and let out a shrill cry of outrage as he started to run across the square. Cato, startled, turned to look and saw that the door to the synagogue was open, and that men were moving in the gloomy interior.

‘Shit.’ Parmenion slammed his fist against his thigh. ‘The fools!’

He ran after the priest, and Cato followed. Inside was a square space with sloped stone seating and a large pillar in each corner to support the dome above. At the far end was a wooden cupboard, round which several soldiers had clustered. The doors of the cupboard were open and the men were rifling through the scrolls stacked inside, pulling them out and dropping them on the flagstones as they searched for anything of value.

‘Get away from there!’ Parmenion shouted. But it was too late. The priest flew across the floor, and snatched a scroll from the hand of the man closest to the cupboard. Then he screamed in rage and slapped the soldier, who Cato realised was the same man who had approached the synagogue earlier. Before Parmenion or Cato could react, Canthus slammed his fist into the priest’s face, knocking him down, and then scooped up the scroll, and let it spool out over the floor. Looking down at the priest, he spat and tore the scroll in half.

‘That’s enough!’ Parmenion ran over to the group and thrust the soldier aside.’You bloody fool! You don’t know what you’ve done!’