Around them the camp stretched out on all sides. Narcissus, used to the smaller scale displays put on by the Praetorian Guard cohorts back in Rome, was impressed by the spectacle. Not that it was the first time he had seen the army of Britain massed for campaigning. He had been present when the four legions and the host of auxiliary units had crushed Caratacus a year earlier. There was something very comforting about the ordered lines of tents. Each one marked the presence of eight men, some of whom were drilling inside the camp. Others were busy grinding sharp edges on to the army’s blades, or returning from foraging expeditions laden with baskets of grain, or driving farm animals they had seized from the lands nearby. It all smacked of order and the irresistible might of Rome. With such a huge, well-trained force taking the field it was hard to believe that anything might frustrate the Emperor’s aim of adding this land and its tribes to the inventory of empire.

That thought was very much to the fore in Narcissus’ mind, and was the reason why he had been sent in secret from the palace to this far-flung camp on the north bank of the river Tamesis.

‘How long will you be staying with us?’ asked the general.

‘How long?’ Narcissus looked amused. ‘You haven’t yet asked why I’m here.’

‘I imagine it has something to do with enquiring about the progress of the campaign.’

‘Partly that,’ Narcissus admitted. ‘So how are things going, General?’

‘You should know well enough - you must read the dispatches I send back to the palace.’

‘Ah, yes. Very informative and very detailed. You have a fine style, if I may say so. Somewhat reminiscent of Caesar’s commentaries. Must be heady stuff, commanding so large an army…’

Plautius had known Narcissus long enough to become immune to the ingratiating flattery that was the Greek’s stock in trade. He was also sufficiently familiar with the nuances of palace officials to recognise the threat implied in the Imperial Secretary’s last remark.

‘I am, of course, flattered by the comparison with the divine Julius. But I harbour none of his thirst for power.’

Narcissus smiled.’Come now, General, surely a man in your position with such a large army at his disposal must have developed some small taste for ambition. Such a taste would not be unexpected or, indeed, unwelcome. Rome values ambition in its generals.’

‘Rome might. I doubt the Emperor does.’

‘Rome and the Emperor are as one,’ Narcissus said mildly. ‘Some people might regard it as faintly seditious to suggest anything else.’

‘Seditious?’ Plautius raised an eyebrow. ‘You’re not serious. Have things got that bad in Rome?’