‘The first recruits when Domitian formed the legion?’

Turbo suspected that his mouth twitched at mention of the last of the Flavians, an emperor now formally damned by the Senate, his statues cast down and name erased from monuments.

‘That’s right, sir. Done twenty-two years, all with Minervia, and awarded dona twice.’

‘Any rank?’ Turbo asked.

Celer shook his head. ‘Doesn’t have the learning for it – or the brains truth be told. But he raised me and made sure I could read and write well before I joined up.’

‘Sounds a fine soldier – and a good brother,’ Hadrian said. For the first time Celer smiled. ‘Where is he now?’

‘Out of the way hole called Piroboridava, sir. They sent a few hundred veterans to keep an eye on the Dacians after they packed it in.’

‘The legion has more than its fair share of veterans?’

‘Fifteen hundred or so, sir.’

Turbo was surprised and guessed that Celer was as well, although the soldier did not show it, but finally understood. If he lasted the course, a legionary soldiered for twenty-five years, the last five with the status of veteran, and then took honourable discharge with the emperor’s thanks, best wishes and a decent bounty – or failing that a plot of land in some benighted colony. Most legions had been around for generations, the majority since the days of the Divine Augustus more than a century ago. That tended to give them a good spread of ages in the ranks, if always weighted a little towards the young because of the toll taken by war, the ravages of disease, desertion and those accidents that always happened. A new legion was different, since apart from a few soldiers transferred in from elsewhere, you began with everyone enlisting over the course of a few months.

‘Yes, I thought the number would be something like that. I was a tribune with II Adiutrix and the older officers talked of the shock caused when they had to discharge all the men enlisted when it was formed by Nero.’

Turbo almost sighed, and instead made a sign to ward off the evil eye, holding his hand under his desk so that no one else could see. It seemed unlucky to mention a second damned emperor in as many minutes.

Hadrian could not have seen, and yet he glanced at the centurion and gave a brief smile before he continued. ‘Meant we lost a lot of experience in a very short time, although things were pretty much back to normal by the time I was posted to them. So someone realised that Minervia had more than its fair share of veterani, far more than could be attached to cohors I, so decided to send the poor devils off as garrisons? Wonder how your brother and the rest feel about that?’

‘They’re soldiers, under discipline, and will do their duty.’ Turbo’s tone was almost defiant, for he was not about to see one of his men tricked into indiscretion by some aristocrat.