Macer tried again to get at the truth. ‘Sabinus tells me that you killed their king.’

‘Yes.’ Actually Vindex had done the killing, but they had both hunted the man down and Ferox had been in charge.

‘Youthful high spirits, I presume?’ Macer’s temper was rising and he fought it down. Instead he sighed again, took another spoonful of the stew, savoured it, and then put the spoon down. ‘You do not know me,’ he began, ‘but I spent two years as a cornicularius, then five as principalis before being raised to centurion. I did not have influential friends, but I kept on climbing, slowly, but steadily. I led my own cohort, and at long last got the step to primus pilus and now praefectus castrorum. I am an eques,’ he held up his hand to show the ring, ‘and own an estate near Lepcis Magna. I grew up there, the gap-toothed lad of a tanner, and I’m going back to lord it over them and serve on the council. Now do you know what all that means?’

‘That you are a damned good soldier,’ Ferox said, his admiration genuine.

Macer grunted at the compliment. ‘What it really means is that I have seen it all and done it all. And one thing I have done more times than I can remember is bullshit to senior officers, and I’m not about to sit here and let you do it to me. So talk. Who was this king and what happened?’

‘His name was Claudius Aviragus, from the royal line of the Brigantes, they’re the—’

‘I was three years with XX Valeria Victrix under Agricola,’ Macer cut in.

‘He was from their royal house, and he or his sister in line to rule, assuming Rome decided to let the tribe have a king or queen. He’d been educated in Gaul and Rome, served as equestrian officer…’

‘Useless bastards every one of them,’ Macer muttered.

‘Aye. … Well this one got ambitious, started talking to men plotting to overthrow the Lord Trajan, and rebelled. We beat him – in the end, that is – and Neratius Marcellus, the legatus Augusti, sent me to hunt Aviragus down and bring back his head.’ Ferox shrugged. ‘I obeyed my orders.’

Macer nodded. The emperor had already been on the Danube by the time news of the rising reached Rome. An official report was read in the Senate and then published, which merely stated that there had been disturbances in Britannia, principally the north, and that after some fighting the miscreants had been killed or arrested. No one had even suggested that Trajan be hailed as imperator for the success of his local commander, implying that it was all a minor affair, and then soon the big war with Dacia had begun and everyone forgot about some problems with brigands in a distant province.

‘The Brigantes are known for their loyalty,’ Macer said. ‘So am I right in thinking that the ones wanting to kill you served this Aviragus?’