‘Thanks.’ Cato glanced down at his yoke. ‘I suppose it would be bad form to call over one of the sentries to carry this back to the supplies officer for me.’

‘Very bad form.’

‘Shit . . . Well, in for a sestertius, in for a denarius.’ Cato reached down and heaved the ponderous weight back on to his shoulder and walked with Macro towards the gate. ‘I’ll drop this off and eat, drink and have a rest. Then there’s one final matter to attend to this evening before I’m done for the day.’

Aurelius looked down at the list by the light of his oil lamp and shook his head. ‘These are all good men. I’ve known them for years. You can’t have them removed from their posts.’

‘Sir, they failed to complete the route march. They’re out of condition. Some of them are so overweight they can’t fit properly into their armour any more. They are a liability to the men under their command. When you lead the army against the enemy, those officers will fail to keep up with the army, as they failed to keep up with today’s marching column. Who will command their men then? They will lack an officer when they most need one.’ He paused. ‘They have to be removed from the battle line.’

The legate let out a long sigh. ‘It may be true that they are not in peak form but they have other qualities.’

‘Such as?’

‘Well, er, experience. They spent many years working their way up through the ranks, as I did. There’s not much that they don’t know about soldiering.’

‘How much campaign experience have they had, sir?’

Aurelius frowned and lowered the list. He stared up at Cato. ‘You’re not going to let this pass, are you?’

‘No, sir. You appointed me and Centurion Macro to take charge of the men’s training. It is my professional assessment that these men are unfit for active duty. Of course, it would be a shame to humiliate them through demotion or dismissal from the legion. So why not redeploy them to your headquarters, or leave them here to command the garrison? That way they won’t hinder their men, and you can make use of their experience.’

‘And who will replace these men?’

‘Centurion Macro has already identified a number of optios who are good enough to promote to the centurionate.’

‘I see.’ Aurelius fixed Cato with a cold expression. ‘You have it all worked out, don’t you?’

‘I do my duty and serve Rome to the best of my ability, sir. That’s all,’ Cato replied evenly. ‘In any case, you wanted the legion to be ready to march as soon as possible. The sooner these men are replaced, the sooner you will be able to wage war on the Nubians.’