One by one the Romans who were not engaged turned their mounts and galloped down the defile. The rest did their best to free themselves and flee. The decurion thrust the signifer away and stood his ground to cover the retreat of his men. It was a brave gesture, Ajax conceded, but a costly one. Two of the gladiators came up on either side of his horse. The decurion blocked the first attack with his shield and then hurriedly parried a thrust from the other side. As he turned back in his saddle to face the first threat, the gladiator raised his sword high and level and plunged it into the decurion’s face. Blood spurted from inside the helmet and the officer flung both arms out before his torso flopped back against the saddle horns.

Karim’s archers shot several more arrows at the fleeing Romans, until they had passed out of sight around the next bend in the gorge. Ajax breathed hard as he looked round. Half the squadron had been killed or wounded, mostly by arrows. One of the gladiators lay dead amongst them, the end of a broken lance piercing his chest. Two men had been wounded, the first had been run through. The battle rage was slowly draining from the man’s face and now he looked down and saw the ragged tear in his leather cuirass and the blood spreading quickly through the folds of the tunic beneath. It was clear to Ajax that the wound was fatal as soon as he saw it. The other casualty had been injured in the leg, a long gash in the back of his thigh that had ripped apart his hamstrings, crippling him.

‘Help them down,’ Ajax ordered the nearest of his men. ‘Get them to some shade, inside the entrance to the tomb there. The rest of you, finish off their wounded.’

Karim came slithering down the steep slope beside the cliff and dropped amid a fall of shingle on to the floor of the gorge. He smiled brilliantly at Ajax. ‘That put paid to their pursuit!’

‘For now.’ Ajax sheathed his sword and lowered the strap of the shield on to his saddle horn before dismounting. ‘The survivors won’t be charging up here blindly again. We can be sure of that. No, they’ll keep watch on us while they send for reinforcements.’

‘Then we’d better find a way out of here.’

Ajax gestured towards the rocks towering on all sides. ‘Be my guest. The only way out is a steep climb on foot. We’d have to abandon the horses. Without them we have no hope of escape.’ He looked round at the openings in the rocks and smiled grimly. ‘If we die here, then we die in the company of kings, my friend. Think on that.’