The two Village Women and the First, Third and Fourth Village Men with the three Children come on, quickly, in a bunch. The Third Village Man is wounded.

First Girl Were they Romans?

Second Girl They didn’t have eagles instead of heads.

Boy Why did they burn us?

Second Girl Are we going to kill them?

Boy Why did they burn us?

First Girl Are we going to kill them?

First Village Woman Shut up, children!

She gestures to the group. They crouch down, still.

A silence.

A considerable space between the two groups.

Fourth Village Man Something.

A silence.

Second Village Woman Nothing.

First Village Man I had a sling in my hand. I turned. The house was burning. I ran toward the house. Behind me, the field burst into flames. My daughter ran toward me. Burning. She fell, fire between us. I stood in the smoke. Then I was an animal. Running, to get in the trees. In the dark.

He vomits.

Third Village Man Humiliation.

Second Village Woman Catapults. On little machines. Throwing burning –

Fourth Village Man (to the Third Village Man) How bad are you –

Second Village Woman Just like that. From nowhere.

Throwing burning –

First Village Woman Get to the sanctuary. Leave the children with the priests. Find the families.

Third Village Man Hit back. Again and again.

Fourth Village Man Let me look at you –

The Third Village Man pulls himself away.

First Village Man I didn’t even see ’em! Not one of ’em! Just a great ball of fire, rolling over the crops toward me. Then in me.

Fourth Village Man (to the First Village Woman, shaking his head). Bad.

Third Village Man We must get a Roman’s head. Carry it alive. In a little bag. On the end of a stick. So it can cry out in terror to its countrymen. And its screams will be clean, clean, clean as a knife, to cut out our humiliation –

First Village Woman Be quiet!

A silence. They look around. The sound of their breathing.

Conlag Crawl away from this lot, girl. They’ll be cutting themselves and everything that moves to bits.

The Slave helps him up. They move a few steps. They freeze. The Villagers have heard them.

First Village Man Tracking us. Circle ’em. Stick the pigs.

First Village Woman Shut up.

A silence.

Fourth Village Man Only our kind can move as quiet as that.

A silence.

Let them go. Who knows whom we can trust now?

The two groups steal away from each other.

Scene Five

River bank and woods. The bodies of Brac and Viridio on the ground.

Upstage a group of Roman Soldiers stand very still – a Standard Bearer, holding a legion standard, two fully armed Soldiers and a Bugler.

A silence.

Two Soldiers, in tunics, run on with a stretcher, on it the bodies of the Mother and the Second Village Man, her husband. The Soldiers tip the bodies onto the ground and run off with the stretcher.