BooksBarbecue
Back Vindolanda Save as PDF
Chapters (43)
  1. VINDOLANDA
  2. Adrian Goldsworthy
  3. About Vindolanda
  4. Contents
  5. Dedication
  6. Place Names
  7. PROLOGUE
  8. I
  9. II
  10. III
  11. IV
  12. V
  13. VI
  14. VII
  15. VIII
  16. IX
  17. X
  18. XI
  19. XII
  20. XIII
  21. XIV
  22. XV
  23. XVI
  24. XVII
  25. XVIII
  26. XIX
  27. XX
  28. XXI
  29. XXII
  30. XXIII
  31. XXIV
  32. XXV
  33. XXVI
  34. XXVII
  35. XXVIII
  36. XXIX
  37. XXX
  38. HISTORICAL NOTE
  39. ENDPAPERS
  40. GLOSSARY
  41. About Adrian Goldsworthy
  42. An Invitation from the Publisher
  43. Copyright

Ferox did not look back or slow, but drove himself to flee, wrapped head in one hand and knife in the other. Horsemen appeared ahead of him. ‘I’m Roman,’ he yelled in Latin. ‘I’m Roman!’ One of the riders came at him, raised his spear and threw. Ferox flung himself to the side, hitting the ground hard. ‘I’m a centurion, you stupid mongrel!’

The other rider held the man’s hand as he drew his sword. ‘I know him,’ he said. ‘He’s one of us.’ It was Crispinus, and his teeth looked white as he grinned. ‘Although the gods only know what he’s been up to! Deserting, eh?’

‘With all due respect, my lord,’ Ferox said, getting to his feet, ‘you should not be outside the ramparts during an attack. You are the commander of the whole column.’

‘Well, I am sure that is the voice of wisdom,’ he said. ‘The voice of something at any rate. Now would you care to tell the commander of the column just what in the name of all reason you have been doing?’

XI

‘I AM GUESSING that they want to fight this time,’ the tribune said, looking up at the masses of warriors on the spur above them, and the shields lining the rampart of an old fort. Hardly anyone lived up there these days, and the rampart was covered in grass and the ditch half filled with rubbish. Yet several hundred warriors had gathered there and it would not be easy to storm. Many more of the Selgovae formed a rough line across the saddle to the north of the fort, the warriors sitting or standing in loose masses. They had standards topped by bronze figures of gods or animals and men blasting out calls on their tall carnyxes, each trumpet’s mouth shaped like the head of a boar. The sound reminded Ferox of the ambush on the road. A picture of Sulpicia Lepidina came to mind and he shuddered at the thought of what they had planned to do to her.

The ground sloped up steeply to the saddle, which on the far side went down into a bigger, longer glen. If the campaign was going to plan, then the western column should be advancing up that valley towards them. Yet if they were to meet up, Crispinus’ men must force their way through this pass. The column was concentrated now, formed at the foot of the slope apart from half of the infantry of the Vardulli from Spain and all their cavalry who protected the baggage animals and watched the rear.