‘Thank you, sir!’ The optio bellowed the words, lowering his arm from the salute. He reached into a pouch at his belt and produced one of the thin wooden tablets used for routine documents. ‘Seventh day after the Ides of September. Report of the Ninth Cohort of Batavians. All who should be are at duty stations, as is the baggage. The optiones and curatores made the report. Arcuttius, optio of the century of Crescens, delivered it.’ The optio recited from memory – apart from the names and dates it was the same thing said every morning.

‘Thank you, Arcuttius.’ Cerialis stood. ‘The watchword for today is “Fortuna”. Pay parade at the second hour.’

‘Sir!’ The optio saluted again, turned about and marched noisily away. Ferox wondered whether the password was just coincidence, or a little joke of the prefect. Philo swore that the kitchen staff and other slaves in the praetorium had told him that their master and mistress had not shared the same bed since they arrived at Vindolanda six weeks ago, and rarely before that. It was not that the master lacked interest. He covered many of the slave girls at every opportunity and had visited Flora’s establishment. He just did not seem that interested in his wife, which the servants found odd for they liked her and anyone could see that she was beautiful, if a little old at twenty-seven.

‘They think he does not want the expense of more children,’ Philo said with great assurance. ‘He is a gifted man, and going places.’

The boy’s tone reflected the obvious pride shared by Cerialis’ household in their young master. Ferox certainly did not doubt the man’s ambition. Marriage into a senatorial family, let alone such a well-established one, was rare for any equestrian, and surely unprecedented for a Batavian aristocrat, son of the first in his family to become a Roman citizen. There was no sign now that it was so unlikely a thing as a love match, which meant that something had persuaded a former consul to give his daughter in marriage to an upstart from the Rhineland.

Cerialis obviously planned to ‘go places’ and was working hard to that end, cultivating the acquaintance of Crispinus, the other equestrians, and even the imperial freedman. Former slaves of the emperor sometimes climbed very high indeed, reaching the top of the imperial administration and having an influence behind the scenes greater than many a senator. The days of the Emperor Claudius were gone, and Domitian, of damned memory but prudent rule, had replaced some of the freedmen in his staff with equestrians. Even so, there was no knowing how important Vegetus might one day become, for all his humble start in life. Ferox had asked his boy about the freedman and his wife.