The families did not cheer, watching in silence as the men filed past, looking straight to the front, and yet the scene moved Ferox as it did every time he saw an army marching off. Sulpicia Lepidina was next to him, wrapped up in a heavy deep blue cloak against the chilly morning air.

‘You must stay with me and explain what is happening,’ she had told him and he had obeyed, although there was little to explain and he had not said much. The lady was silent, watching her husband as he rode at the head of the column, dressed in martial finery. Her maid was with her, as were two male slaves and the two centurions left in command of the rest of the Batavians.

The Tungrians followed the Batavians, with two of their double-sized centuries mustering a total of one hundred and eighty men. Their helmets were bare bronze, polished to a dull sheen. Titus Annius rode at their head, his transverse crest a wide spray of tall white feathers tipped red. He nodded respectfully to Sulpicia Lepidina as he passed, for he was a commander and granted more licence than the parading soldiers. Ferox noticed that the second century was also led by an optio.

Aelius Brocchus came next, with seven turmae comprising some two hundred men, so that each was close to its full strength. The ala Gallorum Petriana – until a few years ago with the additional name Domitiana, now quietly forgotten – saw themselves as the best horsemen of the army in Britain and took every opportunity to show it. Another part of the ala was serving with the column marching up the Eastern Road from Coria, and Ferox wondered whether they were as splendidly equipped and mounted as these men. The horses were excellent, bigger than those provided for the Batavians, well groomed and grouped by colour, so that there were two turmae on greys, two more on chestnuts and the rest on bays. It was an affectation only possible when active campaigning was rare. Each man carried a strong-shafted spear upright and had three lighter javelins in a long quiver hanging from the right rear horn of his saddle. They wore their long spathae on their right hips in the Gallic fashion, the weapons hanging low so that it was easier to draw them while mounted. Their helmets were iron, with brass decoration, most of them shaped to look as if the bowls were covered with locks of thick hair. Each man had a shirt of mail, split at the sides on the hips for comfort. A third of each turma, the men who would form the front rank, also had laminated guards of iron sections on their right arms, protecting them from shoulder to wrist.