Emperor

XXVI

Though always favoured by his commander Vespasian, and despite his little bit of notoriety following his time in Britain, Marcus Allius had never risen higher than centurion-nor, if truth be told, had he ever wanted to. He retired from the army as early as he could on a fat veteran's pension, and bought himself a compact little vineyard a day's ride from his native Rome. Just as he had always been a competent but never great soldier, so he proved a prosperous but never rich vintner. He raised a strong son who followed his father into the army.

Aged fifty-five, over a quarter of a century after his British adventure and as healthy as he had ever been, Marcus looked forward to a long retirement.

Then, one day, a slave sought him out bearing a letter.

The note was from one Agrippina, British-born but resident in Rome. She had been present at the Roman landing at Rutupiae too, she wrote, and her letter concerned 'unfinished business'.

She had been able to consult Vespasian's official biographer to find out which legion had been the first to land in Britain, that dark night in Rutupiae thirty years before, and which century had landed first, and which man of that century had been the first to set foot on British soil, whose name she thought she had heard. Agrippina summarised the steps she had taken to ensure that she and she alone took full responsibility for the crime that was about to take place-but she would already be dead by the time Marcus Allius opened the letter.

Marcus looked up at the slave, to ask, 'What crime?'

The blade in the slave's hand was the last thing he saw.