PART 1: STUCK ON HADRIAN'S WALL
I'm a beneficarius [military scribe], I can read and write, I keep accounts and act as secretary to centurions on construction duty, or to a tribune who might be commanding the logistics effort, and it is an effort, an effort to keep almost a thousand men clothed and fed and happy (that part is important) so far from the fortress at Eboracum. I might be sent anywhere in the province of Britannia, even to the imperial palace, close to the fortress where the emperor holds court as he plans next year's foray into the northern wilds. His wife and two sons, Caracalla and Geta, are with him. But I do not loiter around the richly-mosaic-floored corridors of the palace at Eboracum, drinking wine in the evening, making friends in high places and sleeping soundly.
I am here at Cilurnum, working out how much rope and timber will be needed for the next two months while my comrades struggle in the heat of late summer to repair the stone bridge which carries the Great Wall over a fast flowing river. The fort at Cilurnum is at full strength and so we sleep in the tents we have brought with us. The local soldiers at Cilurnum are cavalrymen, soft and full of their own importance. They wouldn't repair the bridge even if they knew how. Creating and maintaining the fabric of the empire, its roads, bridges and fortresses is our job. We are the legions of Rome.
But how did I end up here, on Hadrian's Great Wall?
I am here at Cilurnum, working out how much rope and timber will be needed for the next two months while my comrades struggle in the heat of late summer to repair the stone bridge which carries the Great Wall over a fast flowing river. The fort at Cilurnum is at full strength and so we sleep in the tents we have brought with us. The local soldiers at Cilurnum are cavalrymen, soft and full of their own importance. They wouldn't repair the bridge even if they knew how. Creating and maintaining the fabric of the empire, its roads, bridges and fortresses is our job. We are the legions of Rome.
But how did I end up here, on Hadrian's Great Wall?