As soon as she looked away, his expression slipped into a scowl as he thought, she’s going to make this difficult. He quickly restored the look of boyish enthusiasm as he sat. He caught sight of a pretty young lady looking at him curiously, certain she should know who he was, so he helped her out with the trademark gesture of pushing his long hair behind one ear while flashing the lopsided smile. He was pleased to see recognition dawn in her eyes as they shared a smile. Then Amanda returned bearing two large cups of cappuccino and a number.
“They’ll bring some food in a few minutes,” she said. “Now, Maxie, darling, you said you had something new for me?”
“Maxwell,” he corrected. “And, oh boy, do I have a proposition for you!”
She smiled sweetly, and said, “I think that’s exactly what you said when you sold me on your Colchester series.”
“Really? Well, you know what they say – you can’t keep a good cliché down.”
“I’m still annoyed by that Colchester thing, you know. We lost quite a lot of money on it.”
He faked a look of astonishment. “Surely not! I mean, the BBC did take it up, and PBS America.”
“We sold them an eight-part series, delivered them a four-parter, that was padded out with footage of 16 Air Assault Brigade and locals in fancy dress. They stuck it on after bloody midnight, Maxwell, and nobody watched past the first part. Six other networks pulled out of their deals. We had to give away rights to show some old ‘History Man’ episodes to repair the reputational damage. So yes, we lost on it. Hearing you have another proposition doesn’t fill me with joy.”
“Well, even so,” he said, looking like a puppy that had been kicked. “It was hardly my fault. It was an innovative piece of historical detective work. I couldn’t foresee that some leads wouldn’t pan out, or that we wouldn’t get permission for a fresh dig.”
“So at great expense, we posed a bunch of questions, couldn’t answer them, and padded it out by comparing a modern combined arms brigade with the Cohors Primae Vangionum.”
“Wow! I’m pleased you remembered the name.”
“I sat right behind you in lectures, remember? I let you copy my notes when you skipped tutorials. You have an annoying habit of forgetting that other people studied history too.”
A waitress delivered toasted cheese and ham sandwiches, and Amanda took a big bite. “So,” she started round a mouthful of food. “What’s the proposition this time?”
Maxwell looked at his toasted sandwich with an expression of distaste, and pushed it one side. “It’s a piece of historical detective work.”
Amanda almost choked. “Again?”
“Trust me, you’ll like this. We have a much firmer starting point than we had before. My team just excavated a new site in Bath—”
“Bath? There’s nothing new in Bath. It’s been done to death, Max.”
“Maxwell. And this is new. A sinkhole opened, and we managed to get in there before the yokels from the local University. We found some exciting stuff!”
“You’re a historian, so you think anything’s exciting provided it’s old enough. Define ‘exciting’ in a way that someone living in this century might recognise.”
“Okay, let’s get a bit of context first. You know how people like Julius Caesar made it fashionable to write stuff down about military campaigns?”
“Of course, the Gallic Wars. Same lectures, remember?”
“Of course. Well, the glory boys of the Roman Army of course were the Legions. Well off Romans would fall over each other to buy stuff about the Legions, because of course they were all Roman citizens. So we know a lot about the Legions. But of course the Roman Army wasn’t just the Legions.”
“I know. The Auxilia and Foederati outnumbered the Legions.”
“There wasn’t much of a market for memoires of the Auxiliaries, because of course they weren’t Roman citizens, they were strictly second-class. As a result, while modern historians know a lot about the Legions, they know very little about the Auxiliaries. Very few facts, just a lot of assumptions.”
“You found an Auxiliary’s memoires, didn’t you.”
Maxwell winced, and complained, “You’ve ruined my big reveal.” Then he shot her a smug smile. “But, while that’s exciting, that’s not all.”
Amanda rolled her eyes. “Get on with it, then”
He leaned forward and lowered his voice. “There are some tantalising hints at a mystery.
“Many years ago, and by that, I mean a few centuries ago, a manuscript escaped the dissolution of the monasteries and somehow didn’t get used as kindling. It was also dull enough not to be stolen. It was a copy of a list of Roman Army assets from the first century. In that list were all the Romans’ bases, including the big fort at Canovium, modern Caerhun, in North Wales. Alongside it there were four little satellite fortlets, used as patrol bases, a couple of days march away. Now the interesting thing is that the list uses the singular for three of these, but for the fourth it seems to use the plural. To date, everyone assumed that this was a copyist’s mistake.”
Amanda started to look genuinely interested. “Go on,” she said.
“The Bath documents mention the author being sent beyond Canovium to the forts – in the plural – by a river crossing. He helped dismantle the iron fort of Barba Magna, and move it to the west.” Maxwell sat back, and waited for Amanda’s reaction.
“Barba Magna? Big Beardy? Who’s he, and what’s an iron fort?” she asked.
“This is where it gets really interesting,” said Maxwell. “The only references I’ve come across to a Barba Magna in Roman Britain suggest he was the leader of a band of Gallic numeri exploratorum reporting directly to the provincial governor. The numeri were like the Roman equivalent of the SAS – they were ultra-tough, super-secret, used for special or highly sensitive operations, and the stuff of legend. We know next to nothing about them. As to what they meant by ‘iron fort’, I haven’t a clue. Nobody would really build a fort out of iron, so I’d guess it was just a nickname for a very strong patrol camp.”
“Actually, this might be interesting,” said Amanda, thoughtfully.
“Interesting? That’s quite an understatement! Think about it! At the very least, we have the makings of a ‘day in the life’ profile of the Auxiliaries. On top of that, we have a mystery to explore. Why would a crack SAS style unit be deployed in north Wales? It would have to be important, and probably highly sensitive. Why would they direct the building of a second forward operating base, where there was one already? Probably for a ramp-up in Roman forces for a campaign. A campaign that isn’t mentioned in known historical records! That suggests that whatever was going on, it was kept highly, highly secret! This ‘iron fort’ – what, exactly, was it? And why was it taken apart at Barba’s direction and moved to the west? That suggests a rolling campaign, moving from Canovium into a forward operating base that was rolled to the west, pushing some enemy or other ahead of it.”
Amanda opened her mouth to speak, but Maxwell held up a hand, and quickly added, “I know what you’re going to say, that I’ve just spouted some assumptions, and all I have are questions with no factual answers. All I want is the chance to get those answers. If I get enough, then I have a very strong multi-part series for you: new insight into the operations of the Auxilia and the Numeri, a sort of historical CSI police procedural thing as we ferret out clues and move towards the truth, and the solution to the mysterious secret Roman operation in Britain. Win, win and win again! What do you think?”