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spatha: another Latin term for sword, which it is now conventional to employ for the longer blades used mainly by horsemen in this period.

speculator: a soldier tasked with scouting.

tesserarius: the third in command of a century after the optio and signifer, the title originally came from their responsibility for overseeing sentries. The watchword for each night was written on a tessera or tablet.

thetatus: the Greek letter theta was used in some military documents to mark the name of a man who had died. This developed into army slang as thetatus meaning dead/killed.

tribune: each legion had six tribunes. The most senior was the broad-stripe tribune (tribunus laticlavius), who was a young aristocrat at an early stage of a senatorial career. Such men were in the late teens or early twenties. There were also five narrow-stripe tribunes (tribune angusticlavia), who were equestrians and had normally already commanded a cohort of auxiliary infantry.

triclinia: the three-sided couches employed at Roman meals.

Turma: a troop of Roman cavalry, usually with a theoretical strength of 30 or 32.

valetudinarium: A military hospital.

vicus: the civilian settlement outside a Roman army base.

vitis: the vine cane carried as a mark of rank by a centurion.

About the Author

ADRIAN GOLDSWORTHY studied at Oxford, where his doctoral thesis examined the Roman army. He went on to become an acclaimed historian of Ancient Rome. He is the author of numerous works of non fiction, including Caesar, Pax Romana, Hadrian’s Wall and Philip and Alexander. He is also the author of the Vindolanda series, set in Roman Britain, which first introduced readers to centurion Flavius Ferox

BY ADRIAN GOLDSWORTHY

The Vindolanda Series

Vindolanda

The Encircling Sea

Brigantia

Non-Fiction

Hadrian’s Wall

Philip and Alexander

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Copyright

First published in the UK in 2021 by Head of Zeus Ltd

Copyright © Adrian Goldsworthy, 2021

The moral right of Adrian Goldsworthy to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act of 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

This is a work of fiction. All characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN (HB) 9781789545746

ISBN (XTPB) 9781789545753

ISBN (E) 9781789545739

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