The wall of Camulodunum itself became visible, a dark line cutting across rising ground. For miles around the wall, however, Brigonius made out roundhouses, barns and earthworks, most of them abandoned. The Roman town seemed to have been planted on a low hill, overlooking what had once been a much more extensive settlement, now disappearing under the plough.
Outside the town they glimpsed a vast walled structure of bright new stone, too small to be a town, the wrong shape to be a fort. It turned out to be an arena where chariot races were run, under the auspices of priests from the town's temple. Brigonius was amazed at the extravagance. But the arena's upkeep was paid for by the betting on the races, and the eyes of Severa, an instinctive gambler, lit up at the thought.
Severa sent a slave running ahead to prepare for their arrival. As a result they were met on the road by one Flavius Karus, whom Severa introduced as a lawyer with whom she had corresponded over the business of Hadrian's frontier works.
Brigonius and Karus eyed each other suspiciously. Karus was a tall man, as tall as Brigonius, but his belly was heavy and rippled like a sack of water when he walked. His hair was as dark as Brigonius's, though peppered with grey, and he was clean-shaven where Brigonius was bearded. He had donned a toga for the occasion, albeit a bit grubby and splashed with mud at its hem, but he was clearly every bit as British as Brigonius.
Not only that, Brigonius thought, Karus paid rather too much attention to Lepidina. 'So this is the delightful daughter whose company you promised in your letters!'
Lepidina was used to male attention, welcome and unwelcome. But Brigonius thought he saw a gleam of calculation in Severa's eye. He wondered if she used her daughter's charms as a lure to snare fat old fools like Karus as well as youngsters like himself.
The four of them were to walk to Karus's home, inside the walled town; the slaves would follow with the luggage. Karus led the way along the crowded road. The town wall loomed over them: twelve feet high, Karus said with mock pride, not counting the parapets, and eight feet thick. The road passed through an immense double gate. Karus said this had once been a triumphal arch, built to celebrate Claudius's visit here. After Boudicca's disastrous uprising it had been built into the town's stout new walls.
Under the gate Brigonius was stopped by a patrol of soldiers who roughly searched his clothing. The Romans had a law that you couldn't carry a weapon inside any town, and they enforced it, especially where Brittani were concerned. Brigonius submitted; he was used to it. The women watched this little exchange, Severa with a jackdaw's fascinated stare, Lepidina rather bewildered. Brigonius imagined they had never seen people of their acquaintance treated this way.
Inside the town narrow streets divided the city into blocks of housing Karus called insulae, islands. Every surface was covered with slogans and sketches. To Brigonius the town was cramped and crowded, all straight lines and square angles and a jumble of distracting imagery. It was strange to think that somewhere under all this painted stone and plaster Cunobelin had once held court at the heart of his own empire, a capital now erased from the earth.
Karus's home was in a side-street. It was a tall, skinny sort of building on a square base, its plastered walls gleaming white, roofed by red tiles. At street level the doors were flung wide to reveal a shop, with a broad counter set out with food: meat, pastries, bits of fruit. Still early in the morning, customers crowded the counter, buying their breakfast. The smell of cooked meat made Brigonius's mouth water, but he wondered why all these folk had not simply eaten at home.
Karus led his guests through the shop and to a staircase at the back. It turned out that Karus owned the space on top of the shop, which was, to Brigonius's surprise, like a second house piled up on top of the first. The space up here, small to begin with, was sliced up into smaller rooms by inner partitions. Karus went around lighting wall-mounted oil lamps and candles. The rooms had tiny windows with panes of bluish glass, but it was dark inside the apartment, even on so bright a morning, for the building was in the shadow of others.
Severa and Lepidina made slight noises of appreciation as Karus showed them around. 'It isn't terribly large,' Karus said apologetically. 'But it's all a poor lawyer can afford. You wouldn't believe how expensive land has become close to the town centre.'
Severa said, 'Oh, it's the same everywhere. You should see the apartment blocks in Rome. Some of them are piled so high I swear they would fall over if they didn't lean against each other. But you've made good use of the space, Karus.'
One small corner room was a shrine. The guests inspected Karus's idols and tokens, most of them dedicated to his own household gods. But Brigonius recognised a statue of Fors Fortuna.
Severa said, 'A soldier's god.'
'I'm no soldier,' Karus said, patting his broad belly. 'But most of my clients are. This is still a soldiers' town, Severa. It does no harm to seek the blessing of their goddess.' He led his guests onward.
Brigonius touched the wall. The surface was plastered and painted white, but in places the plaster had chipped away to reveal plaited wood stuffed with mud and straw. He felt increasingly cramped in this small, dark space. It was even worse than the stone-walled forts he had to visit when dealing with the army in the north. Here the thin walls didn't block out the noise from the busy alley outside, or the food smells from the restaurant down below. Not only that, this was Karus's territory, and the fat lawyer seemed to fill the narrow rooms with his talk.
Lepidina took his arm. 'Are you all right? You're like a bear in a cage.'
'I'm fine,' he said stiffly.
'No, you're not.'
'It's just-look, it's so different for me.' He waved a hand, trying to find words. 'It's the way all the walls are flat, the edges straight, the corners square. And the space is sliced up for different purposes. You sleep over there, you work over here.'
Severa was interested. 'And is that different from how you live?'
He tried to describe the house he had grown up in and where he still lived, its open round space a map of the cycles of time.
Karus was dismissive. 'Well, polite people don't need to live like animals any more.'
Brigonius bunched his fists, but Severa touched his arm. 'Your grandfather no doubt lived in such a house, lawyer,' she admonished Karus.
Brigonius deliberately relaxed. Karus nodded, which would pass for an apology, and the moment was over.
Lepidina watched this with wide-eyed glee. Brigonius was sure she knew that on a deep level, if the men had come to blows, it would have been over her.
'And another thing,' Brigonius said, determined to keep the initiative. 'Where do you cook your food?'
Now Lepidina laughed. 'Nobody cooks for themselves, silly!'
'They don't?'
'You have a lot to learn.' She grabbed his hand and began to pull him to the door. 'Come on. I'm hungry. Let's go see the town.'
'Not me,' Severa said. 'I'm weary, and could do with a nap. You two go and explore.'
Karus said quickly, 'Oh, let's make it three!'
He and Brigonius glared at each other. The women watched them, Lepidina with unconcealed delight, and Severa with calculation.
VI
Lepidina led the two men down the stairs to the counter of the restaurant beneath Karus's home. After being so subdued on the road, she seemed in her element now they were in a town.
'Let's leave my mother plenty of time for her 'nap',' she said heavily.
Karus frowned. 'What do you mean?'
'Oh, come on, Karus! You know what a gambler she is. Within the hour she'll be slipping out to find a bookmaker, and arguing about the odds on the next chariot race. She thinks I don't know about it. But I don't say anything, not as long as she keeps winning…Brigonius, you want to know how we eat? Oh, I have no money.
