His brow furrowed, and I realized what theconfusion was, so in as few words as possible, I explained theRoman rank structure, yet even as I did so, in the back of my mind,I was wondering if I was doing the right thing. Not that itmattered, and once this was explained to Cogidubnus, he nodded inunderstanding.
“Now, you told me that you would likea place for your men to set up camp, yes?”
We had indeed discussed that very thing, andI confirmed to Ivomagus this was the case. My motives were mixed;certainly, I wanted to get the boys off the ship, but I also wantedto have them set up what we call a marching camp in the face of theenemy, which means ditches, turf walls, and rampart. The idea oftowers and a wooden gate I had already discarded, given what I hadseen from the countryside, and the fact that, if large pieces oflumber were going to be used, they needed to be used to build acrane and winch. Since Petuar was much larger than the village, ittook longer for us to walk down the main street, although it wasnothing more than churned up mud just like the first village. I wasjust thankful that we did not jump into the chariot, but it did nottake long to get beyond the last of the huts just outside the wallthat marked the outer limit of what I estimated was a town of aboutfour or five thousand inhabitants. With an unobstructed view, Isurveyed the area, seeing that my choice was essentially limited towhat appeared to be a pasture, where cattle were grazing since therest of the land surrounding Petuar were cultivated fields which,given that it was late summer, had what appeared to be some sort ofcrop that was close to ripening. This essentially made my choicefor me, and I pointed out to the pasture.
“This will be suitable. If,” Icongratulated myself for my diplomacy, “it’s acceptable to KingCogidubnus.”
Ivomagus translated this, andCogidubnus gave a nod and grunted something that I assumed waspermission; frankly, he did not seem all that interested, althoughthat would change. Returning back to the ship, I gave the orders tobegin the disembarkation process, which included the portion of thebaggage that we carried on our ship, which included the rankers’tents, but not the tent for myself, what had been Structus’ but wasnow Saloninus’ tent, along with the tents for the Optios,Signiferi, Tesseraurii, and Corniceni. Those were loaded on the ship thatcarried our Cohort mules, which had presumably made it safely toUbiorum. As Pilus Prior, my job was to stand on the deck, growlingand looking displeased as I tapped my vitus into my palm, while Saloninus and theOptios went down below to supervise. Without mules, it took tworankers per section to carry their tent, as their comrades carriedtheir own packs and the packs of the two men down the plank, whilethe Immune who was part ofthe Cohort surveying crew in the First Century fortunately hadthe groma with him. This isthe device that, frankly, I do not understand how it works, justthat it is with this instrument we can construct our camps withsuch precision. The townspeople had given up any pretense of doingtheir daily work, although it was now late enough in the day thatthey may have finished, but Cogidubnus’ bodyguards kept them out ofthe way as we marched down the main street, heading for thepasture, while I ordered a section from each Century keptaboard.
“I agreed to release half of theParisii once our camp is constructed,” I told Cador and Motius.“The rest stay aboard until we receive our supplies and the repairshave been made.”
“How did they take that?” Cador asked,and I understood why he was anxious about it.
“Not well,” I admitted. “But when Iasked them for another way we could be sure they would live up totheir end of the agreement, they couldn’t think ofanything.”
It was about then that I noticed that thecrowd of Parisii townspeople was noticeably thinned, and as Iwatched from the ship, I could see they were moving in the generaldirection of the main road through the town that my men had justused. I had appointed Mus as the commander of the guard on theship, which I could see he did not like, but I had dropped hintsthat I was trying him out as Optio with an eye to making hispromotion permanent. Now, this was true, and I was leaning heavilytowards doing that very thing, but I also suspected that, when wefinally made it back to Ubiorum and Sacrovir learned that I hadpromoted Saloninus, the Primus Pilus would insist on making thechoice for my Optio as a sort of revenge. First, however, we had toget there, and I hurried down the plank, heading for the camp.
My intention was to check on the progress ofthe men, but I was still two hundred paces away when I saw that Icould not see anything because, to my eye, it appeared as if atleast half the entire population of the town was standing there,gawking at the sight of these strange Romans constructing a camp.Cogidubnus was there, as was Ivomagus, and I made my way throughthe crowd, which was not difficult, given how people almost leaptout of my path as if I was some sort of burning object. I supposethat with my height and added to the crest of my helmet, I was easyto spot, because before I had reached the ragged innermost row ofcivilians, who were standing about fifty paces away from where mymen were digging, Ivomagus hurried up, a look of alarm on hisface.
“Centurion Pullus! Why are your mendigging?”
This caught me by surprise, and I answeredhonestly, “They’re making camp.”
“But why are they digging?” Ivomagusrepeated, and I realized the cause for the confusion.
“This is how we make our marchingcamp, Ivomagus,” I explained.
Then, before saying anything else, I walkedover to where Cogidubnus was standing, and for the first
