Roman Invasion by Jim Eldridge

Author:Jim Eldridge
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Scholastic UK
Published: 2016-01-10T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter XIII

Day after day we continued, heading ever eastwards, across the bleak mountains. Up there the winds were sharp and cold the whole year round, and blew the few trees that grew there so hard they looked strange and twisted and bent. Some said that this land was cursed by the Goddess and it was a land where only the dead walked, but that didn’t stop the Romans. Whatever obstacle we came upon, rock or river or valley, or cursed land, the road continued. I had seen so much road being made in the same way, day after day, that I was sure I could build a road like that in my sleep.

Always, the soldiers worked: those who had finished their section of road far behind us caught up and then began working on a new section. It was the same with those who had built the fort: a thousand men had been left to guard the fort, while the rest marched at speed along the new road, joined us, and set to work again. By the close of the twentieth day of our journey nearly twenty miles of road had been finished, with one fort built. The road was half completed. With a thousand men still working on the road and yet to catch us up, and another thousand guarding the fort, it meant our travelling expedition was now down to three thousand soldiers.

In all that time there had only been one attack by British warriors. I wondered if this was because of my presence, because word had spread that a prince of the Carvetii was being held hostage and he would be killed if the Romans were attacked. The governor seemed certain that keeping me hostage would stop the Brigantes, but I wasn’t so sure. The truth was, although we Brigantes were all one people, there were many sub-divisions, and not all of the smaller tribes agreed with one another. Over the years I had heard of many battles taking place between different sections of the Brigante tribe. Sometimes, the battles were over who owned a particular section of land, sometimes they were feuds between different families. Not all tribes did as they were told by the king of the Brigantes. These squabbles often meant that one branch of the tribe could take it into their heads to ignore any orders sent out by the king of the Brigantes and do exactly what they wanted. And if a group of them felt like attacking the Romans, then they would. My own feeling was that the only thing that had prevented them launching a second attack so far was the size of the Roman force. But if they could find a way to get past the Roman defences, then they would.

I was soon to be proved right. As I was dropping off to sleep in Pentheus’s tent on the twentieth night of our journey, a sudden shouting and yelling from outside brought me wide awake. I recognized the sound: war cries from the Brigantes.

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