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.Barbarian or not, he had been the effective ruler of the west, under the ineffectual Emperor Honorius.But even the greatest generals grow feeble — and make lethal enemies at court.And in Britain, since Constantius’s adventure, the problems had been particularly acute.After Constantius’s subjects had thrown out his hierarchy of officials and tax collectors and inspectors, the cycle of taxation and state spending had broken down.Not only that, there was no mint in Britain,and after the expulsion of the moneymen there was no way to import coins from the rest of the Empire.Suddenly there weren’t even any coins to circulate.As everybody hoarded what they had left, people returned to barter.But with its lifeblood of coinage cut off, the economy was rapidly withering.“There’s just no money to pay the troops.You know, I heard that before I was posted here the soldiers even sent a deputation across the ocean to try to get the back pay they were owed.They never returned.”“They must have found some other place to live.”“Or had their throats slit by barbarians.We’ll never know, will we? The people in the towns actually wrote to the Emperor himself and asked for help.This was only a few years ago.But by then, so it is said, Rome itself had been sacked by the barbarians.Honorius wrote back saying that the British must defend themselves as best they could …”Aetius was worried about Regina’s future.That was why he lectured her about politics and history and wars.He thought it was important to equip her for the challenges of her life.And Aetius was obviously worried about his own future, too.If you completed twenty years’ military service you could become one of the honestiores — the top folk in society.A career as a soldier was a way for a common man to retire to a nice house in the town or even a villa.But there was no obvious successor to Aetius, here in his station on the Wall, and he had no contact with the diocese’s central command.If he stepped down, the troops would fall apart; he knew that.And besides there was nowhere for him to retire to.He had to hang on.“Look,” he would say, “this nonsense in Gaul has to stop.Rome is already back on its feet, and when he gets the chance the Emperor will reassert his authority here.”“And things will get back to normal.”“Britain has been lost to the Empire before — oh, yes, many times — and each time won back.So it will be this time, I’m sure.” And when that happened, at last, when the tax collectors returned and the coins started to circulate once more — when the soldiers were properly paid and equipped and there was a secure place for him to retire — Aetius could allow his own career to end.As it turned out, however, for Aetius it was all going to end much sooner than that.And far from everything returning to normal, Regina would have to suffer another great disruption.* * *After her humiliation before the soldiers, Regina fled to Cartumandua.Carta was cooking a haunch of pork wrapped in straw.She had hung a big iron cauldron from a tripod and was using tongs to load in fire-hot rocks from the hearth; they sizzled as they hit the water.Her house was a wooden shack, built in the rectangular Roman way.The “kitchen” was just a space around a hearth built in a stone-lined pit, around which you would squat on the ground.When Regina came bursting in, weeping, Carta dropped the tongs and ran to meet her.“Carta, oh Carta, it was awful!”Carta held Regina’s face to her none-too-clean woolen smock, and let her weep.“Hush, hush, child.” She stroked Regina’s hair as she had when Regina was a pampered child of the villa, and Cartumandua a young girl slave.Carta herself was still only twenty.Aetius had long made her a freedwoman, and allowed her to seek out her own destiny in this little below-the-Wall community, but she still had room in her life for Regina.When Regina had calmed down enough to show her the blood, Carta clucked disapprovingly.“And nobody told you about this? Certainly not that old fool Aetius, I’ll bet.”Regina gazed in renewed horror at the dried blood.“Carta — I’m afraid I’m dying.There must be something terribly wrong.”“No.There’s nothing wrong — nothing save that you’re twelve years old.” And Carta patiently explained to her what had happened to her body, and helped her clean herself, and showed her how to pad herself with a loincloth tied with cords.In the middle of this Severus came in, carrying a bundle of firewood.He was a soldier, a heavyset man, his stubble grimed with dirt.He glared at Regina.She had never seen him performing strictly military duties [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]