+over the years the heroic role of agricola at watling street came to the notice of rome and two
+decades later he was appointed proconsul and governor of britannia by emperor vespasian a few years
+after his appointment vespasian ss on domitian became emperor and one of his first acts was to issue
+the order to implement the new imperial ciphers invented by the cipher school in the intervening
+years the ninth had been left to fight lonely skirmishes and battles from their base ate bora cum
+with fortitude and resolve they repeatedly drove the barbarians back into the cold heartlands of
+caledonia during one such skirmish varus was mortally wounded and agricola promoted the tribune
+marcus fidel i usca to to the legatus of the ninth one day the luck of the ninth seemed to change a
+reconnaissance squad reported that they had seen the aquila flying from a tree at mons grau pius in
+a camp ruled by a tribesman called cal gac us the new legatus recognised that the privations of
+along march had exhausted his men they were not ready for battle and ca to should have sent for
+reinforcements but the joy of seeing the lost aquila so close at hand clouded his judgement and he
+launched an attack under the cover of darkness fighting uphill against wave upon wave of barbarians
+the legions heroic efforts were frustrated by the sun rising to blind them as dawn broke the troops
+in the frontline gave way with exhaustion and the wild cal gac us dashed out of the sundown the
+blood soaked slope with his cavalry into the heart of the legion the legion rained flaming arrows
+upon the enemy and managed to un horse cal gac us taking him prisoner but could make no headway
+against the savage hordes and were unable to reach the stolen aquila worse was to come while ca to
+organised a retreat with the prisoner cal gac us in chains the remaining soldiers held the line
+against repeated charges by caledonian and iceni an tribesmen when the line finally broke ca to and
+many of the ninth legion had reached safety and took stock the cavalry were safe as were many of the
+brave legionnaires but to his horror ca to realised that in the battle he had lost the second aquila
+and worse the legions copy of the codex had also gone the documents left to me by agricola are
+unclear on this point did he know that the codex might have fallen into enemy hands and that a
+second aquila had been lost or did ca to assure him that the codex had been destroyed as part of an
+orderly retreat perhaps ca to was yet to rejoin agricola at the fort and communications from the
+battle had yet to reach him in a letter to emperor domitian agricola wrote most excellent emperor as
+you have most graciously requested i have finished my affairs herein britannia in preparation for
+returning to your side in rome it please sme to report to you that by acts of diplomacy and strength
+i have persuaded the northern rebels to yield to our army and to turnover to us the rebel cal gac us
+who has remained free since the wars against boudicca and the iceni his letter appears to have been
+a reply to new orders from rome in which domitian wrote my esteemed gnaeus upon receipt of your most
+recent letter i have been most troubled it appears clear to me that the situation in britannia has
+worsened and so i must ask you to return to meat rome with the utmost speed conduct your remaining
+affairs in the province and do not undertake any action which mayen flame the current tensions
+between yourself and the caledon ii the final line of the emperors letter set a deadline for
+agricola s return i shall expect you to have crossed the rubicon by the end of the year and perhaps
+he felt that contrition was a safer refuge whatever agricola knew at that point within a month his
+world had been turned upsidedown as further reports from caledonia made clear that his hope of
+restoration in the eyes of the emperor were in real jeopardy he set out to recover the two aquilae
+and to determine what had happened to the codex before returning to rome those who read on must
+search for the truth in the spiritual home of the amazons
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