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+With resolve and trepidation my dear father in law obediently concluded his affairs in Britannia and
+returned to Rome by the end of the year, as ordered by the Emperor. He feared the same terrible end
+as meted out by Domitian to both Arulenus Rusitcus and Hernnius Senecio, but the Gods were generous
+and, remarkably the loss of the Codex remained a secret, known only to a few loyal comrades from the
+Ninth. Publicly choosing to regard his dogged pursuit of the Aquila as a mark of courage, the
+Emperor spared him the fate of other disgraced generals and, to the surprise of some, he was awarded
+triumphal decorations. A statue was erected by the Senate on the order of the Emperor, but, taken
+ill, Agricola was sent to live quietly on his family estate where he was tended by the Emperor’s own
+physicians. His death was a grievous shock to me, and a painful event to all his friends. It was
+felt as a real loss even by those to whom he was not personally known. Numbers, moreover, of the
+populace and the busy masses came to his house; and in public places, and wherever knots of talkers
+were assembled, his name was on all lips; nor did a single soul on hearing of his death rejoice at
+the news or forget it quickly. This sympathy was increased by the wide-spread rumour that he had
+been removed by poison on the Emperor’s command. Domitian lost no time in appointing the ambitious
+Salustius Lucullus as the new governor of the province. He was charged with securing the fragile
+peace with Caledonia and headed there to confront Calgacus. It was only then that the loss of the
+Codex was revealed. Salustius wrote of his shock at the news in a letter to Cato dated the fifth day
+before the kalends of May in the year of the consulships of Marcus Arrecinus Clemens II and Lucius
+Baebius Honoratus. “We are expressly charged by our most munificent and great Emperor Domitian to
+secure Pax Romana in the Northern Kingdoms and yet you write to me of the loss of the Codex
+Occultorum. Your leader Agricola has already paid the price of such a loss, but if you do not
+recover the Codex before the passing of the year then you may be sure that you will join him. You
+tell me that intelligence from a captured spy suggests that the traitor Calgacus has the Codex and
+is massing his supporters in the North. While the Barbarians themselves are unlikely to make much of
+the Codex, Calgacus is an educated Roman and he must be stopped before he can destroy the security
+of the Imperial ciphers. The Codex will be recovered, or you, your family and everyone you know will
+pay the price. And so to the seventh part of the true story of Agricola in which the fate of the
+ninth legion and of the Codex itself will in time be revealed. Until then it will be guarded by the
+ancient Babylonian Goddess of War.
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projects / cipher-tools.git / blobdiff