2017/4b.plaintext

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