In his Journal dated the Ides of October in the year of the consulships of Caecelius Tullius Capito
Pomponianus Plotius Firmus and Gaius Cornelius Gallicanus, Agricola wrote “The mystery of the battle
at Camulodonum is at last solved. Calgacus may be a Barbarian now, but he was a Roman citizen then,
who betrayed us all for love of a barbarian. It has taken all my skills as a leader of men to keep
him alive. The Legionnaires spend their evenings designing new and cruel ways to execute him in
revenge for the shame he brought upon us, but his life is precious. It is the only card left to play
in our search for salvation and the return of the stolen Aquilae. If we can also recover the Codex
then perhaps its loss can be concealed and our lives will be spared.” Releasing the Roman traitor
Calgacus must have stuck in the proud Agricola’s throat, but he made a pact with the remaining
Caledonii and travelled north to exchange the prisoner for the Aquilae and the Codex. But the
cunning Caledonian tribesman set another trap and presented Agricola with a forgery cunningly
assembled with pages from the books stolen when the tribe ransacked Mons Graupius. For too long the
sons of Rome had underestimated the people in Britannia and while the Aquila of the Legion had been
restored by the exchange, their honour was not. Agricola faced a return to Rome, humiliation and
almost certain death. The sixth chapter of my tale of woe is guarded by lightning, bull and oak.