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.