The first Flavius Drusus was still alive when Queen Bodicea revolted against Rome. Though the town of Corinium, where he had settled, was not touched by the revolt, he realized then that perhaps our family would be better served by making alliances with the local Celtic tribes rather than by sending for Roman wives. So his sons married into the Dobunni tribe, and the sons and daughters who came after that have intermarried with both Celts and Roman Britons until this day."

"And now Rome is leaving Britain," Titus's wife, Julia, said.

"Good riddance!" her husband answered. "Rome is finished. The Romans just don't have the good sense to realize it. Once Rome was a great and noble power that ruled the world. Today it is corrupt and venal. Even the Caesars are not what they once were. The Julians died out long ago, and in their place have come a succession of soldier-emperors, each backed by a different set of legions. You children know that in your own short lifetimes the empire has been split, with Britain and Gaul being broken away, and then patched back again. There is even an eastern empire now, in a place called Byzantium. Better we Britons be rid of Rome once and for all that we might chart our own destinies. If we do not, the Saxons immigrating from northern Gaul and the Rhineland onto our southeast coast will push inland, and overwhelm us altogether."

The young people grinned mischievously at each other. Their father was forever preaching gloom.

"Oh, Titus," his wife chided. "The Saxons are only peasant farmers. We are far too civilized to be overcome by them."

"Too civilized, aye," he agreed. "Perhaps that is why I am afraid for Britain." He picked up his younger son, Gaius, who had been playing quietly on the floor. "When a people becomes so civilized that it does not fear the barbarians at the gates, then the danger is the greatest. Little Gaius and his children will be the ones forced to live with our folly, I fear."