‘Now they will litter our territory with their soldiers in the way that they already control your tribe’s land. We will live under their control, no longer trusted to run our own affairs but instead jealously watched, and herded like the cattle we will become.’

The old king was pushing harder than Calgus had expected, encouraged by the knowledge that he had more than enough supporters around the grove to give Calgus’s bodyguards a decent fight, and made bold by the combination of his anger and apparent security. Calgus took a deep breath and started again.

‘They used to control our land, but not any more, King Brennus. You may recall that we burned out every fort on Selgovae ground in the first two days of our war with these usurpers. The Selgovae are newly freed from their oppressive presence on our land, and we will not lightly fall back under their domination. The prizes that we took in battle with the Romans will draw the northern tribes back to us. They are the symbols of an empire grown newly vulnerable. They tell us that the legions can be defeated, that we can be free again, they tell us that…’

The Votadini king laughed at him in shockingly open defiance, stiffening Calgus’s posture with astonished anger.

‘They tell us that we got lucky, Calgus. They tell us that you turned a Roman against his own, to lead a legion on to ground that made them helpless against our attack. We cannot expect such fortune again, if indeed I should call it fortune. We may have defeated a legion, but before the end of that day we were running like frightened children with two more legions on our heels, and their bloody cavalry. I lost a son to their spears, a son I will never see again thanks to this adventure of yours. A son whose head will have been taken by their soldiers to decorate some barrack or other…’

His nephew Martos, a scar-faced warrior with a fearsome reputation in battle, stared at Calgus from behind his uncle’s chair with a look of thinly veiled anger, a half-dozen of his men at his back.