A sudden crash of timber from the far side of the tower made him glance round and he knew that there was no time left if he was to make sure the standard did not fall into enemy hands. Through the wavering curtain of the flames and smoke he could see the shimmering ranks of the Parthians and he knew that this was only the beginning. Soon a tide of fire and destruction would spill across the desert and threaten to engulf the eastern provinces of the Roman Empire. Castor grasped the shaft of the standard firmly in both hands and limped to the very edge of the platform. He took one last deep breath and gritted his teeth and then hurled himself into the void.

08 Centurion

'This is as good as life gets.' Macro smiled as he leaned back against the wall of the Bountiful Amphora, his usual drinking hole, and stretched his legs out in front of him. 'Finally, I got my posting to Syria. You know what, Cato?'

'What?' His companion stirred and blinked his eyes open.

'It's every bit as good as I hoped it would be.' Macro shut his eyes and relished the warmth of the sun on his weathered face. 'Good wines, fairly priced women who know a trick or two and fine dry weather. There's even a decent library.'

'I'd never have thought you'd take an interest in books,' said Cato. In recent months Macro had nearly sated his epicurean desires and had taken to reading. Admittedly his preference was for bawdy comedies and erotica, but, Cato reasoned, at least he was reading something and there was a chance that it might lead to more challenging material.

Macro smiled. 'This is a good enough spot for now. A warm climate and warm women. I tell you, after that campaign in Britain I never want to see another Celt as long as I live.'

'Too right,' Centurion Cato murmured with feeling as he recalled the cold, the damp and the mist-wreathed marshes through which he and Macro, and the men of the Second Legion, had fought their way across the Empire's most recent acquisition. 'Still, it wasn't so bad in the summer.'

'Summer?' Macro frowned. 'Ah, you must mean that handful of days we had between winter and autumn.'

'You wait. A few months on campaign in the desert and you'll look back on those times in Britain as if it was Elysium.'

'That may be,' Macro mused as he recalled their previous posting on the frontier of Judaea, in the middle of a wasteland. He shook off the memory. 'But for now, I have a cohort to command, a prefect's pay and the prospect of a decent rest before we have to risk life and limb for the Emperor, the Senate and People of Rome' – he intoned the official slogan wryly – 'by which I mean that sly, conniving bastard, Narcissus.'

'Narcissus…' Repeating the name of Emperor Claudius' private secretary, Cato sat up and turned to his friend. He lowered his voice. 'Still no reply from him. He must have read our report by now.'

'Yes.' Macro shrugged. 'So?'

'So, what do you think he will do about the governor?'

'Cassius Longinus? Oh, he'll be all right. Longinus has covered his tracks well enough. There's no firm evidence to link him to any treachery and you can be sure that he'll do his level best to be the Emperor's most loyal servant now that he knows he's being watched.'

Cato glanced round the customers sitting at the nearest table and leaned closer to Macro.'Given that we are the men Narcissus sent to watch Longinus, I doubt that the governor would shed any tears over our deaths.We have to be careful.'

'He can hardly have us killed.' Macro sniffed. 'That would look too suspicious. Relax, Cato, we're doing just fine.' He stretched out his arms, cracked his shoulder and then tucked his hands behind his head with a contented yawn.

Cato regarded him for a moment, wishing that Macro would not dismiss the danger posed by Cassius Longinus so easily. A few months earlier the governor of Syria had requested that another three legions be transferred to his command to counter the growing threat of a revolt in Judaea. With a force that size at his back Longinus would have posed a serious threat to the Emperor. It was Cato's conviction that Longinus had been preparing to make a play for the imperial throne. Thanks to Macro and Cato the revolt had been crushed before it could spread across the province, and Longinus had been deprived of the need for his extra legions. No man as powerful as Longinus would easily forgive those who had frustrated his ambitions and Cato had been living in wary anticipation of revenge for several months. But now the governor faced a real threat from the growing menace of Parthia, with only the Third, Sixth and Tenth Legions and their attached auxiliary cohorts to confront the enemy. If war came to the eastern provinces then every available man would be needed to face the Parthians. Cato sighed. It was ironic that the threat from Parthia was welcome. That should divert the governor's mind from thoughts of revenge for a while at least. Cato drained his cup and leaned back against the wall, staring out across the city.

The sun was close to the horizon and the roof tiles and domes of Antioch were gleaming in the brilliant hue of the fading light. The centre of the city, like most of those that had fallen under Roman control, and before that to the Greek heirs of Alexander the Great's conquests, was filled with the kind of public buildings that were to be found right across the Empire. Beyond the lofty columns of the temples and porticoes, the city gave way to a jumble of fine townhouses and sprawling slums of grimy flat-roofed buildings. In those streets the air was ripe with the smells of densely packed humanity. That was where most of the off-duty soldiers spent their time. But Cato and Macro preferred the relative comfort of the Bountiful Amphora where its slightly elevated position took advantage of any breeze that wafted over the city.

They had been drinking for most of the afternoon and Cato began to doze off into the warm embrace of weary contentment. For the last month they had been relentlessly drilling their auxiliary cohort, the Second Illyrian, in the huge army camp outside the walls of Antioch. The cohort was Macro's first command as prefect and he was determined that his men would turn out smartly and march faster and fight harder than any other cohort in the army of the eastern Empire. Macro's task had been made more difficult by the fact that nearly a third of the men were raw recruits – replacements for those lost in the fight at Fort Bushir. As the army had been placed on a war footing every cohort commander had been scouring the region for men to bring their units up to full strength.

While Cato had taken charge of the cohort's training and set about ordering the necessary equipment and supplies, Macro had tramped up and down the coast from Pieria to Caesarea in search of recruits. He took ten of the toughest soldiers with him, and the cohort's standard. In each town and port Macro had set up a stall in the forum and delivered his pitch to an audience of the idle and restless men who were to be found in every town square across the Empire. In a booming parade-ground voice he promised them an enlistment bounty, decent pay, regular meals, a life of adventure and, if they should live to see it, the award of Roman citizenship when they were demobbed after the small formality of twenty-five years' service. With a bit of training they would look every bit as impressive and manly as the soldiers standing behind Macro.When he had finished a motley crowd of hopefuls would approach the stall and Macro took the healthiest specimens and turned away all those who were unfit or witless or too old. In the first few towns he was able to pick and choose, but as the recruitment tour wore on he found that other officers had been before him and had already taken the best men. Even so, by the time he returned to the cohort, he had enough men to bring it up to full strength, and sufficient time to train them before any campaign could begin.