It seemed that the Gods were indeed on their side.
Since the Carpathian’s fall, skirmishes with the Dacians had ceased. Roman patrols had not been attacked in days, and the commander, a friend of Gaius’ old commander, Legate Maximus, decided to give Gaius and his group fresh supplies and horses, as well as a pass that would see them safely back to Rome.
With the frontier at their backs then, Gaius and the children, Antonius and Calgacus, set off through Thrace and Moesia Superior until they reached the Mare Adriaticus.
Several weeks later, they halted on the Via Appia, just outside of Rome.
The city walls loomed large before them, and the monuments to the dead that lined the road were quiet, their inscriptions telling of the lives of hundreds of men and women who had passed from the wo
