CHAPTER EIGHT
He stood in the middle of the apartment, hands locked behind his back, head down, a contrite look of unease on his handsome young face. One sandaled foot kept moving around in a small circle as he stared hard at the bare wooden floor and waited for the triad he knew was coming to commence.
The apartment was on the second floor of a large barracks in the middle of the castrum, the Roman fort, that occupied the eastern wall of the city. It was a spacious set of apartments, bright and breezy, which overlooked the parade grounds and practice yards in three directions. Outside underneath the hot Latin sun came the sounds of soldiers grunting and a harsh centurion voice barking as he pushed his troops through a series of exercises.
To Decimus Julius Virilis' ears the sounds were
