Free Roma Victrix by Russell Whitfield

structure and meaning. Your Mission was to bring Athene’s word to the people, your role in the arena was to honour her and your polis . You built a temple to all the gods on the back of your success.
    And then…’ he paused for dramatic effect, ‘and then what? All your aims achieved, all your labour done and you not even near thirty years old. Discipline fled… and what is left?’ He gestured to the krate r . ‘You are many things, Lysandra, but the administrator of a temple? I think not.’
    â€˜What must I do?’
    Telemachus chuckled. ‘Oh, Lysandra. Lysandra, beloved of Athene, I envy you. I am jealous because in all my years in her service, not once have I felt the touch of the goddess. Yet you…you she loves. What must you do? You ask this, yet on your desk in the Deiopolis is a letter from the Emperor of Rome requesting… requesting that you fight his champion in the Flavian Amphitheatre – the greatest arena on the face of the earth. Do you not think, Lysandra, that Athene has given you a purpose once again?’
    â€˜I cannot fight again,’ she argued. ‘I am too old, too long out of the arena. I would be easy prey for this Aesalon Nocturna of theirs.’
    â€˜Too old? Lysandra, you are twenty-six. You’re not too old – you are in your prime. At the moment, yes, you are not as… honed …as you once were. But that is easily rectified. Think, girl!’ He rose to his feet, knowing that his performance would impress her. ‘Your Mission is not yet complete. Here in the provinces you proved, beyond all doubt, that you were matchless on the sands of the arena.
    But in Rome? What a feat it would be to go the capital of the Empire and defeat a Roman champion in the Temple of Gladiators!
    Who then could argue against Spartan superiority? How better could you serve Athene? Your Mission was to teach others of her word.
    Where better to accomplish that than in the centre of the world.
    Rome! You will shout loud in their arena, and they will hear Athene’s name. That, Lysandra of Sparta, is your answer. You must go to Rome.’ He had, he realised, got a little bit carried away with the performance, but his audience was full of rapt attention. Awe, relief and hope were written all over her face, and Telemachus sat down, letting the branding of his words sizzle into her mind.
    â€˜And you say that the goddess does not speak to you?’ Lysandra whispered. ‘I think that perhaps she speaks through you, Telemachus.’
    â€˜Perhaps,’ he said modestly. ‘You will go then?’
    â€˜I will. I must get away from Asia Minor. The east has always drawn the Hellenic warrior, and the east has more often than not been our undoing. From Achilles to Alexander – we win here and then die here. I will not die here.’
    â€˜You will not die there either.’

VI
    They left the marching camp at dawn.
    The ever-cautious Fuscus had left a garrison to defend the position should it be attacked. It was standard procedure to do so in supposedly hostile territory, and Valerian privately commended the old general on his thoroughness. Despite the fact they had had no contact with enemy forces, the old boy was playing it safe. Indeed, Valerian reckoned that this push through the Dacian forests to trap Diurpaneus in his mountain stronghold was an overtly aggressive move for the general. Then again, Domitian was not an emperor renowned for his patience and the political reality for Fuscus was clear: deal with this Diurpaneus or be replaced.
    To be fair to Domitian, he had provided the general with the fighting machine to do the job: five legions was a massive show of force and a show of faith in his long-standing supporter Fuscus.
    Valerian suspected that the politicians in Rome probably expected the barbarians to just capitulate and beg forgiveness when they realised the severity of Rome’s intended chastisement.
    The