Aulus tries to win over the Brits by doing an early morning walkabout and arranging a banquet. Grasientus buys poison from Wolfbane with a view to killing Badvoc. Aulus is dismayed when Grasientus is exposed as a poisoner... but then Badvoc and Aulus are found to be up to the same tricks.
Chelmsford, Britain in the year AD 123; there is a power struggle between Roman governor Aulus Paulinus and the British chieftain, Badvoc. Britain is a miserable place, cold and wet – just the place to exile Aulus for accidentally insulting the Emperor's horse, but also give him something useful to do. Aulus, probably a play on Aulus Platorius Nepos, the governor of Roman Britain between 122 and 125, was a rather delicate Roman, who was usually outwitted by the scheming Badvoc, who hadn't had a haircut for twenty-five years.
