`` Hail , Cæsar ! We , about to die , salute you ! '' said Pertinax , laughing . `` If any enemy even leans against the Wall now , it will tumble . '' ' `` Give me the three years Allo spoke of , '' he answered , `` and you shall have twenty thousand men of your own choosing up here . But now it is a gamble -- a game played against the Gods , and the stakes are Britain , Gaul , and perhaps Rome . You play on my side ? '' ' `` We will play , Cæsar , '' I said , for I had never met a man like this man . ' `` Good . Tomorrow , '' said he , `` I proclaim you Captains of the Wall before the troops . '' ` So we went into the moonlight , where they were cleaning the ground after the Games . We saw great Roma Dea atop of the Wall , the frost on her helmet , and her spear pointed towards the North Star . We saw the twinkle of night-fires all along the guard towers , and the line of the black catapults growing smaller and smaller in the distance . All these things we knew till we were weary ; but that night they seemed very strange to us , because the next day we knew we were to be their masters . ` The men took the news well ; but when Maximus went away with half our strength , and we had to spread ourselves into the emptied towers , and the townspeople complained that trade would be ruined , and the autumn gales blew -- it was dark days for us two . Here Pertinax was more than my right hand . Being born and bred among the great country-houses in Gaul , he knew the proper words to address to all -- from Roman-born Centurions to those dogs of the Third -- the Libyans . And he spoke to each as though that man were as high-minded as himself . Now I saw so strongly what things were needed to be done , that I forgot things are only accomplished by means of men . That was a mistake . '
I feared nothing from the Picts , at least for that year , but XXXXX warned me that the Winged Hats would soon come in from the sea at each end of the Wall to prove to the Picts how weak we were .
Allo Centurions Games Gaul Libyans Maximus Rome days gales right