For myself , I knew how weak we were . I knew that if even a false rumour of any defeat to Maximus broke loose among the Winged Hats , they might come down in earnest , and then -- the Wall must go ! For the Picts I never cared , but in those years I learned something of the strength of the Winged Hats . They increased their strength every day , but I could not increase my men . Maximus had emptied Britain behind us , and I felt myself to be a man with a rotten stick standing before a broken fence to turn bulls . ` Thus , my friends , we lived on the Wall , waiting -- waiting -- waiting for the men that Maximus never sent . ` Presently he wrote that he was preparing an army against Theodosius . He wrote -- and Pertinax read it over my shoulder in our quarters : '' Tell your Father that my destiny orders me to drive three mules or be torn in pieces by them . I hope within a year to finish with Theodosius , son of Theodosius , once and for all . Then you shall have Britain to rule , and Pertinax , if he chooses , Gaul . To-day I wish strongly you were with me to beat my Auxiliaries into shape . Do not , I pray you , believe any rumour of my sickness . I have a little evil in my old body which I shall cure by riding swiftly into Rome . '' ` Said Pertinax : `` It is finished with Maximus . He writes as a man without hope . I , a man without hope , can see this . What does he add at the bottom of the roll ? ' Tell Pertinax I have met his late Uncle , the Duumvir of Divio , and that he accounted to me quite truthfully for all his Mother 's monies . I have sent her with a fitting escort , for she is the mother of a hero , to Nicaea , where the climate is warm . ' ' `` That is proof , '' said Pertinax .
`` Nicaea is not far by sea from XXXXX .
Britain Divio Gaul Mother Nicaea Picts Rome Theodosius rumour years