Rain dripping from a leaf is the history of the island.
A good place to pick a fight and win a useful war: so the Roman emperors calculate, delightedly sticking pins in maps and juggling the exotic names of tribes.
The eagle-bearer of the tenth legion takes shape under Caesar’s pen, a vivid cartoon; that boar-tusked name Casivellaunus- a handy chimera-struts onstage with barbarian flourish, stinking of uninhabitable forests and revolting customs.
Words-gold coins engraved with wild boars and horses-weapon the hand-to-mouth storytellers.
Facts: hillforts to be taken by storm, by the discipline of imagination.The victorious shall reside in fancy villas,painted with mythological frescoes, enjoying imported wines and costly delicacies.
Cunobelinus poses for his coins,in imitation of Augustus,clean-shaven and laurel-wreathed in Roman tunic,flattering his foreign patrons and absorbing their power, as his chariots race across country to force rival tribes to their knees.
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