Conor in Rome

So, where were we? To be quite plain about it, I don`t like life in this age of yours. Everything is so noisy and such a rush.

All right. Calm down. Deep breaths. I went on a slipshift to Rome. So much of what was important in Diarmid`s story happened there and we don`t know much about it these days. When I was stuck next to this bloke in a van on the M25 for about an hour, we got talking. I asked him what he knew about Rome.
"Madness!" he cried, and started talking about the traffic.
"Sorry," I said, "I mean the Romans. Ancient Rome."

All he knew seemed to be about Sophia Loren and Kirk Douglas. From the way he described it, I think they were in films. I must say, I like films. Sometimes. Not much of what the van-driver said was completely wrong, or quite right. I`d better just tell you what happened to me.

Like Diarmid and the traitor Hern, I had to spend time as a slave, but I was sold before I`d even stepped off the boat. Just until I`d learned the language. Also like Diarmid, I was lucky to be bought by a decent master. Not too many whippings, more than enough food.

Once I could speak Latin, it was arranged that I would seem to have died. I even went to my own funeral, which was horrible because even the Master was very upset. Still, there was no other way. I had to find the General who housed Diarmid and Strabo, the old Greek tutor who helped him escape. The General had retired to his country villa and I couldn`t find Strabo because it turned out he had been freed and had gone back to Greece.

For a month I wandered the streets, soaking up the atrmosphere but keeping out of sight. Rome was a very frightening place in those days. It was crowded and smelly and full of people who were ready to fight, sometimes for no reason at all. Theymight not have had guns, but when you`ve seen what swords and slavery can do, you won`t think guns are all that much to worry about. Even the buildings seemed to offer a challenge, or a threat.

In the Senate, I heard the Roman leaders talk about tribes like ours as though they were cattle to be bought and sold. They were complaing about the Picts and the Saxons. I also visited the stinking prison where Diarmid had been kept on arrival. I found a space near the back of the Circus Maximus and watched gladiators fighting to the death. I followed one of the winners back down below and nearly walked into a lion`s cage. The fighting and bloodshed were bad enough but the lion really finished me off. I ran out of the back door into an old gladiator, who tried to pick a fight with me. He was both drunk and angry and I had to slipshift to get away.

The Druids don`t mind sending me where it`s dangerous, but they do protect me when it gets too much. Now it turned out I was in for a holiday. I arrived on a little island just off the coast of Greece. Strabo was waiting for me but he would not say how he knew. There could be nobody better to tell me everything there is to know about Diarmid and Derdru, the adventures they had and their shy love. Believe me, they know what is important in life, those Greeks.

But all good things come to an end. As autumn leaves began to fall, I came home, in the world I knew so well. Finding myself in the middle of the treachery of Coel and the Trinovans was most uncomfortable sort of homecoming. .