The Hound of Belenus

SUSAN Foreman.

CARATACUS
Son of the rightful King of the Britons, Cunobelinus. Dryly sarcastic and fiercely anti-Roman, he has just been captured by the Roman army following a ten year guerrilla campaign resisting the Roman invasion of Britain long after that battle was lost. He has lost everything, but cannot stop. If he did, what would be left?

(TITLES)

(FX: A HEAVY DOOR OPENS AND CARATACUS IS THROWN BODILY INTO A DARK ROOM. SOMEONE ELSE IS THERE WITH HIM. THE SOUND DESIGN IS MUTED: THE TWO CHARACTERS ARE ONLY IN THEIR CELL, AND THE OTHER FX ARE ONLY IN CARATACUS’ HEAD. HIS GUILT IS BURIED, BUT TRIES TO REMIND HIM OF EVERYTHING HE HAS DONE.)

CARATACUS:
(COMPOSED, CALCULATED) Don’t think this is going to work. I’m not some idiot foreigner. My father grew up in the court of Augustus. If things had been different, you’d be welcoming me to Rome as a friend, instead of … Well. I’m just saying I know what this is.

(SILENCE)

CARATACUS:
You won’t frighten me. Come on. Let me see your face.

(FX: SUSAN STEPS FORWARD.)

SUSAN:
What’s wrong, Caratacus? Weren’t you expecting me?

CARATACUS:
You? You’re going to tell Claudius whether he should kill me?

SUSAN:
I …

CARATACUS:
No. I won’t allow this.

SUSAN:
No. You will. I’m going to decide. I will.

CARATACUS:
They wouldn’t let you do this. You aren’t Roman.

SUSAN:
Not like your father, Caratacus?

(SILENCE)

SUSAN:
(SOFTER, APOLOGETIC: SHE THINKS SHE MAY HAVE GONE TOO FAR) Grandfather … do you remember my grandfather? Grandfather has several friends in the Senate. This was his idea. After everything that happened, he wanted me to have -

CARATACUS:
Revenge?

SUSAN:
There are just some things I wanted you to know.

CARATACUS:
Oh yes, I can see it now. Ten years you had to wait, but now you’ll get it. Revenge. If I’d have known then …

SUSAN:
But you didn’t know, did you? You had no idea who we were. I bet you tried to find out, didn’t you?

CARATACUS:
Nobody had ever seen you before.

(FX: Sounds of a Roman port: sea, wind, gulls. Quietly, as if a distant memory.)

SUSAN:
We only arrived that morning. Drusus … You remember Drusus, don’t you?

CARATACUS:
(BRISTLING) Is that supposed to be funny?

SUSAN:
Drusus insisted Grandfather and I stay with him, but he wouldn’t let Mr Chesterton and Miss Wright leave the galley. I don’t suppose I can blame him: what else was he supposed to think except that we were stowaways?

CARATACUS:
Please don’t tell me you called it a galley in front of him.

SUSAN:
Why not?

CARATACUS:
(PATRONISING) Drusus was a merchant, not a soldier. The galley is a warship. Didn’t he tell you how many years he had to trade before he could afford that ship? It seemed to be the only thing he ever wanted to talk about to me.

SUSAN:
Oh. (BEAT) But I suppose he was more friendly with you.

(SILENCE)

SUSAN:
He docked at Bacon Town. He said he’d done it a hundred times before. Leave the –

CARATACUS:
Muriophorio.

SUSAN:
– ship in the estuary and move the cargo into smaller boats that could travel up the Colne to Colchester. Camulodunum. Sorry. But this time … (REMEMBERING AN ORDEAL) there were no threats, but under the surface … the anger. The captain could see what was going to happen. He wanted to turn back for Rome, but Drusus wouldn’t hear of it. I think it might have ruined him: sailing all that wine and honey across Europe just to have to take it back again … did you really dislike Roman wine that much?

CARATACUS:
Ordinary Britons closed down those docks. Don’t try to tell me they were wrong to fear a Roman invasion.

SUSAN:
You know Drusus wasn’t invading.

CARATACUS:
I won’t apologise for protecting my people.

SUSAN:
Oh. (SLY) So you did close the docks?

(SILENCE)

SUSAN:
I felt sorry for Drusus. I liked him. I don’t think he liked me. I think I upset him when I didn’t believe he was a Roman. It wasn’t my fault. I mean he was so clearly African. I think even Miss Wright was surprised … Grandfather found it all very amusing.

SUSAN:
(AS DOCTOR) “Septimius Severus was from Africa, and they made him emperor!”

CARATACUS:
Who?

SUSAN:
Oh! Forget I mentioned him. What I wanted to say was it was my idea to help Drusus, that’s all. I asked Grandfather if there wasn’t something we could do. That was why we left the -

CARATACUS:
(EXASPERATED) Muriophorio!

SUSAN:
– ship with him. Grandfather thought that if we could talk to the chieftain at Camulodunum, we could convince him to let Drusus trade again.


 

CARATACUS:
My father wouldn’t have let strangers anywhere near him.

SUSAN:
Is that true?

(BEAT)

CARATACUS:
(ADMITTING THE LIE) If he thought you had the slightest hint of gossip from Rome, he would have sent for you himself. (BITTER) Sentimental old goat.

SUSAN:
I liked him. He reminded me of Grandfather. But I don’t suppose it matters: we didn’t get there, did we?

CARATACUS:
Why would I know?

(FX: The mob grows rowdy at the docks.)

SUSAN:
We’d only just stepped off the ship. “Your people” knew better than me: they could see Drusus was Roman. He couldn’t even make himself heard over the shouting and jeering. Then all I could see was a blue cloak, blocking Drusus’ way, pushing us all back.

SUSAN:
[AS BLUE CLOAK] “What business have you got here?”

SUSAN:
I could tell he wasn’t talking to us. He was talking to the crowd. He pushed and he pushed, and with each step Drusus was forced back the crowd would cheer. Another step and he would’ve fallen into the water. The blue cloak brought his hand up. Grandfather tried to stop him, but he had had enough. Drusus pushed back. The blue cloak fell.

CARATACUS:
And so the cheering stopped.

(FX: In the heart of the riot.)

SUSAN:
Have you any idea what it was like? Those people … we were right there in the middle of them. Every bit of anger those people had was for us. Have you ever been alone in a crowd of people knowing there’s nothing you can do to stop them …

CARATACUS:
I’ve spent the last eight years killing every Roman invader I could see. Every one.

(FX: CARACATUS’ WIFE CALLS HIS NAME DESPERATELY IN THE DISTANCE.)

CARATACUS:
They captured my wife and daughter, and somehow I still escaped to the north. I sought sanctuary with the Brigantes. Their queen wrapped me in chains and handed me over to Rome.

(BEAT)

CARATACUS:
(BITTER SARCASM) I can probably imagine the feeling, yes.

SUSAN:
What would you have done, if you had been Roman?

CARATACUS:
(MATTER-OF-FACT) I would have killed me.

SUSAN:
But they didn’t.

CARATACUS:
Yet. Unless you’ve decided?

(BEAT)

SUSAN:
It was Adminius who saved us.

CARATACUS:
His father’s son. Anything for Rome.

SUSAN:
(BRISTLING) He saved our lives. Grandfather managed to pull us into the crowds, but there was no escaping them. Everywhere we ran there were more, and nowhere to hide. They were so angry. (TO CARATACUS; RHETORIC) How did they get that angry?

CARATACUS:
Not easily, I can tell you.

SUSAN:
We made it into the heart of the city, and then there was Adminius.

(FX: Horses charge down the rioters.)

SUSAN:
He only had six or seven men with him: they charged down the riot on horseback, and they scattered in all directions. I saw one of his men pull Drusus up onto his horse … and then I saw the blue cloak, there at the edge of the crowd. Except it wasn’t just the cloak any more: I saw underneath – he was dressed more like one of Adminius’ men than the other rioters, the cloth of his trousers and shirt less worn, more like a uniform. He wasn’t one of them. He was escaping. I shouted to Grandfather but I didn’t even wait for his reply.

CARATACUS:
You followed him?

(FX: THE BLUE CLOAK RUNNING, FEET CRUNCHING ON A PEBBLE BEACH, THE SEA HISSING.)

SUSAN:
I didn’t really think. I followed him. It wasn’t hard: he was more worried about getting away. So he led me almost directly –

CARATACUS:
To me.

SUSAN:
I didn’t know who you were, of course. I could tell that you were important: you were dressed better than anyone I’d seen since we’d arrived. And I could see you didn’t want to be seen: you hid yourself on the beach, never once looked inland. Gave the blue cloak his orders.

CARATACUS:
He was in my father’s household. I’d never said a word to him before that morning.

SUSAN:
He told you something – about Adminius?

(SILENCE)

SUSAN:
He told you about Adminius. And you drew your sword and you killed him.

(FX: SUSAN SCREAMS.)

CARATACUS:
I should’ve hunted you out.

SUSAN:
Grandfather found me. Adminius wasn’t that far behind.

CARATACUS:
Well. (BEAT) I was right to run, then.

SUSAN:
But why? Why did you do it? He’d done everything you’d told him to: how could he have hurt you?

CARATACUS:
(AS IF SHE IS BEING OBTUSE) Telling somebody that everything he’d done, I’d told him to.

SUSAN:
I told Grandfather. Adminius identified the body.

CARATACUS:
I thought he might. But he didn’t identify me.

SUSAN:
I told Adminius everything. He said he had no idea who it could have been. He was lying, wasn’t he? He suspected it might be you, even then.

CARATACUS:
It was always me, to him.

SUSAN:
He said we had to get off the streets. I really think he was worried about what would happen to us.

CARATACUS:
[AS ADMINIUS, MOCKING] “Oh, what sad times are these when our Roman brothers and sisters are no longer safe in Britannia’s towns! How can the people have turned so soon against their betters, with everything that the Romans have done for us?”

SUSAN:
(BRISTLING) He knew that somebody was stirring up anti-Roman feeling.

CARATACUS:
(SARCASTIC) What was his first clue?

SUSAN:
(GROWING EMOTIONAL: SHE GENUINELY FEELS FOR ADMINIUS) You have no idea what he did for you. For everything you said you care about. I don’t want to hear you talk about him like that again.

(SILENCE)

SUSAN:
(CALMING) He protected us. All those people, all that anger. And he was worried about us. He managed to get us back to the docks, even though people were still fighting on the streets. I wanted to help him. Even in the middle of all that, I wanted to help him. I wanted to find out who murdered the blue cloak and I wanted to know why. (BEAT) But Grandfather was worried about me. He wanted to get us back to the Ship and go off to somewhere else.

CARATACUS:
If only he had.

SUSAN:
Drusus wanted to see your father. He said he could still trade, that he wouldn’t return to Rome without trying everything. He and Grandfather argued, Adminius too. But it didn’t matter. When we got closer to the docks we could see it was too late. The captain had decided it was too dangerous to stay. We watched the galley sail away. Miss Wright, Mr Chesterton, the Ship: there was no way to reach them now. We were stranded.

(SILENCE)

CARATACUS:
If you’d been on that galley, would you be here now?

SUSAN:
Probably not.

CARATACUS:
I had my people attack the galley. They threw burning spears at the deck. Perhaps that was a mistake.

(FX: ANGRY MEN WITH BURNING SPEARS)

SUSAN:
Not just at the galley. Most of the men ran when they realised who Adminius was. But some of them stayed. They threw their spears at us: Grandfather only just managed to pull Drusus out of the way of one. Adminius’ men were spread across the countryside, chasing down the rioters. Adminius knew our only chance was to regroup.

CARATACUS:
He fled, you mean.

SUSAN:
One man against a dozen spears? There was no point in fighting a battle he couldn’t win, was there?

CARATACUS:
They said fighting the Romans was a battle we couldn’t win.

SUSAN:
Have you won?

CARATACUS:
(COLDLY) I’m not finished yet.

SUSAN:
Why do you hate them so much?

CARATACUS:
They invaded my country. (EXASPERATED) Do I really need to explain that?

SUSAN:
You hated them before that. Claudius only invaded Britannia because of the hatred you had towards Rome. You and Togodumnus.

CARATACUS:
You mean we wouldn’t lie quiet like good little lapdogs?

SUSAN:
You attacked the chieftains who paid allegiance to Rome. You knew what would happen. I think you wanted it to.

CARATACUS:
They would have done it any time they felt like it. It’s just what they do.

SUSAN:
No. Rome wasn’t just anything. It was warlike and expansive, but it was peaceful and cultured too. Your people traded tin with Rome for centuries. (ACCUSING) Until you pushed them into war.

CARATACUS:
Who told you that? My father?

SUSAN:
My Grandfather.

CARATACUS:
I can see why they got on.

SUSAN:
You hated Rome even when your father was alive.

CARATACUS:
(SNAPS) They were invading even when my father was alive! Can’t you see that? Not with soldiers, but they might as well have been. They lived here with us, hundreds of them, thousands. They took bread out of the mouths of my people and told us we were brothers. But they didn’t bow to my father. They bowed to the emperor. They took our lives and made them just that little bit more Roman, and they made us feel like relics if we said no and kept doing things the way we had for a thousand years before they ever arrived. (BEAT. CALMS.) They invaded. All I did was try to protect my way of life.

SUSAN:
(DISBELIEF) But that just isn’t true.

CARATACUS:
(BITTER) Don’t be so naïve.

SUSAN:
Adminius –

CARATACUS:
Adminius agreed with my father. Big surprise. If father had said how well Claudius coped with his stutter, Adminius would have been spluttering and stammering for the next fortnight. Do you know what his name means? Ad-mindios: “to be crowned”. That’s why he’d dragged himself up from Cantium: with father on his last legs, he wanted to be sure the succession was secure. He would’ve admired the snails if father had told him he should.

SUSAN:
No. I don’t believe that.

CARATACUS:
(SARCASTIC) I could be mistaken. He was only my brother.

SUSAN:
I spoke to him on the way to your father’s hillfort –

CARATACUS:
Oh, you spoke to him!

SUSAN:
He hated the riots, yes. He hated Romans being persecuted, injured. But he hated what it meant for his country. He hated it because it made life harder for the people who lived here. It made them afraid. He hated it because it made his country a cold and dangerous place. And he didn’t want it to be that way.

CARATACUS:
He didn’t love our country. Not like I do.

SUSAN:
No, not like you do.

CARATACUS:
Tell me he didn’t call himself a Roman.

SUSAN:
Didn’t he ever tell you about watching the foxes hunt the wildwood dawn? About the Autumn mist and –

CARATACUS:
(FIRMLY) Tell me he didn’t call himself Roman.

(SILENCE)

CARATACUS:
Do you think I don’t know my brother? He could tell you he loved Britannia. He could even convince himself, if he didn’t think too hard about it. But try and tell him he might be anything but a good Roman subject …

SUSAN:
Do you really think it matters what you call yourself?

CARATACUS:
(DISBELIEF) Do you think anything else does? We band together in tribes. It’s how we protect ourselves. And if you won’t join our tribe, you can’t be one of us.

SUSAN:
But you must see that people can be so much more than that? This blind tribalism: it’s prehistoric. Once humanity stands together as a single race … (REALISES. STOPS HERSELF) I mean you might be stronger, if you weren’t always fighting against each other. In theory.

CARATACUS:
The tribe would be stronger if we were all in it?

SUSAN:
Well, yes.

CARATACUS:
But whose tribe should we all join?

SUSAN:
That isn’t what I meant.

CARATACUS:
Yes, it was. You just won’t admit it.

(SILENCE)

SUSAN:
You must have ridden hard.

CARATACUS:
What?

SUSAN:
It took us an hour to reach your father’s fort. The sentries saw us coming after half an hour. I saw the view from the hilltop – you could see the land for miles around. It was one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen. And there was no way you could get anywhere near without being seen. We hadn’t even reached the foot of the hill when your father’s men arrived to escort us to his roundhouse.

CARATACUS:
I’m surprised he didn’t order a feast the moment he heard Adminius was approaching.

SUSAN:
I’d never been inside a hillfort before. It must have taken a long time to build: the ditches and the walls, all the way around the top of the hill.

CARATACUS:
It was built before I was born.

SUSAN:
And the roundhouses. I’d always assumed only the chieftain would live in one, but there seemed to be round thatched roofs everywhere I looked. Grandfather couldn’t help pointing out everything he thought was interesting. And then we were taken to meet Cunobelinus.

CARATACUS:
I remember your arrival.

SUSAN:
That was what I meant. You were there when we were taken in to your father. Nobody seemed to think you’d just arrived. You must have ridden hard.

CARATACUS:
My father took Adminius to Cantium when he became a man. On the rare occasion that he came home again, he only ever travelled that same road. I only knew Camulodunum. Father didn’t trust me with anything more. I know every track and highway.

SUSAN:
I recognised you. You hadn’t seen me, but I’d seen you. As soon as we entered the antechamber, I knew it was you. You’d killed the blue cloak.

CARATACUS:
Well, thank you for keeping it to yourself.

SUSAN:
I told Grandfather.

CARATACUS:
And that would explain why he sneered so much.

SUSAN:
Grandfather is a very good judge of character.

CARATACUS:
You should have said something. Strangers accusing the chieftain’s son of murder. The old fool might’ve made the effort to cut out your tongue himself. It would’ve been fun to watch, with the way his sword arm shook.

SUSAN:
He wasn’t well.

CARATACUS:
He was feeble. Too weak-minded to realise he’d already died.

SUSAN:
He’d had a stroke.

CARATACUS:
You should have seen him when he really was a king. Not that drooling, drawling child.

CARATACUS:
(AS CUNOBELINUS, EXAGGERATED SLUR) “Visitors. From Rome. We are honoured.”

CARATACUS:
(EXASPERATED) Our king.

SUSAN:
All he needed was medicine. Physiotherapy. Angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors would … oh, but you don’t have those yet.

CARATACUS:
(NOT LISTENING) He was pathetic.

SUSAN:
He was old, and sick. And you were still scared of him.

CARATACUS:
What? Don’t be –

SUSAN:
All your plans. You kept them out of sight. Because you were afraid of what he’d do if he found out.

CARATACUS:
I –

SUSAN:
No – you knew what he’d do. Even ill and in need of help, you knew he would stop you. Cunobelinus, King of the Britons: that was what Grandfather called him. And that was how you still saw him. How long did it take you to work up the courage even to plot in secret, Caratacus?

CARATACUS:
(ANGERED) He had no idea who the Britons were. He was chief of the Catuvellauni. A loyal subject of Rome. He wasn’t a king. He just wore slightly finer clothes than the servants he had bring you wine.

SUSAN:
I was going to tell him. It was only Grandfather who stopped me. And then he introduced you and Togodumnus. His sons. So Grandfather was right. Cunobelinus wouldn’t have believed me.

CARATACUS:
So that’s why you were so quiet. You know, I almost liked you? Young and fresh … and there’s a lot to be said for a woman who can hold her tongue. Which is more than can be said for your grandfather.

SUSAN:
Grandfather had to convince the King we weren’t a threat.

CARATACUS:
Travellers. (REALISES HE KNOWS NOTHING ABOUT HER) All that talk, and that’s all he said about you. Where did you travel from?

SUSAN:
(HESITANT) We were on Drusus’ galley.

CARATACUS:
(SARCASTIC) Oh yes. That explains it. And he trusted you. The feeble old fool trusted you, just like that. (THINKS: “WHY?”) It was Adminius. He just came right out and said it, with you still in the room. News like that, he would’ve only whispered into father’s ear. They wouldn’t have trusted us with it. And he just came out and said it.

SUSAN:
And Drusus. Drusus was there.

CARATACUS:
I remember each word. Blades of ice. Everything I had been afraid of for … how long? And Adminius said them, as if they were just words.

CARATACUS:
(AS ADMINIUS, LESS MOCKING THAN BEFORE) “Caligula intends to invade.”

CARATACUS:
You were there. How could you look down on me for anything I did after you heard those words?

SUSAN:
Your father wasn’t afraid.

CARATACUS:
That was when I knew he had died. “Caligula intends to invade”. And all he wanted to do was make it easy for him.

SUSAN:
You had your chance.

CARATACUS:
You think I had a chance?

SUSAN:
You told him how you felt. You said –

CARATACUS:
(SNAPS) I know what I said. (URGING) “We cannot surrender our ability to govern ourselves. That is what generations before us fought and died to defend. We must stand tall. We cannot stand aside and hand over everything we have built. Rome has no place here. It doesn’t know this land and it doesn’t know these people. You do. Cunobelinus, King of the Britons: stand. Fight.” (BITTER) Did you think I’d forget? I’ve said it a thousand times, these last ten years.

SUSAN:
Your father didn’t agree.

CARATACUS:
He did! My father, not that damned shadow: he would have. And if the Doctor –

SUSAN:
Grandfather didn’t say anything your father didn’t already know.

CARATACUS:
If he’d kept his mouth shut, none of it would have had to have happened. None of it.

SUSAN:
You were wrong. War with Rome only left people dead on both sides. Rome was always going to win. Your father knew it. Why can’t you see that too?

CARATACUS:
It isn’t over.

SUSAN:
(UPSET) Why must you say that?

CARATACUS:
If the Doctor hadn’t been there, my father would have listened to me.

SUSAN:
(FIRMLY) But he was. And you lost. (BEAT) You didn’t even wait to see what happened next. You dragged Togodumnus with you. You left Adminius to plan the shift from King to governor.

CARATACUS:
Words were never going to be enough. You showed me that.

SUSAN:
(UPSET) No. Don’t say that. You’d already made your plan.

CARATACUS:
You think that was my plan? No, that was what happened when my plan fell apart. You did that. You and the Doctor.

(SILENCE)

SUSAN:
We followed you. Me and Grandfather. We heard everything you said to Berikos.

CARATACUS:
Was that his name?

SUSAN:
You didn’t know?

CARATACUS:
Togodumnus found him. That day at the feasting hall was the first time I’d spoken to him.

SUSAN:
(SURPRISED) You never knew why he agreed to help you?

CARATACUS:
There wasn’t time for his life story. It had to be done. For the good of the country. He had said he would do it. And …

SUSAN:
What?

CARATACUS:
(SNAPPING) If we talked, I might have changed my mind. It wasn’t easy. Do you think I decided lightly?

SUSAN:
Is that true?

CARATACUS:
Forget it then.

SUSAN:
I want to believe you when you say something like that. But you did decide.

CARATACUS:
We decided. Togodumnus and me. For the good of the people.

SUSAN:
He loved Rome. Just as much as your father did.

CARATACUS:
(DISBELIEF) Togodumnus?

SUSAN:
Berikos. He was an Atrebas.

CARATACUS:
The turncoats?

SUSAN:
They were loyal to Rome, just like your father.

CARATACUS:
They were happy enough to be Britons when Caesar forced them out of Gaul. But whose side were they on when he tried to invade Britannia? We should’ve wiped them out when we could.

SUSAN:
You tried. If your uncle hadn’t captured Calleva, Berikos wouldn’t have been part of your father’s tribe. He was forced from his home and told he must bow to a new King.

CARATACUS:
He told you this?

SUSAN:
He would have told you, if you’d taken the time to ask. He didn’t make any secret of it: he hated the Catuvellauni. You took everything from him. And you still wanted more. He thought you wanted to build a kingdom to rival Rome. He did what he did because he thought he could weaken your tribe.

CARATACUS:
Then more fool him.

(FX: THREE VOICES, HUSHED AND URGENT IN A GREAT ROUNDHOUSE. ONE IS CARATACUS.)

SUSAN:
Grandfather knew you were planning something. He knew you wouldn’t give up so easily. So we followed you. But then you split up.

CARATACUS:
Togodumnus was only introducing us. He had his own business.

SUSAN:
We only had a moment or we would have lost you both. But Grandfather can’t ever stop worrying about me. He wanted me to go back to your father.

CARATACUS:
As if that wreck could protect you.

SUSAN:
He trusted your father. We both did. He was a good man.

CARATACUS:
If you’d have seen him when he was younger …

SUSAN:
But I knew Togodumnus was up to something. I wouldn’t let him go. Grandfather had no choice. He made me promise that if anything happened, I would go to Cunobelinus. I told him to be careful, and he smiled. And then he was gone.

CARATACUS:
And you followed my brother.

(FX: THE VOICES FADE. WE FOLLOW QUIET FOOTSTEPS AS THEY MOVE AWAY FROM THE GREAT HALL AND OUT INTO THE OPEN AIR.)

SUSAN:
Yes.

CARATACUS:
My father was such a clever man in his youth. Guess which of his sons didn’t take after him.

SUSAN:
(HORRIFIED) Togodumnus died in your war against Rome. Didn’t he mean anything to you?

CARATACUS:
(COLDLY) You might think you can judge me. Don’t even presume to try.

SUSAN:
Then tell me. Explain. I want to know why you did it. How anybody could … [… DO THAT TO THEIR OWN FATHER]

CARATACUS:
I did what Britannia needed me to. I did what my people needed. To save us all from foreign invasion.

SUSAN:
But you were invaders once too. The Catuvellauni came from Gaul, didn’t you?

CARATACUS:
We were children once too. Does that mean we can’t be men?

SUSAN:
And didn’t you wonder that everyone you were plotting with thought they were helping Rome?

CARATACUS:
Did I mind that fools couldn’t see the truth? No.

SUSAN:
Perhaps you were the fool.

CARATACUS:
(SARCASTIC) Of course. The Atrebas was no idiot. He manipulated us all and became the king of the world.

SUSAN:
(SNAPPING) I wasn’t talking about Berikos.

CARATACUS:
Ah. (IN A “SO YOU WEREN’T MAKING IT UP” WAY) You did follow Togodumnus.

SUSAN:
I saw who he was meeting, yes. I thought I’d made a mistake. That I should hurry back to Grandfather, because your brother clearly wasn’t up to anything suspicious. I nearly called out to them.

CARATACUS:
But you didn’t.

SUSAN:
He was frightened. (UNCERTAIN) Why would Togodumnus be frightened?

CARATACUS:
Togodumnus was always nervous of gold. He was happiest chopping heads from shoulders.

SUSAN:
And that’s what he was to you? Gold?

CARATACUS:
(PATRONISING) We needed to raise an army. The Romans were coming. We’d known about Caligula’s plans long before Adminius heard even a whisper. We intended to meet their legions at the cliffs of Dubris and defeat them. We could only do that with gold. Drusus was the gold.

SUSAN:
And we’d thought he was just a Roman trader.

CARATACUS:
Oh he was. But he was a Claudian, and there was no escaping family. Even then they knew that Caligula was too unstable to run the Empire. They had a thousand plots going on to unseat him. One of them was bound to succeed sooner or later: Hail Claudius.

SUSAN:
Was that the only reason he’d sailed to Britannia?

CARATACUS:
He sailed to Britannia to trade. And to confirm that the time was right.

SUSAN:
I’m surprised you would even speak to him.

CARATACUS:
I’ve no problem with trade. Trade is the proper business between states. It’s invasion I’m trying to prevent.

SUSAN:
And how long? How long had you been plotting with Drusus?

CARATACUS:
Three years. The first conversation was nothing. But then he made it clear he could get us gold. Gold from Romans who wanted to see Britannia remain free.

SUSAN:
Weren’t you worried you were making Rome stronger?

CARATACUS:
(SNAPS) I don’t care what happens in Rome. I was … I am keeping Britannia free: that’s all that matters. (DISTRUSTFUL) Is that what this is about? Have you got Drusus here somewhere? In some other cell? You want me to testify against him?

SUSAN:
No-one knows where Drusus is. Not even Grandfather.

CARATACUS:
Ha. Slippery as an eel. I could almost like him.

SUSAN:
I did like him. And then …

CARATACUS:
And then you overheard him conspiring with Togodumnus to murder Adminius.

SUSAN:
Are you saying it was his idea?

(CARATACUS HAS CONSIDERED THIS MANY TIMES. HE ACCEPTS WHAT HE DID WAS WRONG, AND WHAT IT SHOWS OF HIS CHARACTER THAT HE EVEN THOUGHT OF IT. BUT HE IS CONVINCED IT WAS FOR THE GREATER GOOD.)

CARATACUS:
No. It was mine. Togodumnus found me that idiot Atrebas to do it.Drusus gave us the gold to buy an army while the people were still angry enough to fight. And I had the idea. To kill my brother.

(BEAT.)

SUSAN:
He saw me.

CARATACUS:
Who?

SUSAN:
Drusus. He saw me. He knew I’d overheard them. I’ve seen some frightening things in my life. But nothing scared me as much as Drusus’ face just then. (REMEMBERS. REMEMBERS THE FEAR SHE FELT) He didn’t speak. He reached for me and I knew – knew – that if he touched me, he would kill me. It was in his eyes: he would do anything to keep your plan secret.

CARATACUS:
We were going to kill the heir to the throne. (DISMISSIVE) What were you compared to that?

(FX: SUSAN RUNNING, SCARED, OUT OF BREATH)

SUSAN:
I ran as fast as I could. As fast as I ever had. But I didn’t know where anything was, and the only thing I could think was that I had to get back to Grandfather.

(FX: SUSAN CALLS: “GRANDFATHER! GRANDFATHER!”)

SUSAN:
Grandfather would know what to do. He would stop this. You. So I ran. Asking everyone I passed if they had seen him.

CARATACUS:
But they hadn’t.

SUSAN:
You know they hadn’t. No-one knew where he was.

CARATACUS:
Because he wasn’t there any more.

SUSAN:
He wasn’t there. You’d seen him. But he was too old to run. If only Mr Chesterton had been there, or Barbara. (SHIVERS) I haven’t been alone for …

(BEAT)

CARATACUS:
And so you remembered what your Grandfather had told you.

SUSAN:
If anything happens, go to Cunobelinus. I could see his roundhouse, at the centre of the fort. I knew I could make him believe me. He was a good man. He would have believed me.

CARATACUS:
I didn’t see you. That moment you ran into the hall …

(BEAT)

CARATACUS:
(QUIETLY) When I was a little boy, I’d kiss him on the cheek before I went to sleep. His skin was always rough. It scratched my lips.

(BEAT)

CARATACUS:
I didn’t even see you. I hit him across that cheek with both fists together. I saw a tooth fall out of his mouth. And blood. Of course there was blood.

SUSAN:
He wasn’t strong enough to defend himself.

CARATACUS:
I pushed my sword through his heart. He didn’t even have time to speak. I whispered good night under my breath. And yes, I killed him.

SUSAN:
(DISGUST) Your own father.

CARATACUS:
And then I stood. And I saw you.

(END OF EPISODE ONE. TITLES.)

(TITLES)

(FX: CARATACUS SHOUTING “MURDER! MURDER! CUNOBELINUS IS MURDERED! WHERE ARE YOU ALL? MURDER!”. MUTED, THE PAST.)

SUSAN:
Caratacus. (MORE SHARPLY) Caratacus!

(SILENCE)

SUSAN:
Why did you do it?

CARATACUS:
I’ve told you. Just because you don’t like the answer …

SUSAN:
But that doesn’t justify –

CARATACUS:
(SLOWLY) Yes. It does. He was just one man. I was just one man. What did either of us matter? I’m trying to save my country.

SUSAN:
Do you really believe that?

CARATACUS:
What? You want me to have done it because I hated him? In a fit of madness? Would that really make you happier?

(FX: A METAL SWORD FALLS ON A STONE FLOOR)

SUSAN:
You dropped your sword.

CARATACUS:
He was dead. I didn’t need it.

SUSAN:
I wasn’t dead.

CARATACUS:
I don’t need a sword to kill you.

SUSAN:
You would, wouldn’t you?

CARATACUS:
I’d just killed my father.

SUSAN:
(CHILLED) Yes. I think you would kill me.

CARATACUS:
But Adminius got there first. Too late. Too slow.

SUSAN:
You were going to kill him too.

CARATACUS:
No. (BEAT) I was only ever going to hit him. (MUTTERED) He was someone I could feel happy about hitting. But I couldn’t kill him. My father’s men had to do that.

SUSAN:
They’d heard you shouting.

CARATACUS:
(EXAGGERATED) “Adminius. Why? Why would you murder our father?”

SUSAN:
They wouldn’t even let me tell them the truth.

CARATACUS:
Now you know some of what we spent Drusus’ gold on.

SUSAN:
So you wanted the soldiers to kill Adminius?

CARATACUS:
(ANNOYED) No. I wanted some useful nobody to kill Adminius, but you ruined that for me. I couldn’t kill him myself. People aren’t complete idiots. They’d want to know somebody else heard Adminius confess.

SUSAN:
Even though he didn’t?

CARATACUS:
He wouldn’t have run if you hadn’t been there. He had such faith in his people. Drusus had given us such a lot of gold: someone would have heard his confession eventually.

SUSAN:
But I was there. And we ran.

(FX: SUSAN AND ADMINIUS RUN FROM THE NOISE OF THE ASSASSINATION’S AFTERMATH.)

CARATACUS:
(WISTFUL) You know that was the last time I saw my brother? I never thought it would be. Every day, every time I stood at the head of an army and urged them to fight for freedom and Britannia … I kept expecting him to suddenly show up and tell them all how Cunobelinus died. Every day, waiting for everything I had fought for to fall apart. I never lost sleep over my father. But the thought of Adminius … Where did you go?

SUSAN:
I knew we had to get as far away from you as we could. I knew we had to find Grandfather. Grandfather would know what to do. He always did.

CARATACUS:
But your grandfather was gone. You’d already tried to find him.

SUSAN:
And no-one had seen him. I … (SUSAN THINKS HOW SHE FELT WHEN SHE LOST THE DOCTOR; RECALLS SOMETHING CARATACUS SAID EARLIER) Your wife and children were captured?

CARATACUS:
I haven’t had word from them since.

SUSAN:
(SYMPATHETIC) I can send someone. They’ll find them for you. Not knowing where your family is … being alone …

CARATACUS:
(COLDLY) I’d rather be finished here.

SUSAN:
But –

CARATACUS:
I wouldn’t expect you to understand. Whatever else he was, my father raised his sons to be men.

SUSAN:
(SURPRISED) You sound so much like Adminius sometimes. All he could talk about was going back to Cantium. Raising his army and fighting.

CARATACUS:
Oh yes. Adminius’ army. He should have been proud of them: they held out for more gold than we had to give anyone else.

SUSAN:
I said he was making a mistake. He wouldn’t listen. Then I realised. Nobody knew where Grandfather was. There was no point in asking; there wasn’t time anyway. But we didn’t have to find Grandfather. We could find Berikos.

CARATACUS:
You didn’t know who he was.

SUSAN:
I could describe him. Other people knew him. And they’d seen him. Berikos and another man – another Atrebas – had been seen loading a chest onto a cart and riding away. A chest large enough to hold a man.

CARATACUS:
(MILD DISBELIEF) Adminius wouldn’t have let himself be distracted by the likes of you. He would have to act.

SUSAN:
But the last person I’d seen Berikos talking to was you. As soon as you finished talking, he fled the fort. And the next thing you did was to kill your father. Berikos must have known what you were up to. Perhaps he was even putting the next stage of your plan into action.

CARATACUS:
(DISBELIEF) Adminius bought that?

SUSAN:
(SHRUG) What if it were true?

CARATACUS:
(UNDERSTANDING) No wonder you disappeared. I was sure he would take you with him to Cantium. Togodumnus was already halfway there, only you two never showed up. Because you were on your way to the Atrebates.

(BEAT)

SUSAN:
(CONCERNED) Are you sure you don’t want me to find out about your family?

CARATACUS:
(SUSPICIOUS) And what would Rome ask in return?

(SILENCE)

CARATACUS:
How did you get out of the fort? My men were looking for you everywhere.

SUSAN:
I know: we were only seconds ahead of them. They nearly caught us when Adminius stole a horse. I had to ride in front of him in the saddle. He pushed the horse so hard its mouth frothed. There was no sign of Berikos or his cart. But by then we were out in the open country. There was a shepherd watering his flock. He said he’d seen a cart go by.

CARATACUS:
Adminius would’ve known you were heading into Atrebates lands.

SUSAN:
I told him we had to find Grandfather, but he was certain there was no hope, not now. He could have been anywhere, and Adminius didn’t want to stray into Atrebates territory. But he didn’t want to leave me stranded either. I made him agree we’d wait until we’d reached the border before he pushed on towards Cantium. I think he half-hoped that the Romans had already landed and that they would help defeat you.

CARATACUS:
All hail Governor Adminius, the most loyal puppet the Empire never had.

SUSAN:
We’d ridden for most of the day, and we hadn’t found anybody else who would admit to seeing the cart. But we were getting closer to the walls of Calleva, and everyone could tell Adminius was Cantiaci, even if they didn’t know who he was. I think at least some of them were lying to us.

CARATACUS:
(SARCASTIC) Really?

SUSAN:
And then we came to a farm, outside the walls but close enough. I tried to convince Adminius that we should carry on into the city, but he didn’t think we’d survive very long if we did. Why was it that both your tribes could see yourselves as Roman, but each other as enemies?

CARATACUS:
They weren’t my tribe.

SUSAN:
We rode up to the farm buildings: there was some kind of barn there, for storing the barley –

CARATACUS:
(SURPRISED) A barley farm?

SUSAN:
I thought you didn’t know him?

CARATACUS:
(WISTFULLY: HE MISSES HIS OTHER BROTHER, ALTHOUGH THE EMOTION SURPRISES HIM.) It was something Togodumnus mentioned. They brewed their own beer. He was quite taken with it.

(FX: THE OLD MAN ATTACKS!)

SUSAN:
We’d barely entered the courtyard when an old man came charging at us with a pitchfork. No, not us: at the horse! He slashed at it, trying to panic it into unseating us. Adminius held the reins tight with one hand and me with the other, and somehow he managed to kick the weapon from his hand. Then he jumped down right on top of him: the two of them scrabbled over each other in the dirt for what seemed like hours.

CARATACUS:
Berikos?

SUSAN:
His father, I think.

CARATACUS:
Please don’t tell me he killed Adminius. All those sleepless nights worrying about his return.

SUSAN:
He might have. But Adminius might well have killed him, too. If we hadn’t heard …

CARATACUS:
What?

SUSAN:
(AS THE DOCTOR) “Young man. When you’ve quite finished with the theatrics, perhaps you’d be so good as to help my granddaughter dismount, hmm?”

CARATACUS:
So. Berikos kept him alive.

SUSAN:
Grandfather told me how he’d interrupted your plotting with Berikos –

CARATACUS:
(ANNOYED) Togodumnus spent months raising up that idiot. Convincing him that if Adminius was dead, life would be so much better. And then the Doctor stepped in at the last moment and dismantled it piece by piece.

SUSAN:
Berikos had been told that Rome was going to invade Britannia. The Catuvellauni’s reputation had already been damaged by the anti-Roman feeling you’d spread in your father’s name. If Adminius was killed by an Atrebas, Rome would see which of the tribes they could really trust. The Atrebates would berecognised as a client kingdom.

CARATACUS:
(DISMISSIVE) Togodumnus handled the details. It didn’t matter: your grandfather was such a pompous, arrogant (WORDS FAIL HIM) … and of course Berikos assumes he must be Roman. What other race could possibly be so superior? He came barging in, trying to carry on the conversation from my father’s hall. Arguing against the wisdom of resisting the Roman invasion … I could have killed him right there.

SUSAN:
Why didn’t you?

CARATACUS:
The Atrebas wouldn’t let me! All that time, and just as it was running out … It was all in pieces around me. Our only hope for uniting the people and pushing back the Romans. Gone.

SUSAN:
You could have killed Adminius yourself.

CARATACUS:
(PATRONISING) If a stranger – a nothing – killed Adminius, we could hope to convince our father that we were innocent. He’d have no choice but to pass the throne to one of us. (COLDER) But if there was even a hint that we were involved … And besides, I told you I could never kill Adminius. He never trusted me. He’d never let his guard down enough for me to do anything.

SUSAN:
So you killed Cunobelinus. Your father.

CARATACUS:
(SNAPPING, LOSING PATIENCE WITH A FOOL) I was desperate. We’d built something, you must have seen that? Something of our own, something we could be proud of. Caesar, Caligula, Claudius: if we let any of them take it, it would be crushed. We would never see anything like it again.

SUSAN:
(SOFTLY) Do you really think your country is so fragile?

CARATACUS:
(BITTER, HALF TO HIMSELF) There just wasn’t time. I had the thought. Disgusting as it was, there was no time. The Doctor made sure of that.

SUSAN:
(SHARPLY) You can’t blame Grandfather.

CARATACUS:
He just would not shut up. I took one look at the Atrebas and I knew that plan was gone. And the Doctor knew what he was doing: he had a look in his eye …It was pointless arguing. I left him to it. And in my desperation …

SUSAN:
(COLDLY) You killed your father.

(SILENCE)

CARATACUS:
If there had been another way … Is that what you want me to say? (SNAPS) Why don’t you go? Leave me to Claudius’ guards.

SUSAN:
No. Not yet. I want you to hear the rest of it.

CARATACUS:
Why?

(SILENCE)

SUSAN:
Berikos kidnapped him, you know? He wanted to know more about what Rome knew of his bargain with you. What could Grandfather tell him that would keep him happy? He forced Grandfather into that chest and his cousin loaded it onto the cart. When Berikos heard the panic, he thought it was because of him. Adminius was the first one to tell him that Cunobelinus had been murdered.

CARATACUS:
(SARCASTIC) I’m sure he was heartbroken.

(FX: BERIKOS LAUGHS, COLDLY.)

SUSAN:
He laughed. Adminius wouldn’t hear it. He drew his sword.

CARATACUS:
In an enemy stronghold? I wouldn’t have thought he had it in him.

SUSAN:
It wasn’t much of a stronghold. It was Berikos’ uncle’s farm: there were only the three of them. And Grandfather stopped Adminius from doing anything he would regret.

CARATACUS:
An old man stopped him killing three farmers and a servant? I take it back: that does sound like Adminius.

SUSAN:
(FIRMLY) Grandfather told your brother to stop being so foolish. That now was the time to think, not to fight blindly. He managed to make some kind of peace between the two of them, although I think by then Berikos was beginning to doubt that Grandfather really was a Roman. But he relented anyway. He gave Adminius a cup of the beer they brewed on the farm. Grandfather was really very taken by it.

CARATACUS:
The old drunkard.

SUSAN:
Oh no, it wasn’t that. The beer was an old recipe brought over from Belgium – I mean Gaul – when the Atrebates fled Caesar’s armies. When they settled in Britannia, they started brewing it again, using the ingredients they could grow in their new home. Grandfather said it tasted exactly like … (STOPS HERSELF) I mean, he said it was a recipe that might endure for another two thousand years. That in time, Britannia might become so famous for its beer that you couldn’t separate the two. And all from that one recipe, adopted into the country from Gaul.

CARATACUS:
(DISMISSIVE) If Britannia endures, its people will always drink mead.

SUSAN:
Well. Adminius liked it. It stopped him wanting to kill Berikos long enough for Grandfather to find out exactly what was going on.

CARATACUS:
And what did your grandfather say when he found out we were leading the Catuvellauni?

SUSAN:
He didn’t seem that worried.

CARATACUS:
(DISAPPOINTED) Oh.

SUSAN:
It was Adminius who was troubled. He thought you didn’t care for your father’s people.

CARATACUS:
He didn’t know me at all.

SUSAN:
He thought you were more interested in getting your own way. You wanted everyone to do what you thought was right, and didn’t care how many people were killed along the way. He saw you and your brother concentrating so hard on your army that you wouldn’t see the suffering they left behind them. That all that mattered was that you stood up to Rome, no matter who died.

(SILENCE)

SUSAN:
It was Grandfather who spoke up for you.

CARATACUS:
Really?

SUSAN:
He said you wouldn’t be any worse for the country than Caligula.

CARATACUS:
(SARDONIC) And that was him speaking up for me?

SUSAN:
Grandfather has met Caligula, you see. More than once. He doesn’t have a very high opinion of him either. History says he’s mad –

CARATACUS:
(SURPRISED) History?

SUSAN:
(PLOUGHING ON, REALISING HER MISTAKE) – but Grandfather isn’t convinced he isn’t just putting it on so he can get away with whatever he likes. But Grandfather told Adminius what Britannia would be like under Caligula: the taxes, the intrigues, the purges and the poverty.

CARATACUS:
Perhaps I misjudged your Grandfather.

SUSAN:
Oh he wasn’t on your side either. He would never side with murderers. He just thought Adminius needed to face up to the reality of the situation.

CARATACUS:
So what was his solution?

(BEAT)

SUSAN:
He thought we should leave.

CARATACUS:
(LAUGHS) Do you know how much I worried he was up to something?

SUSAN:
He said this wasn’t our fight, that we didn’t have the right to interfere. He wanted us to find Drusus and get a ship. Miss Wright and Mr Chesterton would be halfway to Rome by then: we could meet up with them again there.

CARATACUS:
(SARCASTIC) I’m sure Drusus would have let the Doctor loose in Rome, knowing what he knew.

SUSAN:
But he didn’t know, did he? Not until I told him what I’d seen – that Drusus was conspiring with Togodumnus. But I didn’t know why until you told me just now.

CARATACUS:
(DISTRUSTFUL) He must have had some idea.

SUSAN:
(SUSAN HAS HER OWN SUSPICIONS) I don’t know. All he would say was that it was interesting.

CARATACUS:
Interesting?

SUSAN:
And it didn’t change his mind. If it had been up to Grandfather, we would have made our way to Rome with or without Drusus and that would have been the end of it.

CARATACUS:
And it wasn’t up to him? Don’t tell me Adminius –

SUSAN:
I told Grandfather we couldn’t leave.

CARATACUS:
You?

SUSAN:
I wasn’t born in Britannia. But that doesn’t mean I can’t love it just as much as you say you do. Almost my entire life, we’d been running. At first it was just somewhere to stop, to get our breath. But I wanted a life. I wanted a home. I wanted to stop running and just be somewhere. And the more I was there, the more I grew to love it. The fog on a winter morning. The way the people seemed so cold, and then thawed when they saw you weren’t going to leave them. Grandfather was always just as nervous of them as they were of him, but I … I fell in love with it, I suppose. It was my home, and I was always happy there. I told Grandfather that if there was anything we could do to help, we must do it. I would stay, even if he decided to go.

CARATACUS:
(SURPRISED) So what happened next was his idea?

SUSAN:
(ADMITS) No. He said we would stay, but he didn’t make any suggestions, not then.

CARATACUS:
I thought he had more sense than that. Adminius?

SUSAN:
Adminius guessed that you would think he was heading to Cantium. He thought we might be able to intercept your forces if we left immediately.

CARATACUS:
(AMUSED) He was an idiot. How many of you? Against the Catuvellauni army?

SUSAN:
(ANNOYED) Four. Berikos agreed to come with us, but his family had to stay to keep the farm.

CARATACUS:
(SARCASTIC) Four! And I thought you were being foolish.

SUSAN:
We knew you had the army on your side. You wouldn’t have dared do it if you hadn’t. But Adminius didn’t believe they’d accept the murder of Cunobelinus. You didn’t tell them the truth, did you?

CARATACUS:
(BEAT) No. They only knew as much as I’d said when they found the body. It didn’t seem wise to elaborate.

SUSAN:
So it might have worked.

CARATACUS:
(DISMISSIVE) It wouldn’t have worked.

SUSAN:
We had Berikos. If he told your army about the plans you’d made with him, if they believed him …

CARATACUS:
If.

SUSAN:
It was the only plan we had. We had to do something.

CARATACUS:
Why? If you had told them the truth, if they had believed you … what then? Do you think they would’ve stood by and let you hand the country over to the Romans?

SUSAN:
Is that really what you think the choices were?

CARATACUS:
You know they are.

SUSAN:
Adminius had another idea.

CARATACUS:
Now I know you’re lying. Adminius would have stood aside like a good Roman citizen when his Emperor ordered him to.

SUSAN:
It wasn’t just Grandfather I argued with.

CARATACUS:
(ALMOST IMPRESSED) You convinced Adminius to turn against Rome?

SUSAN:
He didn’t see the country the way you did. But he did love it. The country he thought it was, and could be. Without you. I just made him admit it. He was ready to fight, if he had to. But he would talk first.

CARATACUS:
(SARCASTIC) Talk. If only I’d thought of that.

SUSAN:
Julius Caesar couldn’t invade Britannia. In the end he had to give up. How many people were there in Rome who thought Caligula was a better general than Caesar? (THE ANSWER IS “NONE”) If we could convince them that Britannia was still a friend to Rome –

CARATACUS:
That I wasn’t in charge. That I was dead.

SUSAN:
We didn’t talk about that.

CARATACUS:
Adminius would have thought it.

SUSAN:
No. When we found your scouts, I don’t think Adminius even believed we’d get close enough to your army to talk. Grandfather tried to tell him it was foolishness to even try.

CARATACUS:
(DISTRUSTFUL) My scouts didn’t find you.

SUSAN:
They didn’t even see us. We followed them all the way back to your camp. We made sure you were settled for the night, and then tried to decide what our best tactic was.

CARATACUS:
(SARCASTIC) Tell me you didn’t plan that!

SUSAN:
He crept away while we weren’t paying attention. We thought … I thought I’d convinced him to help. But he had his own ideas. He thought he knew best.

CARATACUS:
All we can do is what we think is right.

SUSAN:
I couldn’t [ever assume I knew best] … Don’t you ever worry that everybody else might know more than you?

CARATACUS:
(COLDLY) No.

SUSAN:
As soon as we realised Berikos had gone, we found that Adminius’ sword was too. It wasn’t hard to work out what he was planning.

CARATACUS:
He made it into the camp without any of my guards seeing him. My father always said the Atrebates made good beer and terrible soldiers. (BEGRUDGING) But he was wrong about that one.

SUSAN:
Grandfather followed him.

CARATACUS:
(SURPRISED) The Doctor?

SUSAN:
Berikos wasn’t going to listen to Adminius, and Grandfather wasn’t going to let me walk into a camp full of soldiers.

CARATACUS:
(IMPRESSED) My guards saw the Atrebas circling the fire, looking for me sleeping. No-one saw the Doctor.

SUSAN:
I thought I’d made Berikos see how much he had in common with Adminius. That whatever else had happened, they both wanted so many of the same things. If they could work together, they could be the example that brought the whole of Britannia together.

CARATACUS:
(HE DECIDES TO GRANT SUSAN A LITTLE CONCESSION) He told my guard that I’d murdered my father. He at least tried it your way.

SUSAN:
Grandfather said he was looking for his moment. He would have said anything if it would distract you. No. Grandfather was sure that Berikos had decided to do what he thought was best. For Rome and the Empire.

CARATACUS:
He was still dreaming of his client kingdom.

SUSAN:
No, I don’t think that was it. I think in the end he just saw himself as more Roman than Briton.

CARATACUS:
There were five soldiers within a step of him when he drew the sword.

SUSAN:
Grandfather said he didn’t have a chance.

CARATACUS:
He tried to kill the king. My men weren’t going to let that happen twice.

(FX: A SWORD SWINGS, AND A HEAD FALLS TO THE GROUND.)

CARATACUS:
I had the rest of them awake while he was still gasping his last breath. I knew Adminius must be nearby. (BEGRUDGINGLY) The Doctor did well to escape without being captured.

SUSAN:
He had to move slowly. It was nearly three hours after he left when he made it back. He told us what had happened. I couldn’t bear to look at Adminius’ face.

CARATACUS:
He admitted he was beaten?

SUSAN:
He didn’t say anything.

CARATACUS:
(SARDONIC) Ha.

SUSAN:
What?

CARATACUS:
That’s something, I suppose.

SUSAN:
I couldn’t think what to do next. I couldn’t think anything. But Grandfather was there. He knew what to do. He got us all moving, pushed us away from the main roads to avoid your men.

CARATACUS:
(ANNOYED AT HIMSELF) That was my mistake, wasn’t it? I kept my men searching there for you. I should have pushed them on to the ports.

SUSAN:
Grandfather didn’t let us stop for a moment. He found some old hidden track: he said he remembered it from the last time he was in the area. It looked like it hadn’t been used for a hundred years or more. He was quite certain that your men wouldn’t know to look for it. We didn’t speak as we followed it. Grandfather kept twitching his head this way and that, and shushing us whenever he thought he’d heard something. And I just watched Adminius. He looked so –

CARATACUS:
Defeated?

SUSAN:
(SNAPPING) Do you have to be so pleased about it?

CARATACUS:
(LAUGHS COLDLY) I never saw my brother again. At least give me something.

SUSAN:
He was thinking. Trying to think of a way to stop the war you were going to provoke.

CARATACUS:
(TAUNTING) And what did he come up with?

(SILENCE)

CARATACUS:
Well. That will have to do. Where did you go after you fled? You can’t have stayed: someone would have reported you to me eventually. Gaul? No: you said the Doctor has friends in Rome. Somehow you fled here, and waited. Hoped that one day I would be captured, and you could gloat. And here we are.

SUSAN:
(FIRMLY) That wasn’t what we did.

CARATACUS:
Well, whatever –

SUSAN:
He beat you.

CARATACUS:
I –

SUSAN:
Adminius beat you.

CARATACUS:
(SARCASTIC) He did? He kept it very quiet.

SUSAN:
He beat you and you never even noticed. You haven’t even realised now. But you will do. One day. One day soon. That’s why I wanted to talk with you, I suppose. So that when you realise what happened, you know that it was Adminius who defeated you.

CARATACUS:
Adminius fled. He never once challenged Togodumnus or me. Never once came back to claim his throne.

SUSAN:
He didn’t flee.

CARATACUS:
(SARCASTIC) What? He’s in Britannia now, is he?

SUSAN:
No. The last I heard, he was in Rome, but he may have been moved somewhere else, I suppose.

CARATACUS:
He fled.

SUSAN:
No. Grandfather led us down that ancient path, and we could hear your soldiers all around us. Berikos had been our last hope of defeating you and returning Adminius to the throne. I asked Grandfather what we could do, but he wouldn’t answer. Adminius didn’t once talk about giving up. As soon as we were clear of your men, he wanted to go straight to Cantium to ready his army.

CARATACUS:
They weren’t his army any more.

SUSAN:
Grandfather guessed you would have accounted for Adminius’ soldiers.

CARATACUS:
I didn’t expect him to appreciate the planning I put into it.

SUSAN:
He said you were a bigot, but you weren’t a complete imbecile.

CARATACUS:
(COLDLY) I see.

SUSAN:
He said we should keep down the path we were on. It would eventually get us to the coast, and if we made it that far without a plan then we could come up with one there. I’m fairly sure he knew what would happen, though.

CARATACUS:
(SARCASTIC) What? My defeat?

SUSAN:
We kept down the path for a few hours more. It was starting to get dark. That was when we saw someone else.

CARATACUS:
(SUSPICIOUS) Who?

SUSAN:
We couldn’t make them out at first, but they were moving much more cautiously than we were. They looked like they were expecting assassins around every corner. Adminius wanted to try a different route, but Grandfather told him not to worry. He knew that the path had been forgotten by most of your people. It was an ancient Roman trade road, only marked on the most dusty of maps. Grandfather had been expecting to catch them up eventually.

CARATACUS:
Drusus? He vanished after –

SUSAN:
(INTERRUPTING) – You’d done what he wanted of you. He wasn’t going to waste any more gold or time on you. But he was clever enough to know your feelings about Romans might resurface once the money dried up. And anyway, he had to report back to his co-conspirators.

CARATACUS:
If Adminius knew we’d been helped by Romans, why didn’t he tell anyone?

SUSAN:
He didn’t. We never found out what Drusus was up to.

CARATACUS:
(SURPRISED) Drusus must’ve been braver than I thought.

SUSAN:
We didn’t ask him.

CARATACUS:
(COMPLETE DISBELIEF) You didn’t ..?

SUSAN:
Oh, Adminius wanted to. He thought Grandfather’s plan was to capture Drusus, force him to tell us exactly what he had been planning with you. That’s what you would have done, isn’t it?

CARATACUS:
(SUSPICIOUS) What was the Doctor’s plan?

SUSAN:
Surrender.

CARATACUS:
Surrender? (LAUGHS) Obviously! Adminius defeated me by surrendering to Rome. I’m such a idiot!

SUSAN:
Yes.

CARATACUS:
Well he showed me! Defeated, with nothing but the entire kingdom of Britannia and my victories against the Romans to comfort me.

SUSAN:
Yes.

(SILENCE)

CARATACUS:
This is stupid.

(SILENCE)

CARATACUS:
(SNAPPING) Alright. Why?

SUSAN:
I really don’t know if you’re ready to understand.

CARATACUS:
And Adminius was?

SUSAN:
Yes. Oh he thought Grandfather was crazy at first. But once Grandfather explained, he was brave enough to see it. To do his duty, as the rightful King of the Britons.

CARATACUS:
(ANGRY) Then explain it.

(BEAT)

SUSAN:
(AS THE DOCTOR) “Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.”

SUSAN:
That was what Grandfather told him. That he had suffered, that you had made him suffer. But that he had to put that aside. Britannia was a nation of tribes, hardly any of them native. It still is. Romans, Gauls, Atrebates: if Adminius wanted to be King of the Britons, then he had a duty to all of them. He had to protect them.

CARATACUS:
A king has to protect his country.

SUSAN:
A country only is its people, don’t you see that yet?

(BEAT)

SUSAN:
If Adminius surrendered to Drusus on behalf of Britannia, the Claudians in Rome would gain status from having defeated the Britons. Caligula could claim it was his leadership that had succeeded where Caesar had failed. Adminius could convince Caligula’s generals that actual invasion was pointless, so they wouldn’t obey even if the Emperor was mad enough to insist. And the people of Britannia wouldn’t have to fight. They could live free, and see you for the man you were without the threat of Rome to hide yourself behind. You would be defeated, and never even realise.

CARATACUS:
(COLD ANGER) That wasn’t a victory.

SUSAN:
Are you saying that’s not what happened?

CARATACUS:
And what happened as soon as Claudius became Emperor? Adminius didn’t stop the invasion. He delayed it.

SUSAN:
That’s what Grandfather told him. If he surrendered, he wouldn’t ever see Britannia again. The invasion would still come. But where Caligula would destroy, Claudius would build. Adminius would set the country on a path to real greatness, real freedom. No-one would ever know, and it would make his life so much harder. But his people would be free. Adminius knew exactly what the choice was. And he still made it. For the good of the country. Would you do the same?

(SILENCE)

SUSAN:
(SHOUTING TO OUTSIDE) Grandfather? I’m ready to go now.

CARATACUS:
(SHELL-SHOCKED) Is that it?

SUSAN:
I wanted you to know what your brother did for you. That’s all.

CARATACUS:
And what about me?

(BEAT)

SUSAN:
I was always going to tell them to let you see the Emperor.

CARATACUS:
Thank you.

SUSAN:
If you’re right about Rome, Claudius will have you killed anyway.

CARATACUS:
But you know what happens, don’t you? To me?

SUSAN:
(FLUSTERED) I didn’t say that.

CARATACUS:
When you talked about Caligula, you spoke of history’s opinion of him as if he was still alive. As if the past and the future are all the same to you.

(BEAT)

SUSAN:
(QUIETLY, SO THE DOCTOR DOESN’T HEAR) You might not be killed. Your life could be an everlasting memorial to Roman clemency. If you’re wrong about them, of course. If you do live, you’ll always know it’s because Rome isn’t the monster you made it out to be.

(FX: THE CELL DOOR IS OPENED.)

SUSAN:
Do you want to know what happens? What you’ll see if you live?

(BEAT)

CARATACUS:
No.

SUSAN:
They come together. All the tribes, all the outside influences you wanted to keep out, they all have their effects. They make her stronger. They make her something you won’t even recognise.

CARATACUS:
(ANGRY) Go. Go on.

SUSAN:
I could tell you if you ever realise you were wrong.

(BEAT)

SUSAN:
Do you want to know that?

(SILENCE.)

(END OF EPISODE TWO. TITLES.)