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Chapter 11
Themes
and Colors
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Eagle of the Ninth, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Freedom and Slavery
Friendship and Trust
Dignity and Shared Humanity
The Roman Conquest of Britain
The Military, Identity, and Honor
Summary
Analysis
Throughout the summer, Marcus and Esca travel, Marcus treating “marsh ophthalmia” surprisingly well for being a quack oculist. The tribesmen aren’t exactly friendly, but they’re courteous and helpful. Marcus tells them he’ll pick up payment when he returns south. Now, Esca and Marcus are camped by a firth, sweating in the heat, and Marcus gripes that they must’ve missed a clue somewhere. He pulls out a coin to toss—heads they keep going, ships they head south. The coin lands ships, so Marcus and Esca find themselves camping three days later at Trinomontium, a once-busy fort. Now though, it’s been abandoned for 30 years and is eerily quiet. Esca is disturbed; it feels like the ghosts of the Ninth are here, though Marcus points out the Twentieth, not the Ninth, served here. Marcus doesn’t share Esca’s fear of ghosts, but he suggests any ghosts won’t bother them.
The novel is never explicit about what eye ailments Marcus treats, but ophthalmia is a general term for inflammatory eye conditions. While Marcus’s refusal of payment is certainly practical—less to carry—it also makes him look more generous than he might otherwise, which is helpful given his goals. The fact that the tribesmen don’t wholly accept Marcus points to their skepticism of Romans, even those who are ostensibly just in their territory to help. The Romans would later revive the fort at Trinomontium before abandoning it for good around 180, but in the 120s, it was abandoned following deadly skirmishes with the Picts.
Active
Themes
Esca and Marcus find a barrack that hasn’t caved in, turn the horses loose inside, and start a fire. After a meal, Esca sleeps and Marcus tries to do the same. Close to dawn, they both wake to the sound of someone whistling a popular legion song about kissing a girl at Clusium. The whistler (later revealed to be Guern) begins singing the final verse and finishes as Esca and Marcus come around the corner. To Marcus’s shock, the man, clearly a hunter, is one of the Painted People. Marcus invites the hunter to share their fire, and he accepts. As the hunter skins his roe deer, Marcus studies him, confused. He looks like any other tribesman—but he sang in Latin and seems to have the brand of Mithras on his forehead.
When Marcus hears someone whistling and singing a legion song, he assumes that person is a Roman soldier or veteran—so it’s a shock to discover that this hunter is, it seems, one of the Painted People (a member of the Picts). When taken alongside the fact that the hunter has the brand of Mithras on his forehead (suggesting he once practiced a Roman mystery religion), it suggests that the hunter has changed allegiances—but that some parts of his Roman identity, particularly those linked to being a soldier, persist. (Mithraism was very common in the Roman army.)
Active
Themes
Marcus introduces himself as Demetrius, Esca gives his real name, and the hunter says he’s Guern. He lives a day’s ride away and hunts here regularly. Marcus questions Guern about the song he sang and whether he knows Latin, and Guern insists he spent time around the soldiers here when the fort was active. Guern says he and his family live alone and don’t need an oculist, but if Marcus and Esca would like to come home with him, he can offer food and point them toward another village. They share the deer and, the next day, Marcus and Esca follow Guern west. Marcus is certain there’s more to Guern than meets the eye.
Active
Themes
