There was little resistance at first. Quite the opposite, for now that ‘the army from the west’, as people started to call it, began to advance on Londinium and to liberate towns and villages from the Vortigern’s rule, numbers grew. Between leaving Letocetum – the last of Aureliana’s strongholds – and reaching Lactodurum, the combined forces must have added over two thousand men to the army. As word had spread of the march on Londinium, people from all over the old district of Flavia Caesariensis were flocking to the cause.

Germanus told his commanders to select those volunteers who had most fighting potential and to see that they were given some basic training each time the army stopped at the end of the day’s march. It turned out that many of the older men had been...

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