• Damespoin. Sounds French, or even Greek (by way of "Despoina"). Hopefully it's not French inspired, since French comes from Latin. Greek... well, it has me thinking "Atlantis".
• Enike Sen. Still feeling Greek, and, um... that's not a surname, surely? Surnames - as in, inherited family names - are really uncommon historically in Europe. The Romans sort of had them, they seem to have been relatively common across the Arab world, and of course China and its orbit, but... not native European cultures so much. (Of course, it could just as easily be a title - that's about as common at this point, if not more!)
• Taiya. Does not feel Greek. Doesn't feel Celtic either. Not sure what it does feel, to be honest! (I'm just running into "taiga" constantly.)
• Rhod Kore. I'm sorry, I keep wanting to call him Kod Rhoe. ^_~ "Kore" is an actual Greek deity, of course. That he's a Captain indicates that if the 'surname' is a title, it would have to be one of status, not military rank.
• So with all the vaguely-Greekish, I'm thinking... lost Phoenician/Carthaginian colony? They spent a lot of time mucking about in boats, and Carthage settled a lot of southern Spain. There's no obvious reason they couldn't have sent feelers out into the Ocean Sea, and it could be long enough ago that it's beyond cultural memory. If Taiya is a goddess, she could be a renamed memory of Tanit, for example.
• "parade rest". Almost certainly wildly anachronistic. The idea of parade rest ("standing at ease" outside the US) requires a formal military which practices close-quarters formation fighting - ie, Roman style - and even then, the specifics are almost certainly a historical accident.
• Claudius Messala looks fine, but he didn't serve in the Legion "many years ago". The minimum stint appears to have been 20 years, so at most it was less than a decade. (Presumably he is from a pretty important family, if he's a Governor so quickly! I guess that's another Imperial name right there...) I see he brought 'servants' rather than slaves - is that just you being unhappy about slavery? Because I totally get that.
• I can't really comment on the Latin, but "sire" is looking very weird. Are you sure you didn't want "sir"?
• A denarius was about a day's wages for a legionary in the early Empire, declining in value after that (then ultimately going out of use in the mid third century, by which point ten denarii would just about buy a cup of wine). The size of the wager seems to put us somewhere in the second century, which has been my guess all along.

So yeah, once again no real problems, and it continues to look interesting. :)

hS

A sea battle in the North Atlantic? Oof. That sounds like a genuine Roman nightmare.

I feel like it had been a long time since the Romans had to face anyone with a fleet. They controlled the Med, the landings in Britannia were only opposed on land, and the rest of the frontier was land.

hS

My Roman knowledge mostly comes from Rosemary Sutcliff and Steven Saylor, so take this with as many pinches of salt as you please, but let's take a look.

• If you're sailing out of Rutupiae, you're going east. That puts you in the North Sea, and suggests your destination is either northern Germany or somewhere up in Scandinavia. Outside the Empire, most likely. Could even be Orkney or the Shetlands.

• The Romans weren't much for ships, particularly outside the Mediterranean. I'm not sure "battleship" is a safe term to use; apparently they used "long ship", but that's a bit Viking, so "galley" is probably your best option. Concordia is (as I suspect you know ^_~) a genuine Roman ship name.

• A Roman galley would have pulled about 8 knots, assuming they had a following wind. That's about 200 miles a day, or roughly the distance from Rutupiae to Amsterdam. So 'several days' is about right for any of those destinations.

• I assume they would stay in sight of land, either the Gaul-Germania coast or Britannia itself.

• Obvious fact, but women didn't serve in the Legions. ^_~ I know, I know.

• 'Octavia Tertia' is a good Early Imperial name. She would be the third daughter of Octavius, a man of the Octavii gens. Her relatives are holding down many of the great offices of state; the Emperor himself is probably held to be a relative of some sort! (Probably. Augustus was Octavii, but was adopted into the Julii, and then his own son was adopted. But at the least "the Octavii are an imperial gens".)

• Not sure she should have long hair - it's not exactly safe in hand-to-hand combat - but then, Romans did like their hairstyles.

• I am not sure why the Governor (? of Britannia ?) would be going on a diplomatic, military, or trade expedition.

• Tascus is a Roman name, but the man himself is a Gaul. He could be a Gaulish citizen adopted by a Roman line; my vague instinct is that a straight-up barbarian wouldn't be an optio in a full legion, but would be an auxiliary of some kind. Not certain, though, and you've got plenty of wriggle room.

• Dreopis is a strange-looking name. It doesn't feel Roman (the DR in particular stands out), so it's presumably the native name of the island, not even Latinised? Romans being Roman, I would assume they would Latinise it as soon as possible. Deropia or something? I don't speak Latin, so add a few bags to that pinch of salt.

Overall: nothing jumps out as an obvious problem, and I'm intrigued as to where we're going.

hS