Cleopatra's daughter by Michelle Moran

Author:Michelle Moran [Michelle Moran]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Histoire
ISBN: 9780307409133
Published: 2010-08-15T07:00:00+00:00

The Ludi went on for fourteen more days, and by September nineteenth, no one wanted to return to Magister Verrius and our studies. Marcellus pleaded with Octavia to let us have one more day, but her answer was firm.

“Your uncle’s dies natalis is in six days, and there will be two days off for celebration. I believe that is enough.” Octavia walked us onto the portico, where Juba and Gallia were already waiting. “Do you celebrate birth days in Egypt?” she asked.

“No,” Alexander replied. “But our father sometimes brought us presents.”

Octavia pressed her lips together, perhaps thinking of the gifts her daughters had never received because their father was with us in Alexandria.

“They were always small presents,” I added swiftly. “Of little importance.”

“At least he remembered,” Octavia said quietly.

I scowled at Alexander, who understood what he had done. “He never spent much time with us anyway,” he said. “Even if it was our dies natalis.”

Octavia smiled, but it was bitter. I could feel her watching us as we disappeared down the Palatine. When we reached the Forum, Magister Verrius greeted us at the door of the ludus.

“Enjoy yourselves,” Juba said merrily, and I imagine that Magister Verrius understood what we were feeling, since the next few days were full of games. There was a contest to see who could memorize the longest passage of Euripides, and a game testing our knowledge of the Muses—both of which I won. But Tiberius had memorized the longest passages of both Ennius and Terence, Romans whose works I couldn’t be bothered with. By the end of September, our games were over, and Magister Verrius was determined to introduce us to rhetoric, the art of public speaking. Marcellus sighed audibly, and Julia sank lower in her seat.

“Today, I would like you to spend time outside the Senate, listening to the lawyers debate.” When Julia groaned, Magister Verrius ignored her. “You will follow a trial until its end, and you may not choose a trial that ends today.”

“What a waste of time,” Julia said angrily as we walked toward the Campus Martius. Juba and Gallia remained several paces behind. She turned around and glared at them. “Do you think they might lie for us and pretend that we’ve gone?”

“What?” Marcellus asked. “And we’d make up a trial?”

“Well, when are we supposed to watch one?” she demanded.

“We’re going to have to forget the Circus,” he said. “At least for a week.”

“He didn’t say how long the trial had to be. We can choose one that ends tomorrow.”

Marcellus gave Julia a long look. “And be told to do it all over again?”

Julia turned to me. “I don’t know how you stand it. Working with Vitruvius from the break of dawn and studying Magister Verrius’s work all day.”

“She likes it,” Tiberius responded on my behalf. “Some people actually enjoy learning.”

“But why? All Vitruvius teaches you is measurements.”

“Measurements to construct a building,” I replied. “He took me to the Temple of Apollo yesterday. It’s almost finished.”

“Really?” Marcellus took a shortcut across the Campus Martius.

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