Judgement of Caesar by Steven Saylor

Author:Steven Saylor
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 2011-05-19T06:16:58+00:00

CHAPTER XVII

The boys stayed very quiet the next morning, allowing me to sleep late. I was still groggy, my head full of uneasy dreams, when Merianis arrived bearing a scrap of papyrus that had been folded several times and sealed with wax. The impression in the wax was that of Caesar's ring, which bore an image of Venus circled by the letters of his name.

"What's this?" I said.

"I've no idea," said Merianis. "A missive from Little Rome. I'm merely the bearer. Shall I stay, in case you wish to send a reply?"

"Stay, so that I can look upon your beaming face. At least someone in this palace is happy. I don't suppose the return of your mistress has anything to do with your mood this morning?"

She grinned. "While Queen Cleopatra was gone, the temple of Isis was a place without magic."

"And now the magic has returned." I broke the seal and unfolded the papyrus. The letter was in Caesar's own hand.

Gordianus

Apologies for our interrupted dinner. Much was left unsaid. But unexpected encounters bring happy results. There will be a royal reception today that I should very much like you to attend. Call it a lesson in the fine art of reconciliation. Wear your toga and come to the grand reception hall at the eighth hour of the day.

I put down the letter. Merianis looked at me expectantly. "A reception of some sort, later this afternoon," I said.

She nodded to indicate she already knew about it.

"Will you be there?" I said.

"No power in heaven or earth could keep me from attending."

"Then I shall go, as well. Mopsus! Androcles! Stop playing with that cat and lay out my toga for me." The reception hall was truly grand, the result of hundreds of years of refinements, additions, and adornments by generations of Ptolemies. Here the kings and queens of Egypt received tributes from subjects, announced treaties and trade agreements, celebrated royal weddings, and put on their most magnificent displays of wealth and power. Every surface shone with reflected light, whether from the polished marble of floors and pedestals inlaid with semiprecious stone, or from the burnished silver of brackets and lamps, or from the gold of gilded alcoves filled with gilded statues. The lofty ceiling was supported by a forest of slender columns decorated with lotus motifs and painted in vivid hues.

The room was already buzzing with excitement when Merianis and I arrived. The crowd was made up mostly of Egyptians in ceremonial dress, but there was a large contingent of Romans as well. "A lesson in the fine art of reconciliation," Caesar had remarked in his note to me, and the Roman officers seemed to be following that theme, taking pains to mingle with the locals and engage them in conversation. Among the Egyptians, however, there seemed to be two unequal factions in the room, standing apart from one another. The greater faction I took to be adherents of the king; the lesser group, adherents of his sister. While the Romans moved

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