“No chance of that with you on watch.” And Ennia kept his house, his slaves, and his guests in better order than he’d ever hoped. Not a girl passed through the hall who didn’t go through the gauntlet of her appraising up-and-down glance.

“Half an hour,” Ennia reminded him again, and whisked out, yelling for the page boys to get the wine warmed before she warmed their backsides for them. Titus tipped back in his chair and read through the Emperor’s letter again. How are my baths progressing? Trajan had written after the request for a loan. I’ve a mind to put you in charge of my alimenta program as well; there’s been skimming there and I need someone honest to put a stop to it. Tell me what you think…

Titus looked up from the letter at the bust of his grandfather. The formal death mask had been placed with ceremony in the entry hall, but here he had a less formal bust of the old man, carved with the familiar kindly glint in his eye. “Emperors asking me for advice,” he said. “Strange days, eh, Grandfather?” He still felt self-conscious giving the orders in his family’s house, sitting in judgment when his family’s clients brought their problems to him, signing his name with the authority of his family’s seal ring. He was no longer just “that fellow who quotes.” He was now the fellow who got personal letters from emperors. His sisters looked at him with respect now, instead of scolding him for his untidy hair and his absentmindedness. His opinions were no longer brushed aside in discussion but weighed with all seriousness. People bowed when he passed in the street.

“Fancy that,” Titus told his grandfather, and went to greet his guests.

VIX

One year, just one year, and Armenia was gone.

“All Rome will rejoice at such a victory,” one of the Tenth’s tribunes said pompously—a useless highborn twit whose voice was still breaking. “The day is ours!”

“Easy there, sonny,” I admonished him, but the little squirt was right. All Rome was rejoicing when word went out that we had a new province, and with hardly a pause for breath or to celebrate the new year, we marched on Mesopotamia. Our first official foray into the Parthian Empire, and how we cheered when we saw those flat fertile lands stretched out between the vast fork of the Tigris and the Euphrates.