“Of course,” Phila said. Her eyes slid towards me. “Will you introduce your companion?”

“This is Marsilia of the Hall of Florentia and the Tribe of Apollo, Gold of the Just City,” Hermes said. I was surprised he knew those details, I’d never told him.

“Oh!” Phila looked delighted. “You come from Athene’s City of wisdom!”

Surely that would be Athenia, where they were still trying to do the Republic exactly the way Plato wrote it. Maybe my rival consul Diotima should have been here instead. Though maybe not, thinking how terribly she would have handled Kebes. “I come from the original city that Athene founded,” I temporized.

“Is it true that there women live as freely as men?”

“Yes,” I said, with no hesitation. That’s true of all our Cities but Psyche.

Phila smiled. She wasn’t beautiful, her bones were too big, but she had a wonderful smile. “And they are philosophers, despite what Aristotle says?”

“Aristotle was a jerk,” Hermes said.

Phila and I laughed. I touched my gold pin. “Some of us are philosophers,” I said. I was, of course, though I didn’t often think of myself that way. I worked on the boat and in Chamber for the good of the City, as we all did in our own ways. I took being a philosopher too much for granted. I swore to do better with that in future.

“Aristotle is the only philosopher I have met. He taught Alexander and my brothers, but he had no time for me. Here and now it is not possible. Women are almost invisible. We live knowing all we do will be forgotten,” she said, not so much saddened as resigned.

“It’s not true. I have read about your deeds,” I said.

“In a book written about me? Or one written about my father, or my brother Kassandros?”

“Your husband,” I admitted. “But—”

“My husband?” she interrupted me, surprised. “But he’s so young. So the Antigonids will win out over the Antipatrids? I wouldn’t have expected that.”

“We should not tell you such things,” Hermes said, looking at me reproachfully.

“Of course not. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to entice secrets from you,” Phila said, not sounding in the least regretful. She clapped her hands, and two servants appeared, a man and a woman both dressed in grey. They bowed to her. “Bring food,” she commanded.

“Here, mistress?” the woman asked.

“Yes, here, of course here, what did you think I meant by bring? And for three people.” They hastened back inside. Phila looked chagrined. “I’m sorry. It’s infuriating how stupid slaves can be. I should have brought more people with me from Macedon. If you haven’t trained them yourself you can’t do anything with them, you have to spell out every single thing or they get it wrong.”