The Assembly was called at dawn, with news spreading from street-criers to the ears of those heading to work, or rising to attend trials at the Pnyx and the Areopagus. Though the work of the Assembly paid barely half a day’s wage, most men saw it as a privilege. Yet on that morning in autumn, all such lesser tasks would be left undone. Miltiades had been gone from Athens since the beginning of spring – longer than anyone had expected. They had feared reports of a great summer storm smashing their triremes to pieces before they could reach shelter and be pulled clear of the sea’s wrath.

Xanthippus came awake with a start when someone touched his arm. He lurched up and put his bare feet to the tiled floor, stifling a groan at the ache in his knee and twinges from his lower back, just above the hip. He had never known a wound there, but something had drawn tight over the previous year. It troubled his sleep.

‘What is it?’ he hissed.

The slave Manias had brought a clay oil lamp with him. The wick spat and crackled as it shed light. Manias placed it safely on the bedroom table before replying.

‘The fleet, master. Miltiades has returned.’

Xanthippus was on his feet in an instant, his aches forgotten. There had been rumours of a disaster. Though Miltiades had gone hunting far from Athens, it was astonishing how news could travel, fishing crew to fishing crew, warship to merchant trader. The sea was wide, but with enough time, news travelled to every cove and inlet along the shores.

‘Bring me …’

He stopped as he saw a clean chiton robe and sandals draped over the older man’s arm. Xanthippus dressed quickly.

‘Is Agariste awake?’

Something shifted in the man’s expression and Xanthippus wondered if the slave of a previous household could ever be properly loyal to a new master. The law said Manias was his property, but Xanthippus didn’t trust the man. A slave who had known Agariste as a little girl would never betray her confidence.

‘I believe she did not sleep well, master,’ Manias said.

Xanthippus paused in the act of putting a knife under his belt. Did Agariste have a lover? Perhaps Manias was there to distract him while some youth climbed out of a window. Stranger things happened every day in Athens, but he shook his head at the image.

Being disturbed in the night gave him the sense of preparing for war, but if it was just the return of the fleet, they had no more than rumours and gossip fit for the markets. For all he knew, Miltiades could have captured the Persian pay chests and won a great victory. Wild rumours describing plumes of smoke could just as easily be a Persian camp as any ships of Athens. He hoped so.

Xanthippus looked up when he heard one of the children call out nearby. They had their own nannies, of course, but it would not hurt to send Manias as well.