“Who else can pass the laws he wants, or grant him honors? They do not come simply because he shouts it in the forum. It is a weight of centuries that he has pushed aside. It may yet swing back with even greater force.”

“So that is how you respond?” Suetonius asked. Cicero could hear the sneering tone and it infuriated him. “We shall resist him by passing every law? By honoring him further?”

With an effort, Cicero controlled his temper. He had so few allies now. Even a man of this caliber could not be scorned.

“If we balk his will, we will be swept away. This Senate house will fill again in hours with men more willing to bow their heads. Where is the gain in such a course?” He paused to wipe sweat from his face. “We must never let him see he can walk alone. He suspects it already, but he does not know it in his stomach, where it matters. If you told him he could disband the Senate on a whim, he would be appalled. It is a dangerous line to walk, but while we stand as a body, there is hope. If we force his hand, there is none.”

“You are frightened of him,” Suetonius said.

“So should you be,” Cicero replied.

Part Three

PART THREE

Chapter 33

CHAPTER 33

In gardens that had once belonged to Marius, Julius sat by a fountain, rubbing his thumb over a thick gold coin. Brutus munched on a chicken leg, enjoying the peace. The daily Senate meeting would already have resumed, but neither man felt any urgency. Unseasonable heat had come to Rome, long after the summer had ended. With the new spring only a month away, the short days should have been wet and cold, but instead the Tiber had shrunk and the city suffered in thick air and heat. While Rome baked, Julius and Brutus had eaten and slept. The cool of evening would dispel the pleasant lethargy, but for the moment they were content to lounge in the sun, each lost in his own thoughts.

Brutus saw the small movement of Julius’s fingers and reached out for the coin, grunting as Julius passed it over.

“It makes you look a little thinner than you really are,” he said, holding the aureus up to the sun. “And I notice you have more hair.”

Julius touched his head self-consciously and Brutus flipped the coin back to him.

“It still amazes me sometimes,” Julius said. “This coin will travel for thousands of miles, through the hands of strangers. Perhaps long after me, someone will hand a copy of my face over in exchange for a saddle or a plow.”

Brutus raised an eyebrow. “The face, of course, will give it value, not the gold,” he said.