‘As you wish.’ Petronius shrugged. ‘However, I suspect that it will be some months before the Nubians have been dealt with. Unless the gladiator is a complete fool he will have fled the province long before then. If not, then I will be sure to consider any request you make. Now, Prefect, you are dismissed.’

‘So, how did it go?’ Macro asked as he slid a cup across the table to Cato and poured him some wine. He had been waiting in a tavern just outside the palace gates on the Canopic Way, the two hundred foot wide avenue that stretched across the heart of the city. Outside, in the midday sun, tens of thousands of Alexandrians discussed their business or conversed with friends, struggling to make themselves heard above the din of street hawkers and the merchants shouting about their wares to passers-by. Cato had brushed past them, ignoring the endless entreaties to examine their cheap souvenirs and antiques. The traders pursued him with promises that he need only look, without being hassled. Their promises were as cheap as the goods they sold and they only relented when Cato snarled at them to leave him alone.

Cato slumped down on to the stool opposite Macro and Hamedes and quickly drained the cup. He glanced at Hamedes.

‘Shouldn’t you be trying to find a vacancy in the priesthood of some temple?’

Hamedes snorted with derision. ‘Here, in Alexandria?’

‘Why not?’ Cato gestured along the Canopic Way. ‘There’s hardly any shortage of temples in the city.’

‘The temples here are run by Greek parasites. They filch money from the gullible to line their purses. I am a priest from the true temples of Egypt. I will not defile myself by serving in Alexandria.’ Hamedes helped himself to a cup of wine. ‘Besides, the Alexandrian priesthoods are a nice little earner and there aren’t any vacancies right now.’ He shrugged.

‘A priest is a priest is a priest,’ Macro muttered as he took the handle of the wine jug and eased it back over to his side of the table. ‘Anyway, how did it go with the governor?’

‘Let’s just say that he wasn’t too pleased that Ajax got away.’

‘So is he going to give us enough men to track the bastard down?’

‘Give us men?’ Cato laughed drily. ‘Far from it. You and I are being sent to join the fight against the Nubians.’ Cato pulled the orders he had been given from inside his tunic and tossed them across the table to Macro. ‘Read, if you want to.’

Macro gently pushed the papyrus scroll aside. ‘What the hell is Petronius playing at? He knows how dangerous Ajax is.’

‘It’s a matter of priorities, apparently.’

‘Priorities?’ Macro frowned. ‘Since when was letting the leader of a slave rebellion remain at large not a priority?’