Part 18 (2/2)
If my own dear ladies were so eard it? ”I am not really sure,” I said ”I must ask Olympos to do the calculations I think in a er Caesar cannot stay” I had to say it then, so there would be no mistake about it But the look on their faces told all They disapproved I foundto defend hient an, but”This is the drawback to loving the master of the world,” I finally said ”One tends not to be as important to him as one would wish”
And that was the truth of the matter I was a queen, descended from an old royal house, and my country was the richest one in the world But he did not need to re in exile in a tent Without hiypt into a Roman province after Alexandria had surrendered, like every other country in the Mediterranean after a defeat: Greece, Syria, Judaea, Spain, Carthage The fact that he had left me on my throne and had even spent precious weeks on our journey up the Nile spoke of his personal feelings for ed to the world again, and our privacy was gone Caesar read detailed reports of the insurrection in Pontus, the gathering of malcontents in Africa, the turers with current inforht as he sat in a wide chair and dropped each report on the left side as he finished reading it Outside, the waves in the inner harbor were dancing in the ht; the breezes barely swayed the flames in the wicks of the la honeyed wine, listening to soft lutequietly, orlove That hat Alexandria was famous for: pleasures of theonly to shake his head or stretch his arht when he ht side had all been transferred to the left
”Where have you decided to go?” I asked quietly
”Pontus,” he said ”I cannot return to Ro an enemy at my back The east must be made secure”
”But you are already in Africa,” I said The Roman rebel forces were much closer
”I always finish pesky side rebellions before turning to the main task at hand,” he said ”That is why I reduced Spain before pursuing Po direction, but it was by intent Now Ihere It is al direction” He stood up and made for the open roof terrace I ca out its fire and smoke It still had the power to move me with pride every time I looked at it
”You will sail out of this harbor,” I said, voicing the obvious ”When?”
”In a few days,” he said ”I have decided to leave behind three legions to protect you, under Rufio There will not arise another Pothinus”
”But--that will leave you only one legion to take to Pontus!” No, I could not let hier himself so Better I should take my chances here
”Yes, the Sixth,” he said
”That is not enough!”
”It will have to be,” he said
”No, not again! It happened once in Alexandria that you were under else ”The Sixth Legion is not even up to full strength! There are only a thousand men in it-- not even a fourth of its full quota!”
”Yes, I know,” he said
”You push your luck too far!” I cried ”I think youyou! It is insane to take only a thousandto show irritation
”No, it isns are my business,” he repeated
”Why do you teed ”Why do you think you are i, propelled by fear ”I think that fate spares us--spares so ti for us Those she spares the longest, shefor”
”In that case, there is little I can do to sidestep it,” he said ”Fate will have her hether I take one legion or twenty”
”Yes, and no” I knew that if fate wished otherwise, twenty legions would not protect you, but sometimes fate did not care one way or the other, in which case you were better off with your little hu his arue that ently tookbeside him in the dark, I found it hard to believe that he would soon be gone, away on another battlefield He made me feel very safe For that instant
Just before he fell asleep, he said softly, ”I think you o ahead with the cere in the s hall, where Caesar and I had arranged for the vows to be exchanged Ptolemy, only twelve years old, stood obediently ready to cooperate He was the last of my five brothers and sisters; all the others hadto take the throne, except for Arsinoe, who survived only in prison Caesar planned to send her to Roh the streets in his Triuht little of it Now
Ptoleht-featured boy He seeuile and viciousness of the others; perhaps it had been scared out of hiracious Caesar,” he said, ”s!” He fingered his carnelian and lapis collar nervously
”Stand over here,” said Caesar, pointing his finger at a floor mosaic of a hippopotamus Ptolemy fairly flew across the floor to the spot
”And you here,” he said to n was part of a scene of the Nile, which included fish, birds, flowers, and boats I stood on the crocodile's snout
Olympos, Mardian, Rufio, Charmian, and Iras stood by as witnesses The priest of Serapis uttered a few sentences that we repeated, and the deed was done Ptole and Brother-and-Sister-Loving God and Goddess, were united as rulers of Upper and Lower Egypt Caesar was bea, and pronounced a Roman benediction Then we all turned to the feast tables that were prepared and waiting
Caesar's last night had co he would sail out of the harbor with his shi+ps and his thousand legionaries
”I leave with great reluctance,” he said ”You cannot knoith how reat coer proof could there be that you wished to stay?”
”I take with me many ideas to be transplanted to Rome I see nohat a city should be Thank you for that”
”What do you e at Rome?” ”Rome is a very primitive place,” he said ”You will see when you come” He hurried over that, I noticed ”But now that I have seen the wide s, the LibraryI would like to copy them And your calendar is far superior to ours I will certainly change all that when--”
”When the wars are over,” I finished for him ”All the more reason not to tempt fate, but to help her”
”I will raise reinforceht”
I watched as the last of the warshi+ps sailed out of the harbor and off toward the horizon They grew smaller and s I had known him for such a short tied forever--like everything he had touched Neither Gaul nor Rome nor I would ever be the sa back; Caesar had remade the world
HERE ENDS THE FIRST SCROLL
Chapter 16
THE SECOND SCROLL
He had gone I looked all aroundfrom a dream For what seeo upriver for the bull ceremony at Herh the eyes of an adult I had left al about ruling, and even less about what lay beyond our borders Luck had seen h--Caesar and I seemed to share that luck But now reat nation single-handed, and bind up its wounds
At least, I thought, all ypt, and not be squandered on civil wars and palace intrigues I a else to blaions will assure that free hand: Caesar's great gift to reatest, next to the child
I went out i Mardian and Char e to the grounds and buildings, and now he acted as a guide to the disiveall the plantings” He pointed to what had once been a lawn planted with sweet grasses and flowering shrubs
It stank ”And I see they have left behind enough fertilizer to ensure new plantings,” I said ”Even the most delicate plant should find all its needs met for some years to come”