Part 38 (2/2)
He laughed ”Always your hardheadedness is an astringent to my dreams,” he said ”Very well, then, another is that I will have the Pontine Marshes drained to provide more farmland Now it is a vast, ineers say this can be done?”
”They are hopeful,” he said
”And the other project?”
”I will cut a new channel for the Tiber--t channels, actually One will link it with the Anio River, so boats can navigate all the way to Tarracina But in Rome itself I will divert the riverbed ard, make it flow onto the Vatican plain Then all the activities that now take place on the Field of Mars can be transferred to the Vatican, and the Field of Mars can be built up I wish to dedicate a gigantic teracious to Roest temple in Ro with excite and i about in politics in Rome never could
Rome was necessary as his home base, the seat of his power, yet, curiously, it drained hith that made him its master Whenever he ay from Rome, he flourished; here he seemed to decline
”Tell ed hi theons were rolled out in the Circus”
I could see the expression, almost perfectly concealed, that said, Do I dare tell her? I dare tell her? But he trusted er to hear his aloud, to make them more real He stretched out on the floor and rolled over on his back, putting his head on his ar out in a meadow somewhere, instead of on the hard stone floor But he trusted er to hear his aloud, to make them more real He stretched out on the floor and rolled over on his back, putting his head on his ar out in a meadow sos are possible in peacetireatest prize of war is what it allows you to do with the peace afterward”
”I know there are those who fear your peace and what you plan to do with it,” I said, unable to forget the ugly frowns and sarcastic remarks about hieneral,” he said ”Alhen the battles were past, the victors ripped aside their e and cruelty They cannot believe that I will not follow suit But I will not, and tiiven time?” Before I could stop them, the words tumbled out--my fears for the future, his future, anyone's future My weakness
”No one would assassinatethe dreaded word ”If I were to be killed, chaos would reign, and they know it There is no one to follow e of ht, of course But are hted? If that were so, everyone would always act wisely, and there would be no ruined ain ”I would hear the there on the cold floor, he told rand city: he would build a theater like the one in Athens at the foot of the Tarpeian Rock; he would create a state library containing the whole of Greek and Roman literature; he would construct an enclosed election building on the Field of Mars to keep voters protected from the elements; he would create an extension of the harbor at Ostia to give Ro port like that of Athens; he would have a new road built across the mountains to the Adriatic; he would refound the ruined cities of Corinth and Carthage
”Roe e has has been destroyed But the location is a fine one, and it's tiain as a Roman city” been destroyed But the location is a fine one, and it's tiain as a Roman city”
”Rome in Africa Rome everywhere,” I said
”I think it is time we had a nation that is more than a nation; a nation that incorporates all nations It will not be entirely Roht with the aristocracy of Rome is all about It is a class I was born into, but they cannot see beyond the city itself They fear the wider world, even though they now possess it So they try to pretend things are the same as ever, as if those other lands and other people will vanish I have brought them the world in a basket and laid it at their feet, and they turn aside in fear” He turned and looked directly at me ”That is what they shrink fron are a threat” He sighed ”Rome is like a child to me, a child I love and want to help--but she runs away!”
”Perhaps they are just confused,” I said, trying to make sense of it All ot this has happened very fast for theo, there was no Gaul for therow to one size, and then it suddenly doubled And their general n queen What are they to think? Be gentle with thean to sound irritated, at eable these days He sat up with a grunt ”This floor is too hard I knoe need here in Rome--a soft place to lie ish to relax We have only beds for sleeping and couches for eating What about talking and reading?”
”We have such pleasure seats in the east I'll make a roon thing you can introduce to Rome!”
He stood up and rubbed his back ”One new invention is about to be unveiled,” he said ”Suenes to meet with us here toenes, my prize astronomer and mathematician from the Museion, had come to Ro the Triu,” said Caesar ”I kept him busy”
”While the rest of the city played? That was schoolht ”These plans you have for Roe temples, the library, the theater--do you seek to create an Alexandria here on the Tiber?”
”Perhaps And I will build a marble palace to put you in, an exact reproduction of the one in Alexandria, so that ill not be able to tell where we are It will be all the same to us, Rome or Alexandria There will be no liood as my word I made one of the roo pleasure, borrowing freely from many cultures From desert nomads I took the idea of carpets, and laid many on the floor to create a soft, colorful indoor lawn Some were silk, some wool, but they all caressed the feet and invited you to stretch out on them, confident that no snakes, scorpions, or insects were hidden in the patterns--unlike true lawns Tapestry cushi+ons from Parthia were strewn all over the carpets, and Arabian silk curtains were spread across the s to diffuse and color the direct sunlight, while per breezes to enter Save off a sweet slass lanterns--Alexandrine lanterns I even ht from the mountains in winter--from a rich merchant's storehouse, so that we could have cooled henever ished Everything was the exact opposite of the straight lines and hard pallets the Roenes arrived a few lad of a chance to talk to him He came from a family of astronoenerations; such reat deal to do with Alexandria's fame and leadershi+p in science
”So your ith Caesar is co a question in a stateave enuine smile He was in his middle years; I had known him al to teach all the royal children so of the stars ”Now it is Caesar's task to introduce it I think that will be harder than it was to devise it Well, I shall be on my way home before that is settled”
I felt a stab of homesickness and envy of him I missed my city, my court, Mardian and Olympos, Epaphroditus and Iras, even my pet monkey Noould be the finest weather in Alexandria, when the days were blue and brisk and the clouds racing The Nile would be rising; all reports were that it was normal this year, and there would be no fa a queen in uest in another's In Caesar's dream it would all be the same world But it was not so now
Caesar soon arrived, looking harried But he shrugged it off and gave his i enes,” he said proudly--and iestured toward ift to the world” With a flourish, he unrolled a diagrain Yes, we shall have Noveenes He looked a that sounded ”I have redrawn the Roman calendar,” he said ”It was based on the es all the time! And twenty-nine and a half days is an unwieldy cycle The lunar year is only three hundred and fifty-five days long, whereas the real year is ten days longer Now the Romans are by no means stupid, so they had allowed for an extra s up But that , so every twenty years or so the extra month was supposed to be subtracted The proble it, so people tended to forget during a war or some other distraction By now the year is sixty-five days ahead of the natural calendar That's why the Triumphs, held in September, were so hot--because it was really still su in an oven,” said Caesar ”So Sosigenes and I have worked out this new calendar It is based on the sun--no more moon calendars! Each year will be three hundred sixty-five days long; each fourth year will be three hundred sixty-six days long to correct for a slight discrepancy And the year will begin on January first, when the Consuls take office, not in March This year we are adding the extra sixty-five days all at once, so the sun can catch up with our calendar at last”
”With all those extra days, this year will be a very long one,” I said Already it felt very long; I was beginning to wonder if it would ever end
Now, of course, I am saddened to remember that; for it ended too soon, even if it had had hundreds of extra days added But then, all things seeo on forever What is happening always seems that way Even my life as I write this
”Yes, I hope people will use it well,” said Sosigenes
”Will the people accept this? What will you tell the unpleasant before them would welcome a postponement For the rest, they would resent it
”That it is necessary,” said Caesar
”What will you call the new system?”
”Why, the Julian calendar,” he said, as if there were no other name possible
”Is that wise?” I asked ”Will they not think you are setting it up arbitrarily, as a monument to yourself?”
”If they do, it will sadden , why should I not receive credit for it? It s have cruenes left, pleased that his creation would soon be presented to the Romans--and doubtless anxious lest it contain soure disappearing
”So ht fra with him; I am almost sorry to see the project at an end”
”Perhaps you'll discover an error and have to call him back,” I said, but the expression on Caesar's face told
”Any ainst me,” he said ”Such seems to be the mood of my enemies They would never credit it to an innocent mathereat many enemies--perhaps too many to merit your policy of cle the to do, or else eliminate them,” I said