Selena ignored him. "So tell me, Julian, who's right?"
"You are," he said to Selena.
Ben raked a haughty look over Julian. Grace knew he saw nothing in Julian, except a very handsome man, who most likely knew only beer commercials and cars. "Young man, have you ever read Homer? Do you even know who he is?"
Grace stifled her laughter at the question. She couldn't wait to hear Julian's response.
Julian laughed out loud. "I've read Homer extensively. The tales attributed to him are an amalgam of legends told and retold until the true facts are lost to antiquity, whereas Hesiod wrote the Theogony with the direct aid of Clio."
Dr. Lewis said something in ancient Greek.
"It's more than just an opinion, Doctor," Julian responded in English. "It happens to be fact."
Ben took another look at Julian, but she could still tell he wasn't quite ready to believe someone who looked like Julian would have a clue about his chosen field. "And how would you know?"
Julian answered in Greek.
For the first time since she'd met the man a decade before, Grace saw the doctor look amazed. "My God," he gasped. "You speak as if you were born to it."
Julian cast an amused smile to Grace.
"I told you," Selena said. "He knows the Greek gods and goddesses better than anyone on earth."
Dr. Lewis noticed the ring on Julian's hand. "Is that what I think it is?" he asked. "Is that a general's ring?"
Julian nodded. "It is."
"Would you mind if I looked at it?"
Julian slid it from his finger and handed it to him.
Dr. Lewis sucked his breath in sharply. "Macedonian? Second century B.C., I would presume."
"Very good."
"It's an incredible reproduction," Ben said, handing it back.
Julian returned it to his hand. "It's not a reproduction."
"No!" Ben gasped in disbelief. "It can't be an original. It's far too pristine."
"It was held by a private collector," Selena inserted.
Ben looked back and forth between them. "How did you get it?" he asked Julian.
Julian paused as he remembered the day it had been awarded to him. He and Kyrian of Thrace had been promoted together after they had single-handedly saved Themopoly from the Romans.
It had been a long, brutal, and bloody fight.
Their army had broken and left the two of them alone to defend the town. Julian had expected Kyrian to abandon him as well, but the young fool had just smiled at him, grabbed a sword for each hand, and said, "It's a beautiful day to die. What say we slay as many of these bastards as we can before we pay Charon?"
A complete and utter lunatic, Kyrian had always had more guts than brains.
Afterward, they had drunk each other under the table in celebration. And in the morning, they had awakened and been promoted.
Gods, of all the people Julian had known in Macedonia, he missed Kyrian most. Kyrian was the only man who had ever stood at his back and defended it.
"It was a gift," Julian said.
Ben glanced at Julian's hand, his gaze filled with covetous awe. "Would you consider selling it? I'd be willing to pay quite a bit for it."
"Never," Julian said as he thought over the wounds he had received during the battle for Themopoly. "You've no idea what I had to go through to get this."
Ben shook his head. "I wish someone would give me a gift like that. Have you any idea how much it's worth?"
"My weight in gold, last I checked."
Ben laughed out loud, and smacked his hand against Selena's card table. "Good one. That was the ransom to get back captured generals, wasn't it?"
"For those too cowardly to die fighting, it was."
A new respect shone in Ben's eyes as he regarded Julian. "Any idea who it belonged to?"
Selena answered for Julian. "Julian of Macedon. Ever heard of him, Ben?"
Ben's jaw dropped. His eyes widened. "Are you serious? Do you know who that was?"
Selena made a strange face.
Assuming she didn't, Ben continued speaking. "Tesius wrote that Julian was going to be the next Alexander the Great. Julian was the son of Diokles of Sparta, also known as Diokles the Butcher. That man made the Marquis de Sade look like Ronald McDonald.
"Rumor had it, Julian was born of a union between Aphrodite and the general, after Diokles had saved one of her temples from desecration. The modern accepted opinion, of course, is that his mother was actually one of Aphrodite's priestesses."
"Really?" Grace asked.
Julian rolled his eyes. "No one cares who Julian was. That man died a long time ago."
Ben ignored him as he continued to flaunt his knowledge. "Known to the Romans as Augustus Julius Punitor…" He glanced to Grace and added for her benefit, "Julian the Great Punisher. He and Kyrian of Thrace cut a trail of slaughter through the Mediterranean during the Fourth Macedonian War against Rome. Julian despised Rome, and vowed he'd see the city fall to his army. He and Kyrian damn near succeeded in bringing Rome to her knees."