“I hope not Cleopatra,” Julia said. “I like her, and besides, anything touching Egypt is always dangerous.”
“Say that again,” Milo said.
“Say what?”
“What Spurius said. You were imitating his accent, weren’t you?”
“I suppose I was. I’ve been trying to place it since I heard him. It’s from somewhere near Rome, I’m sure.”
“Repeat everything you heard him say. I’m sure I know that accent.”
So I repeated everything the man had said, which wasn’t all that much. Milo stopped me a few times to get the pronunciation of certain words.
At the end of it, he grinned. “The man is from Ostia! I ought to know since I spent so many of my younger years there.”
I slapped the table. “Why didn’t I realize it! It’s the way you talked when I first met you, back before you became more Roman than Cincinnatus!” Things began to connect more firmly. “Silvanus was from Ostia, and so is Nobilior.”
“I wonder if Spurius meant what he said,” Hermes put in.
“About what?” I asked him.
“About attending the Aphrodisia.”
I looked at him. “Surely the gods would never be so good to me.”
12
THE TOWN WAS PACKED. THE HARBOR WAS jammed with ships of every size and description. The Roman grain fleet was still in harbor, loading supplies for the final leg of its long journey down the coast of Syria and Judea, past the Delta of the Nile, on to Alexandria. Although predominantly Greek, the crowds featured people seemingly from every nation of the world. There were Arabs in desert robes, Egyptians in linen kilts, Africans in colorful skins, tattooed Scythians, and people from no country I had ever heard of. I even saw some Gauls in checked trousers.
Flavia had arrived early to carry Julia off for their tour of the city. It may seem foolhardy to trust her to the wife of a man whose execution I might well demand, but to have begged off at the last moment might have roused too many suspicions. Anyway, violence aimed toward me would come from some other direction. Flavia’s awe of Julia’s family would keep her safe.
Leaving Milo to crack the whip over my men, I took Hermes and plunged into the festivities. Everywhere, people decked in flower wreaths sang Greek hymns and poured libations at the town’s many small shrines to Aphrodite. Businesses that used her name or her image on their signs were decked out in flowers and other decorations and offered free drinks and food to passersby. Processions carried her images and sacred emblems through the streets, and people from widely separated cities and islands offered the sacrifices and performed the rituals of the goddess that prevailed in their own locales. A few of these were genuinely orgiastic, but most were fairly sedate. Of course, it was still daytime.
“Gabinius’s men,” Hermes said, as we came to the market where I had inquired about frankincense. I saw a cluster of tough-looking specimens, some of them armored, all of them draped with weapons.
“That is a very unbefitting sight on a holy and festive occasion,” I said. They were glaring toward me, but nobody was making a hostile move yet. “Come along, let’s try the public garden.” I had received an invitation to a reception being held there by the city council for all officials and distinguished visitors.
The garden was laid out in imitation of the Academy at Athens. Every Greek city has one of these groves. Like most of them, the one at Paphos was used primarily by the city’s schools, for Greeks do not believe in confining boys indoors except in bad weather. Its plantings and fine statuary had been donated by successive generations of rich residents, and there was a beautiful gymnasium and palaestra attached to it. On this day it had been commandeered by the city council for its annual celebration in honor of the town’s goddess.
On entering the grove I was handed a cup, and I poured a small libation before taking a healthy swig. As I handed the cup back, Nearchus came to greet me.
“Welcome, Senator. I am so glad your duties have not kept you away.”
“I wouldn’t have missed it.” I scanned the crowd. “Is Gabinius here?”
“We have not seen the general yet. Doubtless he will come in time. This reception will be open until late in the afternoon when the great procession goes up to the temple.”
“If you should see him, tell him that I would like to speak with him.” I wanted to confer with Gabinius, but only in a public place, preferably one where a lot of important men were gathered. Safer that way. Under no circumstances was I going to his house, nor would I meet with him in some deserted place.
“I shall see that it is done. In the meantime please enjoy the hospitality of the city and the company of our many distinguished guests.”