"And get some paint on that ship," Flaccus said, pointing to Hermes. "She's plain as a fishing boat."
"Any color in particular?" asked the master shipbuilder dryly.
The Romans considered this. "I think blue would be good," said Flaccus.
Scipio nodded. "Blue with gold trim. Paint all our courier vessels that way. And dye the sails blue as well. Can you do that?"
The master shipbuilder rolled his eyes skyward. "As long as you don't insist on Tyrian purple, I think we can manage."
"What about a device?" Marcus mused. "Our new Roman navy uses Jupiter's eagle, but the queen might resent that. What's that sea-horse thing?"
"The hippocampus, you mean?" Flaccus asked. "The front part of a horse and a long fish-tail behind?"
"That's it. Master shipbuilder, decorate the sails with the hippocampus, and carve them as figureheads, above where the ram would be, if these ships had rams."
"It shall be done," promised the official.
Pleased with their day's work, the Romans returned to the palace. A steward summoned them to the queen's presence. They found her waiting in her privy chamber next to the throne room. She frowned when she saw Marcus.
"Where is the helmet I gave you?"
"It suffered some damage," he told her. "The armorer and the jeweler are working on it now."
"Must you practice at swords in your best dress uniform?" she asked, exasperated. "Well, never mind. Just make the best show you can. We are going to perform before the court. I am going out there now. You be ready to come at my summons." Amid a flurry of serving girls and fan wavers, she strode out into the vast room and took her seat next to her brother. A hundred courtiers and foreign dignitaries bowed deeply and made sounds of worshipful admiration.
"What's it to be, do you think?" Flaccus asked. "A treaty or our execution?"
Marcus gave it some thought. "I don't think she'd have inquired about my helmet if she planned to have us killed."
A few minutes later the steward summoned them and they followed him into the throne room. They passed between lines of dignitaries, many of them attended by their own retinues, most of whom watched the Romans with calculation as they made their way toward the dais that held the twin thrones.
Not quite twins, though. Selene's throne, to the right of her brother's, was slightly higher. Ptolemy, still no more than a boy, sat sullenly, watching the Romans with no favor. They had eliminated his counselors and set his sister above him. She had made him dress decently in Greek fashion, without the wigs and cosmetics with which his former handlers had adorned him.
The Romans halted before the dais and bowed in the only fashion approved by Roman etiquette: a slight inclination of the head.
"I wish it to be known to the people of Egypt," Selene began, "to the Senate and people of Rome, and to all the world, that Hamilcar of Carthage is a menace to the lives and liberties of all people who dwell around the Middle Sea. In all the world, there are only two nations capable of resisting his vicious aggression: the glorious kingdom of Egypt and the Republic of Rome with its dauntless legions. To this end, I proclaim a treaty of alliance and friendship between the nations of Egypt and Rome." She held a hand out to one side and an official placed a scroll into her upturned palm. With a hieratic gesture she brought it before her and unrolled it, with her arms at full extension. It looked impressive, made of parchment from Pergamum instead of the more common papyrus. It bore a great deal of gold leaf, lavishly applied, and carried a large waxen seal stamped with the Ptolemaic device and a somewhat smaller seal stamped with Selene's personal cartouche, with her Egyptian reign-name in hieroglyphics. The text was written in austere Attic Greek letters.
"This document," she announced, "makes official and lasting the relationship between our nations. It specifies trade relations, mutual rights to port facilities, the aid and repatriation of shipwrecked mariners and so forth. It spells out the relative values of goods and spheres of trade influence. These are very simple, because Rome is not a commercial power arid there is almost no problem of competition.
"In the military sphere, our armed forces are to operate as one in the war with Hamilcar of Carthage. Rome's army is formidable, but her navy is in its infancy, small and untried against the naval might of Carthage. Egypt's navy is great, and I shall call upon the ships of our sister kingdom of Cyprus and our allies of Rhodes, Crete and the Greek cities of Asia. Together, we will prove more than a match for Hamilcar.
"Our land formations will be commanded at the unit level by our professional officer corps, under the overall direction of our good and trusted friend, Marcus Cornelius Scipio of Rome." She looked at the Romans. "Marcus Cornelius Scipio, approach."