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the army."
    Fronto laughed.
    "Sometimes I see so much of your father in you. Lucilla."
    "Hopefully not the baldness."
    Fronto sighed. "I have this horrible feeling that we're heading for a fall again."
    "You and I?"
    "The republic in general. Like the Social War. Troops in the streets; despots and proscriptions; blood and fire. I keep getting a whiff of it for just a moment and then the wind changes."
    "All the more reason to enjoy the time we have now. Anyway, I was coming to tell you something."
    "Go on."
    "You remember Julia? Atia's niece?"
    Fronto's spirits sank a little again. Caesar's daughter - his only direct issue and the young wife of Pompey. The glue that bound the two politicians together.
    "Yes" he replied apprehensively. "She's an old friend of Faleria's."
    "I know. She's pregnant, you know?"
    "I am aware."
    "Well she's determined to go to a performance in that monstrous new theatre her husband has built before she's too bulky to move, and she's asked if Faleria, Galronus, you and I want to join them. It's being organised now for a show in two or three weeks and I said we'd love to go. I hope you've nothing planned instead?"
    Fronto's spirits sank ever further, rustling around in the soles of his boots. He had never yet sat through a theatre performance sober. Indeed, he had been forcibly ejected from the theatre in Tarraco twice in his time for drunken and lewd behaviour - when he was younger. Drama was anathema to Fronto. He sagged.
    "Can we sit down? My knee's killing me."
    "I've told you to go back to that Greek physician and actually listen to him this time. I need you… active, if you get my meaning. Anyway, before you find a pathetic excuse, you needn't panic. It seems that Julia shares the bloodlust that runs in her family. It's not to be a play, but a contest of arms."
    "Gladiators?" Fronto brightened as he sank to a bench and rubbed his knee.
    "Yes. All sponsored by Pompey. We'll have the prime seats with the games' editor. You'll be able to escape the humdrum world of the greatest city on the planet for an afternoon and imagine you're standing on a Gaulish hill, up to the knees in body parts."
    Fronto grinned.
    "Well when you put it like that, it'd be rude not to accept an invitation from so illustrious a figure."
    "Indeed." Lucilia reached up and placed her hands on his cheeks, gently but forcefully turning his head until he could see into her deep, hypnotic eyes. She leaned forward and kissed him.
    "Let's get back to the party. I know you've managed to get your sister and her man to steal some of our thunder, but the guests might actually want to speak to us."
    Fronto nodded, his spirit lightening at the thought of an afternoon at the games.
    "And then we can see if you can get me in the same situation as Julia."
    Fronto blinked and stopped, but Lucilia was already walking back to the festivities, laughing.
     
    * * * * *
     
    Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus, vanquisher of the Cilician pirates, twice consul of the republic of Rome, triumphant victor of the Sertorius and Spartacus campaigns, triumvir and son-in-law of Caesar, ran his fingers along the edge of the petals and smiled, leaning in to take a deep breath.
    "Your aunt is a devious and dangerous woman, Julia, but she does send the most pleasant gifts when of a mind."
    The heavily pregnant Julia Caesaris, her face an aquiline mirror of her father, though as pretty as she was striking, smiled warmly.
    "Be kind, Gnaeus. Atia has been nothing but accommodating and this ridiculous pissing contest between you and father needs to be kept well and truly away from family life. The medicus said that I need to remain as calm and content as possible, and that means no complaining about my family."
    Pompey turned, his jowled, jolly face breaking into a broad grin.
    "Julia, my love, you are the tonic that calms my blood."
    Turning and leaving his young wife in the bright atrium, the great Pompey strolled into the vestibule and towards the door, examining the fresh