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Celcinius' panel without ceremony, then supervised as two of the younger Tempori- ans scraped away the rammed snow to expose the block of ice in which Celcinius was frozen. The block was mounted on metal skids, and slid out easily once the end was free. Eight blindfolded slaves carried it out on a litter, straining with the weight and taking small, cautious steps on the ice floor of the Frigidarium.
    The journey back up to the palace with the awkward and heavy load took much longer than Regulus' previous visit. It was two hours past dawn before the exhausted slaves lowered the block on its litter to the floor of the tepidarium in the women's baths. Already the sides of the block were slick with melting ice, and drips splashed to the flagstones as Doria and Rhea examined the surface. Once she was satisfied that the ice had not been violated since Celcinius had been frozen, Doria signed the Register of Revival. Regulus countersigned, and began to shuffle toward the door.
    "Regulus, please stay and watch," said Doria. "It's time that men got some appreciation of what we do here." Doria had been meticulous in her preparations for the revival once it had become probable that Celcinius would be unfrozen during her term in office. Her teams of women had revived three other frozen Temporians for practice, and all had been men over sixty. None had died.
    Four women began chipping the outer ice away, and it did not take long to reach an inner layer of Egyptian linen. Now the body was lowered into a marble bath of tepid water, and the cloth soon came away to reveal the body beneath a thin film of ice.
    "Tepid heat," ordered Doria, and Rhea pulled a lever controlling air from a furnace that flowed through the hypocaust beneath the marble bath.
    The women ran their hands along the ice as the temperature of the water slowly increased. "Skin, I feel his skin," someone said excitedly. The first hour passed, and the Prima Decuria changed shifts with the Secunda Decuria. Very slowly the heat from the water penetrated the flesh of Celcinius as the women gently massaged him. The temperature of the water continued to rise. "Pump heat," Doria ordered as his limbs grew flexible. The shift was changed again. By noon the air was heavy with steam. The women were slick with sweat, and their robes clung to them, sticky and uncomfortable. Regulus fanned himself and drank watered wine as he watched. Doria removed the gag that had sealed Celcinius' mouth and held his head up while Rhea removed the wax ear and nose plugs. The water was drained from the bath until Celcinius could be laid back with his face exposed above the surface. Rhea and Doria climbed into the bath with him, and while Rhea blew breath between his lips Doria began the much more difficult task of pounding his heart back into life.
    All the while the temperature continued to rise. "Revival heat," panted Doria as she worked, and Rhea's understudy moved the lever controlling the hypocaust flow a final notch. In effect, Celcinius was now just an old man with severe hypothermia.
    The procedure was based on experiments with animals and slaves, and through many deaths it had been refined to perfection. A physician of two millennia in the future would have said that they were attempting to get blood flow to the brain established while it was as yet too cold to be damaged by oxygen starvation. The Venenum Immortale that Celcinius had been treated with had both antifreeze properties and a limited ability to carry oxygen. Other women presently relieved Doria and Rhea, who lay exhausted on wicker couches while lower-ranking assistants dried them. By now it was mid-afternoon. As soon as she could sit up again Doria went to the edge of the bath and felt for the pulse at the old man's neck.
    "Very faint," she said. "What I feel is all from the hands that pump at his chest."
    "Ninety-four is too old," said Rhea, but Doria only glared at her and shook her head. They kept working, by now with the bath near