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powerful of Rome. Even with her keen mind and a protector like Davus, such a dangerous activity was hardly suitable for a young Roman matron.
    "Perhaps he was working for her as a tutor. Hieronymus was smarter than just about anybody!" This came from Androcles, who had been very impressed by all the stories Hieronymus could recite.
    "It couldn't be that," said Bethesda, sighing through her tears. "Calpurnia has no need for tutors; she's never given Caesar a child. The woman is famously barren."
    "But Caesar has a son, even so, doesn't he?" offered Mopsus, doggedly following his younger brother's chain of thought. "He had a son by Queen Cleopatra, a little boy about the same age as Beth. And they say Cleopatra is in Rome right now, to witness Caesar's Egyptian Triumph, and she brought her little boy, Caesarion, with her." His face was lit by the glow of deductive success. "I'll wager Calpurnia wanted Hieronymus to be Caesarion's tutor."
    Even Davus, as thick as he is, knew better than this. He laughed. "I hardly think that Caesar's Roman wife would want to engage a tutor for the son of Caesar's Egyptian mistress!"
    He was right, of course. But what was Calpurnia's attitude toward Cleopatra and, more especially, toward the child Cleopatra claimed to be the son of Caesar? I had seen Calpurnia grimace when she spoke the queen's name, but she had said not a word, harsh or otherwise, about Cleopatra. Mopsus and Androcles were clearly far from the mark with their speculations about Hieronymus, but could the Scapegoat's death have had something to do with Cleopatra, nonetheless? I felt a stab of eagerness to begin reading the reports Calpurnia had given me as well as Hieronymus's private journal.
    But first, there were practical considerations to be dealt with. I had told Calpurnia that I would assume responsibility for Hieronymus's funeral rites. I dispatched Rupa and the slave boys with a cart to fetch his body. Diana, with Davus to accompany her, I sent to pay a call on an undertaker near the temple of Venus Libitina. I had used the man's services before. He would supply slaves to wash the body and anoint it with oil and perfumes, and deliver a wreath of cypress for the door and a funeral bier with garlands for my vestibule. He would also enter the name of Hieronymus in the official registry of the dead and make arrangements for his cremation.
     
    Bethesda busied herself with preparing the evening meal. We would eat that night in honor of the memory of our departed friend, Hieronymus of Massilia.
    Left to myself, I withdrew to the garden and sat on a chair in the afternoon shade. With the scrolls beside me, and with a much-desired cup of wine close at hand, I began to read.
    I began with the documents Calpurnia had given me. The reports from Hieronymus—there were a great many of them—had been neatly arranged into sections under the names of various persons. Most of these people were familiar to me, and I could see why Calpurnia thought it worthwhile to keep an eye on them.
    I turned to the reports regarding Marc Antony.
    Antony had been one of Caesar's most trusted officers during the conquest of Gaul. Later, he fought beside Caesar at Pharsalus in Greece, where Pompey was routed. When Caesar pursued Pompey to Egypt, he sent Antony back to Rome to keep order. Because Antony's return occurred shortly after I left for Egypt myself, I had not been present during his tenure as master of the city.
    Governing the city for month after month, while Caesar defeated his enemies and quelled unrest abroad, had been no easy task. The wartime capital was plagued by shortages and riven by factional violence. Antony had forbidden citizens to carry arms, but this ban was universally ignored. Gangs had ruled the streets by day; common criminals had ruled the city by night.
    Added to the general violence had been the growing unruliness of the lower classes, many of whom expected Caesar to abolish all debts and (in their wildest dreams) to