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It was quiet in the atrium of the house.

That was why Marcus liked to write there.

Now entering his eighth decade of life, he had little

tolerance for interruptions of any kind. Or rather, Marcus liked to use the atrium to dictate his

words to his Greek secretary, who then wrote them in shorthand on a long papyrus scroll.

He told the Greek to read that last sentence back to him, weighed it, added an adjective in one spot, and cut an adverb in another, and pronounced it good.

His history was finally done, his years of research and writing over.

Marcus had set out on this project the better part of a decade ago, mostly because of his distaste for a certain Titus

Livia, who was embarking on a similar task of writing history. Livia's produced only the most

tedious stories, in Marcus's opinion, and he was convinced he could do it better. In the beginning,

Marcus's intention had been to write the history of all the Republic's wars, since the days of

Tarquinius-Supus and Brutus. This was no small task, Marcus soon reached. had been to write the history of all the Republic's wars since the days of Tarquinius

and Brutus. This was no small task, Marcus soon realized, because the Republic had gone to war

practically every year since its inception. He himself had served in the cavalry during his younger

years, five decades before, fighting for Mark Antony and Octavian, as he was then, during the campaign at

Philippi. Things were better now, Marcus thought, compared to those chaotic years of his youth.

Augustus, as Octavian called himself now, was still in charge and had been for years. He was even

older than Marcus, but Augustus was still hanging on, and Marcus refused to go until

the old first citizen did. He certainly wasn't going to die before he finished his history.

Titus Livius had never seen a battle, Marcus thought. He didn't know what it was like.

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