So if the marriage had ended, what was the point in continuing?'

It was paid for?'

My parents would demand their money back. She grimaced, then added brutally,. Or Papa would quickly fix up a new match, then rerun the tour with wife number two.

I joined in the satire.. Right from Rome, or from the spot where the first bride perished?'

Oh from Olympia. No need to make the bridegroom relive sights he had already enjoyed!'

I grinned.. People think me crude!'

Realistic,' Helena countered. This trip must have cost the Tullia a very great deal, Marcus.'

I nodded. She was right Tomorrow I would seek out and interview the agents who had fixed up the expensive package.

I wore the toga I had inherited from my brother. I wanted to look prosperous, yet overheated and stressed. I piled on some flashy jewellery that I keep for when I act as a crass new man. a torque-shaped armband and big ring with a red stone carved with a man in a Greek helmet. Both came from a stall in the Saepta Julia that specialised in kitting out idiots. Polished up, the gold almost looked real – though not as real as my own straight gold band that told the world I really was a new entrant to the middle class. Vespasian had conned me into taking equestrian rank – so I was really gullible.

Beside the ancient Forum of the Romans lies the modern Forum of Julius; next is the Forum of Augustus, after that you run into the infamous area once called the Subura. Julius Caesar supposedly lived there, when he was not bedding the teenaged Cleopatra or dividing Gaul into parts. The legendary Julius had louche taste. If he lived in the Subura, trust me, he was lucky to survive to the Ides of March.

This dangerous dump was now recategorised as the Alta Semita, the High Lanes district, though little had changed. Even I, in my single days, drew the line at an apartment in the High Lanes. You only die once, you may as well live a little first.