`Martinus would have loved to take a' stand on it.'

Martinus, had been Petro's deputy. A stickler for the rules especially; when they helped him offend someone else. 'He went on promotion to the Sixth, didn't he?'

Petro grinned a little. 'I put him forward myself.'

'Poor Sixth! So who moved up in the Fourth? Fusculus?'

'Fusculus is a gem.'

`He ignores you curled up in a corner?'

`No. He orders me to leave. Fusculus thinks that taking over Martinus' job means he inherited the attitude as well.'

`Jupiter! So you're stuck for a bed?'

`I wanted to lodge with your mother.' Petronius and Ma had always got on well. They liked to conspire, criticising me.

`Ma would take you in.'

'I can't ask her. She's still putting up Anacrites.'

`Don't mention that bastard!' My mother's lodger was anathema to me. 'My old apartment's empty,' I suggested.

'I was hoping you'd say that.'

`It's yours. Provided,' I put in slyly, `you explain to me how, if we're talking about a quarrel with your wife, you also end up being suspended by the. Fourth. When did Rubella ever have a reason to accuse you of disloyalty?' Rubella was the tribune in charge of the Fourth Cohort, and Petro's immediate superior. He was a pain in the posterior, but otherwise fair.

`Silvia took it upon herself to inform Rubella that I was tangled up with a racketeer's relative.'

Well, he had asked for it, but that was hard. Petronius Longus could not have picked a mistress who compromised him more thoroughly. Once Rubella knew of the affair, he would have had no choice about suspending, Petro from duty. Petro would be lucky even to keep his job. Arria Silvia must have understood that. To risk their livelihood she must be very angry indeed. It sounded as if my old friend was losing his wife too.

We were too disheartened even to drink. The amphora was down to the grit in the point anyway. But we were not ready to return home, in this glum mood. The water board