There is no language as ugly as Latin when it is spoken in such a fashion – barracks-fashion, I mean, for as sleepy as I was and as numbed with the evening's wine, I was beginning to make certain deductions about my uninvited guest. Disguised behind his well-trimmed beard, his austere but expensive-looking black tunic, his finely made boots and plush woollen cloak, I saw a soldier, a man used to giving orders and being instantly obeyed.

'Well,' he said, looking me up and down as if I were a lazy recruit fresh out of bed and dragging my feet before the day's march. 'Are you coming or not?'

Eco, offended at such rudeness, put his hands on his hips and glowered. Mummius threw back his head and snorted in a fit of impatience.

I cleared my throat. 'Eco,' I said, 'fetch me a cup of wine, please. Warmed, if you can; see if the embers are still glowing in the kitchen. And a cup for you as well, Marcus Mummius?' My guest scowled and shook his head sharply, like a good legionnaire on guard duty.

'Some warm cider, perhaps? No, I insist, Marcus Mummius. The night is cool. Come, follow me into my study. Look, Eco has already lit the lamps for us; he anticipates all my needs. Here, sit – no, I insist. Now, Marcus Mummius, I take it you've come here offering me work.'

In the brighter light of the study I could see that Mummius looked worn and tired, as if he had not slept properly for some time. He fidgeted in his chair and held his eyes open with an unnatural alertness. After a moment he sprang up and began pacing, and when Eco came with his warm cider he refused to take it. Thus does a soldier on a long watch refuse to make himself comfortable for fear that sleep will come against his will.

'Yes,' he finally said. 'I have come to summon you-'

'Summon me? No one summons Gordianus the Finder. I am a citizen, no man's slave or freedman, and at last report Rome was still a Republic, amazingly enough, and not a dictatorship. Other citizens come to consult me, to ask for my services, to hire me. And they usually come during daylight. At least the honest ones do.'