Mummius appeared to be working hard to contain his exasperation. 'This is ridiculous,' he said. 'You'll be paid, of course, if that's what you're worried about. In fact, I'm authorized to offer you five times your regular daily pay, considering the inconvenience and the.. travel,' he said cautiously. 'Five days of guaranteed pay, plus all your lodging and expenses.'

He had my full attention. From the comer of my eye I saw Eco raise an eyebrow, counselling me to be shrewd; children of the streets grow up to be hard bargainers. 'Very generous, Marcus Mummius, very generous,' I said. 'Of course you may not realize that I had to raise my rates only last month. Prices in Rome keep shooting up, what with this slave revolt and the invincible Spartacus rampaging through the countryside, spreading chaos-'

'Invincible?' Mummius seemed personally offended. 'Spartacus invincible? We'll soon see about that.'

'Invincible when confronted by a Roman army, I mean. The Spartacans have beaten every contingent sent against them; they've even sent two Roman consuls running home in disgrace. I suppose that when Pompey-'

'Pompey!' Mummius spat the name.

'Yes, I suppose that when Pompey finally manages to bring back his troops from Spain, the revolt will be quickly disposed of…' I rambled on only because the topic seemed to irritate my guest, and I wanted to keep him distracted while I drove up my price.

Mummius cooperated gloriously, pacing, gnashing his teeth, glowering. But it seemed he would not descend to gossiping about a subject as important as the slave revolt. 'We'll see about that,' was all he would mutter, trying feebly to interrupt me. Finally he raised his voice to command level and effectively cut me off. 'We'll soon see about Spartacus! Now, then, you were saying something about your rates.'