Empire by Steven Saylor Read Free Book Online Page B

the Babylonian priest Berossus who moved to Cos, founded the first astrological school in Greece, and translated
The Eye of Bel
into Greek. It was Bolus of Egypt who wrote
Sympathies and Antipathies,
which remains the standard textbook. I’ve almost worn my copy out.”
    Lucius stared at the horoscope, puzzling over the mathematical calculations and the notations about houses, signs, and planets. “Do you really think the solution to the lightning omen lies in the emperor’s horoscope?”
    “I wouldn’t be surprised if it has some role to play in our research. But I think we should begin by consulting my Etruscan dictionaries, to see if I’m right about this word
aesar
. . . .”
    All night the storm continued, rattling the shutters, pelting the roof with rain, and shaking the ground with thunder, while Lucius and Claudius pored over various texts. From time to time, slaves brought them food and drink and replenished the lamps when the oil ran low. Lucius was not aware that dawn had broken until he heard a cock crow. Claudius opened the shutters. The storm had passed. The sky was clear. But the pale morning sunshine could not dispel the grim mood in the room. They had succeeded in interpreting the omen.
    “Perhaps we could tell him that the omen defeated us, that we discovered nothing,” said Lucius.
    Claudius shook his head. “He won’t accept that. He’d be able to tell at once that we were hiding something.”
    “Then perhaps he’ll simply dismiss our interpretation. Why should he believe the two youngest augurs in Roma?”
    “Because our interpretation is correct, as he will see for himself. Great-Unclehas a deep and abiding faith in omens. The outcome of every one of his b-b-battles was foretold by an omen which he himself divined—the eagle that drove away two ravens at Bononia, which foretold his eventual triumph over his fellow triumvirs; the shade of Caesar that appeared before Philippi; the driver and ass he met on the road before the battle of Actium, one named Eutychus and the other Nicon—Greek for ‘prosper’ and ‘victory.’ ”
    “And now, this omen.”
    “Which we have no choice but to d-d-deliver.”

    Euphranor accompanied them up several flights of steps to the high, many-windowed chamber where the emperor awaited them. This was the room, as Claudius informed Lucius in a whisper, that Augustus called his Little Syracuse, because the great Syracusan inventor Archimedes had had such a room in his house, isolated from the rest of the building.
    Augustus’s secluded retreat was cluttered with mementos. There were architect’s models of various of his buildings, including a miniature Temple of Apollo in ivory. There were war trophies, including a captured ship’s beak from the battle of Actium, where the naval skills of Agrippa had soundly defeated Antonius and Cleopatra. There were exotic Egyptian treasures brought back from Alexandria, where Antonius and Cleopatra had escaped capture only by committing suicide. Draped upon a statue of the Divine Julius was a red cape, a bit faded and moth-eaten, that had been worn by the great man himself at his last great battle, at Munda in Spain.
    There were also more-personal mementos, including toy ships and catapults that had belonged to the emperor’s deceased grandsons. When Lucius and Claudius entered, Augustus was fiddling with a pair of baby shoes.
    “Such tiny feet he has, little Gaius! These just arrived from the German frontier, Claudius, with a note from your brother. Your little nephew has just outgrown these, so Germanicus sends them to me as a keepsake. Charming, aren’t they? I suppose Germanicus and Agrippina think they can induce me to name their two-year-old as my heir. Well, your olderbrother isn’t a bad sort, and Agrippina is the only one of my grandchildren who turned out to be not completely useless. Little Gaius
is
my great-grandchild, and they say the boy is healthy, so perhaps there is some hope for the future,