Quintus Gellius Lector paced the dock nervously, glancing aside at the hulking men escorting Ulpius Sissena and Decius Mus.

"Relax," Publius Decius Mus said with a chuckle. "We’re not going to toss you in. You wanted to see the ships load. Watch them load."

"Right," Lector said. "So where's this captain of yours then?"

"Arr, I be right behind you." Lector turned sharply. The one-eyed peg-legged Argentarius pushed his way through, trailed by a younger man with similar features. "Arr, Tribune, we be almost ready to be setting sail."

"Captain Argentarius, good to see you again. A shame about your last voyage's losses." The seaman shrugged.

"Arr, a sudden squall be beyond me control. You can be appealing to Neptune for such things."

"And who is this fellow?" Mus asked, gesturing to the man following him.

"This be my mother's brother's boy. Since we be go'n to both Hispania Citerior and a second trip to Gallia Transalpina, well, I can't be in two places at once. I be trust'n this lad to lead your personal ships, all twenty of them, to Gallia. I'll be taking the one-hundred-twenty going to Hispania Citerior, myself."

"You can call me Ishmael," Argentarius' cousin said. "And I assure you I am quite experienced."

"Good to meet you. See, Lector?" Mus said. "This is how I conduct my business. Captain Argentarius oversees things at sea. He keeps things under my control."

"Arrr." Argentarius pulled a pin from his belt and hefted it. "I be a survivor."

"Then survive, and carry my goods safely." Mus shook hands with Argentarius and Ishmael and the sailors strode off, to depart with the tide. "Now, time to get back to Rome. There's business, and there's the People's business, and we've some of the latter to conduct!"