Several days ago....



Quintus Tullius Flaminius stood proudly alongside the Imperator at the happy event of Pola's coronation and his marriage to Maria Gratidiana. Quintus wore a purple sash across his chest, an honour bestowed on him by the Imperator.

Legion after legion marched past, hailing Pola. This was a new beginning. Everything Quintus had felt about the Republic, he now felt about this new Empire, this new start. The time of the Republic was gone now. He was surprised how he could not have seen it before, how the squabbling of petty politicians in Rome could have seemed so important to him.

The world was bigger than Rome, and here, arranged before him, was an enormous crowd of peoples from all over the East. It was a new start for them, it was a new start for the world.

Quintus looked over at the bride and her entourage. She wore a beautiful silk dress, with dazzling jewels. She was surrounded by beautiful women, by princesses and great ladies. As he surveyed them, he saw one of them staring at him. She was a young woman, with auburn hair, and a regal bearing that stood her on at least a par with any other lady there.

Her stare was intense and unflinching - Quintus started to wonder if he had seen her before. Why was she staring at him? He suddenly worked out who she was: Athenais, one of Mithridates' daughters. But he had never met her, never spoken to her in all the time he had been in Bithynia. Why was she staring at him, and not the Imperator or his wife, or the elephants or the grand parade? He was puzzled, and he wondered what lay behind those deep eyes of hers. What could she be thinking?