The Centurion's Empire Read Online Free PDF

experimenting with chemicals in his ancient Etruscan villa. He had been handsome and dynamic when younger.
    "It seems wrong that he can be allowed to neither live nor die," he said. "It's so undignified for one so great." Doria looked up, then tapped her scroll with a char stylus. "He may be more safely revived in another three or four hundred years."
    "How so? His condition is unchanging as long as he lies in the bath of ice."
    "I've been looking at the records of revivals since the earliest times and compiling figures. We Temporian women are getting better at revivals, Regulus. When Celcinius first began freezing people the revival rate was two in three. Within a century it had risen to ninety in one hundred."
    "Nine out of ten, we all know that."
    "Not so. Since then the rate has risen to ninety-four in one hundred, and that is in spite of the mean age of Tempo-rians having risen from thirty-five to nearly fifty. Our techniques and skills are slowly improving, and I can see a time when every revival will be a success." .
    "But that time is centuries away, your own figures prove it. The Adjudicators want Celcinius awake now." Doria stood up and stretched, flexing her stiff joints. Regulus beckoned her over, patting the couch, but she remained standing beside the writing desk, shifting her weight from foot to foot.
    "We are making a crisis where one need not exist," she said, picking up her scroll and brandishing it. "Celcinius can give us no more than his decision, one way or another. I don't see what makes the situation so very special. Vespasian has made himself Emperor of Rome, and Vespasian is one of us, a Temporian! Why are they so worried?"
    "It is a precedent of the most alarming kind, it threatens our whole philosophy of controlling Rome from behind its administration. In the 540 years since the Frigidarium was built, not one of us has ever taken the rank of a major public leader."
    Doria clasped her hands behind her back and began to pace. "Who is to say that Vespasian's action was not a good thing?
    You have said as much yourself, many times. Caligula was a monster, Nero was a buffoon, and then we had those clowns Galba, Otho, and Vitellius struggling with each other
    for control while what we really needed was strong and stable leadership. Vespasian may have a common manner, but he is doing a lot of good. Laws are meant to work, not just be kept for their own sake." Regulus chewed on a dried fig, then picked at his teeth as he assessed what she had said. Now that he was physically old he needed to think more slowly, and he used little tricks to stall for time in every discussion. He took a deep breath.
    "We need the authority of Celcinius to call another Grand Temporian Council. We have not had one since the Punic Wars, and there is much to decide. Perhaps Temporians should become emperors if it is appropriate, in fact perhaps all
    emperors should be Temporians. Whatever the case, we need a decision with the greatest authority or there will be division."
    "We could deduce his opinion from the precedents of his past decisions. It has been done before."
    "No, no, there is also the expansion of the Empire to consider. How far can Rome's reach be safely extended? Some say we should conquer the world. Marcus Bassilius has secretly sent ships to India, to the even more distant Silk Empire, and right around Africa. He wants to lay the foundations of a world governed by Rome, and he wants the Frigidarium expanded to take the extra Temporians needed to govern the larger empire."
    "How many does he have in mind?" asked Doria.
    "His lowest estimate is two thousand. He has given me a list of preliminary names."
    "I've seen it, and I don't like most of the names proposed. They should all be like that young legionnaire Vitellan who survived five days in the ocean. He has wonderful resistance to cold, and he is young enough to be revived dozens of times and remain healthy. Youngsters like him are our future, not the spoiled and