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Gabinius said to Norbanus.
    "I notice that you gave him the title 'commander,' not 'proconsul,'" Norbanus said.
    "I believe it will set a bad example if we let men who have never served in the offices that rightfully confer im perium to hold so lofty a title officially. This situation is unprecedented in our experience and of course certain expedients were called for. Let's not make a practice of it."
    "Your boy is not being cheated of anything," the Consul Scipio said. "What any of us would have given for such an opportunity at so young an age, eh? The gods love young Norbanus; that much is clear. If he pulls this off, he'll return to Rome covered with so much glory that the highest offices will fall into his hands like ripe olives. But the princeps is right. Let's not let our young officers think they can bypass the cursus honorum through military glory. Men with success ful wars behind them are nothing but a danger to the Republic if they don't know how to govern."
    Norbanus waved a hand impatiently. "Let it pass for the moment. What concerns us now is: What's to be done? We can't leave a Roman army out wandering about with no guidance from the Senate, no matter who is in charge."
    "Exactly," said his colleague. "We need a means of com munication, as we have with our army in Sicily. Granted, the distances between your son's force and us are far greater than with the Sicilian expedition, but it should not be insurmountable. We need fast ships and men to sail them and a knowledge of the ports along the coast between Egypt and Greece."
    "We have maps," Gabinius said, "but they are old ones. The ports will be there, but who knows who owns them now? I will take personal charge of the study board. In the meantime, we must all be thinking about how to use our reserve force. Six new legions are due from Noricum any day. Will we send them west, south or east?"
    "Too soon to speculate," Norbanus said. "First they must get used to the climate. They can move into the camps down south that the Sicilian expedition left behind. From there they can move in any direction the Senate orders with minimum waste of time."
    "Excellent," said the princeps. "An Italian summer is very different from one in Noricum, and it will prepare them for Africa."
    The others nodded. An African campaign would be the next step, once Sicily was secured. Carthage had to be destroyed. The gods had ordained that grim task.
    With the major questions settled, the Senate meeting broke up and they left the curia, in strict order of precedence: first, the consuls preceded by their lictors, then the princeps senatus, then the senior magistrates, the lower of fice holders, finally the mass of senators holding no particu lar office that year.
    Gabinius stepped onto the porch of the Curia, feeling once again the exhilaration of serving Rome in the very building erected by the King Tullus Hostilius, from which every great consul and all the senators of old had made laws and sent forth the legions. Brutus and Camillus, and Appius Claudius, the builder of roads and aqueducts, had presided in-this sacred building. Now he, Publius Gabinius, carried on their tradition. As he looked over the city with great satisfaction, he noticed two unusual men standing at the bottom of the steps, gazing up at him. They had the unmistakable aspect of Greeks. One of them was a handsome man of excellent bearing and immaculate dress, the other a scruffy, unkempt fellow dressed no better than a slave but with an arrogant stance and eyes that blazed with intelligence. As Gabinius descended the steps, these two climbed toward him, as if they wished to speak.
     
    Zeno and Izates listened to the noise from within the curia rise and fall. They heard individual speakers shout or project their voices in the manner approved by the teachers of rhetoric, and spoken thus they could understand that the Latin tongue had great force and dignity. Then they jumped aside as a messenger thundered up on horseback,