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leapt from his mount and ran into the building. Then there were a few minutes of silence followed by cheer ing.
    "Good news, apparently," Izates said.
    "Are Senate meetings usually this uproarious?" Zeno asked Gorgas.
    "I've heard that they can get noisy. The Senate's divided into a lot of cliques, and they're all at each other's throat over high office and military command. They're only united against the rest of the world."
    They waited a while longer, then Izates said: "I think there is nothing more to be learned here. Let's go get something to eat."
    They were about to do just that when men began to emerge from the curia. First came a line of men who each carried a bundle of rods tied around an axe. These Gorgas identified as lictors: attendants to the higher magistrates. A man who wore a toga bordered with a broad purple stripe followed the lictors. Then came another line of lictors and another such magistrate. A third man emerged, unaccompanied by lictors, then more lictors preceding purple- striped magistrates and finally a crowd of senators, some of them wearing purple-bordered togas, most dressed in plain garments.
    These men were different from those they had seen heretofore. Their faces were stern to the point of ferocity and their bearing was nothing short of regal. They trod like the masters of the earth. The third man to emerge after the two that Gorgas identified as consuls stood a little aside as if he were admiring the view. Then he gazed down at the two Greeks.
    "I want to talk to that one," Zeno said. He began to ascend the steps.
    "Why that one?" Izates asked, following him.
    "He looks more intelligent than the rest. Gorgas, you wait here." They climbed to the top and stood before the white- haired man, whose austere face expressed polite interest.
    "Rejoice, sir," Zeno said, hoping the man understood Greek. "We are travelers from Greece. I am Zeno of Athens and this is my friend Izates of Alexandria. We would ask the indulgence of the Roman Senate, of which august body I perceive you to be a member of high standing."
    The man inclined his head slightly. "Rejoice, Greek. I am Publius Gabinius and I am a senator. How may I be of service to a distinguished visitor? I perceive that you are both men of good birth. Are you officials of Athens?" His Greek was nearly flawless, but old-fashioned in the manner they had heard their native tongue spoken by other Romans.
    "Alas, we are not officials, although we bear letters of in troduction from the Athenian Council. We are philosophers. Most particularly, I am a historian, and when I heard that the Romans had returned to Italy, I understood that history is now taking a momentous new turn. It is my desire to be the historian of the Roman resurgence, and I would very much like to have the approval of the Senate in carrying out my researches."
    A very slight smile softened Gabinius's granite features. He liked this young man. Though handsome, he seemed to have none of the effeminacy that Romans associated with Greeks, and his words, while flattering, bore no taint of obsequiousness.
    "A historian? Like Herodotus?"
    Zeno sighed. It seemed he was never to escape that com parison. "I can claim nothing so grand, although my friend here thinks I might make a second-rate Thucydides."
    Gabinius looked Izates over. "We haven't had much opportunity to study Greek philosophy up north, but some of us have read a bit. We tend to favor the Stoics. Are you of that school?"
    "Izates is a Cynic," Zeno told him.
    "Aren't the Cynics the ones who growl and snap like dogs?"
    "Some people's toes need to be bitten," Izates said.
    Again they heard that swords-on-shields laugh. "So they do! Come, my friends. Join me at my house for some dinner. I don't know how I may be of service to you, but what little I can do is yours to command."
    This, Zeno thought, was amazing luck. If it was luck. They fell in beside the Roman as he went down the steps and turned up a narrow street. His stride was that