Honorius looked from the soldier to the veteran. "Where is all your armor, Lancio?"

"I have no need of it anymore, Master Honorius," he replied, trying to restrain a chuckle. "I am not in the wars now, and I am no longer young, so it is time to lay down my arms and go back to farming."

Honorius's face showed his disappointment. "But why--?"

Lancio shook his head. "If Roma calls me to defend her against the Barbarian, then I will gladly return to the ranks, but not until then. I have served and done my duty these 25 years, and am discharged. I have land now to till and restore at home, and there I will go to spend my later years." He almost added piously, "by the gods!" but caught himself, reminded that he was serving the Son of God, not Mithras from the east and the old gods of Rome and Greece.

On well-tended roads, with mansiones, halting stations, and tabernae improving all the way, they made rapid progress now to Roma, with many, majestic sights of Civilization on the way that overwhelmed Honorius, though Rufus Quartus and Lancio took them more in stride, being men of the world accustomed to Roma's glories. Proper maintenance was no longer affordable by the state authorities, with so much of the taxable acreage in the country no longer farmed and gone to wilderness and the cities half abandoned. Many years of neglect had taken a grim toll on many aqueducts, bridges, arches, armories, pretoriums, amphitheatres, arenas, public buildings of all kinds, and fountains. But from a distance these devastations of time and decay were not apparent, and things looked as they had always been--eternal, imperishable, forever Roman.

Approaching closer in, however, the cities and towns were still splendid-looking overall but it became obvious even to Honorius that many great buildings were dropping masonry into the street or standing abandoned, and no new ones were being erected in their place. Also, shops were boarded up, with the owners packing everything aboard wagons carrying 1,200 pound loads of their merchandise and belongings. Where? To Roma! That still seemed the only place left that was most safe. That the Barbarian could ever breach the walls built by Aurelian, that circled the entire city with forts and garrisons, was unthinkable.

Moving through the markets and squares of the cities, Rufus Quartus, Lancio and Honorius could see clears signs that many people were going hungry too. They found many beggars in the streets, reaching out to them for alms. Christians had alms houses going, which were jammed with the poor. And yet there were more that could not get in for help. The slave markets were also jammed, as many men had sold their hungry children into slavery, rather than see them starve. Even freed men, citizens, sold themselves too, rather than starve. In one of these markets, Lancio halted, staring at a particular man who was offering himself as a slave, though at his neck hung no scroll giving his name, age, and health. In evident poor condition, he should have drawn no interest without the required titulus, and indeed he drew no eye until Lancio came.

Rufus Quartus Urbanus noticed what Lancio was doing, if not knowing why, and stopped Honorius, and they waited. They watched Lancio go to the man and take a closer look, then return to Rufus Quartus.

"What about him, the one without a titulus?" asked Rufus Quartus Urbanus. "He looks like any other wretched man in his condition, does he not, Lancio?"

"No, sire, I see something different about him. Look at his face, how pale it is! Something is different. His eyes too, they squint, as though they are not used to the full light of day. I am certain that man has been a miner, a slave in the mines!"

Slavery in the mines was a death sentence for criminals, they both knew. Speaking in low voices, Rufus Quartus continued. "Well? If he has somehow escaped and run off to this city, he has evidently found nothing here to sustain him so he is going to sell himself back into slavery. He is going against the law and may be he murdered someone, and was sentenced to the mines for life. Maybe he will succeed in selling himself now, maybe he will not. Give him this for a good meal at least."

Rufus Quartus held out several denarii, but Lancio declined, bowing.

"No, sire, he is not like that. He is not just a runaway criminal slave only. I can tell somehow. Let me go and speak to him before we leave him to his fate."

Rufus Quartus Urbanus nodded, and he and his son waited for Lancio to speak to the pale-faced, squinting man on the slave auction block.

Lancio turned, smiled, then dropped a coin the man's hand, and took him by the hand and led him over to Rufus Quartus Urbanus.

Rufus was a bit shocked. "You mean to buy him then as your slave?"

"Unless you prefer to have him, sire, I will take him. He will come with me after our journey is over, to help me work on my farm. He says he has no family still living, as he already inquired in his native town and found they were all gone, his parents dead and his brothers scattered. None of his parents' neighbors were willing to help him, nor would they give him any food or shelter. Without relatives or friends, he had no choice but to seek any work he could find in the country, he said, but there was nothing--as we ourselves can seee. Everyone is leaving south, for Roma, abandoning these places, so they are not going to taken on laborers when they are going out of business or leaving their homes and properties! He was starving when he thought to do what he is doing, sell himself in the market to some landowner or tradesman, rather than slowly starve to death."

"But what did he say about his being an escaped criminal? What was his original crime? Did you ask him that?" said Rufus Quartus.

"We should be breaking the law if we gave him shelter, when the state may be looking for him." "I did ask him. First about his escape. He said the barbarians raided the imperial silver mines in Hispania, and killed all the guards, so the slaves used the mallets and other tools, broke their shackles and ran off. The barbarians were more interested in silver than slaves anyway, and took all the silver that was in the guards' strongboxes and then departed, rather than make the slaves dig for more. He was free! No guards came to replace the ones lost, as Roma could not spare any to send to retake the mines and round up the slaves--and besides they had no rule over that area once the barbarians ravaged it. It might be years before Roman rule returned. What could he do? Wait until then? No, he decided it was best to save his life if he could. He would not stay there, which was a place to die only, but try to make it back to Italia. And he succeeded, only to find the conditions very bad, even in the ruled parts. As for his crime--he a mere boy and struck back at his master who was brutally beating him, who had accused him of stealing a necklace of his wife's, but he said another slave had done it, and cast the blame on him. The master did not care which slave really did it, he took the first slave's word and his own hand raised against his master was sufficient to send him to the mines for life."

Rufus Quartus Urbanus turned to the slave and took a keen appraisal of him and the expression of his face and eyes before he spoke. "I greet you in the Name of Christos. I am Rufus Quartus Urbanus of Glevum, Britannica. I have heard many similar stories, but I believe the report you have given us. Lancio is now your master, for he has paid your stated price. Later, I can have a proper document drawn, when there is more time. I will not require anything of you myself in service. Do whatever he tells you to do from now on. I know he will treat you well. We are all Christians in this party, and we cannot mistreat you, or our Lord will punish us for our mistreatment of an unfortunate man. As for your past, whatever put you in the mines, it is over, since you have paid your sentence as long as you could. The barbarians freed you, as God's instrument. I have heard what sad circumstances put you in that place, how God set you free by way of the barbarians. You have chosen to serve your master, Lancio. A horse will be provided you, for we must travel quickly to Roma and then return home to our native land soon thereafter. Now, what is your name, for you bear no titulus?"

But the man could not say his name, Gaius, at first, he was weeping so uncontrollably as he saw how heaven had smiled on him.

Honorius was not so sure it was heaven! His expression showed it plainly, that he did not at all like the idea of this dirty, half-skeleton coming along with them on their journey. He would spoil it all! he thought.

"Does he have to come with us?" he asked his father plaintively. "I don't like his smell and his looks."

His father's face showed he was not very happy with his son, and he took him aside.

Rufus put his hands on his son's shoulders and looked keenly into his eyes.

"Remember this, son, and never forget it. You and I are no better than any slave, we are all flesh and blood, our substance drawn up from the dust and fashioned by the same Creator. He has dignity, the image of God just as we have, only his circumstances are unfortunate, as you can see. That is not necessarily his fault, I am informed. Even if it were, our Lord the Christ forgave us sinners our many trangressions, so ought we to forgive others their transgressions. Now I don't want to see that unmanly and unchristian look on your face again! You have nothing to be sorry about! He will be a big help to Lancio and us too, after he has gained strength with some good meals and had a hot bath and a new set of clothes! You'll see!"

Honorius was almost beside himself, but he didn't dare show any more displeasure at his father's decision, so he screwed on a smile of sorts, and his father let him go.

After the fourth member of their group was taken care of in the town, they continued their journey. But at the next city, which was of considerable importance still to Roman government, there resided a consul that Rufus Quartus Urbanus knew personally, since he had been assigned to Britannica in years past. He paid a call on the consul at his government house and were led into the consular hall, waiting until they were announced and told to proceed. It did not take a long wait, as the hall was virtually empty of business and people, and Rufus Urbanus's name was well known to the consul.

While his father inquired about the movements of the barbarians in the north and whether Italia and Roma would be attacked any time soon, Honorius wandered about, glad to get away from Gaius the former mine slave and Lancio too--for now he blamed Lancio for Gaius's unwelcome presence.

Honorius, having lived all his life in a great house such as this, knew the most interesting parts.

He went first to the kitchens, to look in at the slaves and cooks all busy at work, as they finished the preparation of the dishes of the many courses of the next meal to be served. What a noisy place it was! Swearing cooks, banging of lead-lined pans, hiss of steam of boiling water poured over various shellfish, clatter of dropped lead utensils on the stone-laid floor. Here he thought he might get a treat or two from the cooks, and he wasn't mistaken--for the baker patted his head and gave him a slice of a wonderful cheesecake.

The Consul had some advice for Rufus Quartus Urbanus.

"It would do well for you to consider my situation as maybe your own chance at good fortune and a new beginning. I am called to New Roma, by the emperor, to join his court, and so we will be moving soon. Perhaps you could re-locate to New Roma too! They offer a fine mansion in the city near the imperial palace and a splendid salary, if you are of the nobility, in order to increase the court's size and prestige. They especially want families of old Roman lineage, but if not available, then provincial nobility with experience in government and good reputation is acceptable. My duties, such as they are, are nearly finished here. Roma is considering letting this whole province go back to the governance of local officials only. That will save much tax monies which the province the cities no longer produce for the imperial administration."

Rufus Quartus Urbanus was shocked.

"But this is your country! You are not Greek-speaking, and surely you will feel ill at ease among the Eastern Romans! They scarcely speak a creditable Latin, I've heard, nor do they care, since they prefer Greek far above our mother tongue!"

The Consul's smile faded. "It is absolutely necessary, my friend! I will do my best to learn their Greek with the best tutors I can find. When Roma draws back from any area, the country will soon turn savage wilderness. But worse will soon fall. The tribes of the Goths, hearing of the exposed weakness in our borders and defenses, will break through and ravage what is left. It is only a matter of time before they return for booty. Radagaesus destroyed three quarters of northern Italia, destroying hundreds of towns and many cities, and now he or others like him are moving westerly again with their hordes, intent to seize and ravage the central parts of Italia, and maybe even take Roma herself if they quit their rivalries and combine into one army! No, we must go, it is now or never. Otherwise, what is there for my wife and me? We will be left refugees, vagabonds, with no imperial office, no future at the imperial court at Ravenna either since the emperor's family was always a bitter rival to my own in past generations. We will possess only what we can carry away with us if we happen to elude the rampaging Goths! We cannot remain!"

The consul glanced toward the atrium where there was a dinner being prepared on the garden terrace. He turned to his guests. "Would you kindly favor us with your presence at dinner? My wife and I would be most pleased if you could join us? We were fond of your country. How are things going there of late?"

Rufus Quartus Urbanus bowed, but declined. "I have no time to spare, sir, for such a gracious favor of yours, but I should like to greet your wife for a few moments, since it has been years since I have last spoken to Lady Julia. And I know my wife will be cross with me, if I do not seek to exchange a few words with her. You know how wives are always interested in each other's families and situations. Is she as well as ever?"

The consul's face seemed troubled. "Yes, she is well, and looks well as ever, but she has never borne children, which is a sorrow to her, and of course I would have liked to sire a son or two to carry on our family name and serve Roma in imperial office or the Army. But it was not to be. We are no longer young, so children are not going to be our blessing, it seems."

But the sad look partly left his face as he turned, and saw his wife was approaching.

"Here she comes now. Please stay for dinner and speak to her. It may give her some diversion, as there is only myself and the servants usually these days. We get few visitors of any note."

Rufus Quartus Urbanus turned and saw the aristocratic lady of ancient Roman family (one of the Gracchi) waiting at the edge the consular hall, and he decided he must take the time to speak with her. Anything less would be disrespectful and most ungracious, considering how many times he and his wife had been invited to the consul's fine villa just outside Londiniuum.

He found her as lovely as he remembered, as the consul led him up to her, but there was no happiness in her expression, only a kind of patient resignation in the face of a hard, inescapable destiny. The jetstone miniature of her husband at her neck, and the jetstone ear pendants, they went along with her fatalism, he thought. Didn't they have any hope of the Resurrection? Perhaps he could share with her something of his faith, just as he had done with her husband on previous occasions. He knew there might not be another chance, as they would not be meeting again in this life, he knew. Britannica, he loved, and he could never leave her, whether Roma abandoned his country or not. As for New Roma, he knew he would slowly wither there in a gilded cage--better to face the barbarians in the West than feast amidst the sophisticated Greek-speaking "Romans" of the East, blue-blood courtiers and officials who would never accept him and his family as their equals, since the Urbani, like all British nobility, were originally Celts and provincials with only a few generations of Roman civilization to their names! What would they care if he told them his family line sprang from kings--they would smile at him and detest the thought that barbarian kings were anything to be proud of! No, rather than endure such humiliation and the slights of courtiers, a rustic but dignified obscurity in Glevum was much preferable, and so he and his son and Lancio and his servant were returning to Britannica as soon as his business with the pepper imports was finished in Roma!

The lady inquired about his wife, of course, and he told her she was fine, and always in want of guests in their locality. Could they think to come that way again? They would be most welcome!

The lady laughed, and her husband the Consul looked very serious. "It would be more likely for you to come our way instead. We doubt we will see the Western Empire again--it is going into such bad hands these days, there may not be much left of it in a few years. The barbarians--"

She looked off, and her husband frowned. "But I am not a very good hostess, reminding you of such unhappy things!" she said, brightening up a bit. "Won't you please stay and dine with us? We have so few guests ourselves these days."

Rufus Quartus Urbanus bowed, but declined again. "It is most urgent that we reach Roma and conclude our business there. The pepper fleet is in, I have been informed. I must speak with the captains and the collegia and the others in charge of the trade, to insure that Britannica receives its yearly allotment according to the imperial edict. If I don't catch them this time, it may be years before we get the import trade re-established on former lines--as we have had to make do with such scanty stocks of pepper the people at home are growing very unhappy. As a middleman for a league of cities, I am held responsible by all parties, even if I am not making any profit at the end!"

"Ah, the pepper trade!" the Consul replied, smiling. "How can we compete with that! Pepper, more costly than gold, keeps the people content with their food, and without it they will riot! With pepper, civil quiet, without it, endless unrest! So you must indeed leave us as you say!

Shown to the door by the Consul and his wife, the Consul laid aside his other duties and even his dignity and went out with them to see their horses had been properly watered and provisioned.

He reached up and grasped the rein as Rufus Quartus Urbanus mounted his horse. "One question, my friend, will you grant me that? We may not meet again in this life."

Rufus Quartus Urbanus's eyebrows raised. "Yes? Is it as serious as your expression tells me?"

"My wife cannot bear children. We have tried for years, and now we are past the age, I think, for child bearing. It is a hard thing for my wife particularly, even if I lack a son to carry on our name and inherit the properties and servants. Here is my question. Is it true your god, your Christian God, is a healer? I heard tales that he has granted children to the barren women in your assembly. Is there any hope for us in your God?"

Rufus Quartus Urbanus spoke very quietly with the troubled Consul for a few moments, and then prayed for him. Urbanus saw it was time to go, when he saw that the Consul truly understood the reasons for faith and how to become right with God, and they moved away. "Let me know by imperial post whether God has answered my prayer!"

The Consul saluted him. "Yes, I will. And I and my wife will believe God, believe Christ his Son for a son, as you instructed me to do in faith! We will follow His way. Farewell!"

Where was Ero all this time? He was following faithfully along the entire route of the Urbani, and learning a great deal about the workings and infrastructure of the Roman Empire along the way. Reaching Roma, he was treated with a wonderful view of the Flavian Arena, or the Coliseum, from the top down, which was the largest building of its kind in the entire world, able to hold over 50,000 spectators. Though its awning was removed for repair, this way he had a much better view of the entire facility, which was truly a wonder of the world.

Crossing the city, he passed over the Tiber River, which was the vital water lifeline that brought, with tow paths laid along the banks, ox-drawn cargo boats from Port Ostia on the coast. Roma's grain from the African provinces and tribute money and all sorts of articles of the luxury trade that Roma desired came up the Tiber, as Roma produced almost nothing of its own to live on.

Set on its seven crowded hills, the immense metropolis of Roma still looked as though it were reigning undisputably as the Queen City over all the earth. His natal city of Glevum shrank to a speck compared to what Roma had to offer. Everything was larger, and larger, and continued to grow until it was stupendous, beyond comprehension in size, scale, and magnificence. How could mere men of flesh and blood build such mighty things as he saw everywhere he looked within the huge, encircling walls built by the Emperor Aurelian? Boys do not think that way, but he was feeling it just the same, that this City was like none other, and that hands other than human hands had raised it to the sky.

While Lancio and his servant tended the horses, the father took him to see the imperial palace. With the emperor re-locating his residence and court to Ravenna permanently, they found the Praetorian guards on duty at the gates much reduced in numbers and also very relaxed in their military bearing. Rufus Quartus had no trouble gaining entrance for himself and his son when the guards were presented with his credentials. The captain of the guards knew the Emperor would not be returning any time soon anyway, as everyone in the Praetorian Guard knew he hated and feared Roma's rioting mobs, who would put the torch to the city sooner than the Goths of the North if they weren't given enough public doles. With an absentee emperor so spineless as this one, there was no longer any real danger him showing up and being assassinated under their purview. If they had had more time, they could have gone anywhere in the palace complex and peered into the most private bedrooms and baths and dining rooms of the imperial suite. Just as long as they carried nothing out with them, they had free run of the whole palace, which stretched, room upon room, hall after hall, over a vast section of the hillside, with gardens, pools, fountains, walks and walls all around.

Honorius was taken to everything else he could want to see, the Coliseum, which his father explained to him was the site of thousand of Christians being mauled to death by lions and wolves and bears, not just men and youth, but mothers with babies and children of all ages torn apart while the crowds cheered and demanded more such sights. Finally, a good emperor stopped the persecution and the arena was no longer used for such "entertainments." Honorius also was taken to see the Circus Maximus, an amphitheatre where 300,000 spectators watched the horse and chariot races. Finally, they went to tour the wharves and warehouses and pepper barns in the shipping quarter along the Tiber.

Here Rufus Quartus Urbanus, with Honorius looking on proudly, concluded agreements with the authorities to maintain the pepper allotment for Britannica on a yearly basis. He was satisfied it would go well, and was pleased to think his long trip with his young son had gone well and was not in vain. It was a delight to him to show his young son the remaining glories of Roma, which he knew his son would remember all his life and would be memories he could pass down to his own sons in later years.

After suffering wave after wave of persecution from pagan Roman emperors before Emperor Constantine, Christians no longer longer met secretly in homes or even in underground caves and catacombs, but in many grand churches in Roma and throughout the Empire. Honorius climbed up to a high balcony and dropped a denarius in one of the great basilicas. It took so long to reach the bottom floor, he scarcely heard it.

Next to last day of their stay, as the light waned and dusk enfolded Roma, Honorius went out on the balcony of his room in the ancestral Julian mansion high on the Palatine Hill overlooking the city.

It was a magnificent palace, and it was no wonder he had quickly grown fond of it and all the nice things about it. There was nothing its size in Britannica, he knew that for sure. It dwarfed even the big fortress in Londinium.

He did not want to leave Roma with his father and Lancio, he realized. Glevum, stuck far out on the edge of the Empire, seemed such a poor and pathetic place after what he had seen the last few days in the glorious center of Roma. His father was anxious to conclude his business and leave and return to their country, but he was not! He wanted to live in Roma forever! He loved the great city, far more now than his own home. Here was everything a boy would possibly want--excitements of such a number and magnitude he knew he could never exhaust them. If only his father would change his mind and let him stay, attend school at one of the church schools he had seen in their sight-seeing. So he had begged his father to put him in one of them, but his father would not even speak of it. He was sent to his room, and so here he was: angry, and even frustrated. He hated the idea of returning home, now that he had tasted of the beauty, excitement and greatness of imperial Roma. Glevum! The very name made him want to spit!

He had an idea. He would run away! But what would he eat, where would he sleep? He had seen the hundreds of poor, beggar boys in the streets. They sold little things to the crowd, which dealers gave them to sell, or things they had stolen in the many big houses that were shut up by their absent owners with boards across the windows, or they just begged anyone who looked like he might have some money. Would they like it if he tagged along with them? Of course, they wouldn't! They didn't have enough to feed themselves, much less feed him too. Besides, he didn't like their smell, and the dark, filthy rags they wore, and their thin faces and clutching hands. He liked the fine, clean, purple-bordered clothes his father gave him, and the clean hot and cold and tepid water baths, and the good food and the soft, scented blankets of his bed at night. These things were necessary to civilized life. He didn't want to join the animals in the dirt! So what was he to do? He felt trapped, he couldn't live on his own without money, and his father kept all their money, except for a denarius or two that he gave him each week!

A thought crossed his mind. He could do something after all. Rise up in the night and steal the money bag, and then he'd have plenty to live on for a long time! He could be his own master, with no one telling him what to do. He would be wondrously free, like a bird is free to fly anywhere it likes in the wide sky. The thought kept him awake after he lay down in his bed and the servants had left the room. Before the dawn, he was still awake, and then he crept out of bed, careful not to wake anyone with a noise, and made his way to his father's chamber.

He knew where his father kept his money purse, because he had seen his father put it away time after time when he retired, at home and on the road, and so he found it easily in the dim light that entered the cracks of the shuttered window. He had just turned the corner of the door and shutting it softly when his arm was seized in a viselike grip. At the same moment the money bag was taken from him, and he was pulled right up to someone.

Honorius wasn't going to let someone manhandle him like this, so he struggled,twisting his body and pulling with all his might to get his hand free, but he felt an arm clenched around his body, lifting him up. .

He was taken down the hall, someone's hand over his mouth as he was carried. "He was going to cry, "How dare you!" to him, but Lancio's mouth was still over his mouth, and Lancio spoke instead.

"If you want your father to come and discipline you severely for this, it is for you to choose, Master Honorius. But if you will go to bed and sleep, I will put the money back and say nothing in the morning. Well, what do you choose?"p> Set down in his room, he was enraged and could not think what to say at first.

"I will put the money back for you, and you can go to bed, and nothing will be said. Will you like that? Otherwise, your father will hear everything you did, and surely you will be disciplined. Well?"

In a movement too swift to see, Lancio stepped aside, seized the lampstand, and also grabbed Honorius.

Honorius felt Lancio's arm wrap around him, but he still had his head free so he opened his mouth and bit as hard as he could on the arm.

Lancio did not even flinch as Honorius's teeth sank in. Lancio swept Honorius up as though he were a pillow's goose feather and laid him on his bed, though he was kicking and struggling all he could in Lancio's iron grasp. But it was to no avail. Honorius was soon exhausted, and he began to weep. "Let me go," he whimpered. "You're hurting me."

He felt Lancio's grasp relax, and then let him go.

"Do you want me to tell your father what you did? I could do that now, for you are still fighting me, are you not?"

"No, don't tell him!" Honorius gasped, getting his breath back. "I's sorry! I will do what you say, sir!" He lay there, his chest heaving, trying to think of what to do. But Lancio seemed to have total control of him, for he was strong like an ox. There seemed no way to elude him or get around him. But still Honorius did not give up. He would think of something, he decided.

"I promise I won't cause any more trouble," Honorius said. "Please go now and sleep. I will go to sleep now, and you need not stay with me any longer. I am used to sleeping without servants, for I am a big boy now."

"I will not go far, for you may change your mind," said Lancio grudgingly. "Oh, no, I won't! I promised you. I will go to sleep now, just as I said!" He heard Lancio sigh, then go out, shutting the door. Waiting a bit, Honorius got out of bed and slipped over to the door to listen. He thought he heard Lancio's breathing on the other side, so he knew he couldn't get out that way.

Honorius had already thought of another way, which would be a bit harder, but he knew he could still do it. He was on the second floor, which let down to the garden behind the house. If only he could slide down far enough he could reach a tree beneath. From there he could climb to the ground. He waited a while, which was just before dawn, and took his bed sheets to the balcony outside his window. Tying end to end of the sheets to make a rope that he then tied to the balcony railing, he was soon sliding down to the top of the almond tree. With one hand he held to the sheet, while the other searched for a big enough branch to bear his weight. He thought he found one big enough, and swung over to it. There was a snapping sound, then he tumbled, and found himself a moment later on the ground. He got to his feet, and though his tunic was all mussed up with leaves and twigs, he felt no bones were broken. A moment later however, his arms and legs began to burn all over where the bark had scraped them.

He danced up and down, trying not to cry out.

Gradually, the fire died down, and he limped away, for his ankle seemed to have been knocked on a limb on the way down. He felt like crying, but he kept his mouth clenched and tried to be a legionarire instead. He still had to get out of the garden. Where was the back gate, if there was one? He had to find it, or else try to scale the high wall by first climbing a tree nearest the wall with his paining ankle.

He found the tree that was close enough to the wall, after skirting as far as he could around the buildings that could hold stableboys and other grounds servants, who were asleep but could have watchdogs that would tear him to pieces. Up he climbed, careful this time to pick branches that could hold his weight. He reached over and caught the top of the wall, and cut his hand on a glass shard stuck along with thousands of others in it to keep robbers out. He hadn't thought of that! But he couldn't go back, he had to go on regardless. What to do. He ripped off part of his upper tunic and covered his hands, than climbed over onto the wall. Then what? He had to get back down the high wall. He walked along it, feeling his way, hoping to find something he could grasp onto that would let him lower himself far enouhg to catch onto something else. The moonlight fortunately was bright and helped him. He found a brick facing on the other side that was old enough to have cracks he could get his fingers into. Slowly, he let himself down, feeling his way for more such cracks. Then after some progress, he found no more cracks as far as he could stretch his fingers out to search. What was he to do? He really felt like crying now! He must have lost his grip for suddenly he felt a rush against his chest and knees, and then a big bump as he landed at the bottom of the wall, crashing onto a bush that shielded his fall but threw him forward onto his face.

His breath knocked out, he lay gasping, crawling, and trying to get to his feet. Finally, he was on his feet, dazed and cut and filthy and his clothes torn up and covered with dirt. Stumbling, with his eyes choked with tears and dirt that covered his face, he moved forward across the forecourt of a neighboring palace and didn't see what he was getting himself into. Boys as ragged and dirty as Honorius were busy running about the main entrance pavement, scrambling to grab the stolen items from the house either thrown down by the boy on the porch roof into the shrubbery or, if too fragile to survive the fall, let down by a rope in a bag.

One of the little thieves saw Honorius and thought he was someone else and thrust a silver and gold handled alabaster vase into his hands. "Hey, is that you, Nepos? So you decided to come in with us after all? This is too heavy with the other stuff I got to carry, you take this out!" the boy ordered him.

Honorius, half his senses knocked out of him, dumbly obeyed and carried the heavy item away toward the street. There he was joined by other boys, running with their items, and they hustled him down the street, and into an alley, and between houses and, still running, led him into an abandoned building, that might have been a bathhouse at one time, for it had pools in most every room, only they were dry and filled with rubbish.

Scrambling with Honorius in tow down some steps, they entered the basement, and steps led them further down into the gloom of a buried temple of the goddess Juno, the walls covered with flaking red and gold paint and arcane symbols known only to long-gone priests. Here fine, dining room candles gathered from palaces were lit and set in wall niches by the street gang's leader, Lupus "The Wolf," the robber boy who was biggest and smartest of the group. His mother, a Forum prostitute, had served the cooks and butlers in the kitchens of great houses and told him many things he later remembered. He organized the nightly forays into the boarded up palaces of absentee patricians who had lately moved to Constantine's City, taking what they could on board ship but leaving most household goods to follow them in cargo ships--which were few and far between in these days and took months to find, hire and make the long voyage. Lupus kept his contacts on the wharves, boys who listened to the talk of captains and sailors, and told him which regal houses would be right for picking. Most often, the patricians took their household slaves with them too, leaving their belongings in the the watch of often drunken, sleeping caretakers who were slaves and not apt to care about thieves breaking in.

Coming episode:

Star and Twin Worlds Timelines

Brief Account of the Twin Earths

Bridges of Destiny

Star Map of the Re-Located Earth, Twin Earth Atlas, Stellar and Terrestrial

Argo, Ships of the Line

Volume IV, Appendix, Part I

Volume IV, Appendix, Part II

Map of Holland America

Extraterrestrials and Terrestrials

The Algol Invasion & Client Species

The Star-Stones, the Evil, Scheming, Destroying Jewels of Fire, & Other Fatal Jems:

Universe Terminator: The Sardius, or Carnelian, Red Star, Stone of Fire, Fiery Stone, the First Alien Entity, Wormwood, Wormstar, Retrostar

Curses attached to certain diamonds and other precious jems--are they fiction or real? The late Vera Boch beautifully illustrated the malevolence and deadliness that lurked in the most alluring and costly jewels:

The Topaz

The Black Crystal and the White Ship

Josef Dugashvilli (the Left's darling dictator, Joseph Stalin) codenamed Washington, "Carthage." Ancient Carthage, thanks to Cato's constant harping in the Roman Senate, was finally utterly destroyed after a couple previous attempts, thus eliminating a chief rival to Roman power in Africa and Spain. But there is another name that is more appropriate for Chocolate City on the Potomac--Babylon! What is "Babylon" doing now to bail itself out of its trillions of dollars of misappropriated and politically-milked public funds? Cash for Clunkers generates a few billions to prop up a nine to fourteen trillion dollar deficit that is coming due in the next ten years? Who, pray tell, is going to pay all that back? Who can pay that much back? Nobody! We have to borrow even to pay the interest. The note held mostly by Communist China is going to come due--what then? Will we just have to turn all our country over to the collection agents of hostile countries to whom we have sold our future?

Showing signs of collapse and futility on several prior occasions, the brain wave of the Obama administration went completely flat at the time of the Cairo Speech and remained there since. It also depicts the direct effect on the general Human Intelligence Quotient by the vampires of environmentalism and Global Warming propaganda (which are based on bad science mixed with hysteria mixed with toxic socialist political opportunism). Human Civilization cannot continue, obviously, with so little brain activity--but Government can, because like the organisms in a cess pool, it requires no air, no light, no intelligence, and in septic conditions it not only survives it flourishes, grows, expands, devours, multiplies by the hour, like a gigantic, malignant cancer. There is no chemo or radiation treatment or Constitution and Bill of Rights that can stop Government, once wicked people seize control of it, or are voted in by masses of grasping, lazy people seeking welfare benefits of all kinds. Together they conspire in the looting the Public Treasury and overtaxing the real producers of wealth, bleeding the cash cow white and ultimately killing it like a giant vampire. It is irreversible, once it invades the unsuspecting host. In the terminal stages of a society, only the elite on tip is doing well, while masses of ragged, starving, disenfranchised people are pressed, groaning with hunger and misery, against the windows of the palace, looking in as the Government has itself a ball while they perish in the cold, babies dying even in their mother's arms! Ask Romanians what it was like! Ask the Russians! The Latvians! The Lithuanians! Ask all oppressed peoples, oppressed by Big Government grown into a blood-sucking vampire! "Sic semper tyrannis!" "Thus Ever to tyrants"--Virginia's State Motto (Is it still in the Virginia State Seal, or has the divine O.H.B. had it removed by Federal Marshals? In any case, he will have the Supreme Court, with Ms. Sotomayor, his implanted judicial vamp's deciding vote, rule it unconstitutional and thrown out.)

A Shot Across the Bow of the current administration in Washington (the New Babel or Babylon):

"Babel was a stupid and arrogant attempt to build a culture without God. We are living in the wreckage of those tower builders."--Ann Paton, February 17, 2008, published in War Cry, Salvation Army Magazine, April 12, 2008

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