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Rome

The Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus, Eight Days before the Ides of April, AD238

Caenis wanted to see them elect a new Emperor. She had gone to watch the eunuchs dancing in front of the Temple of Cybele the day before, but had not got tickets for the theatre, and it was days until the next festival.

She had packed a simple meal – bread, cheese, a couple of hard-boiled eggs, some lettuce, and a flask of wine – and invited the old die-cutter to go with her. Although sometimes she let him into her bed for free, she had no great affection for her neighbour. Yet long experience had taught her that she would be bothered less if she were accompanied by a man. To the same end, she had dressed like a respectable woman: a long, plain gown, bands in her hair, sensible sandals, no jewellery or make-up. Many girls would be working the streets during the Festival of Magna Mater, but Caenis had not applied for a permit. It was not that she did not need the money, rather that she thought she had found other ways to raise what was necessary to escape her life, leave Rome, and reinvent herself.