Interlude
Exploratory Spacecraft 67(&%#@, Several Hundred Znargs Above the Teutoburg Forest
“Can you find any pattern to what is pulling the poor creature hither and yon?” asked Blossom of her mate, in clicks, whistles, and sung notes.
“Not yet,” answered Red, frantically turning dials, pushing buttons, and hammering keys, “but he seems to be heading to the large city on that peninsula with the points at the end. He is still getting farther and farther in time from his own people.”
* * *
Appius Calvus found himself looking out at what remained of the city of his youth through the eyes of some kind of beggar. At least he must be a beggar, he’s so poor and dirty.
The beggar, if that was what he was, seemed to think in a kind of decayed Latin. Decayed or not, Calvus could generally follow along. He chose, this time, not to reveal himself to his host.
It was daytime and yet almost no one was to be seen. He spotted the Mausoleum of Augustus, which had been completed when Calvus was a boy. It was overgrown with weeds and had an air of decay about it different from that of a cemetery.
In front of the Mausoleum there had been two bronze pillars, but Calvus could see that only one was standing. He stopped to read, puzzling out the abbreviations:
Below is a copy of the acts of the Deified Augustus by which he placed the whole world under the sovereignty of the Roman people, and of the amounts which he expended upon the state and the Roman people, as engraved upon two bronze columns which have been set up in Rome.
At the age of nineteen, on my own initiative and at my own expense, I raised an army by means of which I restored liberty to the republic, which had been oppressed by the tyranny of a faction. For which service the senate, with complimentary resolutions, enrolled me in its order, in the consulship of Gaius Pansa and Aulus Hirtius, giving me at the same time consular precedence in voting; it also gave me the imperium.…
That was all the time the beggar gave Calvus to read.
There was a morning sun on the left side of Calvus’ host. This let him know they were moving south. They passed a temple on the right, dedicated to some god Calvus had never heard of, an Aurelius.
His host took a left, leading them toward an area Calvus knew well, the Campus Agrippae, though he didn’t remember it being so weed grown and tawdry.
He began to see people then, though no one greeted his beggar. Neither did the beggar greet them. Though they never formed what could have been called a crowd, the numbers grew greater as they continued on to the area of the Forum.
At the Forum there were many sights Calvus did not recognize. One he did recognize was the Curia Julia, the Senate House, the very seat of the Roman Empire. It was subtly different in appearance but recognizably the same building.
What was very different was the smell; someone was using the Senate House to house cattle.