Fabius andjunius are normal, compared to him. My uncles quarrel with each other," I explained to Albia. Fabius thinks Junius cheated him over his share of the farm when my grandfather died; Junius is certain that Fabius will ruin everything through his unwise friendship with a neighbour's wife; Junius got depressed when the walnut harvest failed and he hates his brother's plans for intensive chicken-rearing he is a filthy-tempered rat's tail anyway. Fabius knows he could be something big in the world if he could just find the right medium for his so-far-undetermined talents. Junius is looking for love, specifically; he thought he had found it but he had to go to market with the eggs because it was his turn that week, there are a lot of eggs because Fabius really has cracked it with his chickens in baskets, and the girl left town." I ran out of breath.
Auntie Phoebe told me the girl Junius wants is engaged to a sewer contractor anyway," Helena put in.
Great-Auntie Phoebe, my grandfather's freedwoman, keeps the farm together while the brothers are messing about. She stanches the blood when they attempt suicide. She keeps them apart with a pitchfork when they try to kill each other."
I see!" Raising her finely feathered eyebrows, Albia went back to playing with my daughters. I took Helena to Maia's house, hoping Uncle Fulvius might still be there. Since he was the elusive one, Fulvius had been and gone. Instead, I ran into Gaius Baebius. Junia was trying to persuade Ma to take the invalid back to Rome in her cart. Ma very crisply disabused Junia. She seemed low in spirits; whatever she wanted from Fulvius, he must have been difficult about it. Now that she had talked to her brother, Ma was returning home to the Aventine, but there was no chance she would share the journey with my sister and her whining husband. Ma thought one benefit of being elderly was that she no longer had to be polite about Gaius Baebius. This presupposed she had ever been polite in the first place.
Ah, Marcus!" Rebuffed by Ma, Gaius latched on to me. I am thinking I shall go out to the Damagoras villa and place a formal complaint about the way we were treated. I shall never be the same man again An amateurish cough confirmed it. Junia rounded on me too. You will have to go with him! I cannot put myself in danger among a group of violent pirates, and Gaius is no longer fit to drive." I saw my mother pin her sceptical gaze on Gaius. Wickedly, I heard myself promising to go to remonstrate. I had a fair idea what Damagoras and Cratidas would say if asked for money. I had no intention of antagonising them, but thought I might have another look at the Cilicians for my own purposes.
You ought to have a strong word with Uncle Fulvius too," Junia instructed me. You are the head of the family." Since my grandfather died, that ought to be Fulvius himself, but he declined the duties. From what I knew, he would sell off the busts of our ancestors [had we owned any. Here's poor Mother trying to mediate and bring him back into the family, but he just refused to have anything to do with us. He upset Mother very badly."
I am not upset," lied Ma. She liked to choose for herself when to play helpless.
Do Fabius and Junius really want him back?" I queried.
Fulvius is the clever one," Ma retorted as if the farm needed someone with intelligence. It was true, but I saw that as the very reason why his brothers might be happier if Fulvius stayed in exile.
So what is he doing, Ma, and why has he come to Ostia?"
He never said."
