Hannibal's children

Afterword

His face stiff, Titus Norbanus passed the message to his officers. He was furious but already his mind was churning. The patrician fool thought he was bested, but Norbanus was not the sort of man to regard any setback as final. There was still opportunity here.

"He takes much upon himself," said Cato.

"I thought I was the only one who noticed," Norbanus said. "He is one man, sitting beside the queen of Egypt, and he wants us to join him! I am surprised he didn't tell us to give the gold back to the cities we took it from."

"Not likely," said Lentulus Niger. "And I'm not of a mind to help Scipio make himself king of Egypt."

"My thoughts exactly," Norbanus said.

"So what is our course?" Cato asked. "We're a long way from anywhere here."

"Before I speak," Norbanus said, "I want assurances of your loyalty. In the future, men will say that I took unlawful action because my proconsular authority was terminated the moment we left Hamilcar's service."

The officers brooded on the matter. Each would have preferred to be the leader, but they were as jealous of one another as they were of Norbanus. And he seemed to have a plan, which none of them did.

"I think we have no choice," Niger said. "This army must have a leader or it will fall apart and we will all be killed. Only the Senate can appoint a new proconsul, and it will be a long time before we have any contact with Rome." A grin spread across his face. "And now it's truly Rome our orders will be coming from, eh?" Applause greeted these words. "So I say we swear our loyalty to Titus Norbanus until we hear otherwise from the Senate." One by one, the other officers all gave their assent.

"That's settled, then," Norbanus said. "North of us is Alexandria. To the west is Carthage and its territories. South is nothing but more of Egypt, then unknown land. The only direction to go is east, through the Sinai to Asia. Somewhere out there we will find a fleet to carry us to Italy. Carthage has a powerful navy, but it will be called back to defend against a Roman invasion or to carry war to Sicily. There are many fleets to the east: the island of Rhodes has a good one, so do many of the Greek cities of Asia Minor. If we encounter the Seleucids or the Parthians we will fight them and we will conquer. Maybe we'll go all the way to Greece. It's just a short sail from there to Italy."

"It's a long march you propose," Cato said.

"So it is. When have Roman legionaries ever feared a little walking? But we have arms and fighting men and gold. Between them, we will make our way back to the Seven Hills and our story will last as long as Rome herself." He looked around at them, and he was happier then he imagined he would be. He was truly on his own, in command of a powerful Roman army, and not even the Senate to answer to. Here, he knew, lay his destiny, which he had always known would be a great one. Soon he would be known as the greatest Roman who ever lived. He would crush Marcus Scipio and his whole patrician clan.

"Tomorrow," he told his officers, "we cross the river. Then we march east."