Scandal takes a Holiday

No, Aulus. Quintus stays with Claudia and the baby." Gaius Camillus Rufius Constantinus, our new nephew aged two months, was making his presence felt. The world and all the planets revolved around this baby. It could be why Helena's other brother was very keen to leave the family home. Aulus is coming on his way to university. He expressed an interest in law; Papa seized the moment and Aulus is being packed off to Athens."

Greece! And studying? We are talking about Aelianus?" Aulus Camillus Aelianus was the unmarried son of a senator, with money in his pocket and a carefree outlook; I could not see him gravely attending jurisprudence lectures under a fig tree at an antique university. His Greek was awful, for one thing. Can't he be a lawyer in Rome?" That would be more useful to me. Expert knowledge for which I did not have to pay was always welcome.

Athens is the best place." Well, it was traditionally the place to send awkward Romans who did not quite fit in. I chuckled. Are we certain he is going? Do you and I have to check that he goes on the boat?" At a little short of thirty, the favourite pursuits of the noble Aulus Camillus Aelianus were hunting, drinking and gymnastics, all done to excess. There must be other, equally vigorous and disreputable habits, which I tried not to discover. That way, I could assure his parents I knew of no nasty secrets.