When Arminiuis left his villa with his son Marcus in tow, he was not sure what to expect.....there had been some disturbing sounds in the City during the night, and the gods alone knew what destruction had been wrought! Caesar's funeral was to be today, and he hoped that all would remain calm with the ordinary citizenry. Perhaps it would be best if he finished this trip quickly, and then returned home as quickly as possible; being no follower of Caesar's, Arminius had no wish to attend the funeral, and wished that the entire matter would just disappear!

The streets were relatively quiet, not quite as crowded as usual with morning shoppers and wandering clientela in search of their patrons for the daily salutation. In the Forum, he was surprised to see that only a few speakers were indulging in rabble-rousing, and was just as happy to get through them to the stretch of commercial enterprises which made up the Velabrum...a low area which was even now often flooded by the Tiber, but contained some of the better markets of Rome.

Arminius stopped first at the shop of a babylonian named Timvaush, but a quick appraisal was enough to convince him that better stock could be had elsewhere. Further along, he saw the market of the greek Callistos, and spent quite some time inside, noting that though the man had some nice offerings, none were what Arminius would consider suitable for his son. All this while, Marcus had stayed in the background, wondering what sort of tutor his father was looking for...had he not finished with the rhetor just this past winter? What more could his father want him to learn?

"Father, there is the shop of Sosias...he has some of the best teachers Rome has..."

Arminius just shook his head, and walked on, at length stopping in a larger and better-kept building than the others. "I think Diomed The Alexandrine has what I'm looking for...let's take a look!"

Inside was a large reception room, with a garden beyond, encircled by cubicles on two different levels. A fountain played in the garden, and was surrounded by flowers of all types. A heavy-set man in colorful eastern robes came forward, and motioned for Arminius and Marcus to take a seat. Wine was brought, and as they drank and ate some assorted fruit and nuts, Arminius told Diomed quietly what he was hoping to find. The older man smiled knowingly, and nodded. "We can certainly supply your needs, senator!"

He rang a small gong and another man appeared, and after a few words with his master, retreated. Soon after, he returned and directed their attention to a series of six young girls, all about 18 years of age, from differing parts of the Roman Sea. Some were tall, others medium...one was a blonde, two red-heads and the remaining three black-haired. Arminius could place one as a gaul--the blonde, but the others he could not guess, save that one of the dark haired ones was probably from Ethiopia.

"You are sure these fit my qualifications, Diomed?" he asked skeptically.

"Oh yes, Senator Terentius...each is well-trained, speaks Latin passably and is most docile. You won't find a virgin among them! Nor any sickness!"

With the penalties for selling under false terms, Arminius was inclined to believe him, but stood up to make his own inspection. He checked the teeth of each carefully, and finding no problems, proceeded to the rest of the physical inspecton...all clean and healthy. He turned to see that Marcus was blushing intensely, and had drained at least one cup of wine...sweat standing out on his brow. When Arminius motioned for him to come closer, Marcus stammered something, and turned even redder, but finally approached, secretly glad that his toga was naturally loose-fitting!

"Well, Marcus...one of these girls is to be your tutor--yours and Yorik's. Choose."

Marcus swallowed several times before he could get any sound to come out, or any thought coherently organized. "Ch..choose? What can I learn from a girl?"

Arminius and Diomed the Alexandrine both laughed loudly at that!

"The arts of Venus, and the art of procreation, my son. Now pick one that pleases you, and we will be off!"

In the end, Marcus chose the tall blonde Gaul, albeit with much blushing.