........the preparation was going slowly. He’d been organsing the other slaves moving in some basic furniture to the rear of the large town house that ran behind the Scriptorium and tabernae. Unfortunately several times it seemed to him that some of the clumsy oafs were trying to demolish the place! At least they were nearly finished for now. He was just about to sit down for a well-deserved rest accompanied by cheese and bread and a drink of red when he heard strange voices towards the front of the property. ‘Oh Jupiter, what is it now?’ he sighed to himself. He got up and frowned his way to the voices.

When he arrived in the shop-front, he was confronted by a dark-haired young man who seemed to be measuring up the walls and young nervous-looking woman, foreign by her features and dress, who stood just inside the doorway.

‘And what may I ask is your business here sir?’ Lurcio first addressed the young man.
‘Ah-hah! Greetings my noble lord! Today you have the good fortune to have discovered the greatest fresco painter in all Capania!’ Still staring at the blank wall holding his arms spread out, Del Piero continued. ‘Already I can see Aeneas greeting his mother Venus in the guise of a beautiful maiden huntress in the woods of Phoenicia.’ Then he spun around to face Lurcio with a confident smile. ‘For you my lord a special introductory deal, and I use you as my first reference, what d’you say?’

Lurcio sighed heavily and raised his eyes to the ceiling, how many times head he been subjected to the old being-mistaken-for-the-master ruse by passing artisans and charletons. ‘I see.’ he gruffed. ‘And you my girl?’ He listened impassively to Hypatia’s plea and then closed his eyes momentarily as she burst into sobs ‘Oh good grief’ he thought to himself ‘Will I ever get some peace?’ Wishing he was back at the relative tranquility of villa, he motioned to Pricus one of the other slaves to keep an eye on the pair, and then made his way to the back of the house where he had last seen the master. Meanwhile Del Piero had crossed and put his arm around Hypatia ‘There, there my girl, it gonna be alright, just leave things up to Del Piero’ he tutted. He had hardly understood a word she’d said but he was ever the opportunist when in the vicinity of pretty face or the sniff of a job.

Vincent was leaning and grinning over the wall of the main terrace that looked out over the coastal road running along the town walls. He’d spotted young Julius the son of a friend erratically riding out on his new chariot, terrorising a couple of slaves and their timber-laden mule, and then threating to to crash into the sea. ‘JULIUS I SHOULD HITCH-UP A FEW DOLPHINS INSTEAD OF HORSES, IF YOU’RE BENT ON IMITATING OLD NEPTUNE!’ Vincent roared down with laughter as the lad scattered a herd of sheep and sped out of sight.

Lurcio loudly cleared his throat so to attract his master’s attention and then announced the presence of the job seekers.