John Maddox Roberts - [SPQR Roman Mysteries 8.5] - An Academic Question (3 page)

'But you didn't tell your models that, did you?' I said. 'Too bad. Isaeus might have gone off in a huff but Melanthus would be alive and Athens wouldn't be out two contenders for the next Isthmian Games.'

Guards led the shattered Isaeus off to the local lock-up, followed by a troop of loyal mourners who worshipped him still. Poor Amyntas wept with a combination of relief and grief, and Rhoecus came up and took my hand solemnly. As I said before, it is never a bad thing to have the rich ones on your side.

These things happened at Athens in the year 703 of the City of Rome, the consulship of Servius Sulpicius Rufus and Marcus Claudius Marcellus.