Julia was there when the report came. She and Augustus were sitting and eating alone in the comfort of his private sitting room, speaking of anything that wasn't serious so that they could take their minds off the chaos that had overtaken both Rome and its borders seemingly out of nowhere over the last two and a half months. News had come from the Mytilene island that the capital had been taken back and its people liberated, and that the local government would be back on its feet and running with some help from the Roman treasury. But to the north, the barbarians were pressing in ever harder, and to the west - well, Marcellus had left just a few weeks ago to head there, chest puffed out in pride and bragging that he would bring back the heads of all of Rome's enemies in the foreign provin
