What they found in Rome was death and destruction. The small villa he called his own no longer existed. Occupying the dark space on the Palatine Hill where his residence once stood was nothing more than the gutted remains and charred ruins of his home. Along with a dozen or more blackened corpses who had perished in the fire.
Surrounding the house and sifting through the charred ruins were a dozen or more of the city"s Vigiles, leather water buckets in hand, moving about slowly and deliberately, dousing out hot spots with cold water. Also present were half a dozen men and officers of the Praetorian Guards. Commanding the guardsmen who had set up a perimeter of the disaster was Darius Milinius, the optio they had met only the night before.
Vigilesoptio"My condolences, tribune. When your s
