CHAPTER SEVEN
A little more than three miles east of the city's walls, Decimus and the evocatively silent Gnaeus stood underneath a large Poplar tree and eyed the walled compound that once belonged to the deceased, Spurius Lavinus. The villa sat off the main road leading to Rome, the Via Ostiense, in the midst of a stand of Poplar trees. The villa and its surrounding buildings were extensive. The Lavinii were very rich. Very old. Very powerful. Unlike the plebian families who controlled Ostia, the patrician Spurius Lavinus did not live in the city. The power he had coveted, as did his entire family, rested in Rome. Ostia was a city. Rome was an empire.
Behind the heavy looking walls of the estate, the large villa rose two floors above the walls. The walls were plastered smooth with a pin
