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successor be better?’
    ‘Then kill the whole snake if cutting off the head will not do.’
    ‘To eliminate the Sassanids we would need an army ten times the size of the one we can muster, Petrus, and even then we might not succeed, and could we hold that which we take?’
    ‘Rome cowed Persia once and Alexander ruled there.’
    ‘Then that,’ Justinus exclaimed, seeking to inject a lighter vein, ‘is what you need, another Alexander. It is well to remember when you speak of Rome what happened to Crassus, not Trajan and Pompey. Crassus lost an entire army and his own life fighting Persia and if Trajan and Pompey did better, neither sought to keep what they had won.’
    ‘Perhaps if they had?’
    ‘Then we would have even more trouble on our border than we have now. Enough, sad to say, I must leave you two young folk to talk, I have to do my nightly rounds.’
    Petrus did not speak until Justinus had said his farewells, whichincluded the admonition that now Flavius was back they would have to return him to Excubitor duty. Again the expression on the face of Petrus was of more interest, as he gave his uncle a look that bordered on disappointment, very brief and soon replaced by blandness when he realised Flavius had observed it.
    ‘Perhaps I will take Flavius to meet some of my friends.’
    ‘Spare him.’
    ‘What, Uncle, a fellow just back from the wars? If he is anything like the other Excubitor officers, then he is in need of the comfort only a woman can provide.’
    ‘Not the kind of woman to whom you will introduce him,’ Justinus barked over his shoulder as he departed.
    ‘Precisely the kind.’
    Petrus said this softly, as he indicated the servants who had attended upon their meal should leave them alone. Then he leant forward to refill the goblet that sat before Flavius.
    ‘Why have you brought me back, Petrus? Clearly Justinus did not initiate it.’
    ‘Believe me, it was for a purpose.’
    ‘Which is?’
    ‘My uncle trusts you.’
    ‘Justinus trusts many people.’
    ‘Not always a wise course, even for a man of an artless nature. But put that aside and ask yourself what is coming here in Constantinople. Anastasius is fading, he has more ailments than his strength can resist. When he dies, and that could be this very night, then who will become emperor and what will become of my uncle?’
    ‘Do you not mean what will become of you?’
    ‘I admit to the concern. What is necessary is to ensure that whoeverassumes the purple is in some way indebted to Justinus, so much that he may even rise to a position greater than that he now holds.’
    ‘Tell me, Petrus, do you think Justinus could have stayed as
comes
Excubitorum
without you to aid him?’
    ‘Secretaries are nor hard to come by.’
    ‘I did not have you down as a man given to self-deprecation. He has held his position with your aid and he will need that whatever he aspires to.’
    ‘The problem with my uncle, Flavius,’ Petrus replied bitterly, ‘is that he aspires to so very little, so I must do so on his behalf.’
    In the silence that followed, Flavius had the feeling that try as he might he would never be able to see into the mind of the man he had just dined with. If Petrus said he had an aim there was ever the feeling that much lay beyond it and undisclosed. What he said next did come as a surprise.
    ‘In order to protect him from his own lack of ambition, or indeed a need to secure his back, I require that you aid me. Thus I engineered your return.’
    ‘Me!’
    ‘I am engaged in some very delicate negotiations that I hope will secure a bright future for us all. To proceed I need with me someone who can make sure that I am not a victim of the secret knife yet who will not disclose to anyone what is said and to whom.’
    ‘And I am that person?’
    ‘Yes, Flavius, you are, and before you protest let me say what is important. I believe it to be true and in doing so I will be putting my life in your hands, for there are any number