Caelius nodded. "And we all know one outcome of his father's failure. The Senate looked around for someone else to put an end to the pirate problem. Pompey got the commission and-came down on the pirates like a tidal wave. His own tide has been rising ever since."

"But you're taking us astray," said Cicero. "Gordianus doesn't want to hear about Pompey. He wants to know about Marc Antony. Well, he's no Pompey, but Caesar seems to think he's competent. As you see, if Marc Antony has any military acumen, then it must have come from his grandfather. But there's also a strong element of his father in him. Antony's charming, affable, boisterous, and entirely too reckless. Of course, some of that may be due to the unfortunate influence of his stepfather."

"His stepfather?" I said.

Cicero looked rueful. "Well, it's hardly Antony's fault that his mother made that disastrous second marriage and tied her fortunes to such a loser. I suppose Julia thought she was marrying up, since Lentulus had been a consul, was a patrician like herself-" "Lentulus? You mean Antony's stepfather was -" "Yes, 'Legs' Lentulus," said Cicero with loathing in his voice, "so called for pulling up his toga to bare his legs like a schoolboy in for a strapping when his fellow senators put him on trial for embezzling public money. A man so flagrantly corrupt that he was finally expelled from the Senate – and so persistent that he managed to worm his way back in again. Superstitious as well; some charlatan fortune-teller convinced him that he was destined to become dictator because of a few lines of doggerel in the Sibylline Books. That's how Lentulus got involved with Catilina and his traitorous clique. We all know how that ended."

Indeed we did. It had happened in the year that Cicero was consul. The so-called conspiracy of Catilina had been ruthlessly put down; under Cicero's authority, Lentulus and a number of others had been executed without a formal trial The Best People had lauded Cicero for his decisiveness in saving the Republic; many among the populists had condemned him as a murderous tyrant. A backlash had followed, culminating in the vengeful legislation masterminded by Clodius to send Cicero into exile. The Senate had eventually rescinded the exile; Cicero was a powerful player on the stage in Rome again; and Clodius was dead…

"It's ten years since Catilina," I said quietly.

"Yes, and for ten years Marc Antony has carried a grudge against me," said Cicero. "He's never come to terms with the hard fact that his stepfather had to die. Antony was only twenty at the time. Passionate young men can't always be reached by reason. They can carry resentments for a long time." Cicero sighed, whether from emotion or dyspepsia I couldn't tell. "I've heard that he even claims that I refused to hand over the body to his mother after Lentulus was strangled, and Julia had to come begging to my wife to intercede. Nonsense! An obscene lie! I saw to it that the bodies of all the conspirators were given proper burial." Cicero winced and pressed his hand to his belly. He surveyed what remained of the meal before him as if to identify the guilty dish which had set off his indigestion.

Antony's grandfather, his father, his stepfather – they had all risen to glory and had all ended in ruin. The world is like a spinning disc, driving men and women to the edge and then hurling them this way and that into the void beyond its whirling rim. Most are never seen again, but some manage to grab hold of the edge and claw their way back to the centre, not once but again and again. Cicero was one of those. So was Caelius.

"You've explained his lineage," I said. "What about Antony himself?"

"He fell in with a bad crowd – Clodius and his gang of aristocratic young incorrigibles," said Cicero. "The usual formula for dissipation: high living, radical politics, mad schemes for the future. And no money to finance any of it. Antony's father left an estate so encumbered with debts that Antony refused his inheritance. Technically he started his career as a bankrupt. It was young Gaius Curio who covered his debts. He and Antony were like peas in a pod. Companions in debauchery. Inseparable. So close that their relationship gave rise to all sorts of… nasty rumours. Well, when Curio's father got the bill for Antony's debts, he went through the roof. Came seeking my advice. I told him to grit his teeth, hand over the silver, and forbid his son ever to see Antony again. The next time Antony came calling on Curio the watchmen turned him away. So what did Antony do? Scaled a wall and let himself down through a hole in the roof, directly into Curio's bedroom, like a determined suitor!"

Cicero and Caelius shared a laugh, interrupted by another wince from Cicero as he gingerly clutched his belly. "Anyway, Antony solved his money problems when he married a woman named Fadia, the daughter of a rich freedman. A freedman! The scandal of marrying that far below one's station would have ruined an aristocrat when I was young, but I suppose the incorrigibles in Antony's circle applauded him for flouting convention and landing a big dowry. At least the marriage seems to have taken Antony's mind off Curio; I'm told that Antony fathered several children before Fadia died. Meanwhile, he spent some time in Greece studying oratory, put in some military service in Judaea and Syria, helped put down a revolt against King Ptolemy in Egypt, and eventually hitched himself to Caesar and headed for Gaul. Oh, and a couple of years ago he found time to get married again – this time to his cousin Antonia.

"And now Marc Antony has become one of Julius Caesar's most trusted lieutenants. I suppose he's good at his job if Caesar deems him worthy of grooming for office and sends him back to Rome to stand for quaestor."

While the slaves brought water and wine to refill the cups and cleared away the dishes, I mulled over all that Cicero had told me. Sempronia said that Antony had chased after Clodius with a sword on the Field of Mars, trying to kill him. But according to Cicero, Antony had been a member of Clodius's intimate circle.

"So Antony and Clodius were good friends," I ventured.

"They were," said Caelius, whose age and quicksilver alliances made him more privy to the intimate affairs of the radical generation than Cicero, "until their little misunderstanding over Fulvia."

"Misunderstanding?"

"Apparently Antony misunderstood that Fulvia was Clodius's wife and thought she was free for the taking." Caelius flicked his tongue to catch a drop of wine at the corner of his mouth.

"You mean -"

"Oh, the affair probably meant nothing to Antony. Between his boyhood lover Curio, his two wives, and all the whores of his youth, what was a little fling with Fulvia? But Clodius was furious when he found out. He and Fulvia were still newlyweds, more or less. And Clodius always tended to fly off the handle at the least provocation, didn't he? This was, oh, about six years ago. After that, there was a chill between Antony and Clodius. And then a whole sea between them, when Antony went off to Greece and Judaea. And then several mountain ranges, when Antony headed up to Gaul. He and Clodius never saw eye to eye again. They were never close enough."

"Except on the Field of Mars?" I suggested.

Caelius threw back his head and laughed. "Oh, that! How could I forget? Cicero, you must remember my telling you about it. Last year, during one of the cancelled elections, Antony and Clodius ran into each other, quite by accident, I imagine. They had words. Antony pulls out his sword – brave slayer of a thousand Gauls – and Clodius lets out a shriek and takes off like a scared rabbit. I suppose that made Antony the dog; what could he do but give chase? Of course, if he'd caught Clodius it might have been more the case of the dog and the ferret with the mutt getting his nose bitten and howling all the way back to Gaul."