"It will be a strange thing to have the Republic restored after so many years of conflict," Octavian murmured, looking into his wine. "The city will welcome you back as a savior of the old ways." It took an effort for him to look up into Julius's eyes as his general regarded him thoughtfully.

"Perhaps they will," Julius said. "I will have to see how things stand when I'm back." He missed the glimmer of hope in Octavian's eyes as he refilled his cup from a silver jug. "Things change, though," he went on. "I've had time to think on that slow river. I have been granted the chance to raise Rome higher than any other city. I should not waste it."

He felt Octavian's stare and raised his cup in salute.

"Alexander's dreams have fallen into my hands here. In this place, I can see further. We could bring the light of Rome to the world." He smiled, oblivious to Octavian's distress. "Like the Pharos lighthouse," he said. "We could make an empire."

"Does this come from the queen?" Octavian said softly.

Julius glanced at him in puzzlement. "My blood is joined in her. Egypt and I are already one. Rome will come with me." He gestured toward the window with his cup, feeling the wine heat his thoughts. "The years ahead are golden, Octavian. I have seen them."

"Welcome back, sir," Brutus said.

Julius paced up and down the hall of the palace, wincing at every cry from Cleopatra's lips. His son was coming into the world and he could hardly remember being more nervous. Her courtiers had come to wake him in his quarters and he had dressed hurriedly in a toga and sandals, calling for Brutus to attend him.

The two men had come barreling into the meeting hall only to be told that the queen's privacy was not to be interrupted. To Julius's irritation, the door to her chambers was guarded by her own men and he had been left to pace and fret, his empty stomach growling hungrily as the hours wore on. Messengers came and went at the run, carrying steaming pails of water and piles of white linen. Julius could hear the voices of women inside and at intervals Cleopatra cried out in pain. He clenched his fists in frustration and barely noticed the warm tisane that Brutus pressed into his hands.

At dawn, Sosigenes came out, snapping orders for more cloths to a waiting slave. The astrologer was flushed and busy, but a glance at Julius's face brought him up short.

"Your son is coming, Caesar. It is a great omen that he is to be born in the first light of day," Sosigenes said.

Julius gripped his arm. "Is she well? The birth, is it all right?"

Sosigenes smiled and nodded his head. "You should rest, Consul. You will be called in soon enough. My queen is young and strong, as her mother was. Rest."

He returned the grip on his arm with a brief pressure of his hand, then he walked past the guards. A long scream could be heard then, which made Julius groan.

"By the gods, I can't bear it," he said.

"Were you like this when Julia was born?" Brutus asked him.

Julius shook his head. "I don't remember. No, I wasn't, I think. But I am older now. If the child dies, how many other chances will I have?"

"What will he be called then, this son of yours?" Brutus asked, in part to take Julius's mind off the chanting they could hear within. He had no idea what strange rituals were being enacted and it showed the depth of Julius's agitation that he had hardly noticed them.

The question seemed to calm Julius a little. "His name will be Ptolemy Caesarion," he said, with pride. "Two houses joined."

"You will show him in the forum," Brutus prompted.

Julius's face lit up. "I will. As soon as he can be moved, I will take him home. The king of Syria has invited me to visit him and I will take Cleopatra there. Then Crete, perhaps, or Cyprus, Greece, and home at last. We will stand in the forum in a Roman summer and I'll hold the boy up to the crowd for them to see."

"There will be a struggle ahead if you still intend a dynasty, an empire," Brutus murmured.

Julius shook his head. "Not now, Brutus. Can't you see it? The legions are loyal to me and the Senate will be handpicked. Whether they realize it or not, the empire is already begun. Who is left to resist my claim, after all? Pompey was the last of them."

Brutus nodded, his eyes dark with thought.

An hour later Sosigenes came bustling out to them, surprising the guards. The man was beaming as if personally responsible for the events of the night.

"You have your son, Caesar, as I said you would. Will you come in?"

Julius clapped a hand on his shoulder, making him wince. "Show me," he said.

Brutus did not follow and was left alone to spread the happy news to the legions that had gathered outside in the dawn.

Cleopatra lay on her bed with the hangings tied back to give her air. She looked exhausted and dazed, with shadows under her eyes. Her skin was pale and as Julius rushed over to her a slave girl dried the perspiration from her skin, dabbing gently with a cloth.

There were many others in the room, though Julius didn't notice them. Cleopatra's breasts were bared and against one was the baby he had hoped for, the tiny face lost as it pressed against the yielding flesh.

Julius sat on the bed and leaned over them, ignoring the slave girl as she moved away. Cleopatra opened her eyes.

"My beautiful queen," Julius murmured, smiling. "Sosigenes said it was a boy."

"The old fool is very proud of himself," Cleopatra said, wincing as the baby clenched her nipple in its gums. "You have a son, Julius."

Gently, he reached up and smoothed a tendril of hair from her forehead.

"I have waited all my life for you," he said to her.

Tears filled her eyes and she laughed at her own reaction. "I seem to cry at the slightest thing," she said, then grimaced as the baby shifted once more. For an instant, her nipple was revealed before the hungry mouth found it and clamped on, sucking busily. "He is strong," she said.

Julius looked at the tiny figure half concealed by cloths. Fresh from the womb, the baby was wrinkled, his skin a shade of blue that faded even as Julius watched. A smear of blood lay on his head, mingled with hair as black as his mother's.

"He'll have to be if he stays that ugly," Julius said, laughing as Cleopatra swatted at him with a free hand.

"He is beautiful," she said, "and he is ours. He will be a great king, Sosigenes has sworn it. Greater than you or I, Julius."

He kissed her gently and she sagged back into the pillows, her eyes closing. Julius felt a presence at his shoulder and turned to look into the stern gaze of one of the royal midwives.

"Yes?" he said.

Cleopatra sighed without opening her eyes. "She does not speak Latin, Julius."

The woman gestured to Julius and the door, muttering under her breath.

"I understand," he said. "I will return when you have had a chance to rest."

He took her hand and squeezed it, before standing. He looked down on his family and thanked his gods for having lived long enough to see it.