had turned the sea cave into their own bathing pool. The walls were painted with images of Neptune rising from the waves, and small statues of the bearded sea god rested in niches carved into the rock. Toward the end of the summer, when Claudia became adventurous enough to come along, both Agrippa and Juba paddled with us to the cave.
“What do you think makes the water so blue?” Claudia asked. It was as if something was lighting the sea from underneath, turning the water the brilliant shade of cornflowers.
“It’s the opening down there,” Juba said from the boat, pointing to a gap in the rock that was completely submerged. “That’s where the sunlight enters and lights the water from below.”
“First in!” Marcellus shouted, tearing off his tunic and diving into the water in his loincloth. Claudia immediately averted her gaze, but Tiberius and Drusus stripped off their tunics and dove overboard, too.
“Are you coming?” Drusus called to Vipsania.
She stood at the edge of the boat. “It looks a little cold.”
“Nonsense!” Lucius exclaimed. “Let’s go!” He pushed Julia and Vipsania from the boat before they had time to take off their clothes, and Alexander followed.
“Are you going in?” I asked Claudia, stowing my sandals in the prow of the little boat where they wouldn’t get wet.
“In my breastband and loincloth?”
“Why not?” I took off my tunic. “We come here every day.”
She looked uneasily at Agrippa and Juba, who were already swimming.
“Go,” I persisted. “Your husband doesn’t mind. Look at Vipsania. Do you think he would let his daughter do something dishonorable?”
Claudia hesitated, then took off her tunic and slowly, timidly dipped her foot into the water.
“What are you waiting for?” Marcellus cried, pulling her in.
“Marcellus!” she shrieked, but once she was completely wet, she giggled. “It’s warm in here. Like bathwater.”
“You see?” I told her. “It’s not so bad.” I slipped over the side of the boat and swam up to Marcellus. Immediately, Julia was at my side.
“Can you imagine being here at high tide?” Claudia asked worriedly. “The water would rise and we’d all be trapped.”
“It’s not high tide for another few hours,” Marcellus said.
“Besides,” Julia added, “there’s a secret path over there to the mountain.” She indicated the end of the cave, where a limestone platform led to a series of steps.
“Have you ever used it?”
Julia shook her head.
“Then how can you be sure it works?”
“Because we saw a goat come through it once!”
Claudia looked to her brother to confirm the story.
“It’s true,” Marcellus said. “Ask Agrippa if you don’t believe me.”
She swam away to her husband, and Julia said critically, “She’s so nervous.”
“Like all my sisters,” Marcellus said. “Why do you think Antonia and Tonia aren’t here?”
“Because your mother forbids it?” Julia guessed.
Marcellus shook his head. “So long as I’m with them, they’re welcome to come. But they’re afraid. They’d rather be playing their lyres or planting boxwood in the garden.”
Julia wrinkled her nose. “How boring.”
“They’re like my mother,” Marcellus observed. “They enjoy the simple, quiet pleasures.”
And there was something very endearing about their simplicity that evening while everyone played dice in the summer triclinium. Neither Antonia nor Tonia gambled, and Vipsania and Drusus were deemed too young to play. So the four of them sat together on a couch, quietly watching the roll of the dice. Only Alexander, Lucius, and Julia remained in the game. Marcellus whispered eager tips to Julia, and once in a while Juba or Agrippa would look up from their reading to see who was winning.
Julia rolled, and Lucius exclaimed, “Four Vultures!”
She groaned. “I’m finished.”
“But no one’s thrown a Venus,” Lucius protested. “The next roll could be yours.”
“It’s always the next roll with you two. You can keep my denarii in the pot.”
“Your loss,” my brother said temptingly, but she didn’t care. He and Lucius battled it out, and by the time Lucius won, I realized that Marcellus and Julia had disappeared.
I looked around the triclinium. “Where did Marcellus go?”
“With Julia,” Tonia said. “Out to the gardens. I think they’re sitting in the gazebo.”
“Which one?”
“Near the statue of Fortuna. Would you like me to show it to you?”
“Leave them alone,” Juba said, looking up from his reading. “They’ve gone there for a reason.”
“And how do you know?”
“I have eyes.”
I rose swiftly from my chair, and Tonia asked eagerly, “Would you like me to show you?”
“Yes,” I said stubbornly.
“You’re wasting your time.” Juba’s voice grew irritable. “If you think you’re in love with him, you’re no different from any of the girls at the roadside inns. Besides, it’s Julia he’s meant for.”
“So everyone says.”
“So Augustus says.” When Juba saw me pause, he added, “The letter came today. Octavia will probably announce it tomorrow.”
Tonia was still looking up at me; her small hand reached out toward mine. “Shall we go?”
For a moment, I didn’t answer. Then, when the mist finally cleared from my mind, I told her, “Just take me to the baths.”
Tonia chatted about silly things along the way—what color the flowers should be on her balcony and which food I liked better, thrush or quail. She wanted to know if I had ever seen the animal called a giraffe, and told me that I should visit her uncle’s zoo in Rome as soon as we returned. Nothing she talked about was of any importance. She spoke only about simple, insignificant things, and for that I couldn’t have been more thankful.
But when Octavia gathered us all in the triclinium the next morning and announced that she had wonderful news from Iberia, my heart sank in my chest, and I wished I could have as simple a life as Tonia. Instead, I had spent the night hoping that Juba had been wrong, that he had only told me such things to try and torment me. But now, Marcellus’s long-awaited marriage to Julia was going to be made a reality, and Augustus wanted Agrippa to take his place in the ceremony on the auspicious day of December twenty-fourth.
As soon as Octavia spoke the words, my brother looked at me, and Lucius patted my arm in an understanding gesture. For the next four months I would have to be cheerful and happy for Julia, and there would be a dozen things she would want me to help her with: tunics and cloaks, new sandals and bridal jewels. There was more news as well, but I hardly heard it. Marcellus was to be honored by being made an aedile, in charge of Rome’s public entertainments for an entire year, which would mean access to nearly unlimited funds in order to impress the plebs. When Tiberius heard this, he sat back in his seat and groaned. “I hope Augustus knows what he’s doing.”
But the final news made time stop entirely. In honor of his service to Rome, Juba, Prince of Numidia and unswerving friend of Augustus, was being made King of Mauretania. It would be a client kingship in which he served the purposes of Rome, but even so, Mauretania adjoined his ancestral land of Numidia, where his father and grandfather had ruled before him. I met my brother’s gaze across the table, and while everyone celebrated the happy news, Alexander seated himself next to me.
“You see,” I whispered in Parthian. “If it can happen for Juba, it can happen for us.”
“Yes, but he’s twenty-two and he’s spent his life being useful to Augustus, serving him, protecting him, fighting alongside him. What have I done?”
“Nothing. But you haven’t been given the chance!”
“At least you have your work with Vitruvius.”
