The Shadow of the Sword

Finally, Crassus-Crassus!-is to rule with Pompey as joint consul, and both their armies to be dissolved on the day they take office.БЂ«БЂњBut I should have been in there,БЂ«said Cicero, staring with dismay at the villa. БЂњI should have been in there!БЂ«БЂњMarcus,БЂ«said his brother sadly, putting his hand on his shoulder, БЂњnone of them would have you.БЂ«Cicero looked stunned at the scale of this reversal-himself excluded, his enemies rewarded, Crassus elevated to the consulship-but then he shook his shoulder free and made angrily toward the doors. And perhaps his career might have been ended there by the sword of one of PompeyБЂ™s sentries, for I believe, in his desperation, Cicero had resolved to force his way through to the negotiating table and demand his share. But it was too late. The big men, their deal struck, were already coming out, their aides scampering ahead of them, their guards stamping to attention as they passed. Crassus emerged first, and then from the shadows Pompey, his identity obvious not only by the aura of power around him-the way the proximate air seemed almost to crackle as he moved-but also by the cast of his features ...»