| I. | That Woman |
| II. | Conjectural Rome |
| III. | Fabulous Fields |
| IV. | The Pursuit of the Impossible |
| V. | Nero |
| VI. | The House of Flavia |
| VII. | The Poison in the Purple |
| VIII. | Faustine |
| IX. | The Agony |
When the murder was done and the heralds shouted through the thickstreets the passing of Caesar, it was the passing of the republic theyannounced, the foundation of Imperial Rome.
There was a hush, then a riot which frightened a senate that frightenedthe world. Caesar was adored. A man who could give millions away andsup on dry bread was apt to conquer, not provinces alone, but hearts.Besides, he had begun well and his people had done their best. TheHouse of Julia, to which he belonged, descended, he declared, fromVenus. The ancestry was less legendary than typical. Cinna drafted alaw giving him the right to marry as often as he chose. His mistresseswere queens. After the episodes in Gaul, when he entered Rome hislegions warned the citizens to have an eye on their wives. At seventeenhe fascinated pirates. A shipload of the latter had caught him anddemanded twenty talents ransom. "Too little," said the lad; "I willgive you fifty, and impale you too," which he did, jesting with themmeanwhile, reciting verses of his own composition, calling thembarbarians when they did not applaud, ordering them to be quiet when hewished to sleep, captivating them by the effrontery of his assurance,and, the ransom paid, slaughtering them as he had promised.
Tall, slender, not handsome, but superb and therewith so perfectly sentout that Cicero mistook him for a fop from whom the republic hadnothing to fear; splendidly lavish, exquisitel