Izates shrugged. "Few have that anyway."
"Tell me about Roman citizenship," Zeno said.
In this way they passed their journey from Capua to Rome.
The city lay in a bend of the river Tiber. It was not a great river, and the city itself would not have been impressive had it not been for the frenetic level of activity to be seen everywhere. On a field northwest of the city walls troops drilled to the snarl of trumpets. The sounds of hammer, saw and chisel could be heard in all directions. Outside the walls large farmhouses were under construction. Slave gangs worked on roads, bridges and aqueducts.
From miles away the travelers could see the roofs of the temples on the hill called the Capitol. Their fresh gilding gleamed in the sunlight, and as the men drew nearer they saw that the temples had all been newly painted and their stonework restored. The road was lined with tombs, and these, too, had been carefully restored and planted all around with new trees and shrubs.
"They restored the temples and the tombs first," Zeno noted. "The Romans were a famously pious people."
"It's not much of a town," Izates said.
"Your Alexandria sets a high standard. In Athens, only the Acropolis is truly beautiful. So it is here. It looks as if they took pains to embellish their public places and let the rest of the city sprawl in all directions with no planning. But look at the walls."
"What about them?"
"They have been restored; you can see the new stonework. But they have made no effort to strengthen them further. They haven't been raised; there are no new defensive towers, no protective ditch dug, nothing."
"An odd oversight for people who can expect a Carthaginian offensive at any moment. The army Hamilcar sent to Egypt is said to be huge, and it must be on its way to Italy by now."
"I don't think it was an oversight," Zeno said. "I heard that their capital in Noricum has no wall at all. Like the Spartans, the Romans believed that a wall would breed a cautious, defensive attitude. They preferred to entrust their safety to the perfection of their legions. They've restored this wall because it is ancient and was built by one of their kings before Rome became a republic."
"Like these Romans, the old Spartans were arrogant. Where are the Spartans now? The city is nothing and the men are the hirelings of others because they know no art save soldiering."
"Gorgas," Zeno said, "did you spend much time in Rome after you came south?"
"Just a few days. They were still dredging out the Forum. It had reverted to the marsh it once was. There is a vast drain under there, the Cloaca Maxima. It was built by another old king. They were getting it unplugged when my master took me down to Tarentum. Half the city was still in ruins. Old Hannibal's men did a thorough job of wrecking the place and after that the people who moved in grazed their cattle and sheep in the public places."
"Who moved in?" Zeno asked.
"After the Romans were exiled there were still plenty of Italians who had never really reconciled themselves to Roman rule: Campanians, Lucanians, Samnites, Etruscans and so forth. They brought their livestock and cut up the old estates into small farms. The big plantations are mainly to the south of here."
"Where are those people now?" Izates wanted to know.
Gorgas shrugged. "Pushed out. Some have hired on as labor. Some will probably be tenant farmers for the big Roman landlords. The Romans don't think the descendants of the people who wouldn't go north with the exile to be worthy of citizenship. There is talk that some will be drafted into the navy Rome is going to build. That way they may in time earn at least partial citizenship."
They entered the city through a gate whose stonework was ancient, but its wooden doors were so new that the timbers still oozed sap and their ironwork was still bright. Traffic in and out was brisk, but there were no guards to accost them or demand their business.
"This is the Capena Gate," Gorgas told them.
They passed beneath two. aqueducts that ran parallel to the city wall and thence into a district of low houses. Within a few minutes they came to a valley dominated by an immense structure from which came the sound of intense hammering. The end they came to was rounded and the rest of it stretched straight northwest for an unbelievable distance.
"No need to tell us what this is," Zeno said. "This has to be the Great Circus." The histories he had read all mentioned the Romans' passion for chariot races and the unprecedentedly huge structure they had erected for the purpose. It was built primarily of wood, and wagonload after wagonload of lumber stretched in a. chain from the nearby river wharfs. Slaves were busily painting away with brushes the size of brooms.
"The Romans have a taste for the gaudy and garish," Izates said. "When this monstrosity is finished, it will serve as a new standard for tastelessness."
"Considering the many oversized monuments of Alexandria," Zeno said, "that seems unwarranted."
"I confess that my native city is addicted to grotesque grandiosity. The successors of Alexander sought to cover their backwoods origins with a surfeit of marble and gilding. But at least they had the decency to employ Greek artists and architects who possessed a modicum of restraint."
Zeno had visited Alexandria more than once and had been able to detect no sense of restraint in the place, but he let it pass. He was more impressed by the Romans' energy than by their taste, anyway.
The city was built upon a series of low, rolling hills so that it was difficult to get much sense of it. No sight line extended more than a few hundred yards, and even that was rare. It did not help that the streets were for the most part twisting and narrow. Apparently, the plan for rebuildingRome did not include improving its layout. The Romans seemed determined to restore their city precisely to its state before Hannibal destroyed it.
The travelers made their way up one of the better streets, stepping aside for wagons of building material and tool-bearing slave gangs the whole way, until they entered a long, broad public space full of monuments and surrounded by buildings of considerable dignity. Its northern extremity ended at the base of the highest hill, which was topped by the splendid Temple of Jupiter Best and Greatest.
"This is their agora, obviously," Izates said, looking the place over for signs of vulgarity. "It's rather dignified, really," he said, disappointed.
"This is the Forum," Gorgas said. "I see they've cleared away the last of the swamp and cleaned the pavement. Those biggest buildings are what the Romans call basilicas. They're law courts, mainly. The little round temple is sacred to Vesta, goddess of the hearth. That one partway up the hill is Saturn's. The big one to Jupiter you already know and that other big one on the lower peak of the hill is Juno's. The little temples surrounding them I'm not sure about. The Romans have more gods and more temples than you can imagine. They even build temples and altars to the virtues: discipline, concord, peace-"
"Peace?" Izates said dryly. "The Romans esteem peace so highly that they have erected an altar to it?"
"I think we can assume that it's peace on Roman terms," Zeno said. "This seems to be the center of government and communal activity. Let's find an inn close by. It will be convenient since this will be where we will be spending most of our time."
They learned that, except for public areas like the Forum, Rome had no sort of districting. Houses, shops, temples, slums, parks, gardens and the town houses of the rich were jumbled together, often so closely that only one-way foot traffic was possible between them. Thus they had no trouble finding an inn no more than a few steps from the Forum, and nearby a stable to take care of their donkey.
"One thing to be said for a rebuilt city like this," Izates said, surveying the room they had engaged. "Even the inns are too new to have gotten shabby and acquire vermin."