Villa Licinia in the Palatine

"Yes, diplomacy"

He said, chewing a honeyed fig.

"These Ptolemies... you should have seen. Sister-wives make them no good, I only have seen that kind of abnormality in dogs who mated their mothers"

Crassus spits the seed and takes another.

"Venus know why, gods marry their sisters and they're fine. But, of course, these kings... they're not gods. Not Alexander"

Third fig, he licks his finger.

"Talking about Venus, I heard they call me the 'Venus in the Palatine'"

He added, with scorn.

"Not bad to be compared with such a goddess... but, it also makes me feel like a common strumpet from the Subura with airs of grandeur! Me! Can you believe it?"

Fourth fig.

"Ugh, where's my drink? Fastus!"

A domestic slave hurried himself with a golden globet.

"Ah, that's better. You watered it down in the Athenian crater? Yes, good. A gift, you know, Vitus?"

He pointed to a red-and-black crater, large and decorated with scenes from the war of Troy.

Vitus' eyes rested on the vase for a moment. Conquered peoples were known to give gifts when their cities fell. He wondered how many hands the krater had passed through.

The veteran's attention returned to his employer. He offered a kind smile, as best his gloomy countenance could allow.

"To be called after the goddess is not a compliment, you're correct." Vitus knew the Venus of the people better than he knew the Venus of the aristocrats. On the other hills, they yelled out her name in aggressive tones and usually paired it with juvenile descriptions of their own genitalia. Coincidentally, that was also how they spoke of the wives of certain senators and landlords.

"But, I suppose," he lifted a hand to rest a few fingers on his chin, briefly, in a deliberate pose, "if my sister was Venus I would have her too."

Vitus regretted that jest as it left his mouth, and tried brush past it with by following with a genuine question.

"I've heard it said their king is dead. Is his son disrespecting our treaties?"

He find the manse open to him, with slaves hurrying themselves to lead the senator into the atrium, where Lucius waited, dressed for the ocassion, surrounded by the busts of his ancestors hanging from the walls. The walls were finely painted and the floor was this very beautiful mosaic of a vivid detail. Crassus' wife also was there, as domina of the house.

"Drusus, come forth, I'm happy you finally decided to come by and accept my offer"

He said. The censor offered an arm and a hand for Livius to grab, while gesturing with the free limb towards the handsomely decorated triclinium. The ivory painted eyes of bright sculptures watched them as they spoke. Some of the statues looked like actual Greek antiquities.

"We're glad to have you for dinner, senator"

Mucia was the daughter of Scevola, a formidable man on his own, very well-known.

Crassus frowned.

"Filthy thing. That reminds me that you're married, yes?"

Said the senator, cleaning his sticky fingers on a basin filled with perfumed water, petals floating on the surface.

"The father has been dead for ages. We're talking about two brothers trying to stab each other on the bag. These Ptolemy That and Ptolemy This, they're both twats, but still kings. We shall put one in the place of the other, so just he owes us and is properly aligned with Rome"

He placed both hands on his knees, arching an eyebrow.

"Of course, I shouldn't presume you know the intricate ways of politics and diplomacy, Vitus"
He's granted as much and led to the man's private office or tablinium. Crassus raised to meet the former consul.

"Mugillanus"

"My cooks are no disappointment, I believe"

Said Crassus. The meals were actually lavish, some of them outlandish, like a platter of well-garnished flamingo tongues. Meal after meal and cup of wine after cup of wine, the dinner went easy. No politics were mentioned and Mucia carried the conversation from place to place, keeping her guest entertained. Still on her prime, she looked more than fine, and seemed pleased with the fact. However, after the second dessert, with honey from Metellus' new apiary, the domina bid farewell to the guest and left both men on the triclinia.

"I hope it was a fine meal, Drusus"

He wavered a hand and the pair of domestic slaves left. Crassus himself poured some watered down wine into Drusus' and his own cup.

"Senate of late had much bickering, back and forth and little politics. More of a kennel than an august body, don't you agree? Factions are dragging the decision making and interests are becoming increasingly contradictory. Much time and strenght is wasted on such a pointless derisive argument, flinging insults from a corner of the curia to the other"

The censor sips.

"I do believe you're a man to work with. We could, certainly, find an entente. An agreement for collaboration in certain matters, matters which I'm ready to comprise about"

Vitus passes over his patron's question about his marriage, not wanting to speak of his wife in the same breath as debauched talk of promiscuous goddesses.

"Ah, I see," he offers a slow nod again, "I can understand the logic behind that, but, you are right, my talents were never with words."

Which was once a great pain for Faustus; some two decades ago, Faustus Vitus would have been seen wearing a full Hellenic beard and trying to write poetry. The legions washed all of that away. Now, a clean-shaven, weathered man, stood in Crassus' villa, like a bar of iron that'd been hammered into a shape befitting of a civis Romanus.

"I do pick up things, here and there, though." Not that Vitus expected Crassus to teach him anything except how obscene the richest Romans could sometimes be.

Vitus nodded as if he'd received an order from a legatus. His hand reached towards his belt to rest on the handle of a Gladius but found no such weapon and so fell to his side.

"Confident you will prove his innocence."

He wasn't innocent, in Vitus' mind. If a legion was slaughtered and an eagle stolen, then who was to blame if not the aristocrat leading them to defeat? He'd also heard some of what was being said in the forum - a lot of it seemed very reasonable to him. It was the Italic people who continually bled for the eagle.

"Dominus," the Veiian added after a moment, "there was another matter I wished to speak with you about."

"Of course, I will"

Said Crassus, not even considering he could lose.

"Speak"

He waved a hand, motioning for the man to talk.

"An outlandish thing to say"

He said.

"You might be many things, but not negligent"

Crassus added. He remains silent for a moment. Which dragged for a bit. The man always had a flair for the dramatic.

"Aye, aye, I will do it. I have no need of coin. I just want you, after you're acquited of all charges, to propose the Senate to make me Princeps Senatus..."