of
you. (Looking at the gods on the walls as he turns away from Theodotus
and goes up again to Pothinus.) And this place?

POTHINUS. The council chamber of the chancellors of the King's treasury,
Caesar.

CAESAR. Ah! That reminds me. I want some money.

POTHINUS. The King's treasury is poor, Caesar.

CAESAR. Yes: I notice that there is but one chair in it.

RUFIO (shouting gruffly). Bring a chair there, some of you, for Caesar.

PTOLEMY (rising shyly to offer his chair). Caesar--

CAESAR (kindly). No, no, my boy: that is your chair of state. Sit down.

He makes Ptolemy sit down again. Meanwhile Rufio, looking about him,
sees in the nearest corner an image of the god Ra, represented as a
seated man with the head of a hawk. Before the image is a bronze tripod,
about as large as a three-legged stool, with a stick of incense burning
on it. Rufio, with Roman resourcefulness and indifference to foreign
superstitions, promptly seizes the tripod; shakes off the incense; blows
away the ash; and dumps it down behind Caesar, nearly in the middle of
the hall.

RUFIO. Sit on that, Caesar.

A shiver runs through the court, followed by a hissing whisper of
Sacrilege!

CAESAR (seating himself). Now, Pothinus, to business. I am badly in want
of money.

BRITANNUS (disapproving of these informal expressions). My master would
say that there is a lawful debt due to Rome by Egypt, contracted by the
King's deceased father to the Triumvirate; and that it is Caesar's duty
to his country to require immediate payment.

CAESAR (blandly). Ah, I forgot. I have not made my companions known
here. Pothinus: this is Britannus, my secretary. He is an islander from
the western end of the world, a day's voyage from Gaul. (Britannus bows
stiffly.) This gentleman is Rufio, my comrade in arms. (Rufio nods.)
Pothinus: I want 1,600 talents.

The courtiers, appalled, murmur loudly, and Theodotus and Achillas
appeal mutely to one another against so monstrous a demand.

POTHINUS (aghast). Forty million sesterces! Impossible. There is not so
much money in the King's treasury.

CAESAR (encouragingly). ONLY sixteen hundred talents, Pothinus. Why
count it in sesterces? A sestertius is only worth a loaf of bread.

POTHINUS. And a talent is worth a racehorse. I say it is impossible. We
have been at strife here, because the King's sister Cleopatra falsely
claims his throne. The King's taxes have not been collected for a whole
year.

CAESAR. Yes t