The Eternal Empire by Geoff Fabron Page A

a
German!"
    Katherine smiled back at him. "I
suppose I deserve that," she said. "I'm afraid I like to see what a
person’s reaction is when they are provoked. Not a particularly endearing trait
I'm afraid."
    "At least it shows some
spirit," replied Cornelius.
    "I'm glad you think so," said
Katherine, "most Saxon men feel threatened by an assertive woman. Are
Roman women as submissive as their Saxon counter-parts?"
    "Not all of them." said
Cornelius, his hand moving to his ribs in memory of Fulvia's elbow.
    "Enough of Arminius," said
Katherine, "let's move on to the next exhibit."
    They moved through to another hall,
this one dominated by a large map of Europe and bearing the title 'Germanic
Kingdoms. Sixth Century AD'.
    "The Great German Kingdoms before
their destruction by the Eastern Empire," said Katherine with a note of
pride.
    "The Western Empire on the eve of
its re-conquest from the Barbarian invaders," corrected Cornelius
mischievously.
    Katherine gave Cornelius a dirty look
and poked her tongue out at him.
    "The Germanic armies defended the
Western Empire from the Huns and other barbarians for over a century,"
argued Katherine, "before Constantinople decided it wanted the West
back!"
    To defuse a potential argument,
Cornelius shifted the conversation.
    "It was a turning point in
history," he admitted, "if the Emperor Justinians' armies had not
defeated the Germans then the Empire would probably not exist today in its
present form."
    "He was lucky that he had two
generals like Belisarius and Narses," said Katherine pointing to two
statues to the right of the map. Cornelius walked over to inspect them.
    "I'm surprised that you have these
here considering what they did," he said. "Between them they
destroyed the Germanic Kingdoms in the Western Empire and allowed the Rhine
frontier to be re-established."
    She came over and joined him before the
two long dead Roman Generals.
    "You learn from your mistakes and
we honour worthy foes." Katherine said to him.
    Cornelius turned to look at her. The
lights in the hall reflected in her eyes and held him temporarily spellbound as
they had done at the Counts home. Once again he realised that he was staring at
Katherine and as before said the first thing that came into his head.
    "We should all learn from history,
and show respect towards those who were our enemies," he said quickly,
tearing his eyes away from Katherine and back to the statues," then
perhaps they would not remain our enemies anymore and war would cease."
    He had not meant to say that. It
sounded very philosophical and Cornelius had never been one to dwell on such
things or to engage in discussions on the meaning of life. Katherine was still
looking at him but the smile had faded to be replaced by another expression
that was thoughtful and serious.
    "You're right Cornelius," she
said with a note of deep sadness, "we should learn, but I fear that
history will continue to repeat itself because nobody pays attention to the
lessons it teaches."
    The smile came back as quickly as it
had disappeared. She took his arm and started to guide him to the next exhibit.
    "Come! We still have thirteen
hundred years of history to get through before lunch," she stopped and
said to Cornelius. "You do realise that you're buying lunch as well I
hope?"
    "Of course," answered
Cornelius, who had not realised anything of the sort but was not adverse to the
idea of either lunch or Katherine's arm in his.
    She showed Cornelius each part of the
museum in chronological order covering the Viking invasions, the Turkish wars
and the Roman Colonies across the Atlantic’s War of Independence. They were
standing before a large sculpture of the 'Flame of Freedom', a gift from the
United Provinces to Saxony following their independence when a man came up to
Katherine and started talking to her in German. Cornelius had only mastered a
few words of German so far, but since Katherine was fluent in both Latin and
Greek he had not found this a shortcoming