Two For The Lions by Lindsey Davis Page A

the one with the broken nose. A tenant had hit him in the face with a mallet when Rodan tried to forestall a moonlit flit. Any desperate tenant who had finally glimpsed escape from Smaractus was likely to fight for it fiercely.
    "You poor things."
    "Still it's better than being an informer!" giggled Asiacus, the rude one with the pustular skin complaint.
    "Most things are," Helena smiled.
    "What are you doing shacked up with one?" They were bursting with curiosity.
    "Falco spun me some fables; you know how he talks. He makes me laugh."
    "Oh he's a clown, all right!"
    "I like looking after him. Besides, we have a baby now."
    "We all thought he was after your money."
    "I expect that's it." Maybe by this time Helena had guessed I was, listening in She was an evil tease. "Speaking of money, I suppose Smaractus is hoping to make some out of the Emperor's new project?"
    "That big place?"
    "Yes, the arena that they are building at the end of the Forum, where Nero had his lake. The Flavian Amphitheatre, they are calling it. Won't it provide good opportunities when it opens? I should imagine there will be a big ceremony, probably lasting weeks, with regular gladiatorial shows--and probably animals."
    "You're talking real spectacle," replied Asiacus, trying to impress her with size.
    "That should be healthy for people in your line."
    "Oh Smaractus thinks he'll be rolling--but he'll be lucky!" sneered Asiacus. "They'll be wanting class acts there. Besides, the big operators will have all the contracts well sewn up long before."
    "Are they manoeuvring already?"
    "You bet."
    "Will there be a lot of competition?"
    "Sharp as knives."
    "Who are the big operators?"
    "Saturninus, Hanno--not Smaractus. No chance!"
    "Still, there should be plenty of profit to go round--or do you think things might turn nasty?"
    "Bound to," said Rodan.
    "Is that a well-educated guess, or do you know for sure?"
    "We know it."
    Helena sounded in awe of their inside knowledge: "Has trouble started?"
    "Plenty," Rodan said, boasting like a Celtic beer-swiller. "It's not so bad among the fighters' lanistae. Supplying men can be fixed without much trouble--though of course they have to be trained," he remembered to say, as if he and his filthy partner were talented experts not simple brutes. "But the word is that there's going to be a huge venatio--as many big cats as the organisers can get hold of: and they are promising thousands. That's got the beast importers shitting bricks."
    Helena ignored the obscenity without flinching. "It's going to be a wonderful building, so I suppose they will inaugurate it with appropriately lavish shows. Are the beast importers afraid they cannot meet the demand?"
    "More like, each one is afraid the others will meet it and he'll lose out! They all want to make a killing!" Rodan collapsed, laughing hoarsely, overcome by his wit. "make a killing, see--"
    Asiacus put on a show of greater intelligence, bashing Rodan sideways in disgust at the terrible pun. They sprawled over even more of the pavement while Helena politely stepped back to make more room for them.
    "So what are the importers up to at the moment?" she asked, still as if she were simply gossiping. "Have you heard any stories?"
    "Oh there's plenty of stories!" Asiacus assured her (which meant he had heard absolutely nothing definite).
    "Blackening each other's character," suggested Rodan.
    "Dirty tricks," added Asiacus.
    "Oh you mean like stealing each other's animals?" Helena asked them innocently.
    "Well, I bet they would if they thought of it," Rodan decreed. "Most of em are too thick to have the idea. Besides," he went on, "nobody's going to tangle with a great big roaring lion, are they?"
    "Falco saw something very peculiar today," Helena decided to confess. "He thinks some dirty trick with a lion may have happened."
    "That Falco's an idiot."
    I decided it was time to step forward and show myself before Helena Justina heard something else a well brought-up senator's daughter