Andivius Hedulio

A grinning runner arrives at Andivius Hedulio’s villa with a message: his master is coming to visit—but he has been forbidden to say who. Hedulio and his clever slave Agathemer guess the name; neither can guess what the visit will set in motion.

It is 184, and under Emperor Commodus, Hedulio seems to have every reason to be content: a fine estate, the Emperor’s favor and the prospect of marrying Rome’s richest, loveliest widow. Returning from a tenant’s farm, dusty and eager for a bath, he finds his friend Opsitius Tanno on the way with a grand retinue—and dinner guests already expected. Hedulio looks back on this day as the moment when small oversights and a friend’s whims began to pull him from ease into danger. How can a life so secure be overturned by an unexpected guest?

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