That’s why we must be the strongest force.”

“As to force,” muttered Archimedes, “I’m a physicist of sorts, Lucius, and I’ll tell you something. Force limits itself.”

“What does that mean?”

“It’s a sort of law, Lucius. When force is exerted, it limits itself by that action. The greater your force, the more of your strength you use up; and the time will come — ”

“What are you trying to say?”

“Nothing, really. I’m not a prophet, Lucius, only a physicist. Force limits itself. More than that I do not know.”

“Listen, Archimedes, you can’t imagine the tremendous opportunities that working with us would open up for you in Rome. You could build the mightiest war engines in the world.”

“You’ll have to forgive me, Lucius; I’m an old man, and I still have one or two ideas I’d like to work on. — As you can see, I’m trying to design something right now.”

“Archimedes, aren’t you enticed by the idea of conquering the world with us and ruling it? — Why are you silent?”

“Sorry,” Archimedes muttered, bent over his tablet. “What did you say?”

“That a man like you could conquer the world.”

“Hm, the world,” Archimedes said, engrossed in his drawing. “Please don’t take offense, but I’m doing something more important here. Something more lasting, you see. Something that will truly endure.”

“What is it?”

“Careful, don’t smear my circles! It’s a method for calculating the area of a sector of a circle.”

Later it was reported that the learned Archimedes had met his death through an accident.

April 17, 1938

The Roman Legions

Four of Caesar’s veterans, who had been through the campaigns in Gallia and Britannia and had come back covered with glory and in the greatest triumph the world had ever seen — these four heroes, namely Bullio, an ex-corporal, Lucius known as Macer because of his slenderness, Sartor known as Hilla, a veterinarian with the Second Legion, and finally Strobus of Gaeta, met at the wine shop of Onocrates, a Sicilian Greek and a great rascal, to reminisce about the great and memorable military deeds they had witnessed. Because the weather was fairly hot, Onocrates set a table for them in the street, and there the four soldiers sat, drinking convivially and talking in loud voices. Who can wonder that people in the streets soon flocked around them, artisans, mule-drivers, children, and women with babes in their arms, to listen to their words? For it is well known that in those days the illustrious deeds of the great Caesar still roused the interest of all Roman citizens.

“Listen,” said Strobus of Gaeta. “Let me tell you what happened that time when thirty thousand Senones faced us across a river.”

“Wait a minute,” Bullio corrrected him. “For one thing, there weren’t thirty thousand of those Senones but barely eighteen thousand; and for another, you were with the Ninth Legion, and they never once faced the Senones. You were camped in Aquitania at the time, and you were mending our boots because you had all those cobblers and shoemakers serving with you. All right then, go on.

“You’ve got it mixed up,” Strobus objected. “We were camped right there in Lutetia at the time, for your information. And we mended your boots that other time, when you wore the soles right out running away from Gergovia. You got good and clobbered then, you and the Fifth Legion, and you deserved it.”

“That’s not how it was,” said Lucius known as Macer. “The Fifth Legion never was in Gergovia. The Fifth Legion got their pants kicked at Bibracta the minute they got there, and from then on you couldn’t get them to go anywhere else or do anything but scrounge. A fine legion that was,” added Macer, spitting a long distance.

“Well, whose fault was it,” Bullio demanded, “that the Fifth Legion got smashed to a pulp at Bibracta? The Sixth was supposed to move up and relieve them, but the Sixth didn’t want to, the lazy bums. They’d just come from the girls in Massilia — ”

“You’re dead wrong,” objected Sartor known as Hilla. “The Sixth Legion wasn’t even at Bibracta. They didn’t get to the front until Axona, when Galba was in command.”

“That’s how much you know, pig-spayer,” Bullio retorted. “It was the Second, Third, and Seventh Legions at Axona. The Eburoni sent the Sixth running back to their mommies long before that.”

“That’s all a pack of lies,” claimed Lucius Macer.