A Roman guard stands on the pier in front of the palace. He is staring intently at the lighthouse on Pharos Island, too preoccupied to notice that Apollodorus, a Sicilian patrician, enters accompanied by Ftatateeta and four men carrying several rolled-up rugs. Amused at the sentinel’s inattention, Apollodorus approaches and startles him, noting that he has already breezed past three distracted guards asking, “Is this Roman discipline?” (55).

The sentinel replies that their job isn’t to guard the land but to keep watch over the water for Egyptian forces that arrive to impede Caesar’s attack on the island of Pharos. Apollodorus is offended when the sentinel calls him a merchant, insisting that he is an aristocrat who is invested in beauty and art. Ftatateeta orders Apollodorus to ignore the sentinel, as they are on an assignment for the queen, but the sentinel refuses to allow them to continue without the password.

As Apollodorus and the sentinel argue, Ftatateeta moves stealthily and grabs the sentinel, shouting at Apollodorus to kill him. He doesn’t, and several other soldiers rush in to free their comrade, sending Ftatateeta flying. A centurion confronts Ftatateeta and Apollodorus, and immediately allows them to pass when he learns that they are there on the orders of

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