The Eternal City

Jack sat down and examined the print-out on his lap. The sound of the Fiat cars beeping their horns reverberated around the bus. God, he loved this city. The raven-haired women with their flashing eyes, the bravado of the young men in their leathers and scooters, the architectural reminders everywhere of a gloriious past. But most of all, Jack loved his work.

Professor Muscatelli had given Jack the photocopies and told him to knock something up by the end of the week. Jack had devoured the replicas of the dusty scrolls. Admired the fine script of the long dead scribe, marvelled at the attention to detail of the Senate librarian. Even while Rome burned, this man had stayed at his post - diligently documenting the events around him for the benefit of posterity.

But this reverie was not going to get his assignment done, Jack thought. And so he set too. He transcribed the names of Rome's generals and the strength of their forces in Summer 250 BCE, entering all the data into his computer. Let's sort this by army strength, though Jack. Then add some colourful graphics. How about some avatars from that geeky website? Yeah, they'd do. Christ, that guy's ugly - look at those eyebrows! Let's use him for Numerius. Yeah, that will annoy the Professor. He always spoke admiringly of Numerius. Heaven knows why, the guy was a stiff. Servius was the cool one.

OK, OK, enough goofing around. Now what did Muscatelli want me to do exactly? Ah, that's it - try to figure out the loyalties of the key generals at the start of hostilities. I don't have much time right now, so I'll just mark them in rough first. Those on the side of the Consul can have a big purple "C" next to them; those on the side of the Senate can have a "S" but what colour? Red and blue are too close to purple - let's go with green.

So, how does it look? Pretty damn even. Too close to call, I'd say. Christ, this is my stop. Gotta get off.