Just as I stuffed a fork full of lettuce in my mouth, Clio, my muse, magically appeared.

"What are you eating? I smell spices, cheese and chicken."

With my lips on the plastic straw, I took a long draw of diet Coke from a logo covered, paper cup. "Caesar salad with chicken."

"Clio’s brow creased in puzzlement. I knew all the Caesars, but I never heard of salad."

"It’s raw vegetables mixed together in a bowl. Usually lettuce and tomatoes."

Did she just say she personally knew all the Caesars? I munched down on a crunchy crouton as images of Nero fiddling against the backdrop of an inferno filled my mind. Of course, the violin wasn’t invented until 1500 years later. I’m pretty sure my forehead crinkled as I pondered. 

"Were you or your sisters muses to the Caesars?"

Clio sighed. "Really Cornelia, I don’t keep up with my sisters. To be honest, as far as the Caesars go, I never knew them on a personal basis. You know, the Romans did worship us Greek gods, but they did so by changing our names and declaring that we were Roman gods. The Caesars even declared themselves gods. I never liked any of them. The Caesars, I mean. However, I do like some of the Greek gods, not many but some. Apollo is rather fetching."

"As the muse of history though, I did follow the careers of the Caesars."  Clio leaned forward with a grin on her face. "Speaking of fetching men, Julius was something."

"Really."  That sounded juicy. I was going to enjoy this story. As my teeth chewed a tender chunk of chicken, the rest of me gave the muse my full attention.

Clio’s eyes beamed and her lips turned up in a feline smile. "Umm,"  she purred.

"Tall, handsome, with firm, robust limbs, a fair complexion, and dark, unfathomable eyes. All roman emperors wore laurel wreaths, but Julius wore his all the time."  Leaning her head close to my ear, Clio whispered, "To hide his baldness."

She straightened her posture and in a normal tone quipped, "Not that it worked."

"I never really thought of Julius Caesar as a hunk." 

Was the muse putting me on? I sipped more Coke.

"Oh, he was a ladies man. Everyone’s wife was in his bed. Servius Sulpicius’ wife, (Postumia), Aulus Gabinius’ wife, (Lollia), Marcus Crassus’ wife, (Tertulla), he even slept with his best friend’s wife, Pompey's Mucia. But he loved Servilia, (Brutus’ mother). He gave her a huge pearl. It was so large and lustrous, it cost him six million sesterces."

"No."

"Yes."

"I wish I could have seen that." I munched down on a wad of lettuce.

"I saw it." Clio closed her eyes as if lost in a moment of ecstasy. "It was gorgeous."

"Wow."

"He bedded many a queen as well. But historically speaking, his most famous love-queen was Cleopatra." She whispered out of the side of her mouth. "She came to him rolled up in a carpet." As Clio spoke faster, she fluttered her hands.

Clio & Caesar -2 (Continue)