Titus approacheth reluctantly.

He had rather deliver Jerusalem than besiege it.

I am of the loved and dethroned Maccabaean line--acceptable to every faction of Jewry, from the Essenes to the Sicarii.

Titus is my friend, unless he suspects me as coming to undermine his better friend, the pretty Herod.

I shall help Jerusalem help herself; I shall make peace with Rome; I shall be King of the Jews!--Behold, is not my summary as practical as yours ?" Julian laughed with an amusement that had a ring of contempt in it.
"There is naught to keep an astronomer from planning a rearrangement of the stars," he said.
But the Maccabee rode on calmly.