Rome's royal Julia as usual took great pleasure in holding court. The Celtic queen, Cartimandua, chose not to join us. But Tanaquil, never lacking in confidence in her own being listened patiently, if not raptly, to Julia. When at last Julia was done with her performance (for you could call it nothing less), Tanaquil spoke. "I don't take pleasure in thinking about or discussing old age. What is the point? The old already know what is to be known. The young find it boresome. But I note that getting old myself I recall watching people I loved grow old."
   "What have I spawned? Julia's eyes widened; her nostrils flared. Every inch of her body showed disdain. "I was not the one who started this 'getting old' business."
   "Perhaps not," Tanaquil's half smile reminiscent of the stereotype of an Etruscan lingered. "But you took your turn. Now I shall take mine. Would you deny me?"
   "Ye Gods no", Julia said "Pray continue."
   "I begin my story when my grandsons were ready for proper schooling in Etruscan Discipline. I made it my task to check out schooling in Tarquinia for the boys. On the pretext of visiting my aging parents lest they die without seeing my success, I went to Tarquinia. The city was as I remembered. The wide Cardo running its length north and south was traversed by equally wide streets. Covered drain culverts ran along the sides of the streets carrying away sewage from the houses. The shop was still there-- the shop where I paid far too much for a scarf when my mother sent me there with the hope that shopping would relieve my ache for the unacceptable  Greek boy.
   My re-union with my parents, Urnilla and Metius, was stiff and unrewarding. Time had taken a great toll on their eyesight, hearing  and memory of a daughter they had not seen for so many years. Had the reunion with my parents been my only reason for returning to Tarquinia I might have left with swollen eyes and deflated spirit. But I had come, not to seek a reunion with my aged parents but  instruction for my grandsons.
   I stood before Tarquitius's door, not sure if was still his door, not even sure he was yet alive. A torrent of memories flooded my mind. The times he had tolerated me only because of his affection to my father. The times he had tried to save me from the mistakes of my petulant nature. The efforts he had made to prevent me from making the mistake of marrying a Greek who would never be accepted by  upper class Etruscans. He had been right about the refusal of society to accept my Lucumo, but he was wrong that I had made a mistake. Just as I hesitatingly reached to knock the door swung open. I gasped at the bent frail old man squinting at me. "Tarquitius?" I asked haltingly.
   His toothless smile softened the hardness of his leathery wrinkled face. "Can it be? Can it really be? Or do these poor tired eyes and my feeble wits fail me?"
   "It is I, Tarquitius. It is I, Tanaquil. Come to pester you again."
   His bony fingers tightened around my arm. "You seek yet more signs? And again you need my expertise? I have heard of your successes. To what new heights have you now  set your sights?"
    I met his warm smile with loving eyes. As a child I had considered him one in a string of adults who would thwart my desires. As an adult I looked on him as a loving protector. "I come, not as a child seeking to side step the rules, but as a grandmother wishing to guide my grandchildren.." His eyes twinkled. "Yes I am a grandmother. And I come about my grandsons. They are in need of instruction. The kind the cannot receive in Rome. The kind they get only here. You will find them intelligent, polite, astute and dedicated. I assure you they will meet your expectations."
   Tarquitius sighed heavily. "I rarely take on students myself anymore. As must be obvious I neither see well not have much stamina. But there are several priests who do''
                                                   *                  *                    *
    Tanaquil tilted her head to one side and stared into space. Three people whom I had loved had become old-- old enough to remind me as I left that none of us will escape old age." Julia impatient as always with anyone who spoke at length, although she could cold court for endless time said. "Unless we are relieved of the process by an early death."
    Tanaquil's eyes met mine. Before either of us could conger up an appropriate comment Julia said, "What is the point?"
     Both Tanaquil and I burst into laughter. "There may ne no point at all", I said.
    "Or there may," Tanaquil added.
    "Ye Gods, how did we get onto old age? Nothing could be more depressing. Please the next time we meet let us pursue some topic with more -- with more anything that we have had the last  three times."