1 [caption]: Rome, 58 BC:
1 Julius: Ave! Excuse me, you're a senator, right?
1 Marcus: Yes, Senator Marcus.
2 Julius: My name is Julius. I'm aspiring to be a senator too. Perhaps you could teach me a few things about politics?
3 Marcus: Sure. Julius, huh? There's a general in the Roman army named Gaius Julius. Any relation?
4 Julius: He's my cousin. But I'm the one in the family with all the ambition.

This Gaius Julius, of course, inventor of a famous salad.

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2022-02-17 Rerun commentary: You could be forgiven for thinking—as I was just briefly now when I saw this comic come up in the rerun annotation queue—that this is the first comic in the Imperial Rome theme, showing as it does Julius and Marcus apparently meeting for the first time.

But it's actually the second last comic in the theme (unless I make more at some point). It could be a flashback to their initial meeting. The Rome theme was never much for consistency in what year it was.