Tiberius actually laughed at that, though it was a cold, mirthless laugh. "What would a son inherit from you except an exceptionally short temper?" he asked contemptuously. Her argument was not entirely without merit in the abstract, but without having an actual human to compare her to he was having difficulty imagining that whatever woman was selected could be any more of a gamble than having children with Antigone. She was not entirely without her good attributes, it was true, but she had plenty of faults as well that were just as likely to be passed along. And genetics could not account for everything — the same set of parents had produced his cousin Valeria and Cassius, after all. One was practically a goddess (or had been before she'd sullied herself by submitting to her cad of a husband), and the other was... Cassius. And their mother had been a vapid idiot.

"Is this some sort of... do you have some particular attachment to it looking like you?" he asked, raising an eyebrow. "Is that why you suggested your sister as a surrogate?"