Marcus Aurelius Betrayed (16 page)

By that time pandemonium was reigning in the courtroom. Secundus had turned grey; Eggius green. The Prefect’s mouth hung open. All the dignitaries looked at the walls and floors or cast hostile glances toward Secundus.

“Prepare the charge sheets,” ordered Judge Severus to his clerk. “Secundus to stand trial for the additional crimes of forgery and perjury.”

He addressed Eggius. “Do you still wish to adjourn until Isarion arrives?” asked Severus maliciously, “or do you want to proceed to a verdict on the judicial murder charge now?”

“I wish an adjournment,” said the lawyer, recovering rapidly. “Isarion’s testimony is now vital, whatever the facts of that unfortunate document, from which, judge, I completely disassociate myself. I did not know it was a forgery when I offered it. I hope you will believe that I was fooled in this matter.”

Severus nodded politely at him. “We will adjourn this trial for a few days until we find out whether Isarion is able to join us.

“Until then, of course, bail will be revoked on Secundus. He will be placed in the Hadrianum’s detention cells until the next session of the court.”

Severus stood up from the Tribunal.

“Court is adjourned!” declared Proculus.

XXIV

THE PREFECT INTERVENES

T
he next morning Severus received a message from the Prefect that he was to come to the Prefect’s office at the 2
^nd
hour of the morning. It was important, though the message didn’t say why.

Severus arrived on time and was shown in to see the Prefect. Calvus was pacing back and forth in front of the portraits of the Emperors. There was no food or drink on the table between the couches and the Prefect neither exchanged greeting kisses with the judge nor invited him to recline. His whole manner seemed unfriendly, his face was hardened and his voice hostile.

“I’ve been thinking over the matter of your trial of my stepson,” he began directly, “and I’m disturbed by your ever widening attempt to pillory him. Now you are not only after Secundus for the Ganymede situation but also for manufacturing false evidence. In addition you are investigating stolen books and false antiques. These are not part of your mission, Severus, so I’m beginning to think that you have a personal grudge against Secundus, that you are obsessed with him, persecuting him.”

“I am following where the evidence leads, Prefect, trying to find who has a motive to poison you. In this investigation, it is coming to light that Secundus may be involved in, even directing a ring that is stealing books from the Great Library and manufacturing and distributing phony antiques, along with your friend Isarion. Whether or not this bears on the attempt to kill you, I don’t know yet.”

“Severus, all this is really none of your business. Secundus is not part of your mission. That being the case, as Prefect of Egypt, I have decided to refer the Secundus case directly to the Emperor in Rome. That is my right as Prefect and it is Secundus’ right as a Roman citizen to appeal to the Emperor. He is therefore now immune from your further harassment. Your trial of Secundus is as of this moment at an end. I am releasing him from bail and putting him under my own recognizance.”

“I have to disagree with you,” countered Severus. “Secundus’ false execution of the slave Ganymede is a case of judicial murder under Roman law. Since I am a special judge of Rome, the Emperor’s
iudex selectus
, it certainly is my business to bring him to trial.

“However, I have to acknowledge Secundus’ right as a Roman citizen to appeal for a trial before the Emperor and your right as Prefect to refer the case to Rome.”

“And there is something else,” continued Calvus in his same hard tone of voice. “I understand that your operatives have been snooping around at the Imperial Post, asking questions about Pudens.”

“That is correct, Prefect. You claim no one at the orgy had a motive to kill you. If that’s true, though I’m not convinced of it, it’s then possible that the person who died is the person for whom the poison was meant.
Logic dictates that I pursue that possibility and therefore I am investigating whether anyone had a motive to kill Pudens.”

Calvus smiled. He had the answer he wanted. “In that case, Severus, I have now concluded that Pudens was in fact the person for whom the poison was intended, not me. Since you were assigned to find who tried to kill me, and since the answer now is no one, your assignment from the Emperor is at an end.”

“In that case, Prefect,” replied Severus with an edge to his voice, “since you conclude that Pudens was the intended victim, then you must conclude that Ganymede’s confession saying he tried to kill
you
is false and therefore Secundus is guilty of …

Calvus cut him off. “Severus, I no longer wish to continue this discussion. You have my decision. I am standing by my stepson. Your trial of Secundus is at an end. Your mission in Alexandria is at an end. You may return to Rome or tour Egypt, whatever you like. Maybe in about a year, when the case of Secundus reaches the Emperor, if it does, you might look in on his trial, if there ever is one.”

Calvus glared at Severus with a challenging stare, almost in the manner of one gladiator facing off against another.

Severus glared back at Calvus just as challengingly, angry at his interference with justice. He then turned and walked out.

Whatever his outward appearance, inwardly Severus was smiling, content. Not only would he now be free to spend a few weeks touring the sites of Egypt -- the pyramids, the Sphinx, -- but the case against Secundus would be moved to Rome. His ground, more than the Prefect’s.

After a few steps in the marbled hall, he slowed down and stopped. An ironic, but uncomfortable, thought had occurred to him. He felt almost a sense of betraying Marcus Aurelius. The Emperor had sent him to Egypt to find out who had tried to kill the Prefect and to protect him from further harm. But he had not discovered who poisoned the Prefect’s cup and now he could no longer protect Calvus because, as a result of his own actions, he was being thrown out of the province. His mission, to put it bluntly, was a total failure.

MARCUS FLAVIUS SEVERUS: TO HIMSELF

E
verything is in abeyance, unresolved. I don’t know who put poison in the Prefect’s cup. I don’t even know whether the poison was intended for Calvus or for the victim Pudens. Moreover, Philogenes, the librarian and Homeric scholar, has not been found. Isarion is possibly a forger of antiquities and complicit in stealing books from the Great Library, but he is in Rhodes. Serpentinus, the Prefect’s aide, is unavailable. Claudius Celer, the Imperial Post aide of the victim Pudens, has either been sent away or fled. And the case of judicial murder against Secundus has been referred to the Emperor in Rome, while the Prefect has virtually ordered me out of the province, declaring my mission at an end.

But I was still in Egypt and I was not going to miss seeing to the pyramids and the other tourist wonders of the country. So with Artemisia and my whole staff we went up-country for a few weeks. The Prefect even provided us with a guide and an escort. I accepted, even though I knew the escort was also there to make sure I didn’t do any more investigating. But I wasn’t that docile. I made sure before I left to gather affidavits from
the witnesses I had interviewed. I got written statements from all the
hetairai
and the young slave girls about Ganymede’s non-presence at the Prefect’s couch; I got a statement from the
quaestionarius
’ telling his story of how Secundus had asked Ganymede leading and suggestive questions and ordered excessive pain. If there was going to be a trial before the Emperor, I wanted to have the case against Secundus fully documented.

Meanwhile, the pyramids. They were astonishing. Covered in smooth, gleaming white limestone they appeared almost unearthly, to descend to Earth from the sky like rays of light. This is how they were intended to look. We are told by the Egyptian priests, who keep the records, that the pyramids are more than 2,500 years old. One can therefore appreciate why past ages are often seen as golden ages and why our age is often compared to lesser debased metal.

Once the famous Curator of Waters for the City of Rome, Julius Frontinus, called the pyramids useless when compared to the great aqueducts of Rome, which send millions of gallons of water into the City everyday. The pyramids useless? Not to my mind. Certainly not as practical as the aqueducts of Rome, but beauty and wonder are not useless and the pyramids are beautiful and wondrous.

In the same vein, Pliny said he preferred Rome’s great sewer, the Cloaca Maxima, to the Sphinx because of the sewer’s utility. But I am not a sewer enthusiast and now having seen the Sphinx, I disagree with Pliny. I prefer the Sphinx.

So maybe Vulso is right when he often questions how ‘Roman’ I am. But to my mind his interpretation of ‘Roman’ is too narrow. I’m sure, for instance, that
Marcus Aurelius, if he had the opportunity to see the pyramids and the Sphinx, as the Emperor Hadrian did, would also admire them.

In any case, this is a cosmopolitan age and there is no reason to make that kind of choice. I also admire our aqueducts and appreciate the utility of the great sewer. These are wonders in their own right.

To complete our tour we traveled further up-country to Thebes to see the Colossi of Memnon and hear the “singing” statue. One of the Colossi actually made a sound as the Sun rose at the 1
^st
hour in the morning. But the sound it made, if it was the statue that made it and not the heating of the Sun or the whistling of the wind or a trick of the Egyptian priests, was not that impressive, though it was strange. We also saw the ancient rock-cut tombs of the pharaohs, all robbed long ago, though some mummies and mummy parts were still gruesomely left around. The tombs were impressively constructed and decorated and worth seeing. But we all agreed that a graffito left by an earlier traveler just about summed it up: “I, Philaestrios the Alexandrian, who came to Thebes and saw these tombs of astounding horror, have had a delightful day.”

So after an interesting and exciting tour of the wonders of Egypt and its famous tourist sites, we returned to Alexandria, boarded the warship
Argo
and returned home to Rome.

SCROLL II

SEVERUS IN ROME

MARCUS FLAVIUS SEVERUS: TO HIMSELF

Home!

T
he trip back from Alexandria to Rome took twice as long as the two-week trip out. The prevailing winds blowing from west to east made sailing west more difficult and the weather, as summer was coming to an end, was worse. Still we made it.

And there is nothing like a homecoming. We landed in Ostia, sent a message ahead that we had landed and took a coach from there to our home on the Caelian Hill in Rome. Everyone was there. Family first. The children were overjoyed to see us, as much as we were overjoyed to see them.

Aulus, Flavia and Quintus regaled us with hugs and kisses and voluble non-stop talking. Our dog Argos couldn’t stop barking in joy and running around in circles and jumping on both me and Artemisia. Even Phaon, our usually taciturn cat, kept brushing his side against our legs. He was also happy to have us back in his home.

The slaves made us a wonderful meal and we distributed our presents to the children and to the slaves, who are also a treasured part of our
familia
. Everyone got a
beautiful inlaid Egyptian box and a blue faiance scarab with “life, prosperity, health” hieroglyphs. Artemisia had in the end bought about 30 of each, not only for each member of the
familia
but also for friends.

We caught up on news and told stories of our trip and what we had seen. The trip 500 feet up to the top of the Lighthouse brought the most exclamations of “
babae
” and “
papae
” – wonderful.

Then we spent a few days together, visiting friends, having friends visit us, and just getting back to our normal life.

Then it was time to report to the Emperor.

XXV

SEVERUS REPORTS TO THE EMPEROR

“Y
ou know, Severus,” confided Marcus Aurelius, as they sat at a table in the peristyle of the Domus Flavia, Aurelius’ private residence on the Palatine, “early every morning I say to myself, today I shall meet with people who are interfering, ungrateful, hubristic, deceitful, envious and selfish.”

“Not all in one day, I hope,” replied Severus.

Aurelius laughed. “No, but probably one of each of them during the course of one week. There are good men too, of course, and I look forward to meeting those, as I did to this meeting with you.”

“Thank you,
domine
.”

“I actually still remember playing
trigon
with you, and one game in particular where you bluffed me to look one way and threw the ball into my face, giving me a bloody nose. I was very angry at the time, but my mother said I should respect the boy who treated me like any other playmate and not like some special person who should be deferred to. I always remembered that, and I
feel you will still treat me that way now – like a fellow citizen – the way I want to be treated, despite calling me
domine
.”

“I will,
domine
. I can act in no other way.”

“Good. What I prize personally is the exercise of the intellect and fellowship with kindred spirits. And I feel you and I are similar in that way. So I know I can rely on your concern for justice and the unembellished truth. I got that sense from your letters and reports about what happened in Alexandria and from my own instinct about people.”

It was a week after Severus’ return to Rome. A report to the Emperor was his official priority and he had submitted one, complete with the affidavits of witnesses in Alexandria and the transcript of the court proceedings, transcribed by his court clerk. Aurelius was anxious to discuss it. On the table between them were elegant colorless, translucent glasses containing mulsum, white wine with honey. Aurelius took a sip. “Like Augustus I savor mulsum. ‘Oil for the outside’, he said, ‘but mulsum for the inside’.” Severus also sipped his drink. A snack of chickpeas in small bowls was also on the table as was an elegant box containing
theriac
– pills of
tranquillitas
. The opium based pills were a popular ‘remedy’ for overworked and stressed out people, as well as for those who just enjoyed the effect of the drug. The Emperor, on the advice of his physician Galen, was a regular user, not only to counter the stresses of his office, but also to help fight his chronic chest and stomach pains. Severus, however, stayed away from the pills.