Masters of Rome (45 page)

Vespasian walked next to his mother, Vespasia Polla, on the bride's side of the procession, smiling with a sense of wellbeing at the sight of so many of his family around him. His mood had been further improved by an excellent wedding breakfast and the sight of an emaciated Alienus hanging in the foul-smelling cage that had been his home for over a year now. Despite his condition he had still displayed defiance and had thrown a turd at the brothers as they gloated; it had fallen short. However, Vespasian had had a grudging respect for Alienus' refusal to admit defeat; it had been Rome's same stubbornness during the long struggle with Carthage, centuries before, that had eventually seen her through to victory. He foresaw a long struggle in Britannia if even half Alienus' compatriots showed the same resilience; which, with the encouragement of the druids who were fighting for their very existence, he thought highly likely. His humour was even more enhanced by the knowledge that folly raging on in Britannia was no longer his fight.

With shouts of ‘Talasio!' from passers-by – the ritual good-luck greeting for a bride, so old that its origin and meaning were now lost to time – the wedding party processed in a carnival atmosphere with much good-natured walnut lobbing.

‘I'm starting to feel my age, Mother,' Vespasian commented. ‘Children grow so quickly.'

Vespasia snorted in derision. ‘Wait until you reach seventy and have outlived your spouse; that's when you feel your age.' She grabbed Domitilla by the shoulder as she went skipping past.
‘Child, show some decorum; you're a member of a consular family and should behave as such.'

Domitilla looked up at her grandmother, evidently having no real understanding of what had been said.

Vespasia turned to Flavia walking behind her with Gaius. ‘You should keep the girl under control.'

Flavia's lips tightened. ‘She was just enjoying herself on a happy day, Vespasia; leave her alone and don't try to discipline my children again.'

‘I'll discipline them as much as I like if I see them behaving in a way unbecoming for this family.'

‘What do you mean, “this family”? Do you mean the equestrian family that you produced or the senatorial family that my husband and his brother turned it into? There's nothing worse than the snobbery of a person who has been raised up beyond their birth rank.'

‘My husband may have been only an equestrian but Gaius, my brother, was a praetor and has been in the Senate for over thirty years. I have always been of senatorial stock. At least I don't have the taint of slavery in my blood, daughter of Titus Flavius
Liberalis
! Your grandfather was undoubtedly a slave and your lax way of rearing children bears out that fact.'

‘Mother!' Vespasian exclaimed, his good mood fast disappearing. ‘You will not talk to my wife like that.'

‘No? I'll talk to her however I see fit. A woman with morals like hers does not have my respect – or the respect of anyone in good society.'

‘Just what do you mean, Vespasia?' Flavia asked coldly.

‘I mean that a woman who whores herself to the Empress is not fit to be treated as anything other than what she really is: a disgrace to her family name.'

‘You wicked old bitch! I'll—'

‘Flavia!' Vespasian snapped, stepping between the two women and grabbing his wife's outstretched hand before the nails made contact with his mother's cheek. ‘Control yourself.'

‘Control myself! After what she just said?'

‘Mother, you will apologise.'

‘I won't apologise for telling the truth. What interests me, Vespasian, is that you don't seem very surprised by the revelation.'

Vespasian kept hold of Flavia's hand and forced it back down by her side as they walked on. ‘What interests me, Mother, is what would make you want to make such an accusation in the first place?'

‘Dear boy, keep your voice down,' Gaius urged, ‘you're spoiling the wedding procession.'

Flavia shook her hand free. ‘Defend me from such slander, Vespasian. I demand you to.'

Vespasia's face contorted in spiteful triumph. ‘He's not defending you because he knows it to be true.'

‘Mother, of course it's not true and you will never say that again. Who told you such a thing?'

‘I got it from a very good source: Agrippina.'

Gaius looked doubtful. ‘Claudius's niece has hardly been seen since the Emperor recalled her from exile at the beginning of his reign and married her to Passienus. She won't go near the palace as she's convinced that Messalina will try and murder her son, Lucius. The rumour is that the Empress has already made a couple of attempts on his life.'

‘Well, I see her,' Vespasia said as the procession passed between the Appian Aqueduct and the southern end of the Circus Maximus. ‘After Passienus died last year he left all his property to young Lucius, including the neighbouring estate to ours at Aquae Cutillae. If you'd bothered to come up, Vespasian, you would know about it.'

‘I have better things to do with my time than to pry into my neighbours' affairs; besides, I've been obliged to stay in Rome.'

Vespasia sniffed. ‘So you say. Anyway, Agrippina took up residence there a couple of months ago; she has invited me on numerous occasions since and is very well informed about Messalina.'

‘That's no reason to repeat her malicious gossip.'

‘It's not gossip, it's true.'

Vespasian restrained Flavia again as her hand reached out, claw-like, towards Vespasia's eyes.

Gaius steered his sister out of range. ‘I'd be very careful about becoming friendly with Agrippina; she's not known for her kindness. In fact, the rumour is that she murdered Passienus. And don't forget what her first husband, Gaius Domitius Ahenobarbus, said about their child – what was it? “I don't think anything produced by me and Agrippina could possibly be good for the state or the people.”'

‘Nonsense, Gaius, she's perfectly charming to me; it's a great honour to be an intimate of the Emperor's niece, the daughter of the great Germanicus, and it could be very useful for our family.'

‘How? She's hardly ever in Rome.'

‘She's going to be in Rome far more in the future, Gaius; she has her eyes on Messalina and in revenge for her trying to murder Lucius, she is going to take everything that she has away from her.'

‘Hush your mouth, woman; that's treasonous talk.'

‘Is it? It's also the truth, Gaius.' She looked at Vespasian and Flavia. ‘If I were you, Vespasian, I'd remove that whore of yours from Messalina's bed before she's dragged from it clinging to her lover's corpse.'

Vespasian pointed a finger in his mother's face. ‘And if I were you, Mother, I would keep my mouth shut and my nose out of things that you obviously don't understand. Don't talk about this to anyone, do not hint that you know of it, don't even think about it. Do I make myself clear?'

‘But Flavia—'

‘Flavia is my wife and I know perfectly well what is going on and why. You, on the other hand, are just another lonely old woman who enjoys her opinions far too much and talks carelessly about politics and intrigue without knowing just how dangerous her words are.'

Gaius agreed with a wobbly-jowl nod. ‘Vespasia, I forbid you to see Agrippina again.'

‘Why, brother, are you jealous of my well-connected friend? Are you feeling a little inferior?'

‘Don't be stupid, woman; I'm just trying to protect our family.'

‘How does forbidding me to cultivate the Emperor's niece do that?'

Vespasian looked at his mother in exasperation. ‘Because if what you say is true then Agrippina doesn't just want to take everything away from Messalina, she wants to possess everything Messalina's got; she has her eye on becoming the mother of the next emperor.'

‘She can't; it's illegal to marry one's niece.'

‘Of course, but she doesn't need to marry Claudius; all she need do is dispose of Britannicus. With him dead then her son, Lucius, would be the obvious choice to be Claudius' heir; and actually he'd be a better choice: he's three years older and he's the grandson of Germanicus. The people would feel that at last the succession had got back to how it should have been.'

‘She would kill Britannicus?'

‘That's the whole point, Mother; for her plan to work Britannicus would have to be dead. Agrippina is cultivating you because she knows that your grandson is Britannicus' companion. Does she ask about him?'

Vespasia looked concerned, putting her hand to her mouth. ‘We always discuss my latest visits with my grandchildren.'

‘And if Britannicus had been there?'

‘Then she's very interested; she likes to know what they do together, where they go, who supervises them.'

‘You see, Mother, you're being used; and the information that you inadvertently give her is putting my son in danger. An accidental death will look much more convincing if two young boys suffered it instead of just the Emperor's heir. You will not speak to Agrippina any more and you will not leave Rome. Am I clear?'

‘Yes,' Vespasia whispered, looking suitably chastened.

‘And you will apologise to Flavia.'

But this was evidently a step too far for Vespasia and she turned away with her nose in the air as the wedding procession split in two and Paetus' party began to ascend the Esquiline Hill so that they would arrive at his house before the bride, whose party would take a more circuitous route.

*

Flavia Tertulla rubbed oil and fat into the doorframe of Paetus' house and then wreathed spun wool around it. Once she was satisfied that her role as the domestic wife in the house had been announced to the household gods she stepped over the threshold, taking great care not to trip. ‘Where you are Gaius, I am Gaia,' she said, taking Paetus' hand as she entered the vestibule.

‘Where you are Gaia, I am Gaius,' Paetus replied before leading her on into the atrium with the guests following.

Vespasian threw his torch aside as he entered the house with his uncle.

‘Vespasia does have a point,' Gaius remarked in a hushed tone as they walked into the atrium. ‘Perhaps it is time to think about protecting Flavia. Gaius Silius will be sworn in as suffect-consul in four days; Messalina will make her move very soon after that and you don't want Flavia caught up in it, do you?'

‘That's just it, Uncle; Flavia has to stay close to Messalina now of all times. Narcissus needs to have the wedding witnessed so he must know in advance where and when it's going to be.'

‘Surely he could get that information from other sources; Corvinus, for example?'

‘Perhaps; but if Flavia doesn't provide him with that information, there'll be no reason for him to persuade Claudius to let me take my family away from the palace. If what Mother says is true and we're going to replace one poisonous bitch with another possessing even more venom, then that has to be my highest priority – for Titus' sake. And besides,' Vespasian added, with a conspiratorial grin, ‘Flavia hasn't yet received the quarter of a million denarii that Messalina has promised to loan her.'

Gaius chuckled and clapped Vespasian on the shoulder. ‘You seem to be making a lot of money recently.'

‘I've made up my mind to profit whenever I can from the unpleasant situations that the politics of this city push me into, Uncle.'

‘Very wise, dear boy; no one is going to give you a handout for getting your hands dirty.'

They watched in silence as Flavia Tertulla passed her hand through the flame burning in the atrium hearth and then dipped
it in a bowl of water placed next to it. Having touched the two elements essential to life through cooking and washing, Flavia Tertulla placed her hand in that of her father. Sabinus then formally handed his daughter over to Paetus, who was standing next to a miniature marital bed decorated with flowers and fruit and set next to the impluvium for the newlyweds' spirits to consummate the marriage in. The guests broke into a song encouraging the couple to imitate their spirits and then Flavia, as the matron of honour, led Flavia Tertulla away to the bridal chamber to pray and sacrifice with her and then to help her undress in readiness for Paetus' arrival.

‘The hypocrisy of it!' Vespasia snorted. ‘She may be married just once to a husband who is still living but she can't be accused of being the incarnation of a faithful wife.'

‘Mother, if you carry on about my wife any more then I shall see to it that you no longer visit the children; which judging by the unfair way you reprimanded Domitilla just now will probably come as a relief for them.'

Vespasia turned to Vespasian, outrage in her eyes. ‘You support your wife against the woman who gave you birth?'

‘I support the mother of my children against the uninformed opinions of an ageing woman who does not understand what is going on and why; the fact that you gave birth to me is irrelevant. Now let that be an end to it, Mother.'

Vespasia snorted again and walked off to join a group of similarly aged females.

‘She's been getting worse every year since your father died,' Gaius informed him as slaves came round with trays of wine and bowls of fruit.

‘She's becoming dangerous, Uncle,' Vespasian said, watching his mother break into the conversation of the women she had just joined. ‘If she starts to gossip about Flavia then her affair will become public knowledge.'

‘I wouldn't worry about that, dear boy; if it suits her purposes, Agrippina will have seen to that.'

Vespasian knew that his uncle was, in all likelihood, right and cursed the situation that had kept him in limbo for the past year.
Messalina had made no move to marry either of the first four Consuls of the year and it was now beyond doubt that it was Silius, the final nomination, that she had chosen for her husband. However, as she could not marry him until he had the protection of the consulship, which was not due until October, the few people in Rome who knew of the plot had settled down to a period of uneasy watchfulness. Narcissus and Pallas had eyed the antics of Messalina's court with growing incredulity that their master's ears were deaf to all rumour and report of their actions.