Bodies Politic Read online

  The second thing was that Cineas saw me. His jaw sagged in horror and disbelief, and he turned to bolt.

  The third thing was that Helicon saw him seeing me. He whipped round, our eyes met across a crowded patio, and I could just hear the clink of the dropping penny...

  Oh, shit. I stopped dead. Out of the corner of my eye I glimpsed Cineas heading for the gate at speed, leaving a trail of indignant upper-class punters with freshly wine-stained mantles in his wake: too much of a lead, too fast to catch. Meanwhile, Helicon was pointing at me and talking urgently to the gate-slave and one of the waiters. Uh-oh; trouble was right. As they headed in my direction I took a step backwards. They wouldn’t use violence, sure, or nothing obvious, not in this crowd, but -

  I collided with someone behind me.

  ‘Marcus, petal! What are you doing here?’

  I turned. ‘Ah...’

  ‘Well, well, this is a surprise!’ Gaius Caesar gave me a dazzling smile. ‘A pleasant one, of course, apart from the wine you’ve made me spill down my mantle, but no doubt that’ll come out in the wash, and if not I’ll send you the bill.’ Jupiter! ‘I never knew that you were a friend of Helicon’s. How’s the investigation going?’

  ‘Ah...’ I looked back over my shoulder. The two slaves had paused, uncertain. ‘It’s, ah, -’

  ‘You must tell me all about it.’ Gaius linked his arm with mine. I glanced at the slaves again. They hadn’t moved. ‘Right now, please, because I could do with cheering up. Between you and me, dear, and much though I love Helicon, this party is absolutely bloody.’

  ‘Actually, Caesar,’ I swallowed, ‘the investigation’s finished.’

  That got me a very sharp look. ‘Is it, now?’ he said.

  ‘Yeah. Yeah, more or less.’

  ‘Successfully?’

  ‘I think so.’

  ‘Then we’ll certainly talk.’ He hadn’t let go of my arm, but now there was a touch of steel in his voice. ‘Somewhere private inside, I think. Helicon won’t mind.’

  I wouldn’t bet on that; in fact, glancing over to where the guy was standing and seeing the look on his face I’d say that currently providing a venue for me and the emperor to have a quiet tête-à-tête was pretty low on the bastard’s wish list. However, if the gods had decided to smile for a change then I wasn’t going to complain.

  ‘Fine by me, Caesar,’ I said.

  ***

  Gaius had the flustered major-domo show us to Helicon’s study, ordered a jug of wine (‘Not the rot-gut you’re serving outside, cherub. Bring us something decent.’) and when he’d done it told him to bugger off and make sure we weren’t disturbed.

  ‘Right, Marcus,’ he said when the door closed. ‘Let’s have it.’

  So I told him. The whole boiling, from beginning to end.

  When I’d finished he said, very quietly: ‘You can prove this, of course. I really hope you can, petal, because if you can’t I shall be very seriously upset with you.’

  Gods! The ice formed on my spine. ‘Uh, yes, Caesar,’ I said. ‘At least I think -’

  ‘Don’t think, dear. Thinking isn’t half-way good enough, not this time.’ He stretched out on the couch, his eyes on the coffered ceiling. ‘Gaetulicus I’m not surprised at; he’s been a bore for years, incompetent into the bargain, and I’m glad of the excuse to have his head, especially now. Nor at Agrippina, because she’s a scheming little bitch and always has been. I’ll even grant you Livilla, because she’s just an empty-headed fool who doesn’t look beyond the next fuck. But Helicon and Lepidus are something else entirely.’ He gave me a quick sideways glance. ‘Do you know how many friends I have, Marcus? Friends, not hangers-on? No? Well, I can count them on the fingers of one hand. So you had better be able to prove it to the hilt, love, because if you can’t then I’m afraid you’re cat’s meat.’

  Oh, shit; he meant it, too. I swallowed. ‘I’ve got Seneca,’ I said. ‘He can confirm the Gaetulicus side of things. Plus his pal Anteius, who acted as the link, and Titus Vinius who’s willing to testify about the attempt to bring over the Pannonian legions. That should be enough for Agrippina and Lepidus.’

  ‘And for Helicon?’ He’d gone back to staring at the ceiling.

  ‘Cineas. The guy I told you about, in Alexandria. I saw him outside not half an hour ago. You’d have to find him for yourself, Caesar, granted, but the bastard’s in Rome and it shouldn’t be too difficult. After all, where could he run to?’

  ‘Alexandria excepted, anywhere in the empire you could name, petal. And Rome is a big place.’

  Yeah; right. Still, I’d given it my best shot. Now it was up to him. I waited, held my breath and tried not to let the ice-cold gut fear that was building inside me show in my face.

  He sat up suddenly. ‘Very well, Marcus,’ he said. ‘I can’t blame you for any of this, especially since I gave you permission to use that long nose of yours in the first place. In fact, I suppose I should thank you, and I probably will when I don’t feel so bloody.’ So it wouldn’t be Lusitania or slit wrists after all. I let the breath out. ‘That’s conditional, of course, on your first three informants coming up with the goods on Lepidus and my sisters. As far as Helicon is concerned -’

  He stopped. He simply stopped, his eyes fixed on the far wall. I gave the silence a good minute. Then I said:

  ‘Caesar?’

  ‘Hmm?’ He blinked. ‘Oh, yes. Helicon. Don’t worry, dear, I’ll have a little talk with Helicon. He’s been very naughty, very naughty indeed.’ I said nothing. ‘Still, no real harm done, is there? And he does have a point about those Jews, they’re nothing but trouble, always have been. Of course, Flaccus is another matter, he should’ve known better. I can’t have my governors acting irresponsibly, whatever the excuse.’

  ‘What about Macro?’ I said.

  ‘Oh, Macro!’ Gaius sighed. ‘Marcus, dear, I’m sorry, but you really are being a little tiresome there. Frankly I couldn’t give a fuck about Macro. I’d’ve had him killed eventually in any case because he was becoming far too pushy. The same goes for Silanus. And Gemellus, for different reasons. Even if the plot was a complete fabrication - which I’m not entirely convinced of - then I can thank Lepidus and Agrippina for the excuse.’

  ‘And Drusilla?’

  I knew I’d made a mistake as soon as I said it. The look I got was from eyes that were pure cold steel.

  ‘If you’re right that Lepidus was behind her death,’ he said, ‘if you’re right, then I’ll have the bastard in an urn. Agrippina too, if she was involved.’ I swallowed. ‘But you said yourself: Helicon had nothing to do with that side of things.’

  ‘No, he didn’t, but -’

  His hand came crashing down on the small table beside the couch, toppling the wine cup and spattering the mosaic floor with wine. ‘I will not lose two of my friends!’ he snapped. ‘Not at once. Not for you, not for anyone, not even for fucking Rome herself. Whatever the truth of things. Is that perfectly clear?’

  ‘Yes, Caesar,’ I said.

  ‘Good.’ He lay back again and closed his eyes. ‘Now bugger off, there’s a love, and leave me alone. On your way out you can tell the major-domo I want to see his master.’

  I turned to go.

  ‘Marcus?’

  I looked back. ‘Yes, Caesar?’

  ‘Thank you. Awfully well done. Congratulations. Now go to hell, please.’

  I left.

  ***

  ‘So what did he say?’ Perilla said when we were ensconced in the litter and on our way back to the Caelian. ‘The emperor?’

  ‘He congratulated me and told me to go to hell.’

  ‘Oh.’ She pulled back the curtain and watched the scenery.

  ‘Why is it always so fucking unfair? Helicon’s responsible for framing a chief advisor, blackmailing a governor, thanks to him probably by this time in Alexandria there’s rioting in the streets and they’re lynching Jews and burning them out with Flaccus’s fucking blessing, and Gaius bloody Caesar plans to let the b
astard off with a good talking-to and a fucking smacked wrist. That’s not justice, lady, it’s -’

  ‘Gently, Marcus, gently.’ She hadn’t turned round. ‘You haven’t done too badly. The emperor owes you his life, for one thing. And you did solve the case.’

  ‘Yeah. I’ll bet wherever Macro is now that’s a great consolation to him. Maybe I shouldn’t’ve bothered.’

  She turned to face me. ‘Listen,’ she said. ‘Macro never asked for your help in the first place; you knew that letter was a forgery right from the beginning. And Claudius Etruscus has got what he wanted. Oh, perhaps not yet, but he will: Helicon has been stopped, Flaccus will be recalled, and it’s all thanks to you. So let’s have no more recriminations and self-pity. It’s over and done with, just forget about it.’ She kissed me. ‘Besides, we still have a wedding to arrange.’

  I half-smiled. Oh, the joys. Still, she was right: I’d done my best, the case was solved, and how Gaius intended to take things from here was his business, nothing to do with me. It might even turn out, in the end, to be all for the good of Rome. If you believed in flying pigs.

  Ah, well; onward and upward. At least I’d seen Alexandria, and I had a couple of jars of good Mareotis in the wine cellar that I wouldn’t’ve had otherwise. Life wasn’t too bad, at that.

  I kissed her back, and we went home.

  ______________________________

  DRAMATIS PERSONAE

  (Only the names of the main characters are given. Historical characters are upper case)

  Corvinus’s family, household and friends

  Agron: Corvinus’s Illyrian friend, resident in Ostia. His wife is Cass (Cassiopeia).

  Alexis: the gardener

  Bathyllus: the major-domo

  Clarus, Publius Cornelius: Marilla’s fiancé

  Marilla: Corvinus’s adopted daughter

  Perilla, Rufia: Corvinus’s wife

  Secundus, Gaius Vibullius: an old friend of Corvinus’s, currently a senior military administrator

  The imperial circle

  AGRIPPINA, DRUSILLA, LIVILLA: The emperor’s sisters (Drusilla is now dead)

  ANTEIUS, Gaius: a young finance officer, a friend of Seneca’s

  GAIUS CAESAR: the emperor (Caligula)

  GEMELLUS: Tiberius’s nephew and Gaius’s adopted son. Now dead

  HELICON, Tiberius Claudius: a freedman, prominent civil servant, and close friend of Gaius

  LEPIDUS, Marcus Aemilius: a close friend of Gaius and the husband of his dead sister Drusilla

  MACRO, Naevius Sertorius: commander of the Praetorian Guard and one of Gaius’s chief advisors, now dead. His wife was ENNIA

  SENECA, Lucius Annaeus: the later philosopher, tragedian and advisor to the Emperor Nero

  SILANUS, Marcus Junius: Gaius’s former father-in-law and advisor. Now dead

  VINICIUS, Marcus: Livilla’s husband

  TIBERIUS (‘The Wart’): the former emperor

  Rome, Italy and the Rhine

  Crispus, Caelius: a professional scandal-merchant

  ETRUSCUS, Tiberius Claudius: an important civil servant, aka Dion

  GAETULICUS, Gnaeus Cornelius Lentulus: legate (governor) of Upper Germany

  SABINUS, Calvisius: legate of Pannonia. His wife is CORNELIA, Gaetulicus’s daughter

  VINIUS, Titus: an ex-tribune of the Pannonian legions

  Alexandria

  AGRIPPA, Herod: newly-appointed king of Judea, and a close friend of Gaius

  Cineas, a merchant

  FLACCUS, Aulus Avillius: the Roman governor

  Gallus, Marcus: a tribune with the XXII legion

  Glabrio, Sextus Acilius: Flaccus’s aide

  ISIDORUS: a Greek demagogue

  Mika: Agron’s sister-in-law

  Stratocles, Fabius: Corvinus’s host

  AUTHOR’S NOTE

  The story is set between June and September AD38: I feel slightly guilty about the length of time separating my fictional date for the uncovering of the Gaetulicus conspiracy - or at least the point where Gaius becomes aware of it - and the probable historical one of almost a year later, but I needed to have Corvinus in Alexandria at a time before the rioting and the arrest of Flaccus, so this was unavoidable. Otherwise the chronology (as far as I’m aware) is accurate.

  Which leads to the usual (important!) question of what is historical fact in the story and what is pure fiction. I’ve tried, as I like to do in all the political books because the ‘Times’ crossword solver in me finds it fascinating, to combine ostensibly disparate real events into a single plot-line; which means that although the events themselves, taken individually, are historical the links I make - together with their circumstantial details - are my own invention. The result may be plausible in real, historical terms (at least I hope it is) but it remains an artificial construction.

  In this instance, the deaths of Macro, Gemellus and Silanus are real, but although an actual conspiracy - false or otherwise - involving them together is certainly possible it is not a matter of hard fact. Similarly, Gaetulicus and Lepidus were actually executed in the course of Gaius’s journey to the Rhine in September AD39, while at the same time Agrippina and Livilla were banished (for fuller details, plus the fates of Seneca, Anteius and Vinius, see below). Thus far - but no further - historical fact; even if they were all implicated in a single conspiracy (which seems a reasonable assumption) its circumstantial details must lie within the realm of theory. As those of my Lepidus/Agrippina strand most certainly do.

  The Alexandrian plot is a complete fabrication, albeit one I feel proud of because it fits in really nicely with the facts that underpin it. Historically, Tiberius Claudius Helicon was the leader of an Alexandrian Greek faction in the fledgeling civil service; he did try to put the Alexandrian Jews down with his close friend Gaius at every opportunity; Isidorus did reappear in Alexandria, became an intimate of the previously-hostile governor Flaccus, and suddenly, unaccountably, persuaded him to reverse Roman policy vis-à-vis the Jews, with catastrophic results (again, see below for details); and Flaccus was a friend of Macro’s and one of Gemellus’s few named supporters. All in all, one of those instances where if the explanation isn’t actually true then it should be.

  ***

  The one-year gap I mentioned above between the timings of fiction and fact meant that, unusually, I couldn’t integrate the larger part of the results of Corvinus’s investigations into the story itself. For the sake of completeness, then, they need to come here.

  Alexandria

  Between early August and September AD38 - ie starting immediately Corvinus left the city - the rioting became much more serious. Greek mobs roamed the streets, destroying Jewish synagogues and property, with Flaccus at best turning a blind eye and going himself to the extreme of issuing a proclamation confining Jewish residence to the original eastern quarter; in effect, creating a ghetto. Since this entailed a huge influx of Jews from the other parts of the city who had lost everything in the process, the result was severe overcrowding in insanitary conditions; the problem being aggravated by mob savagery on the part of the Greeks, who beat or burned to death any Jews found outside their quarter. Any attempt at retaliation was ruthlessly suppressed, and the ringleaders were publicly executed. In October, troops arrived to arrest Flaccus. He was taken to Rome and - despite an attempt by Lepidus to have him exiled to the relatively-comfortable island of Andros - was sent to its fly-speck neighbour Gyaros. At about the same time as Lepidus fell (the following September), Gaius sent men to have him killed.

  Germany

  Gaius left Rome for the Rhine - and his intended British campaign, which came to nothing in the end; that had to wait for Claudius - in mid-September AD39, taking with him Lepidus, his two sisters, and the freedman Tiberius Claudius Etruscus. However, he went only as far as Mevania in central Italy, less than a hundred miles from the capital. Troops were sent forward to arrest and execute Gaetulicus at Mainz, while Lepidus was executed at Mevania itself. Agrippina and Livilla were exiled,
but first - as her mother had her father’s - Agrippina was forced to carry Lepidus’s ashes back to Rome.

  On his own return to Rome, Gaius dedicated three daggers in the temple of Mars Ultor (‘Mars the Avenger’).

  Other fates

  Calvisius Sabinus, the Pannonian legate, and his wife Cornelia - genuinely Gaetulicus’s daughter - were recalled to Rome. Cornelia was charged with trying to suborn the troops (in the euphemistic phrasing of the charge, ‘going round the sentries’) and with an act of adultery on the tribunal (the sacred platform where the standards were set, which would add the frisson of impiety needed to raise the crime to another level), her partner being the tribune Titus Vinius. Whether Vinius himself was punished is not known, but he was certainly still alive in AD69 so he may have escaped, possibly (as I have it) by turning informer. Cornelia and her husband both committed suicide.

  Annaeus Seneca, the later philosopher, tragedian and principal tutor/advisor to Agrippina’s son the emperor Nero, was originally sentenced to death but had the sentence commuted to exile; the historical reason given being that he had been too successful in defending a man whom Gaius wanted to see condemned. Whatever Gaius’s true reason for getting rid of him in 39 was (and surely it could not have been anything as trivial as pique, especially since at the time so much was happening within the imperial circle of which he was a member in the way of intrigue), two years later he was exiled again at the instigation of Claudius’s wife Messalina; this time on a charge of adultery with Livilla. I have simply blended the two historical facts to provide him with a plausible role in the story.

  Anteius was a senator recorded as being implicated in the plot against Gaius; precise details are unknown, and I’ve used nothing that is factual about him except for his name and rank. He was first exiled then - like Flaccus - killed by soldiers sent for the purpose.