The Ides of June Read online

  Meaning that I should have been here long ago, of course. ‘Excellence, I came as soon as possible. I was working on my palings when the message came. I only paused to put my toga on!’ I pressed my lips against the seal-ring as I spoke, dropping to one painful knee in the customary bow.

  Marcus snatched his hand away and gestured me to rise. ‘Oh get up, Libertus! There’s no time to waste on social niceties!’

  This outburst worried me still more. My patron has always been a stickler for appropriate respect and if I had not knelt, I would have angered him. This matter must be even more serious than I’d guessed. ‘Something has arisen, Excellence?’ I prompted, heaving my aged bones upright again.

  He glanced around the room, as if to make certain that we were quite alone. ‘I suppose it’s safe to speak? That page is out of earshot, by this time?’

  More curious than ever! Of course, the current staff were all recently acquired, but Marcus is so used to having servants everywhere that he generally thinks of slaves as pieces of domestic furniture and talks as freely as if they were not there. (I’ve had occasion several times to point out tactfully that they are sentient creatures with ears and eyes and tongues – adding that I might claim to know since I was once a slave myself.) So this sudden circumspection was distinctly troubling.

  I looked at my patron more closely, with alarm. I had only seen Marcus once before since he had come back from his ill-starred trip to Rome the previous month, and I had noted then how strained and worn he looked. However, I had put this down to the rigours of the journey and the unhappy events which had caused him to abandon it midway. The assassination of a personal friend and patron is bound to cause distress – the more so when the friend in question is the Emperor. And as for coming home to find that all one’s personal household slaves are dead! Anyone might be forgiven for looking anxious and distraught.

  But new slaves had since been purchased, or transferred from his other properties elsewhere, and by now there had been ample time for him to rest – yet Marcus was looking more strained than before. He was as smart as ever in his coloured synthesis – the combination robe and toga he always wore indoors – but otherwise the change in him was quite remarkable. The fair curls were touched with unexpected grey, his face was pale and his usual expression of handsome arrogance had quite deserted him.

  ‘The loss of the Emperor Pertinax has been a blow to you?’ I murmured. If so, I thought, I understood his grief. I had been honoured to meet Pertinax myself, when he was governor of this province, and his severe but upright honesty had impressed me very much. ‘And the nature of his successor must have pained you too.’ The promotion of Didius Julianus to the imperial throne, simply as a result of offering the biggest bribe for it, had been a shock to everybody in the Empire.

  Marcus shook his head. ‘If that were only all!’ he muttered bitterly. ‘The truth is, Libertus, I don’t know where to turn! I think I am in danger.’

  ‘Danger, Excellence?’

  ‘All known associates of Pertinax are in some danger now. First, I had a messenger from my relatives in Rome – and they report that they are in despair. Far from being disappointed that I didn’t visit them, they tell me I was wise to turn back when I did. Those who supported Pertinax are being hounded everywhere, stripped of office and beggared by fines for imaginary offences. The capital’s in uproar, my old friend, and those who can afford to are getting out of town.’

  ‘People are leaving for their country seats?’ I hazarded.

  He answered with a nod. ‘And that’s not half of it. Those same supporters held senior positions in the state, so the whole Empire is falling into disarray. Jove knows how it will end. You know that there are other claimants to the purple, I suppose?’

  I nodded. Several patricians of senatorial rank, particularly those posted to provincial posts, had formally refused to acknowledge Didius, and had set up counterclaims. ‘I heard as much,’ I answered, truthfully. ‘I understand the local garrison commander’s much concerned.’

  Marcus snorted. ‘Concerned! It’s more than that. The armies throughout the Empire are in revolt against the accession of that upstart to the throne.’ He put one hand on my shoulder and bent towards me, lowering his voice. ‘Let’s hope that they succeed. Didius is denouncing people everywhere.’

  I could see why Marcus was so troubled now. He’d been a close friend of Pertinax for years – and if there were denunciations here, my patron would be among the very first to fall! ‘You don’t think that will happen in Britannia? Surely we’re too far away from Rome?’ I could not believe that Marcus Septimus, one of the richest and most powerful men in all Britannia, might find himself disgraced and stripped of all that he possessed. The idea was too shocking to be entertained.

  Marcus turned away and ran his fingers through his tousled curls. ‘I don’t know what to think. Didius has already lost the favour of the Praetorian Guard, I hear. Pertinax was right. There wasn’t any money in the imperial purse, so Didius can’t pay the guard the bribe he promised them. So it’s just a matter of how long he can survive. If he doesn’t flee the capital, my guess is that he will not live another moon. But a moon is long enough when one is fearing for one’s life. Though if he clings to power – as my family think he will – we can expect the news at any moment that the guard have toppled him, and dragged his body through the city on a hook. In which case I may survive this trouble yet.’

  ‘So, if he falls, who will be Emperor, do you think?’ If it was hard to imagine that my patron might be ruined, it was harder still to comprehend that the famed Praetorians – the Emperor’s personal bodyguard and the absolute elite of Roman soldiery – could turn assassin and sell the Empire for a bag of gold. ‘The senator who offers the guard the biggest bribe?’

  ‘It will be whoever brings the strongest army, I suspect. There are already three claimants to the throne, all of them provincial governors.’

  ‘So all of them have troops at their command?’

  ‘Exactly. And this is not merely theoretical. They’ve each sent a so-called “ambassador” to Rome, to proclaim them in the forum as the one true Emperor.’

  ‘Proclaimed, perhaps. But who would dare to march on Rome?’

  He turned to that gilded chair at last and sat down heavily, gesturing that I should take the small stool at his feet. ‘From what my family report, they are already doing so. Septimius Severus is marching on the capital with the backing of his troops from Africa – if he’s victorious, there’s some hope for me. He was a friend of Pertinax, himself. But Pescennius Niger – supported by his legions from the eastern provinces – is favoured by certain of the senators. I’m much less certain of what he would do. Didius has tried to treat with both of them, but his messengers defect so he’s reduced to trying to improve defences around Rome.’

  ‘You think that there’ll be an actual battle? Roman against Roman?’ I was horrified.

  ‘More than that. There’s going to be a war. In fact it has begun. Quite apart from what Didius has done, these claimants are creating their own terror in the streets. They have agents kidnapping each other’s family and friends, and putting their rivals’ supporters to the sword.’ He shook his head.

  ‘So you fear for your property and family in Rome?’

  He looked at me as though I’d taken leave of all my wits. ‘Not at all. I told you, they have fled. I fear for my property and family, here!’ he said.

  ‘But war won’t reach us in Britannia, surely?’ I cried. ‘Imperial edicts, I can understand. But war?’ This was the most far-flung of all the provinces, and the last to feel the effects of what went on in Rome.

  Marcus sprang impatiently to his feet again – meaning of course that I had to do the same. ‘We’re going to lose the local garrison – or almost all of it. I told you there were three contenders to the throne. The third is our own Provincial Governor, Clodius Albinus. He is calling on the loyalty of the army here – and in Hispania, where he served before. And he has a
case, of sorts, through lineage. Better than Didius, in any case. He intends to take the local troops and march on Rome himself.’

  ‘So we would have no governor in the province? But there will still be laws,’ I said.

  He whirled around. ‘And who will enforce them? The army will be occupied elsewhere. The legion here is moving in support of Albinus – I had a message from the commandant today – and without the garrison to back them up, the town watch is practically powerless.’ He began that restless pacing up and down again. ‘Without the legions, the populace is like a herd of pigs without a swineherd to keep control of them. Brute force will be the only argument.’

  ‘But the civil authorities …?’ I murmured, doubtfully.

  ‘What authorities? Each of the claimants will attempt to kill the other two, and until someone emerges, there will be no Emperor.’ He had walked away from me, and was staring at the family altar as he spoke and I noticed that there’d been a recent, feathered sacrifice. ‘Can you imagine what that is going to mean? No one to appeal to in the last resort. No imperial warrant, no troops to keep the peace. The Empire will be rudderless, and that’s a recipe for crime and discontent. I’d almost rather have Didius survive. Better a weak or vengeful Emperor than nobody at all.’

  ‘Someone will emerge as Emperor in the end,’ I muttered, doubtfully.

  ‘And then the new reprisals will begin, here in Britannia as much as anywhere. Just as Didius is attempting now, to wipe out his predecessor’s friends.’ He looked at me. ‘Fresh decrees arrive by every courier, so the commander says. I said I was in danger. Now you understand. He doesn’t say so outright, naturally, but the commandant is clearly warning me that once the legion’s gone, he won’t be in a position to protect me, any more. I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s already rumour in the town.’

  I frowned at him. ‘I was in the colonia yesterday,’ I said. ‘People were muted – they’re still mourning Pertinax – but there was no sign of any discontent. All the shops and businesses were open, just as usual, and the ordinary courts were operational. There was a public flogging and a crucifixion of a thief, but no rumours of savage imperial edicts – far less any signs of such things being carried out.’

  He gave a bitter laugh. ‘But they exist all right. I suspect that I’ve already been named in some of them.’

  I stared at him. ‘Dear gods! You mean …?’

  He gave a bitter laugh. ‘I see you understand. However, I think the commander has been hesitant to act. As he says, news takes a little while to reach us in the provinces. For all we know, the Emperor Didius is already dead and damnatio declared, in which case his imperial edicts would be of no account. But once the commandant has gone the curia here may take a different view. It’s impossible to tell. Perhaps I should thank Jupiter that I’ve escaped so far.’

  ‘So what do you propose to do?’

  He went over and sat down on the stool again. ‘Glevum is still peaceful from what you say of it – and I confess that comes as a relief. Very soon, I shall have to go into town myself. I own that so far I haven’t shown my face since I came back from my travels – but I am a magistrate, I cannot simply fail to come to court. However, I must be prepared for what may come. I’ve drawn up an official document, naming a legal guardian for my wife and family if anything should happen and I face banishment.’

  ‘That would be wise, I suppose.’ It would be nice, for Julia, I thought to have a rich man to take care of her. Though the office of guardian would be no slight affair. If Marcus was officially proscribed, all his possessions would be forfeit to the imperial purse and he would be exiled from the Empire – probably to some desolate rocky island, sustained by only fish and rainwater, far from the comforts of the Roman world. ‘Who are you appointing?’

  He frowned at me as though I should have guessed. ‘Why you, of course, Libertus.’

  I was thunderstruck. ‘Me? But I’m a humble tradesman.’ I didn’t add that I had difficulty feeding my own household, now and then.

  ‘You are a Roman citizen, you are intelligent, discreet, you know the family and you have my trust. Also, you are of no particular account, so the Emperor Didius will not have heard of you. And if nothing happens to me, I can destroy the deed without insulting you. You seem to me the perfect candidate. I presume that you do not refuse the role?’

  He knew I dared not do so, though I dearly wished I could – fond as I am of Julia and her little boy and girl. ‘Of course not, Excellence.’

  ‘Then that is settled and there’s no more to be said. Of course I’ll give you money if I’m forced to flee, and if I’m ever pardoned – as might occur if Septimius Severus succeeds as Emperor – then I’ll return and try to build my life again.’

  I was still reeling from the magnitude of this. ‘And that is why you asked me here today?’

  He gave me a shifty look. ‘Not entirely.’ He wiped a hand across his brow. ‘Look, Libertus, I won’t prevaricate. Imperial edicts are not my only fear. I had another letter earlier today.’ He slid his hand into his upper folds and produced a battered writing tablet, the two halves loosely tied together with a piece of thong. He handed it to me. ‘I haven’t told my wife about it, and the servants merely know that it arrived – but when you read it, you will see why I’m distressed.’

  I looked at the tablet. There was a message crudely scratched into the wax:

  This is your only warning – the next time I will strike. You have no Emperor patron to protect you now – and the garrison is leaving so your friend the commander can’t be any help. Run to him, if you choose – it won’t do any good. He may send a guard for you, but it can’t stay for long. I can wait and I will find my chance. I plan to see you suffer, and your wife and children too – just as my family suffered at your hands. What shall it be? Fire, or strangling? Or shall I drown you all? I have not decided yet – but the next time you hear from me will be your last. I pray Dis that the knowledge costs you sleep.

  TWO

  I snapped the tablet shut. ‘This is an outrage! You have detained the messenger, I suppose?’

  Marcus had two telltale spots of anger in his cheeks, but when he spoke his voice was icy calm. ‘It was not delivered, it was thrown across the wall – and the gatekeeper retrieved it and brought it in to me.’

  ‘This gatekeeper?’ I echoed. ‘He’s new here, isn’t he? I suppose his word can be relied on?’ It all seemed so unlikely that my first thought was to doubt.

  ‘His can, I believe,’ Marcus said bleakly. ‘I brought him here from the Corinium house; he’s worked for me for years. If it had been one of the newer men, I could not be so sure. It’s a dreadful thing, Libertus, to get a threat like this and find yourself surrounded by slaves you do not know. I knew I could trust my previous household unreservedly, but any one of these that I recently acquired could be working secretly for whoever wrote that note.’

  I nodded. Marcus rarely went into the slave-market himself; he had the dealer choose the best available, then bring those to the villa so he could select from them. It would be easy for an enemy to offer the trader an outstanding slave or two, and so have spies installed into the household here. No wonder Marcus had been nervous of the page. ‘And you have no idea who this letter writer is?’ I said. ‘The gatekeeper saw nothing?’

  ‘Nobody at all. He simply saw an object come across the wall and went and picked it up. He saw it was a writing-block and brought it straight to me. By that time, whoever threw it had run off down the lane, and though I sent a rider after him there was no sign of anyone. Probably escaped into the woods and hid.’

  ‘So you have no means of finding who the sender was? Is it someone simply crazed? Or does some plaintiff really think he’s been unjustly used?’

  That was rather daring of me – and unreasonable too – because as a magistrate my patron is conspicuously fair. I have never known him take a bribe and he isn’t swayed – as many are – by the wealth of an accused or the number of noisy supporters hired
to make a protest at a trial. However, once or twice he has made a judgement more expedient than wholly scrupulous (usually to avoid reprisals from the Emperor Commodus) and there had already been one act of vengeance by someone he had found against in court – the one that had cost him a household full of slaves.

  Perhaps that’s why my patron did not take offence at my remark. ‘Who knows?’ he said despondently. ‘I hear so many cases – and the letter gives no details of what grievance is involved. The note is badly written but it’s in military script – the kind that any educated person can produce – not that of an amanuensis who could perhaps be traced. The writer does not intend me to work out who he is.’

  ‘But it’s someone literate? Which suggests a citizen.’

  My patron made a face. ‘It would have to be a citizen, for me to hear his case. Non-citizens are dealt with by the lesser magistrates.’

  ‘And the whole family was affected, so the message said. So it’s likely to be someone that you exiled, don’t you think?’ I am no expert on Roman law, but even I knew something about serious punishment. The state has several unpleasant methods of execution, depending on the crime, and non-citizens are often made to suffer them; but unless there is treason against the Emperor, the worst sentence for a citizen is usually banishment and confiscation of property – exactly the fate that Marcus was now fearing for himself. ‘If this man was exiled,’ I went on doggedly, ‘he must have been reprieved, since he’s clearly back again. Pertinax issued many pardons during his short reign, but there can’t be many men now in Glevum to whom that could apply.’

  ‘You’re only assuming that it was exile, anyway!’ Marcus dismissed my careful deduction with a wave. ‘There are a dozen possibilities. There’s the retired centurion I stripped of civil rank because he married his neighbour’s slave without first freeing her – he was furious, of course. So was the grain officer I fined so heavily for adding sawdust to the sacks. Or the tax collector that I sentenced to the mines for falsifying records and keeping money for himself! Or even someone whose case I refused to hear at all – a judge has to decide what is permissible.’ He sighed.