The Chariots of Calyx Read online

  ‘Well,’ I said, ‘he isn’t doing so well out of it any more.’

  Pertinax regarded me severely, rebuking my unseemly levity with a glance. It reminded me of schoolmasters I had known. I remembered that Pertinax had, in fact, once been a teacher of grammar – before his father’s patron found him a place in the cohorts and set him on his rise to power. He must have been a formidable paedagogus.

  He sounded like a schoolteacher now, weary and patient. ‘Libertus, you know that I have applied to be relieved of this appointment and be posted elsewhere?’

  I nodded. I did know. The proposed journey to Eboracum was to have been part of his farewell procession around the major cities of the province. ‘The Insula Britannica will miss you, Mightiness.’ I meant it. To have a just and noble governor is every subject’s dream. To have an intelligent and upright one – however severe he might be with wrongdoers – is an unusual privilege.

  ‘Then, my friend, spare me your wit and use that patternmaker’s brain to better purpose. Assist me to leave the province in good order. If the provincial council refuses to pass the customary vote of thanks on my departure, there will be an imperial enquiry into my governorship. That could be serious. The Emperor is becoming more’ – he glanced towards the guards, but they stood motionless and impassive as the statues which surrounded them – ‘more – shall we say – “individual” at every turn. For instance, did you know that as well as renaming Rome Commodiana in his own honour, he has now decreed that the months of the year are also to be changed? August is to be Commodus, September Hercules, October Invictus . . . and November has disappeared in favour of “Exsuperatorius” – all named after His Imperial Divinity, of course.’

  I had not heard of this latest excess, although the Emperor’s increasingly ‘individual’ behaviour was whispered throughout the Empire. I tried to make light of it. ‘At least the changes will keep the imperial scribes busy.’

  ‘He is becoming less and less forgiving of any kind of civil unrest,’ Pertinax went on, as if I hadn’t spoken. ‘He sees it as dissent against himself – and the local governor is held responsible. This murder would not look well at an enquiry. This is not a joking matter, Libertus. My future as well as yours may depend on it.’

  I could see why the governor was alarmed and I hastened to redeem myself by sounding businesslike. ‘The question is, Mightiness, whether any of these grudges that you speak of were personal – directed at Caius Monnius in particular – or were merely irritation with the corn taxes in general.’

  Pertinax nodded thoughtfully. He began fanning imaginary flies from his face with the horsehair whisk. ‘They might be both, I imagine. Caius Monnius introduced some new measures which have won him little popularity: big drying houses by the river, for instance – the local landowners didn’t like that – and his system of compulsory loans for the corn trade almost caused riots in the street.’

  ‘Compulsory loans?’ I did not live in Londinium and this was the first time I had heard of this.

  ‘If a man wants money for seed corn, or to build a warehouse-granary, or merely to purchase large quantities of grain, he is now obliged to borrow it from the town treasury – at a high rate of interest, naturally.’

  ‘Part of which finds its way into Caius Monnius’ private coffers?’

  The governor almost smiled. He toyed with the fly-whisk, and his tone was ironic as he said, ‘I imagine so. I could not really say. That is a matter for the city, not the state. As provincial governor, it is hard for me to intervene, unless specific charges are brought against him – as, of course, they never have been.’

  Of course they hadn’t. A man would have to be exceedingly desperate, or influential, to bring an accusation like that against the city corn officer. For one thing, under Roman law, there can be no trial unless the accused can be physically brought before the courts – difficult with a wealthy, influential, well-guarded man like Caius Monnius. For another thing, the accuser still has to eat. As I said, everyone needs grain.

  One thing surprised me, however. I had always regarded the Roman governor – second in command only to the Emperor in matters relating to the province – as having almost unlimited powers. Of course, like every other major city, Londinium was a republic in its own right, with its own urban administration, but it had never occurred to me that Pertinax might have to tread with care in order not to offend the sensibilities of the civic council.

  Like Pertinax a moment earlier, I glanced towards the guards against the walls and lowered my voice. This matter might be sensitive. ‘That would explain the money which is missing? Some disaffected borrower, perhaps, pressed beyond the limit? Taking forcible possession of what he believes is rightfully his?’

  Pertinax put down his whisk and leaned a little closer. He too was aware that slaves have ears – perhaps because his own father was once a slave himself. He was unusual in that: most Romans regard their servants as ‘vocal tools’ – merely part of the furnishings and as incapable of independent thought as a chair.

  The governor, however, was more circumspect. His voice was a murmur as he said, ‘It might be so. And the document too. That disappearance worries me, though it is not clear exactly what it was. A list of transactions, perhaps, or a register for taxation. No one knows. It was merely noted that there was a sealed official scroll locked into his study chest last evening, and it is not there now. His slaves confirm it.’

  ‘Confirm it? Then who noticed the disappearance in the first place? And how, if the chest was locked?’

  This time the governor did smile. If it were not for his general air of dignity I would almost have said that he grinned. ‘Caius Monnius’ mother went into his study this morning and discovered the money was gone. The chest was open – and empty, though the slaves swear that it was locked as usual the night before.’

  ‘Caius’ mother lives with her son?’ I said, more to show intelligent interest than anything. It is not unusual, if a woman is widowed, for her son to take on legal and financial responsibility for her and offer her a home.

  ‘More than that.’ Pertinax leaned back on his couch expansively. There was no attempt now to disguise his amusement. ‘Caius Monnius has built an entire wing for her attached to his mansion, though she did inherit quite a sizeable estate in her own right somewhere out towards the sea. No doubt Monnius hoped to get his hands on that estate, but his mother insists on running it herself – through a steward, of course. A lady of decided views and personality. She is quite a figure in the town. She is the one who sent to me with this information.’

  I said nothing. You didn’t have to read the entrails to see where this was leading. An awkward political situation, falling between the province and the city. Sensitive papers missing. An hysterical woman demanding justice, and the governor not wishing to seem involved. And, of course, a foolish pavement-maker with a reputation for solving mysteries.

  I was right. Pertinax regarded me benignly. ‘As to how she discovered the document was missing, you will be able to ask her yourself. I have promised her that you will look into it – I would prefer not to involve the legal officers at this stage. I am sure you will handle things discreetly. Her name is Annia Augusta, and she is at the mansion, waiting for you, now. I have made the necessary arrangements.’

  He gestured towards one of the massive bodyguards, who seemed to come mysteriously to life. The man clapped his enormous hands three times. The sound rattled the statues in their niches. At once, the supercilious slave appeared at the doorway.

  ‘There is a litter waiting for this citizen,’ the governor said. ‘Accompany him wherever he wishes, and make sure he has everything he wants. And you may have them show in the last of my clientes.’ He rose to his feet and extended the ringed hand to me again.

  I knelt and kissed it and then got to my feet and stumbled off down the steps to follow the slave. I was dismissed.

  As I passed one of the huge, impassive, brown-skinned guards, I would have sworn that I saw th
e corner of his mouth twitch momentarily as if in sympathy, but when I looked again the face was immobile as ever.

  My heart sank. It seemed like an omen. What devilry, I wondered, were the Fates hatching for me now?

  Chapter Three

  Londinium is an awe-inspiring city, even when viewed from the uncomfortable vantage point of a swaying litter carried by two sweating slaves. From the moment we lurched past the ornamental fountains and the crowd of curious onlookers, and out of the gates of the governor’s palace, I began to understand why this provincial capital is spoken of in awed terms by all who visit it.

  I had glimpsed something of its wonders the evening before, though because of the imperial festival there had been little commerce on the streets. Even so, as we arrived in the failing light the mere expanse of tiled roofs had impressed me, and so had the vast numbers of houses, shops and colonnades. This morning, in slanting sunshine, the city was about its business again and the sheer quantity of people made me gape.

  There are rumoured to be ten thousand men in Londinium, and as we turned away from the so-called Wall Brook and on to the main road across the city, I felt that all of them must be out here on the streets.

  I am accustomed to crowds – Glevum is a substantial town and so is neighbouring Corinium – but I had never seen so many men together at one time in the same place, except for military processions or religious festivals. But this was an ordinary working day.

  There were people everywhere: rich men in togas giving orders; lesser ones in tunics lifting bales; others, in little more than rags, attempting to sell their pitiful baskets of wild herbs and berries, or offering to hold a horse for a bronze as or two. Boys hustled by with handcarts laden with pigskins; women passed with firewood bundled on their backs. And creatures too. Dogs and donkeys loitered in doorways, caged birds whistled from a vendor’s stall, and pigs, sheep and cattle called plaintively from the butchers’ pens in the distant market, while mules and horses plodded in the gutters, laden with every cargo known to man, from olive oil to oysters, candlesticks to cloth.

  ‘Where does it all come from?’ I muttered, half to myself.

  The supercilious slave was trotting beside my chair, obedient to the governor’s orders, and heard the remark. ‘All unloaded from the boats that come up the river,’ he informed me breathlessly.

  The pace that the litter-bearers were setting meant that he had to scurry along in a rather undignified manner to keep up, to my secret amusement. His name was Superbus, he told me proudly, ‘meaning excellent’, and that caused me to smile even more. ‘Superbus’ does mean ‘excellent’, but it also means ‘supercilious’. Governor Pertinax had his own sense of humour, then, under that stern exterior.

  The slave was not looking very excellent now. The pace was telling on him – he was already turning red and panting slightly, to the visible detriment of his self-esteem and the scarcely concealed amusement of the litter-bearers. (I half suspected they were doing it on purpose, so I was unreasonably pleased to notice that Junio, who was striding along on the other side of the carrying chair, appeared to be managing the brisk walk effortlessly.)

  Junio caught my eye and grinned appreciatively. ‘A little bigger than Glevum, master. Look at that basilica!’

  I could scarcely help looking at it. We had just turned into the street which fronted the forum, and the building which Junio was excitedly indicating would have been hard to miss. It dominated the entire neighbourhood with its lofty columns and gracious portico. The whole dignified edifice – town offices, function halls and courtrooms, flanked by temples and official market halls – was set back across a spacious public square, itself dotted with mighty statues and surrounded by a colonnade where independent vendors had set up makeshift stalls.

  ‘Great Mercury!’ I exclaimed, as all this came fully into view. ‘Whoever built that intended to impress!’

  ‘It’s said to be the biggest basilica in the Empire, outside Rome,’ Superbus informed us, as loftily as his heavy breathing would allow. Despite his scarlet cheeks he managed to sound as if the glories of the city were to his personal credit.

  ‘Imagine!’ I gave him a cheerful smile, hanging on to my chair with both hands as my bearers navigated a pile of turnips spread out for sale on the pavement. ‘Hard to believe that less than two hundred years ago there was nothing here but a swamp.’

  Unkind, perhaps, although it was nothing less than the truth. Everyone knew that the Romans had built their elaborate city on virgin land. None of our Celtic tribes had ever bothered with the place – the lowest practical crossing of the river, certainly, but the soil for miles around was too poor to support farming. Superbus, however, saw any comment on the city as a blow to his own self-esteem, and he deflated like a punctured pig’s bladder. His face became more scarlet than ever and he said nothing further until we had arrived at our destination.

  This proved to be a substantial mansion in the north-east of the city, the door already hung with a wreath of funerary green. It was a large house in possession of a privately walled rear garden with – as far as I could tell from a glimpse over the high wall – a long, low addition on one side. The ‘wing’ in which the fearsome Annia lived, I guessed. After Pertinax’s description, I was looking forward to meeting her.

  I had not long to wait. I had hardly set foot to paving before a small, stout woman with folded lips and greying hair had brushed aside the doorkeeper and was waiting in the corridor to greet me. From her wine-coloured stola and imperious air, and the pair of maidservants skulking nervously behind her, this was clearly a lady of some account.

  I was surprised to find her there, since I am not a person of particular importance. It is not at all customary for a householder, particularly a female one, to come hurrying out personally in this fashion. Usually the visitor drums his heels in the atrium first, nibbling at dates, while a slave goes through the pretence of summoning the master – or mistress – who will arrive only after a dignified interval. One expects these conventions.

  ‘Lady . . .’ I stopped, lowering my eyes respectfully. ‘The citizen Libertus, at your command.’

  If I had supposed, even vaguely, that her unexpectedly prompt appearance was due to womanly anxiety and grief for her dead son, her first words were enough to disabuse me. ‘Well, citizen, so there you are at last. Oh, get up, get up – we’ll have none of that time-consuming nonsense here.’ I had attempted to kneel before her with bowed head, a conventional gesture of respect towards a Roman matron in mourning. ‘There’s work to be done. That female has conspired to have my son done away with, and I want you to prove it. It may not be easy. They are clever, she and that lover of hers. That’s why I sent to Pertinax. I said I wanted the best.’ She inspected me, discontentedly, like a cook at the market appraising a fowl and finding it tough and scrawny. ‘And he sent you. Are you the best?’ I half expected her to reach out and test the flesh on my forearm.

  ‘I will do my best,’ I said, foolishly, still startled by the nature of my welcome. We had not moved from the entrance-way, and Annia Augusta – if that was indeed who it was – was still standing before me with folded arms, as forbidding as the Nubians at the palace. ‘To find out who is guilty, that is.’

  ‘It is not a question of finding out who’s guilty,’ she said sharply. ‘Fulvia Honoria, my daughter-in-law, and that wretched Lividius Fortunatus of hers – they are the ones who are guilty. Any idiot could guess that. Proving it will be the problem. That is why I sent for you. What do you say to that?’

  I had nothing to say to it. I was too taken aback to make any sensible reply. After a death, especially a violent death like this, one expects emotion – shock at least, or grief – and most of all from the mother. There was no sign in Annia Augusta of anything except scarcely concealed impatience.

  She was looking at me pityingly now. ‘It seems you’re not as sharp-witted as I was led to believe. Well, since the governor has sent you, I suppose you had better come in. Come on – all of y
ou!’ She made a sharp gesture with her hand, then turned and led the way into the atrium. We followed her like a flock of docile sheep – her attendants, myself, Junio and Superbus, who by this time was smirking all over his face at my discomfiture.

  I tried to ignore him, and concentrated on my surroundings.

  The atrium was as tall, classic and gracious as Annia Augusta was not. It was roofed, as most atria are in this most northerly of the provinces, but someone had added an ornamental pool, in imitation of the Roman fashion, with a central statue, a few scattered plants and one or two lethargic fish lurking in it. I wondered what Herculean efforts by the servants were required to keep that little feature constantly cleaned and replenished.

  The walls were of painted plaster, depicting hunting scenes, and the room had been elaborately furnished with more expense than taste. On one wall a huge and heavy gold-crusted table groaned under a pot-bellied onyx vase; on another a gigantic marble statue of Vesta squinted down at us from her plinth in a painted niche; and the whole floor boasted an elaborate mosaic, depicting lumpish nymphs and sea creatures in an intricate design of quite exceptional ugliness. What caught my attention, however, was a small plain table in a corner of the open tablinium beyond, on to which a young page was carefully placing a tray containing a selection of fresh fruits and a jug of watered wine.

  Annia Augusta glowered at him. ‘What are you doing here?’

  The boy stopped, platter in hand. ‘The mistress,’ he ventured. ‘She bade me . . . for our guest . . .’