Fanina, Child of Rome

by Pierre Sabbagh

  Drawn up as if ready to spring, perfectly lucid by now, Fanina observed the two women fiercely. Vibidia and Hemonia exchanged glances, and Hemonia went on:

  ‘You would be furious with us tomorrow for not having woken I you.’

  It was still Hemonia doing the talking. Hemonia for whom politics held not the slightest interest, for whom the only thing that mattered was ‘her’ girl. Fanina listened to her, her face set in an expression of disgust.

  ‘If the Supreme Vestal and I decided to get you away from Sejanus by showing you, through Locusta, what a monster he is, it was because tonight certain events will take place that will bring two men face to face... two men who ...’

  She broke off, searching for the right words.

  ‘On the one hand,’ the Supreme Vestal took up with a certain embarrassment, ‘should Sejanus be overthrown ...’

  ‘Who says Sejanus can be overthrown?’ Fanina asked sharply. ‘You know as well as anyone that in a few hours Tiberius is virtually going to hand the Empire to him.’

  ‘So you read the letter the Emperor sent to me, did you?’ said Vibidia.

  ‘I know the gist of what it said,’ Fanina admitted openly.

  ‘Well that letter was a trap. Tiberius knew that it would be opened, like all the letters he sends or receives, so he wrote to tell me that he would give Sejanus the powers of Tribune to keep him quiet while he played for time.’

  With a contemptuous pout, Fanina retorted:

  ‘How typical of the Emperor’s devious methods, but it won’t make the slightest difference to the outcome. Sejanus is so powerful that this sordid stratagem will not prevent him from winning.’

  The Supreme Vestal and Hemonia stood silent in consternation, as Fanina fell back on her pillow, adding:

  ‘Anyone attempting to prevent his seizing power now would have to be raving mad.... I am better placed than anyone to state categorically that anyone opposing him would not stand a single chance of success, not even of survival....’

  Still the "two women said nothing, and Fanina looked up at them. Hemonia was white, and Vibidia, her mouth trembling, turned away.

  Her heart seized by an inexplicable panic, Fanina asked:

  ‘Do you know someone who is going to attempt such a crazy task?’

  ‘Great gods!’ stammered her nurse as she moved closer to Vibidia.

  Fanina slid to the end of the bed, then taking them by the hands, she cried:

  ‘Is it someone dear to you?’

  Hemonia nodded.

  ‘Well then,’ Fanina said, ‘he must be warned as soon as possible and convinced of the fact that Sejanus’s power is irresistible. He must be told that in the state of mind Sejanus must be in since I left him, he will be implacable and will destroy him pitilessly.’

  She broke off. Their glances converging on her, the two women grasped her hands with unbelievable strength. Why were they looking at her with pity in their eyes? What new disaster was about to strike. Dry-mouthed, she cried:

  ‘Do I know him too? Tell me who he is, Vibidia, by all the gods!’

  Thunderstruck, she reeled. She could read the name on Vibidia’s pallid lips even before she had uttered it:

  ‘VINDEX.’

  Fanina looked all about her. She was indeed in the House of Vestals, in the little room near the road along which the patrols of the Praetorian Guard were still passing. It was indeed Vibidia and her nurse standing there before her. It was indeed Vibidia still squeezing her hands, as if to pour her strength to her. She was indeed awake and it was Vindex’s name that had just been spoken.

  ‘It can’t be!’ she replied, nevertheless in uncertain tones. ‘Vindex is at Baiae with the daughter of Calpurnius Piso.... Vindex is far too taken up with his pleasure to be involved in serious matters....’

  Her huge dark eyes gazing into Fanina’s, as if to make her share her own conviction, the Supreme Vestal broke in:

  ‘Tonight Vindex will be in Rome with Macro, whom you know ... Macro the officer sent by the Emperor to ask the Senate to quash the proceedings against Vindex and his father. The two of them are going to attempt what you deem to be impossible.’

  Her shoulders bowed, crushed, she added very softly but distinctly:

  ‘Up till now I had believed that they would be successful in their attempt ... but now the way you tell me how sure you are that Sejanus will win has shaken my conviction. I fear for them, my dear....’

  Her head between her hands, Fanina collapsed on to the bed.

  ‘It can’t be true!’ she kept on repeating. ‘You are just trying to test me? Stop your cruel game. If you want to know what I really feel about Caius you must surely know by now. ... I love him and he does not love me. He jilted me shamelessly for that Calpurnia woman. He flouted me at Forum Aurelii where he chanced upon me with Sejanus.’

  Turning her face towards Vibidia, she begged her:

  ‘Tell me he is still at Baiae! Tell me he is with Calpurnia! Please, I beg you, tell me that!’

  Her voice died on her lips. She would have given her life for everything to have been as she had said. She would have given her soul for Vindex to be in Baiae with her rival.

  Now Hemonia spoke:

  ‘Caius never loved Calpurnia, my darling ... Never ... He loves you and you alone, even now.... That I swear.’

  Every word her nurse uttered struck Fanina like a mortal blow.

  ‘Yes, you were told that Caius was going to marry Calpurnia, but it was not true. When the Prefect of the City gave Caius a home, he let it be known to anyone interested that his guest was his daughter’s fiance.... You must remember, my love, that Caius had condemned himself to death by escaping from the Praetorians’ guardroom in order to find you. Anyone could have killed him. He needed something pretty powerful to protect him. After that announcement, no one dared trouble the future son-in-law of such an important person. Even Calvinus and Brazen-beard hesitated to do that.’

  Every question Fanina would have asked had she had the strength to do so found its answer in what Hemonia was saying. Now it was Vibidia’s turn to speak:

  ‘As soon as I could, I got in touch with Vindex. I knew you were safe with Jupiter’s Flamen. Then I thought you were safe at Atia’s with Horo watching over you. I begged Vindex not to attempt to join you there for fear of Brazen-beard finding out where you were.’

  ‘You knew Caius,’ her nurse took up. ‘There was no stopping him. He longed to give his all on your behalf. For your sake he took unimaginable risks in going secretly to Capri to see the Emperor in whose service he had placed himself...’

  ‘Out of personal conviction,’ added the Supreme Vestal, ‘and also because the Emperor promised him that he would enable him to marry you when things had sorted themselves out.’

  One after the other, the Priestess and Hemonia told of the clandestine struggle Vindex had undertaken to ensure Tiberius’s victory. Apparently leading a dissipated life in Baiae with Calpurnia, for whom he cared not in the slightest, every night he brought messages over from Capri that Tiberius did not want to fall into the hands of Sejanus’s accomplices, who were everywhere in those parts. Once, however, weary of waiting, he made a rapid sortie into Etruria to find his beloved ...

  ‘You can’t imagine his despair,’ Hemonia murmured, overcome.

  Clasping ‘their’ girl closely, the two women fell silent.

  Caius’s despair ... Horrified, Fanina could see the young man’s face at the moment he had found her with Sejanus. What a terrible blow it must have been to him! How could he have reacted any differently on finding the woman who filled his thoughts laughing in the company of his powerful enemy, whose crimes and dissolute habits he must have known full well ? What restraint he had shown in not killing the commander of the Praetorians there and then!

  Fanina clenched her fists in despair. Caius too had a ‘mission’ to fulfil. Like her. He had been about to give way to his wrath, but had undoubtedly thought about the cause he stood for. Had he killed Sejanus, it wo
uld certainly have caused a terrible upheaval throughout the Empire. Headstrong Vindex whom a mere trifle would send into a furious rage, had bowed to the discipline of his party.

  Of what stuff were they made, the two of them? Why did they always think of others before considering their own happiness? Why were they slaves to ideas, conventions and prejudices?

  Not for one moment did Fanina think of all the attenuating circumstances she might have appealed to in order to excuse her behaviour. She had not trusted in Caius’s love. She had believed him capable of deceiving her, whereas it was she who had deceived him.

  The memory of Sejanus’s caresses that she had accepted, sought and returned filled her with a crushing sense of shame. She was the guilty one. She had plunged Caius into an abyss of suffering, and, that very night, Caius was going to be crushed by the irresistible forces she had helped Sejanus to set in motion.

  She straightened up. What terrible anguish must be written on her features? She could see its reflection in the faces of the two women who stood looking at her with such infinite sorrow.

  ‘Do you know where I can see Caius?’ she asked Vibidia.

  ‘Don’t you think this is far too grave a moment for Vindex to ...’ the Supreme Vestal began.

  ‘I said see and not meet,’ Fanina broke in.

  And with a sweeping gesture she cast aside every objection Vibidia could have made.

  ‘Caius is in danger. I shall remain near him so that I can intervene if necessary.’

  This was indeed the descendant of the ‘divine’ Mastarna, miraculously restored to life within her, who was speaking and acting. Vibidia bowed her head.

  ‘The gods must inspire you when the Empire’s destiny is at stake,’ she murmured.

  Fanina rejoined sharply:

  ‘I am not concerned with the Empire! I am going to the assistance of the man I love. Is that not a sufficiently glorious motive?’

  ‘I’m coming with you,’ said Hemonia, joining her.

  Drained of her strength, the Supreme Vestal looked away, as if unable to bear the sight of them.

  ‘It is forbidden for me to accompany you, my darling,’ she said in a whisper. ‘But if I am not to see you again, I shall die in order to join you again.’

  Chapter Twenty-six

  Rome had not slept that night....

  Kept awake by the incessant gallop of the Praetorian horse in their search for Fanina, agitated by the ceaseless coming and going of thousands of people as they filed towards the Regia where Calvinus’s body lay in state, alerted by that mysterious instinct that electrifies the masses at the approach of some important event, the city quivered with life like a forest stirred by the first gusts of wind before a storm.

  Through the still dark night that was drawing to an end, people leaned out of their windows, appeared on their thresholds, feverishly scanning the streets where small groups gathered. Men and women passed by, furtive, anxious shadows.

  Keeping to the back streets, Fanina and Hemonia pressed on. Wrapped tight in their grey woollen cloaks, starting at the slightest suspicious sound, they listened anxiously to the low-voiced exchanges of the passers-by.

  ‘There’ll be a shindy, you mark my words ...’

  ‘Did you see the looks on the senators’ faces?’

  ‘They look as if they don’t know what to do next.’

  ‘If I were in their shoes, I wouldn’t be at all happy. There are crowds of Praetorians round the temple of Apollo where they have to assemble...’

  Farther on, Fanina and Hemonia ran into a group of matrons chattering away as they hurried down the steps from Mount Palatine.

  ‘If I were you, I’d head the other way! ’ one of them called as she went by.

  ‘Why?’ asked Hemonia.

  ‘The Praetorians are examining every woman they meet. They came jolly near to undressing us.’

  ‘Is that all?’ Hemonia asked.

  ‘By the sweet paps of Venus, you’re a game one, you are!’ the matron replied with a roar of laughter. ‘Apart from that, this day that’s dawning is the best in Sejanus’s life. Up there there’s one of Tiberius’s officers bringing him all the power he ever dreamed of. In other words, Sejanus is now Emperor.’

  The other women were hurrying on and the one who had spoken ran off to catch them up. Unable to restrain herself, Fanina, heavy-hearted, asked:

  ‘And the officer, what’s he like?’

  ‘They didn’t give me time to get a proper look at him!’ the woman shouted as she vanished round a corner.

  Fanina and Hemonia hurried on.

  ‘Just one officer ...’ Fanina muttered, panting.

  Her nurse made no reply. Who was this officer? Vindex or Macro? The Supreme Vestal had known next to nothing of the plan the Emperor had instructed his two faithful servants to carry out. All she had been able to tell Fanina had been that one of them was to bear the message to the Senate that Sejanus had been so impatiently awaiting.

  In what role had Tiberius cast Caius Vindex? Which of them, Caius or Macro, would Fanina find on Mount Palatine?

  Towards the Quirinal, a band of silver marked the horizon. The night was growing less dark. Following a path she had often taken in her student days, Fanina took Hemonia through the maze of inner courtyards of the Palatine Library. Hugging the walls, the two women finally took refuge in a small niche cut into the wall beside the entrance to the building, beneath the yellow marble portico that framed the court of the temple to Apollo.

  The crowd was swelling visibly in the square before them. From all sides senators appeared, mostly in bcarcrchaiscs, accompanied by their dependents, who after escorting them to the steps of the temple, joined the attentive, silent throng.

  ‘What do we do now?’ asked Hemonia softly.

  ‘I don’t know....’ Fanina whispered. ‘If only the gods would send me some inspiration. I’m looking for Caius, Hemonia ... I’m looking for Caius.’

  Feverishly she scanned the whole length of the esplanade in desperation. On all sides, beyond the massing crowd, she could see nothing but the gilded helmets and breast-plates of the infantry of the Praetorian Guard surrounding the temple where the Senate was to meet. There must have been a full cohort of armed veterans. What could Tiberius’s two envoys possibly do against this ostentatious display of strength?

  Then a shrill cry broke the silence. Stamping their feet hard on the flagstones, the soldiers sprang to attention. Hemonia seized Fanina bodily and dragged her back into the depths of their hiding-place. Three men had just appeared beneath the porchway to the library.

  Fanina’s heart missed a beat. Less than ten paces from where she stood, she could see Sejanus through a narrow slit in the wall. He had halted opposite the temple whose elegant Carrara marble was growing golden in the light of the rising sun.

  Gryllus and Romilius stood on either side of the commander of the Praetorians.

  ‘No news, master,’ Gryllus’s deep voice rang out. ‘We are still searchng. By Jupiter, I swear that we’ll find her....’

  ‘There are seven cohorts surrounding the city,’ the other decurion said. ‘All our cavalry is out in the streets and at this very moment the wives of some of our soldiers are combing through the House of Vestals. She cannot escape.’

  His face hollow, unrecognizable, Sejanus nodded.

  ‘If only I knew why she went,’ he murmured. ‘If only I knew what sacrifice to make to get her to come back of her own accord.... If only I knew what I am seeking forgiveness for.’

  Gryllus gave a violent shrug.

  ‘Nothing extraordinary about that, master. That girl has her principles. All it needed was for that trollop Locusta to go and tell her a handful of stories about things we get up to for her no longer to feel that she enjoyed our company. If I know anything about her, I bet she is even reproaching you for having got rid of Calvinus to avenge her.’

  Trembling all over, Fanina leaned against the wall of the niche. While thousands of soldiers were trying to track her do
wn throughout the city, the gods had willed it that Sejanus should have followed the same route as her. She could well have bumped right into him in one of the deserted courtyards of the library.

  And the gods had also willed that she should hear him give voice to the terrible anguish that rent him just as she was deserting him to help Vindex, the most determined of his enemies.

  Swiftly she turned towards the entrance to the niche. The sound of a horse’s hooves rang out through the deep silence. Forging his way through the crowd before the temple, a horseman was crossing the square. He reached the open space in front of the library. Through the shadows that still darkened the square, Fanina scrutinized the approaching silhouette desperately. He was indeed a legionary cavalry officer. He was indeed a military tribune like Vindex, but he was too tall, too stooping, almost slumped over the withers of his horse that stumbled against the cobbles with every step it took.

  It was Macro, Tiberius’s frightening messenger who, a few moments after Fanina had been arrested, had told her that, in accordance with his astrologer’s advice, the Emperor was abandoning her to her fate.

  Where was Caius at the moment? Where was he while his strange companion advanced towards Sejanus?

  ‘By Pollux, take a grip of yourself, master!’ Gryllus whispered as they stood under the porch. ‘In an hour’s time you will receive your reward for so many long years of fighting. When you leave the temple, there will no longer be anyone over you.’

  The decurion broke off. Macro brought his horse to a halt a few paces from Sejanus. He gave a kind of stretch, and began a greeting which he left unfinished. His bizarre mastiff’s face, topped by a crest of bristly grey hair, screwed itself up into the semblance of a smile. He spoke in a flat voice:

  ‘I salute you, illustrious Sejanus.’

  The commander of the Praetorians made an effort to pull himself together.

  ‘Pleased to see you again, Macro,’ he replied. ‘No doubt you have a message from the Emperor for me?’

  ‘Not for you, illustrious Sejanus, for the Senate....’

  He gave a knowing wink and his smile widened into a grin.