by John Hersey
“In his babbling it came out that he had lost his nerve because he had become convinced that the substance he had been given to use would not in fact kill me, he would make some mistake, he would be found out. This was enough to persuade me that the boy had at base a pure and candid heart: An innocent-hearted man, no matter how tempted, falters at the threshold of a terrible crime. Of course he was too terror-stricken to tell me who his tempters were. Another man would have tortured him to find out—but such a man, Lucan, would have done so because he was afraid to die, and I am not. Instead of torturing this poor, rattled, peach-cheeked dependent, I made plans to protect him—and myself—from…Natalis? Natalis’s and our mutual friend? My previous visitor, not being satisfied with my response, or having been an agent of others who were testing me and did not like what I had or had not said? More powerful persons, who have been informed of my visitor and his proposal by others, perhaps by some of the soldiers who were supposed to favor me?
“This incident has not abashed me, Lucan. No, it has, rather, toughened the muscle of my resolve. I must do what I can to make outrages of this sort unnecessary. I will not be poisoned, at any rate. I am living now exclusively on fresh fruits. I drink water straight from a cool stream. The young slave is in a safe place. And I wait. It is not easy, but have I ever asked for an easy life, Lucan?
“My wait would be much less difficult if you would write to me. At least let me know by Cleonicus’s return that you have destroyed this letter.
“Farewell.”
April 16
To TIGELLINUS from VALERIUS FLAVUS, Senator
You may have heard that a scurrilous poem by Lucan is circulating throughout the city by word of mouth. He has lampooned all the most important persons. His old teacher Cornutus forced him to change almost everything, so the poem became a generalized satire, but many people are repeating both versions, first the innocuous one, then the unexpurgated, and there is laughter in the city over this. I need not do more than compare a few phrases in the publishable text with their counterparts in the original. This line, for example, having been tempered by Cornutus, is inoffensive enough:
Who has not an ass’s ears?
But from Lucan’s hand had come this line, and we know what it means:
King Midas has an ass’s ears.
This corrected line slanders no one in particular:
The ambitious man sniffs the courtier’s fish.
But the original, Tigellinus, accuses you of lowering yourself to a most humiliating fellatio in order to keep your influence:
The seller of mules eats Imperial fish.
This line comments in a general way on the power many rich women enjoy today in Rome:
Women play their husbands’ lyres.
But its original, Tigellinus, means that a certain important man is no more powerful in the presence of a wife than he was in the lifetime of a mother:
Juno plays with Jupiter’s bolts.
Sacrilege apart, this last line also has in it a subtle suggestion that this important man’s private parts are now reserved as the toys exclusively of one woman, that wife; there is also in it a subtle reference to a recent allusion to thunder in public toilets that is now famous all over Rome.
To VALERIUS FLAVUS, Senator, from TIGELLINUS
You are a mischievous informer. Keep your loathsome reports coming. Someday I want to learn why you hate Lucan so.
To TIGELLINUS from PAENUS, Tribune of Secret Police
We cannot establish any link between the Consul Vestinus and the Piso group. Apart from his having kept his private bodyguard, he has been scrupulously correct.
April 17
To PAENUS, Tribune of Secret Police, from TIGELLINUS
Secret.
The Seneca letter. When this is over we will have an accounting with you and your service. Cancel the order concerning Seneca. He will ruin his digestion on raw fruits, stream water, and expectation of poison. This diet may kill him; it will surely hurt him more than your butchers could.
I hesitate to consult further with you, but I have no choice. The time has come when we must try to bring pressure to bear on one of the Piso–Lucan circle to inform on the whole pack. Which man or men would you suggest? I probably will not take your advice, but I might as well have it to guide me as to what not to do.
April 18
To TIGELLINUS from PAENUS, Tribune of Secret Police
As to pressure: I think Quintianus. He is proud of being a pederast and so probably cannot be blackmailed, but his way of life leaves him peculiarly open to attacks by jealous persons, threats of beating, and ridicule. Ever since Himself lampooned him, reports have been trickling in of an ambiguous attitude on his part—a desire, on the one hand, for redress, which may have led him into this circle in the first place, but also a powerful attraction to Himself and a wish to be loved again by him. I quote from your own communication to me of last September 21, referring to this man: “We can easily get to him in due course by way of his failing.” I have very little laughter left in me, Tigellinus, but, you see, here is a way for me to make a recommendation that you will follow: agree with you. Otherwise I might be so foolish as to suggest Natalis.
To ALBINOFULVUS, Chief Magister, Imperial Stables, from TIGELLINUS
Himself directs me to thank you for a pleasurable afternoon. The horses, he said, were like sea waves in a southwest storm—beautiful, swift, white-maned on gray backs, irresistible, and dangerous.
Confidential: I liked very much your plan for controlling the outcome at the Circus of Ceres. You are right: The people surrounding the Red Team are thoroughly corrupt, and we can leave it to them (checking, of course, from time to time) to work on the other teams. Put the scheme into effect.
April 20
To TIGELLINUS from PAENUS, Tribune of Secret Police
A new filch from the Mela household; this again was found in Epicharis’s jewel box, and is obviously of recent date. I am alarmed by the ambiguous “Soon, soon.” I advise an immediate alert of all agents. I await your instructions.
“Lucan to Epicharis, greetings:
“I have written something! My hand moved, the stylus made marks! A foolish satire, to clear my head of rage. I was wildly happy, and I took it to the old horned one [Cornutus], and he shook his head and said I would displease somebody. So he went over the poem with me, and we changed all the references to somebody and his wife, and there is nothing much left but a dried fig of a poem, but I do not care. All that matters to me is that my hand moved, the words were there!
“One day soon I will step boldly again into the space between the double mirrors.
“Soon. Soon.
“Farewell.”
To PAENUS, Tribune of Secret Police, from TIGELLINUS
Urgent.
No alert. Himself still says: Wait.
To TIGELLINUS from PAENUS, Tribune of Secret Police
Cleonicus intercept: an uncharacteristically short letter from Seneca.
“Seneca to Lucan, greetings:
“You used to praise my serenity. Why are you testing it so? Why have you abandoned me? Write.
“Farewell.”
April 21
To TIGELLINUS from VALERIUS FLAVUS, Senator
In recent days Lucan has, I believe, gone mad. Now he is making the wildest of threats. I heard him with my own ears promise a certain man, whom I can name, that he would deliver a head with the neck of a bull and the hair of a girl—he can only have meant one head in Rome, Tigellinus—to this friend one day soon on a trencher, garnished for roasting, with an apple in the mouth and parsley over the ears and a coronet of bay leaves.
I do not hate Lucan. I am fascinated by him. If he has in truth gone mad, it must be the toxin of conceit that has done
him in. As you doubtless have observed, writers are peculiarly susceptible to this poison, but I have never seen one, not even Petronius (who is purged by humor) or Seneca (who is saved by his greatness, and in whom conceit appears as a grotesque modesty), that is so egregiously in love with himself as Lucan. His wife Polla has been one of his chief poisoners. Here is the only thing that keeps Lucan from being a great writer: He loves himself so much that he has no love left over for mankind.
FOUR
April 24
To PAENUS, Tribune of Secret Police, from TIGELLINUS
Himself was right all along—he knew that someone would crack.
Come at once to the small reception room next to the throne hall. Important interrogation in the Presence of Himself. You will keep the record as usual; bring a stenographer.
To RUFUS, Co-Commander, Praetorian Guard, from TIGELLINUS
Come at once to the small reception room next to the throne hall. Important interrogation in the Presence of Himself. The witness is offering information, but you had better bring the giant Cassius, on the remote chance that force may be needed.
INTERROGATION:
Volusius Proculus
In the Presence of the Emperor. Attending: Tigellinus, Rufus, Paenus, Cassius; Felix, Stenographer.
TIGELLINUS asked HIMSELF if he wished to have TIG. do the questioning, and the order was given to proceed, TIG. asked DEPONENT his name. Reply: VOLUSIUS PROCULUS.
TIG. asked identification.
PROCULUS deposed that he is Captain in the Fleet at Misenum; seventeen-year veteran.
TIG. asked PROCULUS what he wished to state.
PROCULUS at this time appeared extremely nervous, assured HIMSELF that his only desire was to protect his Person, stated that as a fighting sailor, on the deck of a ship, he had no fear, but he had not imagined he would be brought before the Person of the EMPEROR.
HIMSELF urged PROCULUS to calm himself, saying: We are merciful.
WITNESS expressed profuse thanks, said he had never thought to enter…(intending to continue).
TIG. cut PROCULUS off with admonition to come to the point and not waste the EMPEROR‘S time.
PROCULUS apologized once more, then said: You see, it was the woman EPICHARIS, she suggested to me…(intending to continue).
HIMSELF interrupted, asking who this woman was. TIG. replied that extensive information had been assembled on this woman and directed PAENUS to summarize it. PAENUS reported that the woman is mistress of ANNAEUS MELA, who in turn was identified as brother of SENECA and father of LUCAN; that she is the bastard daughter of Sen. APICIUS MARCELLUS by UNIDENTIFIED slave woman captured in the East; that she is notorious in the district around Misenum for her agitation on behalf of slaves and the poor; that unknown to MELA she has been exchanging what appear to be love letters with LUCAN.
HIMSELF, seeming annoyed by parts of this information, directed DEPONENT to continue.
PROCULUS: She tried to enlist me in a conspiracy to…I am afraid to say it.
TIG. admonished DEPONENT to speak out, threatening the persuasion of the giant CASSIUS if the DEPONENT hesitated further.
PROCULUS: No, no. Why do you threaten me, Commander? I have come of my own will…. A conspiracy to…to murder NERO CAESAR. She tried to get me to join and enlist others from the Navy. She said there would be many chances to do the thing at sea as warm weather came on because the great CAESAR loves to sail out of Puteoli and Misenum.
TIG. asked where this had taken place and how DEPONENT had happened to talk plots with this woman.
PROCULUS: We all know her.
TIG.: Carnally? What are you trying to suggest?
PROCULUS: No, nothing like that. She is strange. She is a strange, fierce woman. She is often in the marketplace. We saw her one day helping to carry a slave, one of her own, in her own litter.
TIG. asked what the WOMAN had said about a conspiracy.
PROCULUS: That important men were in it; it would surely succeed.
TIG. asked what important men, and at this point DEPONENT began to behave in an evasive manner, blurting out among other things that the WOMAN had said many foul things about NERO CAESAR….
TIG. asked if the name LUCAN had been mentioned.
PROCULUS said he had heard that name somewhere, but he did not think the WOMAN had mentioned it.
Had SENECA been one of the “important men”?
PROCULUS said he had heard SENECA speak once at the Rostra, but…he could not remember.
PISO?
He could not remember.
TIG. directed CASSIUS to refresh DEPONENT‘S memory, but at this point HIMSELF intervened, ordering TIG. to restrain CASSIUS and asking DEPONENT straightaway: What foul things about me?
With elaborate obeisances DEPONENT said he had come to help NERO CAESAR, to warn him; that he was telling everything he knew; that EPICHARIS had mentioned no names.
HIMSELF observed that this was because she knew she was talking to a fool, and reminded DEPONENT that he had asked him a question, DEPONENT confessed that he was confused, that he had not expected to be brought into the Presence, that he only wanted to do his duty. He then angered HIMSELF by asking what question HIMSELF had asked.
HIMSELF repeated: What foul things about me?
PROCULUS: About your mother.
HIMSELF: Yes?
PROCULUS: And that NERO CAESAR had taken all the power away from the Senate, but that these important men were going to make NERO CAESAR pay for having done that.
HIMSELF: What about my mother?
PROCULUS: That she…that she is dead.
HIMSELF now rose, and all who were seated rose with him. HIMSELF said with heat that the interrogation was a waste of time, directed TIG. to arrest EPICHARIS, said he could not decide whether to reward DEPONENT or have him flogged, and commanded TIG. to hold PROCULUS for a confrontation with the WOMAN.
The interrogation was adjourned.
PAENUS AFRANIUS (Recorder)
APRIL 25
INTERROGATION:
Epicharis
In the Presence of the Emperor. Attending: Tigellinus, Rufus, Paenus, Cassius; Proculus in confrontation; Felix, Stenographer.
TIGELLINUS directed the Captain PROCULUS to repeat the charges he had brought the day before against the woman EPICHARIS.
PROCULUS: Well, she came up to me right there by the stand where the fennel and eggplant and mushrooms were being sold, and she began by asking me if I was a brave seaman…(intending to continue).
TIG. directed PROCULUS not to give a full recital but to state the substance of the charge.
PROCULUS now spoke straight to HIMSELF, protesting that he was a loyal officer; that he had been seventeen years in the ships; that NERO CAESAR could see what the WOMAN looked like; that it was natural that a man would be drawn into conversation…(intending to continue).
HIMSELF ordered PROCULUS to come to the accusation.
PROCULUS: That she tried to enlist me in a plot to assassinate great CAESAR.
TIG., turning to EPICHARIS, asked her what she said to this.
EPICHARIS: That the man lies.
Here HIMSELF intervened: You deny the charge?
The WOMAN said very warmly: Where are his witnesses? He speaks of a market stand. Where are the vendors or other sailors to support his lies?
TIG.: You deny having talked with this man?
EPICHARIS: No.
TIG.: You have talked with him?
EPICHARIS: He comes here not to save NERO but to save himself.
TIG.: What does that mean?
Now PROCULUS began to babble: She came up to me, I distinctly remember, by the fennel and eggplant. She began by complaining about the prices, she said that poor people could eat only feed corn and hog fat
, then she…(intending to continue).
TIG. sharply cut PROCULUS off and asked EPICHARIS what she had meant—save himself rather than NERO CAESAR?
EPICHARIS: He talks as if I had been a stranger accosting him in the market like some prostitute. He knows very well we had spoken to each other in passing numerous times. We first met one day when there was an accident, a vendor’s stand was knocked over by a centurion’s horse, there was an argument, the vendor was wronged and I took his part, this officer was a witness. Often since then we had spoken a few words to each other. This last time, three days ago, he had been drinking, he asked me to walk away from the market with him, he was wild and angry. He said that I was a person who tried to see that justice was done. He said he had been wronged, he wanted my help. He said that six years ago he was the helmsman of the vessel that was used for the EMPEROR‘S matricide, he was almost killed when the vessel’s roof fell, and he said that his assistance to NERO CAESAR in a very great crime should have brought from NERO CAESAR a very great promotion. Instead he had been ignored. He had not even been advanced since then in the regular line of seniority. Not a single coin had crossed his palm….
HIMSELF again intervened, asking PROCULUS with great annoyance if this was true, if he had indeed made these complaints to a virtual stranger?
Once more, profuse obeisances and protestations from PROCULUS, who again mentioned the long period of his service and added the fact that he had suffered shipwreck off Africa. He was intending to continue in this vein when HIMSELF asked his question a second time. With scant control PROCULUS now continued to use a hasty tongue to tell how the WOMAN had tried to enlist him in a conspiracy, how he had risked his life in the past for NERO CAESAR, that he had come this time to save NERO CAESAR‘S life, and so on…(intending to continue).