CHAPTER XL
SEVERUS
Not many hours later, I, sleeping soundly in the straw, was wakened by theraising of the trap-door. Again a rope was let down. This time two of theExecutioner's helpers slid down the dangling rope. They addressed me mostdeferentially and asked permission to prepare me to be hauled up,thereupon adjusting the ropes about me.
In the upper chamber of the prison I was rubbed down and clothed in thebest sort of tunic, shod with the ceremonial boots of a nobleman andwrapped in a nobleman's outer garments. Then I was led off to the nearestpoint to which a litter may approach the Mamertine Prison. The brilliantsunrays blinded me and the sight of Rome in the glory of a mellow Julyafternoon brought the tears to my eyes and made me gulp and swallow. Butthe tears did not blind me too much to recognize Imperial liveries on thelitter-bearers and runners and intendant. I was obsequiously invited toenter the litter, the panels were slid, the curtains drawn, and thebearers set off. They carried me to the Palace!
There I was received by the new Chamberlain in person, to be sure withfour armed guardsmen accompanying him, but himself as deferential aspossible. By him I was conducted to a luxurious apartment, consisting of alarge anteroom, a private library, a private _triclinium_, a privatebathroom, and two bedrooms, all furnished with the most lavish abundanceand in perfect taste.
I found a small regiment of servants to minister to my wants: a valet, amasseur, a cook, waiters, errand-pages, a reader and yet others. I couldhave anything I asked for in that apartment, but a guard at its outer doorsaw to it that I remained in it.
There I was bathed, massaged, obsequiously asked what dainties and wines Ipreferred, supplied with all I suggested and clothed in garments to myliking; huge heaps of togas, mantles, wraps, tunics and shoes beingbrought in for me to choose from. There I spent some comfortable days,sleeping much, having myself read to, mostly from the private letters ofthe Emperors, and from the Anticatones of the Divine Julius; and, from thebalcony of the ante-room enjoying the splendid view southwestwards, overthe Circus Maximus, the lower reaches of the Tiber and the Campagna, formy apartment was on that side of the Palace and high up.
When I asked if I might despatch letters to my friends I was told that theEmperor had given orders that I was to communicate with no one and no onewith me. I worried over Vedia's anxiety and almost as much over theprobable disquiet of Agathemer, Tanno and even of Galen. But I washelpless and endeavored to be calm. I was certainly comfortable andhopeful, though impatient.
At last, after six days of this luxurious imprisonment, on the day beforethe Ides of July, sometime before noon, my apartment was entered byJuvenalis himself in the full regalia of Prefect of the Palace. He greetedme deferentially and was most respectful. He informed me that the Emperordesired an interview with me and through him conveyed to me his regretsthat it had had to be postponed so long and that I had been so long keptin confinement and seclusion. He had now come to conduct me to theEmperor, who was at last free to spend with me an hour or more. When myvalet had made me comfortable and had prepared me for my private audience,Juvenalis escorted me to the upper private audience-hall, a chamberspacious and magnificent, though somewhat smaller than the lower privateaudience-hall and far smaller than the great hall for public audiences orthe vast throne-room.
I followed Juvenalis along the corridors, elated by my nobleman's attire,but nervous at the prospect of coming face to face with the master of Romeand Italy, with the prospective (as he turned out to be in fact) master ofthe world.
I was ushered in and Juvenalis withdrew, shutting the door and leaving mealone with the great man. He rose from his chair, for it could not becalled a throne, took a step or two towards me and greeted me affably, asone nobleman another. He bade me be seated, did not sit down himself untilI had taken the chair he indicated; then he settled himself deliberately.
We eyed each other, in silence. I cannot conjecture what he thought of me,but I can never forget the impression made on me by him.
He wore the Imperial robes consciously. I had often noted how Commoduswore his without thought, as any fisherman wears his rags. Severus wasaware of his regalia, and especially of the sky-blue shoes with theImperial Eagles embroidered on them in gold thread. He looked a man in thebest of health, completely fit for a frontier command, for opencampaigning, full of surplus energy, hard-muscled, spare and enduring.Also he looked as competent, discerning, clear-headed and ruthless as aman could be. Most of all I diagnosed him as economical of himself, of hismen and of his possessions, especially of cash; as swayed by self-interestalone, as flinty-hearted; yet as capable of kindliness when it did notinterfere with his plans and was not too expensive.
I waited in silence for him to speak. He said:
"I am a very busy man, even far too busy. Commodus left the treasury emptyand every department of the government inefficient. Pertinax refilled thetreasury, but his attempts at reorganization merely disorganizedeverything and prepared for the general confusion which came about underJulianus. With insufficient funds I must fill the Treasury, reorganize thewhole governmental machinery, get it to working dependably and smoothly,and at the same time prepare for a civil war which I hope to win, but ofwhich I can foretell the outcome no better than could the Divine Julius besure of the outcome of his when he crossed the Rubicon. Amid all thesecares and occupations I must keep fit and must do all I can to win theconfidence and respect of all classes by rectifying, as far as I may, theconsequences of the inattention of my predecessors and of the knavery andvenality of their subordinates. And I must hurry off to deal withPescennius Niger, who is no mean antagonist. Altogether I have no time fortrifles.
"But I do not reckon your case as a trifle, though the safety of theRepublic by no means hinges on it. And I am more interested in you than inany one individual outside of my family and connections. I have neverheard of a man brought so near death, so ruined, but for the singularfavor of the gods so utterly and so hopelessly ruined, subjected to suchdangers and miseries, so baselessly, by such malevolent misrepresentationsand fabrications. You deserve to be recompensed. You shall be. And besidesthe merits of your case I am curious about you.
"You must be curious yourself.
"When I foresaw that I was likely to be acclaimed Emperor by my soldiersand welcomed by the Senate as Prince of the Republic, I set on footvarious measures certain to benefit the Commonwealth and the Empire.Especially I made an effort to abolish or at least curb the banditry,brigandage and outlawry which corrupts the entire rural population ofItaly and is a national disgrace. I was successful in so far as that myemissaries broke up most of the bands of outlaws and captured many ofthem, particularly the most famous of all, known as the King of theHighwaymen.
"I had made sure to have secret agents watching all my emissaries, onwhatever errand I had sent them. These secret agents reported thatpowerful influences were at work to bring about the escape of this arch-criminal. I set reliable men to find out what those influences were. Theirinvestigations led straight to Marcus Galvius Crispinillus, a life-longmember of the Imperial secret service, universally known as a professionalinformer, yet considered second to no man in the secret service as tousefulness and reliability, the only man among the spies of Commodus whohad been trusted and retained by Pertinax and Julianus, the very man whommy relations in Rome, who had kept me posted as to conditions here, hadrepresented as most likely to be dependable and serviceable. I ordered himapprehended but he and his despicable sister, Galvia Crispinilla, escapedarrest by taking some of her poison. Their papers were seized, but so hugewas the mass of them and so great their confusion that they could not beput in order and their secrets utilized at once. So sluggishly did theirunravelling proceed that, although it was manifest at once that theprecious pair had been agents in Rome for the King of the Highwaymen, hadmarketed for him his booty, had kept up an almost daily correspondencewith him, had warned him of all facts and rumors likely to affect him, hadmaintained a highly organized and cleverly concealed system of secr
etagents and road-messengers for his benefit and theirs; yet, until hisvoluntary confession, neither I nor anyone else concerned had theslightest inkling that the King of the Highwaymen was named Caius GalviusCrispinillus and was a full brother to the procuress and poisoner and theprofessional spy, who had committed suicide to escape retribution fortheir villainies. Until his confession was brought to my attention I hadequally no inkling that all relevant aspersions upon you had originatedwith or been transmitted by Marcus Galvius Crispinillus.
"The case against you, on the basis of the papers filed at Secret ServiceHeadquarters, was most damnatory. You were represented to have been theman who had suggested to Egnatius Capito the formation of his conspiracyagainst Commodus; and to have planned for him the inclusion in it of allundetected survivors of the members of Lucilla's abortive conspiracy ofthe year before; to have offered yourself as the most likely man tosucceed in assassinating Commodus, as he held you in high regard for someexploit in some roadside affray in Sabinum; to have pretended illness as acloak for your machinations. Then it was represented, circumstantially,that, after the detection and foiling of Capito's conspiracy, you hadtaken ship for Spain, made your way to the camp of the rebel, Maternus,won his confidence, suggested to him the idea of a secret march on Rome,of the assassination of Commodus during the Festival of Cybele, plannedfor him the details of that secret march, managed it for him and come allthe way from Spain to Rome with him.
"When his attempt failed, you, alone among his henchmen, escaped. Youthen, according to the reports, went straight to Britain, visited everyimportant camp, infused into the garrisons the spirit of discontent,engineered their mutiny, suggested to them the sending of a dangerouslylarge deputation to Rome, led that deputation and were its controllingspirit all the way to Rome, vanishing successfully when the mutineers wereinduced by Oleander to return to Britain and their associates, by hisdevice, were massacred or consigned to _ergastula_.
"With such reports in my hands, with additions declaring that whileneither your presence nor your influence could be proved, you wereprobably the guiding spirit in the assassination of Pertinax, it is nowonder that I, crediting these apparently sincere and trustworthystatements, considered you the most dangerous among all the survivors ofconspiracies against my predecessors, which conspirators, on principle, Imeant to exterminate as an obvious measure of mere sensible precaution.
"No one seems to have recognized you as Andivius Hedulio while you were inthe service of Pompeianus Falco under the name of Phorbas, except onlyGalen, who has explained and justified to me his reasons for protectingyou, of which I entirely approve. He did well. As Phorbas I heard of youfirst, when it was represented to me that you had murdered your latemaster and been cleared by that indulgent humanitarian, Lollius Corbulo;that the case was a most flagrant miscarriage of justice and that suchslackness would breed a crop of such murders unless temptation wascounteracted by severity. I then directed Cassius Ravillanus to deal withyou, for I trusted him.
"When, in the arena of the Colosseum, I saw the savage, ravening beastsnot only spare you but fawn on you, I felt sure that you had been falselyconvicted, that you were innocent and that the gods had intervened to saveyou. Later, when I heard the cries of 'Festus' and they were explained tome, I was doubly incensed against you. That no beast would touch you, evenwhen bound and your face covered, convinced me of your complete innocence.
"Thereupon, after I had ordered you released, I had turned my attentionagain to the spectacle of the games in the arena, promising myself aninterview with you later, for I was intensely curious about you. But, thatvery day, before dark, Flavius Clemens craved a brief private audiencewith me and informed me that he had recognized you as Andivius Hedulio andthat you had confessed your identity. I ordered you at once into theTullianum, pending my decision as to how to wring from you a completedisclosure of your villainies and accomplices before putting you to death.
"Then, to my amazement, the confession of the King of the Highwaymenrepresented you as a wholly innocent man, incredibly slandered andcalumniated, and all by Marcus Galvius Crispinillus, why and for what endwas unknown.
"I at once ordered you released and brought to the Palace. Here I havekept you in unmerited confinement until the papers of your traducer couldbe sifted and I could go over those relevant to your case. Manifestly younever had anything to do with inciting any conspiracy or any march onRome. All aspersions on you were invented by Crispinillus. I aminexpressibly curious about you. I want you to tell me your story in yourown way, in detail, taking your time. In particular I want to learn howyou came to be with Maternus and later with the mutineers from Britain. Iam at leisure to harken."
He had put me entirely at my ease. Manifestly he wanted to hear my story,was in the mood to listen, and rather enjoyed the respite from care whichthis carefully arranged interval of leisure gave him. I felt emboldenedand began with an explanation of the feud between the Satronians and theVedians, of the lawsuit between Ducconius Furfur and my uncle, and of hispurchase of Marcia from Ummidius Quadratus and his manumission of her.
After these preliminaries I launched into my story. He listenedattentively and with every indication of lively interest, with fewinterruptions. Once he clapped for his pages and had in snow-cooled wineto refresh me and soothe my throat. Upon my account of my wrestle withNemestronia's leopard he cut in with a series of questions as to my powerover animals. When I came to my encounter with Pescennius Niger he waskeenly interested, as in my report of his reputation in Marseilles,according to Doris, and uttered one or two remarks. Otherwise he wasapparently absorbed in my narrative.
When it was over he said:
"I believe you, your story sounds true; all of it. You have had amazingadventures and have escaped alive manifestly by the special favor of theimmortal gods, particularly of Mercury. Like you, I pay special attentionto winning and keeping the favor of Mercury, though, of course, for me, asfor all soldiers, Mithras is the most important god.
"You may be very sure that I shall, as far as may be, provide that noinformer or secret-service agent can ever again succeed in gainingcredence for baseless fabrications, such as those from which you havesuffered. I shall endeavor to have it arranged that reports of any oneagent be checked up by reports of another, the two being wholly unknown toeach other. Thus no man shall, if I can prevent it, again be persecuted asyou have been. I am shocked at such laxity and I shudder at the powerwielded by Marcus Galvius Crispinillus, and at his misuse of it. I canfind no trace of any reasonable motive; he seems to have slandered youfrom mere whim or the mere love of causing misery, or some spite orperhaps to increase the impression of his own importance.
"Now there looms before me the duty of seeing you restored to your rights,as to both rank and property.
"In respect to your standing as a Roman nobleman there has been, is andwill be no difficulty. I have had everything attended to and all necessaryformalities have been gone through, all official, public records made. Youare a Roman nobleman in good standing with every right which your birthassured you.
"As to your property matters are not so simple. I find that you will bevery wealthy, anyhow, as the heir of one-fourth of the estate of your latemaster, Pompeianus Falco, and also as inheritor of his marvellouscollection of gems and curios, therefore, even without anything of yourconfiscated property, you will be affluent.
"But that does not absolve me from the duty of seeing justice done you; ofputting you in possession of your house here in Rome and of your estatesin Sabinum, and in Bruttium. I find that all these were held by the_fiscus_ until after the death of Cleander. Owing to the destruction of alarge part of the Palace records in the great fire I cannot make surewhether what I am told is true. I am told that your town house and countryestates were granted by the _fiscus_, under proper seal, ostensibly by thecommand of Commodus, to the present owner. That present owner is inpossession of the official transfer deeds and they are properly made out.Yet neither from the present owner nor from the deeds can it
beascertained which Prefect of the Palace authorized the transfer. BetweenCleander and Aemilius Laetus, Commodus had thirty different Prefects ofthe Palace, most of them for very brief terms, one for less than a fullday, for he was appointed after noon one day and put to death before noonof the day following. To a certainty, I cannot ever get legal proof thatthe grant was gotten by bribery or was in any way illegal.
"Therefore I cannot command the present holder to return your formerproperty to the _fiscus_, in order that the _fiscus_ may turn it over toyou. Nor is there any precedent for one Prince revoking a grant made undera predecessor. Nor is there anything in our law or customs enabling me tobid the present holder to sell back to the _fiscus_ your entire formerproperty, even at a high valuation.
"Moreover I do not feel that I ought, unless I must, take from thetreasury the cash necessary to repurchase your house and estates, so as tobe able to restore you to full possession of them; or to hand you a sum incash sufficient to recompense you for the confiscation of your heritage.
"Yet, whatever straits the treasury may be in, I pledge you my word that,if you cannot recover full possession of your estates in any other way, Ishall compel the present holder to release them to the _fiscus_ and shallorder the _fiscus_ to restore them to you, I, out of our depletedtreasury, paying the present holder, but I do not want to resort to thisunless all other means fail.
"Hoping that the matter may be adjusted in another way, easier for allthree of us, I have arranged to have the present holder of your formerestates here in the Palace.
"When this interview between you and me terminates, I shall have youescorted to a room where you will find awaiting you the present holder ofyour former estates. If you two cannot come to some agreement by which,with full satisfaction to both of you, you become again possessed of yourpatrimony, I shall then take the measures to which I have pledged myself.
"To that end I have given orders that, if you formally make request for asecond private audience with me, you shall have it, although I must leaveRome for the East within eight days and cannot despatch the imperativebusiness awaiting me, even if I could go without food, rest or sleep. Imean what I say, you are to ask for a second audience if you really wantone and if you ask for one you shall have it. But do not ask for it unlessyou must.
"And now, is there anything else you desire to say, or to request or anyquery you wish to put to me? If so, I authorize and command you to speak."
Choking, I muttered that I had nothing further to say.
"In that case," said the Emperor, standing up, "this interview is at anend. You shall be conducted to your conference with the present owner ofyour former estates, which I hope may turn out to your full satisfaction."
And he clapped his hands for a page.
The page conducted me through endless corridors, twisting and turning.During that brief interval I did a great deal of very confused thinking. Iwas dazed and puzzled. I had realized as he ended his harangue that itwould have been ridiculous to ask that man to change his mind or evenmodify a decision. He was not that sort of Emperor. Yet he had pledgedhimself to restore to me my estates or recompense me in cash. I felt thathe meant it; yet I knew that he would never have uttered that pledge if hehad felt that there was the remotest chance of his ever being called on tofulfill it. He was too parsimonious to promise such generosity unlessabsolutely certain that the occasion for it would never confront him. Yethow could he escape it and why did he feel so sure? How could anybeneficiary from such a grant of confiscated property be induced todisgorge except by Imperial order and that with full compensation? Why hadSeverus so sedulously, yet so obviously, avoided naming the present holderof my former property? The Emperor was an austere man, stern by habit,almost grim by nature, certainly serious. He had spoken seriously. Yet Isensed a jest somewhere in the background of his thoughts. I almostbelieved I had caught the glint of a twinkle in his hard, gray eyes. CouldI be wrong? Could I be right?
It seemed like a jest to send me to an interview with a beneficiary of agrant of confiscated property, enriched thereby, and to imply, even tosuggest, that he might be induced to restore to me his acquisitions,without pressure, merely by amicable converse. I conjured up before me theprobable appearance of the man I was to meet; perhaps gross and greedylike Satronius Satro, perhaps dwarfish and mean like Vedius Vedianus,probably like anyone of the avaricious magnates, associated withPullanius, whom I had met while impersonating Salsonius Salinator.
I resented the possibility of an Imperial jest. I was more and more dazedand puzzled the nearer I approached the inevitable interview and thenearer I approached it the more futile and hopeless it seemed and the moredespondent I grew.
The page paused at a door, opened it, waved me in and shut it.
I was in a small parlor, and there was no other man in it; I saw only oneseated human figure, a woman, a lady, a graceful young woman, a charmingyoung woman.
Then, suddenly, I saw through it all.
My troubles were indeed at an end.
I recognized Vedia!
Andivius Hedulio: Adventures of a Roman Nobleman in the Days of the Empire Page 41