Falco: The Official Companion (A Marcus Didius Falco Mystery)

by Lindsey Davis

  Vespasian, who famously disliked the use of informers made by Nero, is nonetheless pragmatic; when he has to deal with plots and provincial problems, he will use a man like Falco, for whom he has a measured respect. For his governing style, I follow Suetonius: My researches show that no innocent party was ever punished during Vespasian’s reign except behind his back or while he was absent from Rome, unless by a deliberate defiance of his wishes or by misinforming him about the facts of the case … Vespasian never rejoiced in anyone’s death and would often weep when convicted criminals were forced to pay the extreme penalty. Of course Suetonius also drums into us Vespasian’s money-grubbing. It creates nice tensions with Falco, who has problems obtaining his fee, even where there is one. And there is a topical connection with laundries!

  Titus complained of the tax which Vespasian had imposed on the contents of city urinals. Vespasian handed him a coin which had been part of the first day’s proceeds. ‘Does it smell bad?’ he asked. And when Titus answered ‘No’ he went on: ‘Yet it comes from urine.’

  SUETONIUS

  A communal public lavatory (probably Ostia)

  Falco will remain wary. Finding an emperor with moral values always startled me, he says. But he needs work and is desperate to improve his social status, a situation Vespasian and Titus exploit. Falco’s very curmudgeonliness means they can trust him more than the normal flatterers. And they can see just how good he is. Theirs will never be an easy relationship, but it works.

  Titus Flavius Vespasianus, Titus Caesar

  Titus had such winning ways – perhaps inborn, perhaps cultivated subsequently, or conferred on him by fortune – that he became an object of universal love and adoration. Nor was this an easy task, because it happened only after his accession: both as a private citizen and later under his father’s rule, Titus had not only been criticised but loathed.

  SUETONIUS

  We first see Titus immediately after his return from war, excited by his family’s new position (a position he very much helped to arrange), determined to consolidate his father’s government, testing his own strength as a ruler. A man my own age, not over tall, with a jutting chin. His body was hard as a brick; his energy made me groan. He waved away the attendants and rushed forwards to greet us himself … He was bursting with talent. This cheery young general had evidently dealt with Jerusalem, and I quite believed he swept up in his conquest the fabulous Judaean queen … [SP] He comes over as brisk and efficient, rigorously testing both Falco and Helena until he can trust them. He has the close-knit Flavians’ family loyalties, so despite Domitian’s proven plotting, he sticks fast by his brother – outraging Falco after Sosia’s murder.

  Titus was famously in love with Queen Berenice of Judaea; what an exotic madam! During my early books she probably had not brought herself to Rome, so remarriage to produce an heir must be a possibility for Titus. Initially, he has his beady eye on Helena. He had an attractive personality and was at home wherever he went … an all-round political achiever. On top of that, he was good-looking. I had the girl; Titus Caesar had everything else … [IHM] Falco feels manic jealousy, darkly distrusting Titus: Everyone knew Titus had a very pleasant temperament, but he could also have me sent down to Hades by the short route … [TTD] I don’t stress too much how dangerous Titus could be, but it’s there: Titus had a reputation as a nice soft-hearted darling – always a sign of a nasty bastard who could be bloody dangerous. [OVTM]

  He bore most of the burdens of government and, in his father’s name, dealt with official correspondence, drafted edicts … SUETONIUS

  Titus’s brother Domitian took part in endless conspiracies against him, stirred up disaffection in the armed forces almost openly, and toyed with the notion of fleeing to them. Yet Titus had not the heart to execute Domitian, dismiss him from the court, or even treat him less honourably than before. SUETONIUS

  Titus also assumed command of the Guards, a post in which he behaved somewhat highhandedly and tyrannically. If anyone aroused his suspicion, Guards detachments would be sent into theatre or camp to demand the man’s punishment as if by the agreement of everyone present; and he would then be executed without delay. SUETONIUS

  In fairness, Titus recognises Falco’s worth and their relationship is based on considerable openness:

  ‘Falco, why is it when I talk to you I always end up wondering whether I can stand the pace?’

  ‘I’m a sterling debater, Caesar.’

  ‘And modest!’

  ‘And the only kind of fool who’ll risk offending you …’ [TTD]

  People usually worry about Domitian, but even Titus could pose a threat: One of the worst features of Roman life at the time was the licence long enjoyed by informers and their managers. Titus had these well whipped, clubbed, and then taken to the amphitheatre and paraded in the arena; where some were put up for auction as slaves and the remainder deported to the most forbidding islands. [SUETONIUS]

  Will their good relationship save Falco? See below for my views …

  Titus Flavius Domitianus, Domitian Caesar

  Domitian is ten years younger than both Titus and Falco. Solid as a bullock, curly-topped though hammer-toed. [PG] Statues show him as physically similar to Titus, though to my mind he’s even chubbier and soppier. For Domitian, the courtesy title of Caesar seemed a fragile irony. He had the family curls, the creased Flavian chin, the bull neck, square body and stocky build. Somehow he failed to convince. [SP] Sometimes he comes across well; I allow Falco hindsight knowledge: In that moment he enjoyed all the gifts of the Flavian house: grace, high intelligence, respect for the task in hand, sturdy wit, good sense. He could have been no less a statesman than his father or his brother; sometimes he managed it. Vespasian had shared his own talents with an even hand; the difference was, only one of his sons handled them with a truly sure grip. [SP]

  I believe it is crucial that, unlike Titus, Domitian never shared a military campaign with his father but was left behind in Rome. This must have a bearing on his character, making him introverted and probably lonely; he was always striving to impress his father and to equal his more charismatic brother.

  During the Year of the Four Emperors, he had a narrow escape, having to hide from Vitellian forces at the Temple of Isis and with a schoolfriend’s mother. His uncle Sabinus, who could have advised him, had been murdered; once the scary situation was resolved, the young man of twenty was thrust into power without supervision; he went wild. Domitian’s idea of becoming a Caesar was seducing senators’ wives. [SP] But Titus excused him and Vespasian tolerated these early misjudgements.

  Domitian had a reputation as a plotter. Tacitus says: It is believed that Domitian sent secret messages to seduce Cerialis from his allegiance and see if he would hand over the army and supreme command to himself when they met. He may have been toying with the idea of fighting his father, or it may have been a manoeuvre to gain support and advantage against his brother. No one could tell, for Cerialis steered a safe course and returned an evasive answer to what he took to be the idle fancy of a child. Domitian realised that his elders despised his youthfulness and ceased to discharge even the slight official duties he had previously undertaken. Assuming an ingenuous air of abstraction and looking as if butter would not melt in his mouth, he posed as a connoisseur of literature and poetry …

  This justifies the conspiracy to dethrone Vespasian which begins my series. So, Domitian is the murderer of sweet, brave, over-curious Sosia Camillina; surprised, he stabs her with a pen. He drops his inkwell. Falco finds it and keeps it as a surety. Domitian knows Falco has it. Very occasionally – for instance, at Falco’s poetry recital in Ode to a Banker – their paths cross uncomfortably. In Poseidon’s Gold, Domitian refuses to upgrade Falco’s social rank, and clearly enjoys his revenge. Otherwise I have used their feud lightly, having other ideas to pursue.

  He checked and severely penalised informers who had brought false accusations for the benefit of the imperial treasury. A saying attributed to him runs
: ‘An emperor who does not punish informers encourages them.’

  SUETONIUS

  Readers seem paranoid about Falco’s fate once Domitian is emperor. But Falco still has the inkwell. I can’t remember where he’s put it, but I’ve never let him lose it.

  Domitian’s reign of terror, which caused his eventual assassination, was primarily directed against senators. Besides, Falco is a hero. Heroes escape.

  Antonia Caenis

  As far as I knew, Caenis did not interfere in politics, although any woman Vespasian had cherished for forty years and whom Titus treated respectfully must have the potential for enormous influence. The freedwoman was a scandal waiting to happen, but the cool glance she gave me said that scandal stood no chance … [TTD]

  This gave her the greatest influence and she amassed untold wealth, so that it was even thought that he made money through Caenis herself as his intermediary. For she received vast sums from many sources, sometimes selling governorships, sometimes procuratorships, generalships and priesthoods, and in some instance even imperial decisions. For although Vespasian killed no one on account of his money, he did spare the lives of many who gave it; and while it was Caenis who received the money, people suspected that Vespasian willingly allowed her to do as she did.

  CASSIUS DIO

  Helena introduces Falco to Caenis, hoping for patronage. If the rumours about how she used her position were true, then more power might be wielded in this isolated villa than in any other private house in Rome. [TFL] We assume the rumours were true; the Census job falls into Falco’s lap and subsequently he is raised to the middle rank.

  By Nemesis, I had discovered that Caenis probably came from Istria. The refurbishment of the amphitheatre in Pula, which we know about from an inscription, forms a useful kink in the plot. Perhaps Anacrites witnesses that very inscription being set up.

  Queen Berenice of Judaea

  Daughter of Herod Agrippa, Berenice was married three times, then rumoured to have an incestuous relationship with her brother. A powerful, wealthy ruler, she was forty when she aided Vespasian in his Jewish Wars, perhaps tickling his fancy; however, it was Titus, ten years her junior, who fell in love with her and she with him. Around AD74–75 she visited Rome with her brother, lived with Titus as a concubine and aroused the hostility of traditionalists, who saw her as a designing Eastern princess like Cleopatra.

  I managed to give her a brief plot-line. When Falco and Helena meet Berenice, he says: No man can possibly answer the question: was Queen Berenice really beautiful? Well, not when any of his womenfolk are listening. [OVTM] She makes an impression – though, as Helena remarks, shimmering is a neat trick: Silken robes help. Then it’s easy to do if your sandals are difficult to walk in, so you have to sway sinuously so as not to fall over when traversing low steps. Although Berenice hangs back in the conversation, to the point that Falco actually wonders if she speaks Latin, he then reminds us she can be formidable: This was the woman who had once protested volubly against the barbarity of a Roman governor in Jerusalem; she was a fearless orator who had appealed for clemency for people barefoot, though in danger of her life. [OVTM]

  Aware that Vespasian won’t welcome her as daughter-in-law, Falco evaluates her chances sceptically: The father had built his imperial claim on high-minded traditional values; a would-be empress with a history of incest and interference in politics could never make a suitable portrait for the next young Caesar’s bedroom wall … Somebody should tell her: Berenice would get the push. He’s right. Berenice was persuaded to return home. She revisited Rome briefly on Titus’ accession, was dismissed again, and vanished from history.

  Claudia Sacrata

  German women obviously like to be at the front of things … (IHM)

  A Ubian woman who lived in Cologne during the turbulent Year of the Four Emperors, according to Tacitus, Claudia Sacrata was rumoured to have a liaison with Petilius Cerialis. Falco’s conviction that she is a source of regular R&R for Roman troops may be entirely his imagination, and mine. Or not.

  That Claudia Sacrata chose gifts for the prophetess, went with the embassy from Cologne to Veleda, or provided food for the feast when the Chauci and Frisii were locked in a burning hall are my embroideries.

  Julius Civilis

  This interesting character belonged to the aristocracy of Batavia, an area around the mouth of the Rhine. Batavians were well known for shipping skills and their cavalry could swim in perfect formation in full kit. This was put to good use during the Claudian invasion of Britain. Eight auxiliary cohorts of Batavians were attached to the XIV Legion. Civilis served with the auxiliaries for twenty years and was a Roman citizen.

  Once unrest flared in Germany in AD68, Batavian leaders came under suspicion; Civilis narrowly avoided execution twice, by both Nero and Vitellius. Embittered by his imprisonment and the bad treatment meted out to his people, he determined on revolt. Tacitus says he dyed his hair red and refused to have it cut or to shave until the Romans were driven out. Contest beard-growing apparently predated Björn Borg.

  In alliance with Veleda, Civilis did enormous damage to the Romans. He may have been aiming for personal power as leader of a huge rival confederation; he certainly made good use of the fighting skills he had learned with the Roman army. His enemies acknowledged him as intelligent and tenacious. In his last reported speech from Tacitus he claims to have been a friend of Vespasian and to have great respect for him – clearly the speech was aimed at repatriating himself.

  So perhaps one day he really did meet an envoy who said crisply, Let’s get down to it, Civilis. You took the money. You enjoyed the life. You were grateful to be exempt from taxation and gain the benefits of a regular income and a structured career. You threw it away for a dream that became pointless. You and your family will live at Augusta Treverorum at a fixed address. Xanthus has come to give you a snappy haircut and a shave … [IHM]

  Petilius Cerialis (Quintus Petilius Cerialis Caesius Rufus)

  He has never appeared, but this general took part in major incidents that affect Falco. He may have been a relative of Vespasian, perhaps even married to the Emperor’s daughter, Flavia Domitilla.

  During the Boudiccan Revolt, Cerialis was legate of the IX Hispana legion. He is very briefly glimpsed in Poseidon’s Gold, when the centurion Laurentius mentions going off into bandit country under this general during service in Judaea.

  He supported the Flavian bid for power, at one point disguising himself as a peasant and living in the hills to escape Vitellian forces. After Vespasian’s accession, he was sent to Germany, to tackle native revolt and army mutinies. The campaign was successful; we know Roman Germany was pacified. Although Falco discusses acerbically more than one incident where Cerialis looks inept, Tacitus also shows he stabilised the legions and was wise in reconciling Gauls and Germans to Rome. He also sensibly deflected approaches from Domitian to make attempts against Vespasian or Titus.

  The feckless – or chronically unlucky – general did lose his flagship at Cologne. It was sent to Veleda, though its history with Falco and friends is of course conjectural. Cerialis was subsequently made Governor of Britain, serving there again in AD71–74, a period when Falco is occupied elsewhere.

  Veleda

  Her name may be a title meaning ‘a seer’. Tacitus says the Germans traditionally regarded many women as prophetic, to the point of divinity, while stressing that Veleda’s prestige rested on her success in foreseeing the outcome of defying Rome. I had to describe her with nothing more to go on. I wanted to be believable, but to treat this real person with courtesy. I did it mainly through the impression she makes: She looked as if she could not only reach decisions, but make other people see that whatever she decreed was their only course … too old to be a young woman, yet too young to be called old. For Rome she was the wrong age altogether. She knew too much to forgive us, and too little to tire of fighting us … [IHM]

  An unmarried woman, who enjoyed wide influence over the tribe of the Bructeri …


  TACITUS

  Tacitus describes Veleda’s lifestyle among the Bructeri: Any personal approach to Veleda or speech with her was forbidden. This … was intended to enhance the aura of veneration that surrounded the prophetess. She remained immured in a high tower, one of her relatives being deputed to transmit questions and answers as if he were mediating between a god and his worshippers … I found a reference to archaeological remains of an early Roman signal tower near the River Lupia: I put two and two together.

  In or around AD77, Veleda was captured and brought to Rome by Rutilius Gallicus. Her local influence was waning and Rutilius Gallicus could have – should have – left her alone … He needed her for his own purposes. Veleda was a symbol. She stood no chance. [SA]

  Her fate is unknown. Speculation that she was made to live at a temple in Ardea is based on the finding of Greek inscription near there, which lampoons her prophetic powers.

  Ganna

  Described as Veleda’s successor, a prophetess called Ganna was received by the Emperor Domitian. It is my invention in Saturnalia that she might already have been to Rome and learned home cooking from Ma.

  Munius Lupercus

  One of the enormous cast of Tacitus’ Histories, Lupercus was commander at Vetera, then a prisoner sent to Veleda. He was killed during the journey; I decided his fate for The Iron Hand of Mars. The method is validated by both archaeology and Tacitus: Cowards, shirkers and sodomites are pressed down under a hurdle into the slimy mud of a bog.