The Senator's Assignment

by Joan E. Histon

  There was silence from the window.

  Macro sat down and placed the coin deliberately on his desk. ‘This business of treason with the Lady Aurelia’s former husband that you wanted me to look into,’ he continued. ‘You may be able to make a case of Senator Marcianus being involved. Actually, you could make a case out of anything given the time, but, er…it occurred to me that with the emperor minting these new coins in your honour, and your forthcoming move into the Imperial household, you might not want the hassle of pursuing the matter.’

  Sejanus turned angrily. ‘Pursue it! Of course, I want to pursue it,’ he snapped. ‘If the emperor decides to come to Rome to name me as his successor, I can’t have the senator or anyone else turning up with false information, can I? Not now, not at a crucial time like this.’

  Macro straightened the tablets on his desk. ‘Fine. I shall continue looking into it.’

  Sejanus narrowed his eyes. ‘Uh-Huh! And this matter of your Vigils on Capri not reporting back to you, why would they do that?’

  Macro’s expression was one of surprise. ‘I thought you wanted me to investigate how letters and reports were getting to and from Capri?’

  ‘I did; I do.’

  ‘Then that’s what I instructed my men to do. How are they supposed to know who are the emperor’s invited guests and who aren’t? As I’ve pointed out to you before, unlike your Praetorian Guards, my men are not political. They simply restore order, fight fires and catch runaway slaves.’ He picked up the coin and handed it back to Sejanus. ‘As for this matter of Senator Felix Seneca and the mysterious lady, I shall question my men of course, but if, as you say, she had her hood up and didn’t want to be recognized, I doubt I’ll get far.’

  ‘Uh-huh!’ Sejanus examined the coin thoughtfully. ‘Good likeness, don’t you think?’

  ‘It is, very good.’

  ‘Huh-huh!’ Sejanus looked up coldly. ‘Meanwhile I think I shall pay the lady Aurelia a visit. If she was visiting the emperor yesterday I shall persuade her to tell me why, and I’d be interested to hear whether she’s heard from Senator Marcianus in Palestine.’

  * * *

  Aurelia felt as though her body had barely sunk into the mattress before she was being shaken awake by an unusually panicking Ruth.

  ‘Mistress! Wake up, mistress. Prefect Sejanus is outside.’

  Aurelia shot up in bed. The sun had broken through the shuttered windows leaving thin strips of light across the wall. ‘What?’

  ‘Prefect Sejanus and two Praetorian—’

  ‘I heard you! I heard you! Where’s Apicata?’

  ‘Still in the guest bedroom, mistress.’

  Despite the lack of sleep, Aurelia was surprised to find her brain was working with remarkable precision. ‘I didn’t hear them knock?’

  ‘They haven’t. The Senator asked me to stay awake and keep watch while you slept so I saw them arrive.’

  ‘Good. When they knock, take your time in answering then, tell them…tell them I’m sleeping. Give me a chance to hide Apicata.’

  ‘Yes, mistress. Where are you going to hide her, mistress?’

  ‘I don’t…I don’t know, yet.’ Dragging her blanket over her nightgown Aurelia hurried into the guestroom, her thoughts spinning with possible hiding places. Apicata was curled up in the bed, her damp hair still clinging to her head, but her eyes opened immediately when Aurelia entered, almost as if her sleep had been shallow and troubled.

  ‘Sejanus is here,’ Aurelia whispered. ‘Come, quickly.’

  Apicata barely had time to gasp before Aurelia had grabbed her hand and dragged her out of bed. She was pulling her through the atrium when there was a heavy knock on the front door.

  Aware there was no time to take her through to the kitchen to hide her in the cupboards, Aurelia looked frantically around her living quarters. ‘Quick, under this couch.’

  Apicata’s eyes widened in alarm at the narrow gap. ‘I’ll never get under there?’

  ‘You’ll have to!’ Aurelia hissed and bending down struggled to lift the couch. She managed to raise it a couple of inches from the ground. ‘And curl up,’ she panted. ‘I shall lie on top and my blanket can drape over the edge. Quickly.’

  Apicata didn’t need any further persuasion. The sound of Sejanus’s voice echoed along the corridor as Ruth opened the door. Apicata scrambled under the couch. With a grunt, Aurelia dropped it, flung herself on top, and draped the blanket over the edge. Then closing her eyes, she buried her face in the cushion and concentrated on steadying her erratic breathing. She focused on the smell of lavender, the woolen texture of the blanket over her and tuned her ears to what was going on around her. She heard the murmur of Ruth’s quiet voice, then heavy boots stomping through the front door. One, two, three sets of boots…soldier’s boots. Her heart fluttered but she retained an easy rhythm of breathing, and hoped Apicata had the sense not to move no matter how cramped she was.

  ‘As I told you, Prefect, my mistress is sleeping.’ Ruth’s quiet insistence entered with Sejanus and the soldiers. Judging from the position of her voice, she had taken up a stance protectively in front of the couch where Aurelia was lying and under which Apicata was hiding.

  Aurelia had a weird sense that Sejanus was watching her, looking for the flicker of an eye, the twitch of a facial muscle, so she kept her breathing regular, her eyelids steady.

  ‘She normally sleeps on her couch, does she?’

  There was the slightest hesitation before Ruth said, ‘Only when she’s had a rough night, as she did last night, sir. It’s warmer in here. I keep the brazier on all day at this time of year.’

  ‘Uh-Huh!’ There was a short pause before Sejanus barked, ‘Search the house.’

  Aurelia heard the clatter of boots as Sejanus’s Praetorian Guards made themselves familiar with the rooms in the Suranus town house. Sejanus’s boots clonked on her marble floor as he wandered around the room; he was picking things up…a goblet, a picture. She could tell from where he was standing and the sound of each object as he put them back again.

  ‘Up all night, you say?’

  ‘Yes, sir.’

  ‘She hasn’t been out? She hasn’t taken any jaunts over to the Isle of Capri, shall we say?’

  ‘No, sir. Not at all, sir.’ Ruth sounded shocked. ‘My mistress hasn’t been well enough to take any jaunts this winter. She was so poorly last night I had to give her some of the medication the physician left. She’ll likely be sleeping for hours yet.’

  ‘Huh-huh. Where does she keep her letters?’

  There was no reply.

  Aurelia heard the rustle of parchments on her desk, the click of tablets being opened and then a ‘huff’ of annoyance. ‘Nothing from Senator Marcianus, I see.’ There was a pause. ‘Has your mistress had a visitor lately by the name of Senator Felix Seneca?’

  Aurelia tried not to hold her breath. She knew her slave well enough to know she would have dropped her eyes to give herself an appearance of subservience.

  ‘My mistress doesn’t have many gentlemen callers these days, Prefect, sir.’

  ‘I didn’t ask if she’d had many gentlemen callers, I asked if she’d had one particular one,’ Sejanus snapped. There was a gasp from Ruth. Aurelia felt the couch shake, as if Sejanus had grabbed the girl by the arm, shaken her and caused her to stagger. ‘I want the truth, girl.’

  There was silence before Ruth shakily said, ‘No sir; I can truthfully say my mistress has had no gentlemen callers…none yesterday, or the day before, or for the last week.’

  No! Felix came in the early hours—today!

  ‘But your mistress knows Senator Seneca, doesn’t she?’

  Again, there was a pause and Ruth sounded frightened when she said, ‘I believe so, Prefect, sir.’

  ‘How?’

  The pause was longer this time. ‘It would be…indiscrete of me to say, sir.’

  Sejanus gave a sharp, ‘Ha!’ that sounded more like a bark than a laugh. ‘So it’s like that, is it? Your mis
tress is liaising with dangerous men, girl. Tell her that when she wakes; tell her she needs to be careful who she invites into her bed.’

  ‘Yes, Prefect, sir.’

  There was a clatter of boots returning to the room. ‘There are three unmade beds, sir.’

  ‘Ah! Are there now? Three?’

  ‘That’s easily explained, Prefect, sir.’

  ‘Really?’

  ‘My mistress went to bed as usual, but when I heard her coughing I left my bed and moved into the room next to hers. I can hear her better if she calls. When she took really poorly, I made hot milk and then settled her in here.’

  There was silence. ‘Huh-huh!’ And there was a hint of frustration in Sejanus’s voice when he snapped, ‘It can wait. I’ll speak to her tomorrow.’

  Aurelia listened as boots, two, three sets thudded across the small carpet, clattered across her marble floor and had crunched across her courtyard. Only when they had faded into the rumble of early morning traffic noises did she open her eyes. She realised she was shivering with fear and her body felt stiff with tension. Flinging off the blanket she and Ruth lifted the couch and Apicata scrambled from underneath.

  ‘Are you all right, Apicata?’

  Apicata nodded and ran her fingers through her tousled hair. ‘Except it feels like someone’s pounding at my head with a hammer.’

  ‘I’m not surprised.’ Aurelia said and touched Apicata’s forehead with the back of her hand. ‘Hmm. You feel feverish. I’ll get Ruth to make you up one of her special herbal concoctions after breakfast.’ She turned to her slave. ‘Ruth, bring us breakfast, and…well done.’

  Ruth dropped her eyes in embarrassment. ‘Yes, mistress. Thank you, mistress.’

  Apicata waited until Ruth had left the room before saying, ‘Felix must be under observation if Sejanus knows he went to Capri with a woman.’ Despite the feverish forehead, the hand she laid on Aurelia’s arm was cold. ‘I’m sorry, he obviously thinks it was you.’

  ‘Don’t worry about it.’ Aurelia patted the cold hand absently. ‘Sejanus is clearly upset by your visit to Capri.’

  ‘And he’d be even more upset if he knew what I’d told the emperor,’ Apicata said grimly.

  Aurelia glanced at her sideways, trying to discover whether that was a hint for her to ask so Apicata could unburden herself. But deciding she would rather not know said, ‘I think I should warn Felix?’

  Apicata’s eyes widened in alarm. ‘You can’t leave the house, you…’

  Aurelia patted her hand again and continued patting while, having made the decision, she worked out how to implement it. ‘If I’m suspected of being Felix’s mistress then it’ll be no surprise when I visit him. Meanwhile, you do whatever you and Felix planned. Go and see Sejanus, persuade him into letting you take your children home. That was it, wasn’t it?’

  Apicata nodded. ‘I feel…’ she bit her lip. ‘I feel as if I’ve landed you in trouble by arriving here and now I’m letting you take all the risks.’ She paused. ‘Whatever happens, I want you to know that I’m grateful.’ Her face hardened. ‘Sejanus is an unscrupulous man. What he’s done to Rome; what he’s done to the Imperial family, to Drusus…’ Apicata dropped her head. ‘“Proof!” That’s what Tiberius kept yelling at me. “Where’s your proof” He’s obsessed by wanting proof but I couldn’t give him any. All I have is the word of the woman who…she took a deep breath. ‘Well, I’ve done my best. All I can hope and pray to the gods for now is that Tiberius gets the proof he needs against Sejanus.’

  ‘Yes,’ was all Aurelia said, but absently. Her thoughts not on Felix or the dangers of visiting him, but on what decision Vivius would make when he received her letter.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  (Jerusalem)

  ‘A distance, I said,’ Simon growled turning his head. ‘Keep a good distance behind me. Think I want to be seen walking through the streets with a Roman?’

  Vivius breathed in fiercely and wondered how in the name of all the gods anyone could take him for a Roman. With his hood up, cloak wrapped firmly around him and head down to avoid the driving rain he could be any nationality; Jerusalem was swarming with visitors. Nevertheless he dropped back and as he sidestepped a puddle he tried not to contemplate that in meeting up with these Jews he was going against everything his emperor had insisted on about absolute secrecy.

  As they neared the temple the Jew ahead came to an abrupt halt. ‘That’s him,’ he murmured. ‘He always goes to the temple at this time of day.’

  Vivius stopped a few paces behind his guide to watch an aristocratic Jew, on the far side of middling years, coming down the temple steps. His manner was detached, meditative, suggesting an approach would not be welcome. His black beard was short, speckled with grey and neatly trimmed; his fashionable footwear wet and he had his hands tucked into the sleeves of his expensive coat.

  ‘Who is he?’

  ‘His name’s Joseph; he’s from Arimathea. He’s a wealthy businessman and a member of our Sanhedrin.’ The aristocratic Jew partially turned his head. ‘Let me speak to him first,’ Simon said. His boots splashed unconcernedly through the puddles as he made his way toward Joseph.

  Vivius was surprised to see how warmly the wealthy Jew greet his uncultured guide as though he was actually pleased to see him. But the smile quickly turned to one of concern during their discussion. Although he was too far away to hear what was being said, Vivius could see from the covert glances in his direction and the occasional nod of the head that Joseph of Arimathea had agreed to speak with him.

  Vivius watched the two men walk away from the temple and the prying eyes of the Jewish temple guards and guessed he was supposed to follow, although there had been no indication that he should. He followed them at a distance, equally relieved to be out of sight of Fort Antonia. They walked in this manner towards the shops, stopping eventually at the back of two large, domed bakery ovens on the corner of a busy street. The ovens were hot and a smell of bread lingered in the air.

  Vivius approached the two men.

  ‘Good day’—Joseph’s black eyes dropped to Vivius’s toga under his cloak—’Senator. I am Joseph of Arimathea. I gather you wish to speak to me?’ Although his voice was cultured, his manner polite and respectful, Vivius could sense he was wary.

  Vivius inclined his head. ‘I am Senator Marcianus. I apologise for keeping you out in the rain. As your companion here will have told you, four men were crucified today,’ Vivius glanced at his guide. ‘Your companion here tells…’

  ‘Leave off calling me “companion.” I have a name: Simon.’

  Vivius pursed his lips. ‘Your…Simon, here…tells me one of those men was his cousin, Zachary Ben Elazar.’

  ‘You knew him?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘Then I’m curious to know why the death of a common Jew would interest a senator from Rome?’

  ‘Because Simon informs me Zachary didn’t get a trial, and that crucifixion without a trial is common practice here.’

  Joseph stroked his silky black beard thoughtfully. ‘It is.’

  ‘How long has this practice been going on?’

  ‘It will be in our court files,’ Joseph said. ‘But if I recollect correctly, it started when Pilate took up the role of Procurator of Judea.’ He paused. ‘But…I understand the four men crucified today were Zealots.’

  ‘And that makes a difference?’

  ‘Of course.’

  ‘How?’

  Joseph’s answer was guarded. ‘As you may know, we may have our own courts for most crimes, Senator. But when a Jew is arrested on suspicion of treason against Rome, the sentence is invariable death and for that we are subject to Roman law. When that happens there’s not always a trial.’

  ‘And the accused man is crucified?’

  ‘Under Roman rule, yes.’ Joseph regarded him steadily. ‘May I ask why you’re wanting this information, Senator?’

  Vivius waited until a family with five children had hurried by before saying, ‘I�
��m a magistrate and senator of Rome. I believe, as does the Emperor Tiberius, that everyone is entitled to a fair trial. That principle applies not only to Rome but to all lands under the rule of the Roman Empire.’

  ‘And your reason for wanting to speak to me was…?’ Joseph raised his eyebrows.

  ‘Is it possible for you to get me a copy of your files without anyone knowing? The truth, that is all I’m after. The truth,’ Vivius added.

  ‘And what will you do with the truth, Senator?’

  ‘If crucifixions are taking place without a trial this will be dealt with at the highest level in Rome I assure you.’

  ‘If I can get that information for you, how would you feel about calling at the home of a Jew to get it?’ Joseph asked.

  ‘I would have no problem with calling at the home of a Jew. Would you have a problem receiving a Roman?’

  The corner of Joseph’s lips twitched and Vivius saw he was regarding him with renewed interest. ‘I live near the pools of Bethesda. Perhaps Simon could bring you…’

  ‘Whoa!’ Simon raised both hands. ‘Are you mad, Joseph?’

  Joseph shrugged his shoulders. ‘It’s up to you, of course, Simon, but wouldn’t you appreciate the chance to get justice for Zachary?’

  There was an awkward silence.

  ‘Didn’t say I wouldn’t bring him, did I? Only questioning the wisdom of bringing a Roman to your house.’

  ‘Thank you for your concern, Simon. Will you bring the senator or shall I give him directions?’

  ‘I’ll bring him,’ Simon said grudgingly, and without even looking at Vivius added, ‘I’ll be outside the temple early tomorrow.’

  Joseph bowed his head. ‘Good. That’s settled. Until tomorrow then, Senator.’

  ‘Until tomorrow.’

  * * *

  (Jerusalem)

  Vivius rolled his aching shoulders as he walked through the gates of Fort Antonia, and came to the decision that regardless of what he had said to Lucanus earlier, he was now wet, tired, hungry, and the lateness of the hour dictated they wouldn’t be heading off to Rome tonight. In fact, he decided, it would make sense to stay in Jerusalem until he’d had a chance to investigate these new leads. He’d be of no help to Aurelia if he got himself arrested as soon as he set foot in Rome.