He kept smiling. “Torture. You Romans know so little of torture. Come to India some day. I will show you what torture is really like.”
“I’m afraid you are all through with India,” I told him. Ashthuva was fiddling with something at her waist. “What are you doing, woman?” she took her hands from her waist and in an instant her singular gown unwound and fell to the floor, leaving her as naked as a statue of Aphrodite and ten times as enticing. Balbus made another noise and so, I fear, did I. She was completely covered with intricate tattoos, and while I was stupidly studying these Gupta made his move.
When I regained my senses somewhat, he was almost on me. No scarf this time. He had a long, curved dagger in his hand and he was moving as fast as any human being I had ever seen. He had quite sensibly chosen to attack me instead of Balbus or Hermes. I looked older and easier and, indeed, I was. I blocked his dagger hand with my cestus and thrust at him with my own dagger, but he snaked around it with an ease that was positively insulting. He cut again and I would have died then, but Balbus was on him and swift as the Indian was, Balbus was almost as fast and he was bull-strong to boot. He got both hands on the assassin’s arms and Hermes clouted him over the head with a small table. No sense taking any chances with this one. Seeing her brother down Ashthuva whirled and darted for a back door but found herself facing Callista, who had dropped her shawl there and stood as serenely as if she were about to address a gathering of academics.
To my amazement and horror, the tattooed woman leapt high into the air and her right foot lashed out in a kick of neck-breaking force. I thought to see Callista dead in an instant, but this was a night for surprises. Leaning back slightly, she slapped the leg aside with her open palm. Ashthuva came down lightly, but she was slightly off-balance. Callista stepped in and with a dainty foot swept the Indian woman’s leg aside and she toppled. She scrambled to get up, but in that instant Callista was on her, cracking her beneath the ear with the edge of a palm, gathering both her wrists into one hand, the other pulling back on the long, black hair. One knee was pressed into the small of the woman’s back with Callista’s full weight upon it. Ashthuva was going nowhere. Callista knelt there easily, crouched in a position that would have appeared awkward in another woman, her shapely, white left leg bared to the hip. She took no more notice of it than of her slightly disarranged hair.
“I knew some Greek women learned athletics,” I said, “but I never heard of one training at the pankration.”
“My father insisted that I be fully educated,” she said.
I turned to Gupta, now held tightly by Balbus. I nodded at Hermes and he grasped the man’s hair and jerked his head back so that he was looking up at me. I laid the point of my dagger just below his left eye. “Now, Gupta, some answers, if you please.”
An hour later we were closeted in one of Cleopatra’s personal chambers, guards on the door, the sounds of the still lively party muffled in the distance. The queen was there, as was Caesar. Hermes and Balbus we had left outside to enjoy the festivities but Caesar had insisted that Julia and Callista be present to hear my report.
The chamber was unusually modest for this place and its inhabitant, but I supposed Cleopatra put on the extravagance as what people expected from a queen of Egypt. Her personal tastes were more modest. Caesar now wore a simple tunic and synthesis and he had set aside his wreath of golden laurel leaves. He was very tired and looked every one of his years.
“It was what Julia suggested at the outset,” I said. “The infighting among the great ladies of Rome over who is to be heir to Caesar. That and your scheme to change our calendar.”
Caesar frowned slightly. “How did I bring this about?”
“You brought the astronomers to Rome, and among them was Polasser. Gupta came on his own and joined them because he really was an accomplished astronomer, with a sideline in astrology. As I’ve said before, one rogue will know another, and they were joined by the confidence man Postumius. It doesn’t take three such men long to begin hatching plans. First they tried the grain scheme. Fulvia was a client of Polasser and he steered her to Postumius, who got her to talk to the grain merchants and use her patrician prestige to convince them to buy or not as Postumius directed. They made a killing that way, but it was too small. By that time Polasser had tumbled to the big-time money game here in Rome, and with his connections among the highborn ladies, he had the means to exploit it.” I sipped at my wine. “Incidentally, Fulvia had the house that had belonged to Clodius. She let Gupta and Ashthuva stay there while their much more impressive house was being built on the Janiculum.”
“That was where Postumius was killed,” Caesar said. “Was that Fulvia’s doing?”
“I believe so,” I told him. “You can’t trust a thief. I think he tried to cheat her of her share of the grain scheme takings.” I looked at Julia. “You were right in observing that his torture bore the marks of wounded patrician pride.”
“Was she in on the rest of it?” Caesar asked.
“I don’t think so,” I said. “They made use of her in the grain scheme, but she was too volatile even for men like those three.”
Caesar pondered a while. “It isn’t worth alienating Antonius. I need him too sorely.” He glanced at me wearily. “Don’t look at me like that Decius Caecilius. Some day, if you’re ever dictator, a great many things that seem serious now will take on a new perspective.”
“What about poor Demades?” Cleopatra asked. “Why did he die?”
“Big ears,” I said. “He hated Polasser and detested the astrologers as a group. He was snooping around, trying to get any kind of dirt on Polasser that he could gather, and I suspect he got an earful, but Gupta saw him snooping. Then he was eliminated.”
“And this Domitius person?” Caesar asked. “Where does he tie in?”
“He was an acquaintance of Postumius from his horse racing days. They wanted someone reliable to spy here in the queen’s house where you spend so much time. Polasser had been here at the queen’s gatherings and he bribed the steward to hire the man.”
Caesar looked at Cleopatra. “I’ll deal with him,” she said.
I didn’t want to think about what that might mean. “When I started snooping around here,” I touched my nose, which was still a little tender. Cleopatra looked abashed. “When I started snooping here, Gupta sent Domitius to the house of Archelaus. He didn’t realize I’d be checking out there, too. He hoped to sell Archelaus information about your intentions in Parthia—and in Egypt.”
Caesar looked at me sharply, then to Cleopatra. “My dear, we really should check outside the windows before we engage in serious conversation.” Then back to me. “It is a good thing you are a very discreet man, Decius, and that you are married to my favorite niece.”
“Anyway,” I went on quickly, “once Gupta had his sister, if that’s what she is, established in the new house and ready to bamboozle Rome’s richest ladies, Polasser became superfluous. All his clients became hers. Gupta even summoned the other astronomers to confuse things, but he wasn’t expecting me to be there that day, and I saw a bit too much and found that coin.”
“So,” Caesar said, “thieves fell out?”
“That’s what happened, but we seldom see thieves on such a scale, or so strange.”
We were silent for a while, then Julia spoke up. “Uncle Caius, who is to be your heir?”
Caesar smiled with infinite weariness and great cynicism. “Let’s keep them all guessing, shall we?”
Two days later Gupta was dead in his prison cell. I was sure he’d swallowed his tongue, but Asklepiodes examined the body and was of the opinion that he had meditated himself to death. Whatever the cause, he was not a normal man. His sister, if that was what she was, escaped. One morning a dead guard was found in her cell, his clothes off and his neck broken. They should have set eunuchs to guard her. She was never seen or heard from again.
It was all so long ago. I never expected to live this long. I’ve outlived all of them. I
even outlived Callista, and she lived to be a very old woman.
Of course it was Atia’s brat, Octavius, who inherited, and he showed his gratitude in a singular way. He made Caesar a god, his deification solemnly ratified by the Senate and the College of Pontifexes. In this way did Caius Julius Caesar, finally, surpass all other Romans since the time of Romulus.
These things happened in the years 709 and 710 of the City of Rome, in the dictatorship of Caius Julius Caesar.
The latter year has ever since been known as the Year of Confusion.
AUTHOR’S NOTE
In this novel the author has departed from his usual strict adherence to chronology and has, for dramatic purposes, compressed two years into one. The Year of Confusion was 46 B.C. During that year Caesar was engaged in the final actions of the Civil War, crushing the Pompeians at Thapsus in Africa. Early in 45 he defeated their last major army at Munda in Spain and only then returned to Rome to oversee his vast program of reforms and building projects, leaving behind a remnant of holdouts. In that year, his last full year in power, Caesar was joined in Rome by Cleopatra. The author hopes he will be forgiven for taking this liberty, which permitted him to combine several of the most riotous, colorful, and dramatic events of the era into a single story.
GLOSSARY
(Definitions apply to the year 710 of the Republic.)
Aborigine, Aboriginal In Roman legend, the earliest inhabitants of Italy, before the arrival of Aeneas from Troy.
arms Like everything else in Roman society, weapons were strictly regulated by class. The straight, double-edged sword and dagger of the legions were classed as “honorable.”
The gladius was a short, broad, double-edged sword borne by Roman soldiers. It was designed primarily for stabbing. The pugio was a dagger also used by soldiers.
The caestus was a boxing glove, made of leather straps and reinforced by bands, plates, or spikes of bronze. The curved, single-edged sword or knife called a sica was “infamous.” Sicas were used in the arena by Thracian gladiators and were carried by street thugs. One ancient writer says that its curved shape made it convenient to carry sheathed beneath the armpit, showing that gangsters and shoulder holsters go back a long way.
Carrying of arms within the pomerium (the ancient City boundary marked out by Romulus) was forbidden, but the law was ignored in troubled times. Slaves were forbidden to carry weapons within the City, but those used as bodyguards could carry staves or clubs. When street fighting or assassinations were common, even senators went heavily armed, and even Cicero wore armor beneath his toga from time to time.
Shields were not common except as gladiatorial equipment. The large shield (scutum) of the legions was unwieldy in narrow streets, but bodyguards might carry the small shield (parma) of the lightly armed auxiliary troops. These came in handy when the opposition took to throwing rocks and roof tiles.
augur An official who observed omens for state purposes. He could forbid business and assemblies if he saw unfavorable omens.
auxilia See military terms.
basilica A meeting place of merchants and for the administration of justice. Among them were the Basilica Aemilia (a.k.a. Basilica Fulvia and Basilica Julia), the Basilica Opimia, the Basilica Portia, and the Basilica Sempronia (the latter devoted solely to business purposes).
bustuarii The earliest gladiators. The name comes from bustuum, a funeral pyre. These gladiators fought at the pyre or tomb site of the deceased dignitary to propitiate his shade.
calends The first of the month.
Civil War 49–45 B.C. After Caesar had conquered Gaul, his consulship was nearly at an end. He was apprehensive about returning to Rome without some safeguards against revengeful judicial action and hostilities from Pompey’s followers. He suggested that both he and Pompey simultaneously retire from their consulships, but the Senate demanded that he step down. He refused, instead he crossed the Rubicon River (the border of Italy proper, hence the jurisdiction of the Senate), with a legion, which was contrary to a Roman law designed to prevent a coup d’etat. Despite an offer of peace from Caesar, Pompey and most of the Senate fled to Greece after being chased through Italy by Caesar.
Caesar began his fight against the Pompeian forces in Spain and managed to seize the passes of the Pyrenees, preventing Pompey’s generals (Marcus) Petreius and (Lucius) Afranius from taking Iberia. Caesar then surrounded the Pompeian forces at Ilerda and beseiged them until they gave up. Because they surrendered, Caesar allowed all the Pompeian forces to go, provided that they did not take arms against him again. Both Petreius and Afranius foreswore themselves and, with whatever troops they could round up, joined Pompey in Greece.
Caesar hurried to Rome where he had been appointed dictator by the Senate upon the nomination of (Marcus) Lepidus. This bought him enough time so that eleven days later he was elected consul by the people and resigned his dictatorship. Meanwhile in Numidia, Caesar’s legate Curio (Caius Quintus Scribonius Curio, husband of Fulvia) lost both a battle and his life fighting the optimates under (Publius Attius) Varus with his ally King Juba of Numidia.
Caesar then invaded Greece but initially was defeated by Pompey’s army at Dyrrhachium. Pompey missed his opportunity to destroy Ceasar’s army because he thought Caesar’s retreat was a ruse. At Pharsalus, Pompey’s more numerous army attacked Caesar’s but were decisively defeated. Pompey, his senior staff, and the remnants of his army fled to Africa.
In Egypt a civil war had broken out between Queen Cleopatra (VII) and her younger brother/husband Ptolemy (XIII). The reason for the Egyptian civil war was that Cleopatra granted Pompey’s request for ships and grain as well as sanctuary for his army. She was intimidated into doing so by Pompey’s allies near Egypt. The Egyptian people resented the fact that Cleopatra had caved in to Roman demands and ousted her as queen. She escaped from Alexandria and raised an army.
Pompey had fled to Egypt and Caesar pursued him there. Caesar wanted to end the Roman civil war and go back to the status he and Pompey shared in the Triumvirate. Ptolemy, however, interfered with Caesar’s plan by having Pompey decapitated and sent the head to Caesar as a gift. It is said that Caesar wept when he saw it (Pompey, after all, had been his friend and son-in-law). Angered by Ptolemy’s unilateral act, Caesar sided with Cleopatra and defeated Ptolemy.
Caesar became Cleopatra’s lover, but because she was not a citizen of Rome, he could not marry her under Roman law. While Caeser dallied in Egypt, the optimates gathered more forces and were led by Scipio, a.k.a. Metellus Scipio (Quintus Caecilius Metellus Pius Scipio Nasica), (Marcus Porcius) Cato (the Younger), (Marcus) Petreius, (Publius Attius) Varus, who was already the governor of Africa, and (Titus) Labienus Caesar’s former legate. They were also allied to King Juba I of Numidia.
Caesar defeated Varus in a naval battle, and Varus took flight to Spain where he was later killed in battle at Munda. For three months Caesar skirmished with the optimates, all the while his army was increased by desertions from his enemy’s ranks. At Thapsus in Tunisia, he came upon Scipio’s and Juba’s armies. He attacked Scipio, and Juba, watching the fight from the sidelines, saw Caesar’s army kill ten thousand of Scipio’s men; Juba hastily withdrew. Scipio and Labienus managed to escape to Utica (Tunisia) where Cato was in command. With the destruction of the optimates main army, Cato realized that their cause was no longer viable and committed suicide. Scipio was later killed in a naval battle off Hippo Regius, Algeria, while Labeinus died in the battle of Munda. Petreius had fled with Juba but their army was cut off. They made a suicide agreement and fought a duel whereby Petreius killed Juba and then fell on his own sword. Caesar mopped up the rest of the opposition and returned to Rome.
client, pl. clientele One attached in a subordinate relationship to a patron, whom he was bound to support in war and in the courts. Freedmen became clients of their former masters. The relationship was hereditary.
colonia Roman colonies were originally established as military outposts. At this period of the Republic, colonia
were lands given to veteran soldiers as a reward for service.
consilium Broadly, an advisory group.
crucifixions The Romans inherited the practice of crucifixion from the Carthaginians. In Rome, it was reserved for rebellious slaves and insurrectionists. Citizens could not be crucified.
curule A curule office conferred magisterial dignity. Those holding it were privileged to sit in a curule chair—a folding camp chair that became a symbol of Roman officials sitting in judgment.
duumvir, pl. duumviri A duumvirate was a board of two men. Many Italian towns were governed by duumviri. A duumvir was also a Roman admiral, probably dating from a time when the Roman navy was commanded by two senators.
eagles The standard of a Roman legion was a gilded eagle. The eagle was the tutelary deity of the legion and came to embody the legion itself. Thus, a Roman on military service was “with the eagles.”
eques, pl. equites These were originally “knights” who fought on horseback. At this time during the Republic, they were a social class below the patrician Senate and above the plebeians. See orders.
families and names Roman citizens usually had three names. The given name (praenomen) was individual, but there were only about eighteen of them: Marcus, Lucius, etc. Certain praenomens were used only in a single family: Appius was used only by the Claudians, Mamercus only by the Aemilians, and so forth. Only males had praenomens. Daughters were given the feminine form of the father’s name: Aemilia for Aemilius, Julia for Julius, Valeria for Valerius, etc.
Next came the nomen. This was the name of the clan (gens). All members of a gens traced their descent from a common ancestor, whose name they bore: Julius, Furius, Licinius, Junius, Tullius, to name a few. Patrician names always ended in ius. Plebeian names often had different endings. The name of the clan collectively was always in the feminine form, e.g., Aemilia.
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