I was trembling like a boy who has just had his first, inconclusive experiment with a slave girl. My pulse pounded in my ears and I was sure that my breathing could be heard on the other side of the hedges. I had to readjust my subli-gaculum before I could return to the house and take my leave. I must have looked a bit wild-eyed and disheveled, but everyone else was far the worse for the wine, so my condition was not remarked upon.
As I made my way home through the dark streets, I tried to analyze the things I had seen and heard in the last few days, but Aurelia kept intruding on my thoughts. I was sure that I was missing some terribly obvious things, but my mind never worked properly when I was obsessed with a woman. This may not have been solely a personal failing, as other men have reported similar afflictions.
Whatever my frailties may have been, when I got home I collapsed on my bed in a fever of lust and confusion.
7
THAT YEAR, WE HELD THE FESTI-val of the October Horse in the Forum. In other years, it was usually held in the Campus Martius, but the augurs had seen signs that were unfavorable to the Campus Martius. Mars wanted the festival held within the city walls this year. In earliest times, the festival had always been in the Forum, but in those days the Forum had been an open field. With its present clutter of public buildings, temples, monuments and speakers’ platforms it was a rough place to hold a horse race. But by that time the city was spilling out onto the Campus Martius as well, since it had grown too crowded for the old walls to contain any longer. The old mustering-field for the army was quickly growing as urbanized as the rest of the city.
Holding the race in the Forum was favorable to me in one respect: If it had been in the Campus Martius, the race would have been run in chariots. I was a competent rider, but a wretched charioteer. The chariot has been obsolete for centuries, except for races and ceremonial processions, so I never saw any point in acquiring the skill, although I had taken some lessons out of curiosity. Clodius, on the other hand, was known to practice regularly at the stables of the Greens (he had switched from Red to Green upon becoming a man of the people). It would have been unthinkably disgraceful for any wellborn man to race publicly, but many race-crazed young men practiced assiduously to learn a skill they would never be able to use.
To my further advantage was Clodius himself. He was a bit shorter than I, but of stocky build and he weighed a good many pounds more. Much would depend on the respective strength of the horses we drew. Since they would have been chosen from among the best race-horses of the stables, it was probable that their power would be nearly equal, giving me the advantage.
With half the Subura behind me, I entered the Forum amid thunderous cheers. The whole city seemed to be packed into the ancient city center, or on the balconies and atop the gates and rooftops overlooking it. People had climbed onto the monuments for a better view. Beside me were two other men who would ride for the Subura. They were both handlers for the Circus, expert riders.
Mars in those days was still an extramural god, and had no altar within the city except for a shrine in the house of the Pontifex Maximus, so a temporary altar had been erected in front of the Rostra, similar to the permanent altar on the Campus Martius. There stood the Flamen Martialis and his attendants, ready to conduct the ceremony. Behind the priest, on the Rostra, stood the magistrates of state and the other pontifices and flamines, the augurs, and a few privileged foreigners.
Approaching from the other end of the Forum I saw Publius Clodius and his two companions, backed by the dwellers of the Via Sacra. Like mine, most of his followers were young men, excited and ready for a brawl. Clodius was still a rather handsome young man, despite some marks I had put on his face and which were always a great joy for me to look upon. I was pleased to note that he had added a pound or two since I had last seen him. In keeping with the solemnity of the occasion, we didn’t make faces at each other, but maintained an impassive, hieratic demeanor.
I stepped onto the low dais that had been erected for the altar and stood there with the other five riders. My father was there, along with the fathers of two of the other men. Since, by the well-known Roman legal fiction, we were still our fathers’ property, the three fathers and the flamen had to go through a certain mummery temporarily releasing us to the service of the god. When that was done, my father came to me and said: “This is a damnably risky business, but they’ll remember it in the tribal assemblies when it comes time for you to stand for the aedileship. Just be careful and let the others take the risks, as much as possible.”Then he left the dais. Father had a wonderfully political way of looking at everything. Anything short of death was acceptable to him, so long as it helped you get elected.
Then the flameri’s attendants stripped us of our tunics. This was an ancient practice, but the main reason for it was to ensure that we were not wearing armor or concealed weapons beneath our outer garments. Only a subligaculum was permitted, and even that was discreetly searched lest we be concealing some amulet or charm intended to put a curse on a rival. During this stage of the proceedings I was pleased to note that I looked far better thus unclad than Clodius, with his extra poundage. He was a powerful man, though, and not to be underestimated. I did not shine so well in comparison to the other four, all of whom were as well conditioned as any professional athlete.
As the others were being searched I looked out over the crowd. Besides the Suburans, I had other supporters. I saw Milo and a large group of his thugs. The enmity between Clodius and me was as the love of brothers compared to what lay between him and Milo. A number of Catilina’s men were there as promised, including Valgius and Thorius, the bearded lovelies who had followed Aurelia. The sight of Valgius tickled something in my memory, but he also made me think of Aurelia, which was something I was doing too much of already. I looked up at the Capitol, where the new image of Jupiter was at last in place, and saw that the repairs to the wall where it had been moved in had been completed. The haruspices had said that the new Jupiter would warn us of dangers to the state. Then I heard the sound of trumpets and a reverent silence fell over the crowd. The ceremony had begun.
Down the Via Sacra came the Palatine Salii, the twelve young patricians who formed the brotherhood of the dancing priests of Mars. Dressed in scarlet tunics and wearing bronze helmets and breastplates of antique design, they performed a slow and solemn war dance to the music of the holy trumpets and wailing flutes. Each bore in his hand one of the sacred spears of Mars, and on his other arm he carried one of the ancilia, the strangely shaped bronze shields of Mars. This was their last ceremony of the year, and they would dance in all the holy places for four more days, at which time the holy shields, spears and trumpets would be purified and stored away in the regia and all worship of Mars would cease for the duration of winter, barring the outbreak of war.
Behind the Salii came the horses. These were spectacular beasts: three bays, a white, a black and a brown with black stripes on his haunches. Each horse had had a numeral painted on his brow, from one to six, in the order they had been chosen by the Flamen Martialis according to criteria known only to the pontifices. The horses halted before the altar, the handlers having their hands full with the nervous, temperamental animals. The Salii continued their dance, circling the horses three times, singing a song so ancient that only a few words of it were intelligible, even to the priests themselves. Everyone watched breathlessly, concerned that the dance should be performed properly. Above all it was important that the spears should not be allowed to clash against the shields, for that was the signal to summon Mars to aid us in battle. He would be very angry to find that there was no war going on. But the dance was performed flawlessly and the Salii came to a halt before the dais.
Now one of the Vestal virgins took a helmet from the head of one of the dancers and gave it to the flamen. One of the attendants placed five knucklebones inside. These were not real knucklebones, but bronze replicas, each the size of a child’s fist and brilliantly polished. One by one, we riders took the helme
t from the flamen, shook it. and cast the knucklebones onto the dais. We were assigned horses according to the score each of us threw.
Mine was three, the white. This seemed lucky to me. I had always liked white horses because, I suppose, everyone likes white horses. Clodius drew one of the bays. My two side-men got the black and another of the bays. Although the race was supposed to be between the horses, these men would actually be trying to prevent Clodius and his men from fouling me. Clodius’s men would have the same task.
A handler boosted me onto ray white. The horses wore no saddles and we could control them only with rope halters, for metal bits were forbidden. A vestal handed each of us a whip that had been plaited of new leather and horsehair within the Atrium Vestae, thus ensuring that none of them were envenomed.
The horses were lined up so closely that my knees touched the knees of the riders to either side. One of them was Clodius, who was on my left. This was a stroke of bad luck. He spoke to me, too quietly for anyone else to hear.
“I hope you have your mourners hired, Metellus. You’ll be dead before nightfall.”
I could tell that the years since our last serious encounter had done nothing to sweeten his disposition.
“You’d better not try anything,’“ I warned him. “I have archers stationed on top of the Curia” The fool actually looked.
Then the handlers released our reins and darted out of the way. The horses trembled with eagerness to start, restrained only by a chalk-whitened rope stretched at breast height a few feet in front of them, held taut by two slaves. My nerves were stretched as tight by the wait and the silence. All eyes were on the Flatnen Martlalis. He nodded, and the attendants of the Salii blew a long blast on the sacred trumpets. The crowd erupted.
As our horses lunged forward, Clodius lashed at my eyes with his whip. I had been expecting it and I ducked, but the whip caught my brow and scalp, cutting deep. This was why I had been distressed to find Clodius on my immediate left. It gave him full freedom to use his whip against me with his right hand, while I would have to reach across my body to get at him.
Clodius pulled ahead as we pounded down the narrow track marked out by ropes, the screaming crowd packed behind the ropes urging us on. My white was infuriated at the bay for passing him and as we dashed past the Basilica Ae-milia, he snaked out his neck and bit the bay’s haunch. Clodius almost lost his seat as the bay squealed and jerked. My white put on a burst of speed and I slashed Clodius with my whip as I passed him, leaning far over to do it. This was not a good thing to do, because at that moment one of Clo-dius’s men gained my right rear and slashed me across the back. The force of the blow and the sudden, unexpected pain almost pitched me headforemost. If the fall to the hard pavement did not kill me the trampling by the horses behind surely would have. I squeezed with my knees and clung to my horse’s neck to stay on, and I could hear Clodius’s laugh as he dashed past.
One of my side-men got his whip around the neck of the lout who had lashed me from behind and jerked him from his mount. The crowd cheered frantically at this adroit move. In this race, the riders were free to attack each other, but not one another’s horses. That would have been sacrilege.
The horses themselves were under no such compulsion, and just as I regained my seat and dashed the blood from my eyes, my side-man on the black and Clodius’s man on the striped horse drew up on my left. There was not sufficient room for two horses there and the animals attacked one another with teeth and hooves. Men and horses went down in a tangle of thrashing limbs, flailing hooves and hissing whips.
I caught up with Clodius as we rounded the monument to a Consul of four hundred years before. It was greatly in need of repair and was demolished a few years later because nobody would pay for its restoration. The family was long extinct. As we made the turn he cut too close and his horse’s haunch caught the corner of the monument, breaking loose some old repair work and causing the beast to stumble. At this I surged past him, striking out with my whip, but without success.
Now I was rushing back toward the altar. I looked behind me just in time to cut in front of Clodius, who was getting close. (The other remaining rider was behind him.) The three riderless horses had regained their feet and rejoined the race like the spirited animals they were. My white was running his heart out, even though this was a far shorter race than he was used to. Once around the Forum is nothing like seven times around the spina at the Circus, pulling a chariot.
Foam from the white’s mouth mixed with the blood on my face as we dashed back over the starting line. The crowd cheered frantically as I pulled up and dismounted. I patted the beast’s flank as a handler took charge of him. All the cheering was for the horse, naturally. This was not an athletic contest and I would receive neither crown nor palm.
At least my Suburans cheered me. A woman tossed me a scarf and I bound it around my head to stop the blood from running into my eyes. My back burned as if someone had laid a hot iron across it. Handlers were catching the three riderless animals. I walked, somewhat stiffly, to the dais. Clo-dius was already there, having no serious injuries to be tended. He glared at me and I grinned back. He was not through yet, as I well knew. This had been only the first stage of the day’s ordeal.
The crowd quieted somewhat as we assembled. The two riders who had taken the worst falls were not seriously injured and managed to hobble to the dais, bloodied but proud. Then the white horse I had ridden to victory was led up. The people sang the ancient chant to the October Horse and showered him with honey cakes and dried petals of the summer’s flowers.
The handlers walked the October Horse onto the dais while the flamen and his attendants intoned their prayers. The flamen Stroked the horse’s head from ears to muzzle and the beast ducked his head in a nod, a propitious sign. A vestal handed scarves to the riders and we covered our heads with these as the men in the crowd did the same with their togas and the women with their pallas.
When the flamen’s prayer was done he nodded to an attendant who struck the horse on the brow with a long-handled hammer. The beast stood planted to the spot, stunned, as the flamen cut his throat with the sacrificial knife that he must always carry with him. The blood was caught in two vessels, one of which would go to the Temple of Vesta to be used in the lustrations of the coming year, the other to be poured out over the hearth of the Regia, where once the kings of Rome had lived and where the Pontifex Maximus now dwelled.
I was saddened to see the great horse die, as I always was at these sacrifices, but especially this time, for he had borne me so magnificently. But then, if there is no sadness, of what value is the sacrifice? How could the god take pleasure in an offering for which the givers felt only indifference? I never saw much point in sacrificing pigeons and other such inferior victims, but the sacrifice of the October Horse has always marked for me one of the noblest links between the Roman people and their gods. And why should a fine racehorse want to grow old and feeble? Better to perish this way, and join the herd of the gods. Woe to the people when we forget these duties owed to our gods.
As the blood was collected, the flamen continued the prayer to Mars. An attendant held the written service before him so that he should not stumble over the archaic words and behind him a flute-player trilled so that no unseemly sound or word from the multitude should distract the flamen. Any slightest flaw in the performance of the ritual, and the entire ceremony would have to be repeated from the beginning.
When the blood collecting was done, the flamen went to the great corpse and with a few deft, well-practiced cuts of the sacrificial knife, he severed the head and held it aloft, still dripping. The assembled multitude clapped three times, cheered three times, and repeated the ritual laugh three times. Reverently, the flamen placed the head upon the altar, then sprinkled it with barley meal and poured over it fresh-pressed oil mixed with honey. Then, in a rite peculiar to the October Horse, the flamen and the vestals piled cakes baked that day from fine wheat around and atop the noble head. Then the flamen st
epped back, clapped three times and laughed three times. A collective sigh went up from the multitude and they uncovered their heads, satisfied that all due honor had been paid the October Horse and that Mars must now be contented, ready to undertake his four-month absence from the city.
Now the tension began to rise again. The solemn ritual was done with. The final, climactic phase of the festival was at hand. The fun was about to begin. I was keyed up and ready for it, but I had seldom felt myself to be in so much danger.
The flamen, his attendants and the vestals left the dais and mounted the Rostra. A space was made for the flamen at the front of the platform. He stepped into the space and beside him stood the master of the herald’s guild. The master herald, in his long, white robe and bearing his wand of office, stood ready to repeat the flamen’s words so that all could hear. This master had earned his position by possessing the loudest voice ever heard in Rome.
The Flamen Martialis spoke the ritual formula and the herald repeated it: “MARS IS HAPPY!”
With that, we stormed the altar. Clodius got there first and snatched at the head, but I caught him in the back with my shoulder and he lunged across the altar and only got an armful of wheat cakes. Shoving his flailing legs aside, I wrapped my arms around the noble head and lifted it from the altar. Whirling, I made a dash in the direction of the Subura. Two men jumped in front of me but I swung the head to right and left, knocking them aside. I ran through the breach I had made. Now a dozen Suburans fought their way in front of me and struggled to clear my way to our home territory.
The Forum was in an uproar. The press was so great that only those closest to me could see where I was, but people on rooftops and balconies and monuments pointed me out for the benefit of those who thirsted for my blood.
We got across the pavement and into a street leading toward the Subura, but gained no security thereby. The Via Sacrans were on the rooftops and they began to shower us with roof tiles. One struck me on top of the head, almost knocking me to my knees. White light flashed in my eyes and I almost dropped the head. My newly lacerated scalp began to bleed profusely, soaking the scarf bound around my brow and running into my eyes. My defenders snatched up boards and tore loose shutters to use as shields from the ex tempore missiles.
SPQR II: The Catiline Conspiracy Page 13