by Simon Rumney
Courtship
Young Gaius called on Julia the next day and the day after that and every day until his departure for Hispania. They sat by the fountains in the center courtyard of what he naturally assumed to be her home and talked about his hopes and dreams. Julia professed the hopes and dreams of the character she had adopted which helped her flesh out the role.
Cecilia ordered the youngest house slaves to stand on all four street corners and run to the house if they saw Sulla returning. They were taking a great risk but having assessed the danger both Cecilia and Julia thought it safe for Young Gaius to visit because Sulla never came to his secret home during the day. They also knew that he was occupying all of his time with the Senate.
The expensive home was an important part of Julia’s pretence and worth the considerable risk anyway using Sulla’s house to court the son of his enemy gave them both spiteful satisfaction. Had the innocent young man been able to look at anyone other than Julia, Young Gaius may have noticed a number of very worried house slaves milling constantly by the front door but he was totally captivated by her charm.
The first time Julia was invited to dine at the home of the Father of Rome, Young Gaius ten sent his personal body servant, his mother’s best litter and strong slaves to carry her and Cecilia through the streets. They did not live far from the Gaius home and when accompanied the evening journey was quite safe even during these turbulent times. At dinner Julia acted her part wonderfully but Cecilia appeared shy and withdrawn. Politely smiling from time to time Cecilia said nothing in case her words expressed the fear that made even thinking difficult.
As the fully trained head slave of an aristocratic household Cecilia understood etiquette and the idiosyncrasies of polite dinner conversation intimately but even so she was terrified of giving the game away with something as simple as using her hands when she should be using a knife to eat. The very reason Julia looked so at home in this environment was due to her training but even so Cecilia felt afraid. It was lucky for her that although Roman women were well educated they were rarely included in dinner conversations. Only the men spoke to each other so Cecilia’s lack of speech was far less out of place than Julia’s remarkable ability to converse.
As they ate Marius told Julia of his lifetime of travels throughout the empire and spoke of military campaigns that happened before she was born. Great campaigns all over the Republic many ending in fabulous battles which had become part of Roman folklore. Julia listened intently to all of his tales but the ones that interested her most were the stories concerning Hispania. She deliberately steered the conversation towards that peninsular country because she wanted to know the potential of the holdings that Young Gaius would eventually inherit. It took some time for him to get to the estates but she listen patiently because she found his stories of taming wild tribes during his tour as young Proconsul of Hispania very interesting.
When he talked about his Spanish interests her mind came alive because the size of his properties were nothing short of staggering. These were not just small farms these were vast areas of Hispania given to Marius by a grateful Senate. Marius also explained that he owned significant mines which produced great quantities of precious stones and metals. At the end of her conversation Julia realized to her delight that Marius and eventually his son was one of the richest men in Rome.
The evening was a great success for everyone. Marius approved of Julia and had no objection to his son pursuing her romantically. Young Gaius fell even deeper in love because parental approval was the only thing that a proper young Roman needed. His father had not known Julia’s family personally even though he had been to Brundisium many years before but that was hardly a matter for suspicion the Republic was a very big place and many highbred families were strangers to him.
As the evening concluded Gaius Marius ordered his personal bodyguard to escort them home and once inside Julia and Cecilia sat in the kitchen giggling nervously, Julia’s mirth driven by the realization of how far she would be able to take her act; Cecilia’s because she was still alive, never in her life had she been more afraid than that night in the home of Gaius Marius.
When the time for his departure came Young Gaius no longer wanted to leave Rome because of his love for Julia but like all young Romans he had a strong sense of duty which drove him to answer the call. Prior to his departure the lovebirds spent every possible moment together talking about such things as his childhood in the countryside and her upbringing by the sea in Brundisium. Even mundane things like the boring estates were discussed and he felt so lucky what other young lady in Rome would want to share so much of his life? He did not even think to question any part of her story because as Julia said herself she valued honesty above all else.
The day of departure was eventually upon them and standing on the quay at the harbor of Ostia Julia made him promise to fill his letters with every detail of his experiences in Hispania. “Only if I know all that you are doing will I know how you are truly feeling,” was how she explained it and he in turn made Julia promise to wait for him. “I will be back in a year or two at the most,” he said as he boarded the galley for Hispania.
Julia agreed without hesitation, she wasn’t going anywhere after all she thought while waving his ship into the distance it was through him that she was going to free herself from depending on anyone ever again.
Two months later a scroll tied with a bright red ribbon arrived and Julia reveled in the feelings of maturity that opening her first ever letter provoked. She broke the wax seal which bore an impression of the crest engraved on her fiancé’s ring and began to read the first of many letters from Hispania.
Dearest Julia.
I have been missing you terribly from the very moment our lines were let go at Ostia. Please thank your mother for accompanying you on the journey to see me off. You looked magnificent standing on the quay waving goodbye. I could see you waving until we were a long way into the distance. My friends all admired you and told me what a lucky fellow I am but of course no one knows better than I how lucky I am to have you waiting for me at home my darling.
It has been only a month since we last embraced but it feels longer than any year of my life. I am now writing to you from Hispania and after spending only one day in this hot dry country I have so much to tell you and don’t know where to begin.
We put into the island of Corsica not long after leaving Italy to pick up some fresh galley slaves, apparently the Corsicans make good oarsmen. Corsica is a small island and the people of the Roman population greeted us and made us most welcome.
My journey across the ocean was an experience I will never forget. At night I would lay on the deck where my fellow officers and I slept, just staring at the stars. They seem to burn more brightly when on board a galley. I do not know why but the Captain of our vessel told us that this is how it always is on the ocean and the noises on a galley during the night are always pleasing to the ear. The ropes creak, the water laps against the hull and all the time as I lay there, I would think of you.
As a soldier who is untrained in the arts, I do not possess the vocabulary, which can adequately express how I felt during this voyage. All I can do is describe my emotions truthfully. I felt profound feelings of familiarity; it was as though I had made such a journey before. All of the noises were known to me, even the motion of the ship under my feet inspired memories, but the most peculiar thing of all was the memory of making this crossing with you. I think you will agree that this is a very strange state of affairs when one considers that neither of us has ever been out of Italy in our lives.
Anyway I digress. You will be interested to hear that the legions arrived ahead of us and were already camped awaiting our arrival. They marched all the way from Rome in unbelievable time. They took the Via Aurelia the road that follows the coast and saved themselves days. You being from the south will not know the area they tell me it is a lovely part of Italy full of olive groves and I hope that we can visit there one day in the future.
The officers who marched with the legions are returning to Rome when the galleys leave. How I envy them but I must stay and do my duty I am so glad that you understand the need for me to be away at this time.
I will write to you once I have had a chance to survey our estates and let you know how they are doing. It is so good of you to take an interest in something as boring as olive groves and vineyards.
Please write soon I long to hear from you.
All my love.
Marius
With her ever present guilt fighting for an audience it dawned on Julia that she was going to be reading a great deal of his heartfelt emotions. Raw panic possessed Julia as it also dawned on her that she would have to respond to these intimate thoughts in an equally personal manner if she wanted to retrieve the required information. Allowing her real feelings for Young Gaius to the forefront was simply too dangerous for her defensive subconscious to consider it would never condone such a potentially damaging act but a solution would have to be found none the less.
A method of communication would have to be devised to hold his interest while detaching Julia from the shame of causing him pain and the inevitable answer was delivered in a thought which crossed her conscious mind as though it was the most logical thing in the world. Her father had hurt her, Joseph betrayed her, Sulla still hurt her and all three sources of pain were men, the next delusional step was obvious. If men cause pain they are bad and as Young Gaius is a man he must be bad.
Returning her guilt to its hiding place Julia began writing a fabricated reply which was justified by her conclusion that as a man it was he who must somehow be using her for his ends and this strange logic allowed her to ignore his absolute integrity.
Gavius
Ever curious Julia wanted to understand why Rome had such terrible food shortages at the moment; she also wanted to find out how she could turn her newfound link with Hispania to her advantage. With these objectives in mind Julia decided that the best person to talk to was Gavius her fat and jolly oil merchant. His information would be a good foundation because as he himself said many times, “Olive oil was one of the most important commodities in Rome.”
He had told her that it was not only used for cooking and as a food but more importantly as a source of light throughout the Roman world. Millions of terracotta olive oil lamps burned in every home and workplace, it was this brightly flaming olive oil which allowed Rome to function after the sun went down and as Gavius said, “Beating darkness was one of the things which defined their civilization.”
Julia wondered why Gavius always seemed to have oil of the best quality when others had none. She felt sure he would be happy to tell her how he did it because he always tried to impress her with favorable prices, little gifts, even entry to the victory-holiday chariot race, so with this in mind Julia walked into his little shop to begin her education.
Sure enough, Gavius was keen to chat and she gradually built a strong rapport with the fat oil merchant.
Always making sure not to stay too long and buying oil on the Sulla account each time she slowly built his trust. He clearly liked her and as Gavius showed off his knowledge of Roman commerce she would build logically on her previous questions until the day Julia felt that the timing was right for an important one.
‘What is causing the shortages in Rome at the moment?’ Her question was asked seemingly in passing.
“War and pirates,” he innocently replied.
“Why has the war caused shortages?”
“Italy provided much of the food that Rome consumes and during the war that supply was cut off.”
“But the war is over now.”
“Yes that’s true but farming in Italy has been dramatically reduced because they were all too busy losing a war to worry about planting crops.”
“The war has been over for three months.” Julia was conscious of the fact that she was beginning to sound a bit too much like a pushy child.
“The little food that was left after the destructive war has had to be shared between the armies overseas, Rome and, last of all, the Italians themselves.”
Julia grasped his explanation without hesitation and went on to investigate his other comment by asking: “Why are pirates causing shortages?”
“There are pirates everywhere now. Since the war their numbers have grown and very few ships are prepared to sail for Rome. We have always had pirates of one kind or another in the great ocean of course but our war galleys have always been able to keep them under control. During the war however the Roman fleet was spread throughout all of the Italian ports and when the war came the tribes impounded every ship. Without Romans to cull their number the pirates increased like rabbits. Cargo ships now ply the coastal shipping lanes but only a handful of the sea captains are brave enough to make it past the pirates on the great ocean. Until the battle fleet regains control Rome is virtually cut off from its countries of supply.”
Nodding her understanding Julia delivered the question that she had been working towards and it was asked in such a way that Gavius did not immediately realize that he had been drawn into a soft trap: “Why when Rome has so many shortages do you always have a plentiful supply of fine oil?”
Looking up from the small terracotta jar that he had been preparing for Julia, Gavius stared deeply into her eyes; he seemed to be searching her expression for the reason behind the question. Apparently satisfied that Julia was just a simple house girl and her question an innocent one he gave his answer, ‘I belong to a cooperative of traders, we stockpiled before the war as a precaution.’
Julia’s naive expression as she left his shop was intended to place Gavius at his ease but she was in no way satisfied with his explanation. Anyone who lived with oil as she had could tell the age of a pressing almost to the day. Julia was born in the middle of an olive grove, oil virtually flowed in her veins and the oil she had been purchasing from Gavius throughout the war had not been off the tree for more than three or four months at the most. It also had a different texture to any Italian oil she had ever tasted which led her to conclude that it must be imported oil and that made a lie of his pirate story.
During her next visit Julia while looking directly into his eyes for maximum effect asked abruptly, “Why did you lie to me?”
It was clear that Gavius sensed a change in her, something that had not been there before, an edge that he could not place his finger on as he asked in obviously feigned surprise, “Lie to you?”
“Yes, lie to me! You told me that you had stockpiled your oil before the war, did you not?”
“Yes I belong to a cooperative I told you——”
Holding up her hand Julia interrupted sharply, “The oil that you have been supplying the house of Sulla is much fresher than that!”
Deliberately including Sulla’s name was intended to grab his attention and she was delighted by his reaction Gavius was clearly very scared. Keeping him on the back foot Julia snapped, “You are an organizer of the black-market!’ Are you aware that the penalty for dealing in smuggled goods is death?”
She couldn’t believe her luck the beads of perspiration arrived on his forehead as though her words had activated a hundred tiny pumps. He was clearly well aware that the penalty was death and he could hardly speak through the fear which played across his face.
“I … I … I don’t understand,” was the best he could stammer.
“Let me help you understand,” Julia replied immediately driving home her advantage. “The oil that you have been selling to Sulla is not from a store, it is fresh! What’s more it comes from another country! I have several jars at Sulla’s home and they are all of the same quality. The only way for it to have arrived in Rome is by sea and according to the city import listings no oil has arrived in over a year!”
This was a bluff albeit a well calculated one, Julia had no access to the city import lists, but Sulla did, and Gavius couldn’t possibly know that Julia had not seen him in months.
Gavius believed Julia wh
en she told him about her access to the records. Why would he question her? He knew it to be absolutely true. He had been purchasing his oil on the black-market because oil was virtually unavailable any other way. “What do you intend to do?” he asked.
With great conviction Julia stared at Gavius as she said. “I want the name of your contact in the black-market,” and judging by the look on his face Gavius could not believe his ears.
Glad to see more sweat appear on the fat man’s brow Julia went on, “When I tell Sulla what you have been doing you will be tortured and executed to show the people what happens to racketeers!”
Gavius had the look of a man who was stuck between a rock and a hard place. Julia had turned into a monster before his eyes and her stare was positively chilling as he replied, “If I did know people in the black-market I am sure they would slit my throat if I told anyone who they were.”
“Then you have a very simple choice to make, die at the hands of the black-marketeers or Sulla.”
“That’s not much of a choice,” answered Gavius. “Do you intend to have them arrested?”
“No I have a proposition to put to them.”
“A proposition?” Gavius was quite obviously seeing a speck of light at the end of a tunnel which had not existed a mere second before. “If I knew such people what sort of proposition would you have for them?”
“Stop denying your involvement or I will have you arrested!” snapped Julia; then added in a calmer voice, “My proposition is for their ears only but the opportunity I have for them will make you a hero in their eyes I can assure you of that.”