‘Oh yes? I do have some influence,’ he offered.
‘Don’t interfere.’
‘By the sound of things, you will need bail.’
‘It won’t come to that.’
‘Right.’ This was our usual happy repartee. He was hating me and I was enjoying it. ‘Let me know when we all have to come to court and cheer while the bastards convict you!’ We were silent while he poured wine. I left mine on the shelf where he had placed the cup. ‘Oh drink up and don’t be so pompous. We’ve been here before; you’re in deep trouble, but you don’t want help, especially from me-‘
‘Oh I want your help!’ I snarled. ‘I don’t expect to get it, but I want to know what in Hades has been going on.’
‘Sit down and calm down. You’re not in some cheap drinking-house.’
I refused to sit, but forced control into my tone: ‘It’s obvious something happened before our famous hero speared himself at Bethel. My guess is that you were in it with him, but you hoped the affair had happened too far away to bring repercussions here.’
‘It was nothing to do with me.’ He made no effort to avoid self-righteousness.
‘Then you’ve no reason to avoid telling me about it! We all have to face the truth,’ I said grittily. ‘The Fifteenth have been restationed and all the ones we apparently owe money to are making sure they snatch home leave. One man came to stir the porridge pot, and now he’s dead someone else is bound to follow. This will not go away.’ My father inclined his head dourly, agreeing that point at least, so I carried on. ‘Whoever knifed Censorinus may have met him by accident-or they may be in on the story too. If so, I don’t fancy meeting them on a dark stair. Somebody in the past must have stepped in a very nasty cow-pat, and now the stink has reached home. At the moment it’s attached to me, but you won’t be surprised to hear I’m planning on a good wash-down.’
‘You need more than a plan.’
I felt my chest tighten. ‘Is this guesswork or fact?’
‘Bit of both,’ said my father.
He was ready to talk. Since the winecup was handy and I hate waste, I grasped it and attached my posterior to a low stool. I had chosen a tight corner, preferring this to greater comfort. Above me a dog-headed god sneered inscrutably down his long snout from the flank of a cupboard. ‘We have to discuss Festus,’ I insisted in a low voice.
Our father laughed briefly, almost to himself. ‘Big subject!’ He stared into his wine. We were drinking from small, stupid metal cups, fancy items designed for courtesy, not serious thirst-quenching. He held his between the tips of two fingers and a thumb; he had large hands with stubby fingers, the same shape as my brother’s. On his right hand he wore a grand seal ring with a haematite stone and a smaller gold one with the head of a Claudian emperor, an oddly conventional set for a man in his trade who was constantly seeing much finer jewellery. In some ways he was a conventional man, more so than either of his sons.
On his left third finger he still wore his wedding ring; I never knew why. Maybe he never thought about it.
‘Marcus Didius Festus…’ Geminus furrowed his brow. ‘Everyone thought he was special. Maybe he was. Or maybe he just could have been-‘
‘Don’t get maudlin,’ I urged impatiently. ‘Festus had flair and courage. Big brother thought nothing of running a business venture from the army, from a thousand miles away. But he must have had a receiver at this end, and you must have been him.’
‘We shared some joint investments,’ he agreed.
‘Like what?’
Geminus waved a hand. ‘You’re sitting on some of it.’ The Egyptian furniture. ‘Festus found this when the Fifteenth were in Alexandria. It came in a load that was shipped over just before he died.’
‘I didn’t see it the last time I was here.’
‘No, I’ve just decided to get rid of it.’ I knew selling could be a matter of mood. A man could lose heart extolling his dead partner’s treasures; more so when the partner had also been his favourite son. ‘When Festus died this just got left. Somehow I couldn’t face dealing with it. But when that lag from the Fifteenth came round I took notice again. I don’t know why I kept it so long; it’s not my style, this lightweight stuff.’
‘So where was it?’
‘I had it at home.’
At this mention of the house he shared with the woman he had run off with, the atmosphere stiffened. I knew where he lived. I had never been inside, but presumably the dwelling bulged with enticing collectables. ‘I thought you might still have a warehouse full of big brother’s tasty imports?’
My father looked unreliable. ‘There may be a few items at Scaro’s old barn.’ This was out on the Campagna, on Great-Uncle Scaro’s farm, a place Pa had used for long-term storage after he married Ma. (Free use of her brothers’ outbuildings was one obvious reason he first took to her.) My father stopped going out there when he abandoned home, but later on Festus took over the barn. ‘When I got in touch with your Uncle Fabius he assured me it was virtually empty.’
‘Fabius wouldn’t recognise a box labelled Bullion! Mind if I take a look some time?’
‘You’ll go if you want to, whatever I say.’
‘Thanks for the warrant!’
‘Keep your hands off the stuff, if there is any.’
‘I don’t steal. Don’t forget I’m big brother’s executor. Anyway, I’ll only go if I’m out of jail. I have a few serious questions to answer for Petronius before I can consider field trips. Look, tell me about Censorinus. I know he was whinging about some project that had failed, but I have no details and I certainly don’t know why he was so secretive. Was Festus importing something illegal from Greece?’
Pa looked indignant. ‘Why should he? Are you saying he was robbing temples or something?’ I would not have put it past him. ‘Greece is stuffed with desirable art,’ Father demurred. ‘There was no need to raid holy shrines. Anyway, it’s no secret. Festus had acquired a mixed cargo of statues, giant urns and vases. He added some conventional goods from Syria and Judaea: linen, purple dye, cedar logs.’
‘You sound annoyed.’
‘I’m not a bloody merchant. I hate that sort of hardware. Festus fixed it up himself. Jupiter knows how he broke into the local cartels, but you know what he was like. The Tyrian Purple Guild has been officially closed to foreigners for a thousand years, but I expect they welcomed our boy like a long-lost Phoenician prince… He hired a ship called the Hypericon; it sank off Crete.’
‘You weren’t involved in it?’
‘No. I told you. The Hypericon was his own venture. He laid it on while he was out in the East. That was why he was using his comrades to provide capital. He had heard about this load; it clearly included top-rate items and there was no time to contact me.’ I knew that in their partnership it was my brother who provided the entrepreneurial spirit; Pa was the financier. Festus was a finder; Pa bought and sold. That worked when they could make arrangements in advance, but posed difficulties otherwise. Corresponding with Judaea could take anything from fifteen days, if the tides and winds were right, up to half a year. Or infinity, if your ship sank.
I thought it through, to familiarise myself with the wrinkles. ‘If Festus had access to good pickings, he would not allow sheer distance to inconvenience the scheme. Or lack of funds. So he involved his mess-tent cronies and they lost their cash. That’s a tragedy, but what’s the peculiar angle? Why the big fuss now? What was odd about this load?’
‘Nothing.’ Geminus spoke quietly. ‘As far as I know the batch was normal. What smelled was the backing money.’
‘You know that?’
‘I believe it.’
‘So how come?’
‘Work it out.’
I considered the problem. ‘What are we talking about-a few old marble gods and a bunch of blackware alabastrons?’
‘Not according to Censorinus. From what he said, Festus had laid hands on enough top-quality ceramics to stock a private museum. The statuary was supposed to be outs
tanding. That was why he needed more cash than usual; that’s why he would not risk jeopardising the deal by taking time to contact me.’
‘Did you and he not have banking arrangements overseas?’
‘Up to a point.’ For a moment I wondered whether Pa had had limited faith in big brother’s probity. He smiled slightly, seeing my doubts. But he gave me the public explanation: ‘I hate investing heavily in cargoes from abroad: one bent captain, one awkward customs officer, or one big storm and it’s lost. Festus found that out the hard way when the Hypericon foundered.’
‘He was a hothead. He had good taste, but airy ideas.’
‘Selling bubbles,’ agreed Geminus. There was a trace of admiration in his tone. His own character was cautious, almost cynical; I had inherited that. But perhaps we both yearned to be able to take wild risks with my brother’s happy bravery.
‘I still don’t see why the Fifteenth Apollinaris have come on our tails over it now.’
‘Desperation.’ My father’s tone grew flat. ‘Apparently the best piece in this missing cargo had the legionaries’ name on it. Where would a bunch of active-service centurions get the cash to purchase a Phidias?’
‘A Phidias?’ He had handed me two shocks at once. ‘This is the first I’ve heard about Festus cornering the market in the Seven Wonders of the World.’
‘So he thought big!’ shrugged our pa. Not for the first time I felt second-best in the family scheme.
‘When I joked about robbing temples, I didn’t have the statue of Zeus from Olympia in mind!’
‘He told me it was a Poseidon,’ reported my father drily. ‘He did say that it was fairly small.’
‘That probably meant it was huge! You knew about this?’ I demanded incredulously.
‘Only when it was too late to be jealous. I heard the Hypericon had sunk. On that last leave Festus confessed he had suffered a major loss with her, and he told me about the Poseidon.’ Festus must have been bursting with it, even after his plan disintegrated.
‘Did you believe the story?’
‘I found it hard to take seriously. Festus was drunk most of the time on that leave-though if he had lost a Phidias, it’s understandable. I would have been drunk myself. In fact, after he told me I soon was.’
‘Well the god’s appropriate, Father. If Festus had the genuine article on board the Hypericon, it’s now at the bottom of the sea.’
‘And that’s where his mates in the Fifteenth may wish they were,’ Geminus growled, ‘if my theory of why they are so agitated holds good.’
‘So what is your theory?’ My sense of foreboding grew steadily.
Geminus drained his cup with an angry gesture. ‘That your brother’s honourable comrades had bought themselves a Phidias by robbing their legion’s savings bank.’
As soon as he said it, the ghastly tale made sense.
‘Dear gods. If they get found out, that’s a capital offence.’
‘I think we can assume,’ Pa told me, with the light, wry air that my brother had not inherited, ‘Censorinus was hoping you and I would pay the money back in time to save their skins. The Jewish Revolt is well in hand, the Fifteenth Apollinaris have come to a pause in their glorious military task, normal military life resumes, and-‘
‘Don’t say it. They are now expecting a visit from the Treasury auditors!’
XXV
Things were falling into place, but they made me no happier.
The room felt cold. My corner seat had become so uncomfortable I wanted to leap up and prowl about, but was held in my place by horror.
Ma had asked me to clear my brother’s name. The deeper I went, the worse things appeared. If this were true, I could not believe Festus had been unaware of the source of his funding; in fact a fear was gnawing at me that big brother might well have suggested it.
Each army legion possesses a savings bank, stored in a holy of holies under the headquarters shrine. As well as the compulsory deductions from his pay that each soldier suffers for food and equipment, and the contribution to the burial club which will give him a reverent funeral, the administration ensures that if he reaches discharge after his twenty-five years of suffering, he will go into the world with some standing: half of every imperial donative is forcibly locked up for him. These are the lavish grants paid out by new emperors on their accession, or at other times of crisis, to ensure the legions’ loyalty. In a full-term career every legionary must expect to have his loyalty ensured on several occasions-and it does not come cheap.
The money is sacrosanct. A batch of clerks take care of it, and of course it represents a scandal just waiting to happen, so much cash permanently sitting about in boxes, out on the wild frontiers of the Empire. But if there had ever been such a scandal, I had never heard of it. Trust my brother to involve himself in this fabulous first!
My mind raced. If the Fifteenth did now have a large hole in their coffer, there could be reasons why it had not yet been spotted. The savings banks had been frequently topped up during the Year of the Four Emperors: four new men on the throne, during a harsh civil war, had found that pleasing the armed forces became a high priority. One reason for Galba’s downfall was his reluctance to pay the customary grateful donative to the army when he came into the purple; his three successors learned from his bloody corpse in the Forum, and contributed promptly. With all these extras pounding in, the centurions of the loyal Fifteenth could have put some large rocks at the bottom of the legion’s coffer, and got away with the deception.
But those uncertain days were over. Now their famous general Vespasian had become Emperor and was settling his backside on the cushioned throne for a long reign: a tax-collector’s son, much given to cash-counting. The return of normality gave clerks more time to put money into piles and tick off lists on their papyrus scrolls. The bankrupt Treasury meant that auditors were Rome’s coming profession. Eager accountants were out and about everywhere, looking for missing cash. It could not be long before somebody spotted a hole the size of even a smallish Phidias in a prestigious legion’s money chest.
‘This is not good news for the family name,’ I commented.
My father had the expression you would expect of a man who is about to see his son the national hero publicly exposed, especially when his other son is taking the initiative. ‘Looks like a straight choice between losing the family name, or losing the family fortune protecting it.’ His comment was essentially cynical.
‘That’s your fortune then. It’s a choice I don’t have!’
‘Fancy!’ commented Geminus, unenthusiastically.
‘We need to be braced for trouble. I don’t give two peas for my reputation, but I don’t relish finding angry soldiers lurking at Mother’s house wanting to crack my head. Is there anything else I should be aware of in this mess?’
‘Not as far as I know.’ The way he said it told me there was more to be found out.
I had struggled enough for one day. I let it go, and moved on to other aspects: ‘One thing puzzles me.’ That was an understatement, but I had to be practical. Counting all the unknowns in this story would leave me depressed. ‘Festus served in Egypt and Judaea. The missing cargo came from Greece. Would it be too pedantic to ask how come?’
‘He was using an agent. He met a man in Alexandria-‘
‘That sounds like the beginning of a very sticky story!’
‘Well you know Festus; he always had a lupin round himself. He got around the backstreets and shady bars.’ My father meant Festus was always involved in numerous little enterprises, doing deals and supplying services.
‘True. If there was a man selling counterfeit amulets, Festus always knew him.’
‘That doesn’t mean he bought the produce with the fishy smell,’ Geminus argued, defending his lamented boy.
‘Oh no!’ I carolled facetiously. ‘But sometimes he was taken in.’
‘Not in this.’
‘Well, let’s keep the possibility in mind! Alexandria is a city with a dubious reputa
tion to start with. Wherever he went, Festus could always be relied on to fall in with the man other people avoid. Do we have a name for the agent he was using?’
‘What do you think?’
‘No name!’
‘Call him Nemo, like Odysseus. Nemo moved in the art world; he told Festus he could get hold of some exquisite Greek artefacts. Presumably he did it. That’s all I know.’
‘Did Festus at any point actually inspect this cargo?’
‘Of course. Your brother had his head on,’ insisted Pa. ‘Festus saw it in Greece.’
‘He got around!’
‘Yes. Festus was a boy.’
‘I thought the Hypericon sailed from Caesarea?’
‘Was that the story from Censorinus? Presumably she went there afterwards so Festus could add his cedar wood and the dye. Maybe that was where he paid the agent for the vases and the other stuff.’
‘Did the agent sail on with the ship?’
Father gave me a long look. ‘Unknown quantity.’
‘When his ship sank, did that have any bearing on the wound that brought big brother home?’
‘Sole purpose of allowing the wound to happen, I should think.’
Festus had got himself home to sort things out. That meant the answer to at least some part of the problem lay here in Rome. So I did have a slim chance of finding it.
My next question would have been whether the events I had witnessed that day at the auction were also relevant. I never asked it. Our conversation was interrupted by a very hot, very tired child.
He was about twelve. His name was Gaius. He was my sister Galla’s second-eldest, and an urchin of some character. Most of him was small for his age. He had the gravity of a patriarch and the manners of a lout. Gaius would probably grow up to be a man of modesty and culture, but at the moment he preferred to be difficult. He liked to wear boots that were too big for him. He had tattooed his name on his arm in Greek lettering with something that passed for blue woad; some of the letters were festering. He never washed. Once a month, on Galla’s insistence, I took him to the public baths at a quiet period and cleaned him up forcibly.
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