The Gods Help Those

by Albert A. Bell

  “I wish we could figure out what Simon is going to do and when.”

  “Don’t you think he’s going to try to kill his mother?”

  Gaius brushed my hair off my face and kissed me lightly. “I believe so, but her apartment is well protected, with only one entrance, and she doesn’t go out. I don’t see how he can attack her.”

  “Up to this point he has managed to get into any place he wanted—including this house—whenever he wanted. I suspect he’ll find a way when he’s ready.”

  Gaius sighed. “I wish we would hear something from Miriam. That might give us a clue about what to expect.”

  “If she hadn’t agreed to our plan, I think I would have gone crazy by now. At least I know there’s somebody with Joshua who will protect him and feed him.”

  Gaius raised himself up on one elbow. “Do you think she might try to get the baby away from Simon?”

  “That wasn’t part of the plan we discussed. I think it would be extremely dangerous to try to do that.”

  “But she lost a child, and she has been nursing this one.”

  Suddenly I wondered if Miriam had come up with this plan in order to steal Joshua. She could get a baby, a Jewish baby who was already circumcised.

  Tacitus was at my front door with the first of my clients the next morning. He rushed right past Demetrius and didn’t even knock on my bedroom door.

  “We’ve been fools,” he said without greeting me.

  Aurora let out a squeal and grabbed her gown.

  “Good morning, Aurora. I hope you slept well.”

  “Come in and close the door,” I said. “What on earth is the meaning of this?”

  “Just what I said. We’ve been fools.”

  “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

  “We have to find Simon, don’t we?”

  “Of course.”

  “Where is the most obvious place to look?”

  I got up and slipped a tunic over my head.

  “Well, I would say some place that he’s familiar with. He can’t know too many hiding places in Rome. He hasn’t been here long enough to be familiar with the city. He rented the apartment where he held my mother.”

  “That’s where he is now. I’ll guarantee it.”

  Aurora had recovered enough of her composure to light a lamp. She sat on the bed and ran her fingers through her hair. “But in that note he said he wasn’t stupid enough to go back to the most obvious place. Of course, he was referring to Gaius’ warehouse then—”

  “But it could apply just as easily to that apartment.”

  My head was still thick with sleep. “I don’t follow you.”

  “He’s told us, ‘Oh, I’m much too smart to go back to the one place you know about.’ And, like fools, we’ve been looking everywhere else. He’s not that smart. He has to go to a place that he knows.”

  “And that’s either Lucullus’ house,” Aurora said, “or the apartment. You’re right, Cornelius Tacitus.”

  “Then why are we just sitting here?” Tacitus said.

  We must have looked bizarre, a group of nine men and one woman rushing through the streets in the first light of morning, half-awake. Some were still pulling garments and sandals on. I had brought Phineas with us, to translate for Miriam. When we arrived at Simon’s apartment we rushed up the stairs. Archidamos threw his broad shoulder into the door and it splintered.

  Miriam was lying in the middle of the floor, tied hand and foot and with a gag in her mouth. We freed her and helped her sit in a chair. She began to babble as soon as we got the gag out of her mouth. I held up a hand to slow her down.

  “Where is Simon?” I asked through Phineas.

  “Where’s Joshua?” Aurora cried, looking around the two rooms.

  “Joshua is with Simon,” Miriam said. “Simon is on his way to his mother’s place.”

  “Did he say—”

  “He plans to kill her,” Phineas translated. “Then he says he’s going to come back and get me and we’ll leave Rome. I know he’s not interested in me, just in my breasts and my milk. I could be a cow or a goat, for all he cares.”

  Her face showed signs of the blows Simon had inflicted on her.

  Aurora grabbed Miriam’s hands. “Is Joshua all right?” she pleaded.

  Miriam nodded. “I’ve been taking good care of him. Simon hasn’t hurt him. I think the boy is the one person in the world that he actually loves.”

  XV

  We ran up to the entrance to Berenice’s insula. Some of her servants were standing on the steps, frightened—most of them trembling, even the men. At the head of the steps stood Simon, holding Joshua on his left arm and in his right hand a long knife. He looked as if he hadn’t slept or changed his clothes in several days.

  “I said, open the door,” he ordered. None of the servants moved. Simon placed his knife at Joshua’s throat. “None of you want to see that, do you?” I had to grab Aurora’s arm. “Abraham wasn’t afraid to sacrifice his son,” Simon snarled. “Don’t think for an instant that I’ll hesitate.”

  “But God stopped him,” a woman’s voice said from the top of the stairs. We all looked up to see Berenice standing in the open doorway. Simon lowered his knife and Aurora took a step back. Her right hand still rested on her leg, over the spot where she wore her knife.

  Berenice stepped away from the entrance. “Simon, Pliny, Tacitus, Aurora—the four of you please come in,” she said.

  “No!” Simon barked. “No one else comes in.”

  “Then you’ll have to do whatever you’re going to do out here,” Berenice said, “in front of the world.”

  Simon grimaced but waved his knife to direct us inside. “Everyone else has to leave,” he ordered.

  Another dozen of Berenice’s servants scrambled down the stairs.

  “They’re going to get the vigiles, aren’t they?” Simon said. “Then I’d better move fast.” Holding Joshua and the knife in the same hand, he patted down Tacitus and me and discovered our swords. “Leave them outside.” We complied and started to go in. Simon stopped Aurora. “I know it’s unlikely, but it could be fun.” He patted her up and down, lingering longer than necessary at certain places. When he put his hand between her legs and he felt her knife, his eyes widened. “What the…” Aurora tried to fight off his hands, but he reached up under her gown and pulled out her knife. “Where did you come up with that idea?”

  Aurora glanced at me apologetically as Simon dropped her knife beside the swords. Then he barred the door and directed us into the main room of the apartment.

  “Now, isn’t this cozy?” he said. “I hadn’t figured out how I was going to get in here, with all those bars on the windows and the doors barricaded. I never dreamed the front door would just be opened for me, and by the queen herself. You three, get over there. I want you all close together so I can keep an eye on you.”

  We gathered in a corner of the room. Simon and Berenice were on the other side, well out of our reach. Simon could harm Joshua long before any of us could get to him. He stood directly in front of his mother, hardly more than an arm’s length away from her. “Hello, whore.”

  Berenice flinched but managed to say, “Hello, son.”

  Simon sneered and his face twisted in rage. “That’s what you choose to call me? Not cousin? Not nephew? Those titles would fit just as well.”

  “You are my son, the fruit of my womb. It doesn’t matter who put the seed in here.” She placed a hand on her belly.

  “That’s where you’re wrong, whore. It’s the only thing that does matter.”

  “Then why is it that our law says a man is a Jew if his mother is a Jew?”

  “But his mother isn’t supposed to be coupling with her male relatives! Our law is very clear about that. You can’t just pick and choose which parts you want to obey.” Simon took a step closer to Berenice, shaking the fist clenching his knife at her. Joshua began to cry.

  Berenice seemed to sense that she needed to change tactic
s. Her voice softened. “Is that my grandson? May I hold him?” She held out her arms. “Please?”

  “No! I won’t have filth like you touching him.”

  “Are you going to kill him?” Berenice sounded genuinely concerned.

  Aurora tensed, and her hand went to the spot on her leg where her knife would have been strapped, if Simon hadn’t taken advantage of her.

  “Don’t worry, I’m not going to hurt him. He’s my son and my insurance against those three.” He jerked his head toward us but did not take his eyes off Berenice. “I wanted you to see him. I had hoped you could see the body of your other son—your favorite son—before you died, just like faithless king Zedekiah had to watch his sons being executed before the Babylonians gouged out his eyes, so that was the sight that would remain with him for the rest of his life.” He was talking faster and faster. “But at least you know he’s dead and you know how he died. I hope you take that memory with you as you descend into Sheol.”

  “Yes, I understand you did yourself proud in the way you killed him.”

  “It was even better than you know. He wasn’t quite dead when we sewed up his lips. I could see in his eyes and from the way he twitched that he felt everything we were doing.”

  Berenice was breathing more deeply. Her hands rested on her thighs.

  “He got what he deserved,” Simon snarled, “a fitting payment for a shepherd who did not tend his sheep. That’s what the prophet said.”

  “And what do you think I deserve?”

  “The law says a whore should be stoned to death, but we obviously can’t do that here.”

  An incongruous thought flashed through my mind. Who among us is morally superior enough to throw the first stone?

  “We’ll have to improvise.” Simon pointed his knife directly at his mother.

  Berenice held out her hands, to show they were empty. “You’ll have to look me in the eye if you’re going to kill me, you coward. I won’t let you sneak up behind me.” She backed up against a wall.

  “I can gladly do that, Mother.” Simon took two steps toward her and tapped the blade of his knife against her chest, like a man looking for the best place to split a log. Berenice was wearing her linen cuirass. “You’re still wearing your shell, eh? Like a damn turtle. Well, even a turtle has a vulnerable spot or two.” He stabbed her between her legs, with a violent upward thrust of the knife. Joshua’s crying grew more insistent. I had to put a hand on Aurora’s arm to hold her back.

  As her son stood over her, gloating, Berenice doubled up, then from somewhere pulled out a knife and stabbed him in the stomach with an upward thrust as hard as the one he had given her. It happened so fast I wasn’t sure what I was seeing. Simon looked at the knife sticking out of his stomach, as though in disbelief. He grabbed the handle as he slowly sank to his knees but could not pull it out.

  Aurora lunged across the room and grabbed Joshua in spite of Simon’s efforts to cling to him. The baby was wailing loudly now. Aurora kicked Simon in the face and stepped away from him, cooing to Joshua and holding him tightly. Simon made one effort to crawl toward her before he fell completely still. Tacitus stood over him, his foot on Simon’s back. A pool of blood began to collect under the man’s body.

  I stepped over Simon and knelt beside Berenice, putting my hand under her head. She grasped my arm weakly with both of her hands. She was still alive but barely breathing. The lower part of her garment was turning red.

  “Please take care of…my grandson, Gaius Pliny. And thank Aurora…for showing me…her trick.” She lifted the flap she had sewn into her gown over a slit so I could see the strap and the sheath that had held her knife. Then she shuddered and expelled one last breath.

  XVI

  Joshua lay on his back in my lap. I was sitting on the bench in the arbor at the back of my garden. The rain was done and an autumn-like chill had settled on the city, so the baby was wrapped in several blankets. They kept him warm and kept my tunic dry.

  That morning Regulus had sent the 150,000 sesterces to buy the property occupied by the ruins of my warehouse. He had paid it in aurei. The box wasn’t the gold-lined Ark of the Covenant, but it looked that good to me. I could pay off what I owed my mother-in-law, as well as the interest I had promised her, and break even on my first and likely last foray into purchasing real estate in the city. In future, I resolved, I would be content with the properties my uncle had left me.

  Regulus also told me that he had decided not to proceed with a murder charge against me. He was quite blunt. He didn’t want to initiate a case unless he was sure he could win, so he would wait for a better opportunity. For the first time in several days I felt at ease.

  Joshua stirred and fretted. I bounced my legs gently, the way Aurora had showed me, and rubbed his stomach until he settled down. Aurora was supposed to be getting us something to eat but she was taking an inordinate amount of time to do so.

  “Well, young man,” I said, “here we are. But where are we? Aurora says you need a father, and I’m the most logical candidate, or the most available. She wants me to get comfortable with you and you with me. She’s determined to be your mother, and she’ll be a good one. Don’t you worry. She’s convinced that some divine power has brought you two together. I don’t believe that, unless Fortune is a divine power.” I touched the Tyche ring on its leather strap around my neck. Was there more to that image than I suspected?

  “I find it harder and harder to refute her arguments.” For some reason I didn’t feel inane talking to the baby. Naomi and my mother had told me he was still too young to direct his attention to us, even if he looked as if that was what he was doing. “Was it merely chance that she and her mother joined my uncle’s household?”

  Out of the corner of my eye I saw Aurora emerge from the kitchen and start across the garden toward me. She carried a tray with wine, bread, and fruit on it. I lifted my head to watch her. The morning sun was still low behind her, just appearing over the roof. It showed the outline of her body through her gown. Her hair was down, the way she prefers to wear it, although that’s not considered fashionable. Her exquisite face had a glow to it that wasn’t just the effect of the sunlight.

  “By the gods, Joshua,” I muttered. “By the gods.” It was all I could say or think.

  She placed the tray on the table in front of the bench and sat down next to me. As she picked Joshua up she laughed lightly and asked, “What were you two talking about?”

  Cast of Characters

  Historical Persons

  All dates are a.d. unless otherwise noted.

  Agricola Gnaeus Julius Agricola (40–93), Roman general and father-in-law of Tacitus. He was responsible for much of the conquest of Britain. In his biography of Agricola, Tacitus suggests there was something suspicious about his death. There was a “rumor that he had been poisoned,” he says. “We have no definite evidence. That is all I can say for certain.”

  Berenice Daughter of Herod Agrippa and great-granddaughter of Herod the Great. She was born in 28 and died sometime after 81. She was married several times, including once to her uncle Herod of Chalcis, by whom she had several children (see below). She and Titus, who was younger than she, had an on-again, off-again relationship, which ended when he sent her away from Rome as a result of popular resentment. She is not mentioned in any source after that, except that Juvenal (ca. 120) derides her (and other “notorious” women) in his sixth Satire. She lived with her brother, Agrippa II, in what was almost certainly an incestuous relationship. They appear in Acts 25–26 at the trial of Paul, where Agrippa delivers the famous line: “You almost persuade me to be a Christian.”

  Berenicianus We know that Berenice had a son named Julius Berenicianus, born in the mid-40s to Berenice and her uncle, but we know nothing else about him. I’m sorry I had to use such a tongue-twister, but it was his name. In my writers’ group we called him Bernie.

  Caninius Rufus A friend of Pliny’s from Comum. He apparently eschewed politics and remained in Comum, wr
iting poetry. Pliny chides him a bit for not being more engaged in politics but also envies him his freedom to write.

  Hyrcanus Julius Hyrcanus, another son of Berenice and her uncle, about whom nothing is known, except that he was also born in the mid-40s. I’ve given him the name Simon in this book. Many Jews in this era had both Jewish and Greco-Roman names, such as John Mark, the author of the Gospel of Mark.

  Josephus Jewish historian who lived and wrote in the last third of the first century a.d. When the Jewish revolt broke out in 66, he led a contingent of troops, but he surrendered to the Flavians early in the war, rather than commit suicide with his men, and took the name Flavius as part of his own. He is our main source of information about the war, although he contradicts himself between his two main works, the earlier Jewish War and the later Antiquities of the Jews, and then he adds a few more contradictions in his autobiography.

  Julia Wife of Tacitus and daughter of Julius Agricola. We know she lived at least until the late 90s because Tacitus mentions her in his biography of her father.

  Julia Flavia (64–91) daughter of the emperor Titus. Her image appears on several coins issued by her father and we have numerous busts and other portrayals of her. Titus proposed a marriage between her and his brother Domitian, which Domitian refused. However, Domitian later had an affair with his niece. She supposedly died from an abortion that he insisted she have. Her ashes were mixed with Domitian’s after his death in 96. We don’t know how Domitian’s wife—who remained proud of her status as his widow—felt about that.

  Livia A very common name in ancient Rome. I have given it to Pliny’s wife. He had two, possibly three, wives, depending on how one interprets his letter to Trajan (Ep. 10.2), in which he says he has married twice. The only wife he mentions by name was the teenaged Calpurnia, whom he married late in life. We don’t know if Ep. 10.2 was written before or after his marriage to Calpurnia, so we don’t know if she was his second or third wife. In any case, we don’t know the name of the wife who was the daughter of Pompeia Celerina, so I have taken the liberty of calling her Livia.