Roman Blood (32 page)

" Y e s . . . ." He drew out the word tenuously, as if he anticipated the next question.

" B u t something tells me that Roscia made some proposal to meet you—tomorrow?"

" Y e s . "

"But how did you know that?" asked Rufus.

"Because the trial draws very near. Whoever is gathering their information from Roscia would press her for more regular reports as the final day approaches. They can't rely on the haphazard chance of Tiro being able to see her every day. They would press her to plan for a tryst. True, T i r o ? "

" Y e s . "

" A n d tomorrow is here already," I said, looking into the garden where Cicero was still composing himself. The light had changed from rose to ochre and was rapidly fading to white. Already the coolness of the night was receding. "When and where, T i r o ? "

He looked toward his master, who still gave no sign of hearing, then let out a deep sigh. " O n the Palatine. Near Caecilia Metella's house there's a patch of ground with trees and grass, an open park between two houses; I'm to meet her there at three hours after noon. I told her it might be impossible. She said that if I was with you or with Rufus I should tell you that I had an urgent errand to run for Cicero, or vice versa. She said she was sure I could think of something."

" A n d now you won't have to. Because I'm going with y o u . "

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" W h a t ? " It was Cicero, outraged, stepping into the room. "Out of the question! Impossible! There will be no more contact between them."

" Y e s , " I said, "there will be. Because I say so. Because every minute from now until the trial my life is at stake, and I will leave no path that might lead to the truth unexplored."

"But we know the truth already."

" D o we? Just as you knew the truth an hour ago, before Tiro made his confession? There is always more of the truth to discover, and more and more and more. Meanwhile I suggest we all try to get some sleep.

We have a busy day ahead. Rufus has business in the Forum, Tiro and I have an appointment with the young Roscia. And tonight, while you, Cicero, work on your notes and polish your oration and drink leek soup, the three of us shall attend a little party given by the gracious Chrysogonus in his mansion on the Palatine. Now good morning, Cicero, and if you will show me to a place where I might sleep, good night."

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TWENTY-THREE

HOW long my host slept or whether he slept at all I never knew; I only know that when Tiro came to wake me gently that afternoon in my tiny cubicle opposite the study, I heard Cicero declaiming in his harsh, reedy voice as he paced back and forth in the tiny garden.

"Consider, gentlemen, that story from not so long ago of a certain Titus Cloelius of Tarracina, a pleasant town you'll find sixty miles southeast of Rome on the Appian Way. One night he finished his dinner and then went to bed in the same room as his two grown sons. The next morning he was discovered with his throat slashed. Investigation uncovered no suspects or motives; the sons insisted they had both slept without hearing a thing. Yet they were charged with parricide—and indeed, the circumstances were certainly suspicious. How, the prosecution argued, could they have slept through such an event without waking? Why did they not rouse themselves and defend their father? And what sort of murderer would have dared to venture into that room with three sleeping men with the intent of killing one and then disappearing?

" A n d yet the good judges acquitted the sons and cleared them of all suspicion. And what was the conclusive bit of evidence? The sons were found the next morning
fast asleep.
How could this be so, it was argued, and the judges unanimously agreed, if they were guilty? For what man could first commit a crime unspeakable and repugnant before every law of god or man, and then afterward fall blissfully asleep? Surely, it was 210

argued, men who have perpetrated so outrageous an offense against heaven and earth could not possibly have slept soundly in the same room, snoring beside the still-warm corpse of their father. And so the two sons of Titus Cloelius were acquitted. . . .

" Y e s , yes, that part's very good, very good, not a word needs changing."

He loudly cleared his throat, then whispered rapidly to himself before raising his voice again. "Legend tells us of sons who killed their mothers to avenge their fathers: Orestes who slew Clytemnestra to avenge Agamemnon, Alcmaeon who murdered Eriphyle to avenge Amphiaraus . . . or was it Amphiaraus who killed Eriphyle? N o , no, that's right. . . . And yet even when these men are said to have acted in accordance with divine will, obeying oracles and the very voices of the gods, even so the Furies haunted them afterward, ruthlessly depriving them of all rest, for such is the nature, even when justified by committing an act of filial duty on behalf of a murdered father, of the nature

. . . No, no, wait, that won't do. No, it doesn't make sense at all. T o o many words, too many words . . ."

"Shall I open the curtains?" Tiro asked. I sat on the divan, rubbing my eyes and licking my parched lips. The room was like an oven, oppres-sively hot and airless. The yellow curtains were suffused with a light as harsh as Cicero's voice.

"Absolutely n o t . " I said. "Then I'd have to watch him as well as listen.

Besides, I'm not sure I could stand the brightness. Is there anything to drink?"

He walked to a small table and poured me a cup of water from a silver ewer.

"What time is it, T i r o ? "

" T h e ninth hour of the day—two hours past noon."

" A h , then we have an hour before our appointment. Is Rufus u p ? "

"Rufus Messalla has been down at the Forum for hours. Cicero gave him a whole list of errands."

" A n d my slave?"

Tiro smiled demurely. What had Bethesda done—kissed him on the cheek, flattered him, teased him, or simply flashed her eyes? " I ' m not sure where she is now. Cicero gave orders that she needn't do anything except attend your needs, but she volunteered to help in the kitchen this morning. Until the head cook insisted that she leave."

"Screaming after her and tossing pots, I assume."

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"Something like that."

" A h , well, if you see the steward tell him he can confine her to my room if he wants. Let her sit here and listen to Cicero declaiming all day. That should be punishment enough for any broken bowls."

Tiro frowned to show his disapproval of my sarcasm. A slight breeze wafted the yellow curtains and carried Cicero's voice with it: " A n d it is because of the very enormity of the crime of parricide that it must be quite irrefutably proven before any reasonable man will believe it. For what madman, what utterly debauched wreckage of manhood would bring upon himself and his house such a curse, not only of the populace but of the heavens? You know, good Romans, that what I say is true: such is the power of the blood that binds a man to his own flesh that a single drop of it creates a stain that can never be washed away. It penetrates into the heart of a parricide and plants madness and fury in a soul that must already be utterly depraved . . . . Oh, yes, that's it, exactly. By Hercules, that's g o o d ! "

" I n case you want to wash your face, I brought a bowl of water and a towel," Tiro said, indicating the little table beside the divan. " A n d since you didn't bring any clothes with you, I looked around the house and found a few things that I think will fit. They've been worn, of course, but they're clean."

He gathered up the tunics and laid them on the divan beside me for my inspection. They could not have been Cicero's, whose torso was much longer and narrower than my own; I suspected they had been made for Tiro. Even the simplest tunic was better stitched and of finer material than my best toga. The night before, Cicero himself had given me a loose sleeveless gown to wear when he had shown me to my bed; apparently he was unaware that it was possible to sleep wearing nothing. As for the bloodstained tunic I had worn to his door, hastily thrown on as Bethesda and I made our escape, it had apparently been gathered from the floor of my room while I slept and thrown away.

While I washed and dressed, Tiro fetched bread and a bowl of fruit from the kitchen. I ate it all and sent him for more. I was famished, and neither the heat nor even Cicero's constant droning and repetitions and self-congratulations could spoil my appetite.

At last I stepped past the curtains with Tiro into the bright sunlight of the garden. Cicero looked up from his text, but before he could utter a word Rufus appeared behind him.

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"Cicero, Gordianus, listen to this. You won't believe it. It's a positive scandal." Cicero turned toward him and raised an eyebrow. " O f course it's only hearsay, but surely somehow we can verify it. Do you know what the estates of Sextus Roscius, all combined, are worth?"

Cicero mildly shrugged and passed the question to me.

"A string of farms," I calculated, "some of them on prime land near the confluence of the Tiber and the Nar; an expensive villa on the main estate near Ameria; a bit of property in the city—at least four million sesterces."

Rufus shook his head. "Closer to six million. And what do you think Chrysogonus—yes, it was the Golden-Rorn himself, not Capito or Magnus—what do you think he paid for the whole package at auction? T w o thousand sesterces.
Two thousand!"

Cicero was visibly shocked. "Impossible," he said. "Even Crassus isn't that greedy."

" O r that obvious," I said. "Where did you find this o u t ? "

Rufus colored. "That's the problem. And the scandal! It was one of the official auctioneers who told me. He handled the bid himself."

Cicero threw his hands up. " T h e man would never testify!"

Rufus seemed hurt. " O f course not. Rut at least he was willing to talk to me. And I'm certain he wasn't exaggerating."

" I t makes no difference. What we need is a record of the sale. And of course the name of Sextus Roscius on the proscription lists."

Rufus shrugged. " I ' v e searched all day, and there's nothing. Of course the official records are a disaster. You can tell they've been rifled through, marked and remarked and, for all anyone knows, stolen altogether. Between the civil wars and the proscriptions, the state's records are an impossible mess."

Cicero pensively stroked his lip. " W e know that if the name of Sextus Roscius was inserted into the proscription lists, it was a fraud. And yet if it's there it would acquit his son."

" A n d if it's not, how can Capito and Chrysogonus justify keeping the property?" said Rufus.

" W h i c h , " I interrupted, "is no doubt why Chrysogonus and company want Sextus dead and out of the way entirely, and if possible by legal means. Once the family is wiped out there'll be no one to challenge them, and the question of proscription or murder will be moot. The scandal is self-evident to anyone who even casually inquires after the truth; that's 213

why they've grown so desperate, and so crude. Their only strategy is to silence anyone who knows or cares."

" A n d yet," said Cicero, "it strikes me more and more that they care nothing for the opinion of the populace, or even for the decisions of the court. Their chief objective is to hide the scandal from Sulla. By Hercules, I honestly believe he knows nothing of it, and they desperately want to keep it that way."

"Perhaps," I said. "And no doubt they're counting on your own sense of self-preservation to keep you from opening an ugly scandal before the Rostra. You can't possibly cut your way to the truth without dragging in Sulla's name. You'll embarrass him at the least, implicate him at worst.

There's no way to accuse the ex-slave without insulting his friend and former master."

"Really, Gordianus, do you think so little of my oratorical skills? I shall be treading the dagger's blade, of course. But Diodotus taught me to appreciate tact as well as truth. In the hands of a wise and honest advocate, only the guilty need fear the weapons of rhetoric, and a truly wise orator never turns them against himself." He gave me his most self-confident smile, but I thought to myself that what I had heard of his speech so far only skirted the periphery of the scandal. Shocking the audience with inexplicable tales of corpses murdered in the night and lulling them with legends was one thing; dropping the name of Sulla, by Hercules, was quite another.

I glanced at the sundial. Half an hour remained before the young Roscia would begin to grow impatient. I took my leave of Rufus and Cicero and laid my hand on Tiro's shoulder as we departed. Behind me I heard Cicero launch immediately into his oration, regaling Rufus with his favorite parts: " F o r what madman, what utterly debauched wreckage of manhood would bring upon himself and his house such a curse, not only of the populace but of the heavens? You know, good Romans, that what I say is true. . . . " I glanced over my shoulder and saw that Rufus was following every word and gesture with a gaze of rapt adoration.

I suddenly realized that Cicero had not said a word to Tiro before we departed, and had only registered a cold nod of dismissal when Tiro had turned to leave. Whatever further words had transpired between them concerning Tiro's conduct were never shared with me, and if there had been a formal punishment I was not told of it, either by Tiro or by Cicero; and not once, at least in my presence, did Cicero ever again make reference to the affair.

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* * *

Tiro was silent as we crossed the Forum and ascended the Palatine. As we approached the trysting place, he grew increasingly agitated, and his face became as morose as an actor's mask. When we came within sight of the little park, he touched my sleeve and paused.

"Will you let me see her alone, only for a moment? Please?" he asked with his head bowed and his eyes lowered, as a slave begs permission.

I took a deep breath " Y e s , of course. But only for a moment. Say nothing to send her running." I stood beneath the shade of a willow tree and watched him step quickly into the passage between the high walls of neighboring mansions. He disappeared into the foliage, hidden by yew trees and a great effusion of roses.