the sputtering light of flaming sconces.
‘Oh, good, good. I’m looking forward to meeting your brother, he served with the Ninth Hispana in Africa during the rebellion, I believe? My cousin was there as a tribune with the Third Augusta at the time; they had a tricky time of it. Perhaps you will both dine with me tomorrow?’ Paetus said, sitting back down and gesturing to the chair on the other side of the desk. ‘Please, make yourself comfortable, Vespasian.’
‘Thank you, Paetus,’ Vespasian said, following his superior’s lead and dropping out of military formality.
‘We’ve a bit of a delicate situation on our hands at the moment: the men aren’t happy, they started fighting amongst themselves this evening, then later I had a deputation from them. It is, as you know, their right to bring their grievances to their commanding officer.’
‘Indeed. I noticed some discontent amongst them when I came back from hunting earlier,’ Vespasian replied, trying to keep the provincial burr of his Sabine country accent to a minimum, as he always did when talking with this cultured patrician. ‘What are their complaints?’
‘Well the crux of the matter is that they’re bored, but we all knew that. Hades, we’re all bored, I’m bored witless stuck in this poxy place; but they at least get their annual leave, whereas the likes of you and I are here for the duration. I haven’t seen my little Lucius since he was five, he’s almost ten now. Nor have I been to the theatre or seen a wild beast hunt for over four years, and I love a good wild beast hunt as you know.’
‘Yes, but boredom is no excuse for what was going on out there.’
‘No, no, of course not; the ring leaders will have to be flogged then transferred to another cohort, and I’m afraid we’ve got to execute a couple of the chaps tomorrow morning for striking superior officers; they’re in the guardhouse at the moment feeling pretty stupid, I should imagine. There’s no need for that sort of behaviour.
‘The trouble is that this morning we found three men who’d been tortured rather savagely; one’s still alive, he’s in the hospital, the doctor says he may live, though I don’t think that I’d want to if I were him, but that’s by the by. There were two other bodies found, incidentally, a couple of messengers; they looked to be imperial couriers but there was nothing on them to identify them so we’ll never know. Anyway a lot the men want their revenge; you know, go and torch a few villages, lop off some limbs and rape any female under the age of sixty. I explained to them that that sort of thing is just not on any more since we put down the rebellion and most of them took the point. But then a few hotheads started going around saying that it wasn’t fair that they were stuck here and their mates in the other eight cohorts are up in Moesia having a fine old time of it fighting off the incursions from the other side of the river.’
‘I can see their point, but what can we do about it?’
‘Ah, well, that was what the deputation was about. They want me to write to Governor Pomponius Labeo and ask him to rotate them back to Moesia and send another two cohorts to replace them. I have to say that I think it’s not such a bad idea. I wanted to run it past you, as their tribune, before I spoke to them again; which I must do soon as they are still arguing amongst themselves. There’s a hard core that won’t take no for an answer and want to take matters into their own hands.’
‘It is a good idea. The men are losing their sharpness after so much inactivity, so from a military point of view it makes sense; but the trouble is that my brother tells me that Poppaeus Sabinus is back in charge in Moesia, Pomponius is now just the legate of the Fourth Scythica again.’
Paetus screwed his face up; he and Poppaeus had never got on. ‘Well, I’ll write to Poppaeus then, the oily little new man.’ Paetus looked at Vespasian apologetically. ‘Sorry, dear chap, no offence meant.’
Vespasian smiled at him; although Paetus came from a very old and noble family of Etruscan origin that boasted many consuls, he had always treated Vespasian as an equal, at least in military terms. ‘None taken, Paetus.’
‘Quite; but it occurs to me that my relationship with Poppaeus won’t make him keen to grant my request whereas if you write to Pomponius as a tribune of the Fourth Scythica, making a request of his legate, then it would be a purely internal matter within the legion and therefore nothing to do with Poppaeus.’
Vespasian realised that he should not keep his superior in the dark about his plans any longer. ‘I can do better that that, Paetus, I can appeal to him in person on the men’s behalf.’
‘No need to go that far, my dear fellow.’
‘I was going to wait until the Queen sent you a message making it official before I told you, but I’ve been asked to do something for her.’ He told Paetus as much as he could without mentioning Antonia’s name or whom he was searching for.
When he had finished Paetus leant forward on the desk and contemplated him, resting his steepled hands against his lips.
‘There’s more to this than you’ve told me,’ he said after a while. ‘Your brother arrives from Rome; you both rush off to see the Queen and then suddenly have to go to Moesia with a small party of the Queen’s guard to intercept a Getic raiding party for reasons that you say you can’t divulge and then you won’t be coming back here. That’s about the size of it, isn’t it, Vespasian?’
‘Yes,’ Vespasian admitted, feeling that the whole affair must sound very suspicious.
‘Well, I am no fool; I come from a family that has played politics for centuries and I’ll fill in a couple of gaps for you, if I may. Firstly, Tryphaena is Marcus Antonius’ great-granddaughter, and he, coincidentally, was also the father of Antonia, who was an ally of the late Consul Asinius, to whom you owe your posting, and whom you rushed off to see as soon as he arrived in Poppaeus’ camp. You have never told me what you discussed with him and I have never asked you, but perhaps that is irrelevant as Asinius left very soon after and then died of fever on his way to his province, or so we are led to believe.’ Paetus spread his hands and gave an incredulous look. ‘However, the day Asinius left I found Poppaeus’ secretary Kratos, some of Asinius’ lictors, a few Praetorian guardsmen and another person, who seemed to have mislaid his head, all dead in the very tent that Asinius had been using; and then you went missing for two days and didn’t return until Poppaeus had left for Rome.’
Vespasian shifted uncomfortably in his seat. He could see that Paetus was putting the pieces together, but as much as he liked and respected him he had no idea of where his political sympathies lay; to open up to him could be very dangerous indeed. Paetus sensed his unease, smiled and pressed on.
‘Now, you weren’t the only person who wasn’t there; there was a particularly unpleasant weaselly faced priest who was never seen again after that day, if I remember rightly.’ Paetus paused and leant forward over the desk, looking directly into Vespasian’s dark eyes. ‘Now, if I told you that I know that the decapitated body in the tent was Sejanus’ freedman Hasdro, whom I recognised from Rome, and if I also told you that I know that he and Poppaeus had dealings with the priest because I saw them together; and if I further told you that I know that Antonia is no friend to Sejanus, would you then like me to make an educated guess as to what you are involved in?’
‘I think that it would be better not to, Paetus, for both our sakes,’ Vespasian replied carefully. ‘The facts as you’ve laid them out are correct, but I wouldn’t like to be put into the position of having to, perhaps untruthfully, deny the accuracy of any possible conclusion that you may draw from them.’
Paetus nodded slowly. ‘I see, well, perhaps it would be best if I keep my thoughts to myself. I will say one thing, though: if your brother has come here to see Tryphaena on Antonia’s business and if that business has anything to do with the facts that I have just presented you with, I would be happy to aid you in any way I can because it would be furthering the interests of my family.’
‘If those things were all true then I would gladly accept your help, Paetus,’ Vespasian said, feeling mightily relieved.
‘Good, well, that’s as clear as it can be then.’ Paetus clapped his hands and then rubbed them together. ‘We will use this disturbance in the camp as a cover for you going north: we’ll tell the men that you are going to appeal to Pomponius on their behalf and take the ringleaders to him for transfer. I’ll provide you with a turma of my auxiliary cavalry to escort you over the Succi pass into Moesia.’
‘Why do I need a cover story and an escort?’ Vespasian asked, thinking that this was over-complicating matters.
‘The cover story is because not all of our centurions think the way that, perhaps, we do. I know for a fact that certain people in Rome suspect either you or me of killing Hasdro and Kratos; you, because you disappeared for a while straight afterwards and me because I didn’t report the killings.’
‘Who knew that you knew about them?’
‘Our very own centurion Caelus saw me come out of the tent and, as you may or may not know, he is Poppaeus’ man through and through.’
