the Scouts, she did not like at all. She begged him to let her choose one of the others; he consented, and the day for the marriage was fixed. The rejected Scout went to Caligula and brought an accusation against his rival, saying that he had blasphemed, speaking of his August Sovereign as 'that bald-headed madame'. He cited Quintilia as a witness.
Quintilia and her betrothed were brought before Caligula. Both denied the charge.
Both were sentenced to the rack. Cassius' face revealed his disgust, for only slaves could legally be put to torture. So Caligula ordered him to supervise Quintilia's racking and turn the screws with his own hands. Quintilia did not utter a word or a cry throughout her ordeal and afterwards said to Cassius, who was so affected that he was weeping, 'Poor Colonel, I bear you no grudge. Sometimes it must be hard to obey orders.'
Cassius said bitterly: 'I wish I had died that day with Varus in the Teutoburger Forest.'
She was taken again into Caligula's presence and Cassius reported that she had made no confession and not allowed a cry to escape her. Caesonia said to Caligula, 'That was because she was in love with the man. Love conquers all. You might cut her to pieces but she would never betray him.'
Caligula said: 'And would you too be so gloriously brave on my account, Caesonia?'
'You know that I would,' she said.
So Quintilia's betrothed was not tortured but given a free pardon, and Quintilia was awarded a dowry of eight thousand gold pieces from the estate of the Scout, who was executed for perjury. But Caligula heard that Cassius had wept during Quintilia's torture and jeered at him for an old cry-baby. 'Cry-baby' was not the worst he found.
He pretended that Cassius was an effeminate old pathic, and was always making dirty jokes about him to the other Guards officers, who were obliged to laugh heartily at them. Cassius used to come to Caligula for the watchword every day at noon. It had always been 'Rome' or 'Augustus' or 'Jove' or 'Victory' or something of the sort; but now to annoy Cassius, Caligula would give him absurd words like 'Stay-laces' or 'Lots of Love' or 'Curling irons' [4'] or 'Kiss me.
Sergeant,' and Cassius had to take them back to his brother-officers and stand their chaff. He decided to kill Caligula.
Caligula was madder than ever. He came into my room one day and said without any introductory remark: 'I shall have three Imperial cities, and Rome won't be one of them.
I shall have my city on the Alps, and I shall rebuild Rome at Antium because that's where I was bom and deserves the honour, and because it's on the sea, and then I shall have Alexandria in case the Germans capture the other two.
Alexandria is a very cultivated place.'
'Yes, God,' I said humbly.
He then suddenly remembered that he had been called a bald-headed madame--his hair was certainly very thin on top now--and shouted out, 'How dare you go about with a great ugly bush of hair in my presence? It's blasphemy.'
He turned to his German guard, 'Cut his head off!'
Once more I thought I was done for. But I had the presence of mind to say sharply to the Guard who was running at me with his sword, 'What are you doing, idiot? The God didn't say 'head', he said 'hair'! Run off and fetch the shears at once!' Caligula was taken aback and perhaps really thought that he had said
'hair'. He allowed the German to fetch the shears. My crown was shorn clean. I asked permission to dedicate the clippings to his Deity and he graciously gave consent. So now he had everyone in the Palace shorn, except the Germans. When it came to Cassius' turn Caligula said, 'Oh, what a pity! Those darling little ringlets that the Sergeant loves so much!'
That evening Cassius met Lesbia's husband. He had been Ganymede's best friend and from something that Caligula had said that morning was not likely to live much longer. He said, 'Good evening Cassius Chasrea, my friend.
What's
the
watchword
to-day?'
Cassius had never been called 'my friend' before by Lesbia's husband and looked intently at him.
Lesbia's husband--his name was Marcus Vinicius--said again, 'Cassius, we have much in common and when I call you 'friend', I mean it. What's the watchword?'
Cassius answered, 'The watchword to-night is 'Little Ringlets'. But, my friend Marcus Vinicius, if I may indeed call you friend, give me the watchword
'Liberty' and my sword is at your service.'
Vinicius embraced him. 'We are not the only two who are ready to strike for Liberty. The Tiger is also with me.'
'The Tiger'--his real name was Cornelius Sabinus--was another Guards colonel, who relieved Cassius whenever he went off duty.
The great Palatine Festival started the next day. This festival in honour of Augustus had been instituted by Livia at the beginning of Tiberius' monarchy and was held annually in the Southern Court of the Old Palace.
AJ] .41] It began with sacrifices to Augustus and a symbolic procession, and continued for three days with theatrical pieces, dancing, singing, juggling and the like. Wooden stands were erected with seating for sixty thousand people.
When the festival ended the stands were taken down and stored away until the following year. This year Caligula had prolonged the three days to eight, interspersing the performances with chariot-races in the Circus and sham naval-fights in the Basin. He wanted to be continuously amused until the day he sailed for Alexandria, which was to be the twenty-fifth of January. For he was going to Egypt to see the sights, to raise money by immovable rigour and the same sort of trickery he had used in France, to make plans for the rebuilding of Alexandria and, lastly, so he boasted, to put a new head on the Sphinx.
The Festival started. Caligula sacrificed to Augustus, but in a somewhat perfunctory and disdainful way--like a master who in some emergency or other has to perform some menial service for one of his slaves. When this was over he proclaimed that if any citizen present asked a boon that it was in his power to grant he would graciously grant it. He had been angry with the people lately for their lack of enthusiasm at the last wild-beast show and had punished them by shutting the city granaries for ten days; but perhaps he had forgiven them now because he had just scattered largesse from the Palace roof. So a glad shout went up, 'More bread, less taxes, Caesar! More bread, less taxes!'
Caligula was very angry. He sent a platoon of Germans along the benches and a hundred heads were chopped off.
This incident disturbed the conspirators; it was a reminder [423] of the barbarity of the Germans and the marvellous devotion that they paid Caligula. By this time, there can hardly have been a citizen in Rome who did not long for the death of Caligula, or would not willingly have eaten his flesh, as the saying is; but to these Germans he was the most glorious hero the world had ever known. And if he dressed as a woman; or galloped suddenly away from hu; army on the march; or made Caesonia appear naked before them and boasted of her beauty; or burned down his most beautiful villa at Herculaneum on the ground that his mother Agrippina had been imprisoned there for two days on her way to the island where she died--this inexplicable sort of behaviour only made him the more worthy of their worship as a divine being. They used to nod wisely to each other and say,
'Yes, the Gods are like that. You can't tell what they are going to do next. Tuisco and Mann, at home in our dear, dear Fatherland, are just the same.'
Cassius was reckless and did not care what happened to him personally, so long as Caligula was assassinated, but the other conspirators who did not feel so strongly, began to wonder what vengeance the Germans would take on the murderers of their wonderful hero. They began making excuses and Cassius could not get them to agree on a proper plan of action. They suggested leaving it to chance. Cassius grew anxious. He called them cowards and accused them of playing for time. He said that they really wanted Caligula to get safe away to Egypt. The last day of the festival came, and Cassius had with great difficulty persuaded them to agree to a workable plan, when Caligula suddenly gave out that the festival would go on tor another three days. He said that he wanted to act and sing in a masque which he had himself composed for the benefit of the Alexandrians, but
