One's brilliant new innovation for rooting out bribery. If a man's convicted of bribery, he can arrange for a pardon, provided he can turn around and convict two other men of bribery! Soon everyone in Rome will be standing in a circle pointing the finger of blame at the man next to him. That's one way to keep everyone busy while the Republic slips away from us. It's ludicrous, it makes a mockery of the law. But Pompey's never understood the law, never had any real respect for it, any more than he respects oratory. He respects institutions, like the Senate, but only in some vague, abstract, sentimental way. He has no regard for the law at all. He doesn't see how beautiful it is, how awesome, how it circles and binds us all together, like a golden thread. He rips his way through it like a man getting rid of cobwebs. He has the vulgar, pragmatic mind of an autocrat.'
Cicero pressed his stomach and winced. 'Thank the gods that Caelius is a tribune this year and has the power to veto any legislation that infringes on individual rights. Caelius has warned Pompey that he’ll use his veto on the new laws. Do you know what Pompey replied? He said, quite calmly, 'Do as you must, but I shall do whatever is necessary to defend the state.' So typical! Why doesn't he just pull out a sword and brandish it in Caelius's face? In the end there'll be a compromise, of course; there always is. We shall have to let Pompey have his way, or else he'll complain that he doesn't have enough power to keep order and demand even more. And where will that lead?' Cicero made an elaborate shrug of disgust. 'Ah, but Gordianus, you've hardly spoken at all about your travails.'
'You've hardly asked.'
'How awful for you! Kidnapped, trundled off to some place far from Rome, kept in a pit. Who could have perpetrated such an atrocity?'
'I have wondered about that a great deal. I had much time to consider it.'
'I'm sure you did! And did you come to any conclusions?' Did he look at me shrewdly, or had his eyelids simply grown heavy from fatigue and too much drink?
'Not yet.'
'Ah, Gordianus, always the one to bide his time, sift every shred of evidence, seek for further revelations, postpone the final judgment. You'd have made a terrible advocate. You don't have the gift for making things up. So you have no idea who kidnapped you, or why?'
'We never properly saw our captors, and they never gave us any clue about who employed them, or why we were kept alive, for that matter.'
'Ah, a mystery, then! But here you are, free again at last and safe.'
'Yes, safe. But of course it matters to me a great deal to know who treated my son and myself with such contempt. We're both alive and well — '
'Amazingly well, considering!'
'But it might easily have been otherwise. If one of us had been wounded in the attack, or fallen ill in that terrible place…' Cicero nodded vaguely. Tiro shuddered.
'But I will discover who was behind it. I suppose the prudent course, now, would be to retrace our steps to find the stable where we were kept. But I doubt we could find it again. What do you think, Eco?'
'I think we were trying too hard not to be seen to memorize an unfamiliar landscape. Besides, Papa, a disused stable on a derelict piece of farmland might belong to anyone. Finding the place wouldn't necessarily lead us to the men who captured us. They'll be long gone.'
'We might make the search anyway,' I said. 'We would need bodyguards, of course.' I turned back to Cicero, who looked uneasy for an instant and then smiled blandly.
'I would love to accommodate you, of course, Gordianus, but I really have no men to spare. I probably haven't enough protection as it is — your example has illustrated all too well the lamentable danger of the roads in these dreadful days.'
'You might turn aside from your own journey for a day or two, Cicero. Join with us to search for that stable and the men who kept us.'
'Impossible, Gordianus. My own mission is too important and cannot wait. Tomorrow I press on to Ravenna.'
'Ah, yes, your mission, Cicero. What is it you're seeking from Julius Caesar? Or is it a secret of state?'
'There's no secret. It's Marcus Caelius again. Such a busy tribune! Caesar wants to be able to run for consul next year, but that's not possible so long as he's commanding his troops and can't come to the city. So his supporters have fashioned a special exemption allowing Caesar to run for consul in absentia. It would set a bad precedent, of course, but if Pompey can be made sole consul, Caesar's supporters think it's only fair that he should be able to run while he's still up in Gaul. It becomes an issue of preserving the peace — I mean to say, the balance — between the Great One and Caesar. But Caelius has threatened to block the special exemption, just as he's threatened to block Pompey's reforms.'
'And your part, Cicero?'
He shrugged. 'Certain parties have prevailed upon me to use my influence with Caelius to dissuade him from baiting Caesar. Caelius is willing to back down, but both he and I would like to make sure we have a complete understanding of Caesar's goals and attitudes. So I'm headed for Ravenna to have a friendly discussion with Caesar. To clear the air, so to speak.'
'Wheels within wheels,' muttered Eco.
'Better than one great wheel driving the whole engine of the world, which is what some people would like to see,' said Cicero. 'But I'm pressed for time. Caesar will be leaving Ravenna any day now, heading back into the field. There are rumours of a new uprising led by some Gaul with a typically unpronounceable name. What is it, Tiro?'
'Vercingetorix,' said Tiro crisply. He was clearly not inebriated.
'Whatever,' agreed Cicero. 'So you see, I have no time to go off looking for — what did you call it, Eco? 'A disused stable in a derelict field.' And neither should you, Gordianus. Don't tempt the Fates. You're safe in my company. I'll provide all your needs. Accompany me to Ravenna tomorrow, and then accompany me back to Rome.'
'We should head back to Rome at once,' said Eco glumly. 'For Bethesda and Menenia to suffer even one more day than they should, not knowing what's become of us — '
'Ah, but don't you have a brother who's likely to be with Caesar in Ravenna?' said Cicero. 'Yes, your son, Gordianus — the one called Meto. Your family will have written to him about your disappearance, I'm sure. He'll be as distraught as they are. This is your chance to see him before he heads back north with Caesar. You see, you must come with me to Ravenna. But now, I think it's time for everyone to retire. You look weary, Gordianus, and Eco is yawning. Tonight, you'll have the best accommodations our host has to offer, with a soft bed in a private room. I arranged it for you myself I predict that you will sleep like stones.'
And we did.
XXV
Caesar's residence in Ravenna was a large villa on the outskirts of the city, with numerous tents, stables and makeshift buildings set up around it. Like all military camps, it resembled a small city, where the needs of a vigorous, mostly young male population with strong appetites could be accommodated on a daily basis. One invariably encounters three things in such places: the sight of prostitutes, the constant smell of cooking, and the sounds of the crudest language imaginable.
We arrived shortly after midday. Cicero and Tiro went to seek an audience with Caesar. Eco and I went in search of Meto. He was not hard to find. A foot soldier pointed the way to a tent filled with young officers. As we stepped inside, there was a sudden hush which had nothing to do with us, followed by a rattling noise, then an outburst of raucous laughter and cursing. They were playing dice.
The four dice being used were an old-fashioned set made of bones, pointed at two ends with the numerals painted on the four flat sides. A young man stepped out of the crowd and leaned forwards to scoop them up, and I saw with a catch in my throat that it was Meto.
Since he had begun his career with Caesar, we had seen each other only a few times a year at most, and never for long enough. Each time I saw my younger son I braced myself for an unpleasant surprise — a limp, a digit missing, a fresh scar across his face to add to the faded one he received in his first battle. So far he had kept
