Augustus

'Vipsanius Agrippa is my closest co-adjutor,' I replied, choosing an old-fashioned word, even one pedantically old-fashioned, to describe him. 'I have no secrets from him, and he is part of my privacy.'

'Hmphm,' he said, 'well, nobody can claim they knew his father.'

Such a remark could still make Agrippa bridle. I placed my hand on his sleeve.

'His deeds supply him with the glory ancestors reflect on others,' I said.

'Hmphm,' he said again. 'I like to know a man's ancestors when I deal with him. Well, you've dragged me here, Caesar, just when the new wine is ready. I hope you have a good reason. Why?' I motioned to Agrippa to sit down and did so myself. 'Don't like this,' Piso grumbled. 'There's a whiff of a triumvirate in the air.'

'Those days are over,' I said. 'Nothing would distress me more than their return.'

Piso drank wine. It was very quiet, approaching noon, the sun hot for the time of year.

I said, 'Did you ever wonder why you escaped my purge of the Senate?' 'Hmphm,' he said. 'What if I said, 'of course not'?' 'I would be disappointed in my judgement of your intelligence.'

'Ha!' he said. I found these grunts and ejaculations irritating, but naturally gave no sign of this. I waited for him to continue, but he remained silent, his eyes fixed on the wine.

I said, 'It was never my purpose to exclude honest men, such as act on principle.' 'Soft soap, Caesar. What do you want of me?' 'Marcus Primus…' I said. 'What of him?'

'You have followed his case, I take it. What was your judgement?'

'That he is a man whose own judgement is… faulty… The kind of man who doesn't know how to adapt to the prevailing wind.' 'Good,' I said. 'You talk as I thought you would, Piso, as a man of sense.' 'Soft soap again.'

'Piso,' I said, 'we are old opponents, but I respect you. I won't ask your opinion of me, because, to do so here and now, would be unfair. Nevertheless, I put a question to you, though it is not one that requires an immediate answer. I ask you to consider whether the state of Rome, the condition of the Republic, are not happier now than they were when we were young, even than when our fathers were young. We have peace, justice, and such liberty as is possible without endangering the stability of the State. I merely ask you to ponder this in your mind.'

Piso said nothing. I might not have spoken. He sat as if deaf to my words. It was possible of course that he was revolving them in his mind, even as he rolled the wine round in his cup. Agrippa shifted his buttocks.

'There's a simple question,' he said. 'If some of your old… allies… approached you with a view to overturning the present state of things, even at the risk of a new civil war, what would you say?' Piso poured more wine. 'Hmphm,' he said, 'what a question in this company.' 'Very well,' said Agrippa, 'has such an approach been made to you?'

'No,' I said, 'no, Agrippa, that question is out of order. Had such an approach been made, we could not expect our guest as an honourable man to answer you, for on the one hand he has a well-merited reputation for honesty, while on the other no gentleman would betray a confidence imparted by a former acquaintance.'

Agrippa stood up: 'Piso questioned my birth,' he said. 'Very well, he won't be surprised if I now say that this conversation is being conducted on lines which are too gentlemanly for my taste. We know there is such a conspiracy…' Piso poured himself more wine; his hand was steady as a legion on parade. 'You, Augustus, have a proposition to put to him. Before you do so, it seems to me that we have a right to ask for an answer to my question. To put it another way, in a form you may find more acceptable, Piso, where do you stand politically?'

Piso scowled: then, in a brutal muttering tone that did no justice to the noble rhythm of the lines, he said: 'Happy – even too happy, if they knew their bliss -are farmers, who receive, far from the clash of war, an easy livelihood from the just and generous earth… 'When Sextus Pompey turned wolf, he disgusted me. When he fled to Asia, I refused to follow. I returned willingly to my ancestral estates, and have lived quietly there since. I have eschewed public life, since, Caesar, with respect to what you have achieved, I am too deeply steeped in the traditions of my fathers to find a place in your New Order. In my opinion the man who makes two grains of wheat grow where one grew before, 'who tends his olives and improves their yield', who makes a better wine – and this Falernian of yours is indeed plaguey thin stuff – deserves better of mankind than lawyers, politicians, rhetoricians, and all the gang of intriguers and spouters of noble-sounding platitudes you find even in your purged Senate. I cultivate my fields and tend my crops and nurse my vines and olive trees. Does that answer satisfy? And I don't know why I'm troubled to give it. Hmphm.'

'It satisfies me,' I said. 'You speak like the man I took you to be. You asked what I want with you. I want you to become my colleague as consul…'

'That's absurd,' he said. 'For one thing, I've told you where I stand. I'm a simple farmer these days, nothing more. If you want more of the truth, I have come to despise the whole game of politics as a selfish ramp. For another thing you've a consul already, and I would suppose others lined up for the next few years, this being the way things are done nowadays as far as I can see…' 'I told you,' Agrippa said, 'we're wasting our time…'

'Wait,' I said. 'You're right of course. I have a colleague. Unfortunately, he has proved disappointing. In fact, he is planning a coup d'etat. That is why I turn to you.' 'Is this true? And if so, why me?'

'It's true,' Agrippa said. 'If Terentius has his way, Rome will be plunged back in the old disorder of assassination, proscriptions and civil war.'

'Proscription is not a word that drops well from your lips, Vipsanius,' Piso said.

I beckoned to him to come with me, and led him out of the house on to the terrace from where we could look over the city. 'Look,' I said, 'at the well-ordered, busy and peaceful life of Rome. Listen,' I said, and began to talk at length. I told him what I valued: peace, order, a decent life. I reminded him of how I had restored the Republic. He frowned and I said, 'Yes, Piso, I have indeed restored the Republic. It may not be precisely the Republic our fathers knew. I grant you that. A certain degree of liberty has been curtailed. I do not deny it. No great State can allow absolute liberty, because such liberty in fact threatens to destroy liberty. It breeds fear, dissension, unbridled ambition. Twenty years ago the Republic was sick of a fever that many thought mortal. With the help of the Gods it has been restored to health.' He continued to scowl over the city. I took him by the elbow.

'Listen again,' I said, 'I appeal to your patriotism. I know you are without ambition. As Agrippa said, a conspiracy is being hatched. To show my trust in you, I shall disclose that its chiefs are old associates or connections of yours. Terentius himself, Scaurus, Lucius Primus and Fannius Caepio. They or their families followed Sextus Pompey, as you did yourself. I turn to you because you offer me the best hope of stilling old animosities. There are many men to whom I could offer the consulship who would also be worthy of the office. But many of them are Caesareans. My aim has long been reconciliation. These conspirators are giddy-headed and resentful. They are men of poor judgement. Yet, in any state disaffection exists. I would never crush lawful opposition. In the Senate I encourage men to speak their mind, and if you attended the Senate – to which you would do honour and the debates of which would benefit from your counsel – if you attended it, you would see that liberty survives there. Only last week while I was making a speech someone called out, 'It's as well for you you spoke that passage fast. Otherwise even the slow of hearing and slow of wit would have realized what nonsense it was.' Is that how men speak to a tyrant? I deny no man his say. But, Piso, conspiracy to murder and insurrection cannot be tolerated.' 'Hmphm,' he said.

'I am glad you agree. Now, simply because these conspirators are old Pompeians the best security for Rome is that I should join a noble, respected Pompeian with me in the consulship. Then Rome will see that Terentius and his friends represent no worthy cause, and will judge them to be a resentful faction. You have it, Piso, in your power to safeguard Rome from the renewal of that civil strife which so nearly destroyed the Republic. For ponder this well, when the sword of Mars is drawn from the scabbard, none can predict the outcome.' I paused. 'What do you say?' 'Hmphm. I should require evidence of this conspiracy.'

'I can provide that of course, but I might first ask you a question. Would I have any reason to make this offer to one I have so long regarded as an honourable enemy, if the state of Rome and the Republic did not demand it…?'

He hummed and hawed, swithered and delayed, muttered about old obligations, nodded his head when I observed that obligation to the Republic cancelled out all others, and of course consented. I had been certain he would do so. Piso was rock-hard in his pride. No man of such self-esteem could have resisted me.

Livia applauded my choice of Piso; she has always been pleased when I have associated one of the old nobility with me in my work. Despite all she has seen she still believes that government of the Empire should remain in the hands of a few families, even though she very well knows how degenerate many of the scions of such families are.