"Part of the evidence?" I pounced on thatimmediately. "What do you mean ‘part of the evidence’? What else isthere?"
For the second time, Marcus Agrippa refusedto look me in the eye, which only alarmed me even more, if that waspossible.
"As I understand it, there is a statementfrom Marcus Primus that has been...extracted from him thatimplicates you as well."
Aside from the insinuation of Agrippa'swords, that Marcus Primus, a patrician and a Praetor withProconsular imperium had been tortured, there was a far moreimportant point that I felt compelled to make.
"And Marcus Primus is the biggest cowardI've ever served with, or under," I said heatedly. "So of coursehe's going to implicate me! By the gods, I imagine all the man fromthe torture detachment had to do was pick up one of his tools andPrimus started babbling anything he thought would keep him fromusing it!"
Agrippa's face darkened in anger, but atthat moment, I did not care.
Still, his tone was even as he replied, "Bethat as it may, Primus has made a statement implicating you. Ofcourse," he added in a casual tone that was belied by the intensestare he gave me, "you are certainly within your rights to bring upthe circumstances under which this information was obtained. It mayvery well be as you say, and it would behoove you to point that outto the Tribunal."
I waited for more, but after a moment, Icould see that this was all the help that Agrippa was going tooffer. Not long after that, our meeting concluded. Now, sittingwith Diocles, I racked my brain, trying to penetrate the fog as Iattempted to think of what steps I could take to protectmyself.
"As I understand it, the way a Tribunalworks, you have the right to select the Tribune who will presentyour defense?" Diocles asked.
"Yes," I answered. "At least, that's whatAgrippa said."
"Does it have to be a man who is currently aTribune? Or can it be a man who's served as a Tribune with thearmy?"
My initial reaction was one ofirritation.
"Frankly, I haven't read the manual onTribunals," I muttered. "And as interesting as it may be, I don'tthink we need to waste time wondering about who can defend me andwho can't. Agrippa gave me the list of Tribunes that are currentlypart of the Praetorian Guard, which is the only army unit inRome."
Diocles shook his head impatiently.
"It very much does matter," he insisted."Especially because I'm thinking of someone specific."
I will admit that aroused my curiosity, butnot my hope.
"Oh? And who might that be?" I asked.
Diocles paused a moment before answering,"Claudius."
"Claudius?" I exclaimed.
I do not know what I had been expecting, butit was not the name of the Tribune who at one point had vowed todestroy me. Granted, his attitude had turned around after I hadsaved his life during the Crassus campaign, and while we had notbecome friends, we did have a good relationship. Even, Iconsidered, after I had discovered his duplicity in the Natalisaffair, when he had the scribe of his father create two lettersabout Natalis' supposed relationship with Gaius Maecenas, and hissubsequent skimming of Natalis' extortion scheme.
As if reading my thoughts, Dioclescontinued, "He owes you a debt, both because of what you did, andwhat you didn't do in regards to his role with Natalis."
"That's...true," I conceded and, for amoment, I felt a surge of hope. But then I thought of somethingelse. "Except he's Lucullus' cousin. He's not likely to go againsthis kin."
"Oh, I wouldn't bet on that," Diocles said,a trifle smugly, truth be known. "You Romans are famous for turningon family members."
It was decided that Diocles would do thepreliminary work of finding out where the former Tribune Claudiuslived, while I requested another meeting with Agrippa to determineif what I wanted to do was even possible. At first, Diocles wasadamantly opposed to this approach, insisting that it would bebetter to proceed under the assumption that any man who had servedas a Tribune was eligible, but my instinct told me that, as devotedas Octavian was to the letter of the law, this would be a very badidea. Finally, we reached something of a compromise; while I wouldbroach this with Agrippa, even if he turned my request down, thatdid not preclude me from calling Claudius as a character witness,at the very least. Diocles' reasoning was that, if we could castdoubt on the veracity of Lucullus' testimony, by way of a member ofhis own family, then perhaps we would not need him to be mydefender. Normally, I would send Diocles to Octavian's villa to tryto obtain an appointment with Agrippa, but he now had his own task.That was not the only reason I decided just to show up unannouncedat the villa, however. In essence, this was going to be a surpriseattack; my hope was that I would be able to capitalize on catchingAgrippa unprepared, because I sensed that there was at least astreak of sympathy in Octavian's most trusted lieutenant. Perhaps,in a moment of weakness, I could prevail upon him to impart to mesome information that would help my cause. I even harbored thehope, very faint, that I might actually gain an audience withOctavian himself, if only to look into his ice-blue eyes in anattempt to get a sense of whether I was an actual object of hismalice, or was merely like those unlucky tribesmen of Alesia allthose years ago, who had been expelled from the town to simply diea lingering, horrible death. Was I just a means to an end? Iwondered. If so, perhaps there was hope that I could prevail uponOctavian, calling on that wide-eyed teenager who had wanted sodesperately to dine with Titus Pullus of Caesar's 10thEquestris. If, I acknowledged, that had not just been an act,another of his artifices, like his built-up shoes and his perfectmimicry of Caesar's mannerisms. Faint hopes they may have been, butthey were all I had at that moment.
"This is unexpected," Marcus Agrippa toldme, and his irritation was plainly written on his face as he glaredat me from behind
