"I don't believe that is meant to beliteral, Piso," the Senior Tribune replied genially, smiling at mydefender like an indulgent older brother. "You and the Prefect willbe able to hear the testimony of Tribune Lucullus quiteadequately."
"Well, I do," Piso shot back, and I couldsee that he was no less infuriated than I was, even if it was forcompletely different reasons. "It's a well-known principle ofrhetoric that much of oral communication is non-verbal in nature.How else can a man read another man's face and divine that whatthey are saying is true or not, if they can't look him in the face?Your allowing Lucullus to keep his face averted is patentlyunfair!"
"Enough!"
What surprised me was not that Piso was toldto shut up, but that it did not come from the Senior Tribune, butthe Tribune to his right. Turning my attention to him, I saw justby his demeanor that he was probably resentful that he was not theSenior Tribune, and was attempting to establish his own authorityon the Tribunal.
"The Senior Tribune has ruled," hecontinued, "and that is the end of it! Now, can we proceed? I, forone, would like to get this over and done with as quickly aspossible."
"Forgive me." Piso made a bow in thedirection of the second Tribune, but it was easy to read thecontempt and disdain in this supposedly deferential gesture. "Irealize that the fate of one of the most decorated and renownedsoldiers of our beloved Republic doesn't mean much to those who canbarely be bothered to take their exercises on the Campus." I had tosuppress a grin at the sight of the second Tribune, whose faceturned a bright shade of red. "But I believe that Prefect Pullushas earned at the very least the time it takes out of ourrespective schedules, however busy they may be, to give him thefairest Tribunal possible."
I wanted to jump up and applaud, but theSenior Tribune banged his hand on the table, warning the secondTribune with a look as he opened his mouth to undoubtedly fire backat Piso.
"That's true," the Senior Tribune broke in,"and that's why I am ruling that Lucullus will remain seated theway he is, and that Sulpicianus begins his questioning of thewitness. Now," he glared over at us, "that is all that I will hearon this matter." Turning to Sulpicianus, he nodded his head. "Youmay begin."
By the time that Sulpicianus was through,there were a couple of things apparent, to me, anyway. The firstwas that the prosecutor and the witness had rehearsed theirperformance at least as much as any play by Sophocles, down togestures and dramatic pauses.
Piso reinforced my impression when hewhispered, "By the gods, this is like watching a really, really badplay."
The second impression I took was that therewas an underlying reason for their rehearsal, because Lucullus'testimony went into such fantastic detail, down to what he waswearing and eating when we had our supposed conversations, it notonly rang false, but it gave Piso ample opportunities to tripLucullus up. There was one point in particular that got myattention, which I whispered to Piso.
"That," he looked at me with a raisedeyebrow, "is a very, very good point. In fact," he continued, "Ithink that's going to give me what I need."
Glancing over at Scribonius, I could see helooked hopeful as well.
"That was a good catch, Titus," he whisperedas Piso scribbled notes. "I missed it myself."
"We'll see what good it does." I could notbring myself to feel optimistic.
Under our system of Tribunal, the defenderis not allowed to interrupt the testimony of a witness for theprosecution, and vice versa. Also, the prosecution is required topresent its entire case before the defense can call the prosecutionwitnesses back to be questioned. That meant that we had to endurethe other piece of evidence, the testimony of Marcus Primus, beingread into the record. As I listened, I realized why Piso hadrefused to allow me to read it beforehand. He was probably afraid,quite rightly, that I would fly into such a rage that he might havebeen damaged when I indulged my anger. Sitting there in thePraetorium, this was the hardest part of the trial and Ifelt my fingers digging into the surface of the table as I triedevery trick I could think of to keep that battle madness fromdescending on me. As Sulpicianus' voice droned on, if Primus wereto be believed, not only did I know beforehand that the campaignwas not authorized, but we were boon companions, collaborating inevery decision that emanated from the Praetorium duringthose months in the field. It was when Sulpicianus reached a partin Primus' fantasy, where the two of us spent a long nightdiscussing in detail the riches that awaited in Serdica and hesupposedly told me how he acquired the knowledge of the gold, thenwent on to at the very least to intimate that our relationshipreached a new level of intimacy, that it was only Scribonius' handgrabbing me that kept me from doing something incrediblystupid.
"Titus," he warned me softly, but justhearing my name was enough.
I shook my head, both in disbelief and toclear the last vestiges of the madness that had almost wrapped mymind in its embrace. Unfortunately, my eye was caught by theTribune at the end of the table closest to me, and there was nomistaking the leer on his face as he stared at me. Ignoring myinitial instinct to turn away, instead I looked him in the eye,until he finally dropped his own gaze and began studying the table.At long last, Sulpicianus finished the testimony, and there was aperiod of quiet as the scribes attempted to catch up. When theysignaled they were done, the Senior Tribune pointed to Sulpicianus,who rose.
"This concludes the case as presented by thestate," he announced. "However, we reserve the right to callfurther witnesses, depending on what evidence the defenseintroduces."
I looked over in alarm at Piso, but he shookhis head, assuring me quietly that this was standard.
"Then we will take a recess for the membersto refresh themselves and the defense to make any last-momentchanges that might be required from the prosecution's case. We willmeet in
