Our children would be middle-rank. I had no objection to her teaching them anything valuable, but if the baby she was expecting was a boy, and if he survived birth and childhood, I would not send him overseas to pick up bad habits and serious diseases in a foreign university. Born plebeian, I wanted returns on my cash. I had earned the money myself. I was capable of wasting it myself too.
‘So tell me about your studies, Heras.’ Helena was talking to the student and simultaneously watching me. I hid a smile. I liked my women versatile. I liked this one much more than others I had known.
‘We learn the rules of rhetoric, good style, voice training, and correct stance. Part of the regimen is declaiming model speeches in the classroom. My father says these involve false, sterile subjects, divorced from life - he sees it as no more than oral trickery. We also observe our master giving public orations, through which he wins the admiration of the city - and my father is just as suspicious of that. He argues that teachers now cultivate the art of virtuoso rhetoric for incorrect reasons. Their lifestyle offends against the good qualities they are supposed to be teaching: they make orations to gain reputations; they want reputation only in order to earn more money.’
I leaned on my elbow. ‘To say knowledge cannot be bought and sold like corn or fish sounds virtuous. But philosophers have to put clothes on their backs and food in their bellies.’
‘Not in Alexandria,’ Helena reminded me. ‘The Museion promises them “freedom from want and taxes”. Even in Rome, our Emperor, Vespasian, has sought to encourage education by granting immunity from municipal obligations to grammarians and rhetoricians. And he provides schoolteachers’ salaries.’
Heras laughed shyly. ‘This is the same emperor who, at the beginning of his office, exiled all philosophers from Rome?’
‘All except the esteemed Musonius Rufus,’ agreed Helena.
‘What was special about him?’
‘My father knows him slightly, so I can answer that - he is a Stoic, who argues that the pursuit of virtue is a philosopher’s aim. Nero sent him into exile - which is always a sign of quality. When Vespasian’s armies were advancing on Rome at the end of the civil war, Musonius Rufus pleaded with the soldiers to exercise peaceful behaviour. What I particularly like about him is that he says men and women possess exactly the same capacity for understanding virtue, therefore women should be taught philosophy equally with men.’
Both Aulus and Heras guffawed at that. I could not see it going down well with the academic establishment in Alexandria. Come to that, few Roman women would take up the idea, especially if it required the pursuit of virtue. That does not mean I disapproved of the equal-education principle. I was prepared to sneer at bad philosophers of either sex.
‘We regard Vespasian as stingy,’ Heras confided. Uncle Fulvius kept a good cellar. Heras had drunk wine with us, perhaps more than he was used to and certainly more than made him wise. ‘We call him the Salt-fish-seller. Because,’ he thought it necessary to add, ‘when he was here, it is said he did that.’
‘Better not insult the Emperor too loudly,’ Aulus warned him quietly. ‘You never know who may be listening. Do not forget: Marcus Didius works for the man.’
‘You are in his power?’ Heras asked me. I chewed a date thoughtfully.
‘Who knows?’ shrugged Aulus. ‘Perhaps Marcus Didius also seeks reputation in order to earn money - or perhaps he has enough character to remain his own man.’
Old and wise, I remained silent. Sometimes I had no idea myself how much I had capitulated and sold my soul to keep my family, or how much I simply played along and guarded my integrity.
Helena’s eyes were on me again, shadowed in the lamplight. Full of thoughts, full of private assessment; if I was lucky, still full of love.
I rolled, grasped wine and water flagons one in each hand, and refilled beakers. Helena declined; I kept Albia’s share minimal; I gave Aulus and Heras more water with it than they probably wanted. Then I took up the talk myself.
‘So tell me, lads -’ I included Aulus, so it looked less like a grilling of Heras. ‘What do you know about the running of the Library?’
Heras had round eyes. ‘You think there is a scandal there?’
‘Whoa! It was a neutral question.’
‘Neutral?’ Heras considered the concept. He was as wary as if I had just landed a deep sea monster, never seen before.
‘This is empirical research,’ I explained gently. ‘I seek evidence then draw conclusions from it. In this system, you are not given a set answer to which you must frame oratorical delivery. The objective is discovery, without preconditions or prejudice. A simple
The lad still seemed worried. I was perturbed myself, by his narrow attitude. Far too many people shared it: the false belief that you could only ask questions when you knew the answers. I talked him through it gently: ‘I use libraries in my work in Rome. We have grand ones - Asinius Pollio’s public collection, the Library of Augustus up on the Palatine - and Vespasian is building a new overspill Forum in his own name, which is to have a Temple of Peace, alongside a matched pair of Greek and Latin libraries.’ There seemed no harm in mentioning that. It was not a secret. Vespasian’s programme of Roman beautification was to be world famous. ‘Now here I am in Alexandria. Alexandria and Pergamum have the best libraries in the known world - but, let’s admit this: who in Hades knows where Pergamum is? So for a man who is curious about all things, naturally in Alexandria I want to know about the Great Library’
‘This is independent of the suggestion that its Keeper was murdered? Even though you investigate such things?’
‘I cannot know whether the Library is relevant until I first find out what is normal there.’
‘So what are you asking me?’ Heras quavered weakly.
‘What have you noticed? How well does it all work?’
Heras looked shy and hung his head. No doubt he usually bluffed when he was quizzed by his tutor or his anxious father, but to me that night he told the sorry truth: ‘I am afraid I am rather lax. I do not go to the Library as often as I ought to, Falco.’
Well, he was a student. Helena sent me a look that said I should have known.
XV
Next morning, waking early was hard. But I had to beard the Head of the Museion and his colleagues at their morning meeting. It would be vital. I thought they were bound to discuss Theon’s death.
Besides, when I take against someone, I continue the pressure. I found Philetus, the Director, as savoury as steaming stable manure. I intended to fork him over until he squeaked.
Aulus was still snoring. So were most other people in the house.
Helena came with me. She was meeting Albia later to show the children the zoo, but as a thoughtful mother she would reconnoitre first.
‘Excellent woman. If Alcmene had been as careful, the infant Hercules would not have had that tricky moment jumping out of his cradle to strangle two snakes ... I can offer you another kind of zoo,’ I said. ‘There will be unbelievable wild beasts - it’s a human menagerie.’
‘The academics? They won’t let me in, Marcus.’
‘Stick with me, fruit.’ I took a linen napkin, made a sling, said I would claim I had damaged my hand and my wife was the only person I would trust to take notes faithfully or to keep it confidential afterwards. ‘Walk behind me. Sit very still. Don’t speak at any time.’
‘I am not a Greek woman, Falco.’
‘Don’t I know it! You are a handful, my darling, but the woolly intellectuals need not be told. If you can bear to keep your mouth shut, they may never realise.’ The chances were slim. She would burst out with indignation the first time they waffled unworldly twaddle. I beamed at her as if full of confidence. Helena knew herself; she looked wry.
‘They still won’t let me in.’
They would. Philetus had not arrived yet. This was a typical large organisation. The others were keen to do anything to get up their Director’s nose.
There was a good reason Philetus had not arrived. He was keeping aloof from unpleasantness: unpleasantness that he had caused. He had reported Philadelphion to the Prefect. Tenax and his sidekicks had come to arrest the Zoo Keeper for conducting an illegal human dissection. We found them on the steps of the
