'Explain, Inspector! Why do you believe the youth was subject to violence? Importantly too, who can be shown to benefit from Antinous's death?'
'Possibly several people my lord, either directly or by purposeful influence.'
'Get to the core of the matter, Special Inspector. Time is passing. Dawn is almost upon us,' Hadrian declared impatiently.
'I will be brief, Caesar. Let us first explore our present company at Court to see what motives may exist among us. We will begin with the outer ring, those who are not official members of your Household, the priests of Amun before us. Pachrates the Sage of Heliopolis, and Kenamun the Embalmer, should tell us what they know of the youth's death,' Suetonius offered. He gestured to Kenamun nearby as he spoke.
'Kenamun, as the presiding mortician, has an intimate knowledge of the state of Antinous in death, my lord. We should listen to what he has to say on the manner of Antinous's death.'
Kenamun glanced nervously at the surrounding assembly of notables and the somber emperor before him. Suetonius nodded to him encouragingly and opened his questioning.
'Priest Kenamun, what can you tell us of the manner of the young man's death?'
Kenamun gulped nervously. His response tumbled out.
'Special Inspector, it is my belief Antinous of Bithynia did not die by drowning. I believe he died instead of a loss of blood which occurred before he entered the holy river's waters. Possibly well before.'
A rustle of whispers swept the assembly. Hadrian shifted uncomfortably on his throne. Kenamun continued.
'In preparing the noble youth's cadaver for public display it was evident how very little blood had remained in his veins in the usual way of the deceased. When blood ceases its flow at death a residual quantity lingers in the veins. It coagulates in the veins as mucus which speedily putrefies.
In the case of Antinous, there was very little blood gelled in his veins. Very little indeed. I would hazard a guess he had been thoroughly drained of almost all blood while his life-force still animated his tissues. The faint blood which remained suggested he had died by massive bleeding at least an hour or more before his discovery at the river. This is my opinion.
Also, Antinous possessed a deep incision on his left wrist. It was an incision as a surgeon might perform, not an accidental tear. This tells me he had intentionally cut and bled himself. Alternatively, he had been purposefully cut by another as a slaughtered beast is bled of its impure blood.'
The assembly emitted another rush of murmurs. Kenamun continued.
'Further, great sirs, though he was discovered under the river's waters, water damage to his skin and organs was minor. Prey-seeking river vermin are far more aggressive to a corpse over time than was evident on this youth. I believe he had been in the water less than even a single hour prior to his detection.
Considering the incision at his wrist, unless he razored his wrist just moments before he entered the water, he would have been unconscious from blood loss long before he entered the river. It takes time for a living creature to be drained entirely of its blood, as we see at a slaughter man's killing trough.'
Suetonius decided to probe this notion closer.
'Priest Kenamun, couldn't he have cut his wrist by accident at the river's edge and then fallen in after fainting? Or cut and thrown himself in as a willing suicide?'
'This is possible, but I doubt it. Far more blood would have gelled in his veins than was apparent when we prepared his body. I sense the incision was made sometime well before him entering the river. This could mean it was inflicted elsewhere than at the river.
I am told too Antinous was left-handed in his activities, yet this incision was in his left not his right wrist. This is unusual. It is irregular.
I believe therefore his arm was lanced in the company of another person or persons to promote bleeding. And then, when his life's humors had been diminished by his own failing spirit, further manipulation may have been applied externally to complete the job. This is just as a butcher does with a beast to drain it of polluting blood. Perhaps only then was his body placed in the river.'
The assembly grew agitated and edgy.
'How would someone slit a healthy young person's wrist while they were fully capable of resisting such an attack, unless they were party to their own death? Antinous was no helpless weakling,' Suetonius asked rhetorically.
'I don't know,' Kenamun offered. 'Perhaps he was restrained and it was forced upon him? Perhaps he was given a blow to be unconscious? Or perhaps he was eager to be incised?'
'But why would someone wish to bleed a victim so thoroughly?'
'It is seen by some to be a less painful way to die than other methods. I understand slit veins are a noble tradition among Romans pursuing a pain-free death? But in truth I do not know, Special Inspector.'
Suetonius turned to the craggy high priest standing nervously in anticipation beside the mortician.
'Pachrates, high priest and magus of Amun, is it true you promised the youth you had the skill to revive him from death if he aspired to sacrifice himself on the occasion of The Isia? We have been told you have exhibited such skills.'
The self-professed wizard uncharacteristically trembled.
'By Sacred Amun! what can you mean?! My magic does not dare indulge in such blasphemies against Fate.'
'Yet you are known to resurrect from death small animals and the occasional condemned criminal with your arts? It has been testified so by witnesses. You do it in public before us.'
The priest was quick to respond.
'This is a lesser, minor, inferior Egyptian magic, Inspector, suited only to meager creatures like dogs, criminals, and other vermin. I do not perform magic with the bloodstream and honor of nobles of the Imperium!
Besides, Inspector, my humble arts are only effective at times of an extraordinary alignment of the stars, configurations which occur only once or twice a lifetime,' the sorcerer explained unpersuasively.
'Yet, priest of Amun, we have been told the youth Antinous prevailed upon you to perform such magic? We have a witness to your conversation in our written testimony. The youth had seen your magic in action, and requested your special powers be used for his own purpose? This was in the company of Caesar too, we have been told?'
Clarus was becoming tense at the direction the deposition was taking. It veered too close to Caesar's person.
'But I refused him! I said No!' the magus objected. 'And then Great Pharaoh intervened to refuse both of us to even discuss the matter! Caesar had spoken! The matter was final!'
Suetonius zeroed in for his coup-de-grace, he thought.
'Nevertheless, Priest, you had sufficiently remarkable prescience to summon priests at Memphis and Thebes to this place, including the very faraway Oracle from Siwa,' Suetonius charged, 'plus an entire embalming team including Cronon, a Greek painter of funerary portraits from Fayum. They were obliged to travel long distances to this place in anticipation of the youth's death?'
Suetonius felt pleased with himself in this proposition. The assembly rustled with murmurings.
Pachrates rose to the fullest height of his diminutive race, his eyes ablaze.
'You take liberties with our sacred mission, Inspector! This is not so, I tell you!'
Suetonius had struck an open nerve.
Hadrian interrupted this exchange wearily. With a dismissive wave of one hand, he spoke.
'Suetonius Tranquillus, you should be told how the priests and personnel you list were summoned here on my command two months ago. These people are engaged with the planning of our new city of Hadrianopolis. You will hear more about this project shortly.
Pachrates is an honored advisor to us for this purpose. His understanding of the local customs is comprehensive, so he advises us how the various communities of Romans, Greeks, and Egyptians can live in harmony at Hadrianopolis someday. There was no conspiracy in his summons to his artisan compatriots, Inspector. It was on my own authority he did so. Leave it alone, Tranquillus.'
Caesar had spoken. Pachrates resumed his usual confident manner.
'I welcome your words, my lord, however there is more to explore,' Suetonius continued bravely, if doggedly.
