invitation as recorded in your log?'
'Yes, sir. Indeed, sir. I am sure, sir. Am I mistaken somehow?'
Suetonius and Clarus looked to each other. Lysias had not been lying. He had not visited The Alexandros three evenings ago. It was just as he had protested earlier. The person presenting himself as 'Lysias' had been Antinous, impersonating Lysias for a reason of his own. He did so with a written invitation of authority from the priestess Anna Perenna inscribed in Lysias's name. What could this mean?
The Special Inspector asked a question aloud for all to hear.
'Look again at your papyrus sheet, Danaos. The visitor you know as Lysias was unaccompanied by others at the time. But will you read the name of the person or persons who preceded or followed him?'
Suetonius had already recalled the names from his earlier inspection of the records.
Danaos drew the sheet closer to his sight and fingered the column of names written in his own Greek alphabet scratchings. His finger paused at a name.
'Yes, sir. The youth Lysias was preceded by Quintus Urbicus, a centurion of the Alexandrian Praetorian Guard, the governor's security unit. They both travelled together in our runabout gondola to the The Alexandros to attend the Lady Anna Perenna.'
A flutter of whispers swept the assembly. Suetonius raised a finger for quiet.
'And again, Tessararius, have you noted the name on your list following after the person you know as Lysias? Did he too travel to The Alexandros? What was this person's name and, and what time of day would it have been?'
The clerk returned his finger to the sheet and followed it down the column.
'Yes, the dead man over yonder was followed by a senior officer of the German Guard. One Scorilo, a decurion of the Horse Guard. The three were boated to the governor's barque together. The time, you ask? It was then dusk. Night was quickly approaching. I recall it well. My shift was to finish in only four hours.'
The assembly shuffled in its place.
'Very well, Danaos, I wish you to now look over the sheets for that same night and the following day to tell me when these three visitors returned from The Alexandros?' the Special Inspector asked. He had remembered the discrepancies noted the previous day.
The tessararius pored through the subsequent sheets of papyrus. Several names were listed as coming or going, including the governor's party's return at high sun the following day, but Danaos could find no reference to either Lysias or Urbicus departing the vessel at the wharf. He then spied Decurion Scorilo's name on a second sheet recording his departure from The Alexandros four hours after dawn the following day.
'My subordinate has been a fool or greatly remiss, masters! Neither the youth Lysias nor Centurion Urbicus are listed as departing the governor's vessel, yet the German decurion is registered when he departed four hours after dawn the next day. My subordinate will be punished for his omissions, masters!'
'They might not be omissions, Tessararius. Your subordinate may have been quite accurate in his record. I think I begin to understand the situation,' the biographer muttered. He turned to the gathering and its ruler. He now possessed a greater perception of the issues.
'We have several contradictions in these testimonies here, Caesar. Firstly, we have a clerk's record of a 'Lysias' visiting The Alexandros. This turns out to be an impersonation by Antinous for a reason as yet unknown, and we have two guardsmen who accompany the youth to the barque. Yet neither Antinous nor one of the two guardsmen appears to have later returned from the vessel, unless our records are in serious error?
In the meantime we know some dire fate befell Antinous. He appears to have been seriously wounded and bled to death, and either fallen overboard or been placed in the Nile. Meanwhile the highly-regarded centurion who had accompanied him happens to be one of a troop of guardsmen who incidentally stumble upon two fishermen as they discover the body of the youth the following morning in the river's edge. These coincidences strike me as unlikely.'
Suetonius allowed a few moments to pass to let that information settle in. He then raised further contradictions.
'Caesar, I need not remind us how both Centurion Urbicus and Decurion Scorilo has told us here only moments ago how they spent the entire night at a troops' celebration of The Isia from that same dusk until the following dawn. Yet the testimony here proclaims to us they were in widely diverse places at the very same time.
Centurion Urbicus says he was at an all-night party, while these papyrus records claim he spent the night aboard The Alexandros. He also managed to be by the riverside at the time Antinous's body was hauled from the Nile.
Separately, we have depositions taken from Decurion Scorilo declaring how he performed Guard duties at Caesar's welcoming banquet for Senator Commodus throughout that very same night. Yet he appears magically to have been in three places at precisely the same time — at an all-night party for the troops, onboard The Alexandros, and as a Guard officer attending the welcoming banquet. These competing facts are a great mystery and enigma, my lord.'
Both Urbicus and Scorilo stood motionless, undisturbed by the sardonic observations. Urbicus eventually cleared his throat to speak.
'My lord Special Inspector, may I speak? These records are obviously a blatant forgery! Not only were we entertained all night at Caesar's party for his troops, those sheets from the jetty are inconsistent and bear poor witness. I piss on their inaccuracies and those who would slander senior, proven officers of Caesar's Guards. It's an offence against our honor! I will pursue the offender for blood satisfaction!'
The centurion's stern accusation shifted the atmosphere considerably. Suetonius became fearful of how the swiftness of judicial favor could shift ground so easily. He was determined to probe deeper before Urbicus or Scorilo wriggled off the hook.
'The letter of authority, the invitation from Lady Anna Perenna, was this retained, tessararius, to confirm at least one of these claims?' Suetonius asked, swiftly subsiding into desperation.
'No, great lord, only my notation was entered on the sheet telling it had been sighted. The youth Lysias, if that's who he was, took it with him. But the writing was definitely in the hand of the Lady. I have sighted My Ladyship's invitations often,' the clerk confirmed. He was now confused about the real identity of 'the youth Lysias'. Governor Titianus glanced to his consort at the unexpected implication of many invitations.
'The Lady Anna Perenna,' Suetonius articulated rhetorically to the gathering, 'just who is the Lady Anna Perenna? Tell us, priestess of Rome, who you are, what was your original name prior to adoption by your cult, and where were you born? What is your origin?'
Perenna smiled in a confident manner which disconcerted her interrogator. She responded in an untroubled, even disparaging, manner.
'My dear Special Inspector, why should you ask? I am who I am. I am Anna Perenna at Alexandria, nothing more, nothing less. Frankly I do not know the answers you seek.'
Suetonius turned towards Geta the Dacian who had been beside Caesar's throne. The mess of Hadrian's discharges had been cleansed away by the Egyptian workers. Geta's clothing and personal bearing too were adequately restored to cleanliness.
'Geta of Dacia, tell us, does the woman Anna Perenna remind you of someone? Do you see a resemblance? Don't you feel you might know might this woman?'
The biographer was taking great risks punting upon such similarities. Geta stood apart with a quizzical expression.
'No, I don't Suetonius. I have no idea what you mean.'
'Look at yourself and at Perenna. Don't you see a resemblance? Coloring, height, facial features, your accents, even the marks upon your cheeks? There are many coincidences. Too many coincidences. It screams at us.'
'You see things I don't see, Special Inspector. Yes, there are accidental resemblances. But they are not substantial. What are you getting at?' the Dacian asked his interrogator.
Hadrian began to be aware of the biographer's meaning. He interrupted the conversation.
'Are you asking, Inspector, is Geta related by blood to the priestess? Are Perenna and Geta somehow of the same family?'
Suetonius nodded sheepishly. Hadrian turned to the Dacian.
