others across the Empire making claims to Rome's priorities.
The new city will require a huge investment of manpower and moneys. Caesar will persuade the Senate to appropriate the necessary wealth and arms, and Rome's leading financiers will support its construction. But at the end of the day it will require the new settlers to be cohesively unified for the plan to provide its defensive bulwark. Cohesion is essential.'
'What will the city be called?' Clarus asked.
'In Caesar's honor and to encourage cohesion, I have recommended Hadrianopolis,' the governor declared. 'This might be why Caesar is so engrossed. It will carry his name into history.'
Suetonius was prompted to remember a detail which troubled him the previous evening at the priest Kenamun's riverside embalming pavilion.
'My lord, last night we met a citizen of Greek blood from the Fayum Oasis who is a painter of portraits for funerals. He is a sculptor too. His name is Cronon, and he told us he'd been invited to this encampment many weeks ago,' Suetonius posed, 'well prior to the Bithynian's drowning. Would such a tradesman be summoned to attend your announcement?'
'Indeed,' the governor affirmed, 'my staff has assembled many, many artisans for Caesar's announcement, to discuss the planning of the new city. They've been sheltered at a camp site outside the nearby village and told not to talk of it.'
'Then it's plausible after all that Cronon could have been invited to this camp by the Priest of Amun, Pachrates from Memphis, well prior to The Isia and Antinous's death?'
'Yes, that's possible,' the Governor acknowledged.
Suetonius and Clarus now had reason to accept Kenamun's protestations on the previous evening. Titianus continued.
'But the priest Pachrates is an ambitious fellow, my friends. His like are very cunning. And he's found favor in Hadrian's eyes.
Pachrates understands the peculiarities of the Roman, Greek, and the Egyptian views of life, and so offers advice on how to implement our plans among each community. I'm told the dead youth was especially impressed by Pachrates' magical arts,' Titianus confirmed. 'So the wizard's input and contacts have been welcomed by Caesar. But for my money that priest is too clever by half. He's not a man to trust.'
'We've been told Pachrates is known to commit murder for his magic,' Suetonius proposed daringly.
The Governor fell silent for some moments. He drew himself back into his chair.
'He's been authorized by my office on rare occasions to utilize condemned criminals destined for a fate in the arena in his magical performances. But I'm not aware of any claim of the murder of innocents. The man is devious, but so are most in the East. It's in the air here,' Titianus offered.
'Was Antinous out of favor with Caesar, my lord?' Suetonius asked, shifting tack. Titianus was cautious for a few moments. The four sensed the question had entered sensitive territory.
'There appears to have been some form of fallout some weeks ago at Alexandria when the Western Favorite joined the tour. As you know, Commodus was popular with Caesar some years ago. But I've not discerned a dispute between Hadrian and Antinous about the matter. Yet the lad had his own issues to contend with,' the governor submitted.
'What are those, my lord Governor?'
'Well, to start with, after five years attachment to Hadrian he's now no longer a meirakion young man anymore. He's too old now for a role as Caesar's consort. It's too open to scandal, even here in the East where such things are widely tolerated,' the governor speculated. 'Note I separate the man Hadrian from the role of Caesar. The man is entitled; an emperor is not.
I was with them both at the time when Caesar expressed this view pointedly to the lad. It was at The Soma in Alexandria only a month or so ago.'
'What was this occasion, my lord?' Suetonius enquired as all ears pricked up.
'Hadrian and several of his retinue, including Antinous, visited The Soma on two or three occasions. The Soma, Alexander the Great's tomb, is a pivotal institution at Alexandria. It's the city's raison d'etre, from a spiritual point of view. Not only do tourists from across the Empire visit and pay homage to the ancient hero, his tomb unifies the contending communities of the city into a single ethos, otherwise they'd be at each other's throats interminably.
All great cities have a key icon giving them their meaning; like a tomb or temple or hard-fought citadel. It's no accident the regime of the Ptolemies guaranteed the security of The Soma for over three hundred years,' Titianus expounded. 'Well, a member of Hadrian's retinue suggested the mausoleum and Alexander be moved to the new city. The notion was to provide a logical focus for creating the new Hadrianopolis, correlating the heroic virtues of Caesar and Alexander under one rubric.
It's a good idea, though I'd never allow Alexander's corpse to leave Alexandria. Yet it would encourage tourism to the new city and attract immigrants drawn to the Roman way of life. Hadrianopolis will need such a draw-card in this godforsaken place, otherwise it will become another dead city lost beneath Egyptian sands. There are dozens already.'
'But how did this effect Hadrian's attitude to Antinous?' the biographer asked.
'Well, Hadrian is an avid admirer of Alexander, as too is Antinous. We agreed Egypt needs the sort of public spectacles the Ptolemy Greeks once provided to give the various communities a sense of being unified. You know, grand public gardens, magnificent temples, spectacular tombs, rites like The Ptolemaia festival, plus the hippodrome's races and games, and so on. At Alexandria all these attractions were held together by that single cadaver whose shadow we discern through the alabaster of his sarcophagus,' the Prefect explained. 'Otherwise it becomes Roman against Greek, Greek against Jew, Jew against Christian, free against slave, rich against poor, and all of them against the Egyptian natives.
Instead, Antinous inventively suggested how a Caesareum honoring the Caesars at the new city of Hadrianopolis, not Alexander's coveted body, would better fulfill the role. But he added it be accompanied by generous Imperial bequests, games, statues, commemorative coins, and cultic events, all with their emphasis on Hadrian as Caesar as the focus.
Hadrian was encouraged by the idea, it took his fancy, and the group applauded the lad's enthusiasms. But then Caesar shifted the conversation into a darker terrain. He took this cheerful opportunity to tell the young man loudly before us how their continuing relationship must cease. He put it very plainly to him. He said how a Caesar who befits the values of a Caesareum at Hadrianopolis must display public probity in all things, including his consorts.
He explained how worshipers at a Caesareum must know their Caesar is worthy of their adoration. Such a Caesar must relinquish any relationship with a partner who is no longer beardless. He terminated the relationship then and there before our eyes. Antinous was stunned by the announcement and quite visibly distressed.'
Titianus paused to recollect the day. The four listened patiently.
'I'm sure the lad wasn't concerned about his future prospects because I've reason to know how he'd accumulated wealth far beyond a youth's needs, and was considered a prime candidate for posts in the cavalry or administration corps,' the Governor expanded. 'No, his concern seemed otherwise. Some have insinuated to me Hadrian had become uncomfortable about aspects of their relationship, though no one tells me what they are. Even my spies and paid informers don't know.
Meanwhile, it was evident Antinous was slipping into a state of disquiet. I didn't know the lad especially well, but I could see he was troubled by his predicament.'
'What do you think that predicament was, my lord?' Suetonius asked. Titianus thoughtfully considered his response for a moment.
'Well one explanation, the simplest explanation I'd say, is Antinous was in love with Hadrian and reluctant to let go,' he stated flatly. 'It's that simple. He didn't wish to be parted from his lover. People can be like that, you know.'
'Love?!' Clarus interjected, beginning to hear the language of a cinaedus. 'Love! A young man barely beyond an ephebe's age loves a man now in his fifties? That is bizarre, Prefect Governor. What is such a pitiable love?'
'Yes, my good senator, Love. That sad, tragic affliction of Aphrodite or her son Eros. It happens to many of us, you know? It's unpredictable,' the Governor confirmed. 'Haven't you felt Aphrodite's call at some time in your life, Septicius Clarus, 'the stream of longing' with someone, somewhere, somehow?'
