Chapter Fifteen
The fifth day before the Ides of Germanicus. Day five of the Games.
The fourth hour of the day.
“May I sit down? I don’t mean to interrupt.”
“Oh, please.” Calpurnia put down the scroll she had been studying and made room on the stone bench under the pergola.
“There’s actually a breeze this morning,” Amatia said, turning her face toward it. “You have a lovely garden.”
The flower beds were ablaze with color. Bumblebees buzzed among the irises and lavender. A pair of warblers perched upon the head of Priapus and sang their song. “What were you reading?”
“Oh,” Calpurnia blushed, “just one of my husband’s speeches to the probate court. I memorize them-well, as much as I can, it pleases him.” “Goodness, child, what a wife you are!” Amatia laughed. “You mustn’t call me ‘child,’ I am a married woman.” “Of course you are; forgive me, Calpurnia. Still, you are so young. Do you have any friends your own age?” “Not really. All the other wives in our set are much older than me. And on their second or third husbands.” “Are you from Rome?”
“Oh, no, from the north, Comum, where my husband comes from. Our family properties adjoin. Two years ago he went home to visit his mother. I happened to be in the house. My grandfather, who has raised me since I was a child, had sent me there to be a companion to the old lady. Anyway, I was there when he arrived. His own wife had recently died of a long illness. But he was sweet to me. We talked, he told me all about Rome, the baths and the theaters and the tall buildings. And, of course, all about the courts and the cases he tries there. I’m afraid I didn’t understand much of that, being a country-bred girl, but it all sounded so grand. And then, before I knew it, he asked for my hand in marriage. I was speechless, terrified. What could he see in a simple girl like me? But he said it was my simplicity that he loved. That I would bring a breath of the North with me. My grandfather, of course, favored the match. And so here I am. I’m very lucky.”
Amatia was silent for a while. “But are you happy? Gaius Plinius sometimes seems more like your father than your husband.”
“Oh, he’s husband enough!” She risked a smile. “And as for a father, well, I hardly remember mine. So, that’s all right too. Oh, I know he fusses about things and some people say he’s vain-I’m not deaf or stupid, I hear things-but I do love him and I want very much to please him. And so…” She tapped her forehead with the scroll.
“So you memorize his speeches and set his poems to music.”
“And now, Martial’s as well. I was touched by his poem, weren’t you? I hope he’ll like what I’ve done with it. I confess, he frightens me a little.”
“Indeed, that man is a study in contradictions. But you, at any rate, are a good wife and a shrewd woman as well. If only Rome had more like you than of the other sort. Still, you must be bored sometimes and lonely.”
Calpurnia sighed. “The hours pass somehow. I read all sorts of things, Gaius likes me to be well-informed. What else is a wife to do after all, especially one in my condition? Tell me all about your home. Of course, I’ve read Caesar’s Commentaries, but I suppose Gaul is very peaceful now.” “Yes, well…” Amatia began. “Oh!” Calpurnia touched her abdomen. “He just kicked. Do you want to feel?” Amatia put out her hand. “I do feel it! He’ll be a strong boy.”
“I sacrifice everyday to Juno Lucina that he will. Sometimes I’m so afraid. My husband wants a son so badly. Soranus, my obstetrician, says I have the pica. I have vomiting, dizziness, headache. I must eat only soft-boiled eggs and porridge. And twice a day old Helen massages my abdomen with myrtle and oil of roses. Everything is forbidden to me-excitement, travel, crowds, and now even love-making.”
“Poor Calpurnia. We’re a fine pair of invalids. My births were all easy, thank the gods, but this hysteria that afflicts me now-that is something else.”
“And you believe Queen Isis will truly heal you? I know almost nothing about that cult. My husband doesn’t approve.”
“Indeed, I do not.” Pliny emerged from the tablinum, where he had spent the morning trying, without success, to draft a memorandum to the city prefect. “I have nothing against the goddess, mind you, but her rites are far too stimulating for Calpurnia in her present state. Waving those rattles around, dancing. Of course, if you want to go to the temple yourself, Amatia, my litter is at your disposal.”
The woman smiled up at him. “Alas, there is no point until I receive my dream and my money. I pray for the time to be short. My dear,” she turned back to Calpurnia, “do you know how to spin wool?”
The girl shook her head, her mother had died when she was a baby, no one had ever…
“I will teach you, just as I did my daughters. Pliny, be good enough to ask a slave to fetch wool and a distaff and spindle. You know, my dear, how it says on the tombstones of wives from the old republican times ‘lanam fecit- she made wool?’ In those days they really did. It was the highest praise a woman could receive. I find it calms the mind. So will you, my dear.”
Pliny beamed. He suddenly felt a great tenderness toward his young wife, and great gratitude toward Amatia. In just four days she seemed to have blended imperceptibly into the life of his family. She was, like himself, a provincial who valued the old Roman traditions as few Romans of the City did. And Calpurnia clearly loved her. It bothered him a bit that a woman of such obvious good sense would want to involve herself with those Isiac charlatans, but he supposed illness makes cowards of us all. Still, he felt that if Calpurnia had a sudden emergency, he could count on Amatia to keep a level head and know what to do. He was sorry, in fact, that she must eventually leave them.
The bunch of wool was brought and teased apart, with Calpurnia’s white kitten leaping up to catch the strands. Pliny turned reluctantly back to his office, leaving the two women, with their heads together, laughing.
That night Martial joined them again for dinner. He was amusing, entertaining, teasingly flirtatious with the women. He evaded Pliny’s questions about where he had been yesterday. While they waited for the first course to be served, he studied Amatia, who as usual shared a couch with Calpurnia. Who was this serene, attractive woman? What was he supposed to notice about her? He told himself that he was merely satisfying his own curiosity. “You’re from Gaul, madam? A part of the Empire I’m happy to say I’ve never visited. Do they still wear long hair and paint themselves blue?” Fishing for information.
She laughed pleasantly. “‘Long-haired Gaul’ is a thing of the past. We’re reasonably civilized these days. Lugdunum is a good sized city nowadays. My father was a land-owner. My husband was a merchant. He died some years ago and left me well provided for. I live with my eldest daughter and her husband. But it is a rather dull place, I admit. No society that would interest a man of the world like you.”
“Well, in that case, seeing as you’re in Rome during the Games you should take the opportunity to see some plays. It would be my pleasure to accompany you if you don’t object to being seen with such a notorious fellow as myself.” He favored her with his toothiest smile.
“Thank you, but I have a horror of crowds. They bring on my attacks.”
“Ah, a pity. And your illness, if you don’t mind my asking? You seem well at the moment.”
“Hysterical suffocation. It strikes me at odd times, whenever something happens to upset me. As I explained to Gaius Plinius, there’s no medical cure. But to Isis all things are possible. Even my physician Iatrides agrees.” At this she turned anxious eyes on Pliny. “I know how busy you are, but I’m so worried about him. Where can he have gone to? It’s been more than a week. I’m afraid something awful has happened. Are the City Battalions searching for him? You remember-a corpulent man with a beard, about fifty years old.”
“Yes, yes of course. So far no word, I’m afraid.” The truth was, the matter had entirely slipped his mind. He had said nothing to the prefect, but he would do so tomorrow.
Martial gave up on the woman and turned his gaze on Pliny. “And what did you learn yesterday at Verpa’s?”
“Oh, a great deal, my friend. I wish you had been there.” He summarized briefly and concluded, “The difficulty is making sense of it all. Lucius is raging. He claims the legacy to the temple is a forgery, and it does seem like an extraordinary amount of money for a tight-fisted man like Verpa to donate for a mortuary, of all things. I’d like to
