Domitian strode to the side of the room, where silk tapestries hung between the columns. He pulled each one aside and looked behind it.
“They spy on me, you know,” apparently meaning the slaves.“ They’re being paid to do it. They think they can evade me, a god! But I’ll catch them out!”
“Shall I have them killed, Ruler of the Universe?” Parthenius asked mildly.
The Ruler of the Universe sat down on a vacant stool and squeezed his temples with his fingertips. “As you think best.” The voice was flat and lifeless. “Now, Fulvus,” he turned his gaze on the prefect, “make your report. I could hear the shouts myself, I put no stock in them. I trust you heard the whispers. Who among them is plotting my death?”
“No, Caesar, impossible!” This was Parthenius again, an expression of horror on his face.
“What, then, am I mad?” Domitian rounded on him. “An emperor is the most unfortunate of men, because no one believes that his life’s in danger until he loses it!”
Pliny felt as though an elephant’s foot was on his chest. He struggled to draw a breath, then blurted out, “I heard nothing, Caesar, nothing at all. Not a word. Nothing…”
“I think you’ve made yourself quite clear, Gaius Plinius,” said Fulvus with a touch of sarcasm. “I too heard nothing distinct, Caesar. If it had not been for Nerva…”
“Nerva,” Domitian said very softly. “We will have to do something about Cocceius Nerva.”
“And the unfortunate matter of Senator Verpa?” Fulvus said. “I’ve had a detachment of troopers in the house since early this morning. What more do you wish done?”
“What do I wish?” Domitian gave him a ferocious look. “If I can’t protect my senators from being murdered in their beds, I shall have no allies at all among ’em. I suppose the slaves did it. I want them all tried and burnt alive as soon as the Games are over and the courts are in session again. Fifteen days from tomorrow. Plenty of time.”
“More than enough, Caesar,” the prefect replied, “if these were fifteen ordinary days. But it is my job also to maintain public order while the city is packed with visitors. Crowds must be managed, drunkenness and petty crimes repressed. Add to that the number of, ah, clandestine operations that you have entrusted to me. All this with only four thousand men. I can’t be everywhere at once.”
“Are you getting old, Aurelius Fulvus? Is it time I replaced you?”
“Please, Lord of the World, allow me to explain.” His voice cringed though his body remained upright. “If I were to take on the investigation personally, would it not seem to make too much of Verpa’s death? On the other hand, we don’t want to assign it to a mere tribune or centurion. I had thought to put a member of my staff in charge of it. A proven man, a man with many friends in the Senate chamber. In short, my acting deputy, Pliny-that is, with your approval, of course.”
Pliny, who had let his attention wander, began at once to stammer. “But, Prefect, I am a probate lawyer, not a policeman! In fact, I have made up my mind to return to my practice.”
“You’ve said nothing to me of resigning,” the prefect said in a menacing tone. “Will you oppose yourself to my recommendation and Our Lord’s wish?”
“Why, no, I…”
Domitian gripped Pliny’s shoulder with a hand that could have crushed an apple and brought his face close- that face with its eagle’s beak, jutting chin, thick neck. The red-rimmed eyes searched his. “It is my wish. I have been…” he searched for the word, “preoccupied lately or I would have spoken to you sooner, my dear Pliny. You know your late uncle served my father with the utmost loyalty and discretion for many years. I’ve already helped your career along, haven’t I? Without a word from me you’d still be waiting for your praetorship with the rest of the provincial newcomers.” “I know, Caesar, and I’m most…” “Grateful? Of course you are. Then show your gratitude now.” “Certainly, Caesar, it’s only…”
“You have your uncle’s temperament, you know. Scrupulous, meticulous, careful. And your private life is irreproachable, that counts for a great deal with me. I only wish I had more senators like you instead of those ‘philosophers,’ as they like to call themselves. I admire philosophy, and so do you. But those people, they use it as a cloak for treason! I know you agree with me.”
Pliny abandoned all attempts at speech and merely nodded. The emperor’s grip still held him fast.
“I knew I could count on you. Now then, you need only attend the procession and sacrifices tomorrow morning and then again on the Nones. The rest of your time you will devote to this matter. Understood? And now go home to your lovely child-bride. I envy you. You see the dragon I married!” Domitian let out an unpleasant laugh. “Come and kiss me, Gaius Plinius.” Domitian offered his cheek, a mark of signal favor.
Pliny and the city prefect emerged into the sultry September night. The sun had set hours ago and, except for a lamp glowing from a window here and there, darkness covered the great city like a lid on a pot. The two men stood talking at the foot of the steps while their litter slaves stretched and shook themselves. “This business tonight in the furnace room. You must have known,” Pliny said, trying not to show his anger. “Not in every particular,” Fulvus answered easily. “But inviting the wives!”
“Much more likely than their husbands to let something spill. Now let us have done with complaining and turn to the matter of Verpa.”
“You might at least have prepared me for that! I’m a probate lawyer. I’m not used to dealing with criminals- at least, not this sort of criminal.”
Fulvus waved off the note of indignation. “Nothing could be simpler. Don’t worry the thing to death like one of your convoluted inheritance cases. Just have a look around the place tomorrow, take depositions from the son and the woman Scortilla-she’s a bit of a whore, I’m told. Do you know her? No? What chaste ears you have. Question the slaves, of course. Oh, don’t look so queasy, they won’t need much tickling. Someone will talk, they always do.”
“The slaves are being confined in the house?”
“Yes, well the Tullianum is full up at the moment with more important prisoners awaiting a-ah-final disposition of their cases, if you get my meaning.”
Pliny knew what he meant.
“So, no place else to put them. Anyway, then all you have to do is sit down and write an impassioned speech condemning them. All in a day’s work for a lawyer, I would have thought. And the emperor and I will be most grateful to you. Now, I’ve assigned you a centurion-manners a bit rough, but a good man-and five troopers from the City Battalions, all I can spare, I’m afraid. As for the slaves, I’ve ordered them collared and shackled in their sleeping quarters, and that’s where they’ll stay until we execute them. Why can’t this great city of ours build a proper prison?” He raised his arms to heaven. “Well, goodnight, my friend. Best to your wife.”
As they mounted their litters, Fulvus called back, “Full dress uniform tomorrow. Mustn’t let the Praetorians outshine us.”
Chapter Four
Late that night Pliny peeped into his wife’s bedroom. It was hot and she had thrown off the covers. She lay on her back, her chestnut hair spread out on the pillow, the swelling curve of her belly a gray outline against the pale lamplight. Old Helen slept on a cot at the foot of the bed.
He made scarcely a sound but Calpurnia awoke and sat up in the bed. “Dearest, forgive me…” She took pride in always waiting up for him.
“Don’t be silly. Helen was right to make you go to bed.”
“Was it a fine dinner? I wish I could have gone.”
“I am inexpressibly happy that you did not. Go back to sleep like a good girl. We’ll talk in the morning.” He kissed her forehead and felt a surge of tenderness run through him.
In his own bed in the adjoining room Pliny tossed fitfully. One could have said, before tonight, that if ever a man was pleased with himself, comfortable with his certainties, satisfied with his circumstances, and confident of his future, it was he.
Now doubts assailed him. He had attended dinners at the palace before but nothing like tonight’s grotesquerie. Was the emperor going mad as some in the Senate whispered? And if so, then where did duty lie?
