‘Me? Why me?’
‘Because, Sabinus, the Oracle said that a brother will understand and, whether we like it or not, we will always be brothers.’
Caligula’s growing excitement at the prospect of setting off on the progress to the Bay of Neapolis caused him to curtail the dinner shortly after dark, announcing that he wished to spend the rest of the night settling his feud with Neptune so that he would not send a storm to destroy his bridge. The guests departed with obvious relief at being able to leave with their lives, limbs and virtues intact.
Vespasian left Sabinus to make his own way home to the Aventine and, despite the lateness of the hour, set off to make a call that he was dreading but knew he could not put off.
Apart from a couple of crossroads brothers on watch at the corner, Caenis’ street was empty. Vespasian nodded his regards to the lads and walked purposefully to her door.
The huge Nubian answered his knock within moments and he was quickly and silently admitted.
‘I knew you’d come,’ Caenis said gently as he walked into the dimly lit atrium, ‘I’ve been waiting up for you.’ She walked over to him and, looping her arms around his neck, kissed him on the lips.
Vespasian closed his eyes and responded in full, drinking in her intoxicating scent and caressing the curve of her back with his hands. ‘How did you know I was back in Rome?’ he asked as they finally broke off.
She looked up at him with moist eyes and a smile. ‘Occasionally, as you know, to relieve the boredom I go to your uncle’s house; I went there this evening.’
Vespasian sucked in his breath. ‘So you’ve…’
‘Met Flavia? Yes, my love, I have. She’s very beautiful.’
Vespasian swallowed and wondered how that might have gone. ‘I wanted to tell you about her first.’
‘That’s why I knew you’d come tonight. But you don’t need to tell me about her, she’s done that already and in great detail; if you wish to marry her you do so with my blessing.’
‘You will always be first and foremost, my love.’
‘I know that, that’s why I’m happy to let you go; it’s my own private victory over her. I may be second in line when it comes to receiving your attention and can never bear your children, but I will always be first when it comes to your love and I’ll settle for that.’
He held her shoulders and looked down at her, smiling, and then kissed her gently on the forehead. ‘Should I stay?’
‘I’d never forgive you if you didn’t.’
CHAPTER XXIII
A short chorus of bucinae echoed around the Forum Romanum, followed by the mass barking of centurions bringing five cohorts of the Praetorian Guard to simultaneous attention with a single crack of hobnails on stone. Along the crowd-lined Via Sacra trotted two alae of Praetorian cavalry, keeping pace with the star of the spectacle, Caligula, fifty feet above them and a hundred paces to their left, as he traversed his bridge from the Palatine to the Capitoline Hill riding Incitatus and dressed as Vulcan: a single-shouldered tunic, a pileus and brandishing a smith’s hammer in one hand and a large clamshell in the other. Behind him followed ten naked women painted gold, representing the slave girls whom Vulcan had forged out of the precious metal to serve him.
All around the vicinity of the Forum bonfires burned into which people threw live fish or small animals — rats, mice, puppies and kittens — as a sacrifice to the god of fire in the hope that he would spare the city from burning during the hot, dry summer. In their capacity as the city’s fire fighters the Vigiles kept a close eye on every bonfire.
From the steps of the Curia, Vespasian and the rest of the Senate watched Caligula progress onto the Capitoline, dismount and then descend the Gemonian Stairs past the Temple of Concordia and stop before the Volcanal, the sacred precinct to Vulcan, and one of the oldest shrines in Rome. Here, before the altar, shaded by a cypress tree, there waited a red calf and a red boar ready to be sacrificed to the god whose festival it was that day.
‘Having made his peace with Neptune I suppose that our Emperor is now ensuring that Vulcan doesn’t burn the city down in his absence,’ Vespasian observed as the sacrificial knife flashed in Caligula’s hand despatching the calf.
‘Or send fire out from his smithy under Vesuvius to burn his bridge,’ Sabinus muttered.
‘Wrong mountain, dear boy,’ Gaius corrected him as the boar collapsed spurting blood. ‘Vulcan lives under Etna in Sicilia. Anyway, he only does that every time his wife, Venus, is unfaithful to him, so if we wanted to avoid an eruption in Sicilia perhaps it’s her that we should be sacrificing to, in order to ensure her good behaviour.’
Vespasian grinned at his uncle and brother. ‘I should certainly offer a sacrifice of thanks to her after Flavia’s behaviour this morning.’
‘You should indeed,’ Gaius agreed.
Sabinus looked confused. ‘Who’s Flavia?’
‘She, dear boy, is the woman whom your brother intends to marry. The same woman who, when Vespasian turned up soon after dawn, having spent the night with Caenis, gave him a kiss and asked if he’d had a pleasant evening before calmly finishing her breakfast and then, having packed, left for her father’s house, with my letter opening the marriage negotiations, and with no more than a warning to your younger brother that he should ensure that he has something left for their wedding night next month.’
Sabinus stared in disbelief at Vespasian who shrugged innocently. ‘She must be a very stupid woman if she didn’t realise that he’d spent the night with someone else.’
‘Oh, she knew all right; in fact, she even met Caenis yesterday evening and explained to her the rules.’
Vespasian was alarmed. ‘The rules, Uncle?’
‘Yes, dear boy, the rules.’
‘What are the rules?’
‘The rules are simple: Flavia has first call on you if she is entertaining, wanting a holiday, needing to discipline children, wishing to take a walk around the city or trying to get pregnant. At any other time Caenis is welcome to have you but not for more than four nights in a row, going down to three once the first child is two and more in need of a regular paternal figure, and then two once it is seven.’
Sabinus guffawed, much to the outrage of the senators nearby; he quickly controlled his face into one more befitting a religious ceremony. ‘It sounds like they’ve parcelled him up very neatly.’
‘Oh, they both knew very well what they wanted. They were icily polite to each other, complementing one another’s hair and trinkets and suchlike, but they came to a peaceful understanding despite their obvious mutual loathing; it was a wonder to behold and confirmed to me the wisdom of my lifestyle.’
Vespasian was indignant. ‘And you let them negotiate about me as if I were a gladiator that they’d both taken a fancy to.’
‘I didn’t let them do anything, dear boy,’ Gaius replied, shrugging his shoulders, ‘it’s nothing to do with me; I just observed. You’re the one who’s insisting on having a complicated domestic arrangement. I just hope that you don’t have to pay too high a price for it, both emotionally and financially.’
A roar from the crowds brought their attention back to the day’s proceedings; the auspices having evidently been declared favourable, Caligula had mounted a quadriga, with Incitatus now installed in his place on the left of the team, and was leaving the Forum followed by the cavalry alae. Cohort by cohort, the Praetorians began to march out after them to the cheers of the crowds.
‘I think that their enthusiasm is less for the spectacle and more for the fact that once Caligula’s driven over his bridge the ships can be used to bring some much needed food to their bellies,’ Gaius observed as they and the rest of the Senate began to follow. ‘Let’s hope that we can get this sorry affair over with quickly.’
Two miles outside the Porta Capena, in a field alongside the Via Appia, the senators’ carriages waited with their wives already installed and being fussed over by slaves in the ever growing heat. The chaos of reuniting over five hundred men with their vehicles lasted for more than an hour and was not helped by Caligula riding his chariot, followed by a turma of grinning Praetorian troopers, up and down the rows of carriages and lashing out with his whip in an effort to speed up the process. Many a mule team bolted, dragging their burdens, with their screaming
