Marcus Aurelius Betrayed (20 page)

Straton and Velleius walked around from the docks to the lighthouse, which Straton remarked was not quite as impressive or as tall as the Pharos Lighthouse at Alexandria, but it was impressive and tall enough.

Velleius swept his arm over the scene and asked with a smile, “What ships are the safest, warships or merchant ships?”

“I don’t know.”

“The ones in port!”

“Oh,” said Straton. “That old joke. So, did you hear the one about the proverbial dope from the town of Abdera who was on a ship that was foundering in stormy weather? His slaves started screaming in fright. Don’t worry, said the Abderite. I’m freeing you all in my will.”

“Well,” countered Velleius, “do you know the one about the Abderite who put a sack of cabbage and onions on the stern of his boat on a calm day? His doctor had told him that cabbage and onions cause wind!”

“Speaking of doctors,” replied Straton, “did you hear the one about the man who went to the doctor complaining, doctor, doctor, when I wake up every morning I’m dizzy for half an hour. What should I do? The doctor replied, wake up half an hour later!”

“What about the man with horrible bad breath,” countered Velleius, “who went to the doctor saying his tonsils have swollen and dropped. The doctor told him to open his mouth and when he did his breath was so bad that the doctor recoiled in disgust. It’s not that your tonsils have fallen, diagnosed the doctor, but your ass has risen!”

“Did you hear the one about the guy who went to the doctor complaining that he was covered in red hot boils and was burning up. Get yourself a kettle of water, advised the doctor, and jump in. You’ll have warm water for days!”

“This reminds me,” said Straton “of the man at the barber who was asked, how should I cut your hair? In silence!”

“So which joke book have you been reading,” asked Velleius. “I have one called
Philogelos
– ‘Lover of Laughter’”.

“I just remember jokes,” replied Straton. “But I’ll look for that book.”

Suddenly a great commotion rose and people started running to the dock. The superfreighter
Isis
hove into view, its mainmast lowered, but its red topmast still displayed in the manner of the Alexandrian grain fleet. This was the ship that Straton and Velleius were waiting for and they ran toward the dock, but then hung back. Their intention was not to be seen but to see. Velleius also gave a signal to someone waiting in the wings.

“We have a band from the Praetorian Guard waiting to form up and greet the Prefect of Egypt and his entourage. He’ll probably be the first off the ship because of his status and position. He’ll be easily recognizable by everyone greeting him, of course, but I want you to point out who is who among his entourage. We’ll both be following one or the other of them as things progress.”

“Is the band here to honor the Prefect?” asked Straton.

Velleius gave a somewhat crooked smile. “More to lull him.”

The ship soon docked. It was a beautiful super-freighter. Straton knew its measurements from looking them up at the port authority offices. It was 180 feet long, 45 feet abeam with a hold 44 feet deep, taller than a 4-story apartment house. It had a capacity of 12,000 tons and could carry more than 300 passengers. The
Isis
was painted dark blue with red strakes along the sides. The oars were painted yellow, the golden gilded goose-neck sternpost -- the sign of a merchant ship -- shone as a bright sun emerged from a gap in the clouds, while a statue of the goddess Isis graced the stern.

As predicted, the Prefect and his entourage were first off. The band had formed up but were waiting for Calvus’ own family and clients and slaves who had come out from Rome to gather round and greet him first. Straton started pointing out members of the Prefect’s entourage, who were behind him and hanging back while the greetings were going on.

“That one with the shaven head in the long white linen robe and palm leaf sandals is Petamon, the Isis priest,” said Straton, “while that gorgeous woman with the red hair next to him is Aurora, Calvus’
hetaira
at the orgy and now his concubine. The young man standing next to the Prefect is Secundus. Of the other two standing next to Petamon and Aurora, one must be Serpentinus, his aide, and the other Philogenes, the Homeric scholar and librarian. Both were also at the orgy.”

“The tall thin one with the drawn-in face who looks like a snake must be Serpentinus,” observed Velleius. “So the other one, the very small one must be Philogenes.”

“I agree,” said Straton. “So now that we know, I’ll follow Philogenes and you can follow Serpentinus.”

“All right. And I’ll assign the guardsmen with me to follow the others individually. We’ve all agreed to meet at your judge’s chambers in the Forum of Augustus every evening to compare notes. So I’ll see you there.”

Velleius then walked into the crowd and conferred with other Praetorians dressed non-descriptly, pointing out the people in the Prefect’s entourage and making assignments.

The Praetorian Guard band struck up a greeting march and headed toward the Prefect and his entourage, accompanied by coaches, carriages or Tiber river boats
ready to transport the arrivals to Rome. Then Straton, Velleius and the other guardsmen all boarded their own waiting coaches or river boats to follow the stream of travelers along the
Via Ostiensis
or the Tiber River into the City.

XXXI

ALEXANDER RECOUNTS HIS MEETING WITH PHILOGENES

T
hree evenings later, there was a scheduled gathering at Judge Severus’ chambers in the Forum of Augustus, as there had been every evening since the arrival of the Prefect. Seated around a citrus wood table were the judge, his assessor Flaccus, police aides Vulso and Straton, his personal secretary Alexander and the Praetorian Tribune Cornelius. The Praetorian guardsmen Velleius was supposed to be there as well, but had not yet arrived.

The table was in the center of the room next to the
scrinium
, a tall circular wooden bureau with cubby-hole shelves for scrolls and files. A white cushioned reading couch was against one wall while official portrait paintings of the two Emperors graced another.

“An interesting day,” said Straton beginning his report. “I followed the Homeric scholar Philogenes to the Greek library in the Forum of Trajan, just adjoining our Forum. The same as yesterday, he asked for an old scroll of Book I of Homer’s
Iliad
and sat down with
it at the same reading table he sat at yesterday. As we planned, Alexander was already there waiting for him. Once again, he started studying the scroll and tearing at his hair.” Straton laughed and nodded at Alexander, who took up the report.

“I was seated across the table from Philogenes, and seeing his obvious distress, I casually asked him ‘what was the problem?’ ‘Was he having trouble reading the scroll?’ He said, ‘How can anyone read this? It must be a thousand-year-old Greek.’ ‘Close to it,’ I said, and told him my name. He said his name was Philogenes and he was from Alexandria. I said, ‘I can read it. Do you need some help?’ He breathed a sigh of relief. ‘Absolutely’, he said. ‘Can you really help me?’”

“One moment,” interrupted Cornelius. “I thought he was
the
Homeric scholar from the Library of Alexandria. How come he couldn’t read that old Homeric scroll?”

“Homeric scholar?” said Alexander. “He’s an Homeric scholar like I’m a champion gladiator. I even mentioned that this scroll is an old one, not even the standard version of Homer that the scholars at the same Library of Alexandria agreed upon a few hundred years ago. This so-called Homeric scholar expressed surprise. He said, ‘really? I didn’t know that.’”

“So what’s going on?” asked Cornelius.

“He’s obviously an imposter,” concluded Severus. “They brought him here because he’s small the way Philogenes was, maybe even looks like him, and he’s preparing himself to pull off an impersonation by learning some things the real Philogenes should know.”

“So the real Philogenes
is
probably dead, as Isarion told us,” said Vulso.

“I think we can rely on that information now,” replied Severus.

“How should we handle this then?” asked Flaccus.

“I think,” suggested Severus, “that Alexander should teach him to read Book I of the
Iliad
in this old version for the next few days – he’s coming back for help tomorrow isn’t he?”

Alexander nodded.

“Good. So make him feel prepared to pull off an impersonation. And then when he appears at the trial to say he saw the slave Ganymede poison the Prefect’s cup, he’ll be able to read Book I of the
Iliad
to prove he’s Philogenes. But then maybe I’ll confront him with Book VIII of the
Odyssey
and watch him turn green.”

Everyone laughed.

Severus then asked Cornelius for the reports of the other Praetorians following others in the Prefect’s entourage as well as Calvus himself.

“The Prefect didn’t leave his home at all, though messengers were constantly going out and coming in all day, and people were calling on him, clients and
honestiores
, both Equestrians and Senators, judging from the narrow and broad stripes on their clothing. Some even had magisterial stripes on the hems, so they must be judges or officials like Praetors, Quaestors, Aediles. Maybe even a Consul. In addition, we learned that Calvus is scheduled to meet with Marcus Aurelius on the Palatine tomorrow.

“Secundus also stayed inside, so we don’t know what he was doing, but probably he was meeting with the same people his father was meeting with.

“That gorgeous
bacciballum
-- that juicy berry --the red-headed concubine Aurora visits a local
balneum
every morning for a bath and massage. Then today she was taken on a tour of the City by one of the house slaves.

“Petamon, the Isis priest, is still in the great Temple of Isis next to the Saepta Julia where he went two days ago. As far as we know, of course. It’s hard to tell one of those priests from another. They all have their heads shaved and wear the same long white robes and palm leaf sandals.

“And as for Serpentinus, Velleius was following him and he should be here by now to report on today’s happenings. He should have been relieved over an hour ago. Anyway, for the last two days, as Velleius reported to us, Serpentinus was looking to find Isarion at ‘The Golden Ibis’ in the Saepta Julia. We arranged to have the clerk overseeing the store tell him that Isarion is on a short business trip and should be back any day, so Serpentinus should have gone there again today.

“We’ll just have to wait a little while longer for Velleius to tell us what happened today,” continued Cornelius. “Meanwhile, for tomorrow maybe we can think up a way to approach Aurora. Maybe we can have someone befriend her if she tours the City again and pump her for information. Maybe…”

Just then Severus’ court clerk Proculus opened the door to the room and asked Cornelius to come outside. There was a guardsman asking to see him.

“Probably there’s word from Velleius,” he said, as he walked outside.

He came back without much delay and with a drawn, pallid face.

“It’s Velleius,” he said. “He’s dead. He’s been found in an alley with his throat cut.”

XXXII

CALVUS MEETS WITH THE EMPEROR AND HIS
CONSILIUM

T
he Prefect of Egypt’s meeting with the Emperor and his
consilium
of friends and advisors was scheduled for the 4
^th
hour of the morning, after the notorious morning traffic jams in the center of the City would have cleared up to some extent. Any earlier and Calvus’ procession from his
domus
on the Esquiline to the Palatine would have become ensnared in the traffic while contributing to the snarl.

Calvus’ procession began taking shape even a few hours earlier. The Prefect’s clerks and clients, slaves and attendants, as well as musicians, way-clearers and assorted flunkies, had to be organized and arranged before and behind the Prefect’s litter, ready when the Prefect came out of his house. When he did, he got into his luxurious 8-bearer litter, the litter was hoisted up and Calvus sprawled casually on the cushions with the curtains only partially drawn so he could see out and wave to the crowds along the route who looked at the procession. Some onlookers viewed the procession with a certain
admiration for its splendor, some even waved at it, but some also cursed at its opulence and arrogance and its needless contribution to the traffic jams.

Still, the procession made good time through the center of the City to Old Forum and up the Clivus Victoriae to the Palatine and the Imperial Palace. There Calvus was escorted by waiting attendants to the chambers where the Emperor and his
consilium
had gathered to hear his report on conditions in Egypt. Egypt was in some measure the most important province in the Empire because it supplied most of the grain to the City of Rome. If the flow of grain were interrupted, there would be riots in Rome and the government would answer for it. For the people of the City, as Seneca had warned, were an “immense multitude – discordant, seditious, uncontrollable, ready to run riot and equally endanger itself and others if they broke the yoke.”

The
consilium
was composed of some of the Emperor’s most trusted friends and advisors. They were all eminent and experienced. Among them were L. Volusius Maecianus, who had also been a member of the
consilium
of the previous Emperor Antoninus Pius. More than that he had been one of Marcus Aurelius’ teachers in jurisprudence, a former Prefect of Egypt himself, and the noted author of the definitive 16-volume treatise on Trusts. Also present was Q. Junius Rusticus, the Prefect of the City and Sextus Cornelius Repentinus, one of the two Prefects of the Praetorian Guard, the other being on the Persian front with a detachment of the Guard. Then there was M. Cornelius Fronto, doyen of the Roman bar, and tutor and close friend of both Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus from when they were adolescents. Fronto had been a consul some years before and had regularly
corresponded with Aurelius for more than 20 years. Also present was Calpurnius Longinus, the
advocatus fisci
, or chief lawyer of the imperial revenue and Q. Cervidius Scaevola, one of the great jurists of the day.