The Hadrian Enigma - A Forbidden History (49 page)

“
What happens to her original family name before being named
Anna Perenna
?” Clarus enquired. “Does she deny her heredity and her family
gens
?”

“
It’s subsumed behind her cult one,” Balbilla replied. “It’s relinquished for the remainder of their lives. This particular priestess at Alexandria travels under the Prefect Governor’s protection as his consort while Titianus’s legal wife stews in Rome with his four children. Perenna even has a detachment of Praetorians to protect her.

But in discussing such ‘resurrection’, she grew irritable with me. This lady is quite strong willed. It was she who loudly reminded me of my grandfather’s faux pas under Nero. She had read your book, Tranquillus, and knew the details.”

“
I see. You said earlier how Caesar
had been preparing for Antinous’s death for weeks.
What did you mean by that?”

“
I didn’t say preparing for Antinous’s death, but I did say he’d been preparing for
something
for weeks. Surely, gentlemen, you’ve been aware of the unusual activities going on around this Encampment?” Balbilla asked. “We at
The Dionysus
have been very aware of these activities ever since we moored here a week ago.

Governor Titianus and his architects have been busy surveying and measuring the landscape for many weeks now. Macedo’s Praetorians have been running messages up and down the river at haste speed. Vestinus’s couriers have been trotting to and fro with more-than-usual Empire correspondence, and teams of engineers, tradesmen, and builders have been assembled at a special camp just outside the nearby village. Something big is going on.”

“
What do you think Caesar has been preparing?” Suetonius furthered.

“
I don’t wish to spread gossip, but some around the Court report how Caesar was hugely impressed by that magician-priest Pachrates’ killing of a condemned man, who was then magically
resurrected
. It gave him the idea of extending the same principle to this year’s Isia,” Balbilla revealed. Her voice had lowered to a confidential hush. “It’s said how, because the annual Nile deluge has been so paltry for the second year in a row, he would sacrifice a condemned criminal into its waters to fulfill the people’s expectation.

This appears to be the traditional solution to low flooding. The sacrificed man assuages the gods somehow; he is magically
resurrected
in their view to become Osiris Reborn on the third day of The Isia. This act guarantees next year’s flood will be normal. Well, that’s what they claim. It’s all very convoluted, but these superstitious people have faith in it.”

“
My lady, seeing we’re talking plainly, allow me to question you plainly,” Suetonius roused himself. “Where do you think Antinous spent the day or night of his death?”

“
Gentlemen, you appear to know as much as I do, and that’s absolutely nothing. But if you want my advice, considering the preparations underway nearby, I’d suggest you talk with Governor Titianus. He knows everything worth knowing in this land.

Besides, Tranquillus, both the
Augusta
and I suspect the young man’s death is too convenient by half. We’d say there’s more to it than meets the eye.”

CHAPTER 21

“
R
eporting as instructed, sir!”

Urbicus saluted the group of four. His Alexandrian Praetorian troop was approaching the riverside jetty giving access to
The Alexandros.
Suetonius, Clarus, Surisca, and Strabon were proceeding along the same pier.

“
You requested my report by the highest sun, sir,” he announced with a fumbling stammer. He seemed ill-prepared to meet the four.

“
Greetings Centurion!” Clarus responded crisply. “Make your report.”

“
Hail Caesar!
I and my men have searched for the river craft painted blue bearing the Eye of Horus and without sail markings, just as the fishermen who discovered the deceased described to us yesterday.

We have located such a vessel secured in slips by the river at an inlet close by the Temple of Amun near the Imperial Encampment. I am told on authority it is the only such boat on the river here. The temple is less than a 
stadion
north of our protected stockade, surrounded by palm trees. You’d never know it was there it’s so well concealed.”

“
Have you been able to establish whether this vessel was sailing the river at dawn on the day of Antinous’s death, and who its sailor or sailors may have been?” Suetonius queried.

“
This was difficult, sirs, as our enquiry would have raised suspicion among the chief priests of the temple. But yes, we apprehended a worker-priest attached to the temple who was performing manual work in the vicinity of the docked vessel. We persuaded the man to join our company so we could question him in private,” the officer announced in crisply-articulated soldier-speak.

“
Question him? You mean you abducted the fellow, put him to the sword, pressured him, and probably threatened him to some degree?” Suetonius asked genially, if apprehensively.

“
Indeed this might be so, Special Inspector,” the Praetorian confirmed with no hint of irony. “The fellow resisted and claimed he knew of no such voyage. But he was eventually amenable to persuasion and revealed what we wished to know.”

“
Amenable? So what was revealed?” Suetonius queried. He was alarmed at the Guard’s impetuosity in dealing with a workman, priest, or slave under some other institution’s protection.

“
He told us the master of the Temple, a priest of Amun named
Panchrates
or
Pachrates
of Memphis
, had been sailing the river at the appointed time in this vessel accompanied by an acolyte,” Urbicus concluded. The Praetorian officer fell silent, displaying visible satisfaction.

“
Pachrates?!” both Clarus and Suetonius exclaimed. “But why? What was he doing on the river at that time, Centurion?”

“
Well,” the Praetorian offered as an information coup-de-grace, “the slave told us he’d heard gossip how
Panchrates
had ritually sacrificed the youth Antinous in a magical rite to invoke health, and was delivering the corpse upstream to be discovered in the river at dawn. Perhaps this is why the youth’s left wrist had been slashed when he was found by the fishermen, and why he was attired in his formal parade armors.”

The group of four was astonished. At last a breakthrough!.

“
But why would the priest Pachrates slay the Bithynian? What profit is there in this to an Egyptian priest? Especially a Bithynian who was Caesar’s Favorite?” Clarus demanded. He was entering his legalist’s temper of
cui bono
?

Urbicus replied carefully.

“
The temple slave did not know these things, my lords, he was a lowly laborer, but he’d heard it said it was to allay
Pharaoh’
s concerns about correcting the low flooding of the Nile,” the Praetorian stated. “It was a public gesture for this year’s Festival of Isis.”

“
Where is this slave informant now, Urbicus?” Suetonius demanded. “We must keep him isolated and protected until we can authenticate this story. These are sensitive claims you make, and this workman is our only witness to such charges.”

“
This is not possible, sir,” Urbicus offered with a lowered voice. “The slave expired under our exactions. We may have overdone the persuasion a little, sir. He bled liberally under the duress. So we tossed his carcass into the river to appear to be a drowning accident too. It seems Osiris will have two claimants to resurrection this Isia.” Urbicus was engaging in droll Praetorian wit.

“
Separately, Special Inspector,” he continued, “we’ve been searching for your interviewees Lysias of Bithynia and the freedwoman Thais of Cyrene. They too have gone missing, despite your demands they attend your interview today. We searched for them last night at their tents. They could not be found anywhere.

However, we did find the mutilated corpse of their senior steward, a Judaean freedman from Bithynia. He’d been decapitated in a similar manner to the fisherman from Besa. But we couldn’t locate either the offenders or the two young people in the vicinity.”

It was Suetonius’s turn to feel discomfort at these revelations.

“
You didn’t mention this incident earlier this morning when you delivered the head of the fisherman Ani to our breakfast table?” he enquired. “Nor mention another decapitation. Had you forgotten such a grisly discovery?”

Urbicus shuffled momentarily with unease but did not lose his verbal stride.

“
No, my lord, I had not forgotten. It was simply that the fisherman Ani’s murder and return of his head to his family, as well as the search for the river craft, had a higher priority in your instruction. Were we being negligent, sir?” the officer offered with an air of impervious innocence.

Suetonius was now beginning to feel even greater discomfort. Looking to Clarus for confirmation, the biographer was coming to appreciate how the death of the Bithynian youth seemed to provoke increasingly violent, yet inexplicable, responses from unknown forces.

He recollected the lad’s drowning had induced two beheadings, one death by over-zealous torture, three disappearances, plus a glut of conspiracy theories to complicate the basic search for a motive. As the hours towards the appointment with Hadrian raced by, the number of issues multiplied, not declined. A further query arose in his mind.

“
Tell me Centurion, how did you manage to find us here at
The Alexandros
jetty?”

Urbicus expressed surprise at the question. He hesitated before responding.

“
Why, my lord,” he uttered with obvious sincerity, “we had been searching for your party in the vicinity of Senator Arrian’s chambers to make our report, but then spied you and your colleagues at this river landing from a distance
.
It was accidental. But having reported, we request we receive your further instructions.”

The guardsman from Alexandria was collectedly cool in his response. Suetonius wondered if he was perhaps too cool, and his eyes turned to Surisca for a shared opinion. Clarus interrupted.

“
Yes, Praetorian,” Clarus declaimed, “this is our instruction. We must urgently locate the two friends of Antinous, Lysias and the girl Thais, before anyone else apprehends them and does them harm. Continue your search for the couple. Assign further troops to the search if necessary through Tribune Macedo. Do whatever is necessary to secure their safety! Certainly let there be no
accidents
with the couple, we don’t wish to lose further sources of testimony.”

“
It will be done, sir,” Urbicus confirmed. He snapped to attention as his troop swept their helmets to their heads in unison, saluted in military style, and marched off .

“
Strabon, did you record the past few minute’s conversation?” Suetonius enquired.

“
Indeed I have, Special Inspector,” the scribe responded.

“
Good. Keep those tablets close in a safe place. Something is amiss here, gentlemen,” Suetonius confided insecurely, “and I’m not at all sure what it is. Any thoughts, anybody?”

He cast his eyes over his trio of companions. Surisca cautiously raised a finger.

“
Speak, my dear,” the biographer prompted. Surisca spoke hesitantly.

“
Master, forgive my impertinence, but when the centurion and his soldiers were approaching I had the definite feeling it was not My Masters they were coming to visit. To my eye, it was this jetty to the barque they were approaching,” she offered, “not the enjoyment of your company.”

“
To this jetty?” Clarus enquired with a hint of exasperation. “Meaning what especially, woman?”

“
I sensed, sir, they were at this wharf to travel to where you yourselves are travelling, not to report to your lordships, as they claim. They were on their way to that mighty vessel offshore.”

“
I felt the same, my lords,” Strabon added to Surisca’s comments. “I sensed they were surprised to come across us at this place. The centurion had not really expected to meet us here.”

“
You mean they were on their way to visit the Prefect Governor aboard
The Alexandros
, not talk with us as they claimed?” Clarus rationalized.

“
Except, my good Clarus,” Suetonius intruded, “the centurion pointedly told us it was our company he was seeking, not the governor’s. We have another contradiction to contend with. Yet instead of such mere speculation, my friends, let’s pay the good governor a visit ourselves to find out.”

The main deck of
The Alexandros
was an open area shaded under a filmy canopy emblazoned with the Alexandrine starburst. It provided space for entertainments, feasts, ceremonies, or juridical occasions.

The barque’s decoration was an elaborate fantasy of carved timbers inset with honey-hued porthole windows of thin alabaster. A riot of sculpted figures depicting the victories of Alexander over his enemies graced its exterior. Similar to its larger companion
The Dionysus
, the governor’s barque was a visible demonstration of the opulence and power of Rome to her provincial Egyptian subjects.

The Prefect Governor was seated upon his chair-of-state on a rostrum under the midday glare diffused by the canopy. Flavius Titianus was attended by several staff, guards, a scribe at a lectern desk, and young pages. They were engaged in business when Titianus spied his visitors awaiting his attention. He rose from his seat and dismissed all his attendants except one.