'I wonder who solicited this particular play for my enjoyment?' Hadrian muttered to himself perhaps too loudly, somewhat distracted by the appearance of the black robed figure. "Was it me, keen to see a famed classic? Could it have been my secretary? The empress's household? I wonder? None of these things happens entirely by accident, I say.'
He then shifted from Common Greek into his own tongue, Latin. This was possibly to test the two boys' comprehension of his exchanges or to assess their skill as students of Latin.
'Tell me, Antinous of Bithynia,' the emperor murmured low in Latin, 'how do you propose to pursue this destiny of yours? What has changed in your ambitions since our nighttime rendezvous some months ago?'
Antinous was silent for a period as he sought to respond in correct Latin to the query. The delay caused Caesar to look back over his shoulder to probe for the missing response.
I, standing some distance away almost out of earshot, was straining to overhear their conversation or was following every lip movement for a clue.
'I am flattered that you should ask, my lord,' Antinous eventually whispered in insecure but competent Latin beneath Apollo's and Death's reverberating orations. 'I believe, sir, a great deal has changed in my life. I think I am more focused on what the gods may have in store for me. There are things I must do in life to fulfill my destiny,' he carefully articulated in better-than-average student's Latin.
'I see,' Hadrian replied with an approving tone to his test, but again in Latin, 'and precisely what might that destiny be, I wonder?'
'This will depend upon the favor of the gods and the grace of my noble lord,' Antinous responded, now reverting back to Greek for ease of expression while adding a dash of diplomacy. He sensed Caesar's openness to informality in the exchange.
'Yet perhaps the most important of them, if I am permitted to be so forward, sir,' he whispered, his voice lowering even further for extra privacy, 'is to communicate a special message to our Princeps.'
Both Lysias and I were now alerted to strain to hear his subdued speech.
'Princeps? You mean me?' Hadrian confirmed. 'A petition you have, is it lad? I have vassals who attend to petitions, my boy. I do not welcome uninvited petitions.'
'Sir, if I may be so bold, it is a special petition for your ears only,' Antinous dared. 'It is of an intimate nature.'
I could detect Antinous was showing beads of sweat at his brow.
'Intimate? Then tell me, what is this particular petition, our tiro bodyguard with eagle eyes?' Caesar asked breezily, if dismissively. I watched Antinous inhale a deep breath to summon his courage. His hand and voice trembled as he spoke very faintly.
'The message is this,' his voice dropped to a husky whisper barely audible beneath the amphitheater's populous hum. He spoke in Latin.
'Yes indeed Caesar, I am yours.'
He repeated the statement for clarity in Greek in a croaky voice.
Hadrian's jaw stiffened. His features firmed. His manner resumed its formal Imperial mode of bearing after such an extended period of casual informality. He turned towards the stage and sat impassively in silent absorption through the remaining hour of Euripides' drama. He made no reply.
I suppose we each sensed he was calculating a magisterial response appropriate to an Imperator's comportment, or else he had simply dismissed the statement outright. After all, he had been conversing in a highly familiar manner with two foreigner ephebes of no social consequence, nil political value, no evident status or superior wealth, and from a backwoods colony at that.
The lads and I noted Caesar's fingers invest intense energy in drumming the hand-rest of the throne. Yet a sense of stillness settled upon him as Alcestis progressed.
Antinous exchanged furtive glances with Lysias. He was flushed with embarrassment. It was apparent he wondered if he had overstepped his mark and been presumptuous.
When the final words of Alcestis were echoed away its chorus of mimes and the three actors who played the major masked roles presented themselves for judgment to the audience.
Hadrian, in a flourish of his Tyrian purple tunic and mantle, rose to stand before the theater's crowd. He responded to the players with lively applause, which encouraged an even more enthusiastic response from the citizens in the rows towering above.
Amid the cheers and whistles of praise, much of which was directed to the emperor himself as sprigs of vine and new season blooms were tossed to the stage, Hadrian turned towards Arrian, the two Herodes, several Praetorians, nearby officials as well as the two youngsters and myself to call loudly above the acclaim.
"And now, good friends, it's time for feasting and carousing in the famous Athenian way in honor of the god Dionysus!" he cried. "It's time to release pent up emotions and give ourselves up to the sacraments of wine, bread, and meat to enter into communion with the divinity.
My friends, not only must we offer thanks that Alcestis is returned alive from Hades into the arms of her kingly husband by the grace of old Euripides, but I too offer thanks for how I am returned to full life this day by the grace of Aphrodite's child, Eros! My long praises and offerings to Eros have been rewarded in this very place today!'
Those of us within earshot initially wondered what event Caesar was referring to? It would hardly be the collaring of the old warrior, we sensed.
Hadrian's eyes swept the nearby rows with a beaming countenance. His informality had revived. His eyes scanned across the lower rows and pointedly settled upon the figure of Antinous standing before him behind the throne.
He took one hand of the young man in a raised grasp to look directly to his eyes. We saw him nod a subtle affirmation which held a telling message to all who saw it, Antinous as well as Lysias and me. We immediately knew its meaning. He uttered a single word which only those nearest could hear. He said it in Latin and repeated it in Greek.
'Accepted.'
Antinous blushed deeply. He had not been too presumptuous after all.
The nearest rows of leading citizens slowly grew to interpret Hadrian's message. Its dawning injected extra energy into the expanding applause. But the applause was no longer simply for the assembled players or Caesar.
Rising to their feet and addressing their ovation towards the young man standing tall before the emperor in his distressed tunic, grazed elbows, and a casually slung cape around his bared torso, their applause swelled.
It was now time for Antinous to smile broadly at the world around him. Lysias too was visibly overtaken by emotion. I think I even detected tears welling in some eyes."
Geta paused in his testimony.
"So, Caesar confirmed his liaison with the Bithynian but also broke with Commodus? Is this your meaning, Dacian?" Suetonius asked plainly.
"Yes."
"Yet I see no real enemy here yet. Unless you say Senator Commodus is an enemy in some way?"
"This will be apparent if you are patient, sirs. May I continue? I must describe the events which occurred at the masked revel later that night?"
"Do so, Dacian, but we don't have all day."
CHAPTER 17
Geta continued as Strabon fluttered his stylus across another tablet.
"The Festival's revel occurred at the Acropolis citadel and its nearby Areopagus ridge at sunset. I wasn't to share in the boy's company at the time, but I learned of the following events from various sources later. It was a decisive night. And it was a well-lubricated one. Wine flowed readily. Athena's great metropolis glittered with lamplights as the sun set over the Bay of Salamis. Antinous and Lysias had never before seen a city ornamented with such a profusion of lamps, torches, braziers, lanterns, sanctuary lights, and piazza bonfires. Viewed from Caesar's open-air enclosure along the rocky spine of the Areopagus, the descending rows of roofs and dusty lanes sweeping down both sides of the ridge were a stirring sight for them.