Septicius, being a former Prefect of Praetorians, intimately knew the precautions the security corps took in monitoring comestibles and drink for Hadrian.
"Well, yes. We all took the kykeon from the communal cauldron in the individual cups provided to us. Yet only Antinous was affected in this way, no one else I observed. Perhaps the lad's cup was contaminated with some malignancy or laced with some secret poison? That is, unless Hadrian had been the intended target and the boy had received Caesar's mug in error?"
"And then?" Suetonius queried further.
"The final rites proceeded as they were supposed. I thought someone might be wise enough to whisk Antinous away for his own safety, but both Caesar and his school pal ensured the fellow was comfortable during the final hours of the overnight ritual. Actually, it was afterwards that things grew worrying," the astrologer recalled.
"In what way?"
"Well, in the following days I heard how Antinous had taken to his bed. Apparently he was having visions and suffering attacks by mystical daemons, or such things. He was quite distressed for several days."
"You mean he'd gone mad?" Clarus stated in his usual unsubtle manner.
"I don't know if it was the madness of insanity or the madness of divine revelation," the Syri offered, "but I was eventually summoned by Caesar's physicians to offer my opinion."
"And, your opinion was?" Suetonius asked.
"Well, I think the kykeon had either poisoned him or thrust him into a strange, dark place," Aristobulus said, "I'm not sure which."
"But he recovered?"
"Yes, he recovered. Yet along the way he asked his physicians and myself some very strange questions, very strange indeed."
"What sort of questions?"
"Well, he revealed to us he'd travelled to the Land Of The Dead, and returned again. He asked if this was usual at the Mysteries of Demeter at Eleusis," the astrologer said.
The interrogating team showed distinct interest in this meandering testimony.
"The Land of the Dead?" Suetonius reiterated.
"Yes. And he was serious. He was convinced. He said he had taken flight 'to the place where the sun never shines'. It is the home of the dead, he claimed. He said he glimpsed the endless oceans which surround the Underworld and the four rivers of woe. He viewed its ruler, Hades of the unspeakable name, brother of Zeus.
He comprehended how the manner of one's death and the proper rituals affect one's fate in the next world, and realized the dire necessity of a coin in the mouth for Charon's guidance, and that sort of thing. He said he saw the face of Thanatos himself, the god of death, and yet returned to the light of Life.
I have only heard great priests and priestesses of secret cults make this claim. Even I as a magus cannot make such a claim," the Antiochan declared with unexpected modesty.
"Anything more?" Suetonius enquired.
"It was enough at that time. To go to The Land of the Dead and return to life is the dominion of an Orpheus and his Eurydice, or an Odysseus, or Hercules retrieving Alcestis. It was a form of rebirth, like Demeter's daughter Persephone from Hades' dominion. A resurrection."
"A resurrection? What happened next?" the Special Inspector asked.
"After a few days he returned to normalcy. His physicians and I advised he sacrifice to his chosen deity, pour offerings, and offer thanks for his safe return. He did so," Aristobulus concluded, "but he was a changed fellow."
"Changed? How so?"
"Well, the experience aged him several years. It was written in his features. He was no longer simply a handsome young man in his prime, he had suddenly assumed maturity's demeanor," the astrologer explained.
Phlegon's interrupted.
"In more ways than one, gentlemen. I saw his personality change considerably. Whatever it was he 'saw' or experienced under the kykeon had made a deep impression," the Carian scarecrow said. "He saw something that disturbed him greatly. He was no longer a callow youngster given to pleasures. Despite his youthful age he had matured overnight. This was different to Initiation into the cult of Demeter at Eleusis, this was a shift of personality."
"How did Caesar react to his Favorite facing such a mystical experience?" the biographer asked. It was now Phlegon's opportunity to reminiscence.
"Great Caesar was very attentive to his Favorite's needs. Despite his schedule of duties he led Antinous and the Companions of the Hunt on a restorative tour of historical sites across Achaea. This provided the youngster fresh air, exercise, and new stimuli to encourage healing. They travelled to places beyond Athens where erastoi and eromenoi had been highly regarded in ages past, or where the custom was still alive.
At Thespiae, only two days journey from Athens, they commemorated the success of Caesar's dedication to Eros of his kill of a wild bear years earlier. Hadrian had made an offering of the bear's spoils to seek the god's benevolence by endowing him with a worthy eromenos. He now celebrated how Antinous was that god's gracious gesture. Such sentimentality is comforting in a ruler, don't you think?"
"What else?" Suetonius asked.
"They also visited ancient Mantinea, the city state from where Antinous's forebears had migrated to Bithynia," Phlegon enthused. "Mantinea had been the site of great battles among the Greeks in antique times. At the final battle fought between the Thebans led by their general Epaminondas against the Spartans, Epaminondas won the battle but died soon after of his wounds.
He was the leader of The Sacred Band of Thebes, the army of pairs of warrior-lovers renown across the Greek world. At his death at Mantinea the great commander was buried by the side of his eromenos lover, who'd also been killed in the conflict. Hadrian and Antinous honored the couple's grave with offerings and ceremonies of great poignancy."
"But why do you tell us this?" Clarus interjected. "In what way do they affect the Bithynian youth's drowning?"
It was Aristobulus's turn. Now he was introspective
"Some in the Household have perceived a pattern in these events. It had not passed without note how the boy was consumed with matters of death and dying, and of issues of return from the Land of the Dead. Yes, he was young and impressionable, yet the young rarely express such morbid thoughts due to being convinced of being invulnerable," the magus replied.
"And there's more," Phlegon added. "I myself have witnessed his increasing obsessions. There is the matter at Alexandria."
"What is the matter at Alexandria?" Suetonius asked, becoming somewhat distracted.
"Well, my friends, as you know, Alexandria is a hotbed of competing ethnic rivalries, obscure philosophies, new religious ideas, and mysteries galore. One can easily have one's head turned in a place like Alexandria. The atmosphere is conducive to eccentric beliefs and avant-garde practices," the Syri murmured, "especially if a young companion discovers his halcyon days as Caesar's Favorite are numbered."
"Numbered? How so, Astrologer?" Suetonius sought.
"Well, as we all know, a month ago the Western Favorite joined the touring retinue at Alexandria. He'd been summoned from Rome by someone, possibly Caesar himself, possibly not; who knows?
Lucius Ceionius Commodus and several of his fashionable friends turned up by sea from Italy a week or so after Caesar had arrived at Alexandria. It instantly put Antinous on notice about the state of his relationship with Caesar."
"There's still nothing to relate to a drowning, is there? Unless you're suggesting the boy was so upset he committed suicide?" Suetonius probed.
"No. But there's much else. You are aware of Caesar's cough, of course?" Aristobulus asked cautiously.
"Careful, Astrologer," Clarus interjected, "you enter sensitive territory."