Mugs with jugs of wine and water appeared promptly, accompanied by nutty nibbles, honey cakes, and dried fruits.
"I'd heard from Caesar's own lips how you are instructed to enquire into the death of his Antinous, his Favorite. Well, what have you come up with?" Arrian asked with interest, either genuine or feigned. "What have you discovered thus far about the poor lad? You've almost consumed a day of your two day's allowance, haven't you?"
"That's why we're here," Suetonius replied. "We have no time to lose."
"Senator," Clarus appealed to his fellow member of The Senate, "we're in something of a bind. So far we've learned very little we didn't know already."
"Anything I can throw light upon?" the Bithynian noble responded.
"Well, hopefully," Clarus responded. "Are there matters you feel we, as investigators, should know about Antinous which might relate to his cause of death?"
Clarus nodded towards Suetonius and Strabon, who promptly started recording the proceedings on his wax pads. "Or are there matters you advise we explore?"
"Before we begin," Suetonius interrupted, "we should identity your person in our record. Perhaps, Senator, you will describe to us in your own words your personal details for our scribe to notate?"
Arrian looked askance at the portly senator and former Prefect of Praetorians who would know all that needed to be known about a fellow courtier, but took the hint and responded with legalistic deliberation.
"These are the duties of my secretary, gentlemen. But I will speak in his stead. As you well know, in the West my Latin designation is Lucius Flavius Arrianus Xenophon. I was born in the fifth year of Caesar Domitian's rule at Nicomedia to a noble Bithynian family. I was awarded Roman citizenship in the seventh year of Caesar Hadrian's rule at the age of thirty-eight, and appointed senator. I am the first Greek of Bithynian origin to be Consul at Rome.
I am currently researching the administrative procedures involved in governance of the province of Cappadocia at Roman Asia, where I am soon to be nominated its Prefect Governor. I need not add I am also a biographer of the military strategies of Basileous Alexandros; an adherent and compiler of the aphorisms of the philosophy of Epictetus of Nicopolis; and so on. But you already know these things."
The quality of his career and works silenced his auditors.
"You knew Antinous of Bithynia well, Senator?" Suetonius eventually asked.
"Of course. I know his family at Claudiopolis intimately, and was very fond of the lad. He showed great promise, I assure you. I would have offered the boy a role in my administration at Cappadocia had he lived. His father and elder brother are trading partners with my stewards," the senator outlined. "I've been an informal patron to the lad for the past five years. In fact, I am directly responsible for his entering into the company of Caesar. It was I who arranged the original introductions five years ago."
"What is your opinion of the manner of the young man's death, senator? Do you have information of its nature and likely causes?" Clarus queried. "Is there something you feel we should know?"
"No, Septicius Clarus and Special Inspector Suetonius. I am entirely without understanding of the manner or reason for his death. It's said he drowned in this mighty river we can hear behind us. Many do, you know," Arrian offered. "I am not aware of any malice of substance against the lad, and nor am I aware of any motive on his behalf to commit such an act."
Both Suetonius and Clarus could see they weren't getting very far with Arrian. Suetonius had an idea.
"My lord, yesterday when inspecting Antinous's apartments we came across a notepad with a message of some interest. It is written in archaic Greek, ancient Attic, and we'd appreciate if you, as a great scholar of Hellene antiquity, would check our translation into today's Greek. Our antique Greek is rusty," Suetonius uttered. He snapped his fingers impatiently while Strabon searched his basket for the tablets. The wooden blocks tied in cloth were lying at the bottom of his jumbled pile in the basket. He opened the wood-covered wax pages and offered the block to the senator.
Arrian peered at the inscription engraved in the wax.
"Yes, it's Attic, or an attempt at Attic. It's poetic after a fashion. Though why anyone other than someone like myself would wish to write in a five-hundred year old language is beyond comprehension. I do so under a scholar's duress; it's expected of me. This inscription is — "
He ceased explaining as his eyes widened in astonishment.
"Where did you acquire this?" he asked sharply.
"It was lying on the floor of Antinous's apartment complex in this very city of tents yesterday evening," Suetonius stated plainly. "We retrieved it before someone else whisked it away. Do you agree it appears to be a boyish ditty written by Antinous or his chum Lysias? Do you recognize the hand-writing? And how do you translate its rhyme?"
"Yes, I recognize the hand-writing. Yes, indeed," the nobleman muttered as he regained his comportment. "A rough translation of the Attic might go something like this:
When the King of the Lionhearted toys with his man cub no more, it's time for the lackey to restore his own pride.
It is written by someone with only rudimentary antique Greek, an amateur."
"You mean like Antinous or Lysias?" Clarus asked.
"No," Arrian replied, "they would do better than this. Probably someone for whom Greek is not their first language."
"Then you mean, perhaps, Thais the language tutor?" Suetonius explored.
"No," responded Arrian softly. "She is no man cub lackey."
"Then you mean — ?" Suetonius trailed away, his wispy eyebrows rising in recognition of one particular possibility.
A heavy silence descended. It made Clarus distinctly uncomfortable.
Arrian suddenly whisked a napkin from his tunic belt. With a single swift movement he wiped across the surface of the wax. Suetonius and Strabon protested loudly. The stylus impression of the quatrain on the wax was smeared beyond recovery.
"I don't think you need retain this tablet, gentlemen. It's not within your commission," the senator blithely concluded.
"King of the Lionhearted? Man cub? Lackey?" Suetonius vented in provocative recollection. "What did the writer mean?"
"I think you should desist from speculation on that matter, Special Inspector," Arrian advised. "Devote yourself to more concrete issues. Such as 'where was Antinous on the night of his death', or 'what company did he keep on that day? You might be on safer ground on that path, gentlemen."
"In that case, my lord: Where do you think Antinous may have been on the night of his death, and do you know what company he kept?" Suetonius responded.
"Of the first I have no idea. The last I saw of the boy was through the early afternoon of the day before, but very briefly," Arrian confided. "He was on an odd mission. He came to these tents to retrieve his secured coins and treasures from my steward for some purpose.
My household provides safekeeping services to many people, including Antinous and Lysias. He secures his wealth in my steward's care because this encampment is an open invitation to thievery of one sort or another. I offer complete security to my clients, with full guarantee of capital and proper records. He retrieved a sum of cash and jewels and papers, my steward told me."
"To what degree, my lord," Suetonius enquired.
"My steward said he withdrew virtually his entire wealth in gold coins plus several select jewels and property deeds. It was a considerable treasure," Arrian stated.