All great cities have a key icon giving them their meaning; like a tomb or temple or hard-fought citadel. It's no accident the regime of the Ptolemies guaranteed the security of The Soma for over three hundred years," Titianus expounded. "Well, a member of Hadrian's retinue suggested the mausoleum and Alexander be moved to the new city. The notion was to provide a logical focus for creating the new Hadrianopolis, correlating the heroic virtues of Caesar and Alexander under one rubric.
It's a good idea, though I'd never allow Alexander's corpse to leave Alexandria. Yet it would encourage tourism to the new city and attract immigrants drawn to the Roman way of life. Hadrianopolis will need such a draw-card in this godforsaken place, otherwise it will become another dead city lost beneath Egyptian sands. There are dozens already."
"But how did this effect Hadrian's attitude to Antinous?" the biographer asked.
"Well, Hadrian is an avid admirer of Alexander, as too is Antinous. We agreed Egypt needs the sort of public spectacles the Ptolemy Greeks once provided to give the various communities a sense of being unified. You know, grand public gardens, magnificent temples, spectacular tombs, rites like The Ptolemaia festival, plus the hippodrome's races and games, and so on. At Alexandria all these attractions were held together by that single cadaver whose shadow we discern through the alabaster of his sarcophagus," the Prefect explained. "Otherwise it becomes Roman against Greek, Greek against Jew, Jew against Christian, free against slave, rich against poor, and all of them against the Egyptian natives.
Instead, Antinous inventively suggested how a Caesareum honoring the Caesars at the new city of Hadrianopolis, not Alexander's coveted body, would better fulfill the role. But he added it be accompanied by generous Imperial bequests, games, statues, commemorative coins, and cultic events, all with their emphasis on Hadrian as Caesar as the focus.
Hadrian was encouraged by the idea, it took his fancy, and the group applauded the lad's enthusiasms. But then Caesar shifted the conversation into a darker terrain. He took this cheerful opportunity to tell the young man loudly before us how their continuing relationship must cease. He put it very plainly to him. He said how a Caesar who befits the values of a Caesareum at Hadrianopolis must display public probity in all things, including his consorts.
He explained how worshipers at a Caesareum must know their Caesar is worthy of their adoration. Such a Caesar must relinquish any relationship with a partner who is no longer beardless. He terminated the relationship then and there before our eyes. Antinous was stunned by the announcement and quite visibly distressed."
Titianus paused to recollect the day. The four listened patiently.
"I'm sure the lad wasn't concerned about his future prospects because I've reason to know how he'd accumulated wealth far beyond a youth's needs, and was considered a prime candidate for posts in the cavalry or administration corps," the Governor expanded. "No, his concern seemed otherwise. Some have insinuated to me Hadrian had become uncomfortable about aspects of their relationship, though no one tells me what they are. Even my spies and paid informers don't know.
Meanwhile, it was evident Antinous was slipping into a state of disquiet. I didn't know the lad especially well, but I could see he was troubled by his predicament."
"What do you think that predicament was, my lord?" Suetonius asked. Titianus thoughtfully considered his response for a moment.
"Well one explanation, the simplest explanation I'd say, is Antinous was in love with Hadrian and reluctant to let go," he stated flatly. "It's that simple. He didn't wish to be parted from his lover. People can be like that, you know."
"Love?!" Clarus interjected, beginning to hear the language of a cinaedus. "Love! A young man barely beyond an ephebe's age loves a man now in his fifties? That is bizarre, Prefect Governor. What is such a pitiable love?"
"Yes, my good senator, Love. That sad, tragic affliction of Aphrodite or her son Eros. It happens to many of us, you know? It's unpredictable," the Governor confirmed. "Haven't you felt Aphrodite's call at some time in your life, Septicius Clarus, 'the stream of longing' with someone, somewhere, somehow?"
Clarus sat in resolute silence.
"Another interpretation even more controversial. It is our Caesar is in love with the lad," the Governor continued, "and Antinous was conscious of this reality and the necessary impending conclusion. This too offers an explanation, though I wouldn't promote it too loudly if I was you. And you might leave that comment out of your transcript, scribe."
The Governor smiled thinly at his guests.
"My assessment of Antinous was that he too had become aware of this conundrum and was drawn to seeking a resolution on behalf of his erastes, Hadrian," he continued. "Despite his widely-perceived role as merely a pretty face in a well-hung body, Antinous struck me as having greater depth. 'It's what you do in life which matters, not merely how you look', I heard him say onetime. That's not bad.
His search for a resolution to his erastes' dilemma was his ambitious, youthful, hero's quest. Perhaps he saw himself following in the footsteps of a Ulysses or Jason or Achilles, or even Alexander? But I doubt he found his resolutions before events overtook him, whatever they were."
"Is it possible, my lord Governor, you would have informer's reports of the young Bithynian's exploits outside his relationship with Caesar? Surely your contacts at Court have followed the lad's activities and made his alliances known to you?" Suetonius enquired.
"Believe it or not, gentlemen, I have multiple reports and colorful tidbits about everyone attending Caesar, including yourselves may I say, but nil regarding Antinous. The young man's faithfulness to Caesar seems exemplary. I cannot recall a single informer's report or piece of choice gossip pertaining to the man which suggests otherwise," Titianus replied. "Only my ward, the Lady Anna Perenna, seemed to find the fellow of some concern."
"Why so, Governor?"
"My companion possesses many unusual gifts, gentlemen," he responded. "She sees and knows things others cannot discern. Or so she tells me. As the high priestess of her cult at Alexandria she engages in all manner of arcane activities and provides esoteric advice to members of the Court."
"How so? In what way?"
"Well, I don't subscribe to some of her claims myself," the Governor explained, "my relationship with my lady is based on other needs, I assure you. Yet she provides charms and talismans to assist in the love lives of our courtiers; she prepares love-potions, philters, tinctures in oil, and occult tisanes. She creates figurines for daemonic invocation to dispel undesirable influences; she can calculate the power of words through the science of geometria; and she's expert in addressing women's matters of a private nature. At least so I'm told by her herself.
In her calling as the Grandmother of Time it's said she's skilled in interpreting the will of the gods through the divination of entrails in the Etruscan manner. She interprets dreams, and most arcane of all, she is said to engage through trance as a medium of clairvoyance. At least so I am told. My companion is a woman of unusual capacities, gentlemen. Naturally, she is also a lively bed companion."
"Prefect Governor, perhaps your good lady friend will share her clairvoyance skills in telling us what may have happened to the dead youth?" the biographer enquired sweetly.
The governor cast a steely look over the biographer.
"Don't be fast with me, Special Inspector. I don't necessarily support each of my companion's claims to mystagogy. But if you wish to explore her faculties for yourself, then you should approach her personally.