With that he turned and handed back the staff, then added a couple of denarii. The older man looked at the coins, nodded thanks, and shuffled away.
Eventually the other side of this story spread amongst the Romans present in Alexandria. Beating a known bully did Gaius' reputation no harm, but having been seen dressed as little better than a foundry worker did. Even worse, word got around that Gaius personally used tools, and was behaving almost like a craftsman. This was definitely not the person to be seen with in polite society. One of Flaccus' aides suggested that the bully should appeal to the Princeps, and have Gaius put in his place.
As Timothy noted, the ideals of the early republic, where Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus could be taken from his farm work, made absolute dictator of the Roman forces so that he could lead the armies to defeat the enemies of Rome and save a Roman army, then give up all power to return to work on his small farm and be admired by all for it, were gone.
Gaius then refused to have any dealings with the family of that man he had beaten. Some of the other Romans began to more actively ostracise him, so he retaliated. His family was the biggest single shipper of goods to Rome, and they owned the majority of the ships coming to Egypt. By refusing to deal with such people, and by refusing access to the family ships, he made enemies, but he made a point. Oddly, he did not suffer, because there were many Egyptians and Libyans only too pleased to fill the gap.
A letter came with the Imperial seal, which Gaius again opened in anticipation, only to find that the man he had beaten had had sent a complaint to Caesar. Caesar's response was terse: 'When you see this whining piece of shit again, please thrash him more thoroughly this time'. As Gaius remarked later, he did not know whether to laugh or cry.
Another letter also came from Claudius. Little Boots was planning some quite enormous public works, which led to far more bitter disputes with the Senate, in part because the Senate were unimaginative, while Caesar's imagination sometimes seemed to be getting the better of him. In the end, the state of the Treasury tended to persuade Little Boots not to continue.
Caesar's imagination could at times be quite amusing. One day, while walking through the streets, Caesar found his toga stained by something he had encountered. A further cursory inspection suggested that the streets were not being cleaned properly.
Little Boots became furious. The Aedile in charge of clean streets was one Titus Flavius Vespasianus, and said Vespasianus was ordered to present himself in his best and cleanest attire at a public square. It was unclear what Vespasianus expected, but it was unlikely he expected what transpired. He was made to stand at attention in the centre of the square, while several guardsmen threw whatever filth had been prepared all over him. At the end, the victim was stinking, dripping and covered with brown. It was rather hilarious, provided you were not the victim.
On the other hand, it was remarkably efficient. Never had Claudius noted such clean streets as after this event. There was clearly method in Caesar's actions.
Chapter 24
The silence from Rome regarding his career became annoying. He had received yet a further message from Claudius to the effect that, apart from dishing out lavish spending on free corn and games to make himself more beloved by the people, Little Boots was making grand plans and few decisions. His opinion seemed to be, if Rome could run itself at the end of Tiberius' principate, there seemed to be little reason why it should not continue to do so. He had better things to think about.
Worse than that, the treasury was becoming empty, and some of the Senators began making moves that could be interpreted as better placing themselves for the period following Caesar. Little Boots' response was unattractive, to say the least: he began openly praising the policies of Tiberius. Not only that, but the copies of Tiberius' papers reappeared. Caesar had accused senators of being "satellites of Sejanus", and had returned to Tiberius' policy of encouraging informers. The trials, executions and confiscations of Tiberius' time had returned.
When Little Boots reintroduced the prosopopoeia of Tiberius, the Senate objected, and began to request Caesar to explain himself. The explanation was illuminating, although only to the extent of showing to where Rome had descended. He entered the Senate and, with his usual exceptional command of oratory and logic, he verbally lashed them.
"If Tiberius was in fault, you should not have decreed him honours in his lifetime, or, having done so rightly, you should not, after his death, have annulled them." Gaius gave a superior smile as he watched the Senators squirm, before he continued, "You, it was, Senators, who swelled the pride of Sejanus by your flatteries, and then you destroyed the monster you yourselves had created. You wronged your prince, you murdered his minister." He stared at the now frightened Senators and continued, "I can look for no good in your hands." He stared at the senators, challenging them to say something to his face, and when they cowered in fear, he began naming some of the older and illustrious houses of Rome, and publicly stripped them of their honours. Amongst others, the Torquati had lost the right to wear their golden collars, and the last descendant of Pompeius was forbidden to use the name "Magnus".
Little Boots seemed obsessed by religion, although in a somewhat perverse way. He built an extension of his palace towards the forum, using the temple of Castor and Pollux as a vestibule, and within it he placed a golden statue of himself, which would be dressed according to how he was dressed each day. He then enticed the richest citizens to be priests of his cult, while he accepted the generous donations. He conversed with the statue of Jupiter, apparently once ordering Jupiter to lift him up, or he would lift the statue. He flayed the actor Apelles for hesitating when asked who was the greater, Caesar or Jupiter? On the other hand, he seemed to have concluded that there were no Gods. So, somebody else thought differently? He had heard of one priest who related stories about people who had nearly died, and had seen the bright light of some afterlife. He had promptly put the priest to death by slow bleeding, and he stood over him the whole time, asking whether he saw any sign of the afterlife as he was dying. There was no sign, so there were no Gods.
Little Boots could not see, Claudius continued, that firstly, if there was an afterlife, you might have to be dead to find out, and secondly, even if the priest had seen something, because Little Boots was the reason why he was seeing it, he might not say so. This obsession of Little Boots about disproving Gods was becoming a serious problem. The Princeps had to concentrate on more immediate problems, such as seeing that the Roman Empire worked.
Gaius stared at this, and thought about the second letter he had received. To some extent, perhaps, he had had a part to play in the matter of the collars. And, he thought, taking away the name "Magnus" was not such a penalty. Pompeius had over-reached himself in taking that title, particularly if he could not do better at Pharsalus, but whatever right he had, his descendents had lived rather uninteresting lives of little note.
Then, following a visit by Herod Agrippa on some mission from Caesar, Gaius received a summons to visit the Prefect.
"You're in regular touch with the new Princeps?" he asked in what Gaius took as a strangely wheedling tone for a Prefect.
"Unfortunately, not very often," Gaius replied.
"I know you send and receive messages to Rome and. ."
"I'm also in contact with Claudius, who tells me some of what's going on in the imperial family," Gaius replied cautiously.