‘But then surely the price of the estates has gone up?’ Vespasian pointed out, pleased to be on a subject that he really understood: money.
‘Indeed, but that’s good for all four parties. Poppaeus will be delighted because Macro will have to borrow more money, so he’ll make a fortune on the extra interest. Macro will immediately have a huge income from his new purchases with which to buy the loyalty that he needs. He doesn’t care how much he pays now because it’s not his money and once he’s secured Egypt he’ll be able to pay off the loan with the millions that he’ll be receiving in taxes. Claudius will make even more of a profit on the investment he’s already put out; and Herod is happy because he’s not only already bought a massive amount of grain off Claudius but he’s also been buying more since he’s been in Rome with money borrowed from Poppaeus; part of which he can now sell at an inflated price to ease his cash-flow problems.’
‘What a happy cabal they must be,’ Asiaticus commented ruefully.
‘There are two things that I don’t understand, domina,’ Vespasian said.
‘I hope that I can answer them, although I only put it all together at the beginning of this year after I’d found out about Narcissus trying to get the deeds to Rome and Herod’s grain purchases.’
‘Yes, how did you know about that, Lady?’ Asiaticus cut in.
Antonia smiled benignly. ‘I suppose it won’t do any harm telling you now. Once I’d found out about Claudius’ and Narcissus’ interest in Egypt I had my steward in Alexandria, Felix, look into it for me; it wasn’t long before he found out what they were doing. Since then he has been monitoring their land purchases. When Felix found out that Claudius had sold some of his harvest to Herod and then Narcissus’ agent had taken the deeds of seven of the estates to Siwa, he realised that something very strange was going on and so immediately took ship to report it personally to me rather than risk a letter falling into the wrong hands.’
‘But then how did you know that I had them, domina?’
‘I didn’t for sure until today. All I knew was that you met a man called Capella in Siwa who subsequently died, leaving you a chest. I couldn’t be sure what it contained because my agent couldn’t hear your final conversation with Capella; you’d ordered him to go and form up the column.’
‘Corvinus!’ Vespasian exclaimed in surprise. ‘He was spying on me?’
‘Not spying on you personally, Vespasian, he just works for me. Much like you, he has an obligation to me. When he heard Capella tell you, in Siwa, that the contents of his chest belonged to someone near the top of the imperial tree he thought that it would be of interest to me, so he wrote to me upon his return to Barca. He comes from a very ambitious family and is anxious to do well in Rome’s service; his letter was most informative about the reasons that you went chasing off into the desert.’
Vespasian reddened, and wondered if there was anything that Antonia did not know.
‘But don’t worry,’ Antonia said with a smile, ‘it was fortuitous that you did, whatever your real motives. Now what were your questions?’
‘Oh, yes,’ he said, shaking his head and trying to get back his train of thought. ‘I don’t understand why Claudius is selling Macro all his estates when they will give him the means to wrest control of Egypt from the Empire that he may one day control.’
‘Now that puzzled me for a while until I realised the simple truth: he doesn’t know Macro’s plans, nor does Narcissus; they might not even know that Macro is the purchaser. The deal has been brokered by Poppaeus, who, as we know, is close to Claudius. All Claudius and Narcissus want is to pay off the huge loan that they took to buy the estates in the first place; but they’re not selling all the estates, they bought twice as many. The profit they make from selling these seven will ensure that they own the others outright.’
‘And I suppose there are no prizes for guessing who lent them the money in the first place,’ Vespasian said with a wry smile.
‘That’s the beauty of it; Claudius gives the deeds to Poppaeus, he wipes out Claudius’ debt and simply transfers it and the deeds onto Macro. No money changes hands and there is no record of the transaction and the three parties never meet.’
‘So what’s in it for Poppaeus apart from making money from all sides? It’s not as if he needs any more.’
‘This took me the longest to work out,’ Antonia admitted, ‘then it came to me in a flash. What has Poppaeus to gain by Macro taking Egypt and holding Rome to ransom? Nothing, unless he’s part of it. Think about it: Macro is safe from attack from the west because of the desert, the Syrian legions are tied up in Parthia and Armenia and a sea assault is a very risky option; how would you attack Egypt in those circumstances?’
‘That’s easy,’ Corbulo said, ‘I’d march with six legions, along the Via Egnatia through Macedonia and Thracia, cross over to Asia and then all the way down the coast, overwhelming Herod on my way.’
‘Exactly. But who is the Governor of Moesia, Macedonia and Achaea? Poppaeus. All he need do is withdraw his two legions and his ten auxiliary cohorts from the Danubius, cross the Hellespont and hold it against any army that comes. The eastern provinces would be completely in Macro’s and Poppaeus’ hands. The lower Danubius would be undefended and the northern tribes would take full advantage of that and swarm into Moesia, which would probably encourage the Thracians into another uprising. So any army that was sent east would have to deal with that before it could even think about trying to cross into Asia; that could take a couple of years. Anyway, where are these legions going to come from? The Rhenus frontier and leave Gaul open to the Germans? The upper Danubius and risk losing Pannonia? Or perhaps Hispania or Illyria where it’s only their presence that keep the local tribes in order? Since Varus managed to lose three legions in the Teutoburg forest there are only twenty-five left in the Empire.’
‘What about Lucius Vitellius?’ Asiaticus asked.
‘He would have a nasty choice once he’d concluded the Parthian war: either fight a civil war on two fronts, Poppaeus to the north and Herod and Macro in the south, and with the new King of Parthia — who would have much to gain by a divided and weakened Roman Empire — to his rear; not a pleasant prospect, as I’m sure you would all agree. So he would probably take the only other option and that is to declare his loyalty to the new regime and carry on guarding the eastern frontier.’
‘Or commit suicide,’ Corbulo suggested.
‘It comes to the same thing: the legions won’t want to fight. They’ve been stationed out there for so long it’s now their home, what do they care who’s in command?’
‘We have to prevent this at all costs, Lady,’ Asiaticus said as the truth of the matter sank in.
‘We will,’ Antonia affirmed, ‘but I think for all our sakes we should not discuss what to do until we have had a pause to collect our thoughts; I for one need to leave the room for comfort’s sake.’
CHAPTER VIIII
Magnus stared straight ahead, concentration etched on his face. ‘So, because you went following your cock out into the desert,’ he said through clenched teeth, ‘Antonia has drawn you right back into her world and we’re going to end up doing her dirty work.’ With a relieved sigh his features relaxed.
Vespasian turned to his friend sitting next to him. ‘Better?’
‘Much.’
‘It’s not for certain that she wants me to do anything; she hasn’t even decided herself what to do about Macro.’
‘Bollocks, of course she has,’ Magnus said, taking the strain again. ‘Do you really believe that you and Corbulo would be sitting there with Antonia and the Senior Consul receiving the benefit of her views on a political problem if she didn’t think that you were part of the solution?’ He paused for a grunt of contentment. ‘Of course you wouldn’t; she’s got something nasty planned for us, take my word for it, otherwise she would’ve just told you to leave Capella’s chest on the table, thanked you sweetly and sent you back home for your supper.’