‘With pleasure, domina,’ Vespasian replied, less than truthfully.
Leaving the room, followed by Corbulo, and stepping out into the walkway surrounding the torch-lit peristylium, Vespasian was disappointed that he had not even seen Caenis, who was almost always at her mistress’s side. Contemplating this as they walked in silence around the colonnade, he had the sudden unpleasant realisation that, as Antonia’s secretary, Caenis would have made a copy of Corvinus’ letter. She knew about Flavia before he had had a chance to explain it to her.
‘What did I tell you, sir?’ Magnus said, appearing out of the shadows. ‘She did have something fucking nasty planned for us: cold-blooded murder by the sounds of it. Who’s the target — Poppaeus?’
‘Yes,’ Vespasian replied, more tersely than he had meant to.
‘Well, that makes it more palatable, I suppose, the revolting little shit.’
‘But you were wrong; she hadn’t already planned it. In fact, she was at a loss as to what to do. It was me who suggested murdering him.’
Magnus laughed. ‘Of course you did, sir, but only after she’d dismissed all other options as being unworkable or taking too long, I’ll warrant.’
‘It was the only possible course of action, man,’ Corbulo snapped. ‘I volunteered to do it and Vespasian said he’d help; she didn’t ask us to.’
‘Of course she didn’t, because it was the only possible course of action that she couldn’t suggest.’
‘What makes you think that?’ Vespasian asked.
‘Well, it stands to reason, don’t it?’ Magnus said, exasperated. ‘Antonia has never been at a loss as to what to do about a situation in her life; the trouble was that she couldn’t just say in front of the Senior Consuclass="underline" “I want Poppaeus murdered in a way that it looks like death from natural causes; and by the way, Vespasian and Corbulo, would you set your honour aside and act like an eastern king’s eunuch chamberlain or some vengeful woman?” You would have both rightly refused and she couldn’t have blamed you for doing so.’
Vespasian and Corbulo looked at each other and realised that this was probably not far from the truth.
Vespasian groaned. ‘But the fact that we suggested the idea made it possible for us to offer to do it and Antonia got what she wanted without being seen to ask two senators to murder another.’
‘She does play well,’ Magnus observed cheerily.
‘You should know. Off you go and play with her and give her some bruises from me.’
‘She likes that, it’s what she wants; the rougher the better.’
‘Well, they don’t come much rougher than you. I’ll see you tomorrow, we’ve got a visit to make; come over to Gaius’ house at dawn.’
‘Yes, I suppose I’ll be finished here by then. Missing the fucking Caprotinia, though. Goodnight, sir. Ziri’s staying with me but the lads will see you back.’
‘How do you tolerate him, Vespasian?’ Corbulo asked as Magnus went back to await Antonia’s pleasure.
‘The same way that I tolerate you, Corbulo: I like him.’
Outside the night air was cool, clear and still. A three-quarter moon hung low over the city; its watery light reflected off the marble walls and columns of the larger temples and public buildings, picking them out from the darker brickwork and terracotta roofs of the older or more humble constructions. Here and there columns of smoke from bakeries or forges rose vertically towards the heavens, paling and thinning as they gradually diffused into the atmosphere. The peaceful sight contrasted sharply with the noise of the relentless drunken hubbub, rising from the Subura, of the urban poor enjoying the last hours of the slave women’s festival. The grating of iron-shod wheels and the sharp clatter of the horses’ hoofs of the trade wagons, making their nightly deliveries to the city’s factories and shops, added to their din.
With Marius and Sextus leading, Vespasian and Corbulo walked quickly down from the Palatine, saying little to one another and never meeting the other’s eye. If there was ever a case of the ends justifying the means this was it, Vespasian mused, as Corbulo said a sombre goodnight at the foot of the Caelian and quickly headed up the hill, refusing the offer of company.
As they skirted the western end of the Subura the chaos of the festivities became increasingly apparent. Drunken gangs singing bawdy songs at the tops of their voices roamed the streets, fighting and whoring. The comatose bodies of the more excessive drinkers lay in pools of their own vomit and urine where they had fallen and public copulation and other lesser sexual acts were rife in every doorway and up each alley.
‘The city’s really enjoying itself tonight,’ Marius commented regretfully as they passed a slave girl being attended to at either end by two rough-looking freedmen swigging from wineskins as they took their pleasure.
‘Yeah, but we deserve it,’ Sextus replied, ‘what with all the new hardships and such at the moment.’
‘What new hardships?’ Vespasian asked.
‘Well, the grain shortage of course, sir, don’t you know?’
‘Yeah,’ Marius confirmed. ‘The grain dole was cut in half a month ago and a lot of people are finding it hard to get by.’
‘But that’s only because the first grain fleet went down. As soon as the next one comes in things will get back to normal,’ Vespasian reassured them.
‘I wouldn’t be so sure, sir,’ Marius replied, as they started to climb up the Quirinal. ‘The shortages started long before we heard about the grain fleet. My cousin works down at the granaries and he’s never seen them so low. He said that it started getting bad at the end of last summer, when there seemed to be a little less grain arriving with each fleet. They’ve been keeping it secret, but he’s heard talk about speculators.’
Sextus spat on the ground. ‘It’s always the fucking same, isn’t it? The poor suffer while a few rich bastards make more money out of their misery. Fucking senators, begging your pardon that is, sir.’
‘It’s hardly likely to be senators,’ Vespasian said, thinking uneasily about what Corbulo had told him about Pomponius. ‘By law they can’t involve themselves with trade.’
‘Yeah, but that doesn’t stop them,’ Marius pointed out.
‘I’m sure you’re right in some cases, Marius.’
‘I know I am. My cousin told me that one of the two surviving ships from the grain fleet had its cargo unloaded into a private warehouse and the grain aedile can’t find out where it is or who it belongs to so that it can be impounded.’
‘My brother’s the grain aedile; I’ll ask him why he can’t find it.’
‘Because it’s well hidden, that’s why; only a senator would want to keep that a secret.’
‘But a senator would be foolish to involve himself in grain speculation; the Emperor would have his head and property if he so much as suspected it.’
‘The Emperor? What’s he to us? He hasn’t been seen in Rome for nearly ten years. Stuck out there on his island he might just as well have been thrown into the Tiber; and it’s not just me who says that.’
‘I’d be careful who you repeat that to; that’s treason.’
‘Well, I don’t know about that, sir, but what is for sure is there ain’t enough grain to last the city another month and nobody’s meant to know about it and, while the Emperor’s doing fuck all about the situation, someone is trying to make a huge profit from it.’
They had arrived at Gaius’ house and Vespasian dismissed the two crossroads brothers with a denarius apiece for their trouble. The attractive new, dark-skinned door-youth let him in with a sleepy countenance and then snuggled back down into his bedding-roll in the vestibule.
Vespasian walked through the silent house, contemplating his first day back in Rome; it had not gone as he had wished. He had not seen Caenis and had a good suspicion that he knew why. And, just as worrying for him, he was now involved again with Antonia’s schemes and was once more being drawn into a world where political necessity was the sole arbiter of men’s actions. But what heightened his sense of unease, as he entered his room and slipped off his toga and tunic, was the issue of the grain shortage. He had seen the same thing happen while he had been in Cyrenaica, but he now knew that was due to Herod Agrippa buying the grain destined for that province for his own ends. Now it seemed that the same thing had been happening here in Rome.