‘Yes, but what about the breastplate?’ Flaccus pressed.
‘That’s what I don’t understand; it was still there. I had the soldiers lift the lid off and I examined it; it was the real breastplate, I can swear to it, there is a stain on the left-hand side. Nothing else was missing but someone must have taken the lid off earlier.’
‘What makes you so sure?’
‘Because there was a drop of fresh blood on the neck of Alexander’s tunic, it was still moist.’
Flaccus glared at Vespasian. ‘Just what have you done, senator?’
Vespasian shrugged. ‘Quite evidently nothing, prefect; now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to get back to Rome. Triarchus, we sail as soon as the prefect and his men have disembarked.’
‘Fine, you can go but I’m taking those Jews.’
‘If you do then my report to the Emperor will be even more damning than it already is, and believe me, Flaccus, no matter how much money you have he will have you found and hideously despatched. He’s mad, don’t you know?’
Flaccus looked at Vespasian, uncertainty in his eyes, and then, spitting at his feet, stormed off the ship.
‘If you know what’s good for you,’ Vespasian shouted after him, ‘then you should pull the Greeks off the Jews and get the Emperor’s city back under control.’ He walked over to the two soldiers left guarding the Jews. ‘You two, off!’
‘What a terrible man,’ Philo commented as the legionaries left. ‘I shall write such a diatribe about him that his name will be blackened forever.’
‘Try not to make it too rhetorically flowery like the rest of your works, brother,’ Alexander said with a sad smile. ‘Just the facts.’
Philo snorted.
‘We shall have to bury your dead at sea,’ Vespasian said as the gangplank was hauled up and the mooring cables dropped.
‘That won’t be necessary,’ Alexander replied, ‘we’ve decided to go back.’
‘How? We’re sailing.’
‘In that boat that you came in; once we’ve left the harbour we can sail back to the beach bordering the Jewish Quarter.’
‘Flaccus will kill you if he finds you.’
‘No, he won’t, he’ll be needing me to broker a peace. If my people see that I do not ask for revenge for my murdered wife then they may be able to forgo their demands for retribution.’
‘And Flaccus gets what he wants?’
‘Maybe; but we cannot afford to fight any more, we would be exterminated. However, we will never forgive Flaccus. Once we have peace my brother will lead a delegation to the Emperor to complain about his treatment of our people.’
‘And Paulus?’
‘Our only condition will be that Flaccus at least expels him but preferably executes him, then we will be prepared to go back to how things were before. We’ve realised that we are not strong enough in the city to make demands, we should be content even if that means being second-class citizens and having a mad emperor’s statue in our temples.’
Guided by the blazing light of the Pharos the ship glided out of the harbour under sail and oars as the first glow of dawn broke in the eastern sky.
Once clear of the mole it heaved to for the Jews to disembark into the boat. The flayed corpses were lowered in and the survivors quickly followed.
‘Thank you, Vespasian,’ Tiberius said as he prepared to go over the side. His torso was heavily bandaged and blood stained his back. ‘I owe you more than my life, I owe you my hide too. I will always be in your debt.’
‘One day I will call it in,’ Vespasian said, helping him over the side.
Alexander was last to go. ‘We overheard your conversations with Flaccus and then with the priest; tell me, did you get the breastplate?’
Vespasian slapped him on the shoulder. ‘Alexander, my friend, let me put it this way: if you had to choose between giving the man who has the power of life and death over you what he asked for or a replica of the thing, which would you choose?’
Alexander nodded. ‘It makes me feel better to know that the Greeks have lost something precious to them, even if they aren’t aware of it.’
Vespasian looked over Alexander’s shoulder at the scores of fires still burning in the Jewish Quarter and shook his head at the wanton destruction. ‘For my part, Alexander, I’d rather it stayed here with them. Now that I’ve got it, I’m loath to take it back to Caligula. Who knows what new madness possessing it will push him to?’
PART V
CHAPTER XXII
The docks at Ostia were strangely quiet; gone was the frenetic bustle of activity, to be replaced by a languid indolence that was not at all in keeping with a busy port at the height of the sailing season. Apart from a couple of gangs of dockworkers unloading two small traders, the quays were almost empty with only the occasional food vendor or whore attempting to sell their wares to sporadic, uninterested passers-by. Even the seagulls seemed to have lost motivation, and instead of cawing overhead or diving for scraps they sat in long lines on the warehouse roofs looking down balefully at the inactivity below that brought with it, for them as well as the citizens of Rome, a shortage of food.
‘Do you think that the plague could have broken out again?’ Magnus asked as the trireme came to rest alongside one of the many deserted jetties.
‘They wouldn’t have let us dock if it had,’ the triarchus informed him as the gangplank was lowered.
‘We’ll soon find out what’s happening,’ Vespasian said, watching the anxious-looking port aedile walking briskly towards them accompanied by a scurrying clerk.
‘Is the senator Titus Flavius Vespasianus aboard?’ the aedile called out as he mounted the gangway.
‘Yes, I am.’
‘Thank the gods, senator, I am so pleased to see you; now perhaps we can get this madness over with and get back to normal.’
‘What are you talking about?’
‘The Emperor’s bridge, of course. Trade has come to a standstill and the people are getting hungry; he’s requisitioned every ship that’s arrived in the waters around Italia and sent them down to the Bay of Neapolis. There’re thousands of them down there all chained together and he won’t let them leave until he’s ridden across them and he won’t ride across them until he’s got whatever you’re bringing for him. I hope for everyone’s sake, especially yours, that you have it because he’s getting very impatient. He sends messengers two or three times a day to see if you’ve arrived.’
‘Well, I do have it.’ Vespasian lifted the leather bag in confirmation.
‘It’s as well for you that you do; I’ve orders to have you sent to Rome in chains if you come back empty-handed. As it is, you’re to ride to the Emperor immediately; I have a fast horse waiting for you.’
‘I’m accompanying a lady.’
‘She’ll have to follow behind in a carriage — I’ll organise one. And triarchus, as soon as those two merchantmen are offloaded you’re to sail with them down to the bay to become an integral part of that fucking bridge.’ With that he gave a harassed look, shook his head disbelievingly and quickly disembarked.
‘What was that, my dear?’ Flavia asked, appearing from the cabin.
‘I’m to present myself to the Emperor at once. Magnus and Ziri will accompany you back to my uncle’s house. With luck I’ll already be there when you arrive.’
‘I don’t think that it will have anything to do with luck,’ Magnus observed darkly. ‘It’ll be more to do with an insane man’s whim, if you take my meaning?’
Vespasian scowled at Magnus and then briskly walked down the gangway.
‘He refused to let you have it?’ Caligula was outraged and shook his trident threateningly at Vespasian. Behind him a long line of Rome’s urban poor shuffled incongruously through the grand atrium of Augustus’ House watched over by Praetorian Guards. ‘Why didn’t you just take it?’