Silius’ right hand moved involuntarily a fraction towards the fold in his toga. ‘What list?’
‘The list of every man here who has, in the past, slept with your new wife. But no matter.’ Sabinus turned to address the whole Senate. ‘Conscript Fathers, with this list he was going to blackmail you. Not to be too indelicate, I believe that the majority of you would not enjoy the prospect of that list ending up in the Emperor’s hands if he were to be finally persuaded of Messalina’s infidelity.’ Again he glanced at Pallas’ note. ‘However, I am instructed to offer you this: there will be an amnesty for everyone who has defiled the Emperor’s bed now that Messalina has seen fit to officially leave it. A small fee will be charged for this, negotiable through me on a case by case basis.’
At that, Vettius Valens leapt to his feet and sprinted from the chamber.
‘Let him go; Messalina will hear the news soon enough anyway. Conscript Fathers, I move that rather than restart Silius’ inauguration we should take advantage of his non-consular status and vote on whether or not he should be escorted by me to the Praetorian camp to await the Emperor’s judgement. Who would prefer to debate that motion? Or perhaps you would all prefer to carry on with the ceremony, vote to depose Claudius — trusting that the Guard have no objections — and then have Messalina, whose character is no secret, rule Rome as regent to a child who won’t achieve manhood for seven years, by which time her claws will be in all of us?’ Sabinus looked up and down the lines of Rome’s élite, before adding, ‘Those of us still left alive, that is.’
Sabinus walked back to his seat as the Senate erupted in competitive indignation at the treatment of their beloved Emperor by his harpy of a wife and a nonentity, a man who had only just been raised to the Senate and had never even served as a quaestor, let alone consul. Silius stood, watching them in silence as a condemned man would watch the approach of his executioner.
‘That’s got them going,’ Gaius observed as Sabinus sat back down. ‘It’s also made you very conspicuous, dear boy, especially if you’re going to be naming the amount that each man has to pay for an amnesty.’
Sabinus smiled as Lucius Vitellius finally managed to get himself heard and seconded the motion. ‘They’ll have forgotten about it by the time I’m back in Rome.’
‘I wouldn’t count on it, brother,’ Vespasian warned, ‘three years is not such a long time.’
Sabinus waved Pallas’ note. ‘Which is why I’ve been guaranteed at least seven in Moesia.’
Without waiting for anyone to be rash enough to oppose the motion, the Senior Consul called upon the House to divide. But there was no division; unanimously, the Senate voted to send Gaius Silius to Claudius so that the Emperor, whom he, along with most of the men who had condemned him, had cuckolded, could decide his fate.
Rumour of Messalina’s marriage had spread throughout the city as senators passed on the news to clients awaiting them outside the Curia and they in turn informed their hangers-on. Before Vespasian and Magnus had returned to the Porta Ostiensis it was already being discussed in the Fora and the baths; in markets and over the counters of shops and taverns; and by just about every person that they passed in the streets as they pressed through the crush of a city ripe with salacious gossip. Outrage grew as the perceived wrong done to their Emperor — the conqueror of Britannia, the man who had added Mauritania and Thracia to the Empire, the holder of the Secular Games, the builder of the new port that would solve all Rome’s supply problems, the brother of Germanicus and the rightful heir of the Caesars, the dynasty that had kept the common people of Rome fed, entertained and free from civil war for three generations now — the wrong done to him by a notorious nymphomaniac well known in the brothels frequented by the masses.
‘It makes you wonder how she ever thought she would succeed,’ Magnus observed as they mounted their horses surrounded by crowds of common people gathering at the Porta Ostiensis to welcome their wronged Emperor back to Rome.
‘It’s not so hard to imagine how she saw it,’ Vespasian replied, tugging on his mount’s reins as it shied at the crowd. ‘Claudius gone, Silius, Agrippina and Lucius murdered, the Guard paid off and the populace showered with money and games; in three months she could have been safe as the mother to the last true heir of the Caesars. The trouble was that she failed to take into account the loathing that most people have for her.’ From within the city came the ever-swelling sound of mass disapproval moving closer. ‘It sounds as if Messalina also has it in mind to come and greet Claudius.’ Vespasian urged his horse forward, down the Via Ostiensis. ‘Let’s hope Narcissus manages to keep her away from the fool.’
‘Sabinus has taken Silius to the Praetorian camp,’ Vespasian informed Claudius as he rode next to the imperial carriage; two turmae of Praetorian cavalry rode in escort.
‘And my w-w-wife?’
‘She is no longer your wife,’ Narcissus reminded Claudius.
‘We do not know that for sure,’ the elder Lucius Vitellius pointed out, earning a vicious sidelong look from Narcissus. ‘We only have the word of two whores.’
‘And the word of Vettius Valens in the Senate,’ Vespasian countered, ‘plus the fact that Silius did not deny the fact.’
Claudius squeezed out a couple of tears to add to the sheen on his face. ‘Oh, my little bird, where is she?’
‘I would surmise that your wi … Messalina has heard that Silius’ consular oath was void and therefore realises the seriousness of her predicament as I believe that she was on her way to the Porta Ostiensis to greet you as I left.’
‘I won’t see the treacherous b-b-bitch until she’s dead!’ Claudius began to twitch as his cheeks reddened and his breathing became irregular.
‘Indeed not,’ Narcissus crooned.
Vitellius shook his head. ‘Ah, such a crime.’
Narcissus fixed Vitellius with another vicious stare. ‘What do you mean, Vitellius? Is what Messalina has done a crime or is what’s about to be done to her a crime?’
Vitellius smiled vaguely. ‘Such villainy, such villainy.’
Narcissus wrinkled his nose in disgust at Vitellius’ careful avoidance of declaring his position.
Claudius quickly calmed, sinking back into self-pitying reverie. ‘Alas, my little bird, for the sake of the children I’ll forgive you.’
‘You must not talk like that, Princeps.’
‘Oh, how happy we were for so long; the children playing as we sat together in our garden, always together, never apart, every night a first. Oh, little bird, fly back to me.’
‘She’ll see you dead, Princeps, unless you kill her first.’
‘Ah, such villainy.’
Narcissus rounded on Vitellius. ‘If you are determined to say nothing that could be construed as support for either side then I suggest you stay silent.’
Vitellius looked to the sky. ‘Such a crime.’
Vespasian watched Narcissus struggle to control himself, surprised by just how rattled this normally neutral-faced politician had become; he glanced at Pallas, riding up front, next to the carriage driver, and saw the placid face of a man in control.
‘The filthy whore! I’ll snap her neck!’ Claudius exploded, before sinking his head onto his chest and mumbling about the milky smoothness of the little neck that he planned to snap.
Beyond the lead turma of cavalry the city walls were no more than a mile away; but closer, less than three hundred paces distant, stood a cart and kneeling in it was the figure of a woman with her hands outstretched in supplication.
Pallas signalled to the tribune, a dour-faced man in his forties, commanding the escort to come closer. ‘Burrus, ride that cart off the road, but be careful as he hasn’t yet signed her death warrant. And tell your men to start singing.’