Sejanus

'So Sejanus began to make space for himself by sandbagging the Julians?' I took another swallow of wine.

'Correct. There's the reason for your treason trials, Corvinus.' Lippillus emptied the jug into my cup and signalled the waiter for another. Ah, well. Perilla couldn't blame me this time. 'He had to make himself indispensable by getting rid of the opposition, and he did it by convincing the Wart that the Julians were a danger. Meanwhile he was pestering the emperor over Drusus's widow Livilla. Tiberius turned him down flat, but you see the plan.'

Uh huh. Sure I did. Like I say, Sejanus's only way into the club was by marriage. As Livilla's husband he'd be the Wart's son-in-law and Gemellus's stepfather. Once the Julians were discredited he'd be sitting pretty. Was sitting pretty: to all intents and purposes the Julians were gone, and when the Wart had named Sejanus as his colleague in the consulship he'd also made the betrothal to Livilla official. All he needed now was the tribunician power to mark him indelibly as Rome's future ruler, and that would come because, like Lippillus had said, the emperor had no one else to give it to.

I sat back. 'How much of this is common knowledge?'

'All of it, I expect. In the right circles.'

Yeah. That I could understand. It was why Lamia and Arruntius were so desperate to have the guy's plug pulled as of yesterday. 'And to the emperor as well?'

'Naturally. It has to be. Tiberius may've shut himself away in Capri, but he's no fool and most of it happened before he retired. He's backing Sejanus all the way, Corvinus. He has no choice. And don't you let anyone tell you different.'

Shit. No wonder the senate were chewing their communal fingernails off at the wrist, or that they'd been desperate enough to ask for my help. If the Wart had decided that Sejanus was going to be the next emperor in full knowledge of what a bastard he was then Livia's plan was stone dead. We could all put the shutters up and go home. Finish, end of story.

There was only one thing that was niggling me, and it had been niggling right from the start of Lippillus's politics lesson. Not a big thing, maybe it meant nothing, but it niggled.

'You said Sejanus began going for the Julians after Drusus died, right?' I said.

'Yeah. So what?'

'One of those guys I mentioned. Junius Silanus. When was he charged exactly?'

Lippillus frowned. 'You want the date? How the hell should I know?'

'Not the exact date. I can check that for myself. Just remind me. Was it before or after Drusus hung up his sandals?'

I'd got him now: I told you, Lippillus was quick. If Sejanus's plan to slug the Julians postdated the death of the Wart's son then Silanus was an anomaly.

'It was before,' he said. 'About a year before.'

'That's what I thought. The next question's obvious. Silanus was charged with treason, and the Wart pressed the case. So what did Silanus do exactly?'

'I don't know.' We were staring at each other now. 'That would be in the senatorial records.'

'It isn't. I've looked. There's just the bare charge and the verdict.'

'Is that so, now?' Lippillus said slowly, and stroked his jaw.

'That's so. But maybe I should have another look at that particular roll.'

'Yeah. I'd do that, too.' He was looking thoughtful. 'Meanwhile I'll tell you something else. Silanus wasn't the first Julian to go. There was a guy a year before him, a Caesius Cordus. He was condemned for treason too.'

Uh huh. I remembered Cordus from my notes. He'd been governor of Crete and Cyrene, while Silanus had had Asia. Adjoining provinces, both senatorial and so outwith the emperor's direct control…

Silanus and Cordus. Both Julians, both governors of senatorial provinces. Both condemned for treason and extortion, from adjoining commands…

Maybe significant, maybe not, but there was a cold chill at the nape of my neck that told me it mattered.

'Corvinus?' Lippillus was looking at me. 'You okay?'

I brought myself back with a wrench.

'Yeah,' I said. 'Yeah, I'm okay. Thanks, pal. Thanks a lot.'

'Don't mention it.' He emptied his cup and got to his feet. 'Now if you'll excuse me this high-powered stuff's all very well but I've got a salary to earn.'

'We ordered another jug.'

'Have it on me. Grumio'll charge it to my account in any case. You're on holiday, remember?'

'Dinner some time soon? I'll send Bathyllus.'

'Sure.'

'Bring Marcina.'

He flashed me a smile. 'Mother'll look forward to it. I'll see you around, Corvinus.'

I glanced up at the sun. Just after noon. The records office would be open for another three hours at least, a jug was a jug, and, like Lippillus had said, this was supposed to be a holiday…

Conscience and duty won. I sighed and rose to go. Perilla would have been proud of me.

6

Rusticus wasn't around, but the slaves knew me and let me pull down the two rolls I needed to check. It fitted. Neither my memory nor my notes were at fault. The main charge was given clearly enough, provincial extortion in both cases. Cordus had been prosecuted by a guy called Ancharius Priscus, who I didn't know, and Silanus by another senator representing the Council of Asian Cities; the treason raps were added riders with no additional explanation or details.

Okay so far. There was one other possibility, that the records had been tampered with physically. Senatorial records, like normal books, are made up of standard-sized sheets glued together top to bottom and wound onto a spindle. If someone wanted to lose a piece of text at the start or finish of a sheet all they'd have to do would be to detach the page, cut it across at the appropriate point and glue it back along the new edge. Taking out a passage in the middle of a page would be more difficult, and so easier to spot; at the very least there'd be traces of rubbing, maybe signs of a different hand or a different colour ink in the necessary filler if the forger wasn't all that competent.

I took the rolls over to the desk by the window and examined them carefully in full daylight. The relevant sheets were numbered and in their proper place in the sequence. So far, so good: no whole pages missing, which had been another possibility. More important, the sheets were the same length and colour as the others either side and several pages back, and the glue between them was the same shade of dirty brown. There was no sign of scraping or rubbing that I could see, and if any part of the text was forged the guy who'd done it must've been a real professional.

So. As far as I could tell, the records themselves hadn't been altered since they'd been written, and what you saw was what you got. Which meant that the treason charges against Cordus and Silanus hadn't been spelled out in open court or an injunction had been put on including them in the formal minutes; either one of which scenarios meant censorship at the imperial level.

So why should the Wart censor the details of a treason charge in the private, official records of the senate? And did the similarity of treatment mean that the two cases were somehow linked?

I didn't have the answers. Not yet, and maybe I never would. Suddenly, my stomach rumbled. It'd been a long time since Grumio's sausages, and I was starving. Lunch break. I put the records back where they belonged and set off home to the Palatine.