I had done that once. But those days were past.
We found the easiest way to take an interest in the trial was to take an interest in my noble in-laws. Helena's father, who rarely attended the Senate, was no great lover of gossip, but he was now intrigued by this case which had involved both his maverick sons and his daughter's low-class lover. Decimus trotted along every day, then most evenings either we dined with the Camilli, or we invited them to us. In this way, Julia Justa managed to see plenty of her little granddaughters, which pleased at least her.
She was about to be an even happier woman. Helena and I had popped in and out of the family home near the Capena Gate several times since we returned from Britain, but we were both preoccupied. We now realised that neither of us had set eyes on Justinus' wife, Claudia Rufina, since before we left. When she appeared at dinner, it turned out that, like Saffia Donata, Claudia was pregnant, due any day apparently.
`It's a new fashion!' I joked feebly, to disguise my shock. Fathering this baby must have been the last thing Justinus did before he left Rome with me. His languorous brown eyes, the delight of so many infatuated British bar-girls, met mine above a bread roll he was now conveniently munching. Behind it, his expression was invisible. `You kept this quiet!' I muttered to him privately. I had been fairly sure that during our trip abroad he had decided that he would end his marriage, which had become so uncomfortable despite Claudia's financial expectations.
`I would have told you, had I known,' he answered in a quietly savage undertone. But next moment he was smiling proudly, just as a father is supposed to do when his first child is due – due while we were eating our dessert custards, judging by the size of Claudia.
She was wearing a necklace of extremely large emeralds, with the air of a girl who thinks she may as well flaunt the one aspect of her personality that her husband truly admires. If they separated now, then as soon as the baby was old enough to travel, Claudia – a bright, goodhearted young woman who understood her own mistakes all too well – would finally return to her home province of Hispania Baetica. Justinus knew the implications. He would have to repay her dowry. He would concede that so young a child should live with its mother, so he would never see the child. He would not receive a sestertius from Claudia's much-vaunted inheritance. His mother would never forgive him, his father would be quietly furious, his sister would despair and his brother would gloat.
The trapped young husband looked at me again. I kept my face neutral and congratulated Claudia.
Claudia Rufina thanked me, with the dignity we had come to expect from her. To my relief, I heard Helena asking her father about the trial.
The senator sat up on his elbow, eager to take the stage. He was a grey-haired diffident man of deep humanity. Life had made him wealthy enough to have standing, yet too poor to do much with it. Just at the moment when Vespasian – with whom he had long been on friendly terms – became Emperor, family embarrassments had held Camillus back. A relation involved himself in a stupid plot, and everyone was damned. Others in Vespasian's circle might have expected responsibility and honour at this time, but Camillus Verus knew he had lost out to Fate again.
`I'm told the preliminary approach to the magistrate was argued hard,' he said, setting the picture for us. `The praetor tried to throw out the case, but Silius held his ground. The pre-trial hearing was then fairly mild stuff. Silius kept his denunciation short. We reckon he intends to save all his surprises for the Curia.'
`How far have they gone?' Helena demanded.
`They raced through the opening speeches -'
`Silius is prosecuting, with Paccius Africanus for the defence?' I clarified.
`Yes. They both have young fellows in support, but the big names want to speak.'
`And to take the rewards!' I commented. A prosecution can be shared among various accusers, but then any compensation after a conviction will be allocated among more than one of them too.
The senator smiled. `There is a lot of speculation as to what will be left. If Metellus was murdered, the family have to pay the original trial bill to Silius. That's his motive for bringing the new case. But his son's father-in-law -'
`Servilius Donatus?'
`Right. He is sounding off about a prior claim for compensation for misuse of his daughter's dowry. There was land. Metellus senior had control of it – the son was not emancipated – and Metellus sold all the land.'
I whistled. `He isn't allowed to do that. The dowry is for the benefit of the couple and their children -'
'Saffia would have had to give her approval,' Decimus confirmed. `Her father says she never agreed. Metellus had been claiming that she did.'
`But if divorce occurs,' Claudia Rufina seemed unnervingly aware of the law, `the dowry has to be paid back, so the wife can use it to remarry.
`If she wants to,' said Justinus. He should have kept quiet.
`It's obligatory,' snapped his mother. `The Augustan laws say she must take a new husband within six months, unless she is past childbearing.'
`Only if she wants to be able to inherit legacies,' persisted dear Quintus. He really knew how to ensure there would be flaming rows at tomorrow's breakfast table. I had a strong feeling that divorce and its consequences must have been under recent discussion here. Helena glanced at me, with a faint look of distress. She was fond of both her brother and his wife; she hated the trouble between them.
`Well Saffia Donata wants her legacy,' the senator said peaceably. `This is another peculiarity. If Metellus is deemed to have committed suicide, then his will stands – and Saffia Donata is telling people she will receive a substantial bequest.'
`But she's divorced.'
`Curious, eh?'
Now I was on full alert. `Toppling triglyphs! Who else features in this shock document? Come to that, Decimus – how do you happen to know?'
The senator winked. `A lot of people know – though the Metelli would rather we didn't.'
`If Saffia gets a nice mention,' I begged, `please say – who else has been shoved aside?'
Decimus pretended he was above glorying in gossip. His wife was looking hard at a pear she was peeling: `The son, they say.'
I was amazed. Metellus and his son had seemed so closely intertwined when they were linked in corruption. And no Roman lightly disinherits any child, let alone an only son. `So what about the sister they are prosecuting – Juliana – do you know?'
`Well I heard,' Julia Justa wiped her fingers on a napkin, 'Rubiria Juliana will receive a bequest, but according to usual procedures it has to be set against what she has already received in her own dowry.,
'So she's had her share already. The big surprise for the court is that Juliana wasn't after money. So much for greed leading to murder.'
I was disappointed. Money is the biggest motive for killing people. If she had stood to gain a great deal – and if she had known it – then Rubiria Juliana probably did somehow fix her father's demise and we could all enjoy watching Silius denouncing her. Without that motive, Juliana was probably innocent. Which made her trial a much sadder and more sordid matter. There was no creditable reason for Silius to attack the woman.
XII
'WELL, JULIANA looked ill,' said the senator when we met next day.
`You mean, they made her look ill,' his wife scoffed. I had once thought that Julia Justa was a hard woman but, like her daughter Helena, she was merely impatient with hypocrisy. `You can do so much with white lead!'
`It's a convention,' Helena complained, her feet kicking on her dining couch restlessly. She had removed her sandals or I would have been fretting about the new furnishings (we were at our house tonight, joined only by Helena's parents). `I don't know why anybody bothers with such farcical procedures, just to attract sympathy -'