False God of Rome (20 page)

Vespasian turned to his friend sitting next to him. ‘Better?’

‘Much.’

‘It’s not for certain that she wants me to do anything; she hasn’t even decided herself what to do about Macro.’

‘Bollocks, of course she has,’ Magnus said, taking the strain again. ‘Do you really believe that you and Corbulo would be sitting there with Antonia and the Senior Consul
receiving the benefit of her views on a political problem if she didn’t think that you were part of the solution?’ He paused for a grunt of contentment. ‘Of course you
wouldn’t; she’s got something nasty planned for us, take my word for it, otherwise she would’ve just told you to leave Capella’s chest on the table, thanked you sweetly and
sent you back home for your supper.’

Corbulo walked in and with a brief glance at Magnus moved past him, removed his loincloth, hung it on a peg and perched on the hole to the other side of Vespasian. His relief was loud and almost
instantaneous.

‘This is more than I bargained for, Vespasian,’ Corbulo asserted once he felt eased. ‘I came here to witness a conversation, not to get involved in high politics.’

‘No, Corbulo, you came here to repay a debt. If anything you should be thanking me because with the praetor elections only a few days away you’re now involved with the Senior Consul
whose opinion will count for a lot in the Senate. Perhaps you’ll get in this year; you might even beat my brother in the poll.’

‘I’ve worked that out for myself; and of course someone from my family should always beat a New Man like Sabinus,’ Corbulo replied tersely. ‘What concerns me, though, is
that if Antonia puts a stop to this, five important people are going to be seriously upset.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘Well, Macro and Herod will lose the chance of real power, Claudius will lose a lot of money, Poppaeus will lose a lot of money and the chance of some power, and Caligula will lose face
for being stupid enough to let this come about in the first place.’

Vespasian thought for a moment and realised that he was right.

‘And if they all find out that you brought this to Antonia’s attention,’ Corbulo continued, ‘and that I assisted you, then I really would have some enemies.’

‘What did I tell you, sir?’ Magnus said smugly. ‘Keep clear of imperial politics.’

‘Oh shut up and pass me the bucket.’

Vespasian pulled a stick, with a sponge attached, out of the bucket full of clear water; flicking away the excess liquid he squatted and began to sponge himself clean. ‘Caligula
won’t hold it against us, surely? We’re helping to save him from a terrible mistake.’

‘Yes, I know,’ Corbulo agreed as Vespasian dunked the sponge back in the bucket and swirled it round, cleaning it. ‘And for Rome’s sake it needs to be done, we can all
see that; but will Caligula?’

‘Of course he will.’ Vespasian tied on his loincloth while Magnus took his turn with the sponge.

‘Or will he see it as an interference with his plans for when he becomes emperor? Emperors can’t be seen to make mistakes, so do you think that we would stand a chance of preferment
during his reign if he knows that we’ve helped bring to light one of the biggest he’s ever likely to make?’

‘He’s got a very good point there, sir,’ Magnus said, giving himself a final scrub. ‘Even if you consider Caligula to be a friend now, when he’s the Emperor you
might find yourself being an unwelcome reminder of past errors of judgement.’

‘There, Vespasian, even your man has the wit to see that.’

Magnus picked up the bucket and banged it down at Corbulo’s feet so that the now murky water slopped onto his slippers. ‘Sponge, Corbulo?’ he asked politely, handing him the
unwashed implement.

‘All of us are agreed that we must put a stop to Macro’s scheme,’ Antonia announced once they were all assembled again in her room. ‘The question facing
us is how to do it with the least damage to my interests.’

The three men stared at her. Only Asiaticus had the courage to ask what they were all thinking. ‘Surely you mean Rome’s interests, Lady?’

‘That is the same thing, Consul. I’ll be blunt with you; for the past few years I have been the only person who has stood between a reasonably stable government and a return to civil
war. With Tiberius away and out of touch in his own world on Capraea it has fallen to me to play the various factions in the Senate off against each other, ensuring that none ever gets too
powerful. It fell to me to deal with Sejanus because Tiberius was blind to his machinations and the Senate was too scared to face up to him.’

Asiaticus went to protest.

‘Spare me your arguments, Consul; you were there in the Temple of Apollo when the Senate met believing that they were going to be asked to vote tribunician power to Sejanus. Tell me, if
Tiberius’ letter had asked for that then what would have been the result of the vote?’

Asiaticus pursed his lips. ‘It would have been unanimous,’ he admitted.

‘Yes, because every senator there would have been too frightened to be seen to vote against it. Only those who had “accidentally” forgotten about the vote and gone instead to
their country estates or those who’d had the misfortune to eat a bad prawn the evening before would have been spared having to make such a tricky decision.’

Corbulo bridled at the remark, much to Vespasian’s amusement; it had been the excuse that he had used to absent himself from that meeting.

‘I take your point, Lady,’ Asiaticus conceded.

‘I mean no disrespect to you personally, Consul, I am just stating the facts as they are and this being the case it is vital that I can still play a leading part in the politics of Rome
once my brother-in-law is dead; either through one of my grandsons, Gaius or Gemellus, or through my son Claudius – an option that I am now coming to consider.’ She paused, enjoying the
astounded look on her guests’ faces. ‘But I shall come to that. First let us consider the way to put a halt immediately to Macro’s plans without him suspecting that I’m
behind it, because if he does then he will act like a cornered beast and both Tiberius and I would be dead before the month is out. If I interfere with Claudius’ and Narcissus’ plans to
sell the deeds, he’ll be suspicious; likewise if I get Gaius to withdraw his promise, Macro is bound to see my hand behind it. So what to do?’

‘Remove him, as you did Sejanus, Lady,’ Asiaticus suggested.

‘I have already taken my first steps along that path. Unfortunately it will be a long journey unless I have him assassinated, which I dare not do for fear of an uprising by the Praetorian
Guard who are, as you know, very loyal to him and would see it as an attack on the position that they hold in Rome.’

‘Remove Poppaeus, domina,’ Corbulo said with a vengeful glint in his eye, ‘without him there is no money.’

‘Yes, but how? If I have treason charges brought against him I will alert Macro to the fact that I know what he’s planning.’

‘Then have him murdered,’ Vespasian said, hardly believing that he was suggesting such a thing; how long had it taken him to go from taking bribes to suggesting murder?

‘That would have the same effect as the previous suggestion,’ Antonia said dismissively.

‘Not if it were made to look like he died of natural causes, domina.’

Antonia looked at him; a smile slowly spread across her lips. ‘Well done, Vespasian; that would work. If he just drops down dead Macro will simply have to accept it as bad luck and will
have to start looking for another rich and treacherous sponsor, which could take months, even years. That is very clever.’

‘But how could we achieve that and who would do it?’ Asiaticus asked, evidently unconvinced. ‘It’s not as if we could get someone into his house and smother him in his
bed, there’d be too many people in his household to get past.’

‘I’ll do it,’ Corbulo offered in a low voice. ‘I know that it’s not an honourable way to kill a fellow senator but the way he tried to have me killed was even less
honourable, so if this is my only chance for revenge, I’ll take it.’

Vespasian knew that he would never feel comfortable looking Corbulo in the eye again if, having suggested such an unworthy way of killing their mutual enemy, he did not share in the deed.
‘And I’ll help you, Corbulo,’ he said with a sinking heart. It grieved him that all the high ideals that he had felt when first entering Rome, almost ten years previously, should
have come down to this. He realised, in that moment, that there was nothing that he would not do to keep his vision of Rome alight – a Rome ruled with honour, free from the civil wars that
brought an end to the Republic. And yet here he was offering to protect that vision with murder; how his grandmother, Tertulla, would laugh if she could see him now, he mused.

‘Thank you, gentlemen,’ Antonia said with sincerity. ‘I know how much this goes against everything that you have been brought up to believe in but I would not ask this of you
if I could see any other way.’

Vespasian and Corbulo looked at each other and gave mirthless smiles; they both knew that they had volunteered to do something that they would never be able to forgive themselves for.

Asiaticus cleared his throat; uncomfortable with what had just been decided, but nevertheless understanding that it was the only possible course of action, he brought the conversation back to
the practicalities of the matter. ‘So how do we achieve this if we assume that to do it in his own house would be nigh on impossible?’

‘Poison wouldn’t work,’ Antonia stated, ‘it would take too long to administer small quantities to make it look like he was dying of a wasting disease, and anyway how
would you get access to his food on a regular basis?’

There was a silence as everyone around the table tried to work out how to murder somebody and make it look like a natural death if they were not in their own bed or sitting at their study table
or similar.

The silence was eventually broken by Pallas from his position by the door. ‘May I be of assistance, domina?’

Antonia looked up. ‘No doubt you have some of your valuable observations to make, Pallas; they are always a pleasure to hear, so, please, come to our aid.’

The steward stepped forward into the light. ‘You are kind, domina. I have only one observation to make and that is: to achieve this thing convincingly it has to be done in private but the
body must be found in public. Now if we rule out killing Poppaeus in his own home we have to find another private place in which to do it. Where else in Rome does Poppaeus go? The Senate, the
baths, the law courts, his friends’ houses for dinner? None of these are private. He would never accept an invitation from you, domina, nor would it be seemly if this act were perpetrated in
the house of the Senior Consul – that would be taking dishonour too far.’

Asiaticus nodded his agreement. ‘We would be trying the gods’ patience if we were to sully the office of the senior magistrate in Rome with low murder.’

‘Indeed,’ Pallas agreed. ‘So the only time in the near future that I can envisage Poppaeus needing to be in private is when he’s doing a secret deal.’

‘Exchanging the deeds for the debt marker at Claudius’ house,’ Vespasian exclaimed. ‘Of course! But that would mean that Claudius and Narcissus would both have to be
party to the plan.’

‘I don’t think that’ll be a problem,’ Antonia said, ‘it comes down to money. If we wait until after the exchange has been made, I’m sure that both my son and
his oily freedman will be only too pleased either to help or at least turn a blind eye, as they will end up with not only a signed-off debt marker but they’ll also still be in possession of
the deeds to those seven estates. That should be inducement enough and it also furthers my purposes: it will give Claudius the extra income that he will need should I decide that it would be better
for Rome for him to become the next Emperor.’

‘And might you decide that, Lady?’ Asiaticus enquired, raising his eyebrows.

‘It depends on how my little Gaius behaves himself in the next few months; but if I were you, Asiaticus, I would keep up my friendship with that idiot son of mine.’

‘Oh, I intend to,’ the Consul replied with a conspiratorial smile.

Antonia turned her attention back to her steward. ‘Thank you for that timely observation, Pallas. Now that you’ve enlightened us on where to do it, do you have an observation on how
it might be done?’

‘I’m afraid not, domina,’ Pallas replied apologetically, ‘but I have an idea who might be able to help us with that delicate matter, bearing in mind the mysterious demise
of one of the aediles last year. Shall I ask Magnus to come in?’

Antonia raised her eyebrows. ‘I think that that’s an excellent idea.’

Magnus’ eyes flicked nervously around the room. ‘I ain’t sure that I understand exactly what you mean, domina.’ He shifted uncomfortably on the hard
wooden stool placed at the open end of the dining table.

‘Don’t play coy with me, Magnus,’ Antonia ordered, ‘it’s a simple question, and I’m sure that you know the answer.’

‘Well, there is one way; not that I ever tried it, but I heard about it from an acquaintance,’ he admitted. ‘Who I don’t know any more; never really did, if you take my
meaning?’ he added quickly, glancing uneasily at the Senior Consul.

‘It’s all right, Magnus,’ Antonia reassured him, ‘the Senior Consul is here to gain the benefit of your wisdom, not to judge you.’

‘If you’re the same Magnus who leads the South Quirinal Brotherhood,’ Asiaticus added, ‘and if you’re worried about the, shall we say, “natural” death
of the aedile for that district last year, then don’t be. Senator Pollo has completely convinced the Urban Prefect that you had nothing to do with it and it’s quite normal for a healthy
young man to be found dead in the street with no wounds or bruising on him whatsoever. However, I would be interested to know how it was done, so please, enlighten us.’

Magnus looked relieved. ‘Well, it’s quite simple really: you drown the man by forcing his head into a barrel of water, taking care not to get any bruising around the throat or chest
as you hold him under. It’s best to strip him first so that his clothes don’t get torn or wet. Then you hang him upside down – put a blanket around his ankles so that the rope
doesn’t mark the skin – and pump his chest until all the water is out – but you must wait a little while before you do that as they can come back to life. Then take him down, rub
his hair dry and dress him and there you go, one unmarked dead person. Oh, and when you hang him up it’s best to do it in front of a large fire so as to keep him warm, if you want the body to
be found quickly, that is.’