Fortune's Favorites (121 page)

It was not impossible for an expelled senator to re-enter the House, but he could not expect to do it through the offices of the censors who had expelled him; he had to stand for election as either a quaestor or a tribune of the plebs. A wearisome business for Lentulus Sura, who had already been consul! And not one he contemplated immediately, for Lentulus Sura was in love, and didn't care very much about the Senate. Shortly after his expulsion he married the feckless Julia Antonia. Caesar had been right. Julia Antonia was a poor picker of husbands, and Lentulus Sura a worse choice than Marcus Antonius the Man of Chalk.

The Senate finished with, Clodianus and Gellius went back to contract letting, this time civilian rather than sacred. These mostly concerned the farming of provincial taxes and tithes, though they also covered the erection or restoration of numerous State-owned buildings and public facilities, from the refurbishment of latrines to circus bleachers, bridge making, basilicae. Again there was a huge stir; the censors announced that they were abandoning the system of taxation Sulla had brought in to relieve Asia Province.

Lucullus and Marcus Cotta had pursued their war against King Mithridates to what seemed a successful conclusion, though the laurels definitely belonged to Lucullus. The year of the Pompey and Crassus consulship saw Mithridates obliged to flee to the court of his son-in-law Tigranes of Armenia (where Tigranes refused to see him), and Lucullus just about in full possession of Pontus as well as Cappadocia and Bithynia; only Tigranes remained to be dealt with. His hands free to bury themselves in some much-needed administrative work, Lucullus promptly began to see to the tangled financial affairs of Asia Province, which he had been governing in tandem with Cilicia for three years. And cracked down on the tax farming publicani so hard that on two occasions he exercised his right within his province to execute and had several of these men beheaded, as had Marcus Aemilius Scaurus some years earlier.

The squeals of outrage in Rome were enormous, especially when Lucullus's reforms made it even more difficult for the tax-farmers to operate at a maximum profit than had Sulla's. A member of the arch-conservative senatorial rump, Lucullus had never been popular in high business circles, which meant that men like Crassus and Atticus loathed him. Perhaps because alone among the current crop of generals Lucullus bade fair to eclipsing him, Pompey too disliked Lucullus.

It was therefore no surprise when Pompey's pair of tame censors announced that Sulla's system in Asia Province was to be abandoned; things would go back to the way they had been in the old pre-Sullan days.

But all of this made no difference to Lucullus, who ignored the censorial directives. While ever he was governor of Asia Province, he said, he would continue with Sulla's system, which was a model and ought to be implemented in every one of Rome's provinces. The hastily shaped companies which had marshaled men to go out to Asia Province faltered, voices were raised in Forum and Senate, and all the most powerful knights thundered that Lucullus must be dismissed as governor.

Still Lucullus continued to ignore directives from Rome, and to ignore his precarious position. More important to him by far was the tidying up which always followed in the wake of big wars; by the time he left his two provinces they would be proper.

Though he was not by nature or inclination attracted to arch-conservative senators like Catulus and Lucullus, Caesar nonetheless had cause to be grateful to Lucullus; he had received a letter from Queen Oradaltis of Bithynia.

My daughter has come home, Caesar. I'm sure you know that Lucius Licinius Lucullus has had great success in his war against King Mithridates, and that for a year now he has been campaigning in Pontus itself. Among the many fortresses the King maintained, Cabeira had always been thought to be his strongest. But this year it fell to Lucullus, who found all sorts of horrible things-the dungeons were full of political prisoners and potentially dangerous relatives who had been tortured, or used as specimens by the King in his constant experimentations with poison. I will not dwell upon such hideous matters, I am too happy.

Among the women Lucullus found in residence was Nysa. She had been there for nearly twenty years, and has come home to me a woman of more than sixty. However, Mithridates had treated her well according to his lights-she was held to be no different from the small collection of minor wives and concubines he kept in Cabeira. He also kept some of his sisters there whom he didn't wish to see marry or have any opportunity to bear children, so my poor girl had plenty of spinsterly company. For that matter, the King has so many wives and concubines that those in Cabeira had also been living like spinsters for years! A colony of old maids.

When Lucullus opened up their prison he was very kind to all the women he found, and took exquisite care that there should be no masculine offense offered to them. The way Nysa tells it, he behaved as did Alexander the Great toward the mother, wives and other harem members of the third King Darius. I believe Lucullus sent the Pontic women to his ally in Cimmeria, the son of Mithridates called Machares.

Nysa he freed completely the moment he discovered who she was. But more than that, Caesar. He loaded her down with gold and presents and sent her back to me under an escort of troops sworn to honor her. Can you imagine this aged, never very beautiful woman's pleasure at journeying through the countryside as free as any bird?

Oh, and to see her again! I knew nothing until she walked through the front door of my villa in Rheba, glowing like a young girl. She was so happy to see me! My last wish has come true, I have my daughter back.

She came just in time. My dear old dog, Sulla, died of antiquity a month before her advent, and I despaired. The servants tried desperately to persuade me to get another dog, but you know how it is. You think of all the special wonders and laughable antics that beloved pet has owned, his place in your family life, and it seems such a betrayal to bury him, then hurry some other creature into his basket. I'm not saying it's wrong to do so, but a little time has to go by before the new pet takes on characteristics special to him, and I very much fear I would have been dead before any new pet became a person in his own right.

No need for dying now! Nysa wept to find her father gone, of course, but we have settled down here together in such harmony and delight-we both handline fish from the jetty and stroll through the village for our constitutional. Lucullus did invite us to live in the palace at Nicomedia, but we have decided to remain where we are. And we have a dear little pup named Lucullus.

Please, Caesar, try to find the time to journey to the east again! I would so much like you to meet Nysa, and I miss you dreadfully.

It was last year’s tribune of the plebs, Marcus Lollius Palicanus, whom the delegates from all the cities of Sicily except Syracuse and Messana approached to prosecute Gaius Verres. But Palicanus referred them to Pompey, and Pompey in turn referred them to Marcus Tullius Cicero as the ideal man for that particular job.

Verres had gone to Sicily as its governor after his urban praetorship, and-mostly thanks to Spartacus-remained its governor for three years. He had only just returned to Rome when the Sicilian delegation sought out Cicero during January. Both Pompey and Palicanus were personally concerned; Palicanus had gone to the assistance of some of his clients when Verres persecuted them, and Pompey had amassed a considerable number of clients in Sicily during his occupation of it on Sulla's behalf.

Quaestor in Lilybaeum under Sextus Peducaeus the year before Verres arrived to govern Sicily in Peducaeus's place, Cicero had developed an enormous fondness for Sicily too. Not to mention having amassed a nice little retinue of clients. Yet when the Sicilians came to see him, he backed away.

“I never prosecute,” he explained. “I defend.”

“But Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus recommended you! He said you were the only man who could win. Please, we beg of you, break your rule and prosecute Gaius Verres! If we do not win, Sicily could well rise up against Rome.”

“Raped the place, did he?” asked Cicero clinically.

“Yes, he raped it. But having raped it, Marcus Tullius, he then dismembered it. We have nothing left! All our works of art are gone from every temple, paintings and statues both, and any valuables in the hands of private owners-what can we say about a man who actually had the temerity to enslave a free woman famous for her tapestry work and make her run a factory for his profit? He stole the moneys the Treasury of Rome gave him to purchase grain, then commandeered the grain from the growers without paying for it! He has stolen farms, estates, even inheritances. The list is endless!”

This catalogue of perfidies startled Cicero greatly, but still he shook his head. “I'm sorry, but I do not prosecute.”

The spokesman drew a breath. “Then we will go home,” he said. “We had thought that a man so knowledgeable about Sicily's history that he went to great trouble to rediscover the whereabouts of the tomb of Archimedes would see our plight, and help. But you have lost your affection for Sicily, and clearly you do not value Gnaeus Pompeius as he values you.”

To be reminded of Pompey and of a famous coup-he had indeed rediscovered the lost tomb of Archimedes outside the city of Syracuse-was too much. Prosecution in Cicero's opinion was a waste of his talents, for the (highly illegal) fees were always far less than the inducements offered by some sweating ex-governor or publicanus in danger of losing everything. Nor (such was the mentality of men) was it popular to prosecute! The prosecuting advocate was always seen as a nasty piece of work determined to make a ruin out of some hapless individual's life, whereas the defending advocate who got the hapless individual off was a popular hero. It made not the slightest difference that most of these hapless individuals were cunning, avaricious and guilty to the extreme; any threat to a man's right to conduct his life as he saw fit was bound to be considered an infringement of his personal entitlements.

Cicero sighed. “Very well, very well, I will take the case!” he said. “But you must remember that the defending attorneys speak after the prosecuting team, so that the jury has clean forgotten every word the prosecution said by the time it is given the directive to find a verdict. You must also remember that Gaius Verres is very highly connected. His wife is a Caecilia Metella, the man who should have been consul this year is his brother-in-law, he has another brother-in-law who is the present governor of Sicily-you'll get no help from that quarter, and nor will I!-and every other Caecilius Metellus will be on his side. If I prosecute, then Quintus Hortensius will defend, and other advocates almost as famous will join him as his juniors. I said I will take the case. That does not mean I think I can win.”

The delegation had hardly left his house before Cicero was regretting his decision; who needed to offend every Caecilius Metellus in Rome when his chances of becoming consul rested on the slender base of personal ability in the law courts? He was as much a New Man as his detested fellow man from Arpinum, Gaius Marius, but he didn't have a soldiering bone in his body and a New Man's progress was harder if he could not earn fame on the battlefield.

Of course he knew why he had accepted; that absurd loyalty he felt he owed to Pompey. The years might be many and the legal accolades multiple, but how could he ever forget the careless kindness of a seventeen-year-old cadet toward the cadet his father despised? As long as he lived Cicero would be grateful to Pompey for helping him through that ghastly, miserable military experience in the ranks of Pompey Strabo's cadets; for shielding him from Pompey Strabo's indifferent cruelties and terrifying rages. No other hand had been raised to assist him, yet young Pompey, the general's son, had raised his hand. He had been warm that winter thanks to Pompey, he had been given clerical duties thanks to Pompey, he had never needed to lift a sword in battle thanks to Pompey. And he could never, never forget it.

So off to the Carinae he betook himself to see Pompey.

“I just wanted to tell you,” he said in a voice of doom, “that I have decided to prosecute Gaius Verres.”

“Oh, splendid!” said Pompey heartily. “A lot of Verres's victims are-or sometimes were-my clients. You can win, I know you can. And name your favors.”

“I need no favors from you, Magnus, and you can never be in any doubt that it is I who owe you.”

Pompey looked startled. “You do? On what account?”

“You made my year with your father's army bearable.”

“Oh, that!” Laughing, Pompey shook Cicero by the arm. “I hardly think that's worth a lifetime's gratitude.”

“To me it is,” said Cicero, tears in his eyes. “We shared a lot during the Italian War.”

Perhaps Pompey was remembering less palatable things they had shared, like the search for his father's naked and insulted body, for he shook his head as if to banish the Italian War from his mind, and gave Cicero a beaker of excellent wine. “Well, my friend, you just let me know what I can do to assist you now.”

“I will,” said Cicero gratefully.

“All those Little Goat men of the Caecilii Metelli will be against this prosecution, of course,” said Pompey thoughtfully. “So will Catulus, Hortensius, others.”

“And you've just mentioned the main reason why I have to get this case heard early enough in the year. I daren't run the risk of having the case bound over until next year-Little Goat and Hortensius will be consuls then, everyone seems to be saying.”

“A pity in a way,” said Pompey. “Next year there may well be knight juries again, and that would go against Verres.”

“Not if the consuls rig the court behind the scenes, Magnus. Besides, there's no guarantee our praetor Lucius Cotta will find in favor of knight juries. I was talking to him the other day-he thinks his enquiries into the composition of court juries are going to take months-and he's not convinced knight juries will be any better than senatorial ones. Knights can't be prosecuted for taking bribes.”

“We can change the law,” said Pompey, who, having no respect for the law, thought that whenever it became inconvenient it should be changed-to suit himself, naturally.

“That could prove difficult.”

“I don't see why.”

“Because,” said Cicero patiently, “to change that law would mean enacting another law in one of the two tribal Assemblies-both dominated by knights.”

“They've indemnified Crassus and me against our action last year,” said Pompey, unable to distinguish the difference between one law and another.

“That is because you've been very nice to them, Magnus. And they want you to go on being very nice to them. A law making them culpable for accepting bribes is quite a separate pot of stew.”

“Oh, well, perhaps as you say Lucius Cotta won't find in favor of knight juries. It was just a thought.”

Cicero rose to go. “Thank you again, Magnus.”

“Keep me informed.”

* * *

One month later Cicero notified the urban praetor, Lucius Cotta, that he would be prosecuting Gaius Verres in the Extortion Court on behalf of the cities of Sicily, and that he would be asking for the sum of forty-two and a half million sesterces-one thousand seven hundred talents-in damages, as well as for the restoration of all works of art and valuables stolen from Sicily's temples and citizens.

Though he had come back from Sicily swaggering, confident that his position as the brother-in-law of Metellus Little Goat would be adequate protection against possible prosecution, when Gaius Verres heard that Cicero-Cicero, who never prosecuted!-had lodged an intention to prosecute, he panicked. Word was sent immediately to his brother-in-law Lucius Metellus the governor of Sicily to bury any evidence Verres himself might have overlooked in his rush to remove his plunder from the island. Significantly, neither Syracuse nor Messana had joined with the other cities to press charges; that was due to the fact that Syracuse and Messana had aided and abetted Verres, and shared in the proceeds of his nefarious activities. But how fortunate that the new governor was his wife's middle brother!

The two brothers left in Rome, Quintus called Little Goat (who was certain to be consul next year) and the youngest of the three sons of Metellus Caprarius, Marcus, hastily conferred with Verres to see what could be done to avert the disaster of a trial, and agreed to bring Quintus Hortensius into the case. Certainly Hortensius would lead the defense if the matter came to court, but at this stage what was needed was a ploy aimed at averting a trial, especially one conducted by Cicero.

In March, Hortensius lodged a complaint with the urban praetor; Cicero, he alleged, was not the proper man to prosecute any case against Gaius Verres. Instead of Cicero, Hortensius nominated Quintus Caecilius Niger, a relative of the Little Goats who had been Verres's quaestor in Sicily during the middle one of his three years as governor. The only way Cicero's fitness to prosecute could be determined was to hold a special hearing called a divinatio–guesswork (so named because the judges at this special hearing reached a conclusion without hard evidence being presented-that is, they arrived at a finding by guesswork). Each prospective prosecutor was required to tell the judges why he ought to be the chief prosecutor, and after listening to Caecilius Niger, who spoke poorly, and Cicero, the judges found in favor of Cicero and directed that the case be heard quickly.

Verres, the two Metellus Little Goats and Hortensius had to think again.

“You'll be praetor next year, Marcus,” said the great advocate to the youngest brother, “so we'll have to make sure the lots fall on you to become president of the Extortion Court. This year's president, Glabrio, loathes Gaius Verres. And if for no other reason than that he loathes you, Verres, Glabrio won't allow the slightest breath of scandal to touch his court- yes, what I'm saying is that if the case is heard this year and Glabrio is court president, we won't be able to bribe the jury. And don't forget that this year Lucius Cotta will be watching every important jury like a cat a mouse. Because this case will attract a lot of attention, I think Lucius Cotta is going to base much of his opinion about the fitness of all-senator juries on it. As for Pompeius and Crassus-they don't love us at all!”

“You mean,” said Gaius Verres, whose brass-colored beauty was looking a little tarnished these days, “that we have to get my case held over until next year, when Marcus will be president of the Extortion Court.”

“Exactly,” said Hortensius. “Quintus Metellus and I will be the consuls next year-a great help! It won't be difficult for us to rig the lots to give Marcus the Extortion Court, and it makes no difference whether next year's juries are senatorial or equestrian-we'll bribe!”

“But it's only April,” said Verres gloomily. “I don't see how we can stall proceedings until the end of the year.”

“Oh, we can,” said Hortensius confidently. “In these cases where evidence has to be gathered at a far distance from Rome-and up and down a country as big as Sicily!-it takes any prosecutor six to eight months to prepare his case. I know Cicero hasn't begun because he's still here in Rome, and hasn't sent any agents out to Sicily yet. Naturally he'll hope to pull in evidence and witnesses fast, and that's where Lucius Metellus comes in-as the governor of Sicily, he will put every obstacle possible in the path of Cicero or his agents.”

Hortensius beamed. “I predict that Cicero won't be ready before October, if then. Of course that's time enough for a trial. But we won't let it be! Because we will apply to try another case in Glabrio's court ahead of yours, Gaius Verres. The victim will have to be someone who has left a trail of hard evidence behind him that we can gather very quickly. Some poor wretch who extorted in a minor way, not an important fish like the governor of a province. We should choose the prefect of an administrative district in-say, Greece. I have a victim in mind-we will have enough evidence to satisfy the urban praetor that we have a case by the end of Quinctilis. Cicero can't possibly be ready by then. But we will be!”

“Which victim are you thinking of?'' asked Metellus Little Goat, looking relieved; naturally he and his brothers had shared in Gaius Verres's profits, but that didn't mean he was willing to suffer a brother-in-law exiled and disgraced for extortion.

“I'm thinking of that Quintus Curtius who was Varro Lucullus's legate, and was prefect of Achaea while Varro Lucullus was governor of Macedonia. If Varro Lucullus hadn't been so busy in Thrace conquering the Bessi and taking boat rides down the Danubius all the way to the sea, he would have ensured that Curtius was prosecuted himself. But by the time he came home and found out about Curtius's little peculations he deemed it too late and too minor to bother about, so he never instituted proceedings. But the evidence is there for the gathering, and Varro Lucullus would be delighted to help land our little fish. I'll lodge an application with the urban praetor to have the case against Quintus Curtius heard this year in the Extortion Court,” said Hortensius.