Our Eternal Curse I (16 page)

My dearest darling Gaius.

Each day we spend apart seems to
linger endlessly.  From the moment I awake until the moment I sleep I hold an
image of you at the very forefront of my mind.

As she penned this opening of
her weekly letter Julia lifted her head from the scroll and struggled to
remember anything about Young Gaius.  Current events occupied her mind totally
and she had to think of the statue to even recall his face.  Pangs of guilt
moved deep within as the cold-blooded realization shook her out of denial.  
She was going to cause the boy terrible pain and the shame of it sent chills
through her flesh.  Fighting to silence her conscience Julia reasoned that she
was just a victim of circumstance and this illogical conclusion provided
sufficient justification to proceed.

Lowering her head Julia pushed
his image from her mind and continued to move the stylus across the page to
create her weekly work of fiction:

How are you my love?  I was
delighted to read in your wonderful letter that your fighting season has gone
so well.  Your victories are so great and you are sending so many new slaves to
Rome that uncle Gavius is having problems storing them all.  He is so clever
though, he has purchased and converted warehouses for slave storage.  The
people from the slave auctions pay him a fee to keep them there until they find
time to sell them all and he is renting the slaves out to the people who unload
ships.

The market stalls are alive with
the things you are growing on your estates.  The smell of your oranges and
lemons is wonderfully overpowering and the figs and dates that you send are so
popular with everyone in Rome.  How clever you are to find them growing on your
southern estates.  Gavius tells me that your wheat flour has met with the
highest approval of the millers and the bakers say that it makes bread of the
finest quality.

The cheese made from goat’s milk
has an extraordinary flavor. Gavius gave Cecilia and I some to try and he tells
us it is fetching the best prices at the cheese markets.  You are so clever to
think of it my darling.

Lifting her head from the scroll
once more Julia realized that Young Gaius would have no idea that his estates
were producing cheese until he read it in this letter but it made for
interesting reading so she left it in.

In truth it had been Julia’s
idea to press the wild goats into service after Gavius had mentioned that they
were running wild in great abundance wherever they traveled in Hispania.

She had found out how to make
the cheese, which the Greeks at the cheese market, called
feta
by
talking to them during one of her many visits.  Then she had simply instructed
Gavius to write to Quintus and tell him what to do.  It was a great money
spinner as the cost of production was minimal.  All Quintus had to do was
allocate a few slaves to the task of herding and milking the wild goats; then
once a small quantity of the product was made, Gavius took a shipment and
tested it in the market.  It had proven so popular that she was recommending
full scale production for the following year.

Letting the thought of cheese
production pass Julia got down to the main objective of her letter:

I am so proud of your success,
you will save Rome from shortages my darling and Gavius says that you should be
considered a hero of Rome.  I know how modest you are and how embarrassed this
praise would make you but Gavius tells me that galleys are arriving every day
from Hispania all laden with your produce.

Whilst I am on this subject of galleys
I feel it my duty to tell you that Gavius has voiced a secret concern about the
integrity of the people who ship your goods from the port of Saguntum.  He
would never tell you himself for fear of causing you upset but he believes they
are somehow connected with pirates.

Looking up from the paper Julia
stared into the distance deep in thought.  This was a critical step in her plan
and it required meticulous wording:

Gavius met them when he was in
Hispania, it was just after you returned to your military duties.  They told
him that they were simple shipping agents but he felt there was more to them
than met the eye.

Anyway darling, I am sure you
will find out if they are legitimate when you meet them.

Having re-read and approved the
content of the letter Julia ended it with:

As always my darling I miss you
terribly and love you completely.

As she blotted the words Julia
wondered if she would ever live with Young Gaius.  It was very unlikely she
concluded because she was becoming quite rich now and no longer needed anyone
for financial security.  She still craved much more money of course but that
was to purchase the power required to bring Sulla down, not for herself.

Gaius Marius stood in his
courtyard supported by young Julius Caesar as he exercised his damaged limbs. 
The boy did not play like the other children of his age because his mother saw
an opportunity in the Father of Rome’s affliction.  She had offered the
services of her son in the hope that the already bright young lad might learn
invaluable lessons from one of the cleverest men Rome had ever produced.  She
was a very ambitious woman who held great hopes for the boy’s future and Marius
thoroughly enjoyed his company because he could talk lucidly about all
subjects.  Paying particular attention to the many wars that Marius had fought
young Caesar instinctively understood the subtleties of strategy and he loved
to hear of the deceptions that Marius had used on his enemies over his years of
fighting.

Marius marveled at the intelligence
of the lad; Julius always asked such shrewd, searching questions about his
various campaigns and sometimes suggested astute alternative courses of action
which took Marius by surprise.

For some time he had been
helping Marius get to and from the Curia and young Caesar loved to talk about
the things he heard in the Senate.  Sitting quietly at the great man’s feet, he
listened to the Senator’s heated debates with total concentration.  At the end
of each day he would express his opinion of what had occurred with such an
understanding that Marius began to find himself relying on the boy’s analysis. 
They were in the middle of one of these deep discussions when a servant came
into the courtyard, apologized for his interruption, and said, “You have a
visitor Sir.”

“
Who is it?”

“
He said his name was Joseph.  He would not tell me
why he wishes to speak with you other than it is a private matter.  Shall I
send him away my Lord?”

“
No, show him in.  Let us see what he has to say.” 
Marius looked forward to the interaction with another adult.

A short time later the same
servant returned escorting a man who Marius instantly recognized as a Judean.
“Good afternoon,” he said, dismissing his servant and looking at the stranger.
“I believe your name is Joseph.”

“
That is correct.”  Joseph was steeling himself for
the words he must deliver.

“
You have something to tell me?”  Marius could tell
the man was nervous so in an attempt to help him relax he gestured to a marble
bench.  “Please take a seat, join me over here by the fountain, feel free to
speak in front of the boy he understands the importance of confidentiality.”

“
Thank you Sir, I shall sit down and if you tell me
that I can speak freely and in confidence I am greatly relieved.  What I am
about to tell you is very delicate and if my name were linked with it I will
most certainly be killed.”

Joseph could see the effect his
sentence had on the odd looking couple sitting before him and both the crippled
man with the contorted face and the fresh-looking boy possessed stares that
seemed to look into his very soul.  He felt they would be able to sense a lie
but what choice did he have?  Anyway, as far as he was concerned he was telling
the truth the fat man had made what he was about to say the absolute truth
simply by telling it. “I am the elected representative of a delegation of
market traders within Rome.  I have been asked to approach you by these traders
for help.”

“
Go on,” said Marius very interested.

“
We are being held to ransom by the black-market. 
Almost everything that comes into Rome these days is being controlled by
racketeers.  It is then sold to us at exorbitant prices. Rome is suffering
inflated prices and artificially created shortages because of a few greedy
men.”

Marius was all ears.  The whole
of Rome knew that something was happening, the shortages caused by the war
should have been resolved by now but none of the shopkeepers or market traders
would ever speak out about what was going on.  They obviously feared being
driven out of business, even killed, but now Marius had the leader of a
delegation no less, he could hardly believe his luck.

Like an actor reading one of
Julia’s many scripts Joseph delivered his lines to an attentive audience.  The
fact that he repeated a string of words which held absolutely no meaning for
him was the beauty of her plan.  Joseph destroyed the black-market with no
knowledge of how the plot had been hatched and she could never be implicated.

A full legion of soldiers loyal
to Marius surrounded the Subra within three days of the meeting and
simultaneous raids on many hovels and taverns turned up hundreds of the most
shocking scoundrels.  Killing two birds with one stone as it were, Marius used
this opportunity to reduce the criminal population of Rome and a vicious
cleansing took place over the course of many days.

Thousands of crosses usually
reserved for insubordinate slaves lined the roads leading out of Rome each one
holding a man from the Subra all of them guaranteed a slow, cruel and extremely
painful death.

Bromidus who Joseph had said was
the ringleader could not be arrested and crucified like the others because he
had used his hapless men as a diversion while he escaped over the rooftops of
the Subra.  According to reports he fought like a wild animal and killed at
least five legionaries during his escape.

Some days later Marcus informed
Julia that the big man had been badly wounded but managed to board a galley and
was crossing the great ocean bound for Cyprus.  This was not how she had
planned things. Bromidus was supposed to die with the others but she felt sure
that he would pose no threat because he could never return to Rome.

Satisfied with her manipulative
success Julia turned to her next bloody task and discovered a measure of
compassion that took her by surprise.  She had saved Marcus from the carnage
with the express intention of paying him to kill Joseph but her resolve had
completely given way.  She knew that the Jew should have been killed because he
was the only weak link in her scheme.  If his story was ever questioned he
could lead back to Gavius and eventually her, but even so, she could not give
the order because of the sympathy she felt for his family.

Sparing these anonymous people
stirred warm emotions within Julia which gave her mind a respite from the constant
loveless anger her life had become, so completely unharmed Joseph boarded a
galley bound for Judea with a bag of newly minted gold coins attached to his
belt.

Marcus was simply smuggled
aboard one of the ships at Ostia destined to become a pirate for a second time.

Sadly Julia’s feelings of
compassion lingered for only a short time.  Even at the moment of such complete
victory Julia could not relax and enjoy her act of kindness because of her
terrible lack of belief in herself.  As always her flawed logic was arriving at
its inevitable conclusion and in the imagined voice of her mother Julia
concluded that her compassion for the Jewish family represented the kind of
sentimental weakness which would return to destroy her in the fullness of time.

On the day of Julia’s coup
Gavius stood on the dock at Ostia ready to execute phase two of her plan.  He
had simply to wait for any cargo ships arriving from the East and as they came
alongside Gavius asked if they were sent by the Captain. When all of them said
yes, he introduced himself as the agent of the Captain in Rome.

Not one of the pirates on board
questioned what he said, none of them had ever dealt directly with Bromidus
just his henchmen; anyway, why should they care who the cargo went to just as
long as they could return with the Captain’s gold.

Gavius paid exactly the same
rate to Clitumna’s surrogate crews and they would hand that money to her as
usual.  The Captain and Clitumna did not even have to know things had changed
but even if they did find out Julia rationalized that they probably wouldn’t
care?

Gavius’s next task was simply to
tell the slave owners that they were now unloading the ships for him and just
like the pirates they cared very little about where the money was coming from
just as long as their bills were paid.

When Antonius and Gavius looked
in the warehouses they found them all full of desperately needed provisions
because Bromidus had been using man-made shortages as a means of keeping prices
high.  The warehouse owners were so used to being pushed around that they did
not question the fat man when he told them to release a large amount of the
cargo.  They simply had it loaded onto wagons and delivered to the wholesale
markets.

Later that same day moneylenders
arrived with lots of cash from the sale of what was once black-market stock and
as instructed by Gavius approached each warehouse owner in turn.  They offered
them a good price for their businesses which included the stock held within
those warehouses.  Half of them grabbed at the offer immediately; the rest
caved in with a combination of more money and veiled threats of violence.

Julia knew they would acquiesce
if the correct pressure was applied because Bromidus had forbidden them to
either sell out or store anyone else’s cargo and most were completely fed up. 
The once prosperous storage business was now a millstone around their necks and
this latest cajoling was the straw that broke the camel’s back.  When she
conceived the plan Julia knew that most of them would find her all-inclusive
offer very attractive because under Bromidus they did not own the stock.

She was acting without
hesitation because Marius had told her that the secret of a successful takeover
was speed.  Taking advantage of confusion depended upon immediate action and in
accordance with his innocent advice she was overpowering the warehouse owners
with cash.  Julia also remembered Marius saying, “The secret of a good bluff
was authority. If you look like someone with a purpose people will very rarely
challenge what you are doing.” And by applying this principle she had shifted
control of the docks in her favor.

Because their contacts in the
black-market had mysteriously vanished all traders came to the night markets to
purchase goods for their shelves.  Julia released the remaining contents of the
warehouses gradually and many of them paid too much for fear of even greater
shortages.  The cash rolled in and Antonius became the biggest trader in Rome
quite literally overnight.

Every ship coming into Rome was
still being unloaded by the same slave gangs as before the only discernible
difference was their owners were now being paid exclusively by Gavius.  Even
during the time of Bromidus these slave gangs had been allowed to work for the
various warehouse owners and the competition such as it was kept their prices
at tolerable levels but now they had no one else to work for.

Gavius and Antonius were fixing
the prices and systematically buying out the slave owners who could no longer
make a living.  It seemed remarkable to everyone that two previously unknown
men held the controlling interest in almost all aspects of food importation to
Rome but the most remarkable thing of all was the fact that Antonius and Gavius
were operating completely within the law.  The black-market had disappeared but
these two men seemed to have Rome just as firmly in their grasp.

After ten days the prices in
Rome found levels that were more reasonable.  Things were returning to normal
and the previous owners of the waterfront warehouses regretted selling what now
seemed extremely lucrative businesses.  When they returned in an attempt to
purchase them back each of the moneylenders followed the orders he was given
and refused categorically to consider their offers.  Even when they offered
twice what they had been paid the bankers could not be moved.  Had the
warehouse owners thought about it they may have wondered why so many
moneylenders spent so much time hanging around the docks but in their current
predicament they didn’t give it a thought.

The answer to this unasked
question could be found in a plan that Julia put in place many months earlier.
She had instructed Gavius to deliver the same proposition to as many
moneylenders as he could find and in every meeting he repeated Julia’s words
verbatim: “I have been commissioned by my Principal to purchase every galley
that comes into Rome.”

Just as Julia predicted all of
the moneylenders had advised him against such an investment but as ordered he
insisted on handed them sacks of gold coins while repeating the words: “Pay
more than the current market price if you need to but act swiftly.’

For maximum effect Julia also
insisted that Gavius count the shiny gold coins in front of each banker.  Then
when they were in neat piles of ten he had to say:

“
You will have enough here for ten or eleven galleys
after you deduct your commission.  I have also been told to tell you that if
you are fair you will receive even larger funds to purchase many more galleys. 
However if you cheat in any way my employer will make it impossible for you to
trade anywhere in Rome.”

This was another plan which had
been hatched in her room at the back of the olive oils shop.  Julia understood
that owning a galley was considered a very poor investment at the moment.  She
and the ships’ captains knew that the pirates were the real owners so Julia
guessed that if they were offered a fair price they would gladly sign the
contract of sale and deposit their gold in Rome.  It was money for old rope and
far too good an offer to ignore so they took the money and laughed.

Julia sat in her office
reviewing the success of her scheming and wondered at her newfound power.  She
had hoped to get Bromidus and maybe one or two of his senior cutthroats but
what she actually achieved was so much better.  The entire black-market lay
decimated and she alone possessed the knowledge required to take up the reins.

As incredible as it seemed Julia
now controlled the supply of food and wine coming into Rome by sea, the people
believed that free trade had been restored and Gaius Marius was an even bigger
hero of the people which made Sulla red with rage.  All in all a very good
week’s work.