‘So what could I possibly know that could prove that Agrippina is behind this?’ Sabinus asked when his brother had finished his tale.
‘Something that links the embassy to her. Something that Uncle and I will recognise. Tell us all you know about them.’
Sabinus scratched his thinning hair and accepted a cup of wine from his steward. ‘Well, the agent said that there were three of them all richly attired as if kings in their own right in order to impress. They were men of influence, their leader was a cousin of Vologases, the Great King of Parthia. They brought gifts of gold, incense and spices for each of the Kings that they met.’
‘What were their names?’
‘There was the Dacian King, Coson, Spargapeithes of the Agathyrsi — they’re Scythians who worship Thracian gods and seem to enjoy dying their hair blue. Then there was Oroles of the Getae and Wisimar of the Bastarnae who are Germanic. And countless chieftains of all the sub-tribes of each nation.’
Vespasian looked at his uncle as the gustatio of six varied dishes was carried in. ‘Do any of the names mean anything to you?’
‘My dear boy, they all sound positively barbarous.’
Magnus, unsurprisingly, looked equally uninspired.
‘Did you ever find out just what was discussed?’
Sabinus shook his head with regret and helped himself to some of the leek and egg salad. ‘No, I couldn’t send the agent back because he insisted on reporting to his real pay-master.’
‘But we don’t know who that is.’
‘Oh, but we do. His pay-master, or mistress actually, is our old friend the former Queen Tryphaena.’
‘Tryphaena! You’re in contact with her?’
‘Not as such; but she does share information with me occasionally. She’s instructed her agents to report things to me if they deem their information to be of interest to Rome. She is very helpful to me.’
‘She is also Agrippina’s cousin,’ Gaius said slowly, his mouth full of semi-chewed sausage.
‘I suppose it’s a connection but it hardly proves that Agrippina set this embassy in motion, and anyway, why would Tryphaena draw it to your attention if she was in league with her cousin?’
‘Because, dear boy, she doesn’t know about the embassy; that must be it. She may be the great-granddaughter of Marcus Antonius but on the other side of her family she is a princess of Pontus.’
‘I thought that she was Thracian.’
Gaius wagged the remains of his sausage at his nephew. ‘She married a Thracian king but she has no Thracian blood; she’s Greek. Her family have provided kings and queens for half the client kingdoms in the Empire and beyond. Her younger brother is King Polemon of Pontus and her elder brother Zenon was also known as King Artaxias, the third of that name, of Armenia.’ Gaius let the last word hang for a few moments as everyone contemplated the significance and wondered if it was just a coincidence. ‘When he died,’ Gaius continued, ‘the Parthians tried to place their own king on the Armenian throne but we wouldn’t accept that so we compromised by having Mithridates, the brother of the Iberian King, crowned instead.’
‘So why would Tryphaena want to replace the uncle with Radamistus the nephew?’
‘Radamistus’ mother is the daughter of Artaxias, Tryphaena’s brother. Mithridates is no relation to her, but Radamistus is her nephew. She’s ensuring that her blood-family remain in control of Armenia.’
‘Then why alert us to the embassy that seems to have triggered this all off?’
‘Because she didn’t know about it. The embassy didn’t trigger the crisis off, it’s just been timed to seem that way. Tryphaena isn’t being disloyal to Rome; if anything she’s securing our position in Armenia by replacing a compromise puppet king with a controllable one. Radamistus will be loyal because Tryphaena will see to it that he is.’
‘So, Narcissus is wrong,’ Sabinus said. ‘Agrippina hasn’t committed treason.’
A smile slowly crept across Vespasian’s face as the truth dawned on him. ‘No, brother, he’s not wrong; far from it. He’s seen a pattern. Tryphaena’s agent that came to you was murdered by an assassin of Agrippina’s on the way to inform his mistress; Narcissus’ freedman Argapetus intercepted the message from the killer. This tells us two things: first, that Agrippina didn’t want Tryphaena to know about the embassy and, second, that Agrippina must have known about it. How else could she have given orders to her people to prevent news of it reaching Tryphaena’s ears?’
Magnus drained his cup and held it out for more. ‘And why didn’t she want Tryphaena to know about it?’
Gaius had followed Vespasian’s logic. ‘Because, Magnus, it would have alerted her to the fact that Agrippina had used her. I would hazard that it was at Agrippina’s suggestion that Tryphaena supported her nephew’s usurpation of the Armenian throne, and I would guess that the timing of it was made to look as if it was sparked by the embassy travelling through Iberia so that we would blame the Parthians and therefore march an army in to restore Mithridates.’
Sabinus looked confused. ‘But you said that Radamistus would be loyal to Rome; why would we want to get rid of him?’
‘This is the clever bit of Agrippina’s plan: Tryphaena suspects nothing, she readily agrees to placing her nephew on the throne; as she sees it, it’s good for her family and good for Rome. But then we see that Radamistus invades from Iberia at exactly the moment that a Parthian embassy is in the kingdom and so we assume that the two things are linked and that it’s a Parthian plot. Meantime, Agrippina manoeuvres Claudius into recalling Rome’s up and coming general, Corbulo, and has him posted to a province close to Armenia. Now play out the scenario, Sabinus.’
Sabinus sighed. ‘We demand that Mithridates is restored but we’re probably too late as he would have been murdered along with his family. Then we negotiate with Radamistus, who refuses to go. Parthia sees the new King as too pro-Roman because of his blood-tie with Tryphaena and demands that he is removed, which confuses us so we decide to let matters rest. This will then prompt a military response from Parthia that we will, in turn, have to counter with a proven general who just happens to be in the region, and before we know it we have a war with Parthia.’
Vespasian spread his hands to emphasise the simplicity of the scheme. ‘Exactly; and at the same time the northern tribes swarm over the Danuvius as arranged by the embassy and the situation starts to look very bleak, and who will be blamed? The Emperor; old, drooling, drunk most of the time and not at all popular with the Senate; time for him to go and no one will look too closely if he just suddenly drops down dead. And if he does that soon then there’ll be only one choice to succeed him: Nero. That’s what this is all about: it’s ensuring that Claudius is removed before Britannicus comes of age and blurs the inheritance issue. Nero comes to the throne, Corbulo wins a great victory and Nero, the grandson of the great and martial Germanicus who also famously prevailed in the East, takes the credit, celebrates a Triumph in the first year or so of his reign, making him very popular and securing his position. Brilliant.’
‘So the evidence of Agrippina’s treachery is with Tryphaena,’ Gaius concluded.
‘Yes, we need to talk to her.’
‘She’s at Cyzicus on the Asian coast of the Propontis,’ Sabinus informed them glancing around at the window onto the courtyard; hobnailed boots clattered across at an urgent speed. ‘I’ll organise a ship for you.’
‘Then we can pass by on the way to Armenia.’
‘I’ll come with you.’
‘Why would you want to do that? You’ll spend the whole voyage vomiting.’
‘I need to talk to her about putting down all resistance in Thracia to Rome once and for all; if we’re threatened by the northern tribes, I cannot afford to have disloyal nobles in the south. She will know who they are, their weaknesses and what to bribe or threaten them with. After we’ve spoken with her you can drop me at Byzantium; it’s time I visited the city and gave it a taste of Roman justice. You can sail on up through the Bosphorus into the Euxine and then along the northern coast of Bithynia to Trapezus in Pontus. From there it’s about two hundred miles over mountainous terrain to Armenia.’