They act as if they own the streets," said Pa.
Maybe they really do, public works are the main activity at Ostia. I reckon they are trying to take over." I licked my lips, agitated by the honey's stickiness. This is a sick town."
What do you think?" Pa asked the man with him.
Marcus is right." Cheek. Calling me Marcus was too damned informal. But with my father always ready to see me as prudish, I bit back my irritation. Sons are treated as children by their fathers" friends. Arguing about it gets you nowhere. Never one to be outnumbered in a vote, Pa changed the subject.
Marcus is chasing Cilician pirates."
I am looking for a missing scribe," I corrected patiently for the other man. Pirates, I am reliably informed, do not exist, and absolutely not in Cilicia nowadays."
So who's doing the kidnaps?" scoffed Pa, while the other man looked on in silence. This time I grinned. Ex-pirates." Pa's companion finally allowed himself to be drawn. Only to be expected." He spoke in a dry, depressed tone, which chimed in with my own attitude more than I had expected. Having made the statement, he stopped. He seemed to enjoy leaving his listeners hanging.
How's that?" I prompted. I was still being polite, but something about him was getting on my nerves. He gave the impression he enjoyed being controversial.
They had a way of life," he said. Some called it piracy; to them it was their natural mode of business. If it was all taken away from them, they were bound to find a new occupation. People have to live."
You sound sorry for them."
I understand their position." He seemed detached, yet added, We had the same thing here, with the dispossessed farmers. It caused absolute misery." I could remember my grandfather, the one on the Campagna, sounding off about old land reforms', which drove countrymen out of tenancies where they had farmed for decades. Gramps kept his farm – but we all thought he had done it by tricking someone else. All his neighbours thought so too. So you view the Cilician pirates as unfortunate displaced persons?"
Naturals for a life of crime," Pa sneered. He hated most other nations. He would say that was because he had done business with them and learned what they were like.
Naturals to be blamed for everything, anyway," his friend said. So what do Cilician pirates have to do with your missing scribe, young Marcus?" Once again I tried to ignore his over-familiarity. Diocles may have been writing memoirs for one of them, but my hunch is that he was really interested in this kidnap racket. Theopompus and Posidonius" silly daughter may yet gain a mention in the Daily Gazette."
We won't be the only ones chasing Theopompus!" growled Pa.
His comrades won't thank him for publicity."
You have tied the kidnaps to the Cilicians?" asked the other man of me.
They have inadvertently let me identify a couple of their group."
Could be dangerous for you."
If my scribe turned up, I'd be out of here. The kidnappers have both the navy and the vigiles on their tail now. It can't be long to a showdown."
So then goodbye, Cilicians! If the navy and the vigiles are closing in, they may find your scribe for you. You might lose your fee." Well, thanks for that! Favonius, I have to go…" The man had slipped away almost before we registered his polite self-extraction. He left behind a whiff of shaving unguent and, for me, a slightly cheated feeling. Nobody at the Emporium called my father Favonius. He was Geminus, his long-adopted cognomen. Geminus to everyone. Well, to everyone except Ma, in one of her vengeful moods. She insisted on using the name he had had before he ran away from us.
You do know who that was?" Pa was signalling the waiter to refill our cups. He had already laid money on the marble to cover it so I was trapped. I shook my head. Should I?"
Too right, my boy! That weird streak was your Uncle Fulvius." I gazed at Pa. He nodded. Suddenly, I grinned back. Now I could see it, though Fulvius had gained age, weight and a much more truculent attitude. As dreary as I remember! It's hard to see what all the fuss was," I commented, though my uncle's deliberate way of annoying people explained a lot about his reputation. Pa and I both saw ourselves as members of the solid Didius clan; we were two bumptious boys from Rome, the only place worth living. So now we two kings of society lifted our winecups, saluted each other with a clink, and were for once at peace together. Now we were doing what town boys really enjoy. laughing at an eccentric country relative.
XXXVIII
Helena was intrigued when she heard of my meeting. So why didn't you recognise your uncle?"
It's been years since I met him. I never saw much of Fulvius anyway. I can't have been more than five or six the last time, it was before Pa left us. My long holidays on the farm were later; Ma used to take us all to run around and tire ourselves out, when she could get somebody to give us all a lift into the Campagna. By that time Fulvius had gone."
Gone to do what?" asked Helena. What is the real story?"
He didn't fit in."
He was driven out by the others?"
No. Fulvius voluntarily took himself off."
Unhappy?"
Just bloody awkward, I'd say."
Oh, nothing his nephew inherited then!" I got out of that by asking how Helena was progressing with the Diocles tablets. She had read them all already. I was not surprised. On a waxed tablet of her own, she had quoted bits she wanted me to see. A large proportion of what she had collated involved the meetings Albia had described, which were clearly confrontations between ships, where the named vessels came off worst. People were sold into slavery. Goods were seized and marketed for profit. Then occasionally deaths were noted.
Deaths? Unnatural ones?" Helena gave out a restless sigh. No doubt of it. We took three losses." Another time, Too many to handle; five overboard." I think that may mean thrown overboard. Later, They lost ten, the master caught it; would not give up, Lygon finished him." Yes, Lygon is named. Do you think that's the same one you are interested in?" I shrugged. We had no way of knowing, though it seemed a big coincidence. Any other familiar people?" I was hoping for Damagoras or Cratidas, but was disappointed. Helena looked up her own notes to be sure. No, but Lygon is mentioned twice. The second time is horrible, Woman screaming; Lygon took her head off for us; silence!"
Hey! I'm sorry I let you read this stuff." As I shuddered, Helena embraced me. I hoped that would distract her from the horror. We then sat huddled together, looking through the tablets. Try as we might, we could find no internal evidence as to who wrote them. Unfortunately, only schoolboys sign their personal note-tablets Marcus owns this. Hands off, or the kindly Furies will strike you… The logs must be from a captain. He never said what his own ship was called. It had travelled widely around the eastern Mediterranean, operating for years, from the Greek islands across to the Phoenician seaboard. His trade was bloody, and there was no doubt it was criminal. Nobody could call it anything other than piracy. This vessel preyed on other shipping. Plunder was its sole reason for putting to sea. It never took a cargo out, though almost always came back to land with one or more commodity for sale. To us it was theft. To the ship's captain, it was fair trade. Although we could not identify him, clues made us sure that he was a Cilician. First there was the name of his crony Lygon, who, if he was the one I knew of- came from Soli/Pompeiopolis. Apprentice sailors were mentioned, sometimes with their place of origin, also in Cilicia; many were farmhands and despite claims that the people of the mountains had no part in piracy, it became clear that there was a regular progression of young men being sent from the land to find experience, reputation and riches at sea. From time to time the logs recorded alliances with other groups and nationalities. Agreed a treaty with the Pamphyllians, Korakesians [Melanthos. Side men in, but they won't hold… Off Akroterion met the Fideliter and the Psyche. Cattle and slaves; Melanthos took the cattle; he won't stay true… Meras of Antiphellos and his Lycians joined us. Meras left us again after could not agree over the hides… Sailing off Xanthos. Good pickings if the season holds, but the Lycians don't like us being here. Met a large trader out of Sidon but Marion came up during our action and we had to fight him off. Later followed the Europa, out of Thera, but no luck; Melanthos got that… Offer to partner the Illyrians but they are faithless and too violent…"