Haloed by sunshine, the dramatis personae of the next case were ushered into the courtroom.
Gallienus had no monopoly on underhand means. Postumus reflected that his own attempts to suborn Gallienus’s supporters continued. Admittedly, the consul Saturninus had feigned incomprehension when approached, and nothing could be expected there. Equally, nothing yet had been reported of the sounding out of the protector Carus or the Praefectus Vigilum Placidianus, although, in time, things might develop. But, at Mediolanum, the net around Proculus, the commander of the detachments of the Pannonian legions, was cunningly laid. Knowing the reputation of Proculus for lechery, the frumentarius had travelled there well disguised as a merchant, with a beautiful woman posing as his wife. Sure enough, Proculus had begun an affair. Now it remained for either the woman to draw Proculus into betrayal or her supposed husband to threaten denunciation to the authorities. Adultery was a serious crime. Gallienus might indulge in it himself, but he could not be seen to condone it in others.
The hangings cut off the light, and the gold-gleaming, perfumed shade of imperial sanctity was restored. Postumus welcomed the interruption to his murky thoughts.
Unlike those earlier, this case involved a capital offence. In fact, there were two conjoined: sacrilege and treason. Faustinus, a Roman senator with wide estates spreading across Narbonensis and Lugdunum, was accused of cutting down a sacred grove and erecting imperial images where corpses were buried. Given the seriousness of the potential consequences for both accused and accuser, depending on the outcome, and the high status of the former, the facts had been carefully scrutinized.
The man bringing the charges performed adoration and answered the formal questions: Name? Race? Free or slave? The water clock was turned, and the accuser began his speech.
Postumus did not need to give it his full attention. He had been thoroughly briefed. The evidence around the maiestas charge was ambiguous. The portraits of Postumus and certain past emperors deified for their goodness — Augustus, Trajan and Pius — had been set up in a small building next to a cemetery. But both were surrounded by the same wall. The charge of sacrilege was straightforward. Faustinus was guilty. He had ordered the trees sacred to the gods chopped down. His sole defence would be ignorance.
Faustinus was a rich man from an established family, kin to many senators present in the courtroom. He was not yet bound to the Gallic regime. Postumus had no wish to bend the law to favour the influential, but sometimes the greater good demanded a clementia beyond the statutes. Now Lollianus was dead, imperial mandata had gone north summoning Lepidus, the governor of Gallia Belgica, to take command of the imperial cavalry. Postumus was minded to appoint Faustinus to the vacant province.
The most pressing of the new duties of Faustinus would be to send detachments of troops south. The gathering of forces on the north Italian plains left no doubt that Gallienus would strike this summer. Postumus considered Gallienus would follow his previous invasion route over the Alps via Cularo down into Narbonensis. Postumus would await him here in the Rhodanus valley at Colonia Vienna. Detachments were being summoned from those provinces currently least threatened by barbarians: Hispania Tarraconensis, Gallia Belgica and Britannia Superior. Should Gallienus take the only other viable route, north into Raetia, Postumus would force-march north and east by Lugdunum, Vesontio and Augusta Raurica. The governor of Raetia, Simplicinius Genialis, would have to hold out as best he could. The only reinforcements Postumus had been able to spare him were the thousand or so Angles from his German bodyguard. As noble warriors, all Arkil’s men were experienced horsemen. Postumus had issued the Angles with mounts and watched them ride off into the mountains. The thought of them made Postumus glance at his bodyguards by the curtains: big, tough Franks. It was strange the ways by which these northern warriors ended up in the heart of the imperium. The Franks had come by the terms of a treaty imposed after defeat in battle, the Angles as a result of the treachery of one of their own.
The accuser finished his speech. The water clock was turned again and Faustinus began his defence. Naturally, the senator had not been told his acquittal was a foregone conclusion. Considering he was on trial for his life, Faustinus was making a good showing: weighty, calm and without histrionics. Postumus was impressed. Faustinus had no military experience, but, as the composition of Postumus’s bodyguard showed, currently there was nothing to be feared from the Franks and Angles. With only civilian tasks, Faustinus should do well in Belgica.
The acquittal of Faustinus would bring another problem. What to do with his accuser? Bringing a malicious charge on a serious matter — and what could be more serious than sacrilege and treason? — laid a man open to a countercharge of calumnia. A jurist had advised Postumus that the penalties for calumnia were exile, relegation to an island or loss of status. Postumus had no doubt the accusation had been motivated by money. Avarice most likely lay at the heart of the majority of maiestas charges. If a man was convicted of treason, his accuser stood to gain a quarter of his property. That the imperial fiscus got the rest was a standing temptation to impecunious and unprincipled emperors. Postumus needed money, never more so now war threatened, but he would not act the tyrant. Besides which, the accuser came from a landed family of equestrian status and was related to several senators loyal to his regime, including his amicus Volcatius Gallicanus.
Faustinus timed his oration to perfection. It ended moments before the water clock ran out. The senators gave their opinions. Postumus stroked his beard and listened, for all the world as if he were Pius or Marcus Aurelius. ‘Clementia’ was the word most often on the lips of his assessors. Clemency would reign for both parties. Faustinus was exculpated because the sacred grove had fallen into disuse, which might have an element of truth. His accuser was guilty of nothing except excessive loyalty to his emperor. Faustinus would be appointed to Gallia Belgica, and Postumus would have Volcatius Gallicanus assure his kinsman that the failed prosecution had not brought any imperial disfavour; in fact, any reasonable petition he might wish to bring might well be granted. Postumus knew it was hardly the justice Marcus Aurelius might have dispensed, but times were hard. Disaffection had to be avoided with civil war looming and treachery everywhere.
XVII
The Headwaters of the Vistula River
The Grethungi had treated the expedition well. Ballista had liked Tuluin, the son of King Tulga. They had exchanged gifts as between equals: heavy gold arm-rings, cunningly wrought. After a round of feasts, when he had finished entertaining them, Tuluin had accompanied them upriver to the neighbouring Venedi. That people wore clothes like the Sarmatian nomads, but spoke the language and observed the customs of Germania. Their king, too, had shown them hospitality, and then led them on to the lands of the various tribes of the Lugii. Here they had come first to the Helisii, where they had left their boats drawn up on the banks of a tributary of the Borysthenes and continued on horseback. From there they had traversed the territory of the Naharvali, whose priests dressed as women, and the Manimi, who were more conventional in their religion. Finally, thirty days after the portage of the great rapids, they had reached Mirkwood and the headwaters of the Vistula.