As I made my way with Rupa across the Forum, heading for the Tullianum, all around us we saw preparations for the Gallic Triumph to be held the next day. Along the parade route, reviewing stands with awnings were being erected to accommodate important personages, and areas where vendors usually hawked their wares were already being cleared to make room for the anticipated crowds. From atop the Capitoline Hill I could hear the echo of workers shouting amid a din of hammering and creaking wood; a bronze statue of Caesar had been installed across from the Temple of Jupiter, and the scaffolding around it was being removed for its official unveiling the next day.
At the western end of the Forum, with the steep slope of the Capitoline looming above us, we came to a flight of steps carved out of the stone. Two guards stood at the foot of the steps. I produced the pass I had received from Calpurnia-a small wooden disk with the seal of her ring impressed in red wax-and they let us pass without speaking a word.
The narrow steps ascended steeply. Behind us, the Forum was a jumble of columns, rooftops, and public squares. At some distance to the northeast, in a newly developed area adjacent to the Forum, I could see the glittering, solid marble Temple of Venus erected by Caesar in honor of his divine ancestress and the patroness of his victories. The temple had just been completed; it faced a vast open square surrounded by a colonnaded portico that was still under construction, with the pedestal in place for a monumental equestrian statue of Caesar. The Temple of Venus was to be dedicated on the last day of Caesar's four triumphs, providing a divine climax to the celebrations of his earthly conquests.
Such lofty thoughts fled when we came to the heavily guarded entrance to the Carcer. Again, the guards looked at my pass from Calpurnia and said nothing before admitting me. Rupa was made to wait outside. The heavy bronze doors swung open. I stepped into the Carcer, and the doors clanged shut behind me.
The chamber, perhaps twenty paces in diameter, had stone walls and a vaulted stone roof. The only natural light and ventilation came from a few small windows high in the wall facing the Forum, which were crisscrossed with iron bars. The place stank of human excrement and urine, as well as the odor of putrefaction; perhaps there were dead rats trapped in the walls. Even on a warm day such as this, the place was dank and chilly.
The warder, a grizzled bull of a man, insisted on seeing my pass again. He scowled at the pass, then at me. "Shouldn't be doing this," he muttered. "If the dictator finds out…"
"He won't find out from me," I said. "And I presume the dictator's wife has paid you quite well enough to keep your mouth shut."
He grunted. "I can hold my tongue. No one will know you were here-as long as you don't do anything stupid."
"Like try to help the prisoner escape? I'm sure that's impossible."
"Others have tried. And failed." He smiled grimly. "But I was thinking more along the lines of helping him escape his fate."
"By dying, you mean? Before Caesar has the chance to execute him?"
"Exactly. In this case, a dead Gaul is a useless Gaul. You wouldn't try to pull a trick like that, would you?"
"You've seen the seal I carry. What more do you want?"
"Your word as a Roman."
"As a Roman who sneaks behind Caesar's back and consorts with others who do the same?"
"Loyalty to Caesar isn't necessarily the same as loyalty to Rome. You don't have to be Caesar's lackey to have a sense of honor as a Roman."
I raised an eyebrow. "Who would have guessed? A Pompeian is in charge of the Tullianum."
"Hardly! I don't shed tears for losers. Couldn't do this job, if I did. Just swear by your ancestors that you're not up to something."
"Very well. By all the Gordianii who came before me, I swear that I have no intention either to harm or to help Vercingetorix."
"Good enough. And don't get yourself killed! I wouldn't be able to explain that either."
"Killed? Isn't the prisoner chained?"
The warder lowered his voice. "Druid magic! They say he can cast the evil eye. I never look him in the face. I put a bag over his head whenever I have to go down there and slosh his feces down the drain hole."
With that pleasant image in my mind, I sat on a wooden plank attached to a thick, padded rope; it was like a crudely made swing that a boy might hang from a tree branch. The warder handed me a small bronze lamp with a single wick, and then, using a winch, he slowly lowered me though a hole in the floor. This was the only entrance to the Tullianum.
As my head passed below the rim of the hole, I descended into a world that was darker, danker, and even more foul smelling than the room above. An odor of mold, sweat, and urine filled my nostrils. The dim lamplight faded to darkness before it could reach the surrounding walls. Below me, as I slowly descended, I heard the scurrying of rats. I looked down. I couldn't see the floor. For a moment I almost panicked; then I caught a glimmer of reflected lamplight on the glistening wet stone floor that drew nearer and nearer until my feet made contact.
"All steady?" the warder called down from above. "No, don't look up at the hole! You'll get vertigo. Besides, the light will blind you. Close your eyes for a bit. Let them adjust."
Closing my eyes was the last thing I intended to do in that place. I stepped away from the rope, holding it to steady myself, and raised the lamp so as to illuminate the chamber without dazzling my eyes. Slowly I began to perceive the dimensions of the place. It seemed larger than the chamber above, but perhaps that was an illusion of the darkness.
Huddled against a wall, I saw a human figure. The lamplight reflected dully off the chains binding his wrists and ankles. He wore a filthy, ragged tunic. His hair and beard were long and tangled. When he turned his face toward me, the lamplight flashed in his eyes.
So this was Vercingetorix, leader of the Gauls, the man who had accomplished the almost impossible task of unifying the fiercely independent tribes under a single command. He had very nearly succeeded in throwing off the Roman yoke, but Caesar's tactical genius and sheer good luck defeated him in the end. Caesar's utter ruthlessness had also played a part in his victory. Even my son Meto, who loved Caesar, was haunted by the cruelties inflicted on the Gauls-villages burned, women and children raped and enslaved, old men hacked to death. During the revolt of Vercingetorix, Caesar laid siege to the city of Avaricum and took no prisoners; the entire population-forty thousand men, women, and children-were massacred. Caesar boasted of this atrocity in his memoirs.
The last stand of the Gauls had been at the fortress of Alesia. Vercingetorix believed he could hold the position until reinforcements arrived, then destroy the Roman legions with the combined armies of the Gauls. But the reinforcements were insufficient, and the Roman choke hold on the fortress proved impenetrable; the starving survivors were ultimately forced to surrender. A Roman commander would have killed himself, but Vercingetorix rode out from Alesia and surrendered to Caesar. If he thought that Caesar would treat him with honor and respect, he had been mistaken.
Vercingetorix must still be a young man-Meto told me the Gaul was only a teenager when he began his campaign to unify his people-but I would never have guessed it from the broken figure huddled against the wall, the gaunt face sharply shadowed by the lamplight, or the haunted eyes that flashed like shards of obsidian.
"Is this the day?" he whispered hoarsely. His Latin had a strong Gallic accent.
"No. Not yet," I said.
He pressed himself against the wall, as if he wished to disappear into the stone.
"I'm not here to harm you," I said.