Even the young slaves, Mopsus and Androcles, who could usually be expected to exchange taunts at any sign of weakness, bowed their heads and joined hands. The brothers had been very fond of the Scapegoat.
"But, Papa," said Diana, fighting back her tears, "what was he doing in Calpurnia's employ? Something to do with Massilia? Hieronymus hardly had the personality to be a diplomat. Besides, he swore he would never go back there."
I had decided to tell them as little as possible about the specific nature of Hieronymus's activities for Calpurnia. To be sure, I was not certain myself exactly what Hieronymus had been up to; I had not yet read the reports Calpurnia had given me. Beyond that, I saw no need for any of them to know such details, especially Diana, who more than once had expressed a desire, bordering on an intention, to someday do exactly what Hieronymus had done-to follow in my footsteps as a professional ferret for the rich and powerful of Rome. Even with her keen mind and a protector like Davus, such a dangerous activity was hardly suitable for a young Roman matron.
"Perhaps he was working for her as a tutor. Hieronymus was smarter than just about anybody!" This came from Androcles, who had been very impressed by all the stories Hieronymus could recite.
"It couldn't be that," said Bethesda, sighing through her tears. "Calpurnia has no need for tutors; she's never given Caesar a child. The woman is famously barren."
"But Caesar has a son, even so, doesn't he?" offered Mopsus, doggedly following his younger brother's chain of thought. "He had a son by Queen Cleopatra, a little boy about the same age as Beth. And they say Cleopatra is in Rome right now, to witness Caesar's Egyptian Triumph, and she brought her little boy, Caesarion, with her." His face was lit by the glow of deductive success. "I'll wager Calpurnia wanted Hieronymus to be Caesarion's tutor."
Even Davus, as thick as he is, knew better than this. He laughed. "I hardly think that Caesar's Roman wife would want to engage a tutor for the son of Caesar's Egyptian mistress!"
He was right, of course. But what was Calpurnia's attitude toward Cleopatra and, more especially, toward the child Cleopatra claimed to be the son of Caesar? I had seen Calpurnia grimace when she spoke the queen's name, but she had said not a word, harsh or otherwise, about Cleopatra. Mopsus and Androcles were clearly far from the mark with their speculations about Hieronymus, but could the Scapegoat's death have had something to do with Cleopatra, nonetheless? I felt a stab of eagerness to begin reading the reports Calpurnia had given me as well as Hieronymus's private journal.
But first, there were practical considerations to be dealt with. I had told Calpurnia that I would assume responsibility for Hieronymus's funeral rites. I dispatched Rupa and the slave boys with a cart to fetch his body. Diana, with Davus to accompany her, I sent to pay a call on an undertaker near the temple of Venus Libitina. I had used the man's services before. He would supply slaves to wash the body and anoint it with oil and perfumes, and deliver a wreath of cypress for the door and a funeral bier with garlands for my vestibule. He would also enter the name of Hieronymus in the official registry of the dead and make arrangements for his cremation.
Bethesda busied herself with preparing the evening meal. We would eat that night in honor of the memory of our departed friend, Hieronymus of Massilia.
Left to myself, I withdrew to the garden and sat on a chair in the afternoon shade. With the scrolls beside me, and with a much-desired cup of wine close at hand, I began to read.
I began with the documents Calpurnia had given me. The reports from Hieronymus-there were a great many of them-had been neatly arranged into sections under the names of various persons. Most of these people were familiar to me, and I could see why Calpurnia thought it worthwhile to keep an eye on them.
I turned to the reports regarding Marc Antony.
Antony had been one of Caesar's most trusted officers during the conquest of Gaul. Later, he fought beside Caesar at Pharsalus in Greece, where Pompey was routed. When Caesar pursued Pompey to Egypt, he sent Antony back to Rome to keep order. Because Antony's return occurred shortly after I left for Egypt myself, I had not been present during his tenure as master of the city.
Governing the city for month after month, while Caesar defeated his enemies and quelled unrest abroad, had been no easy task. The wartime capital was plagued by shortages and riven by factional violence. Antony had forbidden citizens to carry arms, but this ban was universally ignored. Gangs had ruled the streets by day; common criminals had ruled the city by night.
Added to the general violence had been the growing unruliness of the lower classes, many of whom expected Caesar to abolish all debts and (in their wildest dreams) to redistribute the vast properties of the defeated Pompeians to the poor. Stirred up by one of Caesar's youngest officers, the radical firebrand Dolabella, a mob had gathered in the Forum to call for debt relief. Antony explained that he had no authority to grant their demands; they would have to wait for Caesar's return. The mob rioted. Antony, determined to keep order, dispatched soldiers to clear the Forum. By the end of the day, more than eight hundred citizens were dead. The city was calmer after that.
When Caesar finally returned and learned of the massacre, one of his first actions was to publicly berate Antony for the heavy-handedness of his rule-and to heap praise on Dolabella, the instigator of the mob. Caesar's actions may have been purely pragmatic, a bid to regain the favor of the lower orders. Still, his rebuke of his longtime protege must have stung. Shortly after Caesar's return, Antony vanished from the public arena.
So much, from hearsay, I knew about the situation between Caesar and Antony. What else had Hieronymus discovered?
I scanned the notes written in Hieronymus's elegant hand. He went back and forth between Latin and Greek. His Latin was a bit stiff, but his Greek was almost absurdly elevated, full of Homeric flourishes, recondite references, and complicated puns. All this made for slow and difficult reading; glancing at the massive volume of material, I groaned at the idea of trying to read it all. I was surprised that Calpurnia had tolerated such prose.
Translating in my head, I tried to strip away Hieronymus's stylistic indulgences, looking simply for the facts.
Antony currently resides in Pompey's old house, called the House of the Beaks, in the Carinae district…
How could that be? I remembered the day, shortly after my return to Rome, when Caesar announced that Pompey's entire estate would be sold at public auction to benefit the Treasury. He had charged Antony with conducting the auction, a formidable task. Pompey's house was stuffed with so many precious items, looted from his many campaigns of conquest, that simply making an inventory would pose a logistical challenge. But so far as I knew, there had been no auction. Yet Antony himself was living in the house of Pompey, according to Hieronymus.
Had Caesar given Antony the house outright, and with it Pompey's treasures? That seemed unlikely. Rewarding a favorite with so much plunder would be a slap at the mob, many of whom were in desperate straits and still ready to agitate for a radical redistribution of wealth. It would also smack of the arrogant favoritism that Sulla had practiced when he was dictator, and Caesar would never wish to be compared to Sulla.
I read on.
Antony divorced his second wife (and first cousin), the lovely Antonia, some time ago. He is living, quite openly, with his lover, the even more beautiful Cytheris. There can be no question of marriage, of course. An aristocrat like Antony, no matter how dissolute, could never marry a mere actress, especially a foreigner from Alexandria…