The difference lay, as Martinus had pointed out, in the streets of the capital. There his greetings were heartfelt and loud and Flavius was more aware than ever of a fact he had always been reluctant to acknowledge since his consular year. He was seen as a champion of the people, a man of high rank and proven ability who nevertheless was honest. If he disliked the sound of the notion that he was a block on arbitrary imperial power it was one impossible to ignore, just as it was also untrue.
Odd that John the Cappadocian was one of the few people of influence to seek him out. He had suffered arrest as well as interrogation, had seen his fortune sequestered and all of his official appointments stripped away so that, on the face of it, he was now a man without power. After a period of disgrace, Justinian had restored part of his wealth and all of his physical property, though he still lacked office.
Yet John retained the loyalty of some of those non-patrician fellows he had brought into the imperial bureaucracy and so he could claim his sources inside government were sound. The messenger inviting Flavius to meet with him had to wait a long time for a reply, as the recipient pondered the wisdom of being observed in such company and how it would affect his forthcoming hearing.
‘You were right to be cautious. Theodora will know of your every move.’
‘The actions of my wife-’
John held up a flabby hand – he had lost none of his bulk in confiscation – to indicate that his visitor should stop. ‘Your wife is Theodora’s creature, Flavius Belisarius.’
‘For which I have been rendered a laughing stock.’
‘There are many who choose to be sympathetic,’ came the less than convincing reply, ‘but that is not why I asked you to call upon me.’
‘I admit to being surprised by the invitation and I worried that it might be part of some conspiracy, which given where I presently stand could be foolish.’
‘I see it as being mutually beneficial.’ That Flavius was confused did not show on his face, but then to such a practised politician it did not need to. ‘By coming here we have both sent a message to the Empress that you do not stand alone.’
‘I have not sought your support.’
‘And nor, under normal circumstances, would you, quite the opposite I suspect.’ He shifted his substantial body in his chair and fixed Flavius with a direct stare. ‘I have been stripped of power by the machinations of Theodora and I suspect that she wishes to do that to you.’
John expected him to respond; to Flavius it seemed to make more sense to say nothing.
‘The prospect does not concern you?’
‘I have faith that my past service will count for something.’
‘Why do you think I was brought down, Flavius Belisarius?’
‘If Antonina is to be believed, it was through your own hubris.’
‘I admit to being foolishly tempted and it hurts to admit that even I, who would have claimed to know the workings of the imperial administration inside out, who would have told you had you asked that there were no undercurrents of place-seeking and power-grabbing to which I was unfamiliar, was so enamoured of the idea of ultimate control as to allow myself to be played like a newborn child.’
The Cappadocian looked into his lap then, slowly shaking his head at his own folly before speaking again. ‘Even I could not see just how much Theodora manipulates Justinian.’
‘And you do now?’
‘Threats.’ The need to explain was in his visitor’s enquiring look. ‘Justinian is always on guard for conspiracies to oust him and that existed before he ever succeeded his uncle. He sees a secret knife wherever he looks.’
‘He has always had a suspicious cast of mind.’
‘On which Theodora feeds.’ John smiled ruefully. ‘You have been close to him, there are rumours that he would not have seen his uncle elevated to the purple without your hand in it, yet even that does not shield you from mistrust.’
John waited for Flavius to be open about the truth of that assertion, even if, as Flavius saw it, his aid had been peripheral; the Cappadocian waited in vain and that, no doubt brought on by a degree of frustration, opened him up to an annoyingly magisterial lecture on the way the world worked.
Neither of the imperial couple ever felt secure, Justinian because of his nature and Theodora for her dependence on her husband. Thus the Empress saw the need to form a separate source of power, yet such was the mistrust she engendered that such hopes were regularly dashed, Flavius’s wife being exceptional in her attachment. Theodora’s response was to seek to create a permanent state of crisis, to play on her husband’s fear of usurpation with a continual run of intrigues designed to bring them both down.
‘Not that every one of such conspiracies is of her imagining. Put enough patricians together when their privileges are being atrophied and talk of a better emperor is habitual. And you, Flavius Belisarius, by what was proposed in Edessa, have played into her hands, which I am sure you can see.’
There was sophistry in this; in his previous pomp the Cappadocian had probably been every bit as eager to feed Justinian’s obsessions as Theodora, and they probably worked in tandem prior to his becoming too much of a hazard to her, for Flavius did not doubt that had been the driver of her actions.
Why had he been invited here? Was it to make a useful connection for what was coming to him or was John the one seeking to send a message to Theodora – that by openly associating with him, if he was diminished in stature, he was far from being toothless? It smacked of all that he hated about Constantinople, where everything was seen through a fog much greater than the natural one created by a cold wind on the warm waters of the Bosphorus.
‘It is my intention, Flavius Belisarius, to use what little influence I still retain to act as your guide in how to thwart Theodora’s designs upon you, for do not doubt that of all the fears she perceives to her position, you are the greatest. To deflect her you will need the skills I have acquired over many years. To do that I need you to be fully open with me about what took place.’
John’s face had taken on a look designed to imply reticence; his words inferred the exact opposite. ‘Bouzes has been questioned and is adamant that the decision to check Theodora was taken when you were absent from Edessa. Also that your officers pressed you to accept their offer of support, which you acceded to only on condition that Justinian was no more.’
‘You know this?’ was the guarded reply.
‘Allow I have my sources. If true, it provides you with a sound defence.’
The worrying thought arose unbidden; that perhaps this was all show. Could it be that Theodora had put him up to this in order to extract statements that could subsequently be used against him, such as an admission of complicity? Yet John was a purported enemy of Theodora or he had been! Such a thing would be easily altered for a man eager to regain his lost power, and as of this moment she was in a position to grant him favours. If it appeared at first to be fanciful it was merely another indication of the miasma into which he had been thrust.
‘It is true, John, and because of that I am happy to answer for my actions.’
‘You rely on justice to save you?’
There was no doubting the innate cynicism in that response. Determined not to be drawn, Flavius replied. ‘What else is there?’
The chamber of the senate was full and those attending had gone to some trouble to get out their finery so as to create an impression that this examination was theirs and important. Flavius, who had every right to be present in his own capacity as a member, could not avoid looking up to the gallery from which, unobserved, he suspected Theodora would be monitoring proceedings; these proud men counted for nothing, despite their pretensions.