Caesar's Women (108 page)

On the one hand, the trial of Rabirius as it is reported in the ancient sources seems trite and capricious; so much so that ancient and modern scholars scratch their heads as they try to give it the significance it apparently did have, On the other hand, shift its occurrence to the days immediately after December 5, and it makes perfect sense.

It is also difficult to believe that nothing more than the threats of Publius Clodius had happened to throw Cicero into such a lather of fear about the consequences of those executions. The Clodius of the tribunate of the plebs, the street gangs and Forum violence was still to come; nor in 60 B.C. was it certain Clodius would ever be able to implement his threats, as his attempts to convert from patrician to plebeian status had thus far failed. Apparently they couldn't succeed without Caesar's connivance. I believe something earlier and much nastier predisposed Cicero to fear the threats of Clodius—or anyone else. Put Rabirius after December 5, and Cicero's terror is far more reasonable. It is also from the time of his consulship that Cicero's hatred of Caesar stemmed. Would a speech advocating clemency have been sufficient to provoke a hatred which lasted until Cicero's death? Would the trial of Rabirius have been sufficient had it come on before the conspiracy of Catilina?

That Cicero is very quiet about the trial of Rabirius in his later writings is perhaps not surprising, as he does tend to skirt matters dimming his luster. As late as 58 B.C. there were still many in Rome who deplored the execution of citizens without trial, and attributed the bulk of the blame to Cicero rather than to Cato. Hence Cicero's flight into exile before he could be impeached by the Plebs.

And there you have it. Attractive though my hypothesis is in terms of the logic of events and the psychology of the people involved, I am not foolish enough to insist that I am right. All I will say is that within the sphere of what I am trying to do, the trial of Rabirius as I have depicted it makes perfect sense. What it boils down to is whether or not one is prepared to accept Cicero's chronology in that letter to Atticus of June, 60 B.C. His consular speeches were published in the sequence he outlined, I assume, because all the later ancient writers follow it. But was it the correct sequence, or did Cicero prefer to bury Rabirius and thus make sure the Catilinarian orations crowned his career as consul and pater patriae?

For the Latin purists, my apologies for using the word boni as an adjective and an adverb as well as as a noun. To keep it a noun would have added immensely to the clumsiness of an English prose style. For the same reason, there may be other infringements of Latin grammar.

Of necessity there are a few minor chronological and identity discrepancies, such as the exchange between Cicero and Clodius while escorting an electoral candidate.

Now for a word on the drawings.

I have managed to scrape up five drawings of women, but none of them are authenticated. During the Republic, women were not hallowed by portrait busts; those few who were cannot be identified because no coin profiles nor descriptions in the ancient sources have come down to us. Aurelia and Julia are both taken from the full-length statue of a crone in the grounds of the Villa Albani; I have used it because the bone structure of the skull so strikingly resembles that of Caesar. I freely confess that I would not have bothered with Julia were it not that some of my more romantic readers will be dying to see what she looked like—and I would prefer that she be properly Roman as to nose, mouth and hairstyle. Pompeia Sulla is drawn from a wonderfully vacant-looking bust possibly of early Empire in date. Terentia is a bust of a Roman matron in the Ny Carlsberg Glypotek, Copenhagen. The most curious one is Servilia. Brutus's busts all reveal a slight right facial muscle weakness; the bust I used for Servilia has an identical right facial weakness.

Caesar is becoming easier, as I can now insert some of the lines in the mature face. An authenticated likeness, of course. The young Brutus is taken from a bust in the Naples Museum which is so like the authenticated bust of the mature Brutus in Madrid that there can be little doubt as to who the youth is. Publius Clodius is a “youthened” version of a bust said to be a Claudian of the late Republic. Both Catulus and Bibulus were drawn from unidentified portrait busts of Republican times. Cato is an authenticated likeness, but taken from the marble bust at Castel Gandolfo rather than from the famous bronze found in North Africa; bronze is extremely difficult to draw from. I used the bust of Cicero in the Capitol Museum because it looks like Cicero the fat cat at the height of his fame, and serves as a marvelous contrast to another bust of Cicero I shall use in a later volume. The Pompey is also of the right age, and is a more attractive portrait than the famous one in Copenhagen.

Two further comments.

I have not tried to depict the hair of any of these people in a realistic manner. Instead, I have formalized it so that the nature, cut and style are easily discerned.

The second comment concerns necks. Very few of the extant busts still own necks. Like most people who draw well, I can really draw well only from life. If the neck isn't there, I have terrible trouble. So my apologies for some of the awful necks.

Finally, some thank-yous. To my classical editor, Dr. Alanna Nobbs of Macquarie University, Sydney, and to her husband, Dr. Raymond Nobbs. To my friends at Macquarie University. To Joseph Merlino, who found me my very own English-language Mommsen. To Pam Crisp, Kaye Pendleton, Ria Howell, Yvonne Buffett, Fran Johnston and the rest of the “Out Yenna'' staff, with a special vote of thanks to Joe Nobbs, who keeps me going with everything from chair arms to typewriters. My thanks to Dr. Kevin Coorey, who keeps me going when my bones start crumbling. And, last but by no means least, my thanks to my greatest fan, my beloved husband, Ric Robinson.

The next book in the series is tentatively called Let the Dice Fly.

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