The Hadrian Enigma - A Forbidden History (43 page)

Hadrian was silent as the servants arranged his dress to a suitable degree of comportment. Meanwhile Antinous contemplated the effectiveness of Herodes’ handling of Commodus.

But not at that time knowing these details, I took an initiative.

‘
Will Caesar wish to pursue his friend by sea or overland? The Praetorian horse network could speedily deliver Caesar to Corinth, before his vessel arrived or at least before he could negotiate a further passage to Italy?’

Hadrian was silent again as his laced boots were drawn on. When he turned his back while being buckled I noticed two distinct bruises at the back of his neck above his right shoulder. They were already pale purple and told of an infliction of passion on the emperor’s flesh.

I think my eyes and eyebrows fluttered slightly at the sight of the love bites when I calculated the direction of their reception. They would have been applied from directly behind. This possessed a significance about the nature of the act underway during their imposition. My eyes may have widened in astonishment at this realization, I guess.

Antinous detected my fluster from his recumbent position on the bed. Our gazes crossed fleetingly, but I flicked away in embarrassment. Antinous was smiling to himself. It was an enigmatic smile suggesting triumph. It communicated notions I had not anticipated about Caesar, nor for that matter about Antinous.

‘
No, Geta, I won’t follow Commodus,’ Hadrian resolved. ‘I’ve tired of the young man’s impetuosity. Perhaps it’s time he returned to Rome. We’ll see him later in the year.

In the meantime, Geta, I’ve told Antinous how he and his companions will enter the Imperial
contubernium
, our living arrangements for the Household. Both they and their attendants will accompany us on our forthcoming tour of Achaea. We will be visiting historical sites, making awards, visiting troops, hunting a little, and so on across the Peloponnese this summer before we sail to Italy.

Antinous is likely to sleep in my chamber regularly, but he and his household are to have their own independent apartments wherever we travel. Is that clear?’

‘
It is indeed, Caesar!’ I declared.

My wide-eyed gaze returned to Antinous. I suppose it conveyed an unspoken message akin to awe at the lad’s extraordinary accomplishment. He responded with a serene, knowing grin. He exuded the cool confidence of an arena’s victor, and he let me know it. Decurion Scorilo of the Horse Guard too would have comprehended the circumstances from his own perspectives.

Antinous’s arrival in Caesar’s sphere now cemented many of the questions of what my own role was to be in Caesar’s life. I had spent my lifetime under Hadrian’s aegis, so perhaps it was time my own ambitions should at last find a satisfactory resolution too?

‘
Leave us for a moment,’ Hadrian commanded, as he shooed the servants and the guards beyond the
andron’
s closing doors. Only I stayed in attendance.

Hadrian kneeled over the twin couches to lift Antinous’s chin within close reach by a single fingertip. Their eyes were only an inch or two apart. He smiled at the sleepy Bithynian.

‘
We enjoyed ourselves through the night, didn’t we Ant?’ the emperor charmed as he leaned closer. Noting Antinous’s gesture of one hand modestly cupping his genitals, I perceived he had sensed his bloodstream stir to life once again.

‘
We did, Hadrian,’ was his reply, unexpectedly using the special
nomen
in my presence. This was new from his lips and told me something they each perceived about their relationship.

‘
We’ll do those things again tonight, my strong-willed Lion-heart.’

‘
Yes, we will Hadrian. And much more too I expect.”

“
Lion-heart? So what are we to read into this account, Dacian?” Clarus demanded.

“
You must use your imaginations, gentlemen,” Geta responded, still with his eyes firmly settled upon the Syrian courtesan.

“
All I see is an opportunist using his wiles upon our
Princeps
?” Clarus opined. “Yet Caesar takes what he wants from the engagement.”

Suetonius took the reins of the interview to shift the perspective away from matters which troubled Clarus.

“
A further question, Dacian, tell us here honestly, plainly, between us only, are you suggesting there are things about Hadrian’s relationship with Antinous we should know? Are there facets of their five years together which could compel recent events, in your view? We must know all. Think hard about it, Dacian.”

“
I don’t know what you mean, Special Inspector? I’ve told you all I know,” the Dacian uttered believably. “It’s enough, I’d say.”

“
Then, Dacian, tell us where were you yourself on the night of Antinous’s death?”

Geta smiled thinly.

“
My lords, I was engaged in providing services to Caesar in the company of
the Western Favorite
throughout the entire evening, and slept in close proximity to Caesar’s chamber after,” the courtier replied.

“
All night and morning? With witnesses?” Suetonius demanded.

“
All night and morning. With witnesses. I must leave you now.”

Suetonius and Clarus looked to each other in silent foreboding after he departed.

Surisca spoke up in a quiet voice. “Masters, may I offer some words?”

“
Only if you have something worthy to contribute, woman,” Clarus huffed. Suetonius nodded approval to the veiled figure seated some distance behind him.

“
Masters, Geta the Dacian spoke of Pachrates. I too have witnessed this priest perform his magical arts.”

All eyes around the bench beneath the morning sunlight turned towards her.

“
I too have seen this famous magician transform living animals into other beasts, and restore life to the recently killed,” she said. “The famous Priest Pachrates has performed this magic in public on many occasions.

I have been contracted to dance and play the flute at temple celebrations for the faithful in the city of Memphis downstream from this place, so I was among those who were backstage at his performances in his temple courtyard. His devotees watched from one side of the platform while I and others engaged in the day’s celebrations awaited behind the platform.

His people try to keep it secret, but the animals he transforms are simply substituted by an ingenious mechanism which his assistant priests manipulate while his audience is distracted by shifting curtains, cymbal crescendos, and flashing lights. His is a clever magic which substitutes one thing for another out-of-sight while people are distracted by activity.

I have also seen him behead a living creature on his stage and apparently return the creature to life. I saw him kill a mangy dog, scavenger vermin whose death no one complains, and then with a flourish of curtains and magical words with beating drums, it was replaced with a live dog of similar age, coloring, and markings. To the innocent eye it seems he has revived the dead and replaced the severed head. His audience did not see the headless carcass being thrown to one side and replaced with a living dog whose matched color patches were painted on.

I submit that the fellow beheaded before Caesar’s and Antinous’s eyes may have been the condemned brother or even an identical twin of a similar looking fellow.

Pachrates’ priests probably purchased the two condemned men from the authorities of the arena at Cyrene or Leptis Magna. All his sorcery is trickery. There is no wonder to it once you know its secrets, but he is clever in performing it.”

Surisca demurely sat back in her chair.

“
But Caesar and Antinous were moved by his display?” Clarus complained. “Caesar is no fool! He can’t be deceived about such things!”

Surisca drew her head scarf across her face to reply.

“
If the spectator is in an accommodating mood and wishes to see magic, inexplicable magic will be seen. Such illusions can be persuasive to those who don’t know the guile of Egyptian sorcerers who play on human needs.”

“
It’s true many at Court are enticed by feats of magic and magical charms,” Suetonius soothed. “Remember, both the astrologer Aristobulus and the Governor’s mistress, Anna Perenna, do a fine trade in providing charms, potions, and spells to the Household. Hadrian too is known to respect these arts.”

It was Clarus’s time to speak directly to Surisca to raise an undiplomatic matter.

“
Syrian, did I perceive you and the Dacian are known to each other?” the magistrate asked.

Surisca looked across to Suetonius for permission to speak. The biographer nodded, just as keen to hear her response as Clarus.

“
I confess we do, master. But briefly,” the Syri disclosed apprehensively. “Your Dacian courtier was a client some months ago at Palaestina. I was contracted to the newly built spa at Shuni, outside Caesarea in Judea, where the wealthy retire for their pleasures. I and many other girls were hired as dancers and entertainers to engage in water frolics and sex games among the thermal spring pools of Shuni.

The Imperial Household travelling from Antioch to Egypt through Palaestina resided for some weeks at Caesarea, as you know, so the Dacian came to Shuni for rest-and-recreation. He engaged my services for a whole week. Geta and I enjoyed our time together in playfulness.”

Suetonius looked at Surisca with some dismay. He wondered whether he had any right to feel cuckolded by this revelation.

“
And that’s it? Nothing more? A business relationship?” Clarus added imperiously.

“
My lord, this is my profession. I receive many clients. If not, I and my assistants would soon starve. But it’s true I found your Dacian colleague to be very appealing company at Shuni,” Surisca offered wistfully.

“
Did you fall in love with Geta, young lady?” Suetonius searched a little too keenly.

Surisca looked to her questioner with a quizzical expression.

“
I’m not sure what
love
is, master. But if it’s to feel needed and secure in the company of another person then, yes, I did find the Dacian appealing,” the young Syri reminisced. “Besides, he is very handsome in my eyes. And he makes love well.”

“
Love? Needed? What’s this nonsense we’re talking of?” Clarus protested. “We have serious matters of life and death to contemplate, Special Inspector Suetonius Tranquillus.”

“
Friends, morning is advancing and Lysias hasn’t returned to us as he promised,” Suetonius resolved bitterly. “He’s now overdue by an hour. I had faith he would appear of his own volition at the appointed time. I am disappointed in him and his so-called
arete
. Unless misadventure has befallen the lad, a warrant will instruct the Guard to search for him and apprehend him. Meanwhile the slave Thais of Cyrene too will be sought on our behalf.

However, if our interview subjects will not come to us then we will go to them. Clarus, Strabon, guards, Surisca, follow me! First on our list will be Caesar’s advocates of wonders!”

“
Advocates of wonders?!” Clarus exclaimed uncertainly. “Who are they?!”

CHAPTER 18

A
ristobulus of Antioch and Phlegon of Tralles weren’t prepared for the visitors. The Court Astrologer and the Teller of Tales fluttered chaotically in their chamber checking their wardrobe, decors, lip paints, and face powders in the bumpy reflections of bronze mirrors. They were finalizing their effect on their likely clientele for the day’s public exposure. Artful appearance is as important as actual efficacy in their respective sciences.

The portly, ruddy faced, wine-veined astrologer was still engaged with his early morning toilet as his slave trimmed, oiled, and combed his silvery beard.

Meanwhile the gaunt, bony features of the recorder of wonders, Phlegon, were being splashed with river water to revive his energies after an excess of the delicious local date wine during the previous day’s rites grieving the death of Osiris. The death, too, of the Bithynian youth was deserving of recognition and appropriate mourning.

“
It’s been a miracle, in the eyes of the natives,” Aristobulus explained to Suetonius’s first questions. “They now expect their problems with the Nile flood to be resolved in next year’s deluge. They’re convinced the death of a Roman noble has been Caesar’s gift to them, the gracious gesture of a Pharaoh to his subjects in times of difficulty.”

“
The fact that our Great Pharaoh is himself exceedingly distressed by the incident evades them, I suppose?” Suetonius commented. “So, Imperial Astrologer, are any more unexpected deaths being told in the stars?”

“
Today is the second day of the month of Hathur to the locals, Suetonius Tranquillus, or the fourth day to the Kalends of November to we of Rome,” he proposed sagely, “and the day’s omens are quite auspicious. Tomorrow’s will be even more so. Osiris will resurrect at dawn with the sun, so The Isia will then extend to a weeklong celebration. For many in this strange land it’s the year’s major festival.”

Aristobulus, a native of Antioch at Syria in his fifties, was renown for his command of Chaldean astrology and divination.

Phlegon was a native of Tralles, a small city inland from Ephesus at the coast of Caria in Roman Asia. His scholarly specialty was as a collector of marvelous tales and fabulous wonders for both Hadrian’s amusement and Rome’s avid book collectors. Phlegon’s enthusiasm for recording reports about hermaphrodites, unusual births, monsters, giant skeleton bones, ghostly revenants, or mythical creatures, enlivened the Court’s days.