The Horse Changer (45 page)

Herod gave their generals no time to organise a second line, but reversed course and charged with his entire cavalry once more. I hit the Judaeans from the opposite side simultaneously, using a combination of horse and infantry.

Once the dust had blinded everyone, Herod’s Galilean bandits pretended panic. Giving a cry of terror, they broke and ran, as bandits are known to do. Seeing an easy victory there for the asking, the Judaean commander ordered an attack against Herod’s exposed flank.

The Galilean bandits, however, quickly reversed direction and came crashing into those Judaeans furthest in advance. Before the Judaeans could pull themselves back into formation, my Spartan auxiliaries on the mountaintop came down on foot and drove into the enemy at its western flank. With enemy forces now on four sides and no hope of forming any kind of defensive line, the Judaeans threw down their weapons and begged for mercy.

Those who had abandoned Masada to join the enemy were sorted out and executed in the aftermath of the battle. The rest were given the opportunity to return to Antigonus in Jerusalem or join Herod’s army. Some few men left, but those with no political stake were happy to swear allegiance to Herod, upon whom it seemed Fortune now smiled.

Afterwards, Herod and I ascended the long road to the mountaintop and greeted those of his family and friends whom we had not seen for sixteen months. I found Salome beyond the press of bodies, her eyes bright but tearless. ‘I must tell you, sir,’ she said, ‘I was beginning to think you’d forgotten us.’

Following his victory at Masada, Herod advanced on Jericho. His numbers now exceeded three thousand fighting men. There was some resistance at the walls of Jericho but friends in the city opened the gates on the very day we attacked. At that point, Antigonus’s garrison threw down their weapons. Once again, Herod gave the captured men the choice of joining him or returning to Antigonus and once more his numbers swelled. As for the rest of us, we were soon installed inside the walls of that most ancient and splendid city. Once we had taken Jericho, Silo marched into Judaea with nearly a full legion under his authority. These included the three cohorts Antony had sent, plus auxiliaries and some mercenaries provided by Ventidius. We imagined the war would soon come to a conclusion. Instead, Silo negotiated a treaty with King Antigonus.

This amounted to Antigonus providing Silo with Judaean gold. With these matters settled, Silo retreated with his army back across the Syrian border, claiming yet another Roman victory for Ventidius.

Jericho is an oasis town at the base of the Judaean mountains. It is rich in produce of every variety but most famous for balsam. Due largely to the wealth of its population, Herod had enjoyed a great many contacts in this city when his father served as a Roman procurator. Despite the city’s close proximity to Jerusalem, Herod elected to winter his troops here. Antigonus sent a force down the mountain to hold us in place, but there was otherwise very little contact between the two armies that winter.

With the seas closed for the season, I had no choice but to spend my winter in Jericho with Herod. With the coming of spring Herod’s army broke out of Jericho and fought its way north along the Jordan valley. In the wake of his victories at Ashkelon and Masada and Jericho, he found fresh recruits in Galilee. The Samaritan lords eventually provided him over two thousand additional cavalry. For my part, I had fulfilled my promise to those Spartans I had left behind and sailed with them to Greece with the help of Herod’s friends in Cyprus.

I learned of Caesar’s marriage to Livia during the journey.

I could not comprehend the news at first. Caesar had been married to some relative of Sextus Pompey; breaking off that marriage risked the treaty Caesar had just signed. And how had he even met Livia? I was sure it was only a botched rumour and would not believe it until I came to Athens. Once there, I talked to men who were better informed. They gave me full assurance it was true: Livia, nine months pregnant on her wedding day, had married Caesar in the first days of the new year.

By all accounts, the two had fallen in love on the very day they met. I didn’t believe it, because I did not want to believe it, but I was not really sure what else I could believe. Brooding on the matter, I finally recalled that Octavia had been at the palace with Livia for several weeks in Athens. Livia had, I was sure, impressed Caesar’s sister, and she had decided Livia would make the perfect consort for her brother. Caesar, looking for any excuse to wreck the peace with Pompey, was only too happy to rid himself of Pompey’s relative. All the better that he could do it and also have his revenge against Claudius Nero in the process. Adding insult to injury, Caesar obliged Nero to act as Livia’s father during the wedding ceremony and give her away to her new husband.

On my second morning in Athens and much hung over from a futile attempt to drown my sorrows, I went to report to Antony. I was not thinking about Livia’s betrayal. I had outrage enough over Silo’s mutiny and reported the facts of the case simply and plainly: Silo had disobeyed Antony’s orders.

Antony knew I wanted retribution, but he did not seem especially offended by Silo’s disobedience. In fact, he told me he had half expected something like that. I decided, quite suddenly, to offer my resignation. Up to that moment, I had been content in Antony’s service, but without a moment of reflection I resigned my commission.

I have no doubt Livia’s marriage to Caesar was working on me, though it did not seem so when I announced my intentions. What I told myself was this: I was sick to death of Antony’s apathy. Insubordination and taking bribes from the enemy ought to have meant Silo’s death, but Antony took no notice of the matter. In fact, his only irritation seemed to be with me, that I complained to him about it. After all these years, I have a better understanding of the situation. I am sure Antony believed me; the problem for him was Ventidius. Ventidius had also disobeyed orders and he was suddenly Rome’s new hero. Caesar had already encouraged the senate to vote the man a Triumph for his victory in Syria. We had not had a Triumph since the one I had walked in with the divine Julius Caesar; so this was no small matter and would make Ventidius a powerful rival to Antony. In my fury, however, I saw none of these issues. I had no idea Antony was struggling just to stay alive. No, I wanted the world made right for my sake, and I wanted it at once.

‘Resignation?’ Antony asked in surprise. ‘For what reason?’

‘I mean to claim my patrimony,’ I answered. ‘I will then buy some land. I’m not sure exactly where. Perhaps Spain.’
Far from Rome
, I added but only in my thoughts.

‘Don’t be a fool, Dellius. At the moment, you are an important man. Will you give that up to be a farmer in Spain?’

I did not care to be called a fool on top of the rest and my anger went icy; my resolve became quite fixed. ‘I will,’ I told him.

‘Haven’t I always given you exactly what you asked of me?’

‘You have. Mostly. Eventually, I mean.’

‘But you are not happy serving me?’

‘In the six years since Julius Caesar’s murder I have not had more than a day or two of luxury, and even then it was only luxury. I have not had the chance to marry or think about the patrimony I have lost.’

‘Then take the remainder of the year off. Report back next spring, and we shall march on the Parthians together.’

‘I require more than a few months.’

‘I won’t beg you to stay, Dellius. Go, if that is what you desire, but on your life do not come asking favours of me again.’ I was walking for the door. ‘Do you hear me, Dellius? I won’t take you back. Not if you beg it of me!’

A free man, I took only those belongings that mattered and left the palace at once. I found a public room that evening and then joined up with the first merchant ship sailing for Italy.

I had no clear idea what I intended, but there were matters in Rome I needed to settle before I considered my options. The first order of business was my patrimony. Twenty-five percent of my father’s great estate was a fortune by my reckoning, but of course I knew there were difficulties in making a claim of that sort. In fact, with the prospect of bribing officials for a fair ruling, I was not at all sure how much money I would have in the end. I decided therefore to contact Maecenas the moment I arrived in the city.

I actually approached him with a letter. In return, I also received a letter with the name of a lawyer I should visit. This was a day or so after writing to him. I met with the lawyer, explained my circumstances and then agreed to give him some weeks to arrange my payout. ‘As easy as that?’ I asked. I had heard stories about settlements that were being fought in the courts and payments that the new owners simply refused to make. No one, so far as I knew, got his money simply by asking for it.

The fellow’s smile was a bit sly, but it was friendly enough. ‘It’s a simple matter for the man Cilnius Maecenas calls his friend.’

After that, I sought an audience with Claudius Nero. Nero had settled in his former house on the Palatine and was enrolled again as a member of the senate. He admitted me before all the others in his vestibule on the first morning I went to see him. I was not confident this would happen, but I thought, in the circumstances, it was only proper.

When I was standing before him, I offered my hand, but Nero pretended not to see it. Instead of greeting me, he told his attendants to leave the room. When we were alone, he said, ‘I have sacrificed often to various of the gods, Dellius. I prayed to them that you and I might speak to one another soon.’

‘There are no gods, Excellency.’

‘And yet here you are.’

‘I have need of your assistance.’

‘Let me guess. You want to speak with Livia?’

‘I do.’

‘I know the truth about the two of you, Dellius.’ When I did not answer him at once, he continued. ‘Livia told me about your love affair. I came to her with Caesar’s proposal of marriage last autumn, and she refused it. Not for my sake, mind you, but because she said she wanted to marry Quintus Dellius. Quintus Dellius, not Caesar! Do you know what I did? I slapped her pretty face. I told her I would not permit it. I would kill her before I would let her debase herself with a marriage to the likes of you. She took her belly in her hands, Dellius. She told me the child she carried was yours.