The Nero Prediction (31 page)

Who is this Cassandra?"

"Epicharis, Caesar, an ex-slave of Mela's."

Nero squinted at me. "Epicharis! Now there's a coincidence, Epaphroditus, if there is such a thing. Do you think she knows more than the sweet nothings she's been whispering in your ear? She may, you know, since Mela is Seneca's brother. Arrange for Tigellinus to have a talk with her. No whips and chains though, I'm sure you'll make that clear."

"Yes Caesar." I hoped he didn't notice the relief in my voice.

Tigellinus was being shaved when I took Nero's instructions to him. There were two very pretty young women still asleep in his bed, neither of whom I'd seen before. His smile was as sharp as the razor scraping off the bread paste that covered his face. "Epicharis? Where have I heard that name before?"

"She's Mela's freedwoman."

"Ah, of course, the Stoic connection. Wasn't she the one who took you on that little pleasure cruise?"

I'd prepared myself for the possibility that he'd know. "That's right, I know her slightly and that's why I know she's someone who won't frighten easily, as long as she's given the opportunity to prepare herself. What I suggest is this: I go with the Praetorians, reassure her that she's not in trouble, that all you want to do is see if she's picked up any scraps of information. That way if you throw Proculus's accusation at her you might catch her off guard."

Tigellinus chuckled. "Look at you, bedding a senator's mistress one minute, and then plotting how to frighten the life out of her the next. You've come a long way, Epaphroditus. We might make a man out of you yet!"

I didn't want to throw Epicharis off her guard. What I had to do was warn her that whatever else she told Tigellinus, for her sake as well as mine, she must on no account mention Nero's horoscope.

She kept me waiting for nearly an hour while she completed her toilette. The effect was ravishing. The flush of danger had complimented the craft of her make-up artist and her eyes glowed even more brightly than when she was simulating the expression of love.

 I could feel my resolution slipping away. "Epicharis, I apologize for intruding."

"Intruding? What sort of talk is that? You know you're always very welcome, although I wouldn't have thought Baiae so dangerous that you needed a Praetorian escort."

"I'm afraid this isn't a social call. Someone called Volusius Proculus has gone to Nero with the story that you say he's about to be assassinated."

Epicharis's took my hands in hers, her expression one of concern, not for herself but for me. "Oh darling, no wonder your hands are like blocks of ice! You've guessed it, haven't you? Proculus, he's the naval officer who caught you stealing Nero's horoscope!"

"I was with him when he spoke to Nero. He didn't mention anything about that."

"See! Didn't I tell you that he was a man of honor? Don't worry, I won't breathe a word about it either. You're safe. You have my word on that."

I was astonished, how quickly she'd turned the tables on me. However, since I couldn't think of anything else, I pursued the gallant strategy I'd planned. "It's not me I'm concerned about, it's you. Tigellinus wants to interrogate you."

Suddenly it was there in her eyes, a darkness, the fear of torture.

I pressed my advantage. "No, Nero has forbidden him to hurt you, I saw to that. Now you must tell me the truth. What are you trying to do with Nero’s horoscope?"

Her eyes were suddenly wet with tears. "How could you even imagine that I would lie to you? Every single thing I've told you is true, especially the way I feel about you. The moment I saw you at Seneca's reception, so handsome and so proud, I knew that you were the man the stars have promised me. You see, you and I, our destinies are interwoven."

This was no time to tell her that this was precisely what I was trying to avoid. "In which case it's absolutely imperative that you under no circumstances, under no inducement or threat, ever reveal what I told you about Nero’s horoscope,” I said. “Once that’s out, I promise you we're both doomed."

Epicharis smiled. "Don't be afraid my love, nothing could induce me to betray you."

Although she was clearly as slippery as her fish goddess Atargatis, I believed her. She hadn't extorted Nero's birth time out of me just to blab it to Tigellinus. She had bigger fish to fry: Mela, even Seneca himself. But why had she put everything in jeopardy by telling the sailor that revolution was around the corner?

This was the question that preoccupied me as I listened to Tigellinus question Epicharis. Eventually the answer came to me. She hadn't asked the hairball Proculus to bring his fleet on alert because of love, she was one of those who used love like Tigellinus used the rack. She'd alerted him out of ambition fed by something she'd found when she cast Nero's horoscope using the birth time I had given her, something that made her so certain that he was about to fall that she'd attempted to recruit the commander of the naval base of an area completely dominated by the sea. She'd miscalculated, out of vanity probably. She must have convinced herself that she was destined to become a very powerful woman, an empress, perhaps. Ambition had blinded herself to the fact that Proculus had no more intention of throwing in his lot with her than I had.

All the same I admired her for the cool way she fended off Tigellinus's badgering questions. It was palpable, his desire to torture her. "Why did you say that the emperor was about to be deposed?"

"How many times do I have to repeat myself? I never said that. Like everyone else I pray that no harm will come to the emperor's person or fortunes."

"The testimony of a senior naval officer contradicts yours. He swears that you advised him to prepare for revolution."

"Prefect, the senior naval officer and I have had a brief love affair but  last night we fell out - "

"Out of bed?"

 Epicharis flattered Tigellinus's stab of humor with a demure little smile. "Frankly, yes. This is Baiae, Prefect. His masculine pride has been injured. He'd say anything to take revenge on my indifference. He just has."

Tigellinus nodded pointedly at me, as if congratulating me on supplanting the massive sailor. "And that's all there is to it?"

Her eyes were as innocent as pools of holy water. "Yes, I swear it."

"She's lying, I know it," Tigellinus told Nero. "Let me put her to the test and we'll soon have her singing like a nightingale."

Nero went back to coaxing a tune out of the bagpipes he was learning to play. "I'm sure," he said when he put them down, "but will it be the truth? There were no witnesses to what went on between her and Proculus, it's her word against his and either way I don't think there's anything to it."

"Augustus, we must keep in mind her connection with Seneca and the rest of the Stoics. She may have overheard something. Let's not throw away what could be a valuable asset. Who knows, something might unravel. Let me keep her in custody, just for a while. Surely she's done enough to deserve that?"

Nero glanced at me. "Let Epaphroditus decide. He knows the woman, we don't."

My thoughts raced. If Epicharis were set free the vice admiral would feel slighted and quite likely share all his suspicions with Nero. That would certainly be the end of Epicharis, it might even be the end of me. Clearly Proculus's mouth had to be kept tightly shut which meant that Epicharis had to stay locked up.

"Caesar, I agree with Tigellinus. She ought to stay in protective custody, at least until we return to Rome."

Nero inflated the bag and played that eerie tune of his, the music of the spheres, on the pipes. "Make the arrangements."

I arranged for Epicharis to have a room in the guests’ quarters of Nero's villa and had the door fitted with a good lock. That night I went to see her.

Her eyes were large and liquid. She was sitting upright on the couch, hands clasped together. When she saw me she gave a little cry of pleasure, jumped to her feet, her head tilted backwards and her lips trembling, expecting to be kissed. "Epaphroditus, thank god, I was so worried about you. I thought you'd gone and told Nero everything and he had...I don't even want to think about it."

"Everything? What do you mean?"

A fleeting smile which asked if I were joking, a little frown which said that I couldn't be because this was no occasion to joke. "You know, about his horoscope."

"That's what it was all about from the start, wasn't it? Nero's birth time. Who did you give it to?"

Her eyes widened with shock at the coldness of my voice. "How can you believe that's all there was? How dare you _"

I cut her off. "Epicharis, who was it for?"

"What's the point in telling you anything if you think that I'm a liar?"

"You're toying with your life, do you realize that?"

"It's you, Epaphroditus, who are in danger, not me. If I'm not able to pass on the information to this acquaintance of mine, I'm afraid -"

"You mean you haven't given it to him yet?"

"No. He's in Rome. He'll wait until we get back unless of course he hears that something has happened to me."

"So this was all planned in Rome, this blackmail. You told me that Proculus was the one who needed Nero's horoscope."

A flash of anger. "I told you that to protect you, because the less you know the safer you are." Tears. "You don't understand, but you ought to. Do you know how long I've been in love with you? Never mind, you obviously didn't take any notice. Just another ex-slave making sheep's eyes at you and why should you, the vice-regent, yes, that's how people talk of you, some go further, they say that you now wear the mantle once worn by Burrus and Seneca, that you rule the empire, that it's you who are Caesar and Nero is nothing more than your puppet who -"

I felt the heady flush of hubris but I cut her off anyway. "Rubbish!"

"Perhaps. But I believed it. I still believe it. You, an ex-slave like me, ruler of the world! It made me feel so proud, it still does. It was that pride which made me fall in love with you. Then I made the mistake of telling him, the man who needed Nero's horoscope, how I felt about you. He warned me to stay away from you because you had made a powerful enemy who was on the point of destroying you, and that when you went down you'd drag down all those near you. I begged him to tell me your enemy's name. I actually fell down on my knees and begged him! That's when he made me the offer: Nero's birth time for the name of your enemy. I didn't hesitate to accept it. I still wouldn't."

Although I wasn't emperor, I certainly did have a horde of enemies, almost every blue blood in Rome for a start, so part of her story rang true. "When did you plan to make the exchange?"

More tears. "Soon. But first you must promise me that you won't, won't let them ... put me to the test. I couldn't stand that. Kill me if they are going to do that, because I don't know how long I'd be able to keep quiet ... about you. You'll kill me before they force me to betray you? Swear you will!"

A dreadful calm followed this storm of words. I believed her and I didn't believe her. In fact the two convictions roosted together in my head as happily as two hens on the same perch at sunset.

"No one's planning to do that," I said. "They just want to keep you in protective custody until -" I was about to say "until the truth comes out." Instead I said, "until this whole thing blows over. I'll make sure that you have everything you need. But I won't be able to see you very often, that wouldn't be advisable."

She squeezed my arms. "I don't care about myself. Only about you. That's why you must take care of me first, if they decide to..."

The horror in her eyes obliterated my suspicion. "Epicharis I give you my word that even if I tell Nero everything, I won't let them hurt you."

The Great Conspiracy

March 19 – April 14, 65 A.D.

I went straight to the baths. When the steam cleared my head I knew that's what I had to do, go to Nero with the truth. But while I was soaking myself Epicharis had reached out beyond the walls of her prison. The young men with the insolent expressions who'd serviced the senatorial invert Quintianus at sea on the night of the Liberalia were outside waiting for me.

The one with the elaborately curled hair indicated a litter escorted by what looked like a gang of ex-gladiators. "Epaphroditus, the senator needs to talk to you. It's important."

The litter I couldn't refuse to get into took me to a villa set on a rocky cove. The gardens were decorated with statues of beautiful youths, vibrant with all the colors of life. There was not a single representation of a woman anywhere. Splashing sounds and the screeching of children came from behind a tall hedge that screened a swimming pool.

"The senator is schooling his minnows," curly-hair told me with a smirk, "he'll see you afterwards."

An hour later I was taken to where Quintianus, his bulk wrapped in a silk robe, was reclining on a couch suspended from the straining branch of a pine tree.

His blubbery mauve lips slid apart in a toothy, professional smile. "Ah, Epaphroditus, how nice of you to drop in! I've heard you are a man of discriminating literary taste so I've been aching for you to pass judgment on a little rhyme that has come to my attention. It goes like this."

It was the satirical epigram recently penned by Nero who'd taken full advantage of the way the senator's surname, Quintianus, rhymed with anus.

"Well?" he asked at the end of his recitation. "What do you think of it?"

I made what I thought was the safest response. "It's not my place to pass judgment on the emperor."

The fat man’s laugh was a bark of contempt. "Come now, Nero's made it a free country, hasn't he? He's even freed you so speak your mind."

"The emperor himself has been the target of numerous satirical pieces. He laughs as hard as anyone else."

"Yes, so long as the pieces are dogs with no teeth. Surely you haven't forgotten what happened to Antistius, just two years ago, when he read after-dinner verses which had real bite? Nero wanted him whipped to death."

"That wasn't his idea and he had no intention of allowing it to happen."