David Wishart - Sejanus

'So how's it going?' Columella sent the slave away and sat back. 'I hear your father died.'

'Yeah. Perilla and I came home for the funeral.'

'What was it? Do you know?'

'One of these sudden winter fevers. At least it was quick.' I paused. 'Your family all okay?'

'Mother died last September.'

'I'm sorry to hear that.' I was: I'd never met Titia Plautina, but she was a decent old stick, a perpetual invalid who'd been confined to her bed for years.

'Yeah. She was glad to go, though. She never really got over Uncle Sextus's death.'

Plautina, of course, had been Sabinus's sister. Now Columella had raised the subject himself this was going to be easier than I'd thought.

'Uh, I heard something about that in Athens,' I said carefully. 'There was some sort of scandal, wasn't there?'

Columella glared at me. 'Not on my uncle's side, Corvinus. Whatever people said. The bastards set him up.'

'So I heard.' I kept my voice neutral. 'There were four of them, weren't there?'

'That's right.' The glare didn't slacken. 'Latiaris, Cato, Rufus and Opsius. If you want the names.'

Sure I did; but none of them rang any bells. Nevertheless I filed them away for future reference. 'So what happened?'

He scratched absently at a raw patch where the slave had caught him with the scraper. 'The usual.'

'The usual?'

'The usual farce of a trial. You weren't in Rome then. You don't know what it was like.'

'No, that's true.' I paused. 'He was set up, you say?'

'Six ways from nothing. You know he was friendly with Agrippina?'

'Yeah,' I said. 'Yeah, I'd heard that.'

'Friendly, mind. Nothing more.' Columella scowled. 'We may not have got on especially, but Uncle Sextus wasn't the type for affairs. Not with someone like Agrippina, anyway.'

'I've heard that as well.'

'Good. Believe it.' He shifted against the wall. Luckily we were on our own: it was still early, and the other gym regulars were either thrashing around outside trying to carve bits off each other or sweating next door in the hot room. I doubt if there'd been anyone else around he would've told me even this much. Politics — even stale politics — wasn't a safe topic of conversation at Rome these days.

'So,' I said. 'How did they do it?'

Anyone else would've been getting slightly suspicious about my motives by this time, but like I say Columella was solid bone from the neck up. He never blinked.

'They sweet-talked him. Got him to seriously bad-mouth Aelius Sejanus and the emperor in what he thought was private. Only they'd got round Uncle's slaves beforehand and arranged for witnesses to be smuggled into his own house and hidden in the attic directly above the study. They bored holes through the ceiling panels. After that it was an open and shut case.'

There was anger in Columella's voice, and I didn't blame him. Anyone who was fool enough to slander Tiberius or Sejanus in public deserved all they got, sure, but what you said among friends — or those who professed themselves to be friends — in the privacy of your own home was something else. Sabinus had been set up with a vengeance, and 'sneaky' didn't do the thing justice. I had to hand it to Sejanus, though, and Sejanus had to be behind this. It'd been slick, very slick indeed.

'So the four reported what your uncle had said directly to the emperor,' I said. 'With the witnesses' backing.'

'Yeah.' Columella made to spit. 'The poor sod never had a chance. The senate convicted him as they'd have to do on the strength of the evidence and he was dead before the month was out.'

'Uh huh,' I said. This needed thinking about, and maybe I'd have that bath after all, when I'd left Columella. Sure, what had happened to Sabinus was interesting, but it didn't add much to what I knew already: that Sejanus had been going out of his way to target the leading Julians. So why had Felix and his sidekick been so keen to make sure I checked the story up? Which reminded me…

'You happen to know if your uncle had a couple of weird slaves?’ I said. ‘A fussy little guy going bald on top and a man-mountain that grunted?'

'Not that I know of.' Columella looked suspicious for the first time; well, I suppose that had been pushing it. 'Although like I say we didn't get on all that well, and I wasn't really on visiting terms. He might have done. You got a reason for asking?'

'No, just passing curiosity.'

'Mmm.' I could see him putting it out of what served him for a mind, and I blessed the patron god of idiots, whoever that was. 'So. Tell me about Athens. I'm thinking of going out there this summer, when Rome hots up a bit. You know any good brothels?'

I sighed. Columella always had been direct and to the point. I gave the guy a few addresses and left him to his thoughts. Such as they were.

I had the bath, although it didn't get me any further forward with the Sabinus puzzle. Ah, well. At least it meant that when I got back home I was clean.

We'd just started dinner when Bathyllus brought a little fat guy into the dining room. I knew at once that something was wrong. Badly wrong. Both of them had that serious look that signals bad news.

'This is Latinius, sir,' Bathyllus said quietly. 'Flavonius Lippillus's next-door neighbour. He has a message from Marcina Paullina.'

Perilla glanced over at me, her face ashen. The fat guy was shifting his weight nervously from foot to foot. Even at this distance he smelled of fish. A stallholder in the market, maybe.

'Marcina asks if you'd call in at the flat as soon as you can, sir,' he said. 'Her stepson's had an accident.'

I was on my feet by now. 'He's dead?'

'No. At least not when I left. They found him near the Latin Gate, sir. He'd been attacked.' His hand gestured towards his head. 'The poor lad's in a bit of a mess.'

Oh, Jupiter! Jupiter Best and Greatest, no! First Celsus, then Lippillus. I should've gone back and warned him off, I'd known that at the time.

'Is he at home?'

'Yes, sir.' Latinius nodded. 'The men who found him took him straight round. Marcina's doing her best, but…' His voice tailed off and he shrugged.

Oh, hell! And there'd be no doctors in a city tenement. 'Bathyllus,' I snapped. 'Send for Sarpedon. Tell him to meet me at Lippillus's flat. You know where that is?'

'Yes, sir.' Sarpedon was my father's doctor, one of the best in Rome. Dad had freed him five years back, and he had a lucrative practice now near the Market Square. I just hoped he wasn't out to dinner, or on call to some society lady with a fit of the vapours.

'Thanks for coming round, pal,' I said to Latinius. 'I appreciate it.'

'That's nothing. Whatever I can do.'

'I'll fetch your cloak, sir.' That was Bathyllus.

'Bathyllus!' I was tying on my sandals. Or trying to. 'Forget the sodding cloak, just get Sarpedon! Send your fastest runner. If he's not at home then find him.'

Bathyllus left. I turned back to Latinius. 'What happened? Exactly?'

'No idea, sir. Not exactly. I'd only just got back from work myself when they brought him in. But Marcina'll tell you.'

Oh, shit! Marcina! How was I going to face Marcina? The laces of the second sandal snagged. I jerked them free and tied a rough knot. 'Okay, let's go. Perilla, don't wait up.'

'Nonsense.' She was putting her own sandals on. 'Give me a moment to get my cloak. I'm going with you.'

'Like hell you are!'

'Don't argue,' she snapped. I couldn't if I'd tried, because she was heading for the stairs. 'And don't bother with a litter, either.'

'I wasn't going to, lady,' I said to myself. Under different circumstances, I might've smiled, but now wasn't the time.

The news had spread, and we had to push our way through a crowd of locals who filled the stairwell and the first-floor landing. Maybe Lippillus was popular, but I suspected most of them were the ghouls you always get when there's an accident or a killing. In any case I wasn't too gentle. Latinius disappeared without another word through the door of his own flat opposite, but I knew he'd be keeping his eyes and ears open. Marcina was lucky. Neighbours like Latinius are good to have.