Rosemary Rowe - A Roman Ransom

‘Unless some other charge emerges, I doubt it very much.’

‘Then, Excellence, does it not occur to you that this is very odd? The penalties for kidnapping are terribly severe — especially when the victim is someone like your wife — and those for attempting to corrupt a magistrate are sterner still. Surely it would make more sense for Lallius to simply face the charge, and pay whatever fine the court awards.’ I was getting animated as I spoke and tried to sit upright, but the doctor prevented me by coming to my side and handing me the cup he had prepared.

There was no escape. I drank my herbal brew. It tasted horrible.

Marcus had remained kneeling on the floor beside the bed till now, but it seemed my words had struck home and he leaped up all at once. ‘Odd? Of course it’s odd. It’s worse than odd. It’s unforgivable. My precious wife and child. And when I find the men who did this, I swear by all the gods. .’

He seized the lamp from Gwellia, who was still standing by, and deliberately dangled the piece of bark into the flame. We watched in silence as it curled and blackened in the heat, flaring up until at last he dropped it on the floor and ground it with his heel into the beaten earth — as if he was grinding the writer underfoot.

I waited for another outburst, but he’d regained his self-control. His face was a masterpiece of calm. Only his hands betrayed his state of mind. He fingered the pouch that hung round his neck, stroking it as tenderly as though it was part of his missing family. When he spoke again his voice was harsh. ‘I’ve destroyed their cursed letter, and it’s what I’ll do to them, as well. And I have legal grounds. They’ve attempted to corrupt me! Me — an imperial magistrate, the outgoing governor’s chosen deputy! It’s an insult to the majesty of Rome — and that is a capital offence. Wait till I get these villains to the courts.’

There was a startled hush. This was no idle threat. Marcus was famously an expert in the law. He prided himself on his reputation in the courts for being strictly fair and equally unmoved by tears or bribes, but he also knew what penalties he might exact. I have known him pass harsh sentence on a former friend. What he would do to the abductors of his family I did not dare to think.

‘Excellence. .’ The doctor was still trying to interpose.

Marcus rounded on him. ‘What is it, Philades? Surely you’re not about to warn me, yet again, that I might catch the plague? I tell you, it hardly matters to me now. Besides, I don’t believe a word of it. I have seen men who were struck down by the plague. Believe me, I’d know it soon enough.’

Besides, I thought, you would face greater risks than plague if that would help to bring your family back. But even as I framed the thought, Philades was speaking, with a surprising dignity that belied his stained toga and dishevelled air.

‘Excellence, you pay me for advice, and I have given it. Now it is up to you. If you catch the sickness I shall do my best to treat you — but as you know, there is no certain cure. However, that wasn’t what I wished to say to you. It was about the family of this Lallius. It occurs to me that I might know who they are.’

‘Then why did you not mention it before?’ Marcus demanded snappishly. But he had taken heed. Having ignored all previous warnings from the medicus, he now perversely seemed to take the threat to heart. He moved away and went to stand beside the door, where he was at the greatest distance from the central hearth. Junio, who had been standing there, was now obliged to move.

Marcus ostentatiously arranged himself in the place where the smoke curled up between us to form the thickest screen, and then he spoke again. ‘Very well, Philades, I’ve done as you command. Now what have you to say?’

‘With respect, Excellence, I did attempt to tell you, some little time ago — but you refused to let me speak. I fear it took me a while to make the association with the name. The point is, I don’t know the man himself, but I think I might have met the father once — he visited the house where I was formerly employed. Numidius Tiberius, the old man was called — if, indeed, it is the same Tiberius family.’

Marcus was obviously startled by the name. ‘Numidius? But he’s a well-respected man. Even I have heard of him. He’s on every board and body in the town which does not actually require a man to be a citizen — and I’m sure he’ll get that status in the end. A few benefactions to the civitas — paying for some games or public works perhaps — and he would be certain to be recognised. No doubt he can afford it. Isn’t he some kind of weights and measures officer?’

Philades was packing his herbs away again. He nodded. ‘Chief coin and weights to inspector in the town. That’s lucrative enough. And he married well. His wife brought a large estate with her as a dowry, too.’

I found that I was grinning. Everyone knew the ageing, grim-faced officer who sat each day in a little niche inside the forum wall, with his steelyard and his weights and balances, ready to deal with any coins not issued by the state. The idea of his expending money on public spectacles was so incongruous it made me smile. Numidius was a very careful man.

Of course, he had to be. It was a post of honour. There were often foreign-minted coins around, and some old tribal ones, but the coin officer would weigh them, determine the amount of gold or silver used and so assess the value there and then, so that traders, even from outside the Empire, could buy and sell with ease. I have used his services in that regard myself.

But that was not the lucrative aspect of the job — that came from settling marketplace disputes. Roman gold currency itself was often brought to him by suspicious stallholders, and weighed to ensure that no rogue had filed the edges off and kept the precious metal for himself. Conversely, if a buyer of dry goods believed that he’d not received full measure from a certain stall, his purchase could be checked against a volume-stone: a large block of stone with a series of variously sized holes in it. All for an unofficial fee, of course. The coin inspector gets a small retainer from the state, but it is important for local traders to have him firmly on their side. No wonder that Numidius Tiberius was rich.

‘But surely,’ Marcus said, voicing my own thoughts, ‘Numidius is not the sort of man to have a son in jail, especially not on a charge of robbery like this? Dozens of people in the town are named Tiberius. What makes you suppose that there might be any connection here?’

He sounded irritated and dismissive, but the wizened old physician stood his ground. ‘Excellence, I might be wrong, of course, but I rather think it might be the self-same family, because the story fits. Numidius’s wife was called Lallia — I heard him mention it — and there was a son, named for his mother because she died in giving birth to him. You recall there was a fashion a few years ago for calling sons some version of the mother’s name — so Lallius Tiberius would make sense.’

Marcus hurrumphed. ‘A tribute to his wife? It sounds uncharacteristically sentimental of the man, from what I know of him: but it is possible, I suppose, since she brought such a dowry with her. And her child would have been born within the walls, and so been a citizen although his parents weren’t. That also fits. How do you come to know all this, in any case?’

‘Numidius was calling at the house — paying court to my employer’s niece. As I say, this Lallia was dead. Numidius had lived alone for many years, but had decided it was time to wed again. And provide himself with another heir, I rather think. I was asked to check that the girl had no disease. Her father thought it would be a splendid match for her, although there is a difference in age, of course. The coin inspector is a wealthy man.’ He closed the lid and swept the table clean with his toga sleeve. ‘Numidius did speak about his son, as I recall — though not with great affection. The lad was causing trouble even then.’