John Roberts - Under Vesuvius

The crowd growled and shouted. My lictors pounded the butts of their fasces on the dais for order, but the crowd was in no mood to pay them any attention. I snapped my fingers and one of Julia's pages came forward with a lituus: a long, straight, bronze trumpet sharply curved at its sounding end, so called for its resemblance to the hooked augur's staff of the same name. It is the horn used for signaling in the cavalry. He placed its mouthpiece to his lips and winded a long blast. At the eerie, high-pitched note the crowd stilled. Then amid a clatter of hoofs, the glittering turma rode into the forum with the even more glittering Sublicius Pansa in the lead. They ranged themselves before the dais, facing outward.

"Praetor!" Vibianus cried. "This is not necessary! There is no danger."

For the first time I stood. "I intend to see that there will be no danger. I will have order in this court and I will enforce it. All spectators will keep their voices down." It was quite futile to demand that Italians of any sort keep entirely silent. "At the first call for violence or mob action, I will set these men on you. If you think that I speak idly, recall that I have carried through on everything that I have said during my stay among you and that I do not shrink from taking the strongest action." I gazed around and saw discontent but no open defiance. "Now, Vibianus, please continue, but I abjure you to refrain from inflammatory rhetoric."

He inclined his head. "As the praetor commands," he said coldly. He adjusted his toga again. "Now, where was I before the troops were called in? Oh, yes, the plain and evident guilt of young Gelon here. I have already demonstrated that he had the motive to murder Gorgo. I will now demonstrate that he had ample opportunity.

"On the night that Gorgo was murdered, many of the most distinguished men of this district, including the praetor, were attending a banquet held at the house of the duumvir Norbanus. Even the late Gaeto, the defendant's father, was there. Diocles, father of the victim, was in Cumae. The coast was clear, so to speak, for a meeting between the two; Gelon hoping to consummate his lust for the girl, Gorgo to forbid him her presence. Praetor, I wish to question the woman Jocasta, widow of the slaver Gaeto."

"Proceed," I said.

Jocasta came forward, dressed in a modest Greek gown and discreet jewelry. Today only her streaming hair was flamboyant. She took the usual oath and waited calmly. Her face was unreadable.

"Jocasta," Vibianus said, "on the night in question, where were

your

"In my town house in Baiae."

"And was your stepson there as well?"

"He was."

"He was there the whole night?"

"He was there early in the evening. We had dinner together. After that I retired to my bedroom."

"And did Gelon remain in the house after that?"

"I–I cannot say. I assumed so."

"Assumptions are of very little weight in a court of law," Vibianus said. "Can you testify that Gelon was there the entire night?"

"No. No, I cannot." This raised a murmur.

"In fact, my fellow citizens," Vibianus said, "you will find that nobody can testify to seeing Gelon that night. This woman says that she saw him early in the evening. He was not seen again until the praetor's men came to arrest him the next morning. Does no one besides me find it odd that this-this 'princely' young man was not out with friends that night? He had many, you know. Surely it is the rule that socially active men dine at the houses of friends, perhaps even carouse a bit among the manifold delights of Baiae. Does it seem likely that such a one would waste a fine evening having dinner with his stepmother, then retiring early? It certainly wasn't my practice at that age!"

He shook his head ruefully, as if baffled by the deceitfulness of mankind. "No, my friends, this barbarian youth had plans for that evening. Plans that required stealth, and darkness, and privacy. He intended to steal away to the grove of Apollo and meet Gorgo there. I do not say that he intended to commit murder there. But I can say with perfect confidence that murder was exactly what he did there."

With a flourish he dismissed Jocasta and summoned Diocles. The old priest stood there with a tragic face and spoke of the death of his blameless daughter, of how he had forbidden her to see Gelon, how she had agreed and promised to forbid the boy ever to see her again, how he returned home to find her murdered. The crowd showed great sympathy for the old man. Vibianus dismissed him with thanks and turned to me.

"Now, honored praetor, I wish to demonstrate the actions of poor Gorgo on that fatal night. Her personal handmaiden, Charmian, is dead and therefore unable to testify. However, there were two other slave girls with her that night, named Gaia and Leto. I understand that these are in your custody. I wish to summon them to testify."

I stiffened. "You wish to put them to torture?"

He seemed puzzled. "Is that not the custom? Surely I do not need to lecture a Roman praetor on Roman legal practice. The ordeal is quite mild, as such things go."

"I have confiscated these slaves as evidence in this case," I said.

"The girl called Charmian was beaten almost to death before she escaped from the temple. The other two are in poor condition and I will not have them put to the ordeal."

"You refuse to surrender them?" he said, eyebrows going up.

"I do."

"Praetor, I protest!" Vibianus cried. "From the very first day of this case, you have shown the most inexplicable bias in favor of the slaver's boy, the deepest hostility toward our priest Diocles. You have ignored the strongest evidence for Gelon's guilt. Instead of letting the city lock him up in the civic ergastulum, you have kept him in comfort, nay, in luxury, in your own house, as if he were your honored guest instead of your prisoner! You interfered in Diocles' disciplining of his own household and confiscated his property in the form of two slave girls, Leto and Gaia, in defiance of Roman legal practice and custom. You have gone personally to question witnesses, seeking only exculpatory evidence, never the proof of Gelon's guilt. And now you refuse to surrender these two slave girls so that they may testify in a trial over which you preside! Praetor, we have grounds here for bringing charges of corruption against you in Rome!"

There was a collective gasp from the crowd. They didn't get entertainment like this every day. I heaved up from my curule chair, so enraged that I swayed from dizziness. "Have a care, lawyer! I'm of a mind to have you flogged from this court!"

"Roman citizens may not be scourged," he said haughtily.

"That Metellus Celer you mentioned had a reputation for doing just that," I replied. y

Tiro stepped in smoothly. "Praetor, please resume your chair. Your color is very bad. We'd hate to have you taken from us by apoplexy."

"Listen to him!" Julia hissed.

Slowly, glaring at Vibianus, I sat back down. "You've talked long enough, Vibianus. Tiro, proceed with your defense."

Vibianus retired to his corner with a triumphant smirk. Not only had he conducted a very competent prosecution argument but also had made me lose my temper and probably convinced most of those present that I was a corrupt, bribe-taking magistrate. Since these were a large majority of Roman judges, nobody needed much convincing. This was looking bad. Not just bad for Gelon, bad for me.

Tiro launched into another oration, giving me time to calm down. Wisely, he did not call Jocasta or any of the other witnesses. They had nothing to say that might help to clear Gelon. Instead, he attacked Vib-ianus's arguments as specious, denouncing each point with Ciceronian sarcasm. These arguments held little real weight, but Italians and Greeks have always prized eloquence above logic. He wound up with another round of vituperation.