Steven Saylor - The judgement of Caesar

Cleopatra turned to Meto, bearing the golden cup aloft. "Glum Meto! The very picture of the earnest Roman-never a smile for the queen of Egypt!" Meto sought to change his expression and managed an unconvincing, lopsided smile. "Stand up, glum Roman, and pour a splash of wine for your consul!"

Meto stood and lifted the amphora. Pouring a small amount from the long, heavy vessel into the wide cup presented a challenge, but he managed to do so without spilling a drop. When he was done, he replaced the amphora in its stand and put the cork back into the opening.

Cleopatra, walking slowly and carefully, carried the cup to Caesar. He took it in both hands and raised the rim to his lips, smiling at Cleopatra across the dark expanse of wine that reflected both their faces.

Cleopatra smiled back at him; then a shadow crossed her face. "Wait! The wine hasn't been tasted!" She pulled it from Caesar's lips. A tiny portion spilled from the rim and splashed onto the paving stone at her feet.

"Tasted?" said Caesar. "But surely there's no need for that. The wine came from Pompey's private store with the seal intact."

"Seals can be penetrated, and so can cork," said Cleopatra. "What was I thinking? The wine must be tasted first."

"But surely-" said Meto, looking exasperated.

"No! It must be tasted. That was one of the first lessons my father ever taught me. All food and drink must be tasted, without exception. Enjoyment of the moment blinded me. Merianis, fetch Zoe!"

Merianis, anticipating the queen's desire, had already stepped inside. She returned a moment later with a demure young slave girl who carried with her an ordinary clay drinking vessel. Cleopatra handed the wine-filled cup to Merianis. Merianis poured a tiny portion of the wine from the gold cup into the clay vessel held by Zoe, since protocol would not permit the lips of the taster to touch the golden cup intended for the queen's consort.

Meto stiffened his jaw; I assumed he was impatient with the queen's intensely suspicious Egyptian ways. Caesar appeared mildly amused, but at the same time slightly disturbed, for the queen seemed to be acting as much upon a premonition as upon the training she had received as a child. Like Caesar, I, too, had seen the agitation on Cleopatra's face when she withdrew the cup from his lips, and the sudden look of fear in her eyes.

Without self-consciousness-for she was used to being watched when she ate-the girl Zoe put the clay vessel to her lips and drank. She lowered the vessel and wiped a bit of red wine from her lips. Her features assumed a curious expression. "Your Majesty…"

A wrinkle appeared across Caesar's forehead. Cleopatra peered at the slave girl apprehensively. "Yes, Zoe? What is it?"

"Your Majesty…"

I held my breath.

"Your Majesty, I have tasted many wines for you-but never a wine as fine as this one!"

The tension evaporated. Caesar laughed softly. Cleopatra sighed. Meto gave a snort as if to say, "What were you all so worried about?"

Zoe grinned. "Your Majesty, I don't exaggerate! I've never tasted anything like it. Falernian I've tasted before-though not in a long time-but it was never this fine. It's hard to explain…"

"Then I suppose we must find out for ourselves," said the queen. "Go now, Zoe. Come back when the first course is presented."

But the girl did not move. "As I said, Falernian I've tasted before, but never… never like this one…" Her eyes, staring straight ahead, took on a glassy look.

"I said that you may go," said Cleopatra sharply.

Zoe ignored her. Her words began to slur together. "The flavor… the flavor is like fire… like something burning in my throat, and all the way down into my belly. A sweet fire… not at all unpleasant… but burning nonetheless. Oh, Your Majesty! Oh! I think there was something wrong with that wine!"

Zoe dropped the clay vessel. Everyone drew back, startled by the hollow explosion of the clay shattering on the flagstones.

Zoe fell to her knees, trembling violently. "Your Majesty! Your Majesty, help me, please!"

Cleopatra hurried to the girl's side. She knelt and took Zoe's convulsing body in her arms. Zoe gazed up at her, glassy eyed but with a look of mingled reverence and trust. She lifted her face as if in expectation of a kiss. The queen closed her eyes and put her lips to those of Zoe as the girl released her final exhalation. The convulsions abruptly ceased. The body of Zoe went limp.

Cleopatra held the dead slave girl in her arms, closed her eyes, and chanted softly. The chant was Egyptian, perhaps a song for the dead. For as long as the queen chanted and kept her eyes shut, a spell seemed to be cast over everyone present. No one moved.

I stared, dumbfounded at what I was seeing. Cleopatra was not only the girl's mistress and queen; she was her goddess as well, whose divine agency at the very moment of death might serve to convey a lowly slave to immortality in the lands beyond life.

When Cleopatra opened her eyes, I saw that she had been doing more than chanting. Some furious calculation appeared to have taken place, reflected in the fiery blaze of her eyes. She called to Merianis, who put aside the gold cup, ran to the queen, and knelt beside her. They exchanged hushed, urgent words. Merianis looked over her shoulder at Meto, her expression so wild that I felt a stab of dread. Meto, too, sensed something terrible in her gaze, for I saw him blanch. Caesar caught the looks that shot between them, and on his face I saw a mask of puzzlement.

Merianis appeared to resist whatever Cleopatra was suggesting, until at last the queen raised her voice. "Go, then, and do as I say! Bring Apollodorus!"

Merianis rose to her feet and ran from the terrace.

Caesar looked at the amphora of wine, which had been replaced in the stand on the paving stones. He looked at Meto, who stood over the amphora, then at Cleopatra and the dead slave. "What in Hades just happened here?"

Meto looked down at the amphora. "Poisoned!" he muttered. "It must be. Somehow…" He reached down as if to pull out the cork stopper again.

"No!" Caesar shouted. "Don't touch it!" It was understandable that he should speak with alarm, but the look he cast at Meto was tinged with suspicion. He strode toward Cleopatra, but she held up her hand to signal that he should stay back.

"Zoe's ka-what you call the lemur-is still not free from her body. I sense it, still clinging to her flesh. Her death was so unexpected that the ka remains confused, trapped between this world and the next. Be silent. Don't move."

"But I intend to call for my lictors-"

"Silence!" said Cleopatra, gazing up at him with fire in her eyes. I looked on, amazed, as a twenty-one-year-old girl commanded the world's most powerful man to be still, and he obeyed.

And so we stood, motionless like actors on a stage at the final tableau. Surrounded by stillness, I became conscious of the many sounds of the harbor, muted by distance and the gardens enclosing us-shouts of men working on the waterfront, the shriek of gulls, the susurrant voice of the restless water itself. Dappled sunlight danced upon the flagstones. The moment took on a hard-edged clarity that seemed at once dreamlike and more real than real. I felt light-headed, and despite the queen's command that no one should move, I sat on one of the couches and briefly shut my eyes.

At last Merianis came running up the steps. I could see she had been weeping, no doubt shaken by the turn of events. Apollodorus followed behind her, looking grim.

Cleopatra stood. The body of Zoe slipped from her embrace and crumpled, like a cast-off garment, on the paving stones. Presumably the restless ka had been dispatched, for the queen paid no more attention to the corpse.

She raised her arm and pointed at Meto. "I want his person searched."