Steven Saylor - A murder on the Appian way

A few mornings later, one of Eco's bodyguards returned to the house in a state of great excitement. Davus showed him into my study. "There's a contio about to start down in the Forum," he said, a little out of breath from running up the Ramp, "and the master says you must come."

"But why?"

"He only says that you must. He's waiting for you there."

Davus and I followed the man back to the Forum.

A considerable crowd had gathered. The tribune Plancus was already speaking. Not far from the Rostra, a squadron of armed soldiers were stationed on the steps of the ruined Senate House. The sight of them did lend a certain gravity to the proceedings, I had to admit.

We found Eco in the crowd. "What's this about?" I whispered.

"If the rumours are true, Plancus is going to introduce — but look, he's just brought them onto the platform with him." Four men led by another walked onto the Rostra, all of them looking nervous and out of place.

Plancus reached for the leader and pulled him to the centre of the platform. "Citizen, tell these good men your name."

The man answered with an inaudible mumble. The crowd jeered and laughed. "Citizen," said Plancus good-naturedly, "you'll have to speak up. See those soldiers over on the Senate House steps? Pretend you're speaking to them."

"My name is Marcus Aemilius Philemon!" the man shouted. There was a round of cheering and applause.

"Tell us, Philemon," said Plancus, "do you remember where you were on the day that Publius Clodius was murdered?"

"Indeed I do. I was with these four other men on the Appian Way. We were travelling on foot, headed for Neapolis."

"And how far did you get that day?"

"To Bovillae."

"What happened there?"

"We came upon what looked like a battle."

"Where was this?"

"At the inn." The crowd now listened with rapt attention. Philemon cleared his throat and continued. "There seemed to be a group inside the inn and a group outside, and the ones outside were after the ones inside. They'd broken down the door. They kept forcing their way in and dragging out the men one at a time and stabbing them to death, right there in the road. There was blood all over the place."

"A horrifying sight, I'm sure," said Plancus. "What did you do?"

"We shouted at them, 'What are you doing?' And they said, 'We've got Publius Clodius trapped like a rat and we're going to cut his tail off!' They were laughing quite a lot, having a good time of it."

" 'They', you say. Did you recognize any of these men?"

"I knew two of them right away. We all did. Those two famous gladiators of Milo's, Eudamus and Birria. They were the ones who seemed to be doing most of the killing. Blood all over them." "What did you do then?"

"We shouted at them to stop what they were doing. I may be only a freedman, but I wasn't going to stand by and watch while slaves murdered a citizen!"

This elicited noises of approval from the crowd.

"Freedman you may be," said Plancus, "but it's a worthy citizen who'll stand up for his fellow Roman. You tried to stop this atrocity, then?"

"My friends and I went at them, but I'll tell you, not one of us has ever been a soldier or a gladiator. They beat us back. Then they chased after us. We had daggers, but these fellows were gladiators and armed with swords. I won't say I did a brave thing, turning and running, but I'll challenge any man here to stand nose to nose with the likes of Eudamus or Birria and not flinch." This elicited some sympathetic murmurs.

"Still, you did a brave thing, citizen, you and your fine friends here. I should hope that if ever some scoundrel like Milo sends his slaves after me or my loved ones, there'll be citizens like you to come to my rescue!" Plancus led the crowd in an outburst of cheering and applause.

"But Philemon," Plancus continued, "how is it that we're only now hearing about this? Why did you not come forward before, when we were all in a state of confusion about what happened on the Appian Way?"

"Because we've only now had the chance to come forward. For two months, we were all held prisoner by Milo at his villa in Lanuvium."

This created a great stir in the crowd.

"Explain, Philemon," said Plancus.

"When Eudamus and Birria and their men came after us, we all split up and headed away from the road. We thought we might be able to lose them in the hills and the woods. But there were plenty of them after us, and they caught us one by one until they'd rounded up all five of us. They tied us up and herded us like prisoners back through Bovillae and up the Appian Way."

"Slaves did this? To citizens?"

Men in the crowd shook their fists and shouted curses at Milo. "Burn his house!" someone shouted. "Burn down the villain's house!"

I looked uneasily at the soldiers who stood rigidly at attention on the Senate House steps.

Plancus quieted the crowd so that Philemon could go on. "They took us up the hill to Milo. He was standing in the road with a lot of men around him. When he saw us he stamped his foot and had a tantrum like a child. I thought that was the end of us, that they'd kill us right there in the road. But Milo ordered his men to gag us and put bags over our heads. Then we were shoved into some sort of wagon or carriage and they took us to a place a few miles away — Milo's own villa in Lanuvium, as it turned out. They locked us in an underground storage room. And that's where we stayed for two long months while they fed us on kitchen scraps and mouldy bread. Then we heard from one of the men guarding us that Milo had finally made up his mind to have us killed. I don't want to say too much about how we escaped, as there were those in Milo's villa who helped us do it."

"You said you were prisoners for two months," yelled someone in the crowd. "But it's been more like three months since Clodius was killed. What have you been doing in the month since you escaped? Why haven't we heard from you before?"

"I can answer that," said Plancus. "These men have been lying low. Are you surprised? Milo spared their lives once, but what would stop him from killing them if he could catch them a second time? Now it finally looks as if Milo will be brought to justice after all, and so these men have come forward. Truth bides its time."

"But is it the truth?" shouted another man in the crowd. "The whole story sounds suspicious to me. You Clodians looked everywhere and you never could find anybody who saw the actual killing, and now you've suddenly come up with five witnesses who claim they were there on the spot! And if it seems a bit funny that we haven't heard from them in all this time, oh, that's because they just happen to have been held prisoner for a couple of months! It's all a bit incredible, if you ask me. Do they have any proof that Milo held them captive?"

One of the four men ran to the front of the platform and shook his fist, "Proof? You want proof of something? I can think of a way to prove whether or not you have blood in your veins!"

There were more shouts and threats. The mood began to turn ugly. I looked towards the soldiers. Was it my imagination, or had they all moved a few steps closer? Plancus shook his head and gestured for calm, but more and more shouting matches began to break out, I nudged Eco, who nodded his consent, and we made our way out of the crowd.

"So, Papa, the mystery of the prisoners on the road is solved."

I nodded. "Not Clodius's men after all, just hapless travellers who happened to stumble upon the fracas."

"I can see why Eudamus and Birria hunted them down, but why didn't they kill them on the spot? Why did they spare them?"

"Their recklessness had already got their master into enough trouble for one day. Who knew who these five fellows were, or whether some powerful patron might be offended if they were killed? Milo must have thought it was better to simply hold them prisoner until the storm passed. Instead, the storm only kept building. You heard what Philemon said: just before they escaped, Milo had finally made up his mind to get rid of them. Probably some slave in Milo's villa took pity on them and helped them get away."