Lindsey Davis - The Accusers

A person in high places has revealed to our source, in absolute confidence, that the will of Rubirius Metellus contained 'unthinkable surprises'.

[Note: Falco and Associates are not free to divulge the nature or identity of this source or that of the person who advised our source on the will. However, we can assure our client that the material is impeccable.]

Interview with Rhoemetalces, an apothecary on the Via Praenestina (M.D. Falco)

Rhoemetalces, an expensive remedy-vendor of Cilician extraction, sells pills and potions from a discreet booth near the station house of the Second Cohort of Vigiles. This is within walking distance of the Metellus home. With the co-operation of the Second Cohort, Rhoemetalces was approached, in company with the vigiles officer who controls licences and secret lists in that district. After a short discussion of the terms under which he is permitted to sell goods, Rhoemetalces admitted that he had sold pills, presumably those in the sardonyx box which was subsequently seen at the bedside of Metellus senior.

The pills had been purchased, not by Metellus, his wife or his staff, but 'on behalf of her poor troubled father', by the elder daughter, Rubiria Juliana. She said her father was proposing an honourable suicide and wished for a rapid end. The apothecary claims it was against his better judgement to comply, but he felt that if he refused she would simply go to some other practitioner. He therefore assisted Juliana, in order to ensure that the deceased was not sold some slow and painful concoction by charlatans or ignorant druggists who would take advantage of the family's turmoil. He sold Juliana seeds of corn cockle, a noxious plant commonly found in wheat fields. If the small black seeds are ingested with other food, corn cockle is fatal within an hour.

Juliana then claimed she was anxious to save her father from his intended course. She wondered if there was a way he could be made to think he was killing himself, but would remain unharmed if – as she believed he would – he changed his mind. Rhoemetalces therefore persuaded her to buy (at enormous expense) pills which were contained within a coating of real gold. We are informed that this is a current fashion among wealthy invalids; the gold is said to increase the beneficial effects of the medicine. Besides, it hides any disgusting taste.

Rhoemetalces, revealing a secret of his trade, declared that he has no faith in such pills (though he sells them on request). He is convinced goldplated pills simply pass through the patient's gut undissolved. He told Juliana the effects should be harmless, and to safeguard himself further, he offered to provide gold pills which contained only flour dust. However, Juliana said she feared that her father, a suspicious man by nature, would suspect deception and cut open a pill to check its contents. So corn cockle was included. But in the professional opinion of Rhoemetalces, the pills were safe and it is by some unique and terrible accident that Metellus was killed.

Rhoemetalces is currently in custody with the vigiles, who are explaining to him their professional view that the 'unique accident' was directly caused by Rhoemetalces supplying poisonous pills. [Accountancy note: no gratuity necessary to the apothecary, but there will be a substantial expense item relating to a payment into the vigiles' fund for widows and orphans.]

Reappraisal of Rubiria Juliana (M. Didius Falco and Q. Camillus Justinus) Interview conducted in the presence of Canidianus Rufus

A formal application was made to Canidianus Rufus to interview his wife on a very serious matter, the nature of which was hinted. Rufus agreed, subject to his being present as her head of household, a request which was immediately granted. Rubiria Juliana was allowed two hours to compose herself, then interviewed at her home. M.D.F. directed the questioning; Q.C.J. took notes.

[Note: it is believed that the informer Paccius Africanus was present in the Rufus house during the interview, though this was not mentioned by the subjects. He was observed entering just before the interviewers, and was later seen leaving.]

Rubiria Juliana is a fine-boned, fashionable woman, pale and purselipped. She spoke very quietly, though without hesitation. Her husband, previously described to us as unpleasant, paced edgily about the room. He did not sit near, reassure or comfort his wife, as might have been expected. For most of the time he remained silent, allowing Juliana to speak for herself. The interviewers felt he expected her to get herself out of any trouble.

Juliana confirmed the facts as relayed by the apothecary Rhoemetalces. Her father had known that she had bought pills before, for various female ailments. He asked her to obtain a reliable poison for his intended suicide. Juliana had argued with him, and although she obeyed his request, she wanted to save him if he did change his mind. She was certain he would.

Juliana gave details of the suicide. The family had eaten a last lunch together, all except the younger daughter Carina, who had refused to attend. Metellus then retired to his bedroom. Juliana and her mother were present in the room when Metellus senior took one of the pills. He had previously talked with his son Negrinus, alone, but Negrinus had been sent outside when the women were called in. Asked why this was, Juliana said her brother was very upset by what their father wanted to do.

Metellus lay on his bed, waiting for the end. Juliana and Calpurnia Cara stayed with him for about half an hour, at which point he sat up suddenly and, as Juliana had feared, decided he did not after all want to kill himself. Calpurnia abused him for a coward, in the manner of the most stalwart matrons of old Roman history, then rushed from the room.

Juliana quietly told her father that the gold-plated pills should pass safely through him, and was thanked by Metellus for saving his life. Unhappily, within a very short time Metellus did collapse and die. It appeared that the apothecary is wrong; the gold does dissolve, in this instance causing the death of Metellus, even though by that time he did not wish to kill himself.

Conclusion

It is the view of Falco and Associates that the death of Rubirius Metellus should not rightly be classified as suicide. He had expressed to his wife and daughter a clear wish to remain alive.

His daughter Juliana provided him with the poisonous corn cockle pills, but this was on the basis that she believed them to be safe. Although Metellus voluntarily took one of the pills, Juliana would have come emptyhanded from the apothecary, but for being told that gold-plating would render the pills harmless.

Expert opinion is needed on whether a charge can be laid against Rhoemetalces for murder, as a result of giving false professional advice.

Should such a charge fail, it is the view of Falco and Associates that Rubirius Metellus died by accident.

'Pure gold pills?'

Silius Italicus had received our careful report with all the thanks and all the applause we hoped for. As men about the Forum, we expected none. Just as well.

I let him rave.

'And what's this try-on, Falco? – your substantial donation to the vigiles' widows and orphans fund will obviously all be drunk by the Second Cohort at a better-than-usual Saturnalia knees-up this year!' Even for a man experienced in court rhetoric, the long, irate sentence left him winded.

If the orphans' fund was all he could find to carp about, we were well landed on the jetty. Of course the fund was a fiction, but he knew the form. The vigiles do have a fund; they look after their own – but that's the point: they keep outsiders out of it. They want the grateful widows to save their thanks for the right people – their late husbands' colleagues. Some are good-looking girls who, being paupers, have to give their thanks in kind, poor dears. Much better to keep it in the family.