Steven Saylor - Catilina's riddle

Meeting Catilina again immediately brought back memories of our previous encounter, so that I could see him vividly as he had been then — a man in his middle thirties with black hair and a beard (worn in a more conservative fashion back then), possessing such regular features so harmoniously balanced that one would hardly even think to call him handsome. More than handsome, he was quite remarkably attractive, with an appeal that seemed to emanate from within him in some invisible way, outwardly manifested by the playfulness that lit his eyes and the smile that came so readily to his lips.

Time, if not the tide of human affairs, had been kind to Catilina; as men say of wine and women, he had aged well. There were lines at the corners of his eyes and his mouth, but they were such wrinkles as come from smiling too much. There was a hint of weariness in his sparkling eyes and in his smile, but that only infused them with a mellowness that was all the more appealing. He was a hard man not to like at first sight. No wonder he was thought to be so dangerous.

'Gordianus,' he said, still clasping my hand. 'Years and years. Do you remember?'

‘I remember.'

'Marcus Caelius said you would. Then it's all right that I should come to visit you here?'

'Yes, of course,' I said. If Catilina noticed the beat of hesitation before I answered, he ignored it.

'Marcus Caelius assured me that it would be. I must have a

retreat where I can simply disappear from the world from time to time, and Caelius told me he knew just the place. You're very kind to have me.'

I suddenly realized that he was still holding my hand in his. There was something so natural and unassuming in his touch that I had not even noticed. I gently pulled back. Catilina released my hand, but held me with his gaze, as if he were not quite ready to let me go.

"This is Tongilius.' He gestured to his companion, an athletic-looking young man with wavy brown hair and a strong jaw, clean-shaven to show the dimple in his chin. I wondered if there was some way that Catilina's charm could be learned or acquired by contact, for Tongilius, with his green eyes and subtle smile, seemed to possess it in miniature. He nodded and said in a very deep voice, 'I am honoured to meet an old acquaintance of Catilina's.'

I nodded in return. The three of us sat unmoving on our horses for a long, awkward moment. It was up to me to make some gesture of hospitality, whether feigned or not, but I found myself confused and unwilling to speak. The moment had arrived. The favour that Marcus Caelius had demanded was at hand. I had resisted this eventuality, dreaded it, steeled myself to see it through, and now that the crisis had occurred I felt strangely deflated, almost disappointed. I sensed nothing ominous in Catilina's presence. Indeed, I felt quite at ease with him, and that worried me all the more, for I had to wonder if my wits were growing dull, not to sense danger and deceit when they were surely close at hand.

It was Catilina who finally spoke. 'And this one, riding up behind you — could it be your son?'

I looked over my shoulder and saw Meto approaching on horseback, coming from the north wall where Aratus must have just relieved him of overseeing the slaves.

'Yes, this is the younger of my two sons, Meto.' Reminded of the children and their vulnerability, I felt a pang of uneasiness that proved my wits were still with me. 'Meto, we have visitors. This is Lucius Sergius Catilina. And this is his companion, Tongilius.'

Meto drew nearer with a crooked smile on his face, a bit flustered at meeting such a notorious character. Catilina extended his hand, and Meto took it, rather too eagerly, I thought. In a hushed voice Meto said, 'Did you really sleep with a Vestal Virgin?'

My jaw dropped.'Meto!'

Catilina threw back his head and laughed, so uproariously that my horse snorted in alarm. Tongilius laughed with his mouth shut. Meto turned pink but looked more puzzled than embarrassed. I put my hand to my brow and groaned.

'Well,' said Catilina, 'now I know what anecdote I shall be telling tonight after supper!' He reached out and tousled Meto's hair, and Meto seemed to enjoy it.

If I had hoped to drive Catilina away with bad cooking, Congrio made it impossible. That night he outdid himself Bethesda spurred him on to it. She has always judged strangers strictly by their appearance, and she very much liked the looks of Catilina and Tongilius. Consequently, we dined superbly on a pork stew with fava beans accompanied by an apricot fricassee.

After dinner, as on the night before, I had the slaves pull our couches out into the atrium, but Bethesda did not join us. Since I made her my wife, she has been quite conscious of her status as a freedwoman and matron of a citizen's household, but she draws the line at the modern Roman matron's practice of joining in an after-dinner conversation with men outside her family. She withdrew, taking Diana with her. Meto remained. His presence made me uncomfortable, but I saw no easy way to dismiss him. Our guest had promised him a story, after all.

'A very fine meal,' said Catilina. 'I must thank you again for having me.'

'I admit that I was hesitant at first to invite you into my home, Catilina.' I spoke slowly and deliberately. 'You are a figure of considerable controversy, and I have reached a point in my life and fortunes when I no longer seek controversy; quite the opposite. But Marcus Caelius put forward the case for extending my hospitality… most convincingly.'

'Yes, he is a persuasive young man of talent and initiative.' There was no hint of irony in Catilina's voice, and the sparkle in his eyes looked no more menacing than the playfulness that was always there.

'He is eloquent, yes, and persistent. Also, he seems to know that a powerful gesture can speak louder than mere words.'

Catilina nodded. Again there was no indication that he perceived any double meaning in what I said.

'You're fond of riddles,' I said.

Catilina smiled. Tongilius laughed. Between them passed the look of intimates sharing a private joke. 'I confess,' said Catilina.

'It is his only vice,' said Tongilius. 'Or so he likes to tell people.' That was the joke, then — that a man with such a reputation for depravity should admit to nothing more vicious than a weakness for wordplay.

'And you, Gordianus — I take it you're more inclined to solve riddles than to make them up.' 'I used to be.'

'Well, then, an easy one.' He thought for a moment, then said, 'An edible legume of no distinguished pedigree, transplanted from rustic soil to a stony place where it thrives against all expectation and casts its tendrils far and wide.'

'Too easy,'said Meto.

'Is it?' said Catilina. 'I just made it up on the spot'

'The bean is a chickpea. The stony place is the Forum in Rome.'

'Go on.'

'So the answer to the riddle is Marcus Tullius Cicero.' 'Because?'

Meto shrugged. 'Everyone knows the family name Cicero comes from an ancestor who had a cleft in his nose, like a chickpea, a cicer bean. Cicero came from the town of Arpinum — rustic soil — and made his fortune in the Forum, which is all paved with stone. There he thrives, though nobody ever expected that a man who wasn't from a famous family could rise so far.'

'Very good!' said Catilina. 'And the tendrils?' he asked, looking not at Meto but at me.

'His influence, which reaches far and wide,' concluded Meto.

'You're right, it's too easy,' conceded Catilina. 'I shall have to make it harder the next time I tell it. What do you think, Gordianus?'

‘Yes,' I said, 'much too obvious.'

'The riddle or the riddler?' said Tongilius. For a moment I thought he meant the question seriously, and it seemed that all our masks were about to fall. But then he laughed softly and cast a grin at Catilina, and I saw he was merely jibing his mentor for the sake of punning.