David Wishart - Bodies Politic

‘Come on, pal! Spit it out!’

‘It’s not just the threat to his men’s loyalty that’s worrying him. He feels he’s under pressure himself, personally. Sabinus is married, and his wife’s in post with him. Her name’s Cornelia, and she’s Gaetulicus’s daughter.’

‘Shit!’ I sat back. I understood what he was saying, all right: Pannonia had two legions, and with them on his side, if push came to shove, Gaetulicus would have the entire Rhine-and-Danube force under his control. Effectively, half the empire’s Eagles.

‘ Marcus, I don’t know what to do.’ Secundus reached for the jug and filled his cup. ‘I can’t take this to the emperor as things are; and I can’t not take it.’

‘How long since Sabinus’s letter arrived?’

‘Ten days.’

‘He got anything concrete to go on? Anything at all?’

He shook his head. ‘No. I told you, that’s the trouble. If he had he’d’ve reported it directly to Gaius. He’s done what he could, tightened up, put his most trusted NCOs on their guard and told them to have a quiet word with the men. Also, he’s warned Cornelia in no uncertain terms without actually accusing her that he’s loyal to Gaius and staying that way. With luck, he’s nipped any trouble in the bud.’ He paused. Again, I waited. ‘There’s one thing, though. Not from Sabinus. It happened separately, and it predated Sabinus’s letter by the best part of a month, but the paperwork came across my desk.’

‘Yeah? What is it?’

‘One of his tribunes, a guy called Titus Vinius, asked to resign his commission and come back to Rome. Family problems. His father’s in poor health, seemingly, dying, in fact, and not up to making important decisions. Vinius is the only son.’

‘You okayed it?’

‘Sure, under the circumstances. It’ll put paid to the guy’s military career for good, naturally, because you don’t just walk out of post when you feel like it, not for any reason, but that’s his decision. So of course I did. Maybe I’m being over-suspicious, and certainly I’ve no reason to link the two things at all. Even so, it stuck in my mind.’

Uh-huh. That was interesting: he wasn’t an imaginative guy, Secundus, quite the reverse, and if he’d made a connection then it was worth following up, even if it probably was a wild goose chase. ‘You have an address for him?’ I said.

‘Not offhand. But I can get it and let you know.’

‘Fine. You do that, pal.’ I reached for the wine. ‘Now let’s just forget this conversation for the time being, shall we? I’ll tell you about Alexandria, you tell me about your lady-friend in Baiae, we’ll finish this jug and then have another. Meanwhile your secretary can run the empire for you. Okay?’

Secundus grinned. ‘Suits me.’

So that’s what we did, while I tried to ignore the cold feeling in my gut and wondered how the hell I was going to get proof enough to convince the emperor.

‘Gaetulicus is planning a rebellion, lady,’ I said. ‘That’s definite.’

We were sitting in the atrium, me with a cup of the Mareotis that I’d brought back and Perilla with some of the barley-water-and-mint concoction that Mika had given her the recipe for.

She set the cup down. ‘You’re sure?’

‘He has to be. Oh, it needn’t actually happen as such, in fact it probably won’t, because if he’s in with Lepidus and Agrippina it won’t be necessary. Me, I think it’s a ploy to put pressure on the emperor. At least, that’s the surface scenario.’

‘Explain, please.’ She was staring at me.

‘The guy’s been in just this situation before, with the Wart. He made his position clear then, and he hasn’t budged: so long as he’s allowed to keep his command there’ll be no trouble; mess with that proviso and the bargain’s off.’ I took a sip of the wine. ‘Which is exactly what Gaius is threatening to do. He wants to replace Gaetulicus with Sulpicius Galba.’

‘But Gaius is the emperor! If he tells Gaetulicus that he’s being replaced then -’

‘That’s what I assumed, but like Secundus said it isn’t that simple. Between them he and his brother’ve held down the job for fifteen years and he sees it as his right. Probably most of his men do, too, because all squaddies are conservatives at heart, especially where their own interests are concerned. The vast majority’ll never have served under another commander, and they’ve had things easy ever since they signed up. The same goes for Apronius’s legions in the lower province, and Apronius is in Gaetulicus’s pocket.’

‘Does the emperor have to replace Gaetulicus, then? I mean, if things are that sensitive -’

‘ Yeah, that’s the problem. The guy’s incompetent, and so is Apronius. If Gaius really, really wants his slice of military glory by adding Britain to the empire – which he obviously does – then he has to use the Rhine legions to do it. And he’s not going to risk things going to hell in a handcart at his back while he’s on the other side of the Channel.’

‘So effectively it’s a power struggle. Gaetulicus is trying to force Gaius into keeping him on, hoping that, as Tiberius did before, he’ll back down at the last minute.’

‘Yeah. Only like I said that’s just the surface scenario.’

‘Lepidus and Agrippina.’

‘ Right. We keep coming back to Gaetulicus’s main object in this, bar none: all he wants, all he’s ever wanted, is to preserve the status quo. Gaius is a parvenu; he’s young, he’s inexperienced, he’s only been in power for a year and a half, and compared to the Wart’s twenty-three that’s nothing. If Tiberius, who was a soldier himself and spent years on the northern frontier, was willing to leave him alone then he’s not going to tamely walk out of post at Gaius’s asking. It’s a matter of pride. And if Gaius looks like forcing the issue that’s too bad for the emperor.’ I took another swallow of wine. ‘Besides, he isn’t going totally out on a limb. It’s not like he’s staging a full-scale military revolt and dragging us back seventy years to the civil wars. We said: if Gaius goes, whatever the circumstances – and you can be sure Lepidus and Agrippina’d make his death as unspectacular as possible – then Lepidus would be the only practical legitimate successor. Legitimate successor, and that’s important. There’d be no need for strongarm stuff, none at all.’

‘But isn’t Gaetulicus taking a huge risk? I’d’ve expected that even a whiff of suspicion that he’s disloyal would lead the emperor to get rid of him. Not through official channels; you know what I mean. Like Tiberius and Sejanus.’

‘He’s got no choice, lady. He’s walking a very narrow tightrope. All he can do is stall, flex his muscles like he did with the Wart but without being too obvious and hope his friends at court will persuade Gaius to think again. Which of course Lepidus and Agrippina will be busting a gut to do, because their whole plan depends on Gaetulicus still being in post when the emperor goes north next year. They’ll need all the help they can -’ I stopped.

‘ Marcus? Marcus! ’

‘Jupiter, that’s it!’ I whispered. ‘That’s the connection!’

‘What connection?’

‘Between Helicon and the imperials. It’s a trade-off. A quid pro quo.’

‘ Who is Helicon?’

Bugger, I hadn’t told her about him yet. ‘Our X. The guy in the civil service. He’s one of the emperor’s bosom buddies, and according to Crispus a five-star grey eminence.’ Now I had the connection everything fell into place. Shit, I’d got the whole thing! Not in detail, maybe, but in essence, and the detail would come. ‘There were two plots, running side by side, the one Helicon and his Alexandrian Greek civil service pals were hatching – that’s the one Etruscus knew about – and the Lepidus/Agrippina conspiracy. How each side found out about the other I don’t know, and it doesn’t matter, but they discovered that for things to pan out they needed to work together.’