Robert Fabbri: False God of Rome

‘I do hope you’re right, Magnus; somehow I don’t think that I’m nimble enough to wield the assassin’s blade.’

‘Chaerea is,’ Vespasian observed, ‘and with a few more insults like that from Caligula he’ll be ready to. The question is: where will Clemens stand?’ He looked over at the pasty face of the Praetorian prefect and was shocked by the look of devastation on it; next to him Corvinus stood smiling smugly as Caligula approached the group.

‘Agrippina and Julia Livilla,’ Caligula enthused, greeting his sisters with a kiss apiece, ‘I hope that you have learnt your lessons.’

The two women looked none the worse for their recent ordeal.

‘Yes, dear brother,’ Agrippina replied; her sister just nodded. ‘We are all yours again.’

‘Good, my sweet,’ Caligula said, patting the shock of ginger hair sprouting from the head of the baby she held. ‘How is young Lucius Domitius?’

‘He’s strong and wilful.’

‘He’ll need to be strong if I’m forced to banish you to that barren rock where our mother lived out her last days.’ He gently lifted her chin and kissed her mouth. ‘Please don’t make me do that.’ Without waiting for a reply he turned to the woman next to her. ‘Messalina, your brother, Corvinus, has done me a great service. I look forward to welcoming you into my family next month — even if it is to marry this buffoon.’ He looked contemptuously at Claudius, who bowed his head, mumbling his thanks at being noticed.

Messalina smiled, her dark eyes flicked quickly over to Vespasian and held his for an instant while her brother, Corvinus, looked triumphantly at him. Clemens appeared to be struggling to control himself. All around the room the couches were filling up.

Caligula moved on to the fourth and final woman; she was older than the other three and not at all attractive, having the same long face and nose of her half-brother Corbulo.

‘Caesonia Milonia,’ Caligula said, putting his hand on her stomach, ‘how goes your pregnancy?’

‘I carry the child of a god, Divine Gaius, and it thrives.’

‘Of course; but nevertheless I will rest you for now and take my pleasure elsewhere; but first we shall eat.’

Caligula chewed on a swan leg and waved a dismissive hand at the hundreds of senators reclining at the many tables around the room. ‘Look at them all,’ he confided disdainfully to Vespasian and Sabinus on the couch next to him. ‘They all hate me now after what I’ve been doing to them in the last couple of years; but what would they give to be here where you are, next to your Emperor?’

‘You honour us with your favour,’ Vespasian acknowledged, looking at the food on the table in front of him with little appetite.

‘I do; and each one of those sheep is spitting jealous that they aren’t receiving the same treatment. No matter what I do to them they still feign love for me.’

‘It’s not a feigned love, they don’t hate you.’

Caligula looked at Vespasian in amusement. ‘Don’t lie to me, my friend. What do you think I’ve been doing since I became emperor? Ruling justly?’

Vespasian studied Caligula’s face for a moment and was surprised to see his eyes clear and lucid. ‘You have done some great things and next year you will do greater deeds,’ he replied cautiously, trying to put the massacre that day out of his mind.

‘I have; but the greatest thing that I’ve achieved is to hold a mirror up to the Senate so that they can see themselves for what they really are: sycophants and flatterers who know no other way to live. All those years of treason trials when they denounced one another in the hope of gaining favour with Augustus, Tiberius or Sejanus and in the knowledge that if they brought a successful prosecution they would gain the estate of their victim has left them morally bankrupt. It also cost me most of my family and I’m honour bound to avenge them.’

Vespasian and Sabinus looked at each other, both startled that Caligula was confiding in them in a way that had a hint of truth in it.

‘These humiliations have been all about revenge?’ Sabinus asked.

Caligula smiled coldly. ‘Naturally. You see, Vespasian, your brother is not dissembling now; you should try it. Do you think I’m mad?’

The answer stuck in Vespasian’s throat; either way he would condemn himself.

‘Answer! And answer truthfully. Do you think that I’m mad?’

‘Yes, I do, Divine Gaius.’

Caligula burst out laughing but the humour did not reach his eyes. ‘My friend, well done, you are the first person who has told me the truth even though you fear for your life. Of course you think I’m mad, who wouldn’t? And perhaps I am or perhaps I just have no desire for self-control. However, by each seemingly mad act I humiliate the Senate even more; I want to see how low they will stoop and yet still try to flatter me in the hope of favour. As I lay sick, each day they came to my door having offered prayers and sacrifices for my recovery and I knew that they only wanted news of my death. So I decided to make them crawl, make them do what no Roman has ever done: worship a living god. And look at them, they do. But I’m no god; they know that I’m not, and, furthermore, they also know that I know that they know it, and yet we all now maintain the pretence. Even you pretend to my face that I’m a god, don’t you?’

Vespasian swallowed. ‘Yes, Divine Gaius.’

‘Of course you do, you have to preserve yourself. I’m the most powerful man in the world and what is power if you don’t flaunt it? People worship those who hold it out of a desire to be shown favour. It’s deliciously amusing. Do you remember that idiot who offered his life in exchange for mine? He expected reward for such sycophancy but I took him at his word. But then I rewarded with a million sesterces the liar who swore that he saw Drusilla’s spirit rise into the heavens to commune with the gods, so now they don’t know what to do. Sheep! I’ll push them and push them because I can and it pleases and amuses me to do so.’

Vespasian frowned. ‘But one day you’ll push someone too far.’

‘Will I? I don’t think so. If someone did manage to kill me, which would be very difficult, they would themselves die. Who here would do that and lose all his property, thereby making his family destitute? Would you?’

Neither Vespasian nor Sabinus answered.

Caligula sneered and got up. ‘You see, you wouldn’t, would you? You’re both as bad as the rest of them; and I’ll prove it to you.’ He walked over to Corvinus who stood by one of the doors; Clemens was next to him still looking devastated. Music continued to rise from the players nearby. ‘Corvinus, if you please?’

‘A pleasure, Divine Gaius,’ Corvinus said, opening the door and disappearing through it; there was a brief cry before he emerged leading a naked woman roughly by the arm.

‘Clementina!’ Sabinus shouted, leaping up from his couch.

Vespasian slammed a restraining arm across his brother’s chest as he tried to go forward. ‘No!’ he hissed. ‘Caligula’s right, you’ll die and your property would be forfeit; Clementina and the children would be destitute.’

‘Doesn’t that look delicious,’ Caligula said slowly and with palpable relish. ‘Corvinus took it upon himself to fetch her from wherever you’d hidden her, Sabinus, without me even asking him to. Wasn’t that kind of him, Clemens?’

Clemens closed his eyes and breathed deeply, shaking with suppressed fury. Behind the ugly scene the pipes and lyres blended their notes in delicate harmony.

Vespasian held onto Sabinus who still struggled and was now heaving with sobs.

Caligula grabbed Clementina’s wrist. ‘Your husband was only now wondering how he could thank me; how fortunate he is to have found a way so quickly.’ He gave the brothers a malicious, questioning look. ‘Sheep?’