Robert Fabbri: Rome's executioner

Vespasian’s eyes widened at the implication. ‘Trousers? I think that I may have met a couple of them today.’

Tryphaena looked amused. ‘Impossible, we’ve had no contact with the Getae since Rome took Moesia as a province over fifty years ago.’

Vespasian quickly related the events of the afternoon, taking care to emphasise Artebudz’s role and the promise that he had made to him. When he had finished the Queen sat in silence for a while thinking.

‘From your description of them they certainly seem to be Getic,’ she affirmed. ‘You’re convinced that they were targeting you?’

‘Without a doubt.’

‘Then it would seem that our friend Rhoteces has not forgiven you for preventing him from killing my son and has sent some assassins after you as revenge.’

‘Why’s he waited nearly four years?’

‘Once he fled to the Getae it would have taken him time to ingratiate himself with the tribal leaders; they don’t have the same customs as we do and they’d have viewed him with deep suspicion.’

‘So, assuming that he eventually persuaded the tribal leaders to send assassins, how did they know what my brother looks like?’ Sabinus asked.

‘I don’t have the answer to that; but what I do know is that Rhoteces is a fanatic and he sees people who thwart his plans as corpses that have to be stepped over; so it won’t end until one of you is dead, which will make your trip back to Rome with him very interesting indeed. But first you must capture him. You should leave tomorrow; the snow in the Haemus Mountains is receding and the Succi pass into Moesia has reopened. I will have your men outside the Roman camp at noon and I’ll send a message to your commanding officer Prefect Paetus telling him that you will not be coming back.’

‘We have every intention of coming back, domina,’ Vespasian insisted.

‘Yes I’m sure you have, but not through here. I cannot risk having that man in my kingdom again; many of my subjects see him as a hero who could save them from growing Roman encroachment into our affairs. If his presence in Thracia became known and I was seen to be helping you get him to Rome then we would have a very combustive situation which would have only one outcome: Rome would annex us after a lot of killing.’

‘So what should we do with him?’ Vespasian asked.

‘Head for Tomi on the Euxine Sea; I will have my personal quinquireme waiting for you in the port from the beginning of May; its crew are completely loyal to me. They will have orders to stay there until you arrive and will take you directly to Ostia. I think that a month at sea with the priest chained in the hold will be far preferable to two months travelling overland having to watch him day and night, don’t you, gentlemen?’

‘You are very generous, domina,’ Sabinus said, starting to feel a little easier about the mission now that the return trip would involve no more than a month of vomiting.

‘I am generous, but am I generous enough to free my most expensive hunting slave, I wonder?’ She smiled at Vespasian who reddened, realising that he had been free with someone else’s property without knowing its value.

‘I’ll pay you for your loss, domina.’

‘I doubt that you could afford Artebudz; he is worth a small fortune. Not only is he a most talented tracker but he‘s also the finest shot with a bow that I have ever seen, and it is because of that I will free him; but on the condition that he comes with you. Now, before I start to give away the rest of my kingdom tell me, Sabinus, how is Antonia’s campaign against Sejanus proceeding? She only makes oblique references to it in her letters for fear of them being intercepted.’

Sabinus grimaced and shifted uncomfortably in his seat. ‘Not well, domina. Sejanus has strengthened his position with the Emperor; he is now almost the only person with any access to him on Capreae. He has managed to convince Tiberius that it’s his family that are plotting against him and not Sejanus himself. Just before I left Antonia’s eldest grandson Nero Germanicus and his mother Agrippina were arrested and tried for treason on Sejanus’ orders; she’s been imprisoned on the island of Pandateria and he’s been sent to the island of Pontiae. Antonia is now worried that her other two grandsons and prospective heirs to the Purple, Drusus and Caligula, will soon follow their mother and older brother. Sejanus is being very careful, just picking off his targets slowly and methodically.’

The Queen nodded her head whilst digesting the news. ‘That’s logical; for Sejanus to succeed he’ll have to eliminate all of Tiberius’ potential heirs who would be too old to warrant a regent; that surely is his route to power: to be made regent of a young emperor who would then tragically die leaving the Senate little alternative but to proclaim him Emperor or risk another period of civil war.’

Vespasian felt unease at the thought of his friend Caligula being the subject of Sejanus’ machinations. ‘What about Sejanus’ letters to Poppaeus proving that they were in league? Even though they were destroyed, has she been able to use the threat that she might be in possession of them to coerce Poppaeus into changing his allegiances?’

Sabinus looked downcast. ‘I’m afraid not. Poppaeus was worried for a while and I think he would have come around, but he called her bluff and asked her to produce them, which of course she couldn’t. Then Asinius’ surviving lictors disappeared and the truth about his death must have been tortured out of them because Poppaeus wrote to her saying that he knew for certain that she didn’t have anything on him.’

Tryphaena thought for a moment and then shook her head. ‘So Asinius died for nothing then; well, we must be sure that his death doesn’t go unavenged.’ She rose to her feet to indicate that the audience was at an end. ‘Go now, my prayers will go with you.’

The brothers stood. ‘Thank you, domina,’ they said in unison.

‘And I thank you, because if you succeed you will rid me of my greatest enemy as well as helping my kinswoman safeguard our family’s position in Rome.’ She embraced them in turn. ‘Good luck, gentlemen. Get that priest to Antonia so that she can use him to bring down Sejanus.’

Vespasian’s mind was racing as he walked with Sabinus through the dim, high-ceilinged corridors of the palace; their footsteps echoed off the marble walls. The prospect of action and relief from the ennui that plagued him was indeed welcome. He also relished the chance to avenge the death of Asinius, to whom he owed his position as a military tribune, by bringing to Rome the one man who could link the silver used to finance the Thracian rebellion to Sejanus’ freedman Hasdro. Whether it would be enough to damn Sejanus in the Emperor’s eyes he did not know, but if Antonia had requested it he felt sure that it would be worth the effort and risk. But how long would it take? He had been living in anticipation of going back to Rome and Caenis next month, but now he had to go in completely the opposite direction to find and capture a man whose whereabouts were, to say the least, obscure.

‘Bugger it, I thought I’d be going home soon,’ he muttered.

‘You’re going home tomorrow little brother,’ Sabinus laughed. ‘It’s just that we’re taking the long way.’

Vespasian did not share the joke. ‘Yes, but this could take us half a year.’

‘It had better not, I need to be in Rome for the elections; Antonia’s managed to secure the Emperor’s permission for me to be included on the list of prospective quaestors. With her backing I have a very good chance of being elected, especially as now the electorate is only the senate and not the tribal assembly.’

‘Well, good for you,’ Vespasian said gruffly; he found it hard to enthuse about his brothers successes.