Jack Ludlow - The Pillars of Rome

It was a prank, one of those pieces of devilry which Lucius Falerius treasured; one his best friend Aulus Cornelius feared because of his more potent respect for the power of the gods. How could two twelve-year-olds know that what they would experience on this night would have a bearing on the rest of their lives?

Both were dressed in manly gowns, appropriated so they could visit a famous Sybil, an oracle who inhabited a cave in the Alban Hills close to Rome, a privilege forbidden to mere boys. The lifting of those garments had shown that for all his strength and prowess at games, Aulus could easily be bested where deception was required. In his father’s country villa, dealing with his own family slaves, his way would have been to rush in, grab what he wanted, and flee. Lucius, a guest, swept in with a proprietary air and emerged with the garments neatly folded over his forearm, seemingly unconcerned about the whipping both they and the slaves would receive if the boys were caught. Clothes formed only part of the disguise and in this Lucius could again best his friend. Aulus had the nose of his race, prominent and straight, full cheeks and the makings of a noble forehead, but he struggled to get his thick, black hair into anything resembling an adult style. Somehow Lucius, smaller, with features softer in every respect, managed to look older merely by the superior way in which he held himself.

It was daunting, entering that poorly lit cave; penetrating cold, the swish of bats wheeling about their heads, dripping water the only sound to disturb the silence. Under a guttering oil lamp coins were handed over to a veiled acolyte, supposedly an offering to the power of the Sybil, though Lucius, in his customary irreverent manner, whispered it was more like a bribe. Aulus could not look at his friend then, nor could he say anything; his heart was pounding so much he felt sure it must be visible, like the sweat he could feel just below his hairline. Lucius would not sweat, and he could speak without even a trace of a tremor in his voice.

They were shown into a chamber hacked out of the rock, lit by flickering torches, a place reeking of bat droppings as well as human and animal waste, that mingled with a heady smell of incense. The detritus of dead creatures littered the space between them and the Sybil, sat on a high stone pedestal, staring straight ahead with what seemed like sightless eyes. Neither youngster was willing to examine the bleached bones at their feet to see from what source they came, but the impression, very firmly imparted, told them that to trifle with the gods was to end up like these, mere skeletons lying at the feet of the oracle. In a voice much deeper than his natural tone, Lucius calmly asked for a prediction of their future.

The answer was a hiss from the Sybil, an aged crone with a face more deeply lined than the bark of an ancient olive tree. Staring straight ahead, she demanded their own names as well as those of their ancestors. Both boys, well versed in the histories of their respective families, named noble progenitors who had helped not only to found the Roman Republic, but had acted to make her the greatest power in the known world. What followed was a silence that seemed to last for a half-glass of sand, one that deepened the air of mystery.

‘You are but youths,’ the Sybil finally wheezed, running her uncut, ragged-edged fingernails through matted grey hair. ‘It is for men to plead the oracle, not boys.’

‘We have made an offering,’ Lucius replied. ‘If it is forbidden for boys to plead, why was that not rejected?’

‘You will be the Falerii.’

‘I am,’ Lucius replied, his voice almost defiant.

‘You think beyond your years. The Cornelii is pious, you are not.’

‘Should we fear you?’ Lucius demanded.

Aulus sucked in his breath and his whole frame shook. Lucius might not suppose that this priestess could strike them dead on the spot, but he did; the bones that littered the space between them made him believe that others had suffered such a fate.

‘You should fear what I may say, Falerii.’

‘If you, Sybil, can see my future, then it is already decided. What need then have I to fear it?’

A finger was used to summon a hunched, unidentifiable figure, who knelt before the Sybil holding a framed papyrus. She, with no more than that index fingernail, executed a series of strokes. The light from the torches behind her framed the thin material, so both boys saw, as silhouettes, those strokes translated into some kind of drawing, this as she hissed her prophecy.

‘One shall tame a mighty foe, the other strike to save Rome’s fame, neither will achieve their aim. Look aloft if you dare, though what you fear cannot fly, both will face it before you die.’

A sweep of the hand detached the papyrus from its flimsy frame, causing it to roll itself like a scroll, which the Sibyl took and threw at their feet. Lucius bent to pick it up, opening it to reveal a drawing of a bird in blood red, crude, but clearly an eagle with wings outstretched in flight.

‘What does this mean?’ demanded Lucius.

The laugh was high and humourless, a cackle that echoed off the walls. ‘You are clever, Falerii, you decide.’

Lucius might be impious, but what happened next dented even his studied pose. He let out a strangled cry as the papyrus began to smoke in his hand and the hole of a burn appeared in the centre, spreading rapidly, a brown-edged nemesis consuming the document, but not before that crude red drawing was burnt with equal force into their minds. Just as it singed Lucius’s hand, forcing him to throw it to the ground, all the torches in the cave went out, plunging them into darkness. Aulus began to howl incantations to Jove, the greatest of the gods, seeking protection for both himself and a friend now clutching his arm in a painful grip. The lantern-light that appeared behind them offered a salvation that both boys took with alacrity and they stumbled out of the cave of the Alban Sybil, following a light that they could never catch.

That night, in the glim of a shared bedroom, they kept the lantern burning low as they talked of the Sybil, the cave, the smells, the acolytes, but mostly of the prophecy. What did it portend? Each word they examined and repeated over and over again, searching for meaning. “One shall tame a mighty foe, the other strike to save Rome’s fame.” How could they do that and not achieve their aim?

‘What is our aim?’ asked Aulus.

‘Glory for us, our families, and the Republic.’

There was no boast in Lucius’s words, just the ambition of every well-born Roman boy. ‘The Sybil must be wrong,’ he whispered, his soft brown eyes fixing his friend, as if by doing so they would make fact of speculation.

‘Can an oracle be wrong?’ Aulus was desperately hoping that Lucius, so much wiser in the ways of the world than he, would say yes, but his companion did not oblige, he merely repeated the last part of the Sybil’s prophecy. ‘Look aloft if you dare, though what you fear cannot fly, both will face it before you die.’

‘Does that mean we will die together?’

‘It might,’ Lucius said in an uncertain tone.

‘All I ask is a noble death.’

A platitude to an adult, it was a truism to any twelve-year-old. ‘We can face no other, Aulus, we are Romans.’

As the night wore on, Lucius recovered his poise, that air of certainty which, however questionable, he carried off with a composure beyond his years. He suggested that they use a knife to exchange blood and to swear eternal friendship that would surely act as a talisman to ward off any evil spirits. Were the gods not fickle, prone to behave like humans, to take sides, to change sides even? Fate could not ever be unalterable! Lucius Falerius, in his steady seductive voice, began to question the certainty of the prophecy. As noble Romans they could consult the priests of every temple in Rome, sacrifice birds and animals and have the signs within the entrails read; what fear could they have of a bird that could not fly? The burning papyrus was mere trickery. Aulus Cornelius tried hard to match his friend’s growing disbelief, but he knew his own voice betrayed his failure to do so.