Colleen McCullough - 6. The October Horse - A Novel of Caesar and Cleopatra

* * *

Had the late Gaius Marius laid eyes on the governor's palace in Utica in this present year, he would have found it very little changed from the place he had occupied six decades ago. Its walls were plastered and painted dull red inside; apart from a largish audience chamber it was a warren of smallish rooms, though there were two nice suites in an annex for visiting grain plutocrats or front bench senators off on a sight-seeing trip to the East. Now it seethed with so many Republican Great Names that it threatened to burst at the seams, and its stuffy interior thrummed with the sounds of all these Republican Great Names at outs and at odds with each other. A young and bashful tribune of the soldiers led Cato to the governor's office, where Publius Attius Varus sat at his walnut desk surrounded by paper-shuffling underlings. "I hear you've survived a remarkable journey, Cato," Varus said, not getting up to shake hands because he detested Cato. A nod, and the minions rose to file out of the room. "I could ill afford not to survive!" Cato shouted, back in shouting mode at mere sight of this churl "We need soldiers." "Yes, true." A martial man of good but not quite good enough family, Varus counted himself a client of Pompey the Great's, but more than duty to his patron had pushed him on to the Republican side; he was a passionate Caesar-hater, and proud of it. Now he coughed, looked disdainful. "I'm very much afraid, Cato, that I can offer you no accommodation. Anyone who hasn't been at least a tribune of the plebs is dossing down in a corridor ex-praetors like you rate a cupboard." "I don't expect you to house me, Publius Varus. One of my men is searching for a small house at this very moment." Recollections of Cato's standard of accommodation caused Varus to shudder; in Thessalonica, a three-roomed mud-brick hovel with three servants one for himself, one for Statyllus, and one for Athenodorus Cordylion. "Good. Wine?" he asked. "Not for me!" Cato barked. "I have taken a vow not to drink a drop until Caesar is dead." "A noble sacrifice," said Varus. The awkward visitor sat mum, his hair and beard a mess because he had not paused to bathe before reporting in. Oh, what did one say to such a man? "I hear that all you've eaten for the past four months is meat, Cato." "We managed to eat bread a part of the time." "Indeed?" "I have just said so." "I also hear that there were scorpions and gigantic spiders." "Yes." "Did many die from their bites?" "No." "Are all of your men fully recovered from their wounds?" "Yes." "And ah did you get caught in any sandstorms?" "No." "It must have been a nightmare when you ran out of water." "I did not run out of water." "Were you attacked by savages?" "No." "Did you manage to transport the men's armaments?" "Yes." "You must have missed the cut and thrust of politics." "There are no politics in civil wars." . "You missed noble company, then." "No." Attius Varus gave up. "Well, Cato, it's good to see you, and I trust you'll find suitable housing. Now that you're here and our troop tally is complete, I shall call a council for the second hour of daylight tomorrow. We have yet," he continued as he escorted Cato out, "to decide who is going to be commander-in-chief." What Cato might have replied was not voiced, for Varus spotted Sextus Pompey leaning against the outer doorway deep in talk with the sentries, and squawked. "Sextus Pompeius! Cato didn't say you were here too!" "That doesn't surprise me, Varus. Nevertheless, I am here." "You walked from Cyrenaica?" "Under the aegis of Marcus Cato, a pleasant stroll." "Come in, come in! May I offer you some wine?" "You certainly may," said Sextus with a wink for Cato as he disappeared arm in arm with Varus. Lucius Gratidius was lurking in the small square just outside the palace gates, chewing a straw and ogling the women busy doing their washing in the fountain. As he still wore nothing save a bedraggled tunic, no one on guard duty had realized that this skinny hulk was the pilus prior centurion of Pompey the Great's First Legion. "Found you quite a comfortable place," he said, straightening as Cato walked out to stand blinking in the sun. "Nine rooms and a bath. With a scrubwoman, a cook and two manservants thrown in, the price is five hundred sesterces a month." To a Roman of Rome, a pittance, even were he as frugal as Cato. "An excellent bargain, Gratidius. Has Statyllus turned up yet?" "No, but he will," Gratidius said cheerfully, directing Cato down a mean street. "He just wanted to make sure that Athenodorus Cordylion is going to rest easy. Lonely for a philosopher, I daresay, to have his ashes buried so far from any other philosopher's. You were right not to let Statyllus carry them to Utica. Not enough wood for a decent pyre, too many bone bits, too much marrow left." "I hadn't quite looked at it that way," said Cato. The apartment was the ground floor of a seven-story building right on the harbor front, its windows looking out over a forest of masts, tangles of silver-grey jetties and wharves, and that ethereally blue sea. Five hundred sesterces a month were indeed a bargain, Cato decided when he discovered that the two male slaves were obedient fellows pleased to fill him a warm bath. And, when Statyllus turned up in time for the late afternoon meal, he couldn't help but give a little smile. Statyllus's escort was none other than Sextus Pompey, who declined to share their bread, oil, cheese and salad, but ensconced himself in a chair and proceeded to give Cato the gleanings of his few hours with Varus. "I thought you'd like to know that Marcus Favonius is safe," he started out. "He encountered Caesar at Amphipolis and asked for pardon. Caesar gave it to him gladly, it seems. Pharsalus must have done something to his mind, Cato, because he wept and told Caesar that all he wanted was to return to his estates in Italy and live a quiet, peaceful life." Oh, Favonius, Favonius! Well, I could see this coming. While I lingered with the wounded in Dyrrachium, you had to endure those interminable quarrels between Pompeius's couch generals, ably assisted by that barbarian Labienus. Your letters told me all, but it doesn't surprise me that I've had no letter from you since Pharsalus. How you would dread informing me that you've abandoned the Republican cause. May you enjoy that quiet peace, dearest Marcus Favonius. I do not blame you. No, I cannot blame you. "And," Sextus was rattling on, "my informant who shall be nameless told me that things are even worse in Utica than they were in Dyrrachium and Thessalonica. Even idiots like Lucius Caesar Junior and Marcus Octavius, who've never even been tribunes of the plebs, are saying that they deserve legatal status in our army. As for the really Big Names ugh! Labienus, Metellus Scipio, Afranius and Governor Varus all think they should occupy the command tent." "I had hoped that would be decided before I got here, Cato said, voice harsh, face expressionless. "No, it's to be decided tomorrow." "And what of your brother, Gnaeus?" "Off applying a rod to tata-in-law Libo's arse somewhere on the south shore of Sicily. I predict," Sextus added with a grin, "that we won't see him until the command argument is settled." "Sensible man" was Cato's comment. "And you, Sextus?" "Oh, I'll stick to my stepmother's tata like a burr to a fleece. Metellus Scipio may not be bright or talented, but I do think my father would say I should serve with him." "Yes, he would." The fine grey eyes lifted to look at Sextus sternly. "What of Caesar?" he asked. A frown appeared. "That's the great mystery, Cato. As far as anyone knows, he's still in Egypt, though apparently not in Alexandria. There are all kinds of rumors, but the truth is that no one has heard a peep from Caesar since a letter written from Alexandria in November reached Rome a month later." "I don't believe it," Cato said, mouth tight. "The man is a prolific correspondent, and now, above all other times in his life, he needs to be at the center of things. Caesar, silent? Caesar, not in touch? He must be dead. Oh, what a twist of fortune! To have Caesar die of some plague or peasant's spear in a backwater like Egypt! I feel cheated." "Definitely not dead, is what rumor says. In fact, rumor says that he's cruising down the river Nilus on a golden barge feet deep in flowers, with the Queen of Egypt by his side, enough harps to drown ten elephants trumpeting, dancing girls in skimpy veils, and baths full of ass's milk." "Are you poking fun at me, Sextus Pompeius?" "I, poke fun at you, Marcus Cato? Never!" "Then it's a trick. But it makes sense of the inertia here in Utica. That autocratic piece of excrement, Varus, was not about to tell me anything, so I thank you for all this news. No, Caesar's silence has to be a trick." His lip curled. "What of the eminent consular and advocate, Marcus Tullius Cicero?" "Stuck in Brundisium on the horns of his latest dilemma. He was welcomed back to Italy by Vatinius, but then Marcus Antonius returned with the bulk of Caesar's army, and ordered Cicero to leave. Cicero produced Dolabella's letter, and Antonius apologized. But you know the poor old mouse too timid to venture any farther into Italy than Brundisium. His wife refuses to have a thing to do with him." Sextus giggled. "She's ugly enough to do duty as a fountain spout." A glare from Cato sobered him. "And Rome?" Cato asked. Sextus whistled. "Cato, it's a circus! The government is limping along on ten tribunes of the plebs because no one has managed to hold elections for the aediles, praetors or consuls. Dolabella got himself adopted into the Plebs and is now a tribune of the plebs. His debts are enormous, so he's trying to push a general cancellation of debts through the Plebeian Assembly. Every time he tries, that prime pair of Caesareans Pollio and Trebellius veto him, so he's copied Publius Clodius and organized street gangs to terrorize high and low alike," Sextus said, face animated. "As Caesar the Dictator is absent in Egypt, the head of state is his Master of the Horse, Antonius. Who is behaving shockingly wine, women, avarice, malice and corruption." "Pah!" Cato spat, eyes blazing. "Marcus Antonius is a rabid boar, a vulture oh, this is wonderful news!" he cried, grinning savagely. "Caesar has finally overreached himself, to put a drunken brute like Antonius in control. Master of the Horse! Arse of the horse, more like!" "You're underestimating Marcus Antonius," Sextus said, very seriously. "Cato, he's up to something. Caesar's veterans are camped around Capua, but they're restless and muttering about marching on Rome to get their 'rights' whatever 'rights' might be. My stepmother who sends you love, by the way says it's Antonius working on the legions for his own ends." "His own ends? Not Caesar's ends?" "Cornelia Metella says Antonius has developed high ambitions, means to step into Caesar's shoes." "How is she?" "Well." Sextus's face puckered, was disciplined. "She built a beautiful marble tomb in the grounds of her Alban Hills villa after Caesar sent her my father's ashes. It seems he met our freedman Philip, who cremated the body on the beach at Pelusium. Caesar himself had the head cremated. The ashes came with a soft and graceful letter Cornelia Metella's words promising that she will be allowed to keep all her property and money. So she has it to show Antonius if and when he calls to tell her that everything is confiscate." "I am at once astonished and deeply perturbed, Sextus," Cato said. "What is Caesar about? I need to know!"