Colleen McCullough - 4. Caesar's Women

The praetor Lucius Roscius Otho had been a tribune of the plebs in the service of Catulus and the boni, and had earned the dislike of nearly all Roman men by returning the fourteen rows of theater seats just behind the senatorial seats to the knights of the Eighteen. But his affection had been given to Cicero on the day when a theater full of people had whistled and booed him viciously for reserving those delectable seats at law, and Cicero had talked the angry crowd of lesser beings around. Praetor responsible for foreign litigation, Otho was in the lower Forum when he saw that savage looking fellow Titus Labienus stride up to Metellus Celer's tribunal and start talking very insistently. Curiosity piqued, Otho strolled over in time to hear the last part of Labienus's demand that Gaius Rabirius be tried for high treason according to the law during the reign of King Tullus Hostilius. When Celer produced Caesar's fat dissertation on ancient laws and started checking the validity of Labienus's contentions, Otho decided it was time he repaid a part of his debt to Cicero by informing him what was going on. As it happened Cicero had slept late, for on the night after the execution of the conspirators he had not been able to sleep at all; then yesterday's day had been stuffed full of people calling round to compliment him, a kind of excitement more conducive to sleep by far. Thus he had not emerged from his sleeping cubicle when Otho came banging on his front door, though he came quickly enough into the atrium when he heard the racket such a small house! "Otho, my dear fellow, I'm so sorry!" Cicero cried, beaming at the praetor while he ran his hands through his tousled hair to smooth it. Blame the events of the past few days last night I finally had a really good rest." His bubbling sense of well being began to fade a little when he took in Otho's perturbed expression. "Is Catilina on his way? Has there been a battle? Have our armies been defeated?" "No, no, nothing to do with Catilina," said Otho, shaking his head. "It's Titus Labienus." What about Titus Labienus?'' "He's down in the Forum at Metellus Celer's tribunal asking that he be allowed to prosecute old Gaius Rabirius perduellionis for the murders of Saturninus and Quintus Labienus." "He's what!" Otho repeated his statement. Cicero's mouth went dry; he could feel the blood drain from his face, feel his heart begin to trip and stammer while his chest emptied of air. One hand went out, grasped Otho by the arm. "I don't believe it!" "You had better, because it's happening, and Metellus Celer was looking as if he was going to approve the case. I wish I could say I understood what exactly was going on, but I didn't. Labienus kept quoting King Tullus Hostilius, something about an ancient trial process, and Metellus Celer got busy poring over a huge scroll he said was something to do with ancient laws. I don't quite know why my left thumb started to prick, but it did. That's terrible trouble coming! I thought I'd better run and tell you at once." But he ended talking to vacant space; Cicero had vanished shouting for his valet. Within no time he was back, clad in all the majesty of his purple bordered toga. "Did you see my lictors outside?" "They're there, playing dice." "Then we're off." Normally Cicero liked to amble behind his twelve white clad lictors; it enabled everybody to see him properly and admire. But this morning his escort was exhorted to move at the double, not merely once, but every time it slackened its pace. The distance to the lower Forum was not great, but to Cicero it seemed as far as Rome to Capua. He itched to abandon majesty and run, though he preserved enough sense not to do so. Well he remembered that it was he who had introduced the name Gaius Rabirius into his speech opening the debate in Concord; he also remembered that he had done so in order to illustrate any individual's immunity from the consequences of any actions performed while a Senatus Consultum Ultimum was in force. Now here was Titus Labienus Caesar's tame tribune of the plebs, not Pompey's! applying to prosecute Gaius Rabirius for the murders of Quintus Labienus and Saturninus! But not on a charge of murder. On an antique charge of perduellio, the same perduellio Caesar had described during his speech in Concord. By the time Cicero's entourage streamed hastily across the space between Castor's temple and the urban praetor's tribunal, a small crowd had gathered about the tribunal to listen avidly. Not that anything important was being discussed as Cicero arrived; Labienus and Metellus Celer were speaking of some woman or other. "What is it? What's going on?" demanded Cicero breathlessly. Celer raised his brows in surprise. The normal business of this tribunal, senior consul." "Which is?" "To adjudicate in civil disputes and decide whether criminal charges merit trial," said Celer, emphasizing the word "trial." Cicero flushed. "Don't play games with me!" he said nastily. "I want to know what's going on!" "My dear Cicero," drawled Celer, "I can assure you that you are the last person in the world I'd choose to play games with." "WHAT IS GOING ON?" "The good tribune of the plebs Titus Labienus here has brought a charge of perduellio against Gaius Rabirius for the murders of his uncle Quintus Labienus and Lucius Appuleius Saturninus thirty seven years ago. He wishes to prosecute under the procedure in force during the reign of King Tullus Hostilius, and after perusing the relevant documents, I have decided according to my own edicts published at the beginning of my term as urban praetor that Gaius Rabirius may be so tried," said Celer without drawing a breath. "At the moment we are waiting for Gaius Rabirius to appear before me. As soon as he comes I will charge him and appoint the judges for his trial, which I will set in motion immediately." "This is ridiculous! You can't!" Nothing in the relevant documents or my own edicts says I can't, Marcus Cicero." "This is aimed at me!" Celer's face registered stagy astonishment. "What, Cicero, were you on the Curia Hostilia roof pelting tiles thirty seven years ago?" "Will you stop being deliberately obtuse, Celer? You're acting as Caesar's puppet, and I had thought better of you than that you could be bought by the likes of Caesar!" "Senior consul, if we had a law on our tablets which forbade baseless allegations under pain of a large fine, you'd be paying up right now!" said Celer fiercely. "I am urban praetor of the Senate and People of Rome, and I will do my job! Which is exactly what I was trying to do until you barged in telling me how to do my job!" He turned to one of his four remaining lictors, listening to this exchange with grins on their faces because they esteemed Celer and enjoyed working for him. "Lictor, pray summon Lucius Julius Caesar and Gaius Julius Caesar to this tribunal." At which moment his two missing lictors appeared from the direction of the Cannae. Between them shuffled a little man who looked ten years older than the seventy he acknowledged, wizened and unappealing of mien, scrawny of body. Ordinarily he wore an expression of sour and furtive satisfaction, but as he approached Celer's tribunal under official escort his face betrayed nothing beyond fuddled bewilderment. Not a nice man, Gaius Rabirius, but something of a Roman institution even so. Shortly afterward the two Caesars appeared with suspicious promptness, looking so magnificent together that the growing crowd oohed its admiration. Both were tall, fair and handsome; both were dressed in the purple and scarlet striped toga of the major religious Colleges; but whereas Gaius wore the purple and scarlet striped tunic of the Pontifex Maximus, Lucius carried the lituus of an augur a curved staff crowned by a curlicue. They looked sumptuous. And while Metellus Celer formally charged the stupefied Gaius Rabirius with the murders of Quintus Labienus and Saturninus under the perduellio of King Tullus Hostilius, the two Caesars stood to one side watching impassively. "There are only four men who may act as judges in this trial," cried Celer in a ringing voice, "and I will summon them in turn! Lucius Sergius Catilina, step forward!" "Lucius Sergius Catilina is under interdiction," answered the urban praetor's chief lictor. "Quintus Fabius Maximus Sanga, step forward!" "Quintus Fabius Maximus Sanga is out of the country." "Lucius Julius Caesar, step forward!" Lucius Caesar stepped forward. "Gaius Julius Caesar, step forward!" Caesar stepped forward. "Fathers," said Celer solemnly, "you are hereby directed to try Gaius Rabirius for the murders of Lucius Appuleius Saturninus and Quintus Labienus according to the lex regia de perduellionis of King Tullus Hostilius. I further direct that the trial take place two hours from now on the Campus Martius in the grounds adjacent to the saepta. "Lictor, I hereby direct that you summon from your College three of your colleagues to act as the representatives of the three original tribes of Roman men, one for Tities, one for Ramnes, and one for Luceres. I further direct that they shall attend the court as its servants." Cicero tried again more sweetly. "Quintus Caecilius," he said very formally to Celer, "you cannot do this! A trial perduellionis this actual day? In two hours? The accused must have time to assemble his defense! He must choose his advocates and find the witnesses who will testify for him." Under the lex regia de perduellionis of King Tullus Hostilius there are no such provisions," said Celer. "I am merely the instrument of the law, Marcus Tullius, not its originator. All I am allowed to do is to follow procedure, and procedure in this case is clearly defined in the documents of the period." Without a word Cicero turned on his heel and quit the vicinity of the urban praetor's tribunal, though whereabouts he was going from there he had absolutely no idea. They were serious! They intended to try that pathetic old man under an archaic law Rome typically had never expunged from the tablets! Oh, why was it that in Rome everything archaic was reverenced, nothing archaic tampered with? From rude thatched huts to laws dating back to the earliest kings to obstructing columns within the Basilica Porcia, it was ever the same: what had always been there must always be there. Caesar was at back of it, of course. It had been he who had discovered the missing pieces which made sense not only of the trial of Horatius the oldest known trial in Rome's history but also of his appeal. And cited both in the House the day before yesterday. But what exactly did he hope to accomplish? And why was a man of the boni like Celer aiding and abetting him? Titus Labienus was understandable, so too Lucius Caesar. Metellus Celer was inexplicable. His footsteps had taken him in the direction of Castor's, so he decided to go home, shut himself up and think, think, think. Normally the organ which produced Cicero's thought had no difficulty with the process, but now Cicero wished he knew exactly where that organ was head, chest, belly? If he knew, he might be able to shock it into functioning by beating it, or fomenting it, or purging it.... At which precise moment he almost collided with Catulus, Bibulus, Gaius Piso and Metellus Scipio, hastening down from the Palatine. He hadn't even noticed their approach! What was the matter with him? While they climbed the endless steps to Catulus's house, the closest, Cicero told the other four his story, and when at last they were settled in Catulus's spacious study he did something he rarely did, drank off a whole beaker of unwatered wine. Eyes starting to focus then, he realized one person was missing. "Where's Cato?" The other four looked rather uncomfortable, then exchanged resigned glances which indicated to Cicero that he was about to be informed of something the rest would much rather have kept to themselves. "I suppose you'd have to classify him as walking wounded," said Bibulus. "Someone scratched his face to ribbons." "Cato?" "It's not what you're thinking, Cicero." "What is it, then?" "He had an altercation with Servilia over Caesar, and she went for him like a lioness." "Ye gods!" "Don't gossip about it, Cicero," said Bibulus sternly. "It will be hard enough for the poor fellow when he does appear in public without all of Rome knowing who and why." "It's that bad?" "It's worse." Catulus smacked his hand down on the desk so loudly everyone jumped. "We are not here to exchange news about Cato!" he snapped. "What we're here for is to stop Caesar." "That," said Metellus Scipio, "is becoming a refrain. Stop Caesar this, stop Caesar that but we never do stop him." "What's he after?" asked Gaius Piso. "I mean, why try an old fellow under some antique law on a trumped up charge he won't have any trouble refuting?" "It's Caesar's way of getting Rabirius before the Centuries," said Cicero. "Caesar and his cousin will damn Rabirius, and he'll appeal to the Centuries." "I don't see the point of any of it," said Metellus Scipio. "They're charging Rabirius with high treason because he was one of the men who killed Saturninus and his confederates and was indemnified from the consequences under the Senatus Consultum Ultimum of that time," said Cicero patiently. "In other words, Caesar is attempting to show the People that a man isn't safe from any action he took under a Senatus Consultum Ultimum, even after thirty seven years. It's his way to tell me that one day he'll prosecute me for the murder of Lentulus Sura and the others." That produced a silence which hung so heavily Catulus broke it by getting up from his chair and beginning to pace. "He'll never succeed." "In the Centuries, I agree. But it will produce a lot of interest, Rabirius's appeal will be crowded," said Cicero, looking miserable. "Oh, I wish Hortensius was in Rome!" "He's on his way back, as a matter of fact," said Catulus. "Someone in Misenum started a rumor that there was going to be a slave uprising in Campania, so he packed up two days ago. I'll send a messenger to find him on the road and tell him to hurry." "Then he'll be with me to defend Rabirius when he appeals." "We'll just have to stall the appeal," said Piso. Cicero's superior knowledge of the ancient documents provoked him into throwing Piso a contemptuous glare. "We can't postpone anything!" he growled. "It has to be held immediately after the trial before the two Caesars is finished." "Well, it all sounds like a tempest in a bottle to me," said Metellus Scipio, whose ancestry was far greater than his intellect. "It's far from that," said Bibulus soberly. "I know you generally don't see anything even when it's rammed under your snooty nose, Scipio, but surely you've noticed the mood of the People since we executed the conspirators? They don't like it! We're senators, we're on the inside, we understand all the nuances of situations like Catilina. But even a lot of the knights of the Eighteen are grumbling that the Senate has usurped powers that the courts and the Assemblies no longer have. This trumped up trial of Caesar's gives the People the opportunity to congregate in a public place and voice their displeasure very loudly." "By damning Rabirius at appeal?" asked Lutatius Catulus, a little blankly. "Bibulus, they'd never do that! The two Caesars can and no doubt will pronounce a death sentence on Rabirius, but the Centuries absolutely refuse to damn, always have. Yes, they'll grumble, perhaps, but the thing will die a natural death. Caesar won't succeed in the Centuries." "1 agree he shouldn't," said Cicero unhappily, "yet why am I haunted by a feeling that he will? He's got another trick in the sinus of his toga, and I can't work out what it is." "Die a natural death or not, Quintus Catulus, are you inferring that we just have to sit tamely on the side of the battlefield and watch Caesar stir up trouble?" asked Metellus Scipio. Cicero answered. "Of course not!" he said testily; Metellus Scipio really was thick! "I agree with Bibulus that the People aren't happy at the moment. Therefore we can't allow Rabirius's appeal to proceed immediately. The only way to prevent that is to nullify the lex regia de perduellionis of King Tullus Hostilius. So this morning I'll call the Senate together and ask for a decree directing the Popular Assembly to nullify. It won't take long to procure the decree, I'll make sure of that. Then I'll convoke the Popular Assembly at once." He closed his eyes, shivered. "I am afraid, however, that I'll have to use the Senatus Consultum Ultimum in order to bypass the Didian Law. We just can't wait seventeen days for ratification. Nor can we allow contiones." Bibulus frowned. "I don't pretend to have your knowledge of the law, Cicero, but surely the Senatus Consultum Ultimum doesn't extend to the Popular Assembly unless the Popular Assembly is meeting to do something about Catilina. I mean, we know the trial of Rabirius is all to do with Catilina, but the only Popular Assembly voters who share our knowledge are senators, and there won't be enough of them in the Comitia to carry the vote." "The Senatus Consultum Ultimum functions in the same way as a dictator," said Cicero firmly. "It replaces all normal comitial and public activities." "The tribunes of the plebs will veto you," said Bibulus. Cicero looked smug. "Under a Senatus Consultum Ultimum, they can't veto."