Colleen McCullough - 4. Caesar's Women

An ecstatic Servilia was an exhausting experience. She licked and kissed and sucked in a frenzy, opened herself and tried to open him, drained him dry then demanded more. It was, thought Caesar as he lay flat on his back, mind cooling into sleep, the best and only way to eliminate the kind of driving tension days like today provoked. But though temporarily sated, Servilia had no intention of letting Caesar sleep. Annoying that he had no pubic hair to tweak; she pinched the loose skin of his scrotum instead. "That woke you up!" "You're a barbarian, Servilia." "I want to talk." "I want to sleep." "Later, later!" Sighing, he rolled onto his side and threw his leg over her to keep his spine straight. "Talk away." "I think you've beaten them," she said, paused, then added, "for the time being, anyway." "For the time being is correct. They'll never let up." "They would if you'd grant them room for their dignitas too." "Why should I? They don't know the meaning of the word. If they want to preserve their own dignitas, they should leave mine alone." He made a noise both scornful and exasperated. "It's one thing after another, and the older I get, the faster I have to run. My temper is fraying too easily." "So I gather. Can you mend it?" "I'm not sure I want to. My mother used to say that that and my lack of patience were my two worst faults. She was a merciless critic, and a strict disciplinarian. By the time I went to the East I thought I'd beaten both faults. But I hadn't met Bibulus or Cato then, though I did encounter Bibulus very quickly after. On his own I could deal with him. Allied to Cato, he's a thousand times more intolerable." "Cato needs killing." "Leaving me with no formidable enemies? My dear Servilia, I am not wishing either Cato or Bibulus dead! The more opposition a man has, the better his mind works. I like opposition. No, what worries me is inside myself. That temper." "I think," said Servilia, stroking his leg, "that you have a very peculiar sort of temper, Caesar. Most men are blinded by rage, whereas you seem to think more lucidly. It's one of the reasons why I love you. I am the same." "Rubbish!" he said, laughing. "You're coldblooded, Servilia, but your emotions are strong. You think you're planning lucidly when your temper is provoked, but those emotions get in the way. One day you'll plot and plan and scheme to achieve some end or other, only to find that having attained it, the consequences are disastrous. The knack is in going exactly as far as is necessary, and not one fraction of an inch further. Make the whole world tremble in fear of you, then show it mercy as well as justice. A hard act for one's enemies to follow." "I wish you had been Brutus's father." "Had I been, he would not be Brutus." "That's what I mean." "Leave him alone, Servilia. Let go of him a little more. When you appear he palpitates like a rabbit, yet he's not all weakling, you know. Oh, there's no lion in him, but I think he has some wolf and some fox. Why see him as a rabbit because in your company he is a rabbit?'' "Julia is fourteen now," she said, going off at a tangent. "True. I must send Brutus a note to thank him for his gift to her. She loved it, you know." Servilia sat up, astonished. "A Plato manuscript?" "What, you thought it an unsuitable present?" He grinned and pinched her as hard as she had pinched him. I gave her pearls, and she liked them very well. But not as much as Brutus's Plato." "Jealous?" That made him laugh outright. "Jealousy," he said, sobering, "is a curse. It eats, it corrodes. No, Servilia, I am many, many things, but I am not jealous. I was delighted for her, and very grateful to him. Next year I'll give her a philosopher." His eyes quizzed her wickedly. "Much cheaper than pearls too." "Brutus both fosters and harbors his fortune." "An excellent thing in Rome's wealthiest young man," agreed Caesar gravely.

Marcus Crassus returned to Rome after a long absence overseeing his various business enterprises just after that memorable day in the Forum, and eyed Caesar with new respect. "Though I can't say that I'm sorry I found good excuse to absent myself after Tarquinius accused me in the House," he said. "I agree it's been an interesting interlude, but my tactics are very different from yours, Caesar. You go for the throat. I prefer to amble off and plough my furrows like the ox I'm always said to resemble." "Hay tied well in place." "Naturally." "Well, as a technique it certainly works. It's a fool tries to bring you down, Marcus." "And a fool tries to bring you down, Gaius." Crassus coughed. "How far in debt are you?" Caesar frowned. "If anyone other than my mother knows, you do. But if you insist upon hearing the figure aloud, about two thousand talents. That's fifty million sesterces." "I know that you know that I know how many sesterces there are in two thousand talents," said Crassus with a grin. "What are you getting at, Marcus?" "You're going to need a really lucrative province next year, is what I'm getting at. They won't let you fix the lots, you're too controversial. Not to mention that Cato will be hovering like a vulture above your carcass." Crassus wrinkled his brow. "Quite frankly, Gaius, I can't see how you'll do it even if the lots are favorable. Everywhere is pacified! Magnus has cowed the East, Africa hasn't been a danger since oh, Jugurtha. Both the Spains are still suffering from Sertorius. The Gauls have nothing much to offer either." "And Sicily, Sardinia and Corsica aren't worth mentioning," said Caesar, eyes dancing. "Absolutely." "Have you heard I'm going to be dunned at law?" "No. What I do hear is that Catulus he's much better, so they say, he'll be back making a nuisance of himself in Senate and Comitia shortly is organizing a campaign to prorogue all the current governors next year, leaving this year's praetors with no provinces at all." "Oh, I see!" Caesar looked thoughtful. "Yes, I should have taken a move like that into consideration." "It might go through." It might, though I doubt it. There are a few of my fellow praetors who wouldn't take at all kindly to being deprived of a province, particularly Philippus, who might be a bit of an indolent Epicurean, but knows his worth too. Not to mention me." "Be warned, is all." "I am, and I thank you." "Which doesn't take away from your difficulties, Caesar. I don't see how you can begin to pay your debts from a province." "I do. My luck will provide, Marcus," said Caesar tranquilly. "I want Further Spain because I was quaestor there, and I know it well. The Lusitani and the Callaici are all I need! Decimus Brutus Callaicus how easily they award those empty titles! barely touched the fringes of northwestern Iberia. And northwestern Iberia, in case you've forgotten you shouldn't, you were in Spain is where all the gold comes from. Salamantica has been stripped, but places like Brigantium haven't even seen a Roman yet. But they'll see this Roman, so much I promise!" "So you'll stake your chances on your luck in the lots." Crassus shook his head. "What a strange fellow you are, Caesar! I don't believe in luck. In all my life I've never offered a gift to Goddess Fortuna. A man makes his own luck." "I agree unconditionally. But I also believe that Goddess Fortuna has her favorites among Roman men. She loved Sulla. And she loves me. Some men, Marcus, have Goddess given luck as well as what they make for themselves. But none have Caesar's luck." "Does your luck include Servilia?" "Come as a surprise, did it?" "You hinted at it once. That's playing with a firebrand." "Ah, Crassus, she's marvelous in bed!" "Huh!" grunted Crassus. He propped his feet up on a nearby chair and scowled at Caesar. I suppose one can expect nothing else from a man who publicly talks to his battering ram. Still and all, you'll have more latitude to exercise your battering ram in the months to come. I predict people like Bibulus, Cato, Gaius Piso and Catulus will be licking their wounds for a long time." "That," said Caesar, eyes twinkling, "is what Servilia says."