Colleen McCullough - 4. Caesar's Women

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Very correctly, Caesar did not return to the Domus Publica before dawn. He went instead first to the Regia, where he prayed and sacrificed upon the altar and lit a fire in the sacred hearth. After that he set himself up in the official domain of the Pontifex Maximus just behind the Regia, lit all the lamps, sent for the Regia priestlings, and made sure there were enough chairs for the pontifices at present in Rome. Then he summoned Aurelia, knowing she would be waiting for that summons. She looked old! His mother, old? "Oh, Mater, I am so sorry," he said, helping her into the most comfortable chair. "Don't be sorry for me, Caesar. Be sorry for Rome. It is a terrible curse." "Rome will mend, all her religious colleges will see to that. More importantly, you must mend. I know how much holding the Bona Dea meant to you. What a wretched, idiotic, bizarre business!" "One might expect some rude fellow from the Subura to climb a wall out of drunken curiosity during the Bona Dea, but I cannot understand Publius Clodius! Oh yes, I know he was brought up by that doting fool Appius Claudius and I am aware Clodius is a mischief maker. But to disguise himself as a woman to violate Bona Dea? Consciously to commit sacrilege? He must be mad!" Caesar shrugged. "Perhaps he is, Mater. It's an old family, and much intermarried. The Claudii Pulchri do have their quirks! They've always been irreverent look at the Claudius Pulcher who drowned the sacred chickens and then lost the battle of Drepana during our first war against Carthage not to mention putting your daughter the Vestal in your illegal triumphal chariot! An odd lot, brilliant but unstable. As is Clodius, I think." "To violate Bona Dea is far worse than violating a Vestal." "Well, according to Fabia he tried to do that too. Then when he didn't succeed he accused Catilina." Caesar sighed, shrugged. "Unfortunately Clodius's lunacy is of the sane kind. We can't brand him a maniac and shut him up." "He will be tried at law?" "Since you unmasked him in front of the wives and daughters of consulars, Mater, he will have to be tried." "And Pompeia?" Cardixa said you believed her innocent of complicity." "I do. So do Servilia and her mother." "Therefore it boils down to Pompeia's word against a slave girl's unless, of course, Clodius too implicates her." "He won't do that," said Aurelia grimly. "Why?" "He would then have no choice but to admit that he committed sacrilege. Clodius will deny everything." "Too many of you saw him." "Caked in face paint. I rubbed at it, and revealed Clodius. But I think a parcel of Rome's best advocates could make most of the witnesses doubt their eyes." "What you are actually saying, I think, is that it would be better for Rome if Clodius were acquitted." "Oh, yes. The Bona Dea belongs to women. She won't thank Rome's men for exacting punishment in her name." "He can't be allowed to escape, Mater. Sacrilege is public." "He will never escape, Caesar. Bona Dea will find him and take him in her own good time." Aurelia got up. "The pontifices will be arriving soon, I'll go. When you need me, send for me." Catulus and Vatia Isauricus came in not long after, and Mamercus so quickly behind them that Caesar said nothing until all three were seated. "I never cease to be amazed, Pontifex Maximus, at how much information you can fit into one sheet of paper," said Catulus, "and always so logically expressed, so easy to assimilate." "But not," said Caesar, "a pleasure to read." "No, not that, this time." Others were stepping through the door: Silanus, Acilius Glabrio, Varro Lucullus, next year's consul Marcus Valerius Messala Niger, Metellus Scipio, and Lucius Claudius the Rex Sacrorum. "There are no others at present in Rome. Do you agree we may start, Quintus Lutatius?'' Caesar asked. "We may start, Pontifex Maximus." You already have an outline of the crisis in my note, but I will have my mother tell you exactly what happened. I am aware it ought to be Fabia, but at the moment she and the other adult Vestals are searching the Books for the proper rituals of expiation." "Aurelia will be satisfactory, Pontifex Maximus." So Aurelia came and told her story, crisply, succinctly, with eminent good sense and great composure. Such a relief! Caesar, men like Catulus were suddenly realizing, took after his mother. You will be prepared to testify in court that the man was Publius Clodius?" asked Catulus. "Yes, but under protest. Let Bona Dea have him." They thanked her uneasily; Caesar dismissed her. "Rex Sacrorum, I ask for your verdict first," said Caesar then. "Publius Clodius nefas esse." "Quintus Lutatius?" Nefas esse.'' And so it went, every man declaring that Publius Clodius was guilty of sacrilege. Today there were no undercurrents arising out of personal feuds or grudges. All the priests were absolutely united, and grateful for a firm hand like Caesar's. Politics demanded enmity, but a religious crisis did not. It affected everyone equally, needed union. "I will direct the Fifteen Custodians to look at the Prophetic Books immediately," said Caesar, "and consult the College of Augurs for their opinion. The Senate will meet and ask us for an opinion, and we must be ready." "Clodius will have to be tried," said Messala Niger, whose flesh crawled at the very thought of what Clodius had done. "That will require a decree of recommendation from the Senate and a special bill in the Popular Assembly. The women are against it, but you're right, Niger. He must be tried. However, the rest of this month will be expiatory, not retaliatory, which means the consuls of next year will inherit the business." "And what of Pompeia?" asked Catulus when no one else would. "If Clodius does not implicate her and my mother seems to think he will not then her part in the sacrilege rests upon the testimony of a slave witness herself involved," Caesar answered, voice clinical. "That means she cannot be publicly condemned." "Do you feel she was implicated, Pontifex Maximus?" "No, I do not. Nor does my mother, who was there. The slave girl is anxious to save her skin, which is understandable. Bona Dea will demand her death which she has not yet realized but that is not in our hands. It's women's business." "What of Clodius's wife and sisters?" asked Vatia Isauricus. "My mother says they're innocent." "Your mother is right," said Catulus. "No Roman woman would profane the mysteries of Bona Dea, even Fulvia or Clodia." "However, I still have something to do about Pompeia," said Caesar, beckoning to a priestling scribe holding tablets. "Take this down: 'To Pompeia Sulla, wife of Gaius Julius Caesar, Pontifex Maximus of Rome: I hereby divorce you and send you home to your brother. I make no claim on your dowry.' " Nobody said a word, nor found the courage to speak even after the terse document was presented to Caesar for his seal. Then as the bearer of the waxen note left to deliver it at the Domus Publica, Mamercus spoke. My wife is her mother, but she will not have Pompeia." "Nor should she be asked to," said Caesar coolly. That is why I have directed that she be sent to her elder brother, who is her paterfamilias. He's governing Africa Province, but his wife is here. Whether they want her or not, they must take her." It was Silanus who finally asked the question everyone burned to. "Caesar, you say you believe Pompeia innocent of any complicity. Then why are you divorcing her?" The fair brows rose; Caesar looked genuinely surprised. "Because Caesar's wife, like all Caesar's family, must be above suspicion," he said. And some days later when the question was repeated in the House, he gave exactly the same answer.

Fulvia slapped Publius Clodius from one side of his face to the other until his lip split and his nose bled. "Fool!" she growled with every blow. "Fool! Fool! Fool!" He didn't attempt to fight back, nor to appeal to his sisters, who stood watching in anguished satisfaction. "Why?" asked Clodia when Fulvia was done. It was some time before he could answer, when the bleeding was staunched and the tears ceased to flow. Then he said, "I wanted to make Aurelia and Fabia suffer." "Clodius, you've blighted Rome! We are accursed!" cried Fulvia. "Oh, what's the matter with you?" he yelled. "A parcel of women getting rid of their resentment of men, what's the sense in that? I saw the whips! I know about the snakes! It's a lot of absolute nonsense!" But that only made matters worse; all three women flew at him, Clodius was slapped and punched again. "Bona Dea," said Clodilla between her teeth, "is not a pretty Greek statue! Bona Dea is as old as Rome, she is ours, she is the Good Goddess. Every woman who was there to be a part of your defilement and who is pregnant will have to take the medicine." "And that," said Fulvia, beginning to weep, "includes me!" "No!" "Yes, yes, yes!" cried Clodia, administering a kick. Oh, Clodius, why? There must be thousands of ways to revenge yourself on Aurelia and Fabia! Why commit sacrilege? You're doomed!" "I didn't think, it seemed so perfect!" He tried to take Fulvia's hand. "Please don't harm our child!" "Don't you understand yet?" she shrieked, wrenching away. "You harmed our child! It would be born deformed and monstrous, I must take the medicine! Clodius, you are accursed!" "Get out!" Clodilla shouted. "On your belly like a snake!" Clodius crawled away on his belly, snakelike.