Colleen McCullough - 3. Fortune's Favorites

Much to Caesar's chagrin, when he had arrived in Rome he found the younger Dolabella already in exile and Gaius Verres strutting around oozing virtue and probity. Verres was now the husband of Metellus Caprarius's daughter and very popular with the knight electors, who thought his giving evidence against the younger Dolabella was a great compliment to the disenjuried Ordo Equester here was a senator who was not afraid to indict one of his fellow senators! However, Caesar let it be known through Lucius Decumius and Gaius Matius that he would act as advocate for anyone in the Subura, and busied himself during the months which saw the downfall of Lepidus and Brutus and the rise of Pompey with a series of court cases humble enough, yet highly successful. His legal reputation grew, connoisseurs of advocacy and rhetoric began to attend whichever court it was he pleaded before mostly the urban or foreign praetor's, but occasionally the Murder Court. Contrive to smear him though Catulus did, people listened to Catulus less and less because they liked what Caesar had to say, not to mention how he said it. When some of the cities of Macedonia and central Greece approached him to prosecute the elder Dolabella (back from his extended governorship because Appius Claudius Pulcher had finally arrived in his province), Caesar consented. This was the first really important trial he had undertaken, for it was to be heard in the quaestio de repetundae the Extortion Court and involved a man of highest family and great political clout. He knew little of the circumstances behind this elder Dolabella's governorship, but proceeded to interview possible witnesses and gather evidence with meticulous care. His ethnarch clients found him a delight; scrupulously considerate of their rank, always pleasant and easy to get on with. Most amazing of all did they find his memory what he had heard he never forgot, and would often seize upon some tiny, inadvertent statement which turned out to be far more important than anyone had realized. "However," he said to his clients on the morning that the trial opened, be warned. The jury is composed entirely of senators, and senatorial sympathies are very much on Dolabella's side. He's seen as a good governor because he managed to keep the Scordisci at bay. I don't think we can win." They didn't win. Though the evidence was so strong only a senatorial jury hearing the case of a fellow senator could have ignored it Caesar's oratory was superb the verdict was ABSOLVO. Caesar didn't apologize to his clients, nor were they disappointed in his performance. Both the forensic presentation and Caesar's speeches were hailed as the best in at least a generation, and men flocked to ask him to publish his speeches. They will become textbooks for students of rhetoric and the law," said Marcus Tullius Cicero, asking for copies for himself. "You shouldn't have lost, of course, but I'm very glad I got back from abroad in time to hear you best Hortensius and Gaius Cotta." "I'm very glad too, Cicero. It's one thing to be gushed over by Cethegus, quite another to be asked crisply by an advocate of your standing for copies of my work," said Caesar, who was indeed pleased that Cicero should ask. "You can teach me nothing about oratory," said Cicero, quite unconsciously beginning to demolish his compliment, "but rest assured, Caesar, that I shall study the way you investigated your case and presented your evidence very closely." They strolled up the Forum together, Cicero still talking. "What fascinates me is how you've managed to project your voice. In normal conversation it's so deep! Yet when you speak to a crowd you pitch it high and clear, and it carries splendidly. Who taught you that?'' "No one," said Caesar, looking surprised. "I just noticed that men with deep voices were harder by far to hear than men with higher voices. So since I like to be heard, I turned myself into a tenor." "Apollonius Molon I've been studying with him for the last two years says it all depends on the length of a man's neck what sort of voice he has. The longer the neck, the deeper the voice. And you do have a long, scraggy neck! Luckily," he added complacently, "my neck is exactly the right length." "Short," said Caesar, eyes dancing. "Medium," said Cicero firmly. "You look well, and you've put on some much needed weight." "I am well. And itching to be back in the courts. Though," said Cicero thoughtfully, "I do not think I will match my skills against yours. Some titans should never clash. I fancy the likes of Hortensius and Gaius Cotta too." "I expected better of them," said Caesar. "If the jury hadn't made up its mind before the trial began instead of paying attention to my case, they would have lost, you know. They were sloppy and clumsy." "I agree. Gaius Cotta is your uncle, is he not?" "Yes. Not that it matters. He and I enjoy a clash." They stopped to buy a pasty from a vendor who had been selling his famous savory snacks for years outside the State House of the flamen Dialis. "I believe," said Cicero, wolfing his pasty down (he liked his food), "that there is still considerable legal doubt about your erstwhile flaminate. Aren't you tempted to use it and move into that commodious and very nice house behind Gavius's stall there? I understand you live in an apartment in the Subura. Not the right address for an advocate with your style, Caesar!" Caesar shuddered, threw the remainder of his turnover in the direction of a begging bird. Not if I lived in the meanest hovel on the Esquiline, Cicero, would I be tempted!" he declared. "Well, I must say I'm glad to be on the Palatine these days," Cicero said, starting on his second pasty. "My brother, Quintus, has the old family house on the Carinae," he said grandly, just as if his family had owned it for generations rather than bought it when he had been a boy. He thought of something, and giggled. "Speaking of acquittals and the like, you heard what Quintus Calidius said after a jury of his peers convicted him in the Extortion Court, didn't you?" "I'm afraid I missed it. Do enlighten me." "He said he wasn't surprised he lost, because the going rate to bribe a jury in these days of Sulla's all senatorial courts is three hundred thousand sesterces, and he just couldn't lay his hands on that kind of cash." Caesar saw the funny side too, and laughed. "Then I must remember to stay out of the Extortion Court!" "Especially when Lentulus Sura is foreman of the jury." As Publius Cornelius Lentulus Sura had been the foreman of the elder Dolabella's jury, Caesar's brows rose. "That is handy to know, Cicero!" "My dear fellow, there is absolutely nothing I can't tell you about our law courts!" said Cicero, waving one hand in a magnificent gesture. "If you have any questions, just ask me." "I will, be sure of it," said Caesar. He shook hands with Cicero and walked off in the direction of the despised Subura. Quintus Hortensius ducked out from behind a convenient column to join Cicero while he was still watching Caesar's tall form diminishing in the distance. "He was very good," said Hortensius. "Give him a few more years of experience, my dear Cicero, and you and I will have to look to our laurels." "Give him an honest jury, my dear Hortensius, and your laurels would have been off your head this morning." "Unkind!" "It won't last, you know." "What?" "Juries composed entirely of senators." "Nonsense! The Senate is back in control forever." "That is nonsense. There's a swell in the community to have their powers restored to the tribunes of the plebs. And when they have their old powers back, Quintus Hortensius, the juries will be made up of knights again." Hortensius shrugged. "It makes no difference to me, Cicero. Senators or knights, a bribe is a bribe when necessary." "I do not bribe my juries," said Cicero stiffly. "I know you don't. Nor does he." Hortensius flapped his hand in the direction of the Subura. "But it's an accepted custom, my dear fellow, an accepted custom!" "A custom which can afford an advocate no satisfaction. When I win a case I like to know I won it on my merits, not on how much money my client gave me to dole out in bribes." "Then you're a fool and you won't last." Cicero's good looking but not classically handsome face went stiff. The brown eyes flashed dangerously. "I'll outlast you, Hortensius! Never doubt it!" "I am too strong to move." "That was what Antaeus said before Hercules lifted him off the ground. Ave, Quintus Hortensius."