György Spiró - Captivity

Once the soldiers of the Germanic corps learned that their efforts in locking those many hundreds of people in the theater were too late to be of service they became exasperated and slew a lot of innocent spectators.

Things then happened just the way Agrippa had said they would: after they’d won over the Praetorian Guard the Senate elected Claudius emperor, and on his orders Chaerea was executed as a regicide whereas Cornelius Sabinus took his own life.

The story went that Chaerea, otherwise a placid man, had endured years of teasing by Caligula, who had constantly addressed him, owing to his falsetto voice, as his “peasant girl,” referring to his supposed effeminacy when there was no doubt over his gender, and commonly giving the watchwords “Venus” and “Priapus” when he was on duty.

Uri considered that to be quite credible. If Caligula had avoided making that sort of mistake, then presumably he would have made good his escape and the Roman Empire would have broken up.

Indeed, there had been ships standing by at Brindisium (the Senate’s emissaries had already organized their burning) and just one solitary trading vessel which was beyond suspicion had set off from Ostia for Alexandria. The tale told about Apollonius, the Egyptian soothsayer, was that he had arrived in Rome that very day because he had prophesied Caligula’s death would occur on January 24, and the emperor had been of a mind to have him executed but had been assassinated himself before that could be done. The soothsayer never came forward, and it was assumed he had escaped, but Uri suspecting that his name had more likely been a password rather than that of a real person.

Claudius freed the alabarch, enrolled Marcus and Tija in the equestrian order, and gave the rank of consul to Agrippa, even permitting him to make his maiden speech in the Senate in Greek. He went on to bestow Judaea on him, thus restoring Herod the Great’s kingdom. Agrippa’s elder brother, Herod, who had been living in Rome all along and took no part in public affairs, was installed by Claudius as a member of the Praetorian Guard, the two of them having presumably been close friends when they were young.

Isidoros and Lampo became new imperial counselors, that being the new emperor’s way of thanking them for their outstanding services.

Two weeks after Claudius took power, Messalina gave birth to a son, who was named Germanicus.

Claudius then sent Titus to the Second Legion in Britannia; he left with his family, while Kainis stayed in Rome.

Uri could not work out what Kainis was hoping for by associating with him but, all the same, could not stand not to see her once or twice a week. Through Philo, who wished to expand Agrippa’s apologia, with an addition regarding the Alexandrian embassy’s maneuvering with Caligula, into a major treatise on virtues for Claudius’s edification, and for this he needed Uri, so that Uri continued to be able to visit Claudius’s house, the only difference being that the guards thoroughly frisked him to check that he was not concealing a dagger or asp under his cloak. Narcissus in fact gave them an order to let Uri into the house whenever he might come; by now Narcissus’s lips were clenched self-importantly tight.

“Are you their boss now?” Uri asked in jest, gesturing toward the guards.

Narcissus did not laugh, though he should have done so; instead he nodded and clenched his jaw even more tightly. Uri was introduced to the guards’ reliefs, then a couple of weeks later Narcissus assembled all the visitors, Uri included, in front of the house, and after an increasingly protracted wait he appeared, his eyes narrowed to slits, surveyed the multitude, beckoned to those whom he deemed worthy of being admitted, and whispered in their ear individually the day’s password, the rest traipsed dejectedly away. It went through Uri’s mind that Narcissus ought to be renamed Cerberus, but he did not mention this to anyone else; a few weeks earlier he would have said it out loud.

“They tolerated anything,” Kainis said of the senators, “until Caligula swooped down on them; all hoped that even if fate did not spare the others, it would somehow miss them. But corporately they could not countenance the thought that Alexandria should become the capital city of the empire and Rome a province of Egypt. Now they have settled down and, lords of the world as they are, they are back to their old game of telling tales on each other to the emperor.”

She also related that Agrippa had spent a long time persuading Claudius to take over the reins of government, with Claudius desperately balking at first, just as he had later on once the bodyguards hauled him out into the palace and lifted him onto their shoulders. He had no interest in Rome, he had protested to Agrippa; let Italia be a province of Alexandria for all he cared, it deserved no more; let the empire go hang, let every present-day and future empire go hang, just leave him in peace, he wanted at last to be able to live out his own life, there wasn’t much left anyway. Agrippa’s one strong argument was that now Caligula had been done away with, Claudius and his entire family would otherwise instantly be slaughtered, so it would be better if he were the one doing the killing. Claudius bellowed that he was not going to be anyone’s murderer however much people might want that, and in fact he had never agreed with Agrippa’s plan; he had desperately tried proposing other candidates for emperor, running through half the Senate and extolling their merits, but Agrippa, Marcus, and the consuls had found all of them unsuitable.

Kainis chuckled; she still liked chuckling, but now she did so more dolefully than before.

“What is it about him that you are still in love with?” Uri asked her bluntly, meaning Titus.

“I don’t know,” she replied. “He’s a selfish beast, but he’s clever. He is good to have a laugh with, and that in itself is something.”

“He left you, didn’t he? What did you hope for? That he would get a divorce and marry you? He already has two sons.”

Kainis bit her lips and did not answer.

One afternoon she said to him:

“Come with me.”

They went across to Agrippa’s house.

Agrippa had by then moved out with his servants: as king of Judaea, Samaria, Galilee, Peraea and Trachonitis, he was now ensconced in Caesarea like the Roman prefects before him. Marcus had gone with him to wed Agrippa’s eldest daughter, Berenice. The bridegroom’s father, the former alabarch, pale, thin, and now reduced to silence, also went with them, hoping that the climate of Judaea would restore his broken health. Tija sailed back to Alexandria, at Claudius’s request, to bring order to the rioting Jews, while Philo alone stayed in Rome.

Kainis took Uri’s hand and pulled him into one of the smaller rooms, stopping in front of a bed.

“Here you are!” she said.

Uri trembled.

She pulled off her clothes.

She had a fragrant, frail, delicate body, diminutive with small, pert breasts, a slim waist, her hipbones slightly jutting out under the skin, her thighs long and thin, with soft fluff between them. Uri got to his knees, kissed and stroked her, but he sensed no desire. Kainis lay on her back on the bed and pulled up her legs. Uri kissed her breasts, her neck, her shoulders, her arms, her flat stomach — still nothing. Tears came to his eyes. Kainis stroked his head and neck, kissed his ears, embraced him, and hugged him tight.

“I don’t know why I can’t,” Uri said.

“It doesn’t matter,” Kainis whispered.

“I’ve never loved a woman so much before! I just don’t understand!”

“It doesn’t matter.”

“Maybe I’ll never again be a full man!”

“Of course you will!” Kainis whispered as she kissed his brow. “Of course you will! The problem’s with me. I love you like a twin brother. It’s me who needs to be excused.”