Murder on the Appian Way (5 page)

"Gaius Sallust," Eco whispered in my ear. "One of the radical tribunes elected last year."

Heads turned. Having gained the group's undivided attention, Sallust shrugged. "Well, what makes you think we can control the mob one way or the other? Clodius could, but Clodius is dead. There's no telling what will happen tomorrow, or tonight for that matter. A slaughter? Perhaps a bloodbath. We'll be lucky if there's enough organization left in Rome to stage a trial."

At this there was another round of groaning and scoffing, but no one challenged outright what Sallust had said. Instead they turned uneasily away and resumed their argument without him.

"A trial!" Appius insisted.

"A riot first!" said Sextus Cloelius. "The mob won't settle for anything less. And if Milo dares to show himself, we'll chop off his head and carry it through the Forum on a stick."

"Then the mood of the city will surely swing against us," argued Appius. "No. Uncle Publius understood the way to make use of the mob - as a dagger, not as a bludgeon. You're wrought up, Sextus. You need some sleep."

"Don't tell me how Publius used the mob," said Cloelius. "Half the time, I was the one who plotted his strategies for him."

Appius's eyes flashed. They reminded me of Clodia's eyes, glittering and green like emeralds. "Don't try to rise above your station, Sextus Cloelius. Save your vulgar rhetoric for the mob. The men in this room are a little too sophisticated for your style of blustering."

Cloelius opened his mouth to answer, then turned and stalked off.

There was a tense silence, broken by Sallust. "I think we're all a little wrought up," he said. "I'm going home to get some sleep." A large coterie of retainers shuffled out of the room with him, leaving more space for those who remained to carry on with their pacing and gesticulating.

"We should do likewise," I said, nudging Eco. "I need my sleep. Besides, it's as Sallust says: there's no telling what may happen in the streets tonight. We should be home with our families behind barred doors."

The gladiator who had escorted us earlier had been keeping an eye on us. As we moved towards the door he joined up with us and insisted on showing us out. He turned back only when he had delivered us into the protection of Eco's bodyguards on the landing outside the secluded side entrance.

We descended the steps to the street. The crowd gathered outside the forecourt of Clodius's house had grown even larger. Men stood in groups, arguing, like their leaders inside the house, over what should be done, only in louder voices and cruder language. Other men stood alone and openly sobbed, as if their own brother or father had been murdered.

I meant to walk straight on, but the crowd was like a force, an undertow at my feet that held me back. Eco was content to stay and observe, and so we lingered, fascinated by the torchlight, the floating bits of conversations, the shifting mass of humanity, the mood of uncertainty and dread.

Suddenly the great bronze, doors to Clodius's house swung open with a double clang. A hush of anticipation rippled through the crowd. Armed men appeared first. They descended the steps in a cordon, preceding and flanking the men in togas who carried the body of Clodius upon a long, flat bier.

A groan rose from the crowd at the first glimpse of the body, followed by a great rush forwards. The bier was set down on the steps, tilted upward so that Clodius could be seen. We were caught in the crush. The crowd in the forecourt compressed, and those in the street were pulled in behind them, as if sucked into a vortex. Eco gripped my hand as we were carried through the gates and into the forecourt, like flotsam on a flood. His bodyguards struggled to stay close, shoving and pressing against us. I was jabbed in the ribs by the point of a knife concealed inside the tunic of the bodyguard beside me, and considered the mad irony if I should be accidentally gutted by the weapon of a man intending to protect me.

We came to a stop. The crowd was packed into the forecourt like grains of sand in a bottle. Through the reek of the torches, I had a clear view of Clodius propped up on his bier, surrounded in death as he had always been in life, by armed guards. To either side of the bier stood the men who had carried it. Among them I recognized Appius and Sextus Cloelius.

Clodius had been stripped of his bloody garments and retained only a loincloth around his hips. The puncture at his shoulder and the wounds in his chest had been cleaned, but only to show them clearly; there was still plenty of gore and blood smeared across his pale, waxy flesh. His hair, I noticed, had been lovingly combed and untangled. It was pushed back from his face, as he had worn it in life, but a stray tendril had fallen forwards over one eye. To look at his face alone, one might have thought that he was merely asleep and frowning because the hair was tickling him, and that he might at any moment reach up to push it away. To see him naked under the stars on such a cold night made me shiver.

Around us men moaned, cursed, wept, stamped their feet, shook their fists, buried their faces in their hands. Another tremor of apprehension rippled through the crowd as Fulvia appeared on the steps.

Her arms were crossed over her chest, her head bowed. Her long, dark hair hung straight down, merging with the long black line of her gown. Hands reached towards her from the crowd, but she seemed oblivious of these gestures of comfort. She stood for a long moment beside her husband's body, staring at it. Then she lifted her face to the sky and let out a cry of anguish that turned my blood cold. It was like the cry of a wild beast rending the cold night air; if any still slept on the Palatine, surely it woke them. Fulvia tore at her hair, lifted her arms to heaven and threw herself across her husband's body. Her nephew and Sextus Cloelius made a fumbling attempt to restrain her, then stepped back in awe as she shrieked and beat her fists against the bier. She framed the corpse's face with trembling hands and pressed her face to her husband's, covering his cold lips with a kiss.

Around us the mob raged like churning water. I thought of what the tribune Sallust had said: No one controls such a mob; it takes on a will of its own. It can maim or kill a man without meaning to and for no purpose at all, crushing the life out of him or trampling him underfoot. I grabbed Eco and by some feat of will we managed to push our way back through the gate. The crowd that overflowed the courtyard now filled the street as far as the eye could see. All up and down the block, houses were lit up as brightly as day with anxious-looking guards posted on the roofs. I pressed on, forcing a way through the crowd while Eco and his bodyguards struggled to keep up.

At last we passed beyond the edges of the crowd. I never slowed my gait until we rounded a corner and found ourselves on an empty, darkened street. I stopped to catch my breath, and Eco did the same. His hands were trembling. I realized that I was shaking, too.

Hearing only my own breath and the pulse in my temples, I didn't notice the approaching footsteps. But the bodyguards did. They stiffened and drew themselves around us. Men were coming up the darkened street, heading in the direction of Clodius's house. As they passed, .their leader signalled for them to stop. He peered at us in the dim starlight. His face was in shadow, but I could see that he had curly hair and a prominent nose, and a strong physique beneath his cloak. After a moment he stepped away from his bodyguards and approached us.

"Do you come from Clodius's house?"

"Yes," I said.

"Is it true, what they say?" "What do they say?" "That Clodius is dead." "It's true."

The man sighed. It was a quiet, gentle sigh, very different from the raging laments we had just left behind. "Poor Publius! It's the end of him, then, for good or ill. All over." He cocked his head. "Don't I know you?"

"Do you?"

"I think so. Yes, I'm sure of it." "Can you see in the dark, citizen?"

"Well enough. And I never forget a voice." He hummed to himself, then grunted. "You're Meto's father, aren't you? And this is Meto's brother, Eco."

"Yes." I tried to get a better look at him. I could make out his rugged features - the strong brow, the flattened boxer's nose - but I still didn't recognize him.

"You and I met last year," he said, "briefly, when you came to visit Meto in Ravenna. I serve under Caesar, too." He paused for a moment. When I gave no sign of remembering, he shrugged. "Well, then, what's happening around the bend? That glow in the sky - not a house on fire?"

"No. Just a great many torches."

"There's a big crowd gathered at the house?"

"Yes. They've come to see the body. His wife, Fulvia —"

"Fulvia?" He spoke the name with an odd intensity, as if it had a secret meaning for him.

"She grieves. You might be able to hear her from here."

He sighed again, a deep, rich sigh. "I suppose I should see for myself Farewell, then, Gordianus. And you, Eco." He rejoined his companions and moved swiftly on.

"Farewell —" I said, still unable to remember his name. I turned to Eco.

"As he said, Papa, we met him last year, at Caesar's winter headquarters up in Ravenna. A bit modest, the way he says, 'I serve under Caesar, too.' One of the general's top men, according to Meto. We were barely introduced. I'd forgotten about it myself I'm surprised he remembers us. But then, the man's a politician, of course. He's been back in Rome for several months, running for office. I've seen him in the Forum, canvassing for votes. You must have seen him, too."

"Have I? What's his name?"

"Marc Antony."

III

Over breakfast, Bethesda and Diana demanded to know everything. I tried to soften my description of Clodius's corpse in deference to their appetites, but they insisted on all the gruesome details. The wrangling of the politicians was of less interest to them, but they listened attentively to my impressions of the famous house and its furnishings, and they were especially curious about Clodia.

"Can it really be four years since the trial of Marcus Caelius?" Bethesda blew gently on a spoonful of hot farina.

"Almost."

"And to think we haven't had a glimpse of Clodia in all that time."

"Not surprising, really; we hardly move in the same exalted circles. But I don't think anyone's seen much of her. The trial took something out of her. She seemed a changed woman to me."

"Really? It sounds like she made quite a show of inviting you into the very heart of her brother's grand house, as if she were doing you a great favour, making you feel privileged and special. She wants something."

"Really, Bethesda, the woman was distraught."

"Was she?"

"I told you, she could hardly keep from weeping." "To weep is one thing. To be distraught is another." "I don't follow you."

"No?" Bethesda sat back from the table. "Be careful of the farina, Diana. You'll burn your tongue."

Diana nodded absently and gulped down a heaping spoonful "What do you mean, Bethesda? About Clodia?"

"Well, I have no doubt that she was very upset about her brother's death. We all know how close they were, or at least the way people talked about them. And such a bloody death, from the way you describe his body. Awful!" She stirred her farina. Little puffs of steam rose from the bowl.

"But?"

Diana cleared her throat. "I think that what Mother is trying to
say is-" .

"Well, it's obvious, isn't it?" Bethesda looked at Diana and they nodded in unison. "Her litter, her bodyguard -"

"And using the main entrance. Yes." Diana pursed her lips sagely.

"What in Hades are the two of you talking about?"

"Well -" Bethesda tried another spoonful of farina and finally deemed it cool enough. "From your description, it seems that there's the main entrance to the house, and also the secluded little side door that you took."

"Yes ..."

"And they both end up in the same place." "Yes, in the main foyer."

"Well, I can't speak for Clodia, but if I were distraught, I should have no stomach for facing a huge crowd. I'd want to avoid that if I possibly could. And Clodia could have done so, quite easily, simply by entering through that side door. She could have avoided the crowd completely. Am I right? Her litter could have deposited her and Metella and her nephew Appius at the foot of the steps, and they could have gone up to the landing and into the house without anyone even knowing they'd arrived."

"I suppose so ..."

Diana picked up the thread from her mother. "Instead, she went through the thick of the crowd in that huge litter - the one with the red and white stripes that everyone knows is hers — with a veritable army of big redheaded gladiators."

Bethesda nodded. "Where everyone would be sure to notice her arrival."

"And talk about it long afterwards," said Diana. "What is your point?" I said, looking back and forth between them.

"Well, Papa, only that grief was not the only thing on Clodia's mind."

"Exactly," said Bethesda. "Making an entrance - that was the point."

"Oh, really!" I shook my head. "If you'd been there, if you'd felt the mood of the place, the despair, the anguish -"

"All the better to heighten the drama," said Bethesda. "I don't doubt Clodia's grief But you see, she must have considered the circumstances ahead of time. She realized that she wouldn't be allowed to appear publicly alongside her brother's body when it was shown to the crowd. That privilege was reserved for Fulvia."

"So Clodia made an impression in the only way she could - by making a grand entrance," said Diana.

"I see. You're saying she wanted to upstage her sister-in-law."

"Not at all." Bethesda frowned at my obtuseness. "She only wanted what was hers."

"To claim the portion of public grief that she feels belongs to her," Diana explained.

"I see," I said, not at all certain that I did. "Well, speaking of doing things for show, of course I was quite struck by the inconsistency of Fulvia's behaviour —"

"Inconsistency?" said Bethesda.

"What do you mean, Papa?"

"I told you how stiff she was in the inner room, how she showed virtually no emotion, even when she put Clodia in her place about cleaning the body. And then her hysterical shrieking in front of all those people when they showed Clodius to the mob!"