Our Eternal Curse I (19 page)

Marius was escorted home from
the Senate, following his outburst, by a number of his old friends.  All of
them had known the great man for many years and they could not remember a time
that they had not loved and trusted him.  Many of these proud men fought back
tears.  This was a tragic way to end a life such as his and they were all
connected to his pain.  Leaving him in the care of his servants and the boy
Julius they filed out into the street wondering what would become of the old
man.

The once great Father of Rome
felt foolish as he sat by the fountain in his courtyard.  In his fury he had
delivered his suspicions about Sulla like a pathetic fool, he had never let his
anger get the better of him in the Senate before and it worried him greatly.

As he sat pondering his
stupidity, his manservant approached saying, “I am truly sorry to disturb you
at such a time my Lord but there is a delegation here to see you.  They have
traveled from Hispania for the purpose of gaining an audience with you.”

Young Caesar quickly stood
saying, “Tell them to return tomorrow, today we are too busy for any meetings.”

Marius turned his twisted face
admiringly to look at the boy.  “You will be a truly extraordinary asset to
Rome when you are a man.  So young, yet totally self-assured, and already in
command.’  Marius turned to his most loyal employee and told him to, “Show our
visitors into the dining room.  They have come a long way; I should see them as
a matter of courtesy.”

Marius limped into the dining
room to discover a small delegation comprised of two centurions, a man with the
weather-beaten face of a sea captain and a strangely  familiar-looking Roman
woman.  They were standing nervously by the bust of Young Gaius and the sight
of his son warmed the old man’s heart.

While the secure feelings
bolstered his bruised ego Marius silently assessed their appearance and
indicated that they should all take a seat on one of the many dinning couches.
“You are a Persian?”  he asked the captain.

“
That I am, Sir.”

“
What news of my son?”

One of the young centurions
stood up and gave a clenched fist salute.  He came forward to speak.  “He is
well Sir. He has given a good account of himself during our campaigns in
Hispania.”

“
I am delighted to hear such good news,” said Marius
then added, “and how may I help you today?”

The same centurion answered
with, “It is a somewhat delicate matter that your son felt you would be able to
adjudicate upon.”

“
Please, go on.”

“
This is Clitumna Drusus, daughter of Marcus Livius
Drusus,” said the centurion in a serious tone while remaining on his feet.

Even more heartened by the sight
of a familiar face Marius exclaimed, “I thought you looked familiar, of course
the daughter of my old friend Drusus.  How have you been and what brings you to
me with this somber-looking bunch?”

“
I have been abducted by pirates, Uncle,” replied
Clitumna with a sad face.

All of the men who had
accompanied her on the crossing from Hispania shook their heads in disbelief.

“
My poor dear girl,” said Marius with real concern
in his voice, “that must have been a terrible trial, are you feeling strong
enough to talk about your experience?”

As she was about to deliver the
fabricated version of her past, the Persian captain interrupted by saying in
his heavily accented voice, “I caution you this is an extremely manipulative
woman who will try every trick to avoid paying for her sins.  If it pleases you
Sir, I will tell you the truth of how this woman has spent her time with the
pirates.”

The centurions were nodding
their agreement as Julia wandered in seemingly by chance.  Still unsure if
Antonius was going to obey her order to depart for Hispania, Julia was deeply
concerned.  Putting on her bravest smile she said, “I am sorry for my
interruption Father — I did not know you were all in here.  The servants told
me that someone from Hispania was visiting and I assumed you would be in your
private office.”  Then, lifting a scroll Julia added, “There is wonderful news
from our beloved Gaius, he is to return within the month.  He is crossing the
great ocean even as I speak.”

Smiling at the second, happy
surprise Marius beckoned her to him saying, “Julia my dear come in, come in,
this is indeed great news but I do believe we are just about to hear even more
intriguing news about someone else.”

Clitumna’s attention turned to
the beautiful young woman whose name had been mentioned as she stood on the
blood-soaked dock at Saguntum.

Patting the couch next to him Marius
said, “Please stay Julia it is better to have another woman in the room with us
to monitor fair play and …” Before he could finish his sentence he was rudely
interrupted by the Persian captain.

The foreigner was unable to
believe the civilized Roman nonsense he was hearing and reaching for his dagger
he advanced on Clitumna.  Restrained by the centurions he shouted, “She is not
a woman of compassion — she does not deserve fair play!  She has killed many
men on the high seas, good honest men whose only crime was sailing too close to
one of her pirate vessels!”

“
Hold your tongue!” snapped Marius. “You are
referring to a Roman of the highest caliber.  How dare you make such
accusations!  This is the daughter of a personal friend of mine.”  Marius then
looked softly at Clitumna and began to tell her the sad news of her father’s
death from natural causes.  He also went on to say that her husband had been
killed recently in the Asian province by Mithridates.

Clitumna had already received
news of her father’s death but the death of her husband came as a wonderful
surprise and she burst into floods of sobbing tears in an attempt to prevent
herself from laughing.

Her sadness seemed to inspire
even more sympathy within the old fool in front of her so she turned on the
flood with a vengeance.  Between sobs her lies weaved themselves into a tale of
great hardship which all followed with various levels of disbelief.

The only person in the room who
felt any sympathy for her was Gaius Marius; the centurions had both been
treated to her conniving on the voyage home from Hispania; the Captain knew who
she really was; as did Julia, and even young Caesar could see through her act;
but the old man could see only the little girl who had visited with his dear
friend during better times.

The Persian had to be further
restrained after lunging a second time at the woman he hated more than anyone
alive.  Marius ordered the centurions to return him to his ship which required
manhandling him as he refused to leave until the leader of the pirates was
brought to justice.

“
Don’t make trouble for yourself,” were the final
words of Marius.

The centurions had difficulty
believing what had just happened but neither of them were about to question the
decision of the great man.  If he wanted to pardon the bitch that was up to him
so they obligingly carried the noisy captain kicking and screaming back to his
ship and as ordered made sure it and he sailed as soon as the cargo was
unloaded.

Taken as much by surprise as the
Persian, Julia had no idea what to say.  When Marius insisted that Clitumna
move into his home for as long as she wished to stay, Julia was flabbergasted. 
Believing that the pirate queen would be killed by Young Gaius in Hispania, or
by Gaius Marius in Rome, Julia had made no contingency plan.  Before she could
think of which course of action to take the exhausted Marius ended proceedings
abruptly with, “Now I really must rest.  This has been a most eventful day
indeed.”  With that, young Julius helped him through the doorway to his private
chamber where no one dared disturb him.

The two women remained alone in
the room and as Clitumna wiped away her crocodile tears they sized each other
up.

“
You must be tired after all you have been through,”
said Julia feigning sympathy.

“
That I am.  I have been through many terrifying
ordeals over these past years,” replied Clitumna clearly wondering what part
this radiant-looking young woman had played in the demise of her pirate empire.

“
I will ask a housemaid to show you to one of the
guest rooms,” said Julia as she walked towards the scullery.

When she returned with the
slave, Julia asked as though in passing, “Did you see my darling Gaius in
Hispania?  We are betrothed you know?”

“
Yes he rescued me from the pirates; he beheaded
their leader with his very own hands.”

Young Gaius was obviously too
much of a dignified Roman to mention his part in the decapitation so the
brutality of his act caught Julia off balance.

“
The maid will take you to your room now,” she said
waving her hand at the servant while fighting to give no outward indication of
her inner turmoil.

Julia alone understood how
Clitumna felt about the Captain.  It was such bad luck that out of five
thousand Roman soldiers on the dock it had been her fiancé who cut off his
head.

“
Thank you for your kindness, I look forward to
seeing you again,” replied Clitumna holding out her hand to be shaken.

As Julia reached out hers in
return, the golden “lions” slid slowly from within the folds of Clitumna’s
sleeve.  Like a galley being launched into the ocean the amulet moved
gracefully down her wrist and stopped at the outstretched hand.  Standing rigid
as the statue of Young Gaius behind her, Julia stared unable to move.

All of the pain which had
mellowed with time returned with renewed force and Julia feared passing out as
she slumped onto a couch.  “Wine! Fetch wine! …  Now!”  she snapped at the
house slave who was too shocked to move.

Of all the Greek captains on the
great ocean, Clitumna’s was the one who purchased my “lions”.  As that thought
passed Julia realized how vulnerable she was.  The Captain must have traveled
to Rome with the first shipment and she had not been told.  Had Gavius deceived
her or, was he just being his usual incompetent self?  Then, a wave of cold
surged through Julia.  The Captain must have used money from that first
shipment to buy her “lions”.  If only Gavius had paid the pirates after her. 
If only she had not stopped to admire the money, the “lions” would be hers not
this big woman who now stared at her like a hawk.

Clitumna subtly moved her wrist
from right to left and Julia’s following eyes made it perfectly clear that the
Captain’s fine gift held some kind of power over her.  Clitumna asked, with
mock sincerity, “Are you alright my dear? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

In many ways that is how Julia
regarded this piece of jewelry; it had exactly the same influence as a lover
returning from the dead.  Overwhelmed, she was struggling to put all of the
events leading up to this agony into a believable sequence.  The fact that the
pirate queen had survived in Hispania was remarkable enough.  Knowing Marius
was simply uncanny.  Being brought before him on the very day of his
humiliation in the Senate was too far-fetched to be believed, but to be in
possession of the only thing she loved was too much of a load for Julia’s
unhinged mind to bear.

Leaving the home of Marius, and
that “lion thief” Clitumna behind her, Julia meandered through the streets. 
She was going in no particular direction to get to no place in particular with
her distorted mind raging in turmoil of anxiety and panic.  Imaginary hazards
swamped her thoughts, they appeared in rapid waves from every direction.  Julia
knew that everything she had achieved must be closed down; nothing should lead
that horrible Clitumna woman back to her.

What a fool I was to believe
that my double dealings would not be found out!  I am a stupid country girl
with a slow mind — how could I possibly have hoped to get away with it?
  “I am such a fool!”  Noticing
the surprised looks on nearby faces Julia realized that she had converted her
usually silent self-admonishment into spoken words and she had shouted them at
the top of her voice in the middle of the busy street.

Completely disorientated and
unable to calm herself, Julia determined that she was far too vulnerable with
Clitumna in Rome and, while anticipating weakness everywhere, Julia considered
how to close down her operations in Hispania.

The country was now completely
in her grasp.  The wagons from the estates were no longer traveling to Saguntum
alone but to the ports of Tarraco in the north and Carthago Nova in the south.

At her suggestion, Young Gaius
had purchased many more of the slaves taken in Hispania and they were now
loading her cargo in shifts, day and night.  Julia’s rapidly expanding fleets
were plying the routes between all three harbors as fast as they could load and
unload.

In complete surprise, Julia
realized that all of these activities were perfectly legal and above board. 
She had always thought of them as corrupt because they were put into action
while deceiving Bromidus, the pirates, Young Gaius and Rome, but in reality
they were all perfectly legitimate.  It amazed Julia to think that not only was
there nothing wrong with her involvement in Hispania, even if there was she
could not be linked with any of it.

With panic subsiding for only a
moment, Julia’s mind went searching for the inevitable mistake which would link
her to the illegal activities closer to home. 
I am simply not bright enough
to get away with what I am doing in Rome
, she reasoned. But try as she
might Julia could not find her Achilles’ heel.  Bromidus was her major danger
but he had fled across the great ocean. He would never be able to return to
Rome, and anyway, he had always dealt with Gavius; he would not bother himself
with her, even if he could remember who she was.

It was also Gavius who
instructed the moneylenders to employ her vast, daily cash-flow to purchase
anything to do with food production. 
I cannot be associated with any of the
substantial purchases of farmland around Rome and Italy,
she reasoned. 
Julia could not be linked to the buying of future harvests from farmers who
would not sell their land because she had never even discussed such things with
anyone but the fat man.  Other than coming up with the ideas she had absolutely
nothing to do with any of the negotiations.

Even the transportation,
storage, cargo galleys and retail outlets which were being snapped up on her
behalf could not be linked to Julia.  Quite remarkably, she was now responsible
for feeding a population of over one million people.  Her agents were even
purchasing everything they could find in Egypt and the East; nothing linked her
to any of it and, yet again, even if she were implicated there was no crime to
answer for because it was all above board and legitimate.

Becoming frustrated and angered
because she was clearly too stupid to find her inevitable weakness, Julia’s
subconscious could not even consider the idea that she may be too competent to
have one.  Any notions of accomplishment were false and must be corrected so,
in the course of looking for flaws, Julia’s mind sifted through her involvement
in bribery and corruption, but even that did not provide the expected frailty.

Whilst it was technically
illegal to pay Senators to speak her words, bribery seemed to be common
practice; she was by no means the only one doing it.  Anyway, Julia’s first
efforts in this arena actually made her a hero of Rome.  Had the Senators known
it was Julia who prompted them to smash the pirates on the great ocean they
would probably have given her a reward so that attempt to berate herself also
had to be discarded.

Julia’s dysfunctional mind
doggedly craved proof of her incompetence.  The thing that would inevitably
catch her out had to be found and to this end every aspect of her life was
turned out and picked through.  While still weaving her sad way to nowhere,
Julia realized with a twisted sense of satisfaction that her rapidly growing
property transactions were very probably corrupt enough to bring her undone so
she focused all of her attention on the dealings which had begun as a sideline.

Her real-estate venture was
inspired by the moneylenders who told Gavius that many of the public works in
Rome and war-damaged Italy were being financed by her money.  As a result of
this information the same moneylenders had been instructed to bribe Senators to
award civic development contracts exclusively to her companies which had grown
into significant organizations.

Julia now had more money, power
and slaves than anyone else.  Her companies won all administration contracts
and, as established building firms failed through lack of work, she purchased
them at rock bottom prices.  This secondary endeavor had now become a
multimillion sestertii business, but try as she might she could not find any
personal vulnerability.  Julia would not give herself any credit for such high
achievements but she was now the biggest single employer, the power behind all
forms of commerce, and the richest person in Rome.

Julia’s accomplishments were
made all the more extraordinary by the fact that nothing was written down, no
one knew the full extent of her power, and the vast majority of Romans had
absolutely no idea who she was.

Quite typically, Julia ignored
the brilliance required to build an empire such as hers simply attributing her
success to beginner’s luck.  She believed that her achievements were nothing
more than blundering good fortune and in the gloom of her unhinged imagination
she believed that someone as intelligent as Clitumna perceived everything.

A healthy person would have seen
that the big woman presented no major threat to someone of Julia’s ability but,
as always, she was looking out at the world through a badly beaten mind.

With no idea what to do about
the incredibly dangerous woman who had found her way into the home of Gaius
Marius, Julia looked up and wept with sheer grief.  She was standing outside
the door of Sulla’s home, her home, and she had no memory of how she got here. 
The place must be etched into her brain.  Like one of the magnetic rocks sold
in the market place, she was helplessly drawn to it.  As she banged on the
door, Julia pondered the idea of buying her own house.  She could afford her
own suburb if she so wanted, but the idea of vengeful destruction of Sulla was
her only driving force — she must stay close to him in order to bring him down
from within.

Cecilia opened the door and it
pleased Julia to think that Sulla was still funding both of their
accommodation, their food, even their clothes.  She could afford to purchase
his entire estate many times over but the thought of using him as a parasite
uses its host had a certain irony which appealed to her burning desire for
vengeance.

To make this eventful day even
worse Cecilia informed Julia that Sulla was sitting in the courtyard in an
advanced state of drunkenness, “He has been waiting for you for quite some
time,” she said in a concerned voice.

As Julia approached the little
fountain Sulla shouted, “Where have you been you good for nothing whore?  I
have been sitting here waiting for you for hours!”

Wiping away her tears and
attempting a smile Julia replied, “The market.”  It was the best she could do
in the circumstances; his presence had taken her completely off guard.

“
I beat Marius!”  he sneered, completely insensitive
to her distraught condition.  “In the Senate, I beat him completely!”

Julia did not protest when he
grabbed her wrist and violently yanked her towards his sleeping chamber.  She
felt sick at the thought of what was about to happen. She always hated his
angry grunting acts of rape, but something’s had to be endured on the path to
vengeance.  She knew that he would not last long before he fell asleep; anyway
she had bigger problems than sex with a drunkard to occupy her mind at that
moment.

Much to her surprise Julia
became aroused by Sulla.  In his drunken moment of victory he needed more than
to simply ejaculate — he needed to completely dominate her.  He had to make
sure that she understood his power and in order to focus her attention on him
he beat her during his aggressive act of sex.

The first blow to her buttocks
while entering from behind shocked her but the sharp pain quickly passed
leaving a numbing feeling that Julia found captivating.  By the time the fourth
blow had been struck Julia was in fits of orgasm.  Sulla felt her excitement
and was driven to new heights as he snorted like the bull he thought himself to
be.

Julia had found the next level
in her sad subconscious existence, it was entirely logical that someone as
worthless as her should be punished by someone as hated as him.