Sejanus

5

Next morning I called round at the Watch's regional headquarters near the Capenan Gate. I'd expected to be told that Lippillus was out, but there he was, bawling at a young squaddie who towered over him by at least a head.

'Hey, Lippillus,' I said.

He looked up, did a double-take and grinned: not so much the twelve-year-old lookalike he'd been when I first met him, more a disreputable dwarf. He jerked his thumb.

'Out!'

The squaddie fled.

'I heard you were back, Corvinus,' he said. The grin had faded. 'And the reason. I'm sorry about your father. And for missing the funeral. A knifing in the Remuria.'

'That's okay.' I watched the squaddie's back as he disappeared. Well, at least if I did nothing else today I'd taken one poor bugger's balls out of the mangle. I could still smell his sweat. 'How are things?'

Lippillus shrugged: he was watching the squaddie as well, but with disapproval. 'A cartload of kitchen ware goes missing and the next day that stupid bastard buys a casserole from a guy in a wineshop and doesn't make the tie-in. Can you believe that?'

'Not easily, no.'

'Fact. The only reason it's come out now is that I overheard him myself telling his mates he knew where they could get a half-set of Samian cost.' He spat onto the floor. 'Jupiter on a bloody tightrope!'

'Yeah. I see what you mean.'

He shook his head. 'They're not a bad lot, the Pisspond lads. When they get round to telling their arses from their elbows, that is.'

'Better than the Aventine?'

'Rome's Rome. It's the same all over. Just some parts, you get a better class of criminal.'

'Like the senate house district?'

The grin came back. 'Like the senate house district.' He paused. 'Split a jug of wine?'

'You twisted my arm.'

'One thing to be said for being the boss,' he said as we left. 'You can slope off for a drink whenever you like and people are glad to see you go.

'The wineshop by the Temple of the Good Goddess was obviously familiar ground: the waiter didn't ask what we wanted and Lippillus didn't tell him. Two minutes later he came back with a jug of white, a charcoal-grilled Lucanian sausage, bread and a saucer of olives in their own oil.

'Cheers. Welcome home.' Lippillus lifted his cup and took a long swallow. I did the same. The wine was a surprise, one you didn't come across very often in Rome: Gauranum, from around Puteoli, cold from the cellar and not at all bad. The sausage wasn't bad, either, heavy with garlic and cumin.

'So. How's life in Athens?'

The way he said the name made it sound like some mud-hut village in the sticks; but then Lippillus didn't have much time for anywhere outside the fifth milestone.

'It's okay, if you happen to like culture and old marble.' I sliced up the sausage. 'I'm learning.'

'How's Perilla? Any kids yet?'

For someone so smart you'd've thought Lippillus would've been more sensitive; but then he wasn't married. Not properly, anyway.

'No,' I said quietly. 'No kids.'

'Shame.'

'Yeah.' I tore off a bit of bread and sopped it in the olive oil. 'Marcina's fine?'

'Putting on weight, but yes, she's fine.' That one I didn't chase; I'd never been exactly sure what Lippillus's relationship with his stepmother was. His father had been dead for years, of course, since long before I knew him, and like I said the lady was no fat-jowled Roman matron. Anyway, it was none of my business.

'Good, good,' I said.

Lippillus laid his knife aside. 'Okay, Corvinus,' he said. 'Don't pussyfoot. Now we've got families out of the way suppose you tell me what I can do for you.'

I grinned. 'It's that obvious?'

'You come all the way down to Pisspond two hours before your normal breakfast time and expect me to think it's a social call? Sure it's obvious.'

'Breakfast, nothing!' I was laughing. 'And I didn't get to bed until five hours ago!'

'So what's unusual?' He bit on a piece of sausage. 'Come on, Marcus, give.'

'Okay.' I nodded. 'I wanted to bounce a few names off you.'

'What kind of names?'

'Big ones. Gaius Junius Silanus. Gaius Silius. Titius Sabinus…'

Lippillus had set his wine cup down. He was frowning. 'What is this?'

‘They mean anything to you?'

'You're talking old treason, ten to three years old. Silius and Sabinus are dead. Silanus is on Cythnos. So I'll ask you again. What's your interest?'

I couldn't lie to him. Not when I needed him so badly, or considering how much I'd be asking. 'You remember a certain favourite of the emperor we carefully didn't discuss over a drink once upon a time?'

He picked up an olive and chewed carefully before replying. I could almost hear his brain clicking.

'The Commander of Praetorians.' he said at last. 'Sure I remember. What does Sejanus have to do with this?'

'The senate wants him nailed.'

'Sejanus?' Lippillus laughed. 'Corvinus, you're crazy! That's our next emperor you're talking about!'

I kept my voice neutral. 'Maybe. You approve?'

The laughter stopped abruptly. 'Come on, pal! The bastard's a crook, and I don't like crooks, you know that. But like it or not he's still the Wart's successor.'

'Not yet he isn't.'

'Look.' Lippillus pushed the plate of sausage out of the way. 'Approval has nothing to do with it. It's plain fact. Who else is there? The Wart has no natural sons since Drusus died, and as far as Germanicus's boys are concerned Nero's dead, young Drusus is a dangerous maniac and Gaius is still wet behind the ears. Tiberius can't last more than another two or three years at most. Who else has he got but Sejanus? Or do you think he'll hand the empire over to that halfwit Claudius to play with?'

'Hold it.' I'd set my own cup down. 'Young Drusus is mad?'

Lippillus hesitated. 'So the rumour goes. An inside-edge rumour, so don't spread it around, okay? He wasn't too stable at the best of times, and being locked up has pushed the boy over. The emperor couldn't let him out now even if he wanted to, and as far as making him crown prince is concerned, forget it. The last thing Rome needs is a madman on the throne.'

I took a swallow of the Gauranian. Lippillus was right, of course. Even if Grandson Drusus was family the Wart had his responsibilities, and he knew where they lay, better than anyone. Power was power whichever way you sliced it, and if it came into the wrong hands we were all in trouble. Even Sejanus in charge of the empire would be better than a madman. 'So. What about the names I mentioned?'

Lippillus scowled into his winecup. 'They're all big Julian supporters, friends of Agrippina. Or they were. If you're looking for a pattern.'

Yeah. I'd thought that might be the answer. It was the only one that made sense. 'You mean we're talking about a political purge,' I said.

Another hesitation. 'You sure you want to discuss this?'

'I'm sure.'

'Okay.' He was still scowling. 'Only be careful how you use it, right? It's not exactly dinnertime conversation, even these days.'

'I'll be careful.'

'There was nothing overt, not at first, but it was a purge right enough. Sejanus knocked them off their perches one by one. Not just them, there were others. Agrippina's cousin Claudia Pulchra. A lady called Aquilia. Gaius Furnius and Varius Ligur.'

I remembered these four from my notes. The women had been exiled for adultery, the two men being named as partners. Four birds with two stones. Not bad going.

'And he finished up with the Julians themselves,' I said. 'Agrippina, Nero and Drusus.' The first two exiled, the third shut away and — as I now knew — a madman. 'Jupiter!'

'Yeah.' Lippillus nodded. 'By that time the Julian party's power was broken and Sejanus could go for the top. Like I said, he's the only one left.'

I pitted an olive. Livia had been right about the senate's records providing a key to Sejanus. This was what she'd been pointing me at.

'So tell me more,' I said.

'You want a lesson in politics? I'm no political expert, Marcus.'

'Yeah. Sure.' We'd had this conversation before, and I’d yet to hit on a subject while talking to Lippillus that the guy wasn’t well up on, despite the inevitable disclaimer. 'Just give me the basic details, the ones that everybody knows. Pretend I'm an idiot.'

'What's to pretend?' He grinned suddenly and refilled our wine cups. 'Okay. So we'll start from where you left for Greece. You know Tiberius and Drusus — his own son Drusus, not Germanicus's boy — shared the consulship for the next year?'

'Sure.' That had made sense. It had been inevitable, in fact: with Germanicus dead the Wart had had to choose a new crown prince, and Drusus was the obvious choice. Sharing the consulship was the usual way of signalling it; which was why, this year past, the alarm bells had begun ringing with Sejanus.

'Right.' Lippillus broke a piece of bread and dunked it in olive oil. 'Only the Wart had already presented young Nero to the senate, and married him to his son Drusus's daughter. You with me?'

'You're saying that Tiberius was marking Drusus as his successor, but Nero was next in line.'

'Uh huh. Then the Wart takes the next step, the big one. He gives Drusus a share of his own tribunician power. But he also makes sure that Nero and his brother, the other Drusus, have their feet on the first rung of the imperial ladder. A working compromise. Drusus is to be the next emperor, but he'll be followed by a Julian.'

There was something wrong here. 'Drusus had a son of his own,' I said. 'What you're saying is that Tiberius's own son agreed to be no more than a stopgap for Agrippina's boys.'

Lippillus shrugged. 'I told you, Corvinus. I'm no politician. Drusus seemed happy enough, in public, anyway. He hadn't been asked to adopt Nero formally, and his own son Gemellus was hardly more than an infant. He couldn't've expected the Wart to do otherwise, not if he had the empire's best interests at heart.'

Yeah, okay, that made sense. Like Lippillus said, it was a working compromise. The empire had an experienced crown prince — Drusus — in the saddle with two up-and-coming Imperials, Agrippina's kids, to back him. And Agrippina couldn't complain that her side of the family was getting a raw deal. 'Only then the situation changed. Drusus died.'

'Drusus died.'

'Uh huh.' I kept my voice neutral. 'You happen to know how that happened, exactly?'

His eyes held mine. 'Don't jump to conclusions. The death was natural.'

'You're sure?'

'It was a long-standing thing, not sudden. He'd had trouble on and off for years. Some sort of wasting sickness that finally killed him. Sejanus was just lucky, that's all.'

Yeah, okay, maybe; these things happen. But guys like Sejanus make their own luck. I shelved that one for future reference. 'So the game was wide open again. There was a vacancy at the top, for a caretaker.'

'Right. The two young Julians were still in place, but the experienced man was gone.'

'Enter Sejanus.'

Lippillus shook his head. 'No, not yet. He'd've liked the job, sure. Only it wasn't that easy, even if he'd had the Wart's full support.' He chewed on a slice of sausage. 'Court favourite or not, Sejanus is a nobody. We're not talking simple power here, you understand. We're talking family.'

Yeah. That added up. You don't need to tell a Valerius Messalla about family. You either have it or you don't, and if you don't then breaking into the system is as difficult as swimming the Tiber with your hands tied behind you and a brick between your teeth. Sejanus had power, sure, but it came from the Wart and left to itself it would die with the Wart. He may've been fairly well connected on his mother's side, but not well enough to count. There're only two ways to join the inner club at Rome: either you're born into it or you marry into it. Preferably both. Tiberius understood that. He could mark Sejanus as caretaker, sure, but the system would've accepted the guy only as long as the Wart was there to back him; which, when the time came, he naturally wouldn't be. And that was no position for a designated successor to be in.

'So Sejanus began to make space for himself by sandbagging the Julians?' I took another swallow of wine.

'Correct. There's the reason for your treason trials, Corvinus.' Lippillus emptied the jug into my cup and signalled the waiter for another. Ah, well. Perilla couldn't blame me this time. 'He had to make himself indispensable by getting rid of the opposition, and he did it by convincing the Wart that the Julians were a danger. Meanwhile he was pestering the emperor over Drusus's widow Livilla. Tiberius turned him down flat, but you see the plan.'

Uh huh. Sure I did. Like I say, Sejanus's only way into the club was by marriage. As Livilla's husband he'd be the Wart's son-in-law and Gemellus's stepfather. Once the Julians were discredited he'd be sitting pretty. Was sitting pretty: to all intents and purposes the Julians were gone, and when the Wart had named Sejanus as his colleague in the consulship he'd also made the betrothal to Livilla official. All he needed now was the tribunician power to mark him indelibly as Rome's future ruler, and that would come because, like Lippillus had said, the emperor had no one else to give it to.

I sat back. 'How much of this is common knowledge?'

'All of it, I expect. In the right circles.'

Yeah. That I could understand. It was why Lamia and Arruntius were so desperate to have the guy's plug pulled as of yesterday. 'And to the emperor as well?'

'Naturally. It has to be. Tiberius may've shut himself away in Capri, but he's no fool and most of it happened before he retired. He's backing Sejanus all the way, Corvinus. He has no choice. And don't you let anyone tell you different.'

Shit. No wonder the senate were chewing their communal fingernails off at the wrist, or that they'd been desperate enough to ask for my help. If the Wart had decided that Sejanus was going to be the next emperor in full knowledge of what a bastard he was then Livia's plan was stone dead. We could all put the shutters up and go home. Finish, end of story.

There was only one thing that was niggling me, and it had been niggling right from the start of Lippillus's politics lesson. Not a big thing, maybe it meant nothing, but it niggled.

'You said Sejanus began going for the Julians after Drusus died, right?' I said.

'Yeah. So what?'

'One of those guys I mentioned. Junius Silanus. When was he charged exactly?'

Lippillus frowned. 'You want the date? How the hell should I know?'

'Not the exact date. I can check that for myself. Just remind me. Was it before or after Drusus hung up his sandals?'

I'd got him now: I told you, Lippillus was quick. If Sejanus's plan to slug the Julians postdated the death of the Wart's son then Silanus was an anomaly.

'It was before,' he said. 'About a year before.'

'That's what I thought. The next question's obvious. Silanus was charged with treason, and the Wart pressed the case. So what did Silanus do exactly?'

'I don't know.' We were staring at each other now. 'That would be in the senatorial records.'

'It isn't. I've looked. There's just the bare charge and the verdict.'

'Is that so, now?' Lippillus said slowly, and stroked his jaw.

'That's so. But maybe I should have another look at that particular roll.'

'Yeah. I'd do that, too.' He was looking thoughtful. 'Meanwhile I'll tell you something else. Silanus wasn't the first Julian to go. There was a guy a year before him, a Caesius Cordus. He was condemned for treason too.'

Uh huh. I remembered Cordus from my notes. He'd been governor of Crete and Cyrene, while Silanus had had Asia. Adjoining provinces, both senatorial and so outwith the emperor's direct control…

Silanus and Cordus. Both Julians, both governors of senatorial provinces. Both condemned for treason and extortion, from adjoining commands…

Maybe significant, maybe not, but there was a cold chill at the nape of my neck that told me it mattered.

'Corvinus?' Lippillus was looking at me. 'You okay?'

I brought myself back with a wrench.

'Yeah,' I said. 'Yeah, I'm okay. Thanks, pal. Thanks a lot.'

'Don't mention it.' He emptied his cup and got to his feet. 'Now if you'll excuse me this high-powered stuff's all very well but I've got a salary to earn.'

'We ordered another jug.'

'Have it on me. Grumio'll charge it to my account in any case. You're on holiday, remember?'

'Dinner some time soon? I'll send Bathyllus.'

'Sure.'

'Bring Marcina.'

He flashed me a smile. 'Mother'll look forward to it. I'll see you around, Corvinus.'

I glanced up at the sun. Just after noon. The records office would be open for another three hours at least, a jug was a jug, and, like Lippillus had said, this was supposed to be a holiday…

Conscience and duty won. I sighed and rose to go. Perilla would have been proud of me.