Nero

43

The palace, of course, was in ashes along with the rest of the Palatine. Lucius was staying in one of the imperial villas on the Janiculum, near Caesar's Gardens. When I arrived he wasn't alone: Tigellinus was a constant shadow these days. They were in one of the solars, huddled over a large table covered with sheets of paper.

'Titus.' Lucius was in one of his expansive moods. Tigellinus scowled at me, as usual. 'Nice to see you, my dear. Come and join us. Tiggy and I are replanning the city.'

The sheets were architect's sketches: I noticed a temple or two and some other public buildings. The Office of Public Works must have been working flat out to have produced that many so quickly.

'Bassus tells me you did terribly well in Isis and Serapis.' Lucius edged his chair towards Tigellinus's to give me room to move mine in. 'He was most impressed.'

'That was one of the districts that was completely gutted, wasn't it?'Tigellinus said sourly. 'Nice work, Petronius.'

'Now, Tiggy, don't be a cat!' Lucius gave him a fond smile. 'Titus did his best, I'm sure.'

'At least I was in Rome and not Antium,' I snapped; then regretted it. It was a monumentally stupid remark, because of course Lucius had been in Antium too.

Tigellinus grinned. 'True,' he said. 'We can't all be heroes. Eh, Nero?'

'So it would seem.' The emperor was frowning. 'However, we're here now, Titus, and you heroes who let the city burn will need us lesser mortals' assistance to put it back together again.'

I said nothing. Tigellinus winked at me.

'Show him the plans,' he said.

Lucius brightened up immediately. He swept the smaller sketches aside and unrolled a large sheet of paper, weighting it at the corners with the bronze lamps from the table. I remembered Bassus's model — but then that would be useless now, except as a curio.

'We're rebuilding on the grid system,' he said. 'Nice broad streets laid out straight, not the old higgledy-piggledy nonsense there was before. All the buildings detached. And it'll be done properly. A fixed proportion of the materials will be fire-proof stone. And I'll have the Senate pass a regulation making it obligatory for householders to keep firefighting equipment to hand.'

'We'll regulate the tenements as well,' Tigellinus added. 'Nothing higher than seventy feet. And the frontages will be protected by colonnades.'

'Very impressive.' I didn't have to pretend enthusiasm, although I winced at Tigellinus's 'we'; the man's newly acquired air of civic duty made me want to throw up. 'It should be a great improvement.'

'Ah, but this is the best part, Titus!' Lucius's hand swept over the centre of the map. 'The new palace!'

Bassus had warned me, of course, but it still came as a shock. The entire area between Palatine and Esquiline had been blocked in with buildings and formal gardens.

'My Golden House.' Lucius glanced smugly at Tigellinus. 'Isn't it marvellous?'

'It's certainly…spacious,’ I said.

'Naturally.' Tigellinus gave me a bland look. 'Do you think the Emperor of Rome deserves anything less?'

'No, of course not. But the cost will be — '

Lucius was frowning again. 'Oh, the cost! What does that matter? It's not just for me, it's for Rome. And I'm sure the provinces will be delighted to contribute, especially the eastern ones. After all, if the old Greek kings could build on the grand scale I don't see why I shouldn't. I've asked Severus and Celer to take charge, although of course I've got my own ideas as well.'

'A good choice,' I said. Severus and Celer had worked on Lucius's last building project, the extension to the palace burned down in the fire. They must be rubbing their hands; the new commission would set them up for life, if Lucius managed to push his plans through the Senate. I could hear the popping of aristocratic blood vessels all the way across the Tiber.

'Now, my dear.' Lucius reached for another stack of sketches. 'Let me show you the plans in more detail.'

The cost aside — and even without the rest of the city to consider it would drain the Treasury dry — Lucius's Golden House was a magnificent concept. The low-lying ground between the Palatine and the Esquiline was to be flooded to form a huge lake, round which the buildings were set in an artificial landscape of fields, vineyards and woodland with wild and domestic animals roaming freely. A mile-long triple colonnade, broken to allow the Sacred Way and the New Way to pass through, linked the old and new palaces. On the Caelian, adjoining the Temple of Claudius, was a complex of colonnades and grottoes with plants and running water, while the main residential block lay on the Oppian spur of the Esquiline. Even in its roughly sketched-out form I could appreciate the impressiveness of the finished work.

'Won't it be beautiful?' Lucius beamed when he'd talked me through its main points. 'I'm commissioning a statue of myself. A big one, a hundred feet high. It'll go there.' He pointed to the area between the lake and the house's huge vestibule. 'Overlooking the Market Square. So people will know I'm looking after them even when I'm out of Rome, and these bastards in the Senate will see I've got my eye on them.'

Tigellinus sniggered. 'We're getting Zenodotus to do it. He's only done gods so far. It'll be a step up for him.'

'Oh, don't be silly, Tiggy!' It was a token protest, and Tigellinus took it as such. He smiled at me. 'But it will be nice. And of course you're invited to the house-warming, Titus. When it's all finished we'll have a real party.'

'Thank you.' I needn't hold my breath; he'd be building for years. 'By the way, my dear, speaking of gods, I had an odd bit of news myself the other day.'

'Really? Do tell.'

'It seems my head slave Crito has finally got religion and joined a cult.' I kept my voice light. 'The Christians. Have you ever heard anything so daft?'

'Daft is right.' Tigellinus laughed. 'His timing's imbecilic.'

'Oh?' I turned to him, keeping my expression bland. 'Why so?'

'Let's just say he'd be safer lopping his dangler off and signing up for Attis.'

I played the innocent. 'I didn't know it was a dangerous religion.'

'Oh, it's dangerous all right! Or it soon will be. If your pal hasn't paid his dues yet you can tell him not to bother, he won't be getting the good of them.'

'What's all this about?' I looked at Lucius. He was scowling. 'The whole thing sounded harmless enough to me the way Crito described it.'

'Then you were misinformed,' Lucius said shortly. 'The Christians aren't harmless, darling. They eat human flesh and drink blood, for a start.'

I thought of Paullus and the house near the Praetorian Camp. 'But that's nonsense!'

'Are you contradicting me?' Lucius spoke quietly, but there was an edge to his voice that I recognised. Also Tigellinus was grinning; always a bad sign. I closed my mouth and wished I hadn't brought the subject up. 'Titus, I know these people. They're not a proper cult, they're atheists and criminals, perverts of the worst sort.'

'Oh how exciting.'

'I'm not joking, my dear. They're the dregs of society. Even the Jews will have nothing to do with them. And the flesh and blood is right enough. Did Crito tell you about their love feasts?' He used the Greek term.

'No,' I said. 'He never mentioned them.'

'There you are, then. Ask him yourself and see what he says.'

'He didn't tell you his friends were arsonists either, I'll bet.' Tigellinus spat. 'Religious fanatics who'd burn every temple in Rome for the fun of it. Who have burned more than half of them already.'

'And tried to blame it on me.' The emperor's voice was still calm, but his eyes had developed the hot, manic glare I'd seen before. 'They burned my city, Titus. Oh, yes, I have proof, it was a conspiracy. They're animals, fucking animals, and they'll die like animals, every one of them. I won't stop until Rome's clean again.'

Oh, sweet Serapis! Nevertheless, I let the subject drop. I'd done my best as promised and there was nothing more I could do. Besides, to some extent my sympathies lay with Lucius. Although I didn't believe the rubbish about the love feasts — typical gutter rumour; Lucius had probably got it from Tigellinus, along with the whole idea — old Paullus's egotism had annoyed me considerably. Basically he deserved all he got. A bit of persecution would make his Christians appreciate the civilised virtues of tolerance and compromise, and if Lucius had to find a scapegoat for public anger I could think of worse candidates than that sanctimonious crew.

Still, I didn't relish having to tell Crito.