The Art of War

Chapter 66

Rome, 19 December AD 69

Geminus

Nobody knows how the fire started in the temple on the Capitol hill. At least, nobody who speaks to me now, or who brought me messages at the time. It was the sacred heart of Rome; none of us wanted to live through what must happen to the empire if it burned to the ground.

Juvens’ men say it was ablaze when they got there, that they organized bucket gangs to try to douse the flames. Those of Sabinus’ contingent to whom I have spoken say that one barrel of fired pitch they threw out as a diversion was thrown back at them, and the temple, being old and dry and wrought of ancient wood, caught light like a tinder stack and the flames were unquenchable.

Reports from Juvens say he was on top of the tenements when he saw it, and knew what was needed. But it was eighteen storeys down to the nearest well and there was no way his own men were going to be able to stop the blaze.

It did mean, though, that he could abandon his earlier secrecy. He spun to face his men, with the wild fire growing bolder behind him.

‘Follow me! Find Sabinus and Domitian! Find the consul! Bring me anyone of consequence you can find. Don’t let a single one escape or you’ll answer to me!’

The flames had caught the temple, but the courtyard was still untouched. It was the work of moments for Halotus to throw their stolen door across from the third tenement to the wall and for Juvens to swarm across — don’t look down! — and then on to the wall and down from it into the temple precinct. He was expecting a fight, and, indeed, Sabinus had marshalled the men inside and planned ways by which they might hold every entrance until morning.

The fire, though, had changed everything. As the temple blazed behind them, the assembled masses in the courtyard wanted nothing more than to open the gates and get out. They had nowhere to go, though, until Juvens arrived; Priscus’ men held the Hundred Steps gate on the north side and the front gate had wood piled against it, leaving nowhere safe as an exit.

Juvens came over the wall to find silent, soot-speckled men and women waiting for him, standing in lines. One stepped forward; an elderly man, stooped a little, his hair dusted with ash.

‘In the name of the emperor Vespasian,’ he said, ‘know that you are committing a crime against the state and will be punished for it.’

Juvens choked on a laugh. ‘And you are?’

‘I am his brother, Sabinus. And this is the consul, Quinctillius Atticus…’ Sabinus signalled behind him. Any one of three or four men clustered at the crowd’s head might have been the consul; he was certainly making no effort to be conspicuous.

Sabinus went on, ‘We hold the rule of Rome until my brother’s arrival, or that of his commander, Antonius Primus. You have fired the Capitol, sacred heart of Rome, and for that you will answer. In the meantime, you have a duty to the people of Rome. We commend ourselves to your care.’

Juvens sucked in a breath. There was a protocol to be followed amongst men of noble blood. He said, ‘Do you personally, Titus Flavius Sabinus, prefect of Rome, give yourself into my care?’

‘I do.’

‘Then if you wish to live, I would strongly advise you not to mention your brother’s name or that of his generals in the presence of my men: too many of them remember the shame of Narnia.’ He turned to his nearest officer. ‘Halotus, put this man in chains. Find out which of those craven idiots is the consul and bring him too.’

‘Where are we taking them?’ Halotus was loyal, but not especially bright.

‘To the emperor.’ And then, because there was an unforgivable flicker of confusion in the man’s eyes — don’t you dare ask which emperor! — ‘To Vitellius. And you…’ He rounded on a passing Guard. ‘Find Domitian.’

‘He isn’t here,’ Sabinus said.

‘Not here in the temple? Or not here in Rome?’

‘He has never been in the temple,’ Sabinus said. ‘And now he has left Rome.’

As Halotus led the older man off, the only certainty in Juvens’ mind was that Sabinus had just lied to him. Which was why he was still with the mass of refugees he had herded out on to the Asylum, working his way personally through the sorry band of would-be rebels, hunting for the son of the usurper, when the catastrophe happened near the mint on the Arx.

He didn’t see it, but he heard a cheer go up, of exactly the timbre and bloody enthusiasm of those in the circus when the beasts came out, or the gladiators fought to the death.

‘ Hades, no!’

He blasted away from the prisoners and sprinted down the slope and up the other side to the Arx, but he was too late to stop the frenzied stabbing, too late to stop Guards turned feral monsters from stripping the body of the man who had given himself freely into Juvens’ care, too late to stop his desecrated corpse being flung to the foot of the Gemonian steps, the customary fate of convicted thieves and bandits.

He was in time to arrest the four men he had put in charge of the prisoner, but he didn’t do it; there was no point, and he needed them: Halotus was the ringleader and the other three were amongst the bravest he had.

They hadn’t killed Quinctillius Atticus, the consul, and so they were ordered to take him forthwith to the emperor, on the understanding that if he died they would watch the sun rise from the heights of a cross, and Juvens returned to the systematic search of the refugees, to be sure that Sabinus had not hidden his nephew amongst them.

He didn’t find the boy before the heat of the burning temple forced him to bring the people away lest he roast them all. The courtyard acted as a kind of fire break, but in the temple itself the fire had become a monster, eating rock and wood and the bronze statues and laws and legacies beyond price. It destroyed centuries of Roman jurisprudence and the sanctity of Roman decency.

In the morning, he and I might hope to contemplate what it would take to rebuild it, but then, in the night, Rome was left to watch the biggest hill beacon in the history of her empire burn high into the sky.

That’s when the war became real, I think, for the rest of Rome. They couldn’t keep on pretending it wasn’t going to touch them after something like that.