The Art of War

Chapter 83

Rome, 20–21 December AD 69

Horus

The house folded its silk welcome around us, warm, safe, homely; an antidote to Jocasta’s poison.

Word had come ahead of us of Drusus’ death; Segoventos, the Belgian who had taken his place as our doorman, was beside himself with grief and the rest of the House was subdued and sad even before we arrived with Felix’ body and news that Domitian had been taken by Jocasta.

It’s hard to know which part of that was hardest. We did not know Felix well, but Drusus had been our brother, our friend, and we mourned him. Then again, everyone had come to like Domitian in the time he had spent with us and all of us knew by then that he was the new emperor’s son — if he lived.

I ordered wine for everyone and locked the doors and had them hang white banners from the windows to show we were in mourning and promised that there would be no work tonight, or tomorrow.

The lady Caenis, it hardly needs saying, was a model of composure. We offered her a bed, alone, of course, and the opportunity to bathe, but she sat with the rest of us as we gathered news from the night.

She kept close to Borros, feeling, I think, a measure of responsibility for his grief; or perhaps she simply liked him. Together, they oversaw the laying out of Felix, ensuring he was accorded all honours as one who had given his life in defence of the new emperor; he was treated as a hero.

Trabo, of course, did not believe the evidence of his eyes. In his mind, Pantera was the threat and Jocasta the injured victim. In the end, we gave him poppy to calm his rantings, which worked for a while.

He recovered his wits around midnight, and I set a girl to tend him: Tertia, the one Pantera had paid for and ordered and sent to him in the summer, to see to his needs when Jocasta was not with him. Bizarre though it sounds, she had grown fond of him, I think. Certainly she cared for him, and soothed him, and let him work out his anger in safer ways.

Of us all, Pantera was least readily contained. I’ve known him almost all my life and never been afraid of him, but I was afraid that night. He didn’t rant or scream, or even speak much, but he gave off a kind of white-hot fury that stunned everyone to silence. Even the lady Caenis was subdued in his presence.

As soon as he could, he left, taking Marcus-who-served-with-us and together they called up every silver-boy they could reach — which was all of them, given that he had taken half of my gold stocks as payment. They were set to work with explicit instructions, but scour the city as they might they couldn’t find Jocasta or Domitian.

After midnight, when the noise of fighting had died away, Pantera sent Marcus back with news that the barracks had fallen: two thousand men bravely dead with their wounds all to the fore. Soon after, another boy brought word that Antonius Primus had occupied the palace formerly used by Vitellius and was holding it in Vespasian’s name while his men conducted a street by street clear-up of the city.

Nobody knew where Lucius was, except that he wasn’t in Rome. Pantera believed that he was marching up from Misene and would be on us within a day, and that Jocasta had gone to join him.

Near dawn, Pantera came back with word that a woman fitting her description had taken two of Vitellius’ horses and paid for them with coins cut in Vitellius’ likeness. It wasn’t proof, but it was as close as we were likely to get.

Pantera roused Caenis and told her that he, personally, was going to lead the legions that were about to march out to face Lucius. He knelt before her and swore that he would bring Domitian back to her alive, or die in the attempt. He chose not to leave her in my care, but took her to Antonius Primus, who could provide half a legion to protect her.

Then he came back for Trabo.