The Fateful Day

EPILOGUE

We cremated little Maximus next day, and I gave him a simple funeral, burying his ashes by the enclosure fence. It was a small affair compared to the enormous pyre which Georgicus had made next door for the Funeral Guild to use and which filled the air with acrid smoke for several hours. I did succeed in sending word to him in time and the heads were added to the fire before it died, so Marcus’s household had as good a funeral as could have been arranged.

I did not attend the trial of Egidius, though I was willing to — Alfredus, as a curial magistrate, was a more impressive witness than I could have been, and he had a financial stake in the affair. The outcome was predictable, of course. Egidius was exiled again for having planned my death and arranged the robbery, and his goods were confiscated to pay the fines and compensation that he owed. I don’t know what became of Cacus — he would have had a less official trial. The tanner’s wife tells me that they sent him to the mines instead of executing him, on the grounds that he was following his master’s orders all the time.

A little of the fine-money should have come to me in compensation for the loss of Maximus, but Julia — who had received my courier in time — offered to provide another slave instead, and leave it to Marcus to meet the bill for it when he returns (which won’t be very long: he’s sent word that he’s already on his way). It was the least that she could do to repay me for my help, she told me warmly when she and her children did arrive in town. Marcus would want to reward me much more handsomely, she thought (though I was less convinced) but in the meantime I could have the choice of any slave available.

Naturally I selected Tenuis. He knew nothing of the duties of a household slave, but he is young enough to learn and pathetically grateful that I’ve chosen him. He’s only been with me half a moon or so, but he’s already filling out now that he is getting sufficient food to eat, and he’s promising to be a sturdy little chap and helpful with the chores. Soon I’ll have to teach him how to help me dress. Minimus liked him from the start, and Gwellia — though she grumbles at his childish carelessness — is growing fond of him.

But soon I may be able to buy her another slave as well — for her own personal use. My peculiar talisman may have brought me luck. Alfredus Allius is convinced of it. I had a meeting with him and Scipio only yesterday. The court held that the purchase of the Egidius house was still a valid one. The formal contract that Egidius had sworn so publicly could not be overturned, and though the furniture and Marcus’s effects were returned to their rightful owner without recompense, the house (together with the travelling carriage) is Scipio’s.

He’s had the wise woman and the priest to cleanse the villa of its ghosts and offered me a contract to replace the floors. The fee will keep my little family for a year or more, so — despite the troubles which rocked the Empire on that fateful day — I, at least, have some small cause to celebrate.