At the end of January in the following year, Cinnilla gave birth to Caesar's daughter, Julia, a frost fair and delicate mite who pleased father and mother enormously. "A son is a great expense, dearest wife," said Caesar, "whereas a daughter is a political asset of infinite value when her lineage is patrician on both sides and she has a good dowry. One can never know how a son will turn out, but our Julia is perfect. Like her grandmother Aurelia, she will have her pick of dozens of suitors." "I can't see much prospect for the good dowry," said the mother, who had not had an easy time of it during labor, but was now recovering well. "Don't worry, Cinnilla my lovely! By the time Julia is old enough to marry, the dowry will be there." Aurelia was in her element, having taken charge of the baby and fallen head over heels in love with this grandchild. She had four others by now, Lia's two sons by their different fathers and Ju Ju's daughter and son, but none of them lived in her house. Nor were they the progeny of her son, the light of her life. "She will keep her blue eyes, they're very pale," said Aurelia, delighted baby Julia had thrown to her father's side, "and her hair has no more color than ice." "I'm glad you can see hair," said Caesar gravely. "To me she looks absolutely bald and that, since she's a Caesar and therefore supposed to have a thick head of hair, is not welcome." "Rubbish! Of course she has hair! Wait until she's one year old, my son, and then you'll see that she has a thick head of hair. It will never darken much. She'll be silver rather than gold, the precious little thing." "She looks as homely as poor Gnaea to me." "Caesar, Caesar! She's newborn! And she's going to look very like you." "What a fate," said Caesar, and departed. He proceeded to the city's most prestigious inn, on the corner of the Forum Romanum and the Clivus Orbius; he had received a message that his clients who had commissioned him to prosecute the elder Dolabella were back in Rome, and anxious to see him. "We have another case for you," said the leader of the Greek visitors, Iphicrates of Thessalonica. "I'm flattered," said Caesar, frowning. "But who is there you could be interested in prosecuting? Appius Claudius Pulcher hasn't been governor long enough to bring a case against him, surely, even if you could persuade the Senate to consent to trying a governor still in office." "This is an odd task which has nothing to do with Macedonian governors," said Iphicrates. "We want you to prosecute Gaius Antonius Hybrida for atrocities he committed while he was a prefect of cavalry under Sulla ten years ago." "Ye gods! After all this time, why?" We do not expect to win, Caesar. That is not the object of our mission. Simply, our experiences under the elder of the two Dolabellae has brought home to us forcibly that there are some Romans put over us who are little better than animals. And we think it high time that the city of Rome was made aware of this. Petitions are useless. No one bothers to read them, least of all the Senate. Charges of treason or extortion are rarefied businesses in courts only the upper classes of Rome bother to attend. What we want is to attract the attention of the knights, and even of the lower classes. So we thought of a trial in the Murder Court, a juicy arena all classes attend. And when we cast around for a suitable subject, the name of Gaius Antonius Hybrida leaped to every mind immediately." "What did he do?" Caesar asked. He was the prefect of cavalry in charge of the districts of Thespiae, Eleusis and Orchomenus during the time when Sulla or some of his army lived in Boeotia. But he did very little soldiering. Instead he found delight in terrible pleasures torture, maiming, rape of women and men, boys and girls, murder." "Hybrida?" "Yes, Hybrida." Well, I always knew he was a typical Antonian drunk more than sober, incapable of keeping any money in his purse, avid for women and food in enormous excess." An expression of distaste appeared on Caesar's face. "But torture? Even for an Antonian, that's not usual. I'd believe it quicker of an Ahenobarbus!" "Our evidence is absolutely unassailable, Caesar." "I suppose he must get it from his mother. She wasn't a Roman, though I always heard she was a decent enough woman. An Apulian. But the Apulians are not barbarians, and what you describe is pure barbarism. Even Gaius Verres didn't go so far!" "Our evidence is absolutely unassailable," said Iphicrates again. He looked a little sly. "Now perhaps you understand our plight: who in Rome's highest circles will believe us unless all of Rome is talking, and all of Rome sees our evidence with its own eyes?" "You have victims for witnesses?" "Dozens of them if necessary. People of unimpeachable virtue and standing. Some without eyes, some without ears, some without tongues, some without hands or feet or legs or genitals or wombs or arms or skin or noses or combinations of these. The man was a beast. So were his cronies, though they do not matter, as they were not of the high nobility." Caesar looked sick. "His victims lived, then." "Most of them lived, that is true. Antonius, you see, thought that what he did was an art. And the art lay in inflicting the most pain and dismemberment without death ensuing. Antonius's greatest joy was to ride back into one of his towns months later to see that his victims still lived." "Well, it will be awkward for me, but I will certainly take the case," said Caesar sternly. "Awkward? How, awkward?" "His elder brother, Marcus, is married to my first cousin once removed the daughter of Lucius Caesar, who was consul and later murdered by Gaius Marius. There are three little boys Hybrida's nephews who are my first cousins twice removed. It is not considered good form to prosecute members of one's own family, Iphicrates." "But is the actual relationship one which extends to Gaius Antonius Hybrida? Your cousin is not married to him." "True, and it is for that reason I will take the case. But many will disapprove. The blood does link in Julia's three sons." It was Lucius Decumius he chose to talk to, rather than to Gaius Matius or someone else closer to his rank. "You hear everything, dad. But have you heard of this?" Having been dowered with a physical apparatus incapable of looking older when he was younger and younger when he was older, Lucius Decumius remained ever the same; Caesar was hard put to calculate his age, which he guessed at around sixty. "A bit, not much. His slaves don't last beyond six months, yet you never sees them buried. I always gets suspicious when I never sees them buried. Usually means all sorts of nasty antics." "Nothing is more despicable than cruelty to a slave!" "Well, you'd think so, Caesar. You got the world's best mother, you been brought up right." "It should not have to do with how one is brought up!" said Caesar angrily. "It surely has to do with one's innate nature. I can understand such atrocities when they're perpetrated by barbarians their customs, traditions and gods ask things of them which we Romans outlawed centuries ago. To think of a Roman nobleman one of the Antonii! taking pleasure in inflicting such suffering oh, dad, I find it hard to believe!" But Lucius Decumius merely looked wise. "It's all around you, Caesar, and you knows it is. Maybe not quite so horrible, but that's mostly because people is afraid of getting caught. You just consider for a moment! This Antonius Hybrida, he's a Roman nobleman just like you say. The courts protects him and his own sort protects him. What's he got to be afraid of, once he starts? All what stops most people starting, Caesar, is the fear of getting caught. Getting caught means punishment. And the higher a man is, the further he's got to fall. But just sometimes you finds a man with the clout to be whatever he wants to be who goes ahead and is what he wants to be. Like Antonius Hybrida. Not many like him in any place. Not many! But there's always some, Caesar. Always some." "Yes, you're right. Of course you're right." The eyelids fell tiredly, blocked out Caesar's thoughts. "What you're saying is that such men must be brought to book. Punished." "Unless you wants a lot more of the same. Let one off and two more gets daring." "So I must bring him to book. That won't be easy." "It won't be easy." "Aside from dark rumors of disappearing slaves, what else do you know about him, dad?" "Not much, except that he's hated. Tradesmen hates him. So do ordinary people. When he pinches a sweet little girl as he walks down the street, he pinches too hard, makes her cry." And where does my cousin Julia fit into all this?" "Ask your mother, Caesar, not me!" "I can't ask my mother, Lucius Decumius!" Lucius Decumius thought about that, and nodded. "No, you can't, right enough." He paused to ponder. "Well, that Julia's a silly woman not one of your smarter Julias for sure! Her Antonius is a bit of a lad, if you follows me
, but not cruel. Thoughtless. Don't know when to give his boys a good kick up the arse, little beggars." "You mean his boys run wild?" "As a forest boar." Let me see.... Marcus, Gaius, Lucius. Oh, I wish I knew more about family matters! I don't listen to the women talking, is the trouble. My mother could tell me in an instant. ... But she's too clever, dad, she'd want to know why I'm interested, and then she'd try to persuade me not to take the case. After which we'd quarrel. Far better that when she does learn I'm taking the case, it's an accomplished fact." He sighed, looked rueful. "I think I'd better hear more about Hybrida's brother's boys, dad." Lucius Decumius screwed up his eyes, pursed his lips. "I sees them about the Subura shouldn't be scampering in the Subura with no pedagogue or servant, but they does. Steal food from the shops, more to torment than because they wants it." "How old are they?" "Can't tell you exactly, but Marcus looks about twelve in size and acts five in mind, so put him at seven or eight. The other two is littler." "Yes, they're hulking brutes, all the Antonii. I take it the father of these boys hasn't much money." "Always on the edge of disaster, Caesar." "I won't do him or his boys any good if I prosecute, then." "You won't." "I have to take the case, dad." "Well, I knows that!" "What I need are some witnesses. Preferably free men or women or children who are willing to testify. He must be doing it here too. And his victims won't all be vanished slaves." "I'll go looking, Caesar." His womenfolk knew the moment he came in the front door that some trouble had come upon him, but neither Aurelia nor Cinnilla tried to discover its nature. Under more normal circumstances Aurelia certainly would have, but the baby occupied her attention more than she would have cared to admit, so she missed the significance of Caesar's mood. And therefore the chance to talk him out of prosecuting Gaius Antonius Hybrida, whose nephews were Caesar's close cousins.
The Murder Court was the logical venue, but the more Caesar thought about the case the less he liked the idea of a trial in the Murder Court. For one thing, the president was the praetor Marcus Junius Juncus, who resented his allocation to an ex aedile's court, but no ex aediles had volunteered this year; Caesar had already clashed with him during a case he had pleaded in January. The other great difficulty was the un Roman litigants. It was very difficult indeed in any court to get a favorable verdict when the plaintiffs were foreign nationals and the defendant a Roman of high birth and standing. All very well for his clients to say that they didn't mind losing the case, but Caesar knew a judge like Juncus would ensure the proceedings were kept quiet, the court shoved away somewhere designed to discourage a large audience. And the worst of it was that the tribune of the plebs Gnaeus Sicinius was monopolizing Forum audiences by agitating ceaselessly for a full restoration of all the powers which had used to belong to the tribunes of the plebs. Nobody was interested in anything else, especially after Sicinius had come out with a witticism already going down in the collection of every literary dilettante who amassed political witticisms. "Why," the consul Gaius Scribonius Curio had asked him, exasperated, "is it that you harass me and my colleague Gnaeus Octavius, you harass the praetors, the aediles, your fellow tribunes of the plebs, Publius Cethegus, all our consulars and great men, bankers like Titus Atticus, even the poor quaestors! and yet you never say a word against Marcus Licinius Crassus? Isn't Marcus Crassus worthy of your venom? Or is it Marcus Crassus who is putting you up to your antics? Go on, Sicinius, you yapping little dog, tell me why you leave Crassus alone!" Well aware that Curio and Crassus had had a falling out, Sicinius pretended to give the question serious consideration before answering. "Because Marcus Crassus has hay wrapped around both his horns," he said gravely. The very large audience had collapsed on the ground laughing, appreciating every nuance. The sight of an ox with hay wrapped around one horn was common enough; the hay was a warning that the animal might look placid, but it would suddenly gore with the hayed horn. Oxen with hay wrapped around both horns were avoided like lepers. Had Marcus Crassus not possessed the unruffled, bovine look and build of an ox, the remark would not have been so apt; but what made it so hilarious was the inference that Marcus Crassus was such a prick he had two of them. Therefore, how to attract away some of Sicinius's devoted following? How to give the case the audience it deserved? And while Caesar chewed these matters over, his clients journeyed back to Boeotia to gather evidence and witnesses in the exact way Caesar had instructed; the months went on, the clients returned, and still Caesar had not applied to Juncus to hear the case. "I do not understand!" cried Iphicrates, disappointed. "If we do not hurry, we may not be heard at all!" "I have a feeling there's a better way," said Caesar. "Be patient with me a little longer, Iphicrates. I promise I will make sure you and your colleagues don't have to wait in Rome for more months. Your witnesses are well hidden?" Absolutely, just as you ordered. In a villa outside Cumae." And then one day early in June, the answer came. Caesar had paused by the tribunal of the praetor peregrinus, Marcus Terentius Varro Lucullus. The younger brother of the man most of Rome deemed her brightest man of the future was very like Lucullus and very devoted to him. Separated as children by the vicissitudes of fortune, the bond had not weakened; rather, it had grown much stronger. Lucullus had delayed his climb up the cursus honorum so that he could be curule aedile in tandem with Varro Lucullus, and together they had thrown games of such brilliance that people still talked about them. It was commonly believed that both the Luculli would achieve the consulship in the near future; they were as popular with the voters as they were aristocratic. "How goes your day?" Caesar asked, smiling; he liked the foreign praetor, in whose court he had pleaded many little cases with a confidence and freedom few other judges engendered. Varro Lucullus was extremely knowledgeable about law, and a man of great integrity. "My day goes boringly," said Varro Lucullus, answering the smile with one of his own. Somehow Caesar's brilliant idea was born and reached full maturity between his question and Varro Lucullus's answer; that was usually what happened, the lightning perception of how to go about some difficult thing after months of puzzling. "When are you leaving Rome to hear the rural assizes?" "It's traditional for the foreign praetor to pop up on the Campanian seaside just as summer reaches its most unendurable pitch," said Varro Lucullus, and sighed. "However, it looks as if I'll be tied down in Rome for at least another month." "Then don't cut it short!" said Caesar. Varro Lucullus blinked; one moment he had been talking to a man whose legal acumen and ability he prized highly, the next moment he was gazing at the space where Caesar had been. "I know how to do it!" Caesar was saying shortly afterward to Iphicrates in the private parlor he had hired at his inn. "How?" asked the important man of Thessalonica eagerly. "I knew I was right to delay, Iphicrates! We're not going to use the Murder Court, nor will we lay criminal charges against Gaius Antonius Hybrida." "Not lay criminal charges?" gasped Iphicrates. "But that is the whole object!" "Nonsense! The whole object is to create a huge stir in Rome. We won't do that in Juncus's court, nor will his court enable us to steal Sicinius's Forum audiences. Juncus will tuck himself away in the smallest, most airless corner of the Basilica Porcia or Opimia, everyone compelled to be present will faint from the heat, and no one who is not compelled to be present will be there at all. The jury will hate us and Juncus will gallop through the proceedings, egged on by jurors and advocates." "But what other alternative is there?" Caesar leaned forward. "I will lay this case before the foreign praetor as a civil suit," he said. "Instead of charging Hybrida with murder, I will sue him for damages arising out of his conduct while a prefect of cavalry in Greece ten years ago. And you will lodge an enormous sponsio with the foreign praetor a sum of money far greater than Hybrida's whole fortune. Could you raise two thousand talents? And be prepared if something goes wrong to lose them?" Iphicrates drew a breath. "The sum is indeed enormous, but we came prepared to spend whatever it takes to make Rome see that she must cease to plague us with men like Hybrida and the elder Dolabella. Yes, Caesar," said Iphicrates deliberately, "we will raise two thousand talents. It will take some doing, but we will find it here in Rome." All right, the
n we lodge two thousand talents in sponsio with the foreign praetor in the civil suit against Gaius Antonius Hybrida. That will create a sensation in itself. It will also demonstrate to the whole of Rome that we are serious." "Hybrida won't be able to find a quarter of that sum." "Absolutely right, Iphicrates, he won't. But it is in the jurisdiction of the foreign praetor to waive the lodgement of sponsio if he considers there is a case to be answered. And if there's one thing about Varro Lucullus, it's that he is fair. He will waive Hybrida's matching sum, I'm sure of it." "But if we win and Hybrida has not lodged two thousand talents as his matching sponsio, what happens?" "Then, Iphicrates, he has to find it! Because he has to pay it! That's how a civil suit works under Roman law." "Oh, I see!" Iphicrates sat back and linked his arms about his knees, smiling gently. "Then if he loses, he's a beggar. He will have to leave Rome a bankrupt and he will never be able to return, will he?" "He will never be able to return." "On the other hand, if we lose, he takes our two thousand?" "That's right." "Do you think we will lose, Caesar?" "No." Then why are you warning me that something could go wrong? Why do you say we must be prepared to forfeit our money?" Frowning, Caesar tried to explain to this Greek what he, a Roman through and through, had absorbed from infancy. "Because Roman law is not as watertight as it seems. A lot depends on the judge, and the judge under Sulla's law cannot be Varro Lucullus. In that respect, I pin my faith upon Varro Lucullus's integrity, that he will choose a judge prepared to be dispassionate. And then there is another risk. Sometimes a brilliant advocate will find a hole in the law that can let in an entire ocean Hybrida will be defended by the best advocates in Rome." Caesar tensed, held his hands like claws. "If I can be inspired to find an answer to our problem, do you think there is no one else capable of being inspired to find an answer to Hybrida's problem? That is why men like me enjoy legal practice, Iphicrates, when judge and process are free from taint or bias! No matter how conclusive and watertight we think our case is, beware of the bright fellow on the other side. What if Cicero defends? Formidable! Mind you, I don't think he'll be tempted when he learns the details. But Hortensius wouldn't be so fussy. You must remember too that one side has to lose. We are fighting for a principle, and that is the most dangerous reason of all for going to law." I will consult with my colleagues and give you our answer tomorrow," said Iphicrates. The answer was that Caesar should proceed to ask the foreign praetor to hear a civil suit against Gaius Antonius Hybrida. Down to Varro Lucullus's tribunal went Caesar with his clients, there to apply to lodge a sponsio of two thousand talents, the sum in damages being demanded from Hybrida. Varro Lucullus sat mute, deprived of breath, then shook his head in wonder and held out his hand to examine the bank draft. "This is real and you are serious," he said to Caesar. Absolutely, praetor peregrinus.'' "Why not the Extortion Court?" "Because the suit does not involve extortion. It involves murder but more than murder! It involves torture, rape, and permanent maiming. After so many years, my clients do not wish to seek criminal justice. They are seeking damages on behalf of the people of Thespiae, Eleusis and Orchomenus whom Gaius Antonius Hybrida damaged. These people are incapable of working, of earning their livings, of being parents or husbands or wives. To support them in comfort and with kindness is costing the other citizens of Thespiae, Eleusis and Orchomenus a fortune that my clients consider Gaius Antonius Hybrida should be paying. This is a civil suit, praetor peregrinus, to recover damages." Then present your evidence in brief, advocate, so that I may decide whether there is a case to be answered." "I will offer before your court and the judge you appoint the testimony of eight victims or witnesses of atrocities. Six of these will be residents of the towns of Thespiae, Eleusis and Orchomenus. The other two are residents of the city of Rome, one a freedman citizen, the other a Syrian national." "Why do you offer Roman testimony, advocate?" "To show the court that Gaius Antonius Hybrida is still indulging in his atrocious practices, praetor peregrinus." Two hours later Varro Lucullus accepted the suit in his court and lodged the Greek sponsio. A summons was issued against Gaius Antonius Hybrida to appear to answer the charges on the morrow. After which Varro Lucullus appointed his judge. Publius Cornelius Cethegus. Keeping his face straight, Caesar cheered inside. Brilliant! The judge was a man so wealthy he based his whole power upon the claim that he could not be bought, a man so cultivated and refined that he wept when a pet fish or a lapdog died, a man who covered his head with his toga so he couldn't see a chicken being decapitated in the marketplace. And a man who had no love whatsoever for the Antonii. Would Cethegus consider that a fellow senator must be protected, no matter what the crime? Or the civil suit? No, not Cethegus! After all, there was no possibility of loss of Roman citizenship or of exile. This was civil litigation, only money at stake. Word ran round the Forum Romanum quicker than feet could run; a crowd began to gather within moments of Caesar's appearance before the foreign praetor's tribunal. As Caesar stimulated interest by enlarging upon the injuries Hybrida's victims had sustained, the crowd grew, hardly able to wait for the case to begin on the morrow could there truly be such awful sights to be seen as a flayed man and a woman whose genitalia had been so cut up she couldn't even urinate properly? News of the case beat Caesar home, as he could see from his mother's face. "What is this I hear?" she demanded, bristling. "You're acting in a case against Gaius Antonius Hybrida? That is not possible! There is a blood tie." "There is no blood tie between Hybrida and me, Mater." "His nephews are your cousins!" "They are his brother's children, and the blood tie is from their mother. Consanguinity could only matter if it were Hybrida's sons did he have any, that is! who were my cousins." "You can't do this to a Julia!" "I dislike the family implication, Mater, but there is no direct involvement of a Julia." "The Julii Caesares have allied themselves in marriage with the Antonii! That is reason enough!" "No, it is not! And more fool the Julii Caesares for seeking an alliance with the Antonii! They're boors and wastrels! For I tell you, Mater, that I would not let a Julia of my own family marry any Antonius," said Caesar, turning his shoulder. "Reconsider, Caesar, please! You will be condemned." "I will not reconsider." The result of this confrontation was an uncomfortable meal that afternoon. Helpless to contend with two such steely opponents as her husband and her mother in law, Cinnilla fled back to the nursery as soon as she could, pleading colic, teething, rashes, and every other baby ailment she could think of. Which left Caesar, chin up, to ignore Aurelia, chin up. Some did voice disapproval, but Caesar was by no means setting a precedent in taking this case; there had been many others in which consanguinity was in much higher degree than the technical objections men like Catulus raised in the prosecution of Gaius Antonius Hybrida. Of course Hybrida could not ignore the summons, so he was waiting at the foreign praetor's tribunal with a retinue of famous faces in attendance, including Quintus Hortensius and Caesar's uncle, Gaius Aurelius Cotta. Of Marcus Tullius Cicero there was no sign, even in the audience; until, Caesar noticed out of the corner of his eye, the moment in which Cethegus opened the hearing. Trust Cicero not to miss such scandalous goings on! Especially when the legal option of a civil suit had been chosen. Hybrida was uneasy, Caesar saw that at once. A big, muscular fellow with a neck as thick as a corded column, Hybrida was a typical Antonius; the wiry, curly auburn hair and red brown eyes were as Antonian as the aquiline nose and the prominent chin trying to meet across a small, thick mouth. Until he had heard about Hybrida's atrocities Caesar had dismissed the brutish face as that of a lout who drank too much, ate too much, and was overly fond of sexual pleasures. Now he knew better. It was the face of a veritable monster. Things got off to a bad start for Hybrida when Hortensius elected to take a high hand and demanded that the suit forthwith be dismissed, alleging that if the matter was one tenth as serious as the suit indicated, it should be heard before a criminal court. Varro Lucullus sat expressionless, unwilling to intervene unless his judge asked for his advice. Which Cethegus was not about to do. Sooner or later his turn would have come up to preside over this court, and he had not looked forward to
some monotonous argument about a purse of moneys. Now here he was with a veritable plum of a case one which might repel him, but would at least not bore him. So he dealt smartly with Hortensius and got things under way with smooth authority. By noon Cethegus was ready to hear the witnesses, whose appearance created a sensation. Iphicrates and his companions had chosen the victims they had brought all the way from Greece with an eye to drama as well as to pity. Most moving was a man who could not testify on his own behalf at all; Hybrida had removed most of his face and his tongue. But his wife was as articulate as she was filled with hatred, and a damning witness. Cethegus sat listening to her and looking at her poor husband green faced and sweating. After their testimony concluded he adjourned for the day, praying he got home before he was sick. But it was Hybrida who tried to have the last word. As he left the area of the tribunal he grasped Caesar by the arm and detained him. "Where did you collect this sorry lot?" he asked, assuming an expression of pained bewilderment. "You must have had to comb the world! But it won't work, you know. What are they, after all? A handful of miscreant misfits! That's all! A mere handful anxious to take hefty Roman damages instead of existing on piddling Greek alms!" "A mere handful?" roared Caesar at the top of his voice, and stilling the noise of the dispersing crowd, which turned to hear what he said. "Is that all? I say to you, Gaius Antonius Hybrida, that one would be too many! Just one! Just one man or woman or child despoiled in this frightful way is one too many! Just one man or woman or child plundered of youth and beauty and pride in being alive is one too many! Go away! Go home!" Gaius Antonius Hybrida went home, appalled to discover that his advocates had no wish to accompany him. Even his brother had found an excuse to go elsewhere. Though he did not walk alone; beside him trotted a small plump man who had become quite a friend in the year and a half since he had joined the Senate. This man's name was Gaius Aelius Staienus, and he was hungry for powerful allies, hungry to eat free of charge at someone else's table, and very hungry for money. He had had some of Pompey's money last year, when he had been Mamercus's quaestor and incited a mutiny oh, not a nasty, bloody mutiny! And it had all worked out extremely well in the end, with not a whiff of suspicion stealing his way. "You're going to lose," he said to Hybrida as they entered Hybrida's very nice mansion on the Palatine. Hybrida was not disposed to argue. "I know." "But wouldn't it be nice to win?" asked Staienus dreamily. "Two thousand talents to spend, that's the reward for winning." "I'm going to have to find two thousand talents, which will bankrupt me for more years than I have left to live." "Not necessarily," said Staienus in a purring voice. He sat down in Hybrida's cliental chair, and looked about. "Have you any of that Chian wine left?'' he asked. Hybrida went to a console table and poured two undiluted goblets from a flagon, handed one to his guest, and sat down. He drank deeply, then gazed at Staienus. "You've got something boiling in your pot," he said. "What is it?" Two thousand talents is a vast sum. In fact, one thousand talents is a vast sum." "That's true." The gross little mouth peeled its thick lips back to reveal Hybrida's small and perfect white teeth. "I am not a fool, Staienus! If I agree to split the two thousand talents equally with you, you'll guarantee to get me off. Is that right?" "That's right." Then I agree. You get me off, and one thousand of those Greek talents are yours." "It's simple, really," said Staienus thoughtfully. "You have Sulla to thank for it, of course. But he's dead, so he won't care if you thank me instead." "Stop tormenting me and tell me!" "Oh, yes! I forgot that you prefer to torment others than be tormented yourself." Like many small men suddenly given a position of power, Staienus was incapable of concealing his pleasure at owning power, even though this meant that when the affair was over, so was his friendship with Hybrida. No matter how successful his ploy. But he didn't care. A thousand talents was reward enough. What was friendship with a creature like Hybrida anyway? "Tell me, Staienus, or get out!" "The ius auxilii ferendi" was what Staienus said. "Well, what about it?" "The original function of the tribunes of the plebs, and the only function Sulla didn't take off them to rescue a member of the plebs from the hands of a magistrate." "The ius auxilii ferendi! cried Hybrida, amazed. For a moment his pouting face lightened, then darkened again. "They wouldn't do it," he said. "They might," said Staienus. "Not Sicinius! Never Sicinius! All it takes is one veto within the college and the other nine tribunes of the plebs are powerless. Sicinius wouldn't stand for it, Staienus. He's a wretched nuisance, but he's not bribable." "Sicinius," said Staienus happily, "is not popular with any of his nine colleagues. He's made such a thorough nuisance of himself and stolen their thunder in the Forum! that they're sick to death of him. In fact the day before yesterday I heard two of them threaten to throw him off the Tarpeian Rock unless he shut up about restoring their rights." "You mean Sicinius could be intimidated?" "Yes. Definitely. Of course you'll have to find a goodly sum of cash between now and tomorrow morning, because none of them will be in it unless they're well rewarded. But you can do that especially with a thousand talents coming in because of it." How much?'' asked Hybrida. "Nine times fifty thousand sesterces. That's four hundred and fifty thousand. Can you do it?" "I can try. I'll go to my brother, he doesn't want scandal in the family. And there are a few other sources. Yes, Staienus, I believe I can do it." And so it was arranged. Gaius Aelius Staienus had a busy evening bustling from the house of one tribune of the plebs to another Marcus Atilius Bulbus, Manius Aquillius, Quintus Curius, Publius Popillius, and on through nine of the ten. He did not go near the house of Gnaeus Sicinius. The hearing was due to recommence two hours after dawn; by then the Forum Romanum had already experienced high drama, so it promised to be quite a day for the Forum frequenters, who were ecstatic. Just after dawn his nine fellow tribunes of the plebs had ganged up on Gnaeus Sicinius and physically hauled him to the top of the Capitol, where they beat him black and blue, then held him over the end of the overhanging ledge called the Tarpeian Rock and let him look down at the needle sharp outcrop below. No more of this perpetual agitating to see the powers of the tribunate of the plebs restored! they cried to him as he dangled, and got an oath from him that he would in future do as his nine colleagues told him. Sicinius was then packed off home in a litter. And not more than a very few moments after Cethegus opened the second day's proceedings in the suit against Hybrida, nine tribunes of the plebs descended upon Varro Lucullus's tribunal shouting that a member of the Plebs was being detained against his will by a magistrate. "I appeal to you to exercise the ius auxilii ferendi!" cried Hybrida, arms extended piteously. "Marcus Terentius Varro Lucullus, we have been appealed to by a member of the Plebs to exercise the ius auxilii ferendi!" said Manius Aquillius. "I hereby notify you that we so exercise it!" "This is a manifest outrage!" Varro Lucullus shouted, leaping to his feet. "I refuse to allow you to exercise that right! Where is the tenth tribune?" "At home in bed, very sick," sneered Manius Aquillius, "but you can send to him if you like. He won't veto us." "You transgress justice!" yelled Cethegus. "An outrage! A shame! A scandal! How much has Hybrida paid you?" "Release Gaius Antonius Hybrida, or we will take hold of every last man who objects and throw him from the Tarpeian Rock!" cried Manius Aquillius. "You are obstructing justice!" said Varro Lucullus. "There can be no justice in a magistrate's court, as you well know, Varro Lucullus," said Quintus Curius. "One man is not a jury! If you wish to proceed against Gaius Antonius, then do so in a criminal court, where the ius auxilii ferendi does not apply!" Caesar stood without moving, nor did he try to object. His clients huddled in his rear, shivering. Face stony, he turned to them and said softly, "I am a patrician, and not a magistrate. We must let the praetor peregrinus deal with this. Say nothing!" "Very well, take your member of the Plebs!" said Varro Lucullus, hand on Cethegus's arm to restrain him. "And," said Gaius Antonius Hybrida, standing in the midst of nine tribunes of the plebs bent on war, "since I have won the case, I will take the sponsio lodged by our Greek loving Caesar's clients here." The reference to Greek love was a deliberate slur which brought back to Caesar in one red flash all the pain of tha
t accusation concerning King Nicomedes. Without hesitating, he walked through the ranks of the tribunes of the plebs and took Hybrida's throat between his hands. Hybrida had always considered himself a Hercules among men, but he could neither break the hold nor manage to come at his taller assailant, whose strength he would not have believed were he not its victim. It took Varro Lucullus and his six lictors to drag Caesar off him, though some men in the crowd wondered afterward at the inertia of the nine tribunes of the plebs, who made no move to help Hybrida at all. "This case is dismissed!" bawled Varro Lucullus at the top of his lungs. "There is no suit! I, Marcus Terentius Varro Lucullus, so declare it! Plaintiffs, take back your sponsio! And every last mother's son of you go home!" "The sponsio! The sponsio belongs to Gaius Antonius!" cried another voice: Gaius Aelius Staienus. "It does not belong to Hybrida!" Cethegus yelled. "The case has been dismissed by the praetor peregrinus, in whose jurisdiction it lies! The sponsio returns to its owners, there is no wager!" "Will you take your member of the Plebs and quit my tribunal!" said Varro Lucullus through his teeth to the tribunes of the plebs. "Go, get out of here, all of you! And I take leave to tell you that you have done the cause of the tribunate of the plebs no good by this scandalous miscarriage of its original purpose! I will do my utmost to keep you muzzled forever!" Off went the nine men with Hybrida, Staienus trailing after them howling for the lost sponsio, Hybrida tenderly feeling his bruised throat. While the excited crowd milled, Varro Lucullus and Caesar looked at each other. "I would have loved to let you strangle the brute, but I hope you understand that I could not," said Varro Lucullus. "I understand," said Caesar, still shaking. "I thought I was well in control! I'm not a hot man, you know. But I don't care for excrement like Hybrida calling me a deviate." "That's obvious," said Varro Lucullus dryly, remembering what his brother had had to say on the subject. Caesar too now paused to recollect whose brother he was with, but decided that Varro Lucullus was quite capable of making up his own mind. "Do you believe," said Cicero, rushing up now that the violence appeared to be at an end, the gall of that worm? To demand the sponsio, by all the gods!" "It takes a lot of gall to do that," said Caesar, pointing to the mutilated man and his spokeswoman wife. "Disgusting!" cried Cicero, sitting down on the steps of the tribunal and mopping his face with his handkerchief. "Well," said Caesar to Iphicrates, who hovered uncertainly, "at least we managed to save your two thousand talents. And I would say that if what you wanted was to create a stir in Rome, you have succeeded. I think the Senate will be very careful in future whom it sends to govern Macedonia. Now go back to your inn, and take those poor unfortunates with you. I'm just sorry that the citizens of their towns will have to continue supporting them. But I did warn you." "I am sorry about only one thing," said Iphicrates, moving away. "That we failed to punish Gaius Antonius Hybrida." "We didn't succeed in ruining him financially," said Caesar, "but he will have to leave Rome. It will be a long time before he dares to show his face in this city again." "Do you think," asked Cicero, "that Hybrida actually bribed nine tribunes of the plebs?'' "I for one am sure of it!" snapped Cethegus, whose anger was slow to cool. "Apart from Sicinius little though I love that man! this year's tribunes of the plebs are a shabby lot!" "Why should they be splendid?" asked Caesar, whose anger had cooled completely. "There's no glory to be had in the office these days. It's a dead end." "I wonder," asked Cicero, loath to abandon the direction of his thoughts, "how much nine tribunes of the plebs cost Hybrida?" Cethegus pursed his lips. "About forty thousand each." Varro Lucullus's eyes danced. "You speak with such absolute authority, Cethegus! How do you know?" The King of the Backbenchers set his ire aside; it did not become his style, though, he assured himself, it was excusable. He proceeded to answer the foreign praetor with raised brows and the customary drawl in his voice. "My dear praetor peregrinus, there is nothing I do not know about the cupidity of senators! I could give you every bribable senator's price down to the last sestertius. And for that shabby lot, forty thousand each." And that, as Hybrida was busy discovering, was what Gaius Aelius Staienus had paid; he had kept ninety thousand sesterces for himself. "Give them back!" said the man who loved to torture and mutilate his fellow men. "Give the extra money back, Staienus, or I'll tear your eyes out with my own fingers! I'll be three hundred and sixty thousand sesterces out of purse as it is you and your two thousand talents!" "Don't forget," said the uncowed Staienus, looking vicious, "that it was my idea to use the ius auxulii ferendi. I'll keep the ninety thousand. As for you thank all the gods that you're not stripped of your whole fortune!"
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