Graveyard of the Hesperides

by Lindsey Davis

  We became a little despondent, then we heard his other two dogs barking loudly indoors. So he was coming back eventually and could not have gone far. We walked to the street end to escape the high smell of sun-warmed dung, but decided to wait. This was a hazard of being an informer; it was not all mint tea and walnut cake. However, Dromo spotted a stall selling fruit tarts so he dragged us over there. While we were watching his meticulous choosing process, Gavius arrived home to give his dogs their afternoon exercise. We knew him because the stallholder called out a greeting. So he was popular.

  We followed Gavius back to his house, though not for long.

  “They’re barking so much because they heard you and thought you were me coming to take them out! You will have to trot along with us. The girls will go mad if I don’t take them straightaway now they’ve seen me.”

  Apparently these dogs took precedence over everything else, but he let us accompany their walk. I was still digesting my lunchtime pie, plus stew, but was now forced on a hike the whole length of the Viminal. Most of our journey was uphill. Nothing else, we were assured, would do for the Three Graces (including Euphrosyne, whom Gavius had collected from his parents as we passed).

  “I can’t leave her behind; she’ll soon let me know what she thinks of that.”

  At first we humored their owner and let him warble about his pets. They originated in the Pyrenees, so were quite unsuitable in Rome. They were huge flock-guarding dogs, with long, white, merrily shedding fur that was thickest over the folds of flesh on their great shoulders; on all three, the white fur had large dark blotches over their heads and upper bodies. Gavius actually said he bought them as pups “from a man in a bar.” I had not thought people really did that. But of course crowded bar counters are packed with dodgy dealers selling all kinds of things.

  According to their owner, the Three Graces possessed the gentlest, calmest natures; they loved children, adored having visitors to count, but would ferociously protect their home and family against intruders. (Despite our experience of being happily slobbered at his parents’ house?) They adored going on walks so they could look around, check out the neighborhood and make as many friends as possible. We saw them even try to lick a potter’s raven through the bars of its cage. The bird told them to get lost. Well, it was ruder than that, but they wagged their long tails anyway.

  Gavius himself was sized in proportion to the dogs he doted on. In his case it derived from many hours of leaning on bar counters, sampling snack bowls as he discussed marble requirements. He was unmarried and, apart from visiting his parents every day, even his social life consisted of drinking with his colleagues, as he freely told us. I would never have guessed this heavily paunched, fat-faced, easygoing fellow was the son of the worn, fleshless, anxious-seeming couple I had met. When they were all together he must look like an outsized cuckoo in a meadow pipits’ nest.

  After we had worked through enough canine lore, Tiberius opened a discussion of marble. Every caupona, popina, thermopolium and mansio throughout the Empire has one or more counters faced with stone crazy-paving pieces. These make food shops instantly recognizable, besides being attractive and easy to clean down.

  Gavius was knowledgeable. He liked to chat. Tiberius had begun by mentioning that the counters at the Garden of the Hesperides had just suffered damage. “Some idiot looks to have landed a couple of blows with a lump hammer.” Gavius exclaimed in horror at that; he had provided the marble so recently. They discussed repairs.

  Gavius quickly saw that Tiberius had the kind of professional knowledge he respected. “Well, you know how it is around here, sir, they want everything for nothing, with goat bells on. We provide whatever they will pay for, and sometimes I do squeeze a commission with exotics—Cipollino, Brescia. But the bars around here tend to have a mix of Luna and Pentelic, same old white and gray you see everywhere, not much of a challenge for me and the boys.”

  “Do you mainly supply reclaimed pieces?”

  “It’s legit!” Gavius protested, as if Tiberius was suggesting his supplies were stolen.

  “I know, I know. The reclaimers even have a guild in Rome. I am not criticizing you, Gavius. It’s understood—when a property is to be rebuilt, the contractor has a right to any materials he takes out, which he is allowed to sell on. Do you have contacts in the building trade or the quarries?”

  “I know everyone. That’s good business.”

  “How long have you been doing this?”

  “Fifteen years, easily.” Gavius thought Tiberius had merely asked a polite question but it was useful to me; the marble-supplier had definitely been trading as long ago as the Hesperides killings. “We do obtain offcuts from quarries, though I mainly pick up suitable pieces after renovations. I often buy on spec, keep the bits at the yard. One source for me recently was Domitian’s Temple of the Flavians. Nice and close. Absolutely slathered in gorgeous new marble—have you seen it? He was so choosy, they had a lot of rejects. The builder practically paid me to take them away.”

  “And that new Forum of his is only down the Argiletum. It has a good Temple of Minerva.”

  “Yes, though very little wastage came off that site. The contractors were old mates, so I picked up any spoiled pieces but hardly worth taking the cart. It comes and goes. We’re still benefiting from that great fire in Titus’ reign. Plenty of big public buildings needed restoration, so the old material had to be taken out and it’s not all fire-damaged. They are generally glad for us to clear the site or at least pick through the skips. I don’t enjoy profiting from a disaster—but you take your chances in life, don’t you? If you know when to turn up, it’s lucky-dip time!”

  Tiberius glanced at me, smiling slightly, as if I was one of the chances he had taken.

  *

  I was still considering being a prize in a lucky dip, but now I nipped in. “I am very glad we found you. We had believed you were a dead man, Gavius!”

  “As you see, that’s a malicious rumor.” The marble-supplier had a sense of humor; he laughed it off. Other people really take against false reports of their deaths. “Was my obituary flattering?”

  “Yes, I believe there is a very moving ode to you by a court poet … I would have known better—I met your parents, lovely people, but they never mentioned your name. All a mistake, so I apologize. The ancient grandma who cooks for the Brown Toad set me straight.” Gavius grinned. He knew who I meant. “Don’t tell me she’s your granny, Gavius?”

  He winked. “Mine and half the High Footpath. Father’s mother.”

  “She never said.”

  “She likes stringing people along. That would be my gran, all right. She’ll ask me what your face looked like when I told you, then she’ll wet herself chuckling … Gobble up her hot pot if you can get it, but don’t believe a word she tells you.”

  It would be rather inconvenient to me if her stories about Rufia had been invented. But I did not think so.

  “So, Gavius, I expect you have heard we found bodies. At least it’s not you and your crew planted out in the garden. One is reckoned to be the barmaid, but five others look male. Faustus and I intend to find out who they are and what happened. We need witnesses. You have been regularly mentioned as one of the customers that night. I hope you can remember?”

  “Oh yes.” Gavius had a darker expression now. “Thales suddenly had a go at us, so we stopped drinking there.”

  “It was also the night Rufia disappeared.”

  “That was another reason not to go any more.”

  “People have described her as rather stern, but you liked her?”

  “Kind of. She was a bloody good waitress. They had others there though.”

  “If my sources are correct, Rufia also had, let’s say, a wide influence in the community?” Gavius looked blank. “Took a motherly interest in all the bar girls, and the professional prostitutes?”

  He shrugged. Women’s stuff. Don’t ask him.

  I knew he had had sex that night. Nipius and Natalis
had said all the marble-suppliers went upstairs. Presumably it was regular. Rufia “looked after them,” though that could mean she found a free girl, not necessarily that she went with them herself.

  I wondered if their nights out had ever resulted in pregnancies that Gavius knew nothing about. Women who slept with salesmen were not the kind who could name the fathers of their children. Afterward, if it went wrong, Rufia would have dealt with it; the salesmen would never even be told. Well, not unless a girl badly needed money to cover her expenses and came cooing round after cash. I bet with regular clients the girls kept quiet rather than deter these men from future business.

  No doubt paying for abortions was another aspect of bar life that Julius Liberalis would call an overhead.

  I could not help thinking about Chia. The threat of a baby was a much bigger issue for her. This was street life: men casual, women desperate.

  *

  I asked Gavius the crucial question: did he and his crew see another group of drinkers, five of them, at the Hesperides, the night Old Thales quarreled? But he said no, not while his crew were there; they must have arrived later.

  XXXIX

  The dogs began to let us know we were reaching their destination. The high road ended beneath a bunch of aqueducts. As we all passed through the Servian Walls at the Viminal Gate, the Three Graces became more excited than ever. They were distracted briefly by wanting to jump up and lick soldiers who were lazily monitoring the crowds under the arches. One of the troops gave them a bread roll, so they may have met these dogs before. Aglaia and Thalia sat pleading for more, while Euphrosyne devoured the free gift. From the way he handled them, roughing up their neck fur, the young soldier knew dogs. Perhaps back at home he had left animals he missed.

  The Graces quickly lost interest, keen to move on. Outside the gate, Gavius turned onto the great parade ground of the Praetorians, which lies between the old city wall and the Guards’ intimidating camp. In the afternoon, they rarely exercised. Their numbers were low in any case, since many were away in Pannonia with the Emperor.

  Gavius, Tiberius and I stood at a corner, taking a welcome breather, as the dogs hared around ecstatically. We watched, while they amused themselves in madcap games. From time to time, one or more galloped back to us, panting wildly, seeking approval or a stick to be thrown.

  *

  An informer must never give up, so I kept on badgering about the five dead men. “Gavius, I know the Hesperides, and presumably other bars, is a target for extortion by so-called ‘protection’ gangs. Were you ever aware of that?” He shook his head. Any wise person would do the same, unfortunately. Who likes gangsters to think you have ratted on them? Who wants to die now, in some very unpleasant fashion? “I am wondering if Old Thales decided he had had enough and struck back at them?”

  Tiberius put in more questions: “Could it be that some other outfit tried to muscle in on the rackets? Rival crooks? But Thales stayed loyal, knowing old Rabirius, as someone has claimed?”

  “I never heard of any rivals,” claimed Gavius. “But I have seen Thales and Rabirius having a chin-wag like best pals. They played a game of soldiers once when I was there. It’s true they went way back. I think they were boys together.”

  “You know Rabirius?” I asked.

  “To recognize. The ridiculous poser used to come around all the time, leaning on a cane for effect, inspecting his territory. Especially on the Esquiline, which was his real domain.”

  “He is a brute?”

  “Once in a while he would whack some slave or menial across the face with his cane, so people knew how hard he was. I saw him kick a woman once, knocked her right off her feet, though he wouldn’t try that in Thales’ bar. If Rufia was looking, she would have cut off his testicles. Haven’t seen him anywhere in a while. Like you say, he’s probably grown old and someone is taking over.”

  I snorted. “I like the sound of Rufia. I cheer her methods … I suppose you saw Rabirius in action, Gavius, because you work with so many bars? Do landlords confide in you? Or do you overhear things?” Warily, he nodded. “Though at the Hesperides you never saw any threats, or money handed over?”

  “Those kinds of men are always discreet,” Gavius replied. “You glimpse them behind the counter, talking to the landlord as if they are asking how his brother is these days or something—then they shake hands and leave without you even noticing.” He was hedging, like Liberalis earlier. This description belied his earlier claim to know nothing about enforcement. I decided not to challenge him. It was more important to keep him talking.

  “Formal handshakes are a nice touch from men of violence!” Tiberius commented in a dry tone. “Maybe we could ask your colleagues if they know any more, the ones who drink with you?”

  “I’m sure all the boys will say the same as me, Legate.”

  “Please don’t confer,” I urged him. “Don’t suggest what to say. Better they spontaneously tell the truth.” Gavius looked affronted but did not argue.

  “I am sure Gavius and his boys are straight, Albia.” Tiberius was playing his “fair man” role; I knew it was an act, for strategy.

  I fell quiet, assessing the situation. Ten years ago, Rabirius was the vicious old clan chief—a different man from the failing specter he was reckoned to be now. Then he was strong, feared, fully in control, tentacles all over the place. Not only would he come around inspecting his domain, smilingly making himself visible, blatantly striking sudden blows to reinforce his message; he would also listen for any subversive mutters. Such men can be fanatically suspicious. They keep their power by constant vigilance. If Rabirius had been high-born, he could have become a paranoid emperor.

  Thank you, Jupiter, he wasn’t. The gangster we had in power was bad enough.

  Nowadays a clan coup seemed inevitable. No one had seen Rabirius for a while. He must be frail. A nephew called Roscius was starting to flex muscles in the business; Rabirius’ hard man, his dark sidekick Gallo, was keen to supplant young Roscius. Had machinations by henchmen and relatives already started at the time of the Hesperides trouble? Or was that too long ago?

  Another possibility was that outsiders had tried maneuvering against Rabirius. Interlopers had tried to shuffle him out of the way, only to discover that, ten years ago, he was still capable of dispatching rivals. Why the Hesperides? Did Rabirius persuade his boyhood acquaintance Thales to cooperate? To provide a discreet location for a criminal death squad to ambush people? Was the graveyard in the garden the body dump after a bout of gang warfare?

  XL

  Tiberius and I left Gavius in the exuberant company of his dogs. First Tiberius said he wanted to call in at the Third Cohort’s station house, which was close to the Viminal Gate. We did so, but our contact, Macer, was off duty. We left a message asking him to provide a status report on protection rackets in the Ten Traders bars. He might respond, but I bet Tiberius that Macer would conveniently “not receive the message.”

  We walked back a different way, climbing up onto the Embankment to feel the cooler air. As we strolled along toward the Esquiline Gate, we said little, enjoying each other’s quiet company. It seemed a while since we had been able to do this.

  The lofty bank of the ancient Servian Wall had once been the city boundary. Now Rome had expanded well beyond the old fortifications, which had never been pulled down but had become a pleasure ground for people walking, lovers escaping, popular entertainers, street theater and puppeteers. Even in the middle of a working day there were idlers and connivers up here, along with the odd prancing lunatic. Occasionally one of the lunatics was brandishing a knife.

  Elsewhere in the city, expansion had taken the form of teeming residential districts, but here we were overlooking a one-time paupers’ graveyard to our left; it had such a bad reputation, no one would want to live there. So the area had been transformed into several large gardens. Rumors said it had had to be covered twenty-five feet deep in new soil to cover up the smell of death.

  Named for whicheve
r millionaires commissioned them, these luxurious walks were free to the public; well, that was why the wealthy created extravagant city spaces—making sure they were advertised forever as persons of taste, money and flash beneficence. You might die, but your stone pines ensured your name lived. Topiary was a better memorial than a tomb. I am serious: gardens lay within the city for all to notice, whereas tombs had to be placed along the roads outside.

  The Esquiline gardens were beautiful, laid out most elegantly, full of fine trees and plantings and adorned with statues (generally stolen from defeated nations). Some had museums with prehistoric giants’ bones or pavilions for the performing arts. The fabulous Stertinius had undoubtedly twangled his cithara to good Hypodorian effect for an invited audience at the Auditorium of Maecenas. The gardens all provided fresh air and peace; they restored the tired soul.

  Of course they also concealed pickpockets and hustlers; they were venues for sordid assignations. Generally, as a member of the public, you tried to concentrate on the fine vistas and invigorating atmosphere. Today, as I gazed down from the Embankment, yet again I made the contrast between Rome’s civilized heights and its ever-present seamy depths. The lewd and crude jostled the sublime wherever you trod. Side by side; nose to nose. This was a city of stupendous contradiction, which the Romans either viewed as normal or even embraced with crazy pride.

  I took a cooler view, of course. I had a reserved northern temperament. Well, not so much in August. At the moment I was too hot and crotchety.

  *

  We descended to street level at the Porta Esquilina. While walking, Tiberius had been forming an idea. “Just along here is the Second Cohort’s bolt-hole. Can you bear to come and see if Titianus is home? I know you want to rest.”