A Forbidden History.The Hadrian enigma

by George Gardiner

  All eyes around the bench beneath the morning sunlight turned towards her.

  "I too have seen this famous magician transform living animals into other beasts, and restore life to the recently killed," she said. "The famous Priest Pachrates has performed this magic in public on many occasions.

  I have been contracted to dance and play the flute at temple celebrations for the faithful in the city of Memphis downstream from this place, so I was among those who were backstage at his performances in his temple courtyard. His devotees watched from one side of the platform while I and others engaged in the day's celebrations awaited behind the platform.

  His people try to keep it secret, but the animals he transforms are simply substituted by an ingenious mechanism which his assistant priests manipulate while his audience is distracted by shifting curtains, cymbal crescendos, and flashing lights. His is a clever magic which substitutes one thing for another out-of-sight while people are distracted by activity.

  I have also seen him behead a living creature on his stage and apparently return the creature to life. I saw him kill a mangy dog, scavenger vermin whose death no one complains, and then with a flourish of curtains and magical words with beating drums, it was replaced with a live dog of similar age, coloring, and markings. To the innocent eye it seems he has revived the dead and replaced the severed head. His audience did not see the headless carcass being thrown to one side and replaced with a living dog whose matched color patches were painted on.

  I submit that the fellow beheaded before Caesar's and Antinous's eyes may have been the condemned brother or even an identical twin of a similar looking fellow.

  Pachrates' priests probably purchased the two condemned men from the authorities of the arena at Cyrene or Leptis Magna. All his sorcery is trickery. There is no wonder to it once you know its secrets, but he is clever in performing it."

  Surisca demurely sat back in her chair.

  "But Caesar and Antinous were moved by his display?" Clarus complained. "Caesar is no fool! He can't be deceived about such things!"

  Surisca drew her head scarf across her face to reply.

  "If the spectator is in an accommodating mood and wishes to see magic, inexplicable magic will be seen. Such illusions can be persuasive to those who don't know the guile of Egyptian sorcerers who play on human needs."

  "It's true many at Court are enticed by feats of magic and magical charms," Suetonius soothed. "Remember, both the astrologer Aristobulus and the Governor's mistress, Anna Perenna, do a fine trade in providing charms, potions, and spells to the Household. Hadrian too is known to respect these arts."

  It was Clarus's time to speak directly to Surisca to raise an undiplomatic matter.

  "Syrian, did I perceive you and the Dacian are known to each other?" the magistrate asked.

  Surisca looked across to Suetonius for permission to speak. The biographer nodded, just as keen to hear her response as Clarus.

  "I confess we do, master. But briefly," the Syri disclosed apprehensively. "Your Dacian courtier was a client some months ago at Palaestina. I was contracted to the newly built spa at Shuni, outside Caesarea in Judea, where the wealthy retire for their pleasures. I and many other girls were hired as dancers and entertainers to engage in water frolics and sex games among the thermal spring pools of Shuni.

  The Imperial Household travelling from Antioch to Egypt through Palaestina resided for some weeks at Caesarea, as you know, so the Dacian came to Shuni for rest-and-recreation. He engaged my services for a whole week. Geta and I enjoyed our time together in playfulness."

  Suetonius looked at Surisca with some dismay. He wondered whether he had any right to feel cuckolded by this revelation.

  "And that's it? Nothing more? A business relationship?" Clarus added imperiously.

  "My lord, this is my profession. I receive many clients. If not, I and my assistants would soon starve. But it's true I found your Dacian colleague to be very appealing company at Shuni," Surisca offered wistfully.

  "Did you fall in love with Geta, young lady?" Suetonius searched a little too keenly.

  Surisca looked to her questioner with a quizzical expression.

  "I'm not sure what love is, master. But if it's to feel needed and secure in the company of another person then, yes, I did find the Dacian appealing," the young Syri reminisced. "Besides, he is very handsome in my eyes. And he makes love well."

  "Love? Needed? What's this nonsense we're talking of?" Clarus protested. "We have serious matters of life and death to contemplate, Special Inspector Suetonius Tranquillus."

  "Friends, morning is advancing and Lysias hasn't returned to us as he promised," Suetonius resolved bitterly. "He's now overdue by an hour. I had faith he would appear of his own volition at the appointed time. I am disappointed in him and his so-called arete. Unless misadventure has befallen the lad, a warrant will instruct the Guard to search for him and apprehend him. Meanwhile the slave Thais of Cyrene too will be sought on our behalf.

  However, if our interview subjects will not come to us then we will go to them. Clarus, Strabon, guards, Surisca, follow me! First on our list will be Caesar's advocates of wonders!"

  "Advocates of wonders?!" Clarus exclaimed uncertainly. "Who are they?!"

  CHAPTER 18

  Aristobulus of Antioch and Phlegon of Tralles weren't prepared for the visitors. The Court Astrologer and the Teller of Tales fluttered chaotically in their chamber checking their wardrobe, decors, lip paints, and face powders in the bumpy reflections of bronze mirrors. They were finalizing their effect on their likely clientele for the day's public exposure. Artful appearance is as important as actual efficacy in their respective sciences.

  The portly, ruddy faced, wine-veined astrologer was still engaged with his early morning toilet as his slave trimmed, oiled, and combed his silvery beard.

  Meanwhile the gaunt, bony features of the recorder of wonders, Phlegon, were being splashed with river water to revive his energies after an excess of the delicious local date wine during the previous day's rites grieving the death of Osiris. The death, too, of the Bithynian youth was deserving of recognition and appropriate mourning.

  "It's been a miracle, in the eyes of the natives," Aristobulus explained to Suetonius's first questions. "They now expect their problems with the Nile flood to be resolved in next year's deluge. They're convinced the death of a Roman noble has been Caesar's gift to them, the gracious gesture of a Pharaoh to his subjects in times of difficulty."

  "The fact that our Great Pharaoh is himself exceedingly distressed by the incident evades them, I suppose?" Suetonius commented. "So, Imperial Astrologer, are any more unexpected deaths being told in the stars?"

  "Today is the second day of the month of Hathur to the locals, Suetonius Tranquillus, or the fourth day to the Kalends of November to we of Rome," he proposed sagely, "and the day's omens are quite auspicious. Tomorrow's will be even more so. Osiris will resurrect at dawn with the sun, so The Isia will then extend to a weeklong celebration. For many in this strange land it's the year's major festival."

  Aristobulus, a native of Antioch at Syria in his fifties, was renown for his command of Chaldean astrology and divination.

  Phlegon was a native of Tralles, a small city inland from Ephesus at the coast of Caria in Roman Asia. His scholarly specialty was as a collector of marvelous tales and fabulous wonders for both Hadrian's amusement and Rome's avid book collectors. Phlegon's enthusiasm for recording reports about hermaphrodites, unusual births, monsters, giant skeleton bones, ghostly revenants, or mythical creatures, enlivened the Court's days.

  "Before you depart on your day's pleasures, good worthies," Suetonius interjected, "we have some questions to ask you about the deceased, the Bithynian youth Antinous. He was well known to you, I believe? Clarus and I have been commissioned by the emperor to explore the circumstances of the boy's life and death. We possess the powers of a magisterial enquiry. I am appointed Special Inspector."

  The two Greeks sobered swiftl
y in response to this announcement. The use of torture upon non-citizen foreigners was a given in a magistrate's armory of investigative aids. Neither man of science is a citizen of Rome.

  "We're entirely at your service, gentlemen," they sang in unison.

  "Tell us, Aristobulus, what you know of Antinous and his activities," Suetonius queried. "To begin your legal deposition, first tell us who you are, state your profession, and where you were on the night of his death? Further, what is your view of this misadventure?" Suetonius queried.

  The astrologer shuffled uncomfortably for a few moments before rising to the occasion to declaim theatrically in Greek-inflected Latin.

  "I, Special Inspector, am Aristobulus of Antioch, astrologer to Great Caesar. I am a magus, theurge, and hierophant of the ancient priestly dynasty of Emesa. The blood of Babylon flows in my veins. As an exponent of the Chaldean Oracles and a student of Marcus Manilius, I practice the sciences of the stars, mathematics, dream interpretation, occult ritual, and divination.

  My recall of the youth Antinous is his birth to have been on a late date in the coming month of November. The actual time of birth was unknown to the lad. He told me so on those occasions when he consulted with me on astrological matters, which were increasingly often in recent times.

  He told me his mother died shortly after his birth, so his precise hour of birth was uncertain to him. It seemed even the year of his birth is uncertain. He said his family's nurse had told him he was born on the twenty-seventh day of the month of Cybele of the Bithynian calendar. This corresponds to our November. At least this would be a reasonable start to charting his destiny.

  However, Special Inspector, to cast the chart of someone so favored by Caesar's is to calculate in proximity to Caesar's own stars. This is forbidden and a dire offence. I did not dare calibrate a horoscope for the boy, so his recent fate was entirely beyond my predictive skill."

  Suetonius thought to himself here was yet another of those serendipitous fortuities in the professional life of a fortune-teller, a fortuity by omission in this instance.

  "Where were you on the night of his death?"

  "As you well know, Suetonius Tranquillus, I travelled with you much of yesterday across the river at Hermopolis with our academic colleagues. I then lunched and bathed with you at the local Baths in the early afternoon," the Antiochan explained. "It was I who informed Tribune Macedo of the security service of your whereabouts at The Street of Pleasures in the late afternoon. This was when Caesar summoned your urgent attendance."

  "Where were you the previous evening, the night of the Favorite's death, Aristobulus of Antioch?" the Special Inspector repeated.

  "Once again, Suetonius Tranquillus, I was with you and our Alexandrian companions at a drinking party aboard your felucca moored off Hermopolis. As you may recall, we shared considerable quantities of Chios dark sweet wine and much local beer," the astrologer imparted.

  "What do you know about Antinous which might contribute to our understanding of the young man's death? I am led to believe you shared his company often?"

  "Hmm, this is a difficult matter," Aristobulus offered as he stroked his splayed beard thoughtfully. "There was much about the boy which invites consideration, I'd say."

  "What do you mean?"

  "Well, he certainly did have odd interests for someone so young."

  "In what way?"

  "I quite clearly recall my first impressions," he responded. "Two years ago when the Household returned again to Athens while touring the Empire, several of us joined Caesar in taking initiation into the Mysteries at Eleusis. The Bithynian was among us. We, along with three thousand others, did so to bask in Caesar's company at the rites.

  I accompanied Antinous with Caesar from the first day of the initiates' procession to Eleusis. We are not allowed to tell you about the final rituals of the sixth night at the Telesterion of Eleusis. That's a sacred secret. But I can certainly tell you about the effects the event had upon Antinous.

  Prior to the final rite the initiates drink a sacred brew, the famed potion called kykeon. I don't know what's in the brew, or whether it affects some people differently to others, but Antinous was deeply intoxicated by the stuff. Too deeply, I thought.

  It tasted to me merely like a bitter medicine, but it seemed to affect others differently. I even wondered if the particular draught Antinous consumed had been cunningly poisoned in some way, its effects being so profound on him. Gossip said his intimacy with Caesar had made powerful enemies at Court by his very presence, so anything is possible."

  "What precise effect did the potion have on the lad?"

  "Well, to my eye as a magus experienced in observing all manner of oracles, mediums, and mystics at work, the boy had been thoroughly beguiled by the kykeon.

  I have witnessed enchanted sibyls inhaling the fumes of burnt leaves or grasses to achieve their insight, or ingesting sacred medicaments extracted from toads or mushrooms, or engaging in prayerful rituals to achieve a deep trance, but I sensed Antinous had been propelled into a thoroughly bewitched state of mind by the brew. I think Caesar, Lysias, and Geta too were concerned at his condition because, to me, he didn't look too happy about his situation."

  "How did the potion affect you?" Clarus interjected.

  "Well nothing happened to me really," the astrologer explained, "I was slightly distracted by the draught, but not to a degree I couldn't manage. Perhaps the boy wasn't familiar with intoxication? Yet he is known to enjoy his wine."

  "Isn't the kykeon poured from a communal bowl? Doesn't everyone receive the same potion? And wouldn't Caesar's Praetorians have watched what Hadrian and his companions were receiving from the priests?" Clarus explored.

  Septicius, being a former Prefect of Praetorians, intimately knew the precautions the security corps took in monitoring comestibles and drink for Hadrian.

  "Well, yes. We all took the kykeon from the communal cauldron in the individual cups provided to us. Yet only Antinous was affected in this way, no one else I observed. Perhaps the lad's cup was contaminated with some malignancy or laced with some secret poison? That is, unless Hadrian had been the intended target and the boy had received Caesar's mug in error?"

  "And then?" Suetonius queried further.

  "The final rites proceeded as they were supposed. I thought someone might be wise enough to whisk Antinous away for his own safety, but both Caesar and his school pal ensured the fellow was comfortable during the final hours of the overnight ritual. Actually, it was afterwards that things grew worrying," the astrologer recalled.

  "In what way?"

  "Well, in the following days I heard how Antinous had taken to his bed. Apparently he was having visions and suffering attacks by mystical daemons, or such things. He was quite distressed for several days."

  "You mean he'd gone mad?" Clarus stated in his usual unsubtle manner.

  "I don't know if it was the madness of insanity or the madness of divine revelation," the Syri offered, "but I was eventually summoned by Caesar's physicians to offer my opinion."

  "And, your opinion was?" Suetonius asked.

  "Well, I think the kykeon had either poisoned him or thrust him into a strange, dark place," Aristobulus said, "I'm not sure which."

  "But he recovered?"

  "Yes, he recovered. Yet along the way he asked his physicians and myself some very strange questions, very strange indeed."

  "What sort of questions?"

  "Well, he revealed to us he'd travelled to the Land Of The Dead, and returned again. He asked if this was usual at the Mysteries of Demeter at Eleusis," the astrologer said.

  The interrogating team showed distinct interest in this meandering testimony.

  "The Land of the Dead?" Suetonius reiterated.

  "Yes. And he was serious. He was convinced. He said he had taken flight 'to the place where the sun never shines'. It is the home of the dead, he claimed. He said he glimpsed the endless oceans which surround the Underworld and the four rivers of woe. He viewed
its ruler, Hades of the unspeakable name, brother of Zeus.

  He comprehended how the manner of one's death and the proper rituals affect one's fate in the next world, and realized the dire necessity of a coin in the mouth for Charon's guidance, and that sort of thing. He said he saw the face of Thanatos himself, the god of death, and yet returned to the light of Life.

  I have only heard great priests and priestesses of secret cults make this claim. Even I as a magus cannot make such a claim," the Antiochan declared with unexpected modesty.

  "Anything more?" Suetonius enquired.

  "It was enough at that time. To go to The Land of the Dead and return to life is the dominion of an Orpheus and his Eurydice, or an Odysseus, or Hercules retrieving Alcestis. It was a form of rebirth, like Demeter's daughter Persephone from Hades' dominion. A resurrection."

  "A resurrection? What happened next?" the Special Inspector asked.

  "After a few days he returned to normalcy. His physicians and I advised he sacrifice to his chosen deity, pour offerings, and offer thanks for his safe return. He did so," Aristobulus concluded, "but he was a changed fellow."

  "Changed? How so?"

  "Well, the experience aged him several years. It was written in his features. He was no longer simply a handsome young man in his prime, he had suddenly assumed maturity's demeanor," the astrologer explained.

  Phlegon's interrupted.

  "In more ways than one, gentlemen. I saw his personality change considerably. Whatever it was he 'saw' or experienced under the kykeon had made a deep impression," the Carian scarecrow said. "He saw something that disturbed him greatly. He was no longer a callow youngster given to pleasures. Despite his youthful age he had matured overnight. This was different to Initiation into the cult of Demeter at Eleusis, this was a shift of personality."

  "How did Caesar react to his Favorite facing such a mystical experience?" the biographer asked. It was now Phlegon's opportunity to reminiscence.

  "Great Caesar was very attentive to his Favorite's needs. Despite his schedule of duties he led Antinous and the Companions of the Hunt on a restorative tour of historical sites across Achaea. This provided the youngster fresh air, exercise, and new stimuli to encourage healing. They travelled to places beyond Athens where erastoi and eromenoi had been highly regarded in ages past, or where the custom was still alive.