A Forbidden History.The Hadrian enigma

by George Gardiner

  Considering the incision at his wrist, unless he razored his wrist just moments before he entered the water, he would have been unconscious from blood loss long before he entered the river. It takes time for a living creature to be drained entirely of its blood, as we see at a slaughter man's killing trough."

  Suetonius decided to probe this notion closer.

  "Priest Kenamun, couldn't he have cut his wrist by accident at the river's edge and then fallen in after fainting? Or cut and thrown himself in as a willing suicide?"

  "This is possible, but I doubt it. Far more blood would have gelled in his veins than was apparent when we prepared his body. I sense the incision was made sometime well before him entering the river. This could mean it was inflicted elsewhere than at the river.

  I am told too Antinous was left-handed in his activities, yet this incision was in his left not his right wrist. This is unusual. It is irregular.

  I believe therefore his arm was lanced in the company of another person or persons to promote bleeding. And then, when his life's humors had been diminished by his own failing spirit, further manipulation may have been applied externally to complete the job. This is just as a butcher does with a beast to drain it of polluting blood. Perhaps only then was his body placed in the river."

  The assembly grew agitated and edgy.

  "How would someone slit a healthy young person's wrist while they were fully capable of resisting such an attack, unless they were party to their own death? Antinous was no helpless weakling," Suetonius asked rhetorically.

  "I don't know," Kenamun offered. "Perhaps he was restrained and it was forced upon him? Perhaps he was given a blow to be unconscious? Or perhaps he was eager to be incised?"

  "But why would someone wish to bleed a victim so thoroughly?"

  "It is seen by some to be a less painful way to die than other methods. I understand slit veins are a noble tradition among Romans pursuing a pain-free death? But in truth I do not know, Special Inspector."

  Suetonius turned to the craggy high priest standing nervously in anticipation beside the mortician.

  "Pachrates, high priest and magus of Amun, is it true you promised the youth you had the skill to revive him from death if he aspired to sacrifice himself on the occasion of The Isia? We have been told you have exhibited such skills."

  The self-professed wizard uncharacteristically trembled.

  "By Sacred Amun! what can you mean?! My magic does not dare indulge in such blasphemies against Fate."

  "Yet you are known to resurrect from death small animals and the occasional condemned criminal with your arts? It has been testified so by witnesses. You do it in public before us."

  The priest was quick to respond.

  "This is a lesser, minor, inferior Egyptian magic, Inspector, suited only to meager creatures like dogs, criminals, and other vermin. I do not perform magic with the bloodstream and honor of nobles of the Imperium!

  Besides, Inspector, my humble arts are only effective at times of an extraordinary alignment of the stars, configurations which occur only once or twice a lifetime," the sorcerer explained unpersuasively.

  "Yet, priest of Amun, we have been told the youth Antinous prevailed upon you to perform such magic? We have a witness to your conversation in our written testimony. The youth had seen your magic in action, and requested your special powers be used for his own purpose? This was in the company of Caesar too, we have been told?"

  Clarus was becoming tense at the direction the deposition was taking. It veered too close to Caesar's person.

  "But I refused him! I said No!" the magus objected. "And then Great Pharaoh intervened to refuse both of us to even discuss the matter! Caesar had spoken! The matter was final!"

  Suetonius zeroed in for his coup-de-grace, he thought.

  "Nevertheless, Priest, you had sufficiently remarkable prescience to summon priests at Memphis and Thebes to this place, including the very faraway Oracle from Siwa," Suetonius charged, "plus an entire embalming team including Cronon, a Greek painter of funerary portraits from Fayum. They were obliged to travel long distances to this place in anticipation of the youth's death?"

  Suetonius felt pleased with himself in this proposition. The assembly rustled with murmurings.

  Pachrates rose to the fullest height of his diminutive race, his eyes ablaze.

  "You take liberties with our sacred mission, Inspector! This is not so, I tell you!"

  Suetonius had struck an open nerve.

  Hadrian interrupted this exchange wearily. With a dismissive wave of one hand, he spoke.

  "Suetonius Tranquillus, you should be told how the priests and personnel you list were summoned here on my command two months ago. These people are engaged with the planning of our new city of Hadrianopolis. You will hear more about this project shortly.

  Pachrates is an honored advisor to us for this purpose. His understanding of the local customs is comprehensive, so he advises us how the various communities of Romans, Greeks, and Egyptians can live in harmony at Hadrianopolis someday. There was no conspiracy in his summons to his artisan compatriots, Inspector. It was on my own authority he did so. Leave it alone, Tranquillus."

  Caesar had spoken. Pachrates resumed his usual confident manner.

  "I welcome your words, my lord, however there is more to explore," Suetonius continued bravely, if doggedly. His leap of intuition had failed; he moved on.

  "We think we know those around us, but we don't really know them at all. There are several undercurrents flowing among us here, tides which might carry us in unwanted directions. Antinous may have been swept along by more than the Holy River's currents."

  "Be plain, Inspector. No riddles," Hadrian sniped. His appearance was growing haggard.

  Suetonius stepped out in a dangerous direction.

  "Take the women among us, for example, Caesar. Julia Balbilla, princess of Commagene and gentlewoman companion to our Great Augusta, your wife, has been outraged by the recorded revelation how her astrologer grandfather in the time of Nero advised his emperor to kill his own counselors.

  Her notorious ancestor, Balbillus the Wise, interpreted a comet in the sky to foretell that Nero would die. Rich with the mystical lore of the Orient, Balbillus advised Nero to nominate substitute deaths instead. He put it into Nero's head he should kill the eminent men-of-state of his era to deflect the omen's risk. So the notorious Piso and Vinicius Conspiracies against Nero were invented to fulfill this goal.

  It was a most successful strategy, it seemed. Many innocents died cruelly and their families and slaves with them. Their rich properties were confiscated by Nero into his own coffers. It was a winning play for both Nero and Balbillus."

  "What has this to do with the death of Antinous?" Hadrian snapped.

  "On occasions as you know, Caesar, your Bithynian companion was a guest in the Augusta's household. He and Julia Balbilla, as well as the empress with her retinue, shared playful conversation over wine and snacks. It doesn't strike me as too far-fetched to predict the grand-daughter of Balbilla the Wise could suggest to an impressionable youth how a substitute death was a feasible project for the lad. After all, we already know the youth was intent on some form of recompense, some form of self-sacrifice. Balbilla suggested; Antinous considered; Antinous died. The youth fulfilled his purpose."

  Suetonius was going out far on a shaky limb, causing Clarus to perspire even further.

  Julia Balbilla and others of the Augusta's attendants seethed beneath their elegant silks.

  "Recompense, you say? Substitute? What on earth could inspire such a distasteful proposal, Inspector," Hadrian protested.

  "My lord Caesar, your Court is not insensitive to the frisson which prevails between the respective Imperial households. Perhaps the irregular death of the young man could be construed as a slight upon your own integrity? Perhaps Antinous was goaded to commit an act of self-sacrifice, an act which would inevitably cast a shadow across your own virtue. Such a shadow may have political consequen
ces, or at least be the result of revenge?"

  Balbilla was aghast. She was about to vehemently remonstrate against the accusation when the Augusta spoke for the first time. Vibia Sabina's voice and forceful manner resonated around the chamber. Her speech possessed a timbre more redolent of a military commander than a demure wife.

  "Hold your tongue, Tranquillus, or I'll find a way for you to lose it!" she boomed. "Once again you commit laesa majestas in my presence. You are insufferable! How dare you accuse my household of some malevolent conspiracy against the youth Antinous," Sabina proclaimed for all to hear. "It may not be known to you, but the youth Antinous acted as a useful balm between my husband and I. He was attentive to communication between our households and regularly performed the duties of an appreciated herald between contending parties with great distinction. He is a great loss to our continuing rapport. His rare diplomacy in these activities will be sorely missed. You err in your assumptions, scandal-monger historian!"

  The assembly hushed. Clarus by now was alarmed for his own safety. Sweat trickled down his forehead and across his jaw.

  Hadrian again interrupted.

  "I instructed you, Special Inspector, not to involve the empress in your enquiries. You have no authority there; my wife is above your station, yet you have heard her view. What are you trying to say, Tranquillus, tell us or I must dismiss you immediately!"

  Suetonius's internal machinery shifted its grinding cogs towards some other purpose.

  "Great Caesar, there is a pattern to this Court's behavior which impacts upon the events of the past few days," Suetonius explained. "A climate exists among us which leads to these possibilities. But I'll move elsewhere in my presentation if it is your will."

  His voice softened to a less accusatory tone.

  "Another among us is the freedwoman, Thais of Cyrene. Until a year or so ago Thais was the property of Antinous's household assigned as a language tutor. Prior to departing Rome on this expedition Thais's status as a slave was manumitted by vindicta before a magistrate. She was relinquished as his property. She is no longer a slave. She is a freedwoman.

  Recently, some weeks after the dissolution of the lad's eromenos relationship at Alexandria, Thais and Antinous became intimate. Very intimate. No previous intimacy had been expressed between them — "

  While the biographer was introducing Thais, Hadrian had revived from his languor. His ears pricked up at the account of her involvement with Antinous.

  "— Thais believes she might now be pregnant due to the young man's attentions," the Special Inspector intoned quietly.

  The assembly rustled in sotto voce while Thais was seriously discomforted.

  "However, Thais has many reservations about the manner of Antinous's death. Perhaps she will tell us why. Describe your last words with Antinous, Cyrene."

  Suetonius turned to the dark young woman standing nearby. With her eyes firmly planted on the figure upon the bier, Thais groped to stammer a response. Suetonius nodded encouragingly.

  "Good sirs, my former master Antinous spent much of the night and morning prior to his death in my company. He and I were very close, if you understand my meaning, but he did not discuss any threat to his life. Nevertheless he engaged in actions which should have aroused my concerns and invited my greater curiosity — "

  "What were those actions, Cyrene?" Suetonius asked.

  "Antinous endowed me with a great sum of treasure that day."

  "Treasure? What treasure, Cyrene?"

  "Coins to a considerable value, precious objects of jewels and gold, and the deed to a property in the city of Athens at Achaea. The total value is very considerable."

  "Can you vouchsafe for this endowment, Cyrene? Do you have proof of ownership? Or have you acquired it illegally, perhaps by theft or worse?" Suetonius probed in the style of a prosecutor.

  Salvius Julianus, the quaestor, spoke up from across the aisle.

  "I can vouch for it, Inspector. My steward, our clerk, and I recorded the endowment in Antinous's company, notarized the records of transfer, and have stored the valuables in the Companions' coffers for security. All with proper receipts and seals. The endowment is legal and secure with all parties.

  Antinous was to make a separate endowment the same day to one other person. Both endowments together may have been to the full value of his possessions."

  "Is such a gesture so unusual, Thais of Cyrene?" Suetonius soothed. "Surely such gestures are understood between companions of substance?"

  "No, Special Inspector, they are not!" a voice called from one side.

  Arrian of Bithynia made the announcement across the assembly.

  "Senator-Consul Arrianus? You wish to speak?" Suetonius asked. Arrian spoke anyway.

  "The treasures you speak of were the Bithynian's total wealth. Coins, gold, jewels, and the deeds to two properties were Antinous's entire fortune. Unlike many at Court the youth hadn't sold favors or peddled his influence with Caesar for high prices. Though his wealth may have been comforting to a lad entering adult life, it was not excessive by the standards of this Court. I know, because I had been the securer of his treasures in my own chests prior to that very day."

  "Why do you think the fellow withdrew his wealth and offered it elsewhere? Especially on the day prior to his death?" Suetonius asked. "Is there a connection?"

  "He would not give me an explanation of the reason for his withdrawal," Arrian stated. "I begged him to leave his valuables where they were safe, yet it did not occur to me he was about to give his property away to others. I thought perhaps he'd been smitten with the Chrestus disease or fell under some other fast-talking inducement?"

  Suetonius seized an opportunity while this matter was progressing. "Tell me, Senator, do you recall securing Antinous's Abrasax ring among those treasures?"

  "It wasn't necessary; he was wearing it as usual. He treasured the jewel, a special gift from Caesar," Arrian replied. "He wore it always."

  Suetonius made a special note of that comment in his memory. He continued.

  "So why then, I wonder, did the lad transfer the remainder of his wealth to others that day? Thais — ?"

  "I do not know," she quietly replied. "He didn't tell me of his plans. He simply said I was to use the endowment for my sustenance now that I was a free person. I was to rely upon Lysias should anything untoward happen to him. I did not realize how something untoward, something awful, would occur so very soon — in fact later that very day."

  Thais's eyes welled with moisture as they fixed upon the pale figure on the bier.

  The biographer turned to the ephebe standing beside Thais. "Lysias, do you have anything to contribute to this mystery?"

  Lysias picked up the refrain.

  "Antinous endowed the remainder of his estate to me. It too was notarized by Julianus's stewards. Ant offered no explanation, but he was adamant I receive the gift.

  We've known each other a long time, so I imagined I could return his property to him later when he came to his senses. Ant, like me, is a second son with a claim to only a minor inheritance. He will need this wealth someday. All of it. But that day will now never come, will it?"

  "So the Bithynian gifted his entire wealth to others on the very day prior to his death?" Suetonius summarized. "Unless the youth was unhinged, this suggests to me he knew he was greatly at risk, or already knew of his forthcoming fate. This does not imply an accident, Great Caesar. It tells of suicide, murder, or madness.

  With mortician Kenamun's opinion of the deep incision on his left wrist and his great loss of blood which would render him incapable of entering the river, we arrive at a disturbing scenario. Murder, pure and simple. So who among us was willing to see Caesar's former eromenos dead? And what was their motive? Cui bono?"

  The entire assembly hushed. Clarus was fearful the presentation was speedily going nowhere and Hadrian's patience and interest would be in jeopardy.

  Suetonius returned to his fishing expedition, desperate as it may have been.
/>   "Senator Arrian of Bithynia, you deal extensively in other people's wealth or treasures?"

  Arrian looked to the Special Inspector with a querying, startled eye.

  "What can you mean, Tranquillus? Yes, I am a trader, an investor, and a securer of valuables, but I do not deal in other people's wealth, as you say. I deal only in my own.

  I am also a commander of the Legions, a recent proconsul to Baetica at the Iberian Peninsula, and I sit in The Senate at Rome.

  Trading and investing in speculation is to my own benefit as a businessman, but I do it with my own money. Securing valuables in safe storage is a service to those of my clientela who trust my integrity with their precious things or have no access to a temple's sanctuary for storing wealth.

  Wealth is hard to acquire and even harder to retain. I offer protection against theft or misadventure to members of my clientela. But this is not dealing in other people's wealth, Suetonius Tranquillus, though some may become my partners in speculation. Many people benefit from my policies."

  "You received a visitor late at night after Caesar's celebration on the eve of The Isia, the same night Antinous died. The visitor stayed overnight and departed the following morning. May I ask who was that visitor?"

  Suetonius was going out on a limb again, and knew it. The investigating team hadn't seen the visitor's face, but Surisca's identification of his perfume indicated the Western Favorite was the likely candidate. The biographer was keen to explore any hidden motive for the pair's meeting on the very night Antinous died. He wondered whether either was party to some act of malevolence against the youth.

  "Special Inspector, why would you ask such an impertinent question?" Arrian replied. "You've over-stepped your commission, Inspector. My visitors are my own affair. Those I receive are my own matter. You possess no mandate with a well respected senator of Rome, Tranquillus! Yet because your intentions are honorable, on behalf of your investigation and our master's pain, and because I wish to relieve you of any suspicions you may hold, I'll respond to your questions nevertheless."