5. Caesar

by Colleen McCullough

  Down in the damp and shady cleft which was the Forum Romanum stood the residence of the Pontifex Maximus, a huge and chilly structure without architectural distinction or physical beauty. With winter just arriving, the courtyards were too cold to permit their being used, but the mistress of the house had a very nice sitting room well warmed by two braziers, and here she ensconced herself cozily. The suite had belonged to the mother of the Pontifex Maximus, Aurelia, and in her days its walls had been impossible to see for pigeonholes, book buckets and accounts. All of that impedimenta had gone; the walls once more shone dully crimson and purple, the gilded pilasters and moldings glittered, the high ceiling was a honeycomb of plum and gold. It had taken considerable persuasion to coax Calpurnia down from her suite on the top floor; Eutychus the steward, now into his seventies, had managed it by hinting that all the servants were too decrepit these days to climb the stairs. So Calpurnia had moved down, and that had been almost five years ago long enough by far not to feel the presence of Aurelia these days as anything more than an additional warmth. Calpurnia sat with three kittens in her lap, two tabby and one black-and-white, her hands lying lightly on their fat bodies. They were asleep. "I love the abandonment of their sleep," she said to her visitors in a grave voice, smiling down. "The world might end, and they would dream on. So lovely. We of the gens Humana have lost the gift of perfect sleep." "Have you seen Caesar?" asked Marcia. The large brown eyes lifted, looked sad. "No. I think he is too busy." "Haven't you tried to contact him?" asked Porcia. "No." "Don't you think you ought?" "He's aware I'm here, Porcia." It wasn't said with a snap or a snarl; it was a simple statement of fact. A peculiar trio, some intruder might have thought, coming upon Caesar's wife entertaining Cato's wife and Cato's daughter. But she and Marcia had been friends ever since Marcia had gone to be wife to Quintus Hortensius, into an exile of the spirit and the flesh. Not unlike, Marcia had thought then, the exile poor Calpurnia dwelled in. They had found each other's company very pleasant, for each was a gentle soul without much liking for intellectual pursuits and no liking at all for the traditional women's occupations spinning, weaving, sewing, embroidering; painting plates, bowls, vases and screens; shopping; gossiping. Nor was either woman a mother. It had started with a courtesy call after the death of Julia, and another after Aurelia's death not much more than a month later. Here, thought Marcia, was an equally lonely person: someone who would not pity her, someone who would not find fault with her for acceding so tamely to her husband's actions. Not all Roman women were so compliant, no matter what their social status. Though, they found as the friendship prospered, they both envied the lot of women in the lower classes they could be professionally qualified as physicians or midwives or apothecaries, or work in trades like carpentering or sculpting or painting. Only the upper-class women were constrained by their status into ladylike homebound activities. Not a cat fancier, Marcia had found Calpurnia's chief hobby a little unbearable at first, though she discovered after some exposure to them that cats were interesting creatures. Not that she ever yielded to Calpurnia's pleas that she take a kitten for herself. She also shrewdly concluded that if Caesar had given his wife a lapdog, Calpurnia would now be surrounded by puppies. Porcia's advent was quite recent. When Porcia had realized after Marcia's return to Cato's household that she was friendly with Caesar's wife, Porcia had had a great deal to say. None of it impressed Marcia, nor, when Porcia complained to Cato, was he moved to censure his wife. "The world of women is not the world of men, Porcia," he shouted in his normal way. "Calpurnia is a most respectable and admirable woman. Her father married her to Caesar, just as I married you to Bibulus." But after Brutus had left for Cilicia a change had come over Porcia the stern Stoic who had no truck with the world of women lost her fire, secretly wept. Dismayed, Marcia saw what Porcia herself was trying desperately to hide, would not speak about: she had fallen in love with someone who had refused her when offered her, someone who had now gone away. Someone who was not her husband. With her young stepson moving out of her ken, Porcia needed a warmer kind of stimulus than philosophy and history. She was moldering. Sometimes Marcia worried that she was dying the subtlest death of all she mattered to no one. Thus, badgered into consenting and under solemn oath not to embark upon political talk or speak scathingly of her father's and her husband's most hated enemy, Porcia too began to visit. Miraculously, she enjoyed these outings. As both were good people at heart, Porcia found herself quite unable to despise Calpurnia. Goodness recognized goodness. Besides which, Porcia liked cats. Not that she had ever seen one at close quarters before; cats slunk through the night, yowled for mates, ate rodents or lived around kitchens begging for scraps. But from the moment Calpurnia held out her enormously fat and complacent orange Felix and Porcia found herself holding this soft, cuddly, thrumming creature, she liked cats. Friendship with Calpurnia aside, it kept her coming back to the Domus Publica, for she knew better than to think that father or husband would approve of enjoying the company of an animal, dog or cat or fish. Loneliness, Porcia began to see, was not her own exclusive province. Nor was unrequited love. And in these two things she grieved for Calpurnia as much as for herself. No one to fill her life, no one to look at her with love. Except her cats. "I still think you should write," Porcia persisted. "Perhaps," said Calpurnia, rolling one kitten over. "And yet, Porcia, that would be an intrusion. He is so busy. I don't understand any of it, and I never will. I just make offerings to keep him safe." "So do we all for our men," said Marcia. Old Eutychus staggered in with steaming hot sweet wine and a plate loaded with goodies; no one save he was allowed to wait on this last living one of the beloved Domus Publica ladies. The kittens were returned to the padded box with their mother, which opened its green eyes wide and looked at Calpurnia reproachfully. "That was unkind," said Porcia, sniffing the mulled wine and wondering why Bibulus's staff never thought of it on these cold, misty days. "Poor mama cat was enjoying a little peace." The last word fell, echoed, lay between them. Calpurnia broke off a piece of the best-looking honey-cake and took it across to the shrine of the Lares and Penates. "Dear Gods of the Household," she prayed, "grant us peace." "Grant us peace," prayed Marcia. "Grant us peace," prayed Porcia.

  THE WEST, ITALIA AND ROME, THE EAST from APRIL 6 of 49 B.C. until SEPTEMBER 29 of 48 B.C.

  Because the winter in the Alps was a snowy one, Caesar marched his legions to the Province along the coast road, and moved with his customary speed. Having left Rome on the fifth day of April, he arrived outside Massilia on the nineteenth day. The distance covered on that tortuously winding road was closer to six than to five hundred miles. But he marched in a mood of profound gladness; the years away from home had been too many, and the difficulties when he finally returned home too exasperating. On the one hand he could see how desperately a strong and autocratic hand was needed. The city itself was more sloppily governed than ever not enough notice or respect was given to the commercial sector not enough had been done to safeguard, let alone improve, everything from the grain supply to the grain dole. Were it not for his own many building projects, Rome's workmen would have gone wanting. Temples were shabby, the cobbles of city streets were lifting, no one was regulating the chaotic traffic, and he suspected that the State granaries along the cliffs below the Aventine were rat infested and crumbling. The public moneys were being hoarded, not spent. On the other hand he didn't honestly welcome the job of putting it all to rights. Thankless, mined with obstacles, an intrusion into duties more properly those of other magistrates and Rome the city was a minute problem compared to Rome the institution, Rome the country, Rome the empire. He was not, Caesar reflected as the miles strode by, a city-bound man by temperament. Life on the road at the head of a fine strong army was infinitely preferable. How wonderful, that he had been able to assure himself in all truth that he couldn't afford to waste time in Rome, that Pompey's army in the Spains had to be contained and rendered ineffectual very quickly! There was no life like it, marching at the head of a fine army. The only true ci
ty between Rome and the Spains was located on a superb harbor about forty miles to the east of the Rhodanus delta and its marshes: Massilia. Founded by the Greeks who had roamed Our Sea establishing colonies centuries before, Massilia had maintained its independence and its Greekness ever since. It had treaties of alliance with Rome, but governed its own affairs had its own navy and army (purely for defense, said the treaty) and sufficient of the hinterland to supply itself with produce from market gardens and orchards, though it bought in grain from the Roman Province, which surrounded its borders. The Massiliotes guarded their independence fiercely, despite the fact that they could not afford to offend Rome, that upstart interloper in the previously Greek and Phoenician world. Hastening out of the city to Caesar's camp (carefully sited on unused ground), the Council of Fifteen which governed Massilia sought an audience with the man who had conquered Gallia Comata and made himself the master of Italia. Caesar received them with great ceremony, clad in the full regalia of the proconsul, and wearing his corona civica upon his head. Aware too that in all his time in Further Gaul, he had never been to Massilia nor intruded upon Massiliote affairs. The Council of Fifteen was very cold and very arrogant. "You are not here legally," said Philodemus, leader of the Council, "and Massilia's treaties are with the true government of Rome, as personified in Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus and those individuals who were forced to flee at your advent." "In fleeing, Philodemus, those individuals abrogated their rights," said Caesar evenly. "I am the true government of Rome." "No, you are not." "Does this mean, Philodemus, that you will give aid to Rome's enemies in the persons of Gnaeus Pompeius and his allies?" "Massilia prefers to give aid to neither side, Caesar. Though," said Philodemus, smiling complacently, "we have sent a delegation to Gnaeus Pompeius in Epirus confirming our allegiance to the government in exile." "That was impudent as well as imprudent." "If it was, I don't see what you can do about it," Philodemus said jauntily. "Massilia is too strongly defended for you to reduce." "Don't tempt me!" said Caesar, smiling. "Go about your business, Caesar, and leave Massilia alone." "Before I can do that, I need better assurances that Massilia will remain neutral." "We will help neither side." "Despite your delegation to Gnaeus Pompeius." "That is ideological, not practical. Practically speaking, we will maintain absolute neutrality." "You had better, Philodemus. If I see any evidence to the contrary, you'll find yourself under siege." "You can't afford to besiege a city of one million people," said Philodemus smugly. "We are not Uxellodunum or Alesia." "The more mouths there are to feed, Philodemus, the more certain it is that any place will fall. You've heard, I'm sure, the story of the Roman general besieging a town in Spain. It sent him a gift of food, with the message that it had sufficient in store to eat for ten years. The general sent a message back thanking its people for their candor, and informing them that he would take it in the eleventh year. The town surrendered. They knew he meant every word. Therefore I warn you: do not aid my enemies." Two days later Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus arrived with a fleet and two legions of Etrurian volunteers. The moment he hove to off the harbor, the Massiliotes removed the great chain which barred the entrance and permitted him to sail in. "Fortify everything," said the Council of Fifteen. Sighing, Caesar resigned himself to besieging Massilia, a delay which was by no means as disastrous as Massilia clearly thought it was; winter would make the Pyrenees difficult to cross for Pompey's troops as much as for his own, and contrary winds would prevent their leaving Spain by sea. The best part about it all was that Gaius Trebonius and Decimus Brutus arrived at the head of the Ninth, Tenth and Eleventh Legions. "I left the Fifth on the Icauna behind massive fortifications," said Trebonius, gazing at Caesar with an almost bemused fondness. "The Aedui and the Arverni have fallen nicely into line, and have good Roman-style troops available if the Fifth needs strengthening. I can tell you that the news of your victory in Italia was all any of the Gallic tribes needed to fall into docile torpor. Even the Bellovaci, who still mutter. They've tasted your mettle, and Italia proves it. I predict that Gallia Comata will lie very low this year." "Good, because I can't afford to garrison it with more men than the Fifth," said Caesar. He turned to his other loyalest legate. "Decimus, I'm going to need a good fleet if we're to beat Massilia into submission. You're the naval man. According to my cousin Lucius, Narbo has developed an excellent shipbuilding industry and is dying to sell us a few stout decked triremes. Go there now and see what's available. And pay them well." He laughed soundlessly. "Would you believe that Pompeius and the consuls forgot to empty the Treasury before they scuttled off?" Trebonius and Decimus Brutus gaped. "Ye Gods!" said Decimus Brutus, to whom the question had been directed. "I couldn't even contemplate fighting alongside anyone but you anyway, Caesar, but that news makes me religiously glad I know you! The fools!" "Yes, but what it really tells us is how confused and ill prepared they are to wage any sort of war. They strutted, postured, waved their fists in my face, insulted me, thwarted me yet all the time, I realize now, they didn't believe for one moment that I would march. They have no strategy, no real idea what to do. And no money to do it with. I've left instructions with Antonius not to impede the sale of any of Pompeius's properties, nor to prevent the money's going out of Italia." "Should you do that?" asked Trebonius, looking as worried as ever. "Surely cutting Pompeius off from any source of funding is one way to win bloodlessly." "No, it would be a postponement," said Caesar. "What Pompeius and the others sell to finance their war can't go back to them. Our Picentine friend is one of the two or three wealthiest men in the whole country. Ahenobarbus would be in the top six or seven. I want them bankrupted. Penniless great men have clout but no power." "I think," said Decimus Brutus, "that you're really saying you don't intend to kill them when it's over. Or even exile them." "Exactly, Decimus. I won't be apostrophized as a monster like Sulla. No one on either side is a traitor. We simply see Rome's future course in different ways. I want those I pardon to resume their positions in Rome and give me a few challenges. Sulla was wrong. No man functions at his best without opposition. I truly cannot bear the thought of being surrounded by sycophants! I'll be the First Man in Rome the proper way by constantly striving." "Do you consider us sycophants?" asked Decimus Brutus. That provoked a laugh. "No! Sycophants don't lead legions capably, my friend. Sycophants lie on couches and trumpet fulsome praise. My legates aren't afraid to tell me when I'm wrong." "Was it very hard, Caesar?" asked Trebonius. "To do what I warned you I would? To cross the Rubicon?" "Yes. We wondered and worried." "Hard, yet not hard. I have no wish to go down in the history books as one of a series of men who marched on their homeland. Simply, I had no option. Either I marched, or I retired into a permanent exile. And had I done the latter, Gaul would have been in a ferment of rebellion within three years, and Rome would have lost control of all her provinces. It's high time the Claudii, the Cornelii and their ilk were prevented at law from raping their provinces. Also the publicani. Also men like Brutus, who hides his commercial doings behind a wall of senatorial respectability. I'm necessary to institute some badly needed reforms, after which I intend to march for the Kingdom of the Parthians. There are seven Roman Eagles in Ecbatana. And a great, misunderstood Roman to avenge. Besides which," said Caesar, "we have to pay for this war. I don't know how long it will last. Reason says a few months only, but instinct says much longer. I'm fighting fellow Romans stubborn, persistent, pigheaded. They won't go down any easier than the Gauls, though I hope with less bloodshed." "You've been mighty continent in that respect so far," said Gaius Trebonius. "And I intend to remain so without going down myself." "You've got the contents of the Treasury," said Decimus Brutus. "Why worry about paying for the war?" "The Treasury belongs to the People of Rome, not the Senate of Rome. This is a war between factions in the Senate, having little to do with the People save those who are called upon to fight. I have borrowed, not taken. I will continue to do that. I can't let my troops plunder, there will be no booty. Which means I'll have to recompense them from my own funds. Extremely considerable funds. However, I'll sti
ll have to pay the Treasury back. How? You can bet Pompeius is busy squeezing the East dry to fund his side of things, so I'll find nothing there. Spain is penniless aside from its metals, and the profits from those will be going to Pompeius. Not to Rome. Whereas the Kingdom of the Parthians is immensely wealthy. One place we've never managed to tap. I will tap it, I promise you." "I'll go with you," said Trebonius quickly. "And I," said Decimus Brutus. "But in the meantime," said Caesar, very pleased, "we have to deal with Massilia and Spain." "And Pompeius," said Trebonius. "First things first," said Caesar. "I want Pompeius ejected from the West completely. To do that is to take money from him."