Caligula r-1

by Douglas Jackson

  'Now you.'

  Rufus tentatively approached the wall and clumsily copied the gladiator's position, instantly feeling the strain on his arms. Cupido bent low, so his upside down face was close. 'Ten,' he said.

  'Ten?' Rufus croaked in disbelief.

  'Ten, and then we work on the abdominal muscles.'

  When the session was finished Rufus's arms and upper body felt as if they were on fire, and his breath came in short gasps. He started to walk towards the barn, but Cupido's remorseless voice stopped him.

  'So, you can fight. But what happens when the fighting is over?'

  Rufus stared at him, puzzled. 'You celebrate?'

  Cupido laughed. 'You're a slave. You run.' He trotted past, whacking Rufus across the buttocks with the pretend sword. 'You run. Twenty circuits of the park. Come on. No one is going to execute us for running.'

  Rufus shook his head in disbelief, but his face creased into a grin and he forced his tired body into a trot. Staying alive was going to kill him.

  The more time he spent with Bersheba, the more he appreciated his enormous charge's serene acceptance of life in captivity. She was happy to accommodate his wishes — if they coincided with her own — and her few complaints were made in what he chose to believe was a spirit of fellowship. They were both in this together, she seemed to be saying; they should make the best of it.

  And she had a sense of humour. It was true. She played tricks on him, hiding things when he was not looking, placing small obstacles where he would trip over them. Afterwards, she would feign innocence. He could even look back now and believe that she had been aware of exactly what she was doing when she had drenched Claudius on that fateful day.

  Claudius.

  Claudius the fool.

  And now, Claudius the enigma.

  It happened at a time when the Emperor retired to his villa in the hills above Rome to escape the savage heat that turned the city's streets into ovens.

  Three days after Caligula left, Claudius appeared at Bersheba's barn.

  At first Rufus wondered whether the limping patrician with the drooping eye sought revenge for his humiliation, but Claudius motioned him to continue his work and moved into the interior of the barn where he could study the elephant more closely.

  This happened on three consecutive evenings. On the fourth night, as Rufus lay on his pallet, he heard the creak of the barn doors opening, and then closing again.

  Claudius was back, standing in the darkness talking softly to the elephant, but what was more astonishing was the manner of his speech. The stutter that made him the butt of cruel jokes for everyone from the meanest palace slave to the Emperor himself was gone. This was a Claudius none would recognize. The tone was confident, the words flowed unhindered and the thoughts were articulately expressed.

  And he was talking treason.

  'Oh, Tiberius, what have you done to us? I know, I know, I had such high hopes for them too; the one so adventurous and full of ideas, the other a thinker, an organizer, and born to rule wisely. How naive we were, how reckless. How long did we expect the stronger eaglet to share the nest with the weaker?

  'Now your grandson Tiberius Gemellus is dead and Gaius Caligula holds Rome by the throat. Do you know what he said to me only a week ago? He said: "If the mob had but one neck I would sever it with a single stroke." He despises them, and they begin to hate him. Only the spectacle of the arena binds them to him, and they will only be blinded by blood for so long. Then we will all reap what he has sown.

  'Yet I truly think he does not know the ruin he is causing. He is like a small child who has stumbled upon an ant heap. He is fascinated by the comings and goings, but how long before he decides to stir it with a stick and discovers he has the power to cause havoc among its populace? When he does, how much longer before, if he is that kind of child, he discovers he has the power of life and death over them? And how much longer before he uses that power? A certain kind of child might grow up to stick pins in the eyes of frogs and burn fledglings in their nests. Perhaps, as an adult, he would burn men.

  'Caligula is curious to find out the limits of this power we have given him. But it has no limits; nor, I fear, does his curiosity. He will not listen to reason. Those close to him who spoke out are all long gone. The Senate lives in terror of his every pronouncement. I don't have the courage to stand in his way, and if I had I would be dead by now, "Uncle Claudius" or no. Only the army has the strength to rid us of him. But who gave him this childish nickname he bears so proudly, Caligula — Little Boots? No, the army loves him. But if not the army, then who?'

  Having no answer, he left, shaking his head.

  There were other such visits, and Rufus learned more than he wanted to know about the inner workings of the palace before the return of Caligula brought the encounters to an abrupt end. However, they did have one other consequence.

  Narcissus appeared without warning on a fine morning when the dew still sparkled on the grass and clung to the gossamer webs the spiders had spun on the bushes.

  'I am glad to hear you have settled in so well,' he called, as Rufus gave Bersheba her morning feed. 'You will no doubt have seen your friend? I understand he is high in the Emperor's favour. He has much to be thankful for… as do you.'

  Rufus stared at him. He had turned this matter over in his mind a thousand times and every time he had come to the same conclusion.

  'This is your doing, Greek,' he said accusingly. 'It was you who had me brought here, to this place where the stink of death taints every hall. Do not expect my thanks for that. Cupido is my friend and I rejoice at his safety, but I would rather spend a thousand nights among Fronto's big cats than one more day on the Palatine Hill.'

  'You think you would be safer with Fronto?' Narcissus laughed. 'Perhaps I should arrange to have you sent back to that fat oaf. We could have a wager. Will Rufus the slave live one week or two? Why do you think I suggested to the Emperor's chamberlain that an animal trainer of mighty talent could be bought to work with the Emperor's elephant? Sometimes, there is safety in proximity. You may not believe it, but you have the Emperor's favour, for what it is worth. None will harm you while you are here.'

  'I still don't understand. Why should you do this for me? I am a slave. I am nothing to you, unless…' Rufus's face coloured and his eyes filled with horrified confusion. Visions of a day in the bathhouse with Albinius, the slave who ran Cerialis's household, flew through his mind. He could still feel the loathsome touch of the oily fingers on his upper thigh and the rubbery tongue pushing at his lips. He had eventually escaped, but it had cost him a night with the guard dogs.

  Narcissus shook his head. 'No, not that. I can assure you I have interests in other directions. But have you forgotten already what you said? "I would always be in your debt." It so happens you might be able to repay your debt more quickly here.'

  'How can I do that?'

  'I understand you have had a night-time visitor. I hope he did not

  … expose himself to any danger… with your elephant?' Narcissus said, weighing each word carefully. 'It would not do if my master put himself into that situation. I don't suppose he said… anything of interest while he was here?'

  'I don't know,' Rufus lied. 'He comes at night. He spends time with Bersheba. He talks, but I don't listen.'

  The Greek shrugged. 'No matter. There will be other occasions, and perhaps you will find it profitable to listen. If you have something for me, hang a white cloth on the barn door. The next day, be at the little fountain behind the palace of Augustus at the seventh hour and I will meet you there. You can never have too many friends, Rufus. And I would make a very dangerous enemy.' The last words were said with a gentle smile, but Rufus understood the threat that lay behind them.

  Narcissus then asked about Caligula's banquets. Of course, he knew Rufus attended. Who else was there? What was said? Who was chosen and what was her husband's reaction? Small things, but morsels that could be traded for other morsels. Here, Rufus was hap
py to supply the intelligence the Greek sought, and Claudius's freedman left satisfied. Rufus wondered if he would have been quite so sanguine if he had known what passed between Caligula and Claudius at the last banquet.

  'Tell your Greek to keep his long nose out of other people's business, Uncle Claudius, or I will have the guards cut it off,' the Emperor had warned.

  XIX

  It had been more than three months since Rufus was last ordered to the palace and he allowed himself to believe he was safe from further summonses. So the shock was all the greater when he was shaken awake in the middle of the night to find a young legionary officer in a red tunic standing over his bed.

  'You are to come with me,' the soldier ordered brusquely and hauled the blankets back.

  While he followed his escort through the endless corridors and stairways, Rufus had time to wonder why the man wore the uniform of a regular unit rather than the black of the Praetorians, normally the only military presence in the Palatine complex.

  His confusion increased when they reached their destination on one of the upper floors of the grand building originally built by Tiberius. He was certain he'd never been in this part of the palace before. A great gilt-inlaid door, intricately carved with scenes of hunting and the games, barred their way. The young soldier stepped forward and knocked gently, then turned and walked away without a word.

  As Rufus stood with his heart thundering against his ribs, the door opened a few inches to reveal a pair of jet-black, almond eyes. Before he could say a word a slim arm slipped through the gap and a hand took his wrist and pulled him inside.

  At first, the room was in complete darkness and his head spun as his senses were deluged by the musky scent of exotic perfumes so thick he could taste them on his tongue. A shiver ran through his body, but not one of fear. He heard a gentle rustling, which seemed to emanate simultaneously from both his right and his left, before the light of first one then a second tiny lamp pierced the gloom at opposite sides of the room. They were followed in quick succession by a dozen others until a paradise was revealed. The space before him was a vast treasure house. At its centre was a massive canopied bed hung with thick drapes of imperial purple. A hundred gold statues lined the walls, gods and goddesses vying for position with emperors and kings. But the object which drew his eyes was a human form, almost inhuman in its perfection. It stood naked on a plinth at the foot of the bed, the light of the lamps glinting yellow on the cold white of its marble flesh. From a handsome young face sightless eyes stared in concentration. The figure bent forward from the waist, his left hand close to his right knee and his right arm extended behind him, strong fingers curled round the discus he was about to hurl. With a genius it was impossible not to appreciate, the sculptor had created life from the lifeless. Each vein over his subject's tensed muscles stood out upon the flesh as if it pulsed with heart blood. Each rib was visible beneath the perfectly formed pectorals of his chest.

  'Do you like my immortal?'

  The voice close to his ear made him jump.

  'He will always be as he is, frozen at his most beautiful. He will never grow old. His flesh will never wrinkle, nor his eyes grow dim.' Drusilla's voice was soft and Rufus could feel her breath on the back of his neck. 'If only human beauty could be so everlasting, instead of blossoming for a mere instant before fading into the ugliness of age. Do you think I am beautiful?'

  Rufus hesitated, not sure he wanted to see what was behind him, but her hands descended gently on his shoulders and turned him to face her.

  She wore a diaphanous robe that clung to her flesh like a second skin where it touched. Here too was perfection of the human form. Yes, he decided, she was beautiful, but it was a sharp-edged beauty that he understood could bleed him dry. He felt the heat radiating from her flesh and caught the slightest hint of the natural scent of her body in his nostrils. The robe highlighted shadows and clefts of unthinkable promise. For a moment, he forgot where he was and who he was with. Then his mind split in two. One part of him wanted what was about to happen with an urgency he had never experienced. Drusilla's blatant sexuality lit a fire in his lower belly that threatened to consume him. But there was another Rufus, Rufus the slave, who realized he was in more danger than he had ever been in in his life. And this Rufus was screaming at him to escape while there was still time.

  'My lady, p-please…' he stuttered.

  Her lips parted and her face edged towards his. Then her perfect nose wrinkled and she gave an unimperial snort.

  'Yeugh. You stink.' She clapped her hands twice and from behind a curtain at the far end of the bedchamber emerged the girl who had let him into the room, quickly followed by a second who was her exact twin. They were short and compact, with hair so black it was almost blue, and their slanted eyes twinkled with mischief.

  'Bathe him and bring him to me,' the Emperor's sister commanded, turning her back on Rufus and disappearing behind the drapes of the giant bed.

  The two girls looked him over and nodded to each other. Then, while the first, whom Rufus identified by the red cord she wore round the waist of her shift, disappeared back behind the curtain, the second approached and motioned for him to remove his tunic. He shook his head. She reached to do it herself, and, alarmed, he pushed her hand away. With a grunt, she stepped back and stared at him, perplexed.

  Drusilla's annoyance was clear through the thick drapes. 'If you do not remove your clothing, I will tell my brother I found you hiding in my bedchamber. I'm sure you would not want that.'

  Reluctantly, Rufus complied, pulling his tunic over his head as the first sister reappeared with a small basin, but he still hesitated before giving up his loincloth.

  He closed his eyes as they bustled around him, turning him this way and that. More disconcerting than his nakedness, or the touch of the soft, warm cloths they used on every part of his body, was the way they cooed to each other like a pair of mating turtledoves. He tried to keep his mind empty. This was just another ordeal a slave must endure. But the more places they found that needed their attention, the more difficult it became to ignore their ministrations and he realized with anguish that his shame was literally growing with each passing second. He swallowed hard and thought desperately for some escape route from this pleasurable agony, then opened his eyes wide in shock as he felt a delicate hand take him in its grip and raise him up so another could have access to his scrotum. The touch of the cloth there had a gentle urgency and now there was no hiding his desire.

  'Waste not a drop, or you will have the flesh off each other's backs.'

  The voice was answered by a delighted twittering from Rufus's tormentors. The girls took a step back and surveyed their handiwork. They must have been satisfied by what they saw, for the sister with the red cord took him and led him towards the bed.

  Rufus stood before the purple curtain knowing what was required of him, but without the nerve to take the next step. A small hand pushed him in the back and he pitched through the thick cloth and landed in an ungainly heap on a soft coverlet.

  At first he was dazzled. The area within the curtains was a gilded sanctuary, lit by four scented lamps suspended from the poles which held the drapes aloft. It was dominated by a huge bed scattered with soft pillows, and the poles were carved with graphic sexual scenes featuring combinations of male and female figures involved in various erotic acts, many of which seemed unlikely, if not impossible. But it was the slim figure on the bed which held his attention. Drusilla was lying on her back, completely naked, with the tawny mane of her hair draped around her head and her arms thrown above it. Her pale flesh glowed like molten gold in the lamplight. Not a single hair blemished the smooth lines of her body and Rufus's eyes devoured every curve and hollow of that beautiful form. She had faultless, rose-tipped breasts that rose and fell as she breathed; a smooth, flat stomach and generous, wide hips. She smiled at him from under hooded lids, and for the first time he was aware of the scent of her arousal and noticed the liquid sheen on the fingers of her ri
ght hand.

  'Am I not beautiful, puppy dog?' she asked, in a voice husky with desire. 'Am I not the treasure you have dreamed of, but could never have?'

  He tried to reply, but his throat was so dry he couldn't speak. He was kneeling near the foot of the bed, just close enough for her to reach him. She put out her hand, but the enormity of what he was doing had eaten into Rufus's brain and it in turn sent a panic-stricken message to his body. That which had been so impressive only moments before faded away from her.

  To his astonishment she laughed lightly and sat up, her breasts rippling with the movement.

  'Better still, puppy dog. I relish a contest, none more. First we must both relax.' She reached to the side of the bed and picked up a vial filled with a red liquid. 'A massage, I think.'

  She gave him the bottle, which was warm in his hand, before lying back with her hands behind her head, exposing the full length of that sensuous body to him.

  'Now, shoulders first. Come, place yourself over me, with one knee to either side,' she instructed him. 'Now!' The sharpness in her voice as he hesitated startled Rufus and he almost spilled the precious liquid. He did as he was ordered, aware of the closeness of her belly beneath him.

  'Pour a little of the oil at the base of my throat, just there. That's right. Now place a drop on your hands and put them round my neck.'

  Again, Rufus obeyed, as gently as he was able, conscious that his hands felt huge and rough against the slender vulnerability of her throat.

  'Rub the oil in with your fingers. Mmmhhh. No need to be quite so delicate — I am not a toy. Yes, that is much better. Just think, you could choke the life out of me before anyone had time to stop you.' She laughed as he flinched. 'Now move out to my shoulders. Use your fingers. You have such strong fingers.'