The Course of Honour Read Online Free PDF Page A

woman, and Antonia at seventy was short of female companionship. Her lady wanted neither a chit she could bully nor a monster who would try to bully her. Antonia needed someone with good sense; someone she could talk to; someone she could trust absolutely. She had found all that, though she did not yet know Caenis well enough to admit it. But they had shared an act of bravado (and of tragedy too, for Antonia had condemned her own daughter). They were now locked in a secret, awaiting the outcome. And if Sejanus discovered that Antonia had denounced him, there would be fatal results for both mistress and slave.
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    Life went on. An appearance of normality was crucial. Visitors came and went. For secrecy’s sake Caenis was forbidden to approach them,but since she was tied to the house she was volunteering for any work she could. This included keeping a diary of visitors. Caenis was a secretary who could remain virtually invisible—while thoroughly inspecting all the persons whose names featured on her lists.
    Among Antonia’s private friends were wealthy men of consular rank such as Lucius Vitellius and Valerius Asiaticus, who sometimes brought clients of their own. Caenis soon spotted among the names of Vitellius’ escort that of Flavius Sabinus, one of the two young men she had directed at the Palace. He currently held the civic post of aedile so he qualified for an introduction here, although actually gaining admittance had required the patronage of a much more senior senator. This unofficial court circle could be a good place for impoverished new men from the provincial middle class to acquire influence. Here they would be meeting Caligula and Gemellus, the heirs to the Empire. They would mingle with ambassadors. They could even, if they wanted to risk ridicule, make the acquaintance of Claudius, Antonia’s surviving son, who because of various disabilities took no part in public life.
    The brothers came from Reate; Caenis burrowed it out. Reate was a small town in the Sabine hills—a birthplace Roman snobs would mock. Their family arranged contracts for seasonal labour and had made their money in provincial tax collection. Their father had also been a banker. They would be notables in their own country, though in Rome, amongst senatorial pedigrees that trailed back to the Golden Age, they must be struggling. Since Sabinus had qualified for the Senate the family must own estates worth at least a million sesterces, but it was obviously new money and if it were all tied up in the land she could well believe their day-to-day budget was tight.
    With some difficulty, since no one knew or wanted to know anything about him, she discovered from the usher that the younger brother, Vespasian, had returned to his military duties abroad.
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    On 17 October a letter came to Antonia, brought by Pallas from Capri. She read it in private, then stayed in her room. Pallas did not reappear.
    By nightfall word had run through the household notwithstanding, and the next day the results of Antonia’s action became known throughout Rome: to sidestep the Praetorian Guards, the Emperor had called into his confidence past and present commanders of the city police force. One, Macro, had been secretly appointed as the new commander of the Praetorians. He entered Rome incognito and laid plans with Laco, the current Prefect of the Vigiles. After taking elaborate precautions, Macro had persuaded Sejanus to enter the Temple of Apollo on the Palatine where the Senate were meeting—only a few yards from Antonia’s house. A letter from the Emperor to the Senate was to be read. Sejanus let himself be persuaded that this would be offering even greater honours to himself.
    Once Sejanus had gone inside the Temple, Macro dismissed the escort of Guards, ordering them back to their camp (which ironically Sejanus himself had built for them in the north part of the city). He replaced them with loyal members of the city Vigiles.