Tiberius Read Online Free PDF

fastidious and detest such ribaldry.
    Augustus relied on him utterly. They were complementary. Neither would have been capable of the other's achievement. Nevertheless, as children, we used to mock him, Julia especially. I didn't realise then that Augustus had already arranged that I should marry Agrippa's daughter, Vipsania. I would have been extremely offended, for I found her insipid.
    Certain scenes of youth stand out with the clarity of wall-paintings. A summer evening in the gardens of a villa overlooking the sea, Naples some twenty miles distant. I am reading Homer and listening to a nightingale, for it is almost too dark to read the words. A hand is slipped across my eyes from the rear. I have heard no one approaching. The hand is cool and dry.
    "Julia," I say, without moving, and feel the fingers move down to stroke my cheek.
    "I wish you weren't always reading. I don't know what you see in books."
    "They tell us," I say, "how life . . ."
    "Now, darling," she says, "don't be pompous . . ."
    Even at that age - what, thirteen? - when most of us are shy and awkwardly aware of ourselves, Julia could employ the word "darling" as naturally as a child or a lover.
    But she was perturbed that summer, that evening.
    "Put your book away," she said. "I want to speak to you."
    "Well, it's too dark to read . . ."
    "Please be serious."
    "What is this? You ask me to be serious?" "I've got some news. Daddy says he wants me to marry The Hyacinth." "Congratulations." "Don't be silly."
    "I'm serious. Marcellus is going to win great glory. Your father will see to that. . ."
    "That's what I mean. I should prefer my husband to be a man who will win glory for himself. Or perhaps not? What is glory after all?"
    "But Marcellus is charming also," I said. "Everyone agrees on that."
    "Oh yes," she said, "but I don't want him . . ." She leaned forward, kissed me on the lips, and ran away, laughing.
    She would laugh — at intervals - all through her marriage to Marcellus, and he took it as a tribute to his charms. But laughter in Julia was not necessarily a sign of happiness.
    As it happened, my mother also was opposed to the marriage. She made her view clear, but this was one of the few battles with Augustus which she lost.
    "He was besotted with the boy," she told me later. "It blinded his judgment and made him obstinate as a pig."
    Curiously, Marcellus' own mother, Augustus' sister, Octavia, also disapproved of the marriage. She feared that it would expose her son to the jealousy of more capable and more ruthless men.
    She knew he was a lightweight, even if she adored him. Indeed it is quite possible that Marcellus commanded the adoration of his mother and uncle precisely for that reason.
    Nevertheless the marriage went ahead. Augustus was silly with joy. Marcellus preened himself. Julia sulked. She soon found however that there was something to be said for her new state. As a married woman she had privileges denied a virgin. She had her own household and discovered that she enjoyed the freedom and the opportunities to command which this afforded her.
    But she was not happy and she had reason for discontent. One evening she invited me to supper. I was surprised to discover that we were alone together.
    "Don't be silly, my old bear," she said. "After all we're practically brother and sister."
    She toyed with her food, nibbling a little dried fish and some green grapes, a slice of smoked ham and two purple figs, which she held up between thumb and forefinger before putting them whole into her mouth. She drank two or three goblets of wine, and urged me on. Then she dismissed the slaves and we were alone.
    She stretched out on her couch, holding up her arm to admire the shape of her hand, and let me have a glimpse of her breasts. She pulled up the skirts of her gown to display her legs.
    "They're improving, aren't they?" she said. "Only a few weeks ago they were still fat. What do you think of them, old bear?"
    "Stop it," I said.
    "Why?"
    "Because