Read Online Murder on the Appian Way by Steven Saylor - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Steven Saylor
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ways, and some don't suffer at all; it cripples one man, kills another, and makes yet another man grow fat and strong."
"So is it a good thing or a bad thing?"
"Just a Roman thing, Diana. And whether it's good or bad for Rome, I can't say. It's made us the rulers of the world. But I begin to wonder if it won't be the end of us." I stared down at the Forum, no longer like Jupiter watching the plain of Ida — more now like Pluto surveying the fiery pits of Hades.
Diana leaned back. Her jet-black hair made a pillow for her head as she studied the sky above. Her dark eyes reflected glimmers of cold starlight.
"I like it when you talk to me like this, Papa."
"Do you?"
"This is how you used to talk to Meto sometimes, before he left for the army."
"I suppose."
She turned on her side, propped her head on her hand and looked at me earnestly. "Is something bad going to happen, Papa?"
"I imagine the people around Clodius think something bad has already happened."
"To us, I mean. Are we in danger, Papa?"
"Not if I can help it." I ran my hand over the side of her face and stroked her hair.
"But things are getting worse, aren't they? That's what you and Eco always say to each other, when you talk politics. And now it's worse than ever — Clodius dead, the Senate House burned down. Is something awful about to happen?"
"Something awful is always about to happen — to someone, somewhere. The only escape is to make a friend of Fortune, if she'll have you, and run the other way whenever you see a politician coming."
"I'm serious, Papa. Are things about to - I don't know, about to fall apart? For us, for everybody?"
How could I answer her? Out of the past I suddenly remembered a scene from the Forum when I was a young man, after Sulla won the civil war: rows and rows of heads mounted on pikes, the enemies of the dictator paying gaping witness to his triumph. Afterwards, people swore that such a thing would never happen again. That was thirty years ago.
"I can't see the future, Diana."
"But you know the past, enough to understand about Clodius and Milo. Explain it to me. If I could understand what's happening, perhaps it wouldn't worry me so much."
"Very well, Diana. Clodius and Milo: where to begin? Well, we shall have to start with Caesar and Pompey. You know who they are."
"Of course. Gaius Julius Caesar is the man Meto serves, up in Gaul. The greatest general since Alexander the Great."
I smiled. "So Meto says. Pompey might not agree."
"Pompey cleared the seas of the pirates and conquered the East."
I nodded. "And surnamed himself Magnus — 'the Great,' just like Alexander. As I said a moment ago, sometime when two men want the same thing -"
"You mean Caesar and Pompey both want to be Alexander the Great?"
"Yes, exactly, since you put it like that. And there can't be two at once. The world is not big enough."
"But don't Caesar and Pompey both serve the Senate and the people of Rome?"
"Nominally, yes. They receive their commands and permission to raise their armies from the Senate, and between them they've conquered the world in the name of the Senate. But sometimes servants outgrow their master. Caesar and Pompey have both grown too big for the Senate. So far, the salvation of the Republic has been that the two generals have held one another in check - neither can grow too powerful for fear of riling the other. And there have been other factors figured into the balance."
"Pompey married Caesar's daughter, didn't he?"
"Yes: Julia. Apparently it was a genuine love match. That marriage link smoothed over the two men's differences. Family connections mean everything, especially to patricians like Caesar. And another factor: the two rivals used to be three. There was Marcus Crassus."
"The man who owned Meto when he was a little boy. He was the one who put down Spartacus and the slave rebellion."
"Yes, but despite that victory Crassus was never much of a general. But he did manage to make himself the richest man in
"So is it a good thing or a bad thing?"
"Just a Roman thing, Diana. And whether it's good or bad for Rome, I can't say. It's made us the rulers of the world. But I begin to wonder if it won't be the end of us." I stared down at the Forum, no longer like Jupiter watching the plain of Ida — more now like Pluto surveying the fiery pits of Hades.
Diana leaned back. Her jet-black hair made a pillow for her head as she studied the sky above. Her dark eyes reflected glimmers of cold starlight.
"I like it when you talk to me like this, Papa."
"Do you?"
"This is how you used to talk to Meto sometimes, before he left for the army."
"I suppose."
She turned on her side, propped her head on her hand and looked at me earnestly. "Is something bad going to happen, Papa?"
"I imagine the people around Clodius think something bad has already happened."
"To us, I mean. Are we in danger, Papa?"
"Not if I can help it." I ran my hand over the side of her face and stroked her hair.
"But things are getting worse, aren't they? That's what you and Eco always say to each other, when you talk politics. And now it's worse than ever — Clodius dead, the Senate House burned down. Is something awful about to happen?"
"Something awful is always about to happen — to someone, somewhere. The only escape is to make a friend of Fortune, if she'll have you, and run the other way whenever you see a politician coming."
"I'm serious, Papa. Are things about to - I don't know, about to fall apart? For us, for everybody?"
How could I answer her? Out of the past I suddenly remembered a scene from the Forum when I was a young man, after Sulla won the civil war: rows and rows of heads mounted on pikes, the enemies of the dictator paying gaping witness to his triumph. Afterwards, people swore that such a thing would never happen again. That was thirty years ago.
"I can't see the future, Diana."
"But you know the past, enough to understand about Clodius and Milo. Explain it to me. If I could understand what's happening, perhaps it wouldn't worry me so much."
"Very well, Diana. Clodius and Milo: where to begin? Well, we shall have to start with Caesar and Pompey. You know who they are."
"Of course. Gaius Julius Caesar is the man Meto serves, up in Gaul. The greatest general since Alexander the Great."
I smiled. "So Meto says. Pompey might not agree."
"Pompey cleared the seas of the pirates and conquered the East."
I nodded. "And surnamed himself Magnus — 'the Great,' just like Alexander. As I said a moment ago, sometime when two men want the same thing -"
"You mean Caesar and Pompey both want to be Alexander the Great?"
"Yes, exactly, since you put it like that. And there can't be two at once. The world is not big enough."
"But don't Caesar and Pompey both serve the Senate and the people of Rome?"
"Nominally, yes. They receive their commands and permission to raise their armies from the Senate, and between them they've conquered the world in the name of the Senate. But sometimes servants outgrow their master. Caesar and Pompey have both grown too big for the Senate. So far, the salvation of the Republic has been that the two generals have held one another in check - neither can grow too powerful for fear of riling the other. And there have been other factors figured into the balance."
"Pompey married Caesar's daughter, didn't he?"
"Yes: Julia. Apparently it was a genuine love match. That marriage link smoothed over the two men's differences. Family connections mean everything, especially to patricians like Caesar. And another factor: the two rivals used to be three. There was Marcus Crassus."
"The man who owned Meto when he was a little boy. He was the one who put down Spartacus and the slave rebellion."
"Yes, but despite that victory Crassus was never much of a general. But he did manage to make himself the richest man in
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