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Authors: Humphry Knipe
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after I sowed enough gold into my mattress to qualify me for the Senate, Agrippina told me, "You're coming with Lucius and me on a social call. We're going to visit my family. Destiny has decreed that you will be of assistance to our dynasty, so it is appropriate that you pay your respects to its members.”
“In Augustus’s Forum?”
“No, his mausoleum. Is anything the matter?"
There was. In spite of being Egyptian, I dreaded tombs.
Augustus's mausoleum, as I’ve mentioned before, stood on the bank of the Tiber, a short distance below the gardens where Messalina had died. Its huge circular concrete structure was covered by terraces that were planted with cypresses and surrounded by public walks. Lucius walked with me next to his mother's litter. As we approached the mausoleum the Sun struck sparks from the gilded statue on its summit, the statue of Augustus, Agrippina's great-grandfather. I did my best to keep up with Lucius's nimble chatter, much of it complaints about what a bore his new tutor Seneca was, but my mind was clouded with apprehension. There seemed more of them than usual, the eyes that followed me everywhere. Something was afoot but I didn't know what it was.
A crowd, made up mostly of older women who must have heard of Agrippina's visit, had gathered at the entrance. Agrippina waved gravely to them. Lucius blew kisses.
"Lucius! Lucius!" the women called back in delight.
Agrippina scowled at him. "Stop that, you are not a pantomime dancer and this is a tomb not a theater! "
She got out of her litter and we followed her into the cool, dark, damp interior. The vast dome, three hundred feet across and sixty feet high, loomed above twelve large niches populated by statues of the imperial family. The flickering torches brought them to life, their glass eyes reflecting the light so that they appeared to be subjecting their visitors to intense scrutiny. The hair on the back of my head prickled when I thought I saw the lips of one of them move.
There was a strange, unsettling undertone in Agrippina's voice that reminded me of honey laced with poison. "Come with us," Agrippina said to me, "I want you to meet everyone. As a Greek, you may not be so familiar with them as we Romans are."
The tomb was silent except for the distant dripping of water and Agrippina's whisper as she introduced me to the statue of a young man, fair-haired, handsome and proud. "Here he is, my eldest brother Nero, brilliant and brave." She kissed the painted stone lips. "Greetings brother. You were next in line for the purple, weren't you? Although you were only seventeen Tiberius decided that mother was rushing you to the throne so he put you both out of the way. Don't grieve Nero, I have not forgotten, you will live again."
Lucius yawned. "Mother, I'm hungry. Can we have lunch?"
"Certainly not. You haven't paid your respects to your grandfather. If you turn out to be half the emperor he would have been, your name will live forever."
"But mother, Tyrian purple smells like rotten oysters. I don't want to be emperor."
That's when we heard the rhythmic scratching of nails on the marble floor, a deep, menacing rumble like approaching thunder: a huge black dog was flying at us out of the tomb's endless twilight, its lips curling back from the twin daggers of its eyeteeth, its eyes shining demon-like.
I threw myself backwards, Lucius screamed, but Agrippina didn't flinch. The dog was five paces away, gathering itself for its leap at her throat, when arrows shot by Agrippina's hidden archers slithered out of the darkness. Through the stunned silence that followed the dog's dying yelps came the patter of running feet. I caught a glimpse of the runner. It was Basilicus, the man who'd made me copy Agrippina's star diary.
She let loose a crow of triumph. "Don't kill him!"
The Second Murder
February – March 49 A.D.
It took the tormentors until the first hour of night to break Basilicus. Agrippina watched it all and so
“In Augustus’s Forum?”
“No, his mausoleum. Is anything the matter?"
There was. In spite of being Egyptian, I dreaded tombs.
Augustus's mausoleum, as I’ve mentioned before, stood on the bank of the Tiber, a short distance below the gardens where Messalina had died. Its huge circular concrete structure was covered by terraces that were planted with cypresses and surrounded by public walks. Lucius walked with me next to his mother's litter. As we approached the mausoleum the Sun struck sparks from the gilded statue on its summit, the statue of Augustus, Agrippina's great-grandfather. I did my best to keep up with Lucius's nimble chatter, much of it complaints about what a bore his new tutor Seneca was, but my mind was clouded with apprehension. There seemed more of them than usual, the eyes that followed me everywhere. Something was afoot but I didn't know what it was.
A crowd, made up mostly of older women who must have heard of Agrippina's visit, had gathered at the entrance. Agrippina waved gravely to them. Lucius blew kisses.
"Lucius! Lucius!" the women called back in delight.
Agrippina scowled at him. "Stop that, you are not a pantomime dancer and this is a tomb not a theater! "
She got out of her litter and we followed her into the cool, dark, damp interior. The vast dome, three hundred feet across and sixty feet high, loomed above twelve large niches populated by statues of the imperial family. The flickering torches brought them to life, their glass eyes reflecting the light so that they appeared to be subjecting their visitors to intense scrutiny. The hair on the back of my head prickled when I thought I saw the lips of one of them move.
There was a strange, unsettling undertone in Agrippina's voice that reminded me of honey laced with poison. "Come with us," Agrippina said to me, "I want you to meet everyone. As a Greek, you may not be so familiar with them as we Romans are."
The tomb was silent except for the distant dripping of water and Agrippina's whisper as she introduced me to the statue of a young man, fair-haired, handsome and proud. "Here he is, my eldest brother Nero, brilliant and brave." She kissed the painted stone lips. "Greetings brother. You were next in line for the purple, weren't you? Although you were only seventeen Tiberius decided that mother was rushing you to the throne so he put you both out of the way. Don't grieve Nero, I have not forgotten, you will live again."
Lucius yawned. "Mother, I'm hungry. Can we have lunch?"
"Certainly not. You haven't paid your respects to your grandfather. If you turn out to be half the emperor he would have been, your name will live forever."
"But mother, Tyrian purple smells like rotten oysters. I don't want to be emperor."
That's when we heard the rhythmic scratching of nails on the marble floor, a deep, menacing rumble like approaching thunder: a huge black dog was flying at us out of the tomb's endless twilight, its lips curling back from the twin daggers of its eyeteeth, its eyes shining demon-like.
I threw myself backwards, Lucius screamed, but Agrippina didn't flinch. The dog was five paces away, gathering itself for its leap at her throat, when arrows shot by Agrippina's hidden archers slithered out of the darkness. Through the stunned silence that followed the dog's dying yelps came the patter of running feet. I caught a glimpse of the runner. It was Basilicus, the man who'd made me copy Agrippina's star diary.
She let loose a crow of triumph. "Don't kill him!"
The Second Murder
February – March 49 A.D.
It took the tormentors until the first hour of night to break Basilicus. Agrippina watched it all and so
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