Catulus had heard that derisive "Embezzler!" and needed no further information to draw the correct conclusions. "Caesar, I will have your skin for this!" he cried, shaking a fist.
"Oh!" gasped Caesar, shrinking back in mock alarm. "Do you hear him, Quirites! I expose him as a sacrilegious wolfer-down of Rome's public moneys, and he threatens to flay me! Come, Catulus, why not admit what everyone in Rome knows for a fact? The proof is there for all the world to see—more proof by far than you had to offer when you accused me of treason in the House! All any man has to do is look at the walls, the floors, the empty plinths and the absence of gifts to see what humiliation you have inflicted on Jupiter Optimus Maximus!"
Catulus stood bereft of words, for in truth he had no idea how in an angry public meeting he could possibly explain his position—the position Sulla had put him in! People never had any real concept of the horrifying expense involved in building an edifice as huge and eternal as the temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus. Whatever he tried to say in his own defense would come out sounding like a tissue of laughably feeble lies.
"People of Rome," said Caesar to the glowering crowd, “I move that we take up in contio the consideration of two laws, one to impeach Quintus Lutatius Catulus for the embezzlement of State funds, and another to try him for sacrilege!"
"I veto any discussion of either matter!" roared Cato.
Whereupon Caesar shrugged, held out his hands in a gesture which clearly asked what any man could do once Cato started to veto, and cried loudly, "I dismiss this meeting! Go home, Quirites, and offer sacrifices to the Great God—pray that he allows Rome to continue standing when men steal his funds and break the sacred contracts!"
He came down from the rostra lightly, gave the boni a happy grin, and walked away up the Sacra Via surrounded by hundreds of indignant people, all obviously pleading with him not to close the matter, to go ahead and prosecute Catulus.
Bibulus became aware that Catulus was breathing jerkily and in great gasps, and moved to support him. "Quickly!" he snapped to Cato and Ahenobarbus, shrugging himself out of his toga. The three of them made a stretcher of it, forced the protesting Catulus to lie down, and with Metellus Scipio on the fourth corner carried Catulus home. His face was more grey than blue, a good sign perhaps, but it was with relief that they got the leader of the boni home and into his bed, wife Hortensia fluttering distractedly. He would be all right—this time.
"But how much more can poor Quintus Catulus take?'' Bibulus asked as they emerged into the Clivus Victoriae.
"Somehow," said Ahenobarbus between his teeth, "we have to shut that irrumator Caesar up for good! If there's no other way, then let it be murder!"
"Don't you mean fellator?” asked Gaius Piso, so afraid of the look, on Ahenobarbus's face that he groped for anything to lighten the atmosphere. Not normally a prudent man, he sensed disaster now, and had a thought for his own fate.
"Caesar on the giving end?" asked Bibulus scornfully. "Not he! Uncrowned kings don't give, they take!"
"Here we go again," sighed Metellus Scipio. "Stop Caesar this, and stop Caesar that. But we never do."
"We can, and we will," said silvery, diminutive Bibulus. "A little bird told me that very shortly Metellus Nepos is going to propose that we bring Pompeius back from the East to deal with Catilina—and that he should be given imperium maius. Imagine that, if you can! A general inside Italia owning a degree of imperium never before given to anyone save a dictator!"
"How does that help us with Caesar?" asked Metellus Scipio.
"Nepos can't bring a bill like that before the Plebs, he'll have to go to the People. Do you think for a moment that Silanus or Murena would consent to convoke a meeting designed to award Pompeius an imperium maius? No, it will be Caesar."
"So?"
"So we'll make sure the meeting is a violent one. Then, as Caesar will be responsible at law for any violence, we'll charge him under the lex Plautia de vi. In case you've forgotten, Scipio, I am the praetor in charge of the Violence Court! Not only am I willing to pervert justice in any way I can to get Caesar sent down, I'd even walk up to Cerberus and give each head a pat!"
"Bibulus, that's brilliant!" said Gaius Piso.
"And for once," said Cato, "there will be no protestations from me that justice is not being done. If Caesar is convicted, justice will be done!"
"Catulus is dying," said Cicero abruptly. He had hung on the outskirts of the group, painfully aware that no member of it considered him of sufficient moment to include him in their plotting. He, the lodger from Arpinum. Savior of his country, yet forgotten the day after leaving office.
The rest turned to look at him, startled.
"Rubbish!" barked Cato. "He'll recover."
"I daresay he will this time. But he's dying," maintained Cicero stubbornly. "Not long ago he said to me that Caesar was fraying his life strand like tough string a gossamer thread."
"Then we must get rid of Caesar!" cried Ahenobarbus. "The higher he goes, the more insufferable he becomes."
"The higher he goes, the further he has to fall," said Cato. “For as long as I am alive and he is alive, I will be shoving at my lever to bring about that fall, and so I solemnly swear it by all our Gods."
Oblivious to this massive amount of ill will the boni were directing at his person, Caesar went home to a dinner party. Licinia had given up her vows, and Fabia was now the Chief Vestal. The changeover had been marked by ceremonies and an official banquet for all the priestly colleges, but on this New Year's Day the Pontifex Maximus was giving a much smaller dinner: just the five Vestals; Aurelia; Julia; and Fabia's half sister, Cicero's wife, Terentia. Cicero had been invited, but declined. So too did Pompeia Sulla decline; like Cicero, she pleaded a prior commitment. The Clodius Club was celebrating. However, Caesar had good reason to know that she could not imperil her good name. Polyxena and Cardixa were stuck to her more firmly than burrs to an ox.
My little harem, thought Caesar in some amusement, though his mind quailed when his eyes rested on the sour, forbidding Terentia. Impossible to think of Terentia in that context, whimsy or no!
Enough time had gone by for the Vestals to have lost their shyness. This was especially true of the two children, Quinctilia and Junia, who obviously worshiped him. He teased them, laughed and joked with them, was never on his dignity with them, and seemed to understand a great deal of what went on in their girlish minds. Even the two dour ones, Popillia and Arruntia, now had good cause to know that with Gaius Caesar in the other half of the Domus Publica, there would be no lawsuits alleging unchastity.
Astonishing, thought Terentia as the meal progressed merrily, that a man with such a shocking reputation for philandering could handle this clutch of extremely vulnerable women so deftly. On the one hand he was approachable, even affectionate; on the other hand he gave them absolutely no hope. They would all spend the rest of their lives in love with him, no doubt, but not in a tortured sense. He gave them absolutely no hope. And interesting that not even Bibulus had produced a canard about Caesar and his clutch of Vestal women. Not in more than a century had there been a Pontifex Maximus so punctilious, so devoted to the job; he had enjoyed the position for less than a year so far, but already his reputation in it was unassailable. Including his reputation anent Rome's most precious possession, her consecrated virgins.
Naturally Terentia's chief loyalty was to Cicero, and no one had suffered for him more through the Catilina business than his wife. Since the night of the fifth day of December she had woken to listen to his mumbling nightmares, heard him repeat Caesar's name over and over, and never without anger or pain. It was Caesar and no one else who had ruined Cicero's triumph; it was Caesar who had fanned the smoldering resentment of the People. Metellus Nepos was a gnat grown fangs because of Caesar. And yet from Fabia came another view of Caesar, and Terentia was too cool a woman not to appreciate its justice, its authenticity. Cicero was a far nicer man, a more worthy man. Ardent and sincere, he brought boundless enthusiasm and
energy into everything he did, and no one could impugn his honesty. However, Terentia decided with a sigh, not even a mind as huge as Cicero's could outthink a mind like Caesar's. Why was it that these incredibly old families could still throw up a Sulla or a Caesar? They ought to have been worn out centuries ago.
Terentia came out of her reverie when Caesar ordered the two little girls to bed.
"It's up with the sparrows in the morning, no more holidays." He nodded to the hovering Eutychus. "See the ladies safely home, and make sure the servants are awake to take charge of them at the Atrium Vestae door."
Off they went, lissome Junia several feet in front of the waddling Quinctilia. Aurelia watched them go with a mental sigh: that child ought to be put on a diet! But when she had issued instructions to this effect some months earlier, Caesar had grown angry and forbidden it.
"Let her be, Mater. You are not Quinctilia, and Quinctilia is not you. If the poor little puppy is happy eating, then she shall eat. For she is happy! There are no husbands waiting in the wings, and I would have her continue to like being a Vestal."
"She'll die of overeating!"
"Then so be it. I will only approve when Quinctilia herself elects to starve."
What could one do with a man like that? Aurelia had shut her mouth tightly and desisted.
"No doubt," she said now with a touch of acid in her voice, “you are going to choose Minucia from among the candidates to fill Licinia's place."
The fair brows rose. “What leads you to that conclusion?"
"You seem to have a soft spot for fat children."
Which didn't have the desired effect; Caesar laughed. “I have a soft spot for children, Mater. Tall, short, thin, fat—it makes little difference. However, since you've brought the subject up, I'm pleased to say that the Vestal slough is over. So far I've had five offers of very suitable children, all of the right blood, and all furnished with excellent dowries."
"Five?" Aurelia blinked. "I had thought there were three."
"Are we permitted to know their names?" asked Fabia.
"I don't see why not. The choice is mine, but I don't move in a feminine world, and I certainly don't pretend to know everything about the domestic situations within families. Two of them, however, don't matter; I'm not seriously considering them. And one of them is Minucia, as it happens," said Caesar, quizzing his mother wickedly.
"Then who are you considering?"
"An Octavia of the branch using Gnaeus as a praenomen."
"That would be the grandchild of the consul who died in the Janiculan fortress when Marius and Cinna besieged Rome."
"Yes. Does anyone have any information to offer?"
No one did. Caesar produced the next name, a Postumia.
Aurelia frowned; so did Fabia and Terentia.
"Ah! What's wrong with Postumia?"
"It's a patrician family," said Terentia, "but am I correct in assuming this girl is of the Albinus branch, last consul over forty years ago?''
"Yes."
"And she is turned eight?"
"Yes."
"Then don't take her. It's a household much addicted to the wine flagon, and all the children—far too many of them! I really can't think what the mother was about!— are allowed to lap unwatered wine from the time they're weaned. This girl has already drunk herself senseless on several occasions."
"Dear me!"
"So who's left, tata?" asked Julia, smiling.
"Cornelia Merula, the great-granddaughter of the flamen Dialis Lucius Cornelius Merula," said Caesar solemnly.
Every pair of eyes looked at him accusingly, but it was Julia who answered.
"You've been teasing us!" she chuckled. "I thought you were!"
"Oh?" asked Caesar, lips twitching.
"Why would you look any further, tata?"
"Excellent, excellent!" said Aurelia, beaming. "The great-grandmother still rules that family, and every generation has been brought up in the most religious way. Cornelia Merula will come willingly, and adorn the College."
"So I think, Mater," said Caesar.
Whereupon Julia rose. "I thank you for your hospitality, Pontifex Maximus," she said gravely, "but I ask your leave to go."
“Brutus coming round?''
She blushed. "Not at this hour, tata!"
"Julia," said Aurelia when she had gone, "will be fourteen in five days' time."
"Pearls," said Caesar promptly. "At fourteen she can wear pearls, Mater, is that right?"
"Provided they're small."
He looked wry. "Small is all they can be." Sighing, he got up. "Ladies, thank you for your company. There's no need to go, but I must. I have work to do."
"Well! A Cornelia Merula for the College!" Terentia was saying as Caesar shut the door.
Outside in the corridor he leaned against the wall and for several moments laughed silently. What a tiny world they lived in! Was that good or bad? At least they were a pleasant group, even if Mater was growing a little curmudgeonly, and Terentia always had been. But thank the Gods he didn't have to do that often! More fun by far to engineer Metellus Nepos's move to get himself banished than to make small talk with women.
Though when Caesar convened the Popular Assembly early in the morning of the fourth day of January, he had no idea that Bibulus and Cato intended to use the meeting to bring about a worse fall from grace than Metellus Nepos's: his own fall.
Even when he and his lictors arrived in the lower Forum very early, it was evident that the Well of the Comitia was not going to hold the crowd; Caesar turned immediately in the direction of the temple of Castor and Pollux and issued orders to the small group of public slaves who waited nearby in case they were needed.
Many thought Castor's the most imposing temple in the Forum, for it had been rebuilt less than sixty years ago by Metellus Dalmaticus Pontifex Maximus, and he had built in the grand style. Large enough inside for the full Senate to hold a meeting there very comfortably, the floor of its single chamber stood twenty-five feet above the ground, and within its podium lay a warren of rooms. A stone tribunal had once stood in front of the original temple, but when Metellus Dalmaticus tore it down and started again he incorporated this structure into the whole, thus creating a platform almost as large as the rostra some ten feet off the ground. Instead of bringing the wonderful flight of shallow marble steps all the way from the entrance to the temple itself to the level of the Forum, he had stopped them at the platform. Access from the Forum to the platform was via two narrow sets of steps, one on either side. This allowed the platform to serve as a rostrum, and Castor's to serve as a voting place; the assembled People or Plebs stood below in the Forum and looked up.
The temple itself was completely surrounded by fluted stone columns painted red, each surmounted by an Ionic capital painted in shades of rich blue with gilded edges to the volutes. Nor had Metellus Dalmaticus enclosed the chamber by walls within the columns; one could look straight through Castor's, it soared airy and free as the two young Gods to whom it was dedicated.
As Caesar stood watching the public slaves deposit the big, heavy tribunician bench on the platform, someone touched his arm.
"A word to the wise," said Publius Clodius, dark eyes very bright. "There's going to be trouble."
Caesar's own eyes had already absorbed the fact that there were many in the idling crowd whose faces were not familiar save in one way: they belonged to Rome's multitude of bully-boys, the ex-gladiators who upon being liberated drifted from places like Capua to find seedy employment in Rome as bouncers, bailiffs, bodyguards.
"They're not my men," said Clodius.
"Whose, then?"
"I'm not sure because they're too cagey to say. But they all have suspicious bulges beneath their togas—cudgels, most likely. If I were you, Caesar, I'd have someone call out the militia in a hurry. Don't hold your meeting until it's guarded."
"Many thanks, Publius Clodius," said Caesar, and turned away to speak to his chief lictor.
Not long
afterward the new consuls appeared. Silanus's lictors bore the fasces, whereas Murena's dozen walked with left shoulders unburdened. Neither man was happy, for this meeting, the second of the year, was also the second one called into being by a mere praetor; Caesar had got in before the consuls, a great insult, and Silanus had not yet had an opportunity to address the People in his laudatory contio. Even Cicero had fared better! Thus both waited stony-faced as far from Caesar as they could, while their servants placed their slender ivory chairs to one side of the platform's center, occupied by the curule chair belonging to Caesar and—ominous presence!—the tribunician bench.
One by one the other magistrates trickled in and found a spot to sit. Metellus Nepos when he came perched on the very end of the tribunician bench adjacent to Caesar's chair, winking at Caesar and nourishing the scroll containing his bill to summon Pompey home. Eyes everywhere, the urban praetor told off the clotting groups in the crowd, now three or four thousand strong. Though the very front area was reserved for senators, those just behind and to either side were ex-gladiators. Elsewhere were groups he thought belonged to Clodius, including the three Antonii and the rest of the young blades who belonged to the Clodius Club. Also Fulvia.
His chief lictor approached and bent down to Caesar's chair. "The militia are beginning to arrive, Caesar. As you directed, I've put them out of sight behind the temple."
"Good. Use your own initiative, don't wait for my command."
"It's all right, Caesar!" said Metellus Nepos cheerfully. "I heard that the crowd was full of strange tough faces, so I've got a few tough faces of my own out there."
"I don't think, Nepos," said Caesar, sighing, "that's a very clever idea. The last thing I want is another war in the Forum."
"Isn't it high time?" asked Nepos, unimpressed. "We haven't had a good brawl in more years than I've been out of diapers."
"You're just determined to go out of office with a roar."
"That I am! Though I would love to wallop Cato before I go!"