CHAPTER XIX.
THE END OF VITELLIUS.
"I never made a greater mistake in my life," said Longa Duilia, "and Icannot think how you allowed me to make it."
"What mistake?" asked the Chaldaean.
"The mistake of inviting the uncle in place of the nephew to my littlesupper. As to that supper, I flatter myself it was perfect--so finished inevery detail, as becomes our position; so delicately flavored withreserve, as became _my_ position as a widow; and you recommended me toinvite Flavius Sabinus, the Praefect,--and now he _has been_. That delicatelittle supper thrown away, and my attentions so nicely adjusted to thecircumstances, all that trouble and thought gone for nothing. Do you knowthat Flavius Sabinus is now in bits? He has been positively hacked topieces. It is not the supper itself I regret, and my best Falernianwine--but I gave him a gold signet-ring with a cameo, representing Daphne.It had belonged to my dear Corbulo, and was valuable. But I considered itas a means to an end. And now--where is that ring? But for your counsel, Imight have invited the nephew."
"Madam, I counselled aright."
"You have the face to say that? Do you not know that Sabinus has had hishead struck off, and his body dragged by hooks down the Gemonian stair,and then positively torn to pieces--but there? Who has got hold of thering? I have lost it--through you. _You_ pretend to read the stars and peerinto futurity!"
"Lady, I do see into what is to be, and counsel accordingly."
"Oh, yes! glimpses as of light in a wood through thick foliage. Plenty ofobscurity, very little light."
"Madam, consider. Had you not invited the Praefect who has been, you wouldnot have seen the nephew who is, and who came in at the supper to call hisuncle away. It was thus he arrived at a knowledge of your house, and yourfriendly disposition, and thus it was that he was induced to throw himselfon your protection."
"There is something in that," observed Duilia. "But how much better hadthe invitation been sent to Domitian himself."
"On the contrary, that would not have been judicious, therefore I did notrecommend it. Had the nephew come here along with his servants,immediately his escape from the Capitol was discovered, and they weretortured to disclose his place of concealment, they would have betrayedthis house: but as it has happened they could not suppose he would takerefuge here."
"There is a good deal in that," answered Duilia meditatively. "Well, it isonly the ring that I regret. If I had but known--something ofinconsiderable value but showy would have sufficed. Moreover, I might havedone without that dish of British oysters--very expensive, and, as you see,thrown away. Yet! well, I enjoyed them."
"Even that ring is not lost."
"How so?"
"It is on Domitian's finger."
"You really say so?"
"When the Praefect bade his nephew and sons attempt to escape from theCapitol, he recommended the former to engage your protection, and in tokenof this, he put the ring that you had given him, on his nephew's finger,that he might present it to you--should there be mistrust, in pledge thathe came from Flavius Sabinus. I encountered Domitian in the street, I knewhim and conducted him to your door, and obtained his admission. There wasno necessity for him to show his ring, as I stood sponsor for him."
"You are a good old creature," said Duilia, "I withdraw any offensiveexpressions I may have used. To gratify you, I will pay that old woman,Senecio, his wage and bid him pack."
"Then, madam, my services shall be amply repaid. The man himself isharmless. Engage him as a clown,--he is consumed with conceit, and sorenders himself a laughing-stock. That is all he is qualified to be."
"Go--send me Domitia. She has behaved like a fool."
Shortly after the girl entered the room where was her mother. The latterat once exclaimed:--
"My dear, the ring is not lost. Domitian has it. By the foresight of theGods, Sabinus removed it from his finger, and confided it to his nephew,before unhappy circumstances arose which might have led to the ringgetting into the hands of any Cyrus or Dromo."
"Was it to hear this that you sent for me?" asked Domitia sullenly.
"No, it was not. Your conscience must upbraid you. You have acted in aninsensate manner. You have flouted and angered the son of him whoin--perhaps half an hour--will be an Augustus, supreme in the state."
"Mother, I do not like him."
"Ye Gods of the Capitol!--confound them, by the way, they are all burnt! OTellus and Terminus! Do you suppose we are to see and be courteous only tothose whom we like? What cared I for that paragon of virtue, FlaviusSabinus, who talked to such an extent that I could not get in a wordedgeways. But I gave him a nice little supper--and oysters from Britain, mybest Falernian, and that ring of your father's, because I thought he mightbe useful. And now Titus Flavius Domitianus is our guest--in hiding tillmatters are settled one way or the other--and you insult him to his face.It is not conduct worthy of your mother. You interfere with my plans."
"What plans?"
"My dear child, Vespasian is old--about sixty I think, and has but twosons, of whom Domitian is the youngest. The elder, Titus Flavius SabinusVespasianus has but a daughter. Do you not see? Do you not smell?"
"I do neither, mother."
"More the pity. You sadly take after your father, who had no ambition.Give the old fellow ten years before he becomes a god; the eldest son, ifthe worst comes, may succeed and be Augustus for another ten, andthen,--the second son, Domitian, will be prince. My dear, whatopportunities! What gorgeous opportunities!"
"Opportunities for what?"
"For push, my dear, push to the purple. Your dear father, ah, well! We arenot all made of the same clay."
"Mother, that is precisely what fills me with dread. He will then be theeighth, for these adventurers of a few months do not count,--the new Nero."
"But consider--the purple. My dear, do you remember how Valeria caught thedictator Sulla. She sat behind him in the theatre, and picked some flueoff his toga. He turned round and caught her doing it. 'Sir,' said she, 'Iam but endeavoring to get to myself some of the luck that adheres to you!'I could have loved that woman. It was so happy, so neat. That bit of wooldrew Sulla and the Dictatorship to her. You, what a blunderer you are. Youhave offended Domitian, who may some day be greater than was Sulla, whenyou had it in your power by a word, a look, a dimpled smile, to win him,and with him the purple."
"Mother, I do not covet it. You forget--I am promised to Lucius AEliusLamia."
"Oh! Lamia! He could be bought off with a proconsulship."
"I do not desire to be separated from him. I love him, and have loved himsince we were children together."
"Well, you have done for your chances. If I surmise aright, the young manentertains a great grudge against you."
At that moment Eboracus came in.
"Madam," said he, "the Illyrian legions have entered the city, underPrimus, and there is fighting in the streets. The people on the housetopscheer on this side or that, as though they were at a show of gladiators."
"Well--those things happen. We shall know for certain which shall beuppermost, and if fate favors Vitellius--Then, daughter, I shall notscruple to give the young man up."
The condition of the capital was frightful. Vitellius had called in leviesfrom the country to support him, and the praetorian soldiers stood firm.But many men of direction were with the partisans of Vespasian, whoadvanced steadily over the bodies of the troops opposing them. Fiftythousand persons lost their lives in these eventful days of theSaturnalia.
The legions under Primus succeeded in recapturing the Capitol, which wasstill smoking, and pushed forward into the Forum.
Meanwhile, Vitellius, in the Palatine palace, a prey to irresolution, hadfilled himself with wine, and then fled along with his cook and pastrycookto his wife's house on the Aventine. Then deceived by a false report thathis troops were successful, he returned to the Palatine, and found itdeserted, but a roar of voices rose from the Forum below, and from
theCapitol the cries of the legionaries were wafted towards him along withthe smoke.
He hastened to collect all the gold he could lay his hands on, stuffed itinto his cincture, assumed an old ragged suit, and then again attempted toescape; but now he found every avenue blocked. Filled with terror hecrawled into the dog-kennel where the hounds, resenting the intrusion,fell on him and bit his neck and hands and legs. But now Vespasian'ssoldiery invaded the palace, and a tribune, Julius Placidius, discoveringthe bloated, bleeding wretch, drew him out by the foot, and he came forththus, his hands full of dirty straw, and strands adhering to his hair andgarments. A howling rabble at once surrounded him, leaping, jeering,throwing mud and stones; a few soldiers succeeded in surrounding him. Hishands were bound behind his back, and a rope passed about his neck. Thushe was dragged through the streets an object of insult to the people. Somestruck him in the face, some plucked out his hair. In the Forum the rabblewere breaking his statues and dragging them about. One ruffian thrust apike under the unfortunate prince's chin and bade him hold up his head.Then said Vitellius:--
"Thou, who thus addressest me--a tribune thou art, remember I was once thycommander!"
Thereupon a German soldier, desirous of shortening his misery, struck himdown with a blow of his sword, and in so doing cut off the ear of thetribune who had insulted the fallen Emperor.
At once the body of the prince, from whom the life was not sped, wasdragged to the Gemonian stair, a flight of steps down which the corpses ofmalefactors were flung, and there he was despatched with daggers.
Longa Duilia had been kept well informed as to all that took place.
No sooner was she assured that Vitellius was dead, than she rushed intothe apartment given up to Domitian.
"Salve, Caesar! As the Gods love me, I am the first to so salute you, sonof the Augustus! Oh, I am so happy! And it might have been otherwise, but_you_ they never would have reached save over my body."