Part 56 (1/2)
”I would co aboue The fleet is not finished yet, and I can get no workmen to continue, let alone sailors to man it We are in dire straits In fact, you are a very braveyour own life!”
He shi+fted a little on his feet I noticed that he was bandy-legged ”Indeed?” His voice was gruff
”Yes The plague attacks where it will And one of our physicians has recently written a paper in which he puts forward a theory that it travels through the air” I rolled my eyes about the room ”That would explain its mysterious ability to attack froners, who seeh,” he said truculently
”Mars be praised!” I said ”May it continue!”
”We'll send our own men to man the shi+ps,” he said ”They must be yielded to us immediately”
”Of course,” I said ”But there is no need to send thees and the fleet is yet unfinished They cannot sail shi+ps without keels or masts We shall complete the fleet as soon as possible, and deliver them to you”
”We will brook no delays!” he said ”Do not toy with us!”
I nodded to one ofjust outside the hall Theya litter with a corpse on it, and laid it down at the ht of the swollen, stench-ridden body, and leapt to one side
”Is this toying with you? Is this victi?”
The man covered his nostrils and turned his head away I indicated that the litter should be reh stoain ”Do not think to put us off with such dramatic, repulsive displays!”
”Why, how could I? You see worse at the Roaht of a flyblown corpse Yes, you shall have the fleet, as soon as you ht of a flyblown corpse Yes, you shall have the fleet, as soon as you h in person, when he ypt Do not flatter yourself that he can be put off with such tricks” I hated the way he kept rolling his shoulders I wanted to tell hiler Now he squared them ”You should knohat has happened to Marc Antony, that Caesarian dog He attempted to wrest the province of Near Gaul away from Decimus--”
Decimus, the vile traitor! Decimus, who, like the evil Trebonius, had helped himself to the province Caesar had entrusted him with! It was too much to be borne!
”--in defiance of the Senate, which declared him a public enemy--”
The Senate! What had Cicero done to theed him at Mutina But Decimus and an army sent by the Senate routed hiions He is struggling there now, starving, we have heard, stranded in shoulder-high snow and reduced to eating roots That's the end of hisensation, as if ed Antony stranded in the snow, starving, freezing! It could not be Only then did I realize how much confidence I had had in hiht hand I aht hand now to be stilled?
Andthe only reing the world into true chaos, where one could choose only between one villain and another, with no honorable s of the flesh, not of the spirit--unlike his ene hts been visible? ”What has happened to Decimus?” I asked calmly
He scowled ”Decimus had to flee,” he conceded ”Octavian could not see his way clear to--cooperating with him”
Hardly Octavian would never ally hione?”
”He--he tried to go to Greece, to join Brutus, but Octavian's army blocked his way, so he had to flee to Gaul, where he wandered as a fugitive It seeed through me Another assassin dead, killed!
”They say the chieftain was an agent of Antony's,” the lory! O praise to Antony!
”But Antony will not live to know it,” he said ”Undoubtedly he is dead now, a frozen corpse, eaten by wolves”
No I refused to let myself picture it ”All that is in the hands of the Gods,” I finally said ”What dreadful things were set in motion by the Ides of March, we cannot know until they run their course”
”The deed itself was noble/' he insisted, ”and the Liberators acted froe,” I said Even my iron will could not steel itself to le the uards to kill hiive Cassius the satisfaction, the excuse to revenge himself on me? I meant to win the battle of wills, and if fate was kind to er, the one that had taken h to him to do it I would embrace him, only to kill him Thus I must lull his natural caution, let him think it was safe to approach Yes Let hiive hier, buried up to its hilt in his lean belly
I approached the shrine of Isis daily, pouring her sacred water before her as an offering, and begged for the life of Antony with a passion I thought I had lost I had not thought consciously about hi e about his fate His absence from the world would diminish it in a way I was hard put to explain to myself Only it seemed that with Antony's disappearance, the sun would slip below the horizon for good and true night come, never to depart Was it only because he shone with the reflected light of Caesar? Was it because all the other Romans were so despicable? As I said, I could not explain it, I only knew that I beseeched Isis to help hi in return for his life
And once again, as she had done so long ago, she hearkened to me Word came that he had survived the ordeal of the retreat across the Alps, and had eed a hero
The report came from a letter intercepted on its way to Brutus in Greece, copied secretly, resealed, and then the copy sent on to me
I had retired into my most private chamber to read it The words leapt out at me, written as they were for someone else's eyes
Antony was defeated, and both the Consuls were slain Antony, in his flight, was overtaken by distresses of every kind, and the worst of them was famine But it is his character in calamities to be better than at any other time Antony, in h for people, when they fall into great disasters, to discern what is right, and what they ought to do; there are but feho in such extrement, either was defeated, and both the Consuls were slain Antony, in his flight, was overtaken by distresses of every kind, and the worst of them was famine But it is his character in calamities to be better than at any other time Antony, in h for people, when they fall into great disasters, to discern what is right, and what they ought to do; there are but feho in such extre what it approves or avoiding what it conde what it condeive way to their habits all the ive way to their habits all thetheir h of the lecture What had happened? happened?
Antony, on this this occasion, was occasion, was a most wonderful example to his soldiers He, who had just quitted so ,on wild fruits and roots Nay, it is related they ate the very bark of trees, and, in passing over the Alps, lived upon creatures that no one before had ever been willing to touch a most wonderful example to his soldiers He, who had just quitted so ,on wild fruits and roots Nay, it is related they ate the very bark of trees, and, in passing over the Alps, lived upon creatures that no one before had ever been willing to touch
A flash of excitehtroops, and Antony willingly abasing hiainflash of excitehtroops, and Antony willingly abasing hin was to join the army on the other side of the Alps, coined would stand his friend, he having done hi near at hand, finding he had no sort of encouragement offered him, he resolved to push his fortune and venture all His hair was long long and disordered, nor had he shaved his beard since his defeat; in this guise, and with a dark-colored cloak flung over hian to address the armyand disordered, nor had he shaved his beard since his defeat; in this guise, and with a dark-colored cloak flung over hian to address the army
It was the very spirit of Caesar, such as I had not thought to see again I was much moved
The rest of the letter described his pact with Lepidus Together they now had seventeen legions and aon Rome They were on their way to a pact with Octavian, to join forces and pursue the assassins
They would pursue theranted me the opportunity, I would slay them from the east I stillless would satisfy er upon hi before, tiue abated, the granaries kept starvation at bay, and Egypt survived
On the first day of the Roman New Year, the Senate formally declared Caesar a God So those ould not have him as their leader would now have him for their God! The irony could not fail to amuse Caesar as he looked down upon all this But events at Ro used Cicero's sponsorshi+p and prestige to the utht, Octavian--or divi filius divi filius, son of the God, as he now called hiray old head to a grisly end
Octavian joined forces with Lepidus and Antony, and together they proclaimed themselves the Triumvirate that would rule Ro the Senate as easily as Cicero Next they announced that the assassins were traitors and must be hunted down and punished
Both sides desperately neededthe east--Cassius and Brutus attacked Rhodes, Xanthus, Lycia, Patara, and Tarsus--and the Triuram of proscriptions, whereby all enemies must yield up their persons and their treasures They said they would not make Caesar's mistake of cle eneained lives and swapped names--my uncle for your tutor--and Octavian yielded up Cicero without a murmur The man he had flattered and called ”father” was turned over to the executioners They tracked hi to flee But his slaves set down the litter, and Cicero, like one of the sacrificial oxen I had seen at the Triumphs, stuck out his neck for the blow