Part 56 (2/2)
They say it was Fulvia, Antony's wife, who deht hand be cut off as well, the one that wrote the speeches against Antony--that it was she who set the head at their table and stuck pins through the tongue, until Antony had it taken away to be set on the Rostra It ainst her, for he was never bloodthirsty To triu, to bathe in his blood another When defecting soldiers were executed, it was Fulvia who stood near enough, laughing, that the blood splashed on her gown
Such fierce, prih But what Octavian had, and was, I realized with a sudden insight that left me shaken I could see what had been veiled, unclear, before
I had been reading dispatches describing the rapid changes in Rome, when suddenly I remembered bits and snatches of iether to make a portrait of his true face, behind the innocent beauty
Why, Cicero had even spun some tale about hi the sons of senators passing before the Temple of Jupiter on the Capitol, for Jupiter to select one to be the chief ruler of Rome In the dream, lines of youths had passed by the God, until he had stretched his hand out to one Then he had declared, ” ”O ye Ro man, when he shall be lord of Rome, shall put an end to all your civil wars” Cicero had seen the face clearly, but did not know the boy The next day, as he saw boys returning fronized the very boy in his dream When he inquired who it was, he was told it was Octavian, whose parents had no special eminence
Was this true? Had Cicero seen it? Or was it a tale Octavian himself had circulated? Octavianhe fooled Cicero, who declared that he had easily controlled the boy ”until now” He fooled Caesar, the Gods only kno he was atte to fool Lepidus and Antony
He would use Antony and Lepidus, then discard them as soon as they had served their purpose And as for Caesarion--only one ”son of the God” could be perainst the ainst it to stave off the sweat that had suddenly sprung up on my brow I saw it all so clearly--why did not anyone else? Why did I alone feel threatened, and by this boy, six years younger than I?
Because he is cold, calculating, and ruthless Because he does not make mistakes And because his very youth is in his favor--he has such a long time to accomplish his aims All the time in the world
O Caesar--if you were truly a God, or gifted by the Gods, why could you not discern the truth about Octavian? I cried inside, clenchingof Achilles that night at the Saturnalia? ”I wonder what it is to be the greatest warrior in the world” Until now, no one could take over a throne unless he was a commander, a warrior But Octavian would find a way, since it was clear he was no soldier He would find a neayHe had already got hiible for the office
I felt as cold as I had during the snow that Saturnalia
Antony, Lepidus, beware! I whispered
Cicero had written to Brutus that Octavian ht to use him But Octavian had reot rid of And it was Cicero's head that was struck off, on Octavian's orders
Octavian had coacy--no troops, no money, no experience Noas one of the three rulers of Rome It had taken him only a year and a half He had just turned twenty
He had achieved in twenty reat Caesar, twenty years to achieve
Chapter 40
The wind stood fair for sailing, and I walked ine to join the Triumvirs at Brundisium where they awaited me Cassius had continued to demand the shi+ps, and I had put hi and I was in secret coypt had not yet taken place; Brutus had reypt As if to show his scorn of ypt, and hailed her as such at Ephesus
Arsinoe! Another of Caesar's ainst me! He had spared her after the Triued froypt It did not take long for the truth to reveal itself: It was she who had persuaded Serapion to turn over the fleet at Cyprus Doubtless she had proypt she planned to rule soon, with the help of the assassins
To think that Caesar had had his knife at all their throats as they knelt in submission--Cassius, Brutus, Arsinoe--and spared them! Well, ould not Here Octavian's ruthlessness would stand us in good stead
Yes, I was allied with Octavian For noe had the sae Caesar's death And after that?
The fleet was h for a full navy, but enough to be of great help to the Triushi+p, a ”six”--two men on each oar at three levels--was named the Isis Isis I had elected not to have any shi+ps larger than a ”six,” abandoning the earlier Ptolemaic mania for enormous shi+ps, which had proved to be more a liability than an effective offense weapon A six, equipped with a rah I had five other ”sixes,” ten ”fives”--quinqueremes--and thirty ”fours,” quadrirely fleet and agile, as well as powerful enough to sink larger shi+ps The tried-and-true triremes would be the workhorses, the jacks-of-all-trades, and I had twenty-five of thealleys, Liburnians, and supply transports I had elected not to have any shi+ps larger than a ”six,” abandoning the earlier Ptolemaic mania for enormous shi+ps, which had proved to be more a liability than an effective offense weapon A six, equipped with a rah I had five other ”sixes,” ten ”fives”--quinqueremes--and thirty ”fours,” quadrirely fleet and agile, as well as powerful enough to sink larger shi+ps The tried-and-true triremes would be the workhorses, the jacks-of-all-trades, and I had twenty-five of thealleys, Liburnians, and supply transports
It was a great gift to lay at the feet of the Triumvirs But it had not come without cost My price for all this had been that Antony pronounce Caesarion Caesar's undoubted and natural son before the Senate, and that all three Triunize hireed They wanted these shi+ps very badly
And what shi+ps they were! I foundof pitch and wood and fresh canvas and rope Going aboard the Isis Isis, I took my place beside Phidias, the Rhodian captain, on thea shi+p, although of course I would leave thedecisions to the experience of the captain
”Here,” he said sole n of a commander” I took it and lowered it overme The feathers on its crest waved in the wind
”I thank you,” I said I was eager to begin the voyage, to be the first woman since Artemisia of Halicarnassus to set out with her own fleet And forgive my pride, but Arte Xerxes, although she fought bravely and escaped pursuit by sinking an eneht west across the Mediterranean for some six hundred miles, then steer north for another five hundred or so, sailing between Italy and Greece until we reached Brundisiuap between Italy and Greece was narrow, the Triumvirs planned to ferry troops across I knew that the assassins had stationed a fleet of their own on the southernmost point of Greece to intercept ht them--that hat sixes, fives, fours, and threes were for And I prayed that the Gods would give iven Arte slowly out of the harbor, a straight line h the narrow channel between the Pharos and the breakwater Once in the open sea, we for of vessels
Hoeet the wind, how blue and beckoning the sea! The waters grew steadily darker, shading froreenish turquoise of the shore into deeper blue where the botto it playfully, littered as they broke The bow of the shi+p dipped and rode the waves like a horse running free Dolphins dove alongside us
”A cloudless sky,” said the captain, squinting toward the horizon ”If this east wind keeps blowing, our voyage should be s as the lines strained, pulling for Italy
We were skirting the coast of Africa, passing places that had always been just names to me: the desert west of Alexandria, where the sands were as white as alabaster, sparkling like salt; the little town of Taposiris, a hthouse one-tenth the size of its Alexandrian sister I could see the pylons of the tehthouse A series of these lighthouses served as signal posts all along the coast, as far as Cyrene
The hipped my cloak and tore at the feathers ofit, for it offered protection and shaded own and cloak; clearly they were unsuited for standing on a deck in high winds Should I wear the trousers of the barbarians, then?
Itmyself in breeches But doubtless they would serve well on a shi+p Or perhaps I would prefer the loincloths of the rowers? They had their advantages too I smiled No, not a loincloth!
Soon I would be with the Triu forces with the part of a Roman army But I owed it to Caesar to do whatever was necessary to avenge hiht to be done with them When I had sailed away from Rome--so heartsick, so weakened--I had co, No more Antony, no more Octavian, no more Cicero, no more Rome more Antony, no more Octavian, no more Cicero, no more Rome Well, there was no more Cicero, but what of Antony and Octavian?
AntonyAntony I wanted to see Lepidus, yes, I would be happy to see Lepidus OctavianI had seen all I needed of Octavian
For two nights I slept well in the built-in bed they had fashi+oned for oods safe, and trunks bolted to the floor served as storage So well secured was it that nothing rattled or broke loose as the wind rose during the third night, then turned into a howlinguntil the shi+p lurched and I sat upright, grasping the rails of the bed The floor was bucking and jerking, and a cascade of water burst in through the closed , drenchingon to the bolted furniture to keepa heavy waterproof cloak, unable to see in the darkness, I feltup the steps
Now I could see well enough A stor across the deck, rolling in like breakers on a beach The sailors were struggling to take down the sail, and the captain was shouting orders, barely audible above the roar of the wind I grasped him by the shoulders, and he turned as best he could
”It pounced on us as suddenly as a lion,” he shouted ”The wind changed to the northwest; we're being blown back against the coast”
”No, no, we have to keep out to sea!” I cried How far e from shore? It had been visible at sunset, but I had no way of knohat had happened in the hours since
”We will do everything in our power,” he said ”But our shi+ps are toys against the force of the wind and waves” He broke off to rush across the deck and secure a line that was lashi+ng like a whip, knocking sailors off their feet While I watched, ato it My clothes were soaked, as heavy as metal