Part 97 (1/2)
As for his personal morality--it was unspeakable First, he had sold his favors to Caesar in exchange for being named his heir, and then passed himself around to Caesar's friend Aulus Hirtius for another three hundred thousand sesterces Then he had seduced the wife of Claudius Nero and nant with Claudius's child-- or was it Octavian's? And even that did not satisfy hients out into the streets to procure wo them like slaves Sometimes even at dinner parties he could not control hiht before her astonished husband's eyes
But what could you expect froer and whose randfather was a slave'! slave'!
And as for the charges about Antony and his Dionysus revels, at least he wasn't disrespectful to the Gods--like Octavian at his Banquet of the Twelve Gods, where he dressed as Apollo and then led a riotous orgy An insult, a monstrous affront to the Gods!
I had balked at the charges about Caesar
”He despised those lies!” I told Mardian ”His enemies trotted them out whenever it suited the the best weapon for the job,” said Mardian ”If this can help you and Caesarion, well--it would be a hile sacrifice”
Still, I hated it But every bit of reed reluctantly
Soon Roations, while Octavian was off in Illyria, busying himself with his troops It cost us a lot of money, but what is money for?
Both men were absorbed in military pursuits abroad while Ro one another's names In Alexandria, the perfect days passed, un in the rest of the eents kept me well informed, and I are of every nuance in the capital: of Oppius (ell knew the truth! ” that Caesarion was not Caesar's; of people calling Octavian's patron not Apollo the Benefactor but Apollo Apollo Tortor, the Torturer; of others accusing Antony of perfidy in executing sextus; of the snickering about Octavian using hot walnut shells to soften the hair on his legs Octavian'sbeset with ”the stink of far-fetched phrases” in a ents ridiculed Octavian for wearing built-up sandals to make himself taller (I contributed that) Tortor, the Torturer; of others accusing Antony of perfidy in executing sextus; of the snickering about Octavian using hot walnut shells to soften the hair on his legs Octavian'sbeset with ”the stink of far-fetched phrases” in a ents ridiculed Octavian for wearing built-up sandals to rippa banished all the fortune-tellers and icians from Rome ”We want none such here!” he had decreed ”Aith astrologers and their false prophecies! Let theo back to the east, to keep the company they fancy, with those orshi+p beast-Gods and other abo Antony and me with Anubis and Hathor crouched over us--Anubis with his jackal head and Hathor with her cow's ears My agents ed to secure one for me, and I saw it fora Queen served by ”wrinkled eunuchs” as ”foul” as myself It seemed I led a parade of perverted creatures-- evil eunuchs, whores, beast-worshi+pers, soothsayers, and necromancers--in obscene rites All the while I bedecked doeneral as the price of my favors--I, the fatale monstrum fatale monstrum, fatal , if only for an exercise in i I was embarrassed about the eunuch remarks and took care to hide them from Mardian But as ti Such a volu released--were these the same people who had paid court to me in Rome when I ith Caesar? They had seen me with their own eyes, eaten with me, talked with es and hate ed by, and there was no word from Antony Had he launched his attack on Parthia? Where was he now?
Finally the strain beca to the s to bathe and rest The new-style Ro favor everywhere, with their hot-and cold-water rooms, but they seemed too artificial for s
”I suppose the Ro to o to indulge in sensual orgies And I et my jewels”
”You must not wear your silver into the water!” said Mardian ”It will tarnish”
I laughed ”Not you, too! I was only joking I have no intention of taking to the waters with jewelry on”
I would take Charmian and Iras with me They had little pleasure of late, and would benefit fro back, I knoas the last tiypt, a free creature, with no one watching It had been so when I was a child, but less so lately The court in Alexandria was not private, and was always a stage But the waters were alaiting, patiently, and if I did not seek them it wasfor therotto soared to the roof of the cave where the waters bubbled out Inside it was hushed and soleentled with blue, washed over the walls The ater spilled out into a wider basin, and froinated inside the cave it was hot, but in flowing out, and then into lower pools, it cooled to the saedand the water beginning; it was all one I was floating andin a pillow that was h not at once My nerves were so jangled that when I first lay in the water and began to et to the other side Reaching it, I clung to the rile of the outfloash over me What an odd smell it had; how smooth it made the skin feel Back I went a second time, then a third By the fourth or fifth time I felt calm, as if whatever suffused the water had penetrated below reen, different froic mineral ithin it must impart that tint
Back and forth, back and forththe rhyth them uncoil like a serpent coaxed from his basket
Serpentsthe teed now? Or did they still play freely on his floor? And his prediction, about Egypt and its Godslong ago, the Kandake and the cobra Her pros about Roood Roainst Octavian, or just remain aloof?
Rome Why could we not just secede from the empire? Why could the eastern half not just drift away on its own? Were we in the first stage of that? Perhaps, when all the s was done, that was just ould happen; the east and the ould float in opposite directions, just as Charmian and I passed one another in the cloudy water, lazily
I would be just as happy to let it develop so, but Antony's roots were Ronore Rome? Still, it would be better to turn their faces away and forget it
But birth and obligations would not peryptian sun, held in the loving waters, it all seemed very simple
I lay on a shelf of warm rock beside the pool, and let ertips and toes Each muscle was kneaded, pressed, caressed A lotion, as thin asof crushed lilies, was dribbled onto my back and then smoothed aroundhed, and pillowed my face on le of hts
When I awoke, it ilight The hours had disappeared, and I was restored
There was only one thing , and I vowed to supply it We needed sunken columns in the water, so we could swim around them and rest there, like ed in only the few days I had been away A letter had co thee
Dearest Wife: Wife: I was on the banks of the A raxes--remember that river, and my tent?--ready to launch ood er came froer cares to keep the appearance of amity between us Here is what he says: In answer to reements, he is silent In particular, I said Lepidus had been deposed without due consultation, his legions, revenues, and territories appropriated by Octavian; he replies that Lepidus was justly deprived of office office I said I was entitled to a half share in Sicily and Africa, and he said I could have it when I gave him half of Armenia I said he refused my veterans their allotted land in Italy; he replies that they shouldn't need I said I was entitled to a half share in Sicily and Africa, and he said I could have it when I gave him half of Armenia I said he refused my veterans their allotted land in Italy; he replies that they shouldn't need it, it, because ”their rewards lie in Media and Parthia which they have won by their gallant cans under their commander” because ”their rewards lie in Media and Parthia which they have won by their gallant cans under their con are dashed I cannot fight a war on two fronts I must abandon my dream and mobilize to counter Octavian I have ordered Canidius to withdraw the sixteen legions and folbw me to Ephesus There, withclash
My dreaoal! My debt to Caesar, to to carry out his plans! All shelved, perhaps forever I feel tricked by fortune carry out his plans! All shelved, perhaps forever I feel tricked by fortune
Gather the Egyptian fleet and send it to me at Ephesus Only then can I take stock of what resources we have
O cruel, teasing Tyche!
Will you coypt precludes, so be it
My love, M Antonius
I stared at the letter, blinking So It had begun Octavian moved swiftly, decisively, once heAntony and the h now not to need them to hide behind
How fortuitous that I had already built the extra hundred shi+ps!
Chapter 68
Blue, blue, blue--as brilliant and deep in color as sapphires, the sea around Ephesus gleamed in the sun And on it rodebrokenly in the waves, its gilded sterns and bronze ra the water in reflected enerals to foot soldiers, the shi+ps under shi+p, the Antonia (what else?), to low Liburnian galleys whose oarports barely cleared the water I had left no gaps in the fleet, no size or type unrepresented Itto chance (what else?), to low Liburnian galleys whose oarports barely cleared the water I had left no gaps in the fleet, no size or type unrepresented Itto chance
The sea, and shi+ps--once again they looain they carried more than my person on them, they carried my fate
There were two hundred of the up more from everywhere: the remnants of the old fleet of sextus, the seventy shi+ps returned by Octavian, the shi+ps of Rhodes, Crete, and the Roest fleet ever assembled!” Antony said in wonder, as he shaded his eyes and, standing at the harbor of Ephesus, saw the shi+ps riding at anchor, awaiting his inspection
”Should we use it to take the offensive and attack Rome while Octavian is away?” It seeuarded, its would-be master far away in Illyria, the people still undecided about him Antony had e ar season is past”
”Yet shi+ps sail even in winter--sail, and reach their goals, too For such a prize, it ht be worth the risk” Roh, awaiting a Hand bold enough to snatch it
”What is my justification?” he asked ”War has not been declared”
”Who shall decide when it is declared? You--or Octavian?”
”My troops have not yet arrived,” he said ”Canidius has not co another seven fros are only just now on their way here All I have is a se to Canidius to hurry? Or to send the best legions on ahead?”
”The effort would be too patched together All the shi+ps are not even here”