A Shipwreck Conspiracy: A Judge Marcus Flavius Severus Mystery in Ancient Rome by Alan Scribner

Author:Alan Scribner [Scribner, Alan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-09-28T04:00:00+00:00

XVi

THE INSULA OCTAVIA AND THE WHALE

While Vulso was discovering the stolen bales of silk, Judge Severus, Crantor and Straton arrived at the Insula Octavia. Simultaneously, a contubernium of eight police of the Vigiles came on the street. One of them spotted the magistrate’s toga worn by Judge Severus and introduced himself.

“Eminentissime, my name is Publius Lollianus. I am a Centurion of the Vigiles and command this contubernium. How can we help you?”

“We are going to enter the Insula Octavia, just down the street. My assistants,” he said, pointing to Crantor and Straton, “will come with me to find someone named Balaena, the Whale, and arrest him. Two of your troopers will come with us, while the rest will guard the entrance. People who say they are residents can come in, but no one should be allowed to leave.”

And with that, Severus, Crantor and Straton went to the entrance of the Insula Octavia. The ianitor who had been there in the morning was still there. Only the vat of feces by the entrance had been removed for use as fertilizer, but the doorman was still using his bag of rose petals to ward off the still lingering odor.

Straton accosted him.

“Salve. You may remember me from this morning.”

The porter looked him over. “Oh yes. But you weren’t in uniform then.”

“I am now. This is Marcus Flavius Severus, iudex selectus, and his every word is to be obeyed without question. Otherwise there will be arrests. Do you understand me?”

The porter nodded.

“Now, tell me where the Whale is.”

“I don’t know where the Whale is. He left a few hours ago.”

“What? Did he just walk away?”

“No. An 8-bearer litter came for him. He went inside the litter and that’s the last I saw of him.”

“Which way did the litter go?”

“That way,” said the ianitor pointing. “Toward the Clivus Suburanus, toward the Esquiline Hill.”

“Show us his apartment.”

The porter led them inside on the first floor, behind the stairs, to a spacious room with a table, a bed, a wash basin and a chest.

“Can you open the chest?” said Severus to Straton, looking at the lock.

Straton took a set of small tools from a leather pouch he wore on his belt, and proceeded to pick the lock, soon opening it without much trouble. They then looked inside. There were clothes, sandals and some rolled up scrolls, which Straton handed to the judge.

“We’ll have to read these, whatever they are. Meanwhile, as long as we’re here, we might as well conduct a real raid on this insula. We want to find out who is here from the crew of the Andromeda, and what people know about the Whale, who he is, where he’s from, et cetera.”

“It’s getting late, though,” said Straton. “We don’t have the time and resources at the moment. How will we know who is from the crew, for instance? Suppose, one of the officers is here, how will we know who he is?”

“We can only do that tomorrow morning,” replied the judge. “So no one will be allowed to leave until then.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.