Commodus by Simon Turney

Author:Simon Turney [Turney, Simon]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Orion Publishing Group
Published: 2019-03-28T00:00:00+00:00

I did see Commodus occasionally after that, while the other sentences were being announced and carried out, and I noted with relief that he seemed to have remained blessedly free of the black moods that had beset his youth. Perhaps it was because this was no loss of a loved one, but more a cleansing fire clearing out the chaff that had accumulated around him. He and Lucilla had never been particularly cordial, and he held Quadratus in much the same low regard as I.

Finally, I received a message from my friend in the palace that the Caelian house was to be cleared. Rooms had been made available for me on the Palatine. I was to have my own apartment in the palace for the first time since I had been a girl. And with that I found myself confronting something I had buried for a long time and had not been able to face since that day in the arena. I was free. I had been kept from the man that I loved partially by my tie to Quadratus, but now that tie was severed. There was still the somewhat troublesome obstacle of Bruttia Crispina, of course. I wanted Commodus, I realised, as much as ever I had, but it had now become clear to me that I could not share him, even if I could never be an empress. Still, if there were a way to remove Bruttia from the picture, it would be easier to find it on the Palatine. And when I sometimes felt the needle of guilt in even thinking about how to deal with that pretty little empress, I simply reminded myself of her words back in Vindobona:

‘Stay away from my husband, Marcia Ceionia. You may have known him all his life, but you are just a pleb, and an ambitious one, I think. He is mine.’

The prospect of being close to my golden prince again made me inordinately happy, and I reached the imperial palace one bright, sunny morning with a cart and a handful of slaves following on bringing all my worldly goods. In truth, and against every Christian value that had been drummed into me as a child, I had spent days going through Quadratus’ house like a swarm of locusts, swiping anything I liked or thought might be worth holding on to and claiming it as my own. I could perhaps argue Christian charity in urging the slaves and servants to do the same.

I arrived at the palace doors and was shown inside by some functionary I did not know. I was told that Eclectus attended the emperor and would be with me shortly, and left in a comfortable room in which I had not sat for over ten years. I leaned back, enjoying being in the palace once more. I could wait; Commodus was a busy man.

The door to the chamber suddenly burst open as though a runaway cart had struck the far side, and the emperor emerged, his face puce with rage.

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