Fire and Sword by Harry Sidebottom

Author:Harry Sidebottom
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780007499946
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Published: 2016-04-14T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 22

Rome

The Praetorian Camp, Eight Days after the Ides of April, AD238

On the battlements above the gate Timesitheus watched and waited.

Smuts of soot drifted on the breeze, settled like thin, black snow across the parade ground.

Would Gallicanus come?

Yesterday, after the fires in this area had been contained or burned out, the mob had returned to their blockade of the camp. Timesitheus had sent Pinarius out with a herald. Given everyone knew that the soldiers had started the conflagration, the old man might have expected a hostile reception. Better Pinarius was torn limb from limb than Timesitheus himself. In the event there had been nothing but threats and vulgar abuse. The plebs perhaps were somewhat sobered by the scale of the disaster.

Gallicanus had left Pinarius to wait for an hour before appearing. The Senator had been suspicious. Was this some trap? All Greeks were cunning. And why did Timesitheus wish to talk to him alone? Greeks were untrustworthy. What was there that could not be discussed openly, with the people of Rome as witness?

Eventually, using words given to him by Timesitheus, the gardener-turned-Prefect had secured a grudging agreement to meet the next day. If it concerned the very safety of the Res Publica, Gallicanus had announced with all his customary pomposity, it was his duty to meet Timesitheus. He had taken an oath: just the two of them, no weapons and no violence, in the middle of the deserted Campus Praetoria. The health of the Res Publica must count above personal mistrust or animosity.

Timesitheus trusted Gallicanus no more than the Senator trusted him. Wilful and vain, an overeducated man like Gallicanus was capable of using his much vaunted philosophy to underpin and justify the most appalling acts of treachery and cruelty. For men like him an appeal to the greater good always could negate mere trifles like temporal laws or a sworn vow. Brutus had struck down Caesar. Timesitheus would not forget that Gallicanus and his friend Maecenas had murdered two unsuspecting men in the Senate House itself.

The fires were still burning in other parts of the city. No sooner were they extinguished in one place than they flared up somewhere else. It was as if they ran underground, or malcontents were kindling them afresh. Great swathes of the city were devastated. In some streets and alleys the vigiles had been stoned by looters when they turned out to fight the blaze. While many lost everything in such a disaster, there were those without principle or compassion who would turn it to their profit.

Gallicanus had better appear. A note had got through from Maecius Gordianus saying that his vigiles were fully occupied with the conflagration. Much to his regret the vigiles were unable to come to the relief of the Praetorian camp. But Timesitheus was to have no fears for his wife. Maecius Gordianus had made the safety of Tranquillina his especial concern.

Maecius Gordianus was an unwelcome presence in Timesitheus’ thoughts. What exactly had Tranquillina done to make him so well

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