The Furies of Rome by Robert Fabbri

Author:Robert Fabbri
Language: ara, deu, eng, eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Atlantic Books Ltd
Published: 2015-12-03T16:00:00+00:00

‘Twelve thousand denarii immediately?’ Tertius Cloelius came as near to showing any sign of humour as he had ever done in his life; short, portly, bald and with sallow skin he was a creature of arithmetic and fact. ‘We don’t keep a sum like that just hanging around; you have to give us advance notice, fill in a request form, sign it, have it counter-signed and approved and then stamped with mine or one of my brothers’ seals.’ He held up his chunky signet ring to emphasise the point. His younger brother, Quadratus, nodded sagely as he listened to his brother’s description of correct banking procedure, with a vague smile on his face as if he were relaxing to sublime music. ‘It all takes time, you know.’

‘That’s as may be, Tertius,’ Vespasian said as calmly as he could manage in the circumstances, ‘but I do need it now as my life might well depend on it, seeing as I owe that amount to the Emperor himself and he is expecting it this afternoon.’

‘Well, that is no concern of mine.’

‘Is either Primus or Secundus here? Perhaps I could talk with them.’

‘Both my elder brothers are away on business at the moment; and, anyway, they would say exactly the same as me, as would Quintus and Sextus who are busy upstairs.’

Again Quadratus nodded in agreement with Tertius’ assessment; none of the Cloelius Brothers would ever go against banking protocol.

‘Very well,’ Vespasian said, getting to his feet and remembering what Caenis had told him. ‘I have more than one banker in Rome; I shall try elsewhere and they can be the recipients of a very interesting piece of news. Good day, gentlemen.’ He walked to the door.

‘What news?’ Tertius asked quickly.

Vespasian turned back to face Tertius. ‘Beneficial news that you will now not know until long after one of your competitors does and so therefore you will find yourself at a severe disadvantage.’

‘You’ve been with the Emperor, haven’t you?’

Vespasian inclined his head in acknowledgement. ‘And Caratacus.’

Tertius shared a fleeting look with his brother. ‘It’s Britannia, isn’t it? Are we in or out?’

‘That request form for the twelve thousand, Tertius?’

Tertius waved a dismissive hand; there was just one exception to the Cloelius Brothers’ insistence that banking procedure be adhered to: when it got in the way of making more money or, potentially and worse, losing it. ‘I’m sure that this one time the formalities can be dispensed with.’ He clapped his hands and a clerk appeared in the door. ‘Send down to our deposit for twelve thousand denarii immediately. I want the amount here within the hour.’

With a look of confusion the clerk nodded and scuttled away.

‘So, senator,’ Tertius almost purred, ‘in or out.’

‘Out.’

The brothers both looked startled.

‘Surely not?’ Quadratus whispered.

‘Caratacus has been approached about being a client king after the legions begin withdrawing next year.’

‘Next year?’

‘That’s what he said.’

Tertius looked with alarm at his brother. ‘We need to get messages to our agents in Londinium to call in all our loans before this

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.