The Furies Of Rome Part 8

'Then why have you cut me off? What did I do to deserve you turning around when you saw me coming the opposite way down a corridor? Why haven't you responded to any of my notes? What is going on? Have you found a younger mistress? Am I too old now that I'm fifty-three? Have I aged like milk rather than wine?' Her eyes had filled with tears and Vespasian wanted only to take her in his arms to comfort and rea.s.sure her; but he could not do so in front of his wife. The fact that Caenis was here with Flavia was a sign as to how desperate she had become.

'I've had no choice and I've been unable to communicate with you for fear of a spy in one of our households getting wind of the fact that I know it was not you who betrayed me to Seneca.'

'Of course I wouldn't betray you to Seneca, even though I work for him.'

'Yes, I know that now but I didn't when he told me that he knew I was going to Bauli the morning after our conversation with Pallas and Agrippina; then it seemed that it had to be you.'

Her face was set hard, as hard as her voice. 'So what made you change your mind?'

And then he let it all tumble out: Pallas' ruse, sweetened with the promise of a governors.h.i.+p, for getting him down to Bauli and the whole disgraceful tale of matricide and how he was going to help facilitate it because ultimately the abhorrence that people would feel towards Nero for the crime would be to his advantage and it would also earn t.i.tus a good posting as a military tribune.

'Blessed Mother Isis,' Flavia whispered when he had finished; her face left him in no doubt about her feelings for his story.

Caenis was equally as disgusted. 'You've buried your own mother last month and now you're going to help Nero to kill his? Have you no respect for the sanct.i.ty of motherhood? That is one of the crimes that can never be a.s.suaged; it is an affront to every G.o.d, not just Isis or the great mother Cybele, but all of them. History is full of examples of men who have done wrong to their mothers and none of them comes to a happy ending. The plays written about them are all tragedies; have you ever thought about that? Not one comedy amongst them. Yes, Agrippina is a Fury who deserves all the ill that could possibly come to her but if she ends up being murdered by her own son then she will be remembered with sympathy rather than scorn. And all those who helped Nero commit such a terrible act will share the odium attached to it. So I advise you, Vespasian, to think again.'

Vespasian sat, looking first at his mistress and then his wife; he did not detect an iota of sympathy for his position in either of them. 'I can't refuse Seneca now; I've already said that I would take the invitation to Agrippina when I go to collect the land deeds.'

Caenis shook her head, looked away and with marked petulance ripped off a hunk of bread; but Flavia continued to stare at him, her face thoughtful as if making a difficult decision. 't.i.tus' posting is a.s.sured?' she asked eventually.

'In as much as anything can be.'

'Then you cannot go back on what you have promised Seneca, otherwise this family's rise will be at a standstill. He has to progress up the Cursus Honorum soon, else his career will founder as it's almost two years since he finished his time with the junior magistrates of the vigintiviri. The question is: are we buying his advancement with a crime against the G.o.ds? And if so, will the G.o.ds' wrath rebound onto him with some apt act of retribution?'

'What do you mean? His son will kill him?'

'Son, daughter, nephew, whatever.'

'More likely to be his brother.' Vespasian instantly regretted the remark as once again he felt he was doing Domitian down.

'I don't know; but what I am sure of is that the G.o.ds have a tendency to have the last word and their sense of humour is known for being macabre.'

Vespasian did not like this line of reasoning as he was afraid that Flavia might have a valid point: the G.o.ds were well known for their ability to punish with unpleasantly dark humour. 'So what do you recommend, Flavia?'

Flavia looked at him in surprise. 'I do believe that is the first time you have ever asked me for advice, my dear. In the past you have always gone to Caenis for that.'

'That was for political advice,' Caenis said, chewing on some bread. 'This is a religious matter and your devotion to Isis makes you the ideal person to recommend a course of action.'

'Thank you, my dear; that is very gracious of you.'

The two women smiled warmly at one another, causing Vespasian to s.h.i.+ver.

When they had finished being polite, Flavia thought for a few moments, running her forefinger along her lips. 'I have wors.h.i.+pped Mother Isis for most of my adult life and therefore she has an interest in my family and especially in t.i.tus, my firstborn. This crime that you've bought t.i.tus' advancement with is an affront to motherhood so therefore we need to appease the G.o.ddess who represents motherhood for my family.'

Vespasian found himself agreeing with his wife. 'That makes sense; I shall organise a sacrifice immediately.'

'No, husband; do it in a couple of months' time, just before you set off, to keep the sacrifice as fresh as possible in the G.o.ddess's mind.'

'If you say so. What do you think will be appropriate? A white ox? A sow?'

'No, husband; this has to be something very personal; you have to show the G.o.ddess that you really need her protection for our son. You have to make a huge sacrifice, a personal sacrifice.'

Vespasian knew where she was going and tried desperately to think of some alternative, anything, but failed. 'Are you sure, Flavia?'

'Yes; I can't see any other alternative; it only has to be one of them but it has to be the fastest.'

Vespasian's heart sank. 'It shall be done.' He reached across the table and took Caenis' proffered hand, wondering just how he was going to stomach sacrificing to Isis the fastest of his team of Arabian racing horses.

'Are you sure you want to go through with this?' Magnus asked as he stroked the muzzle of the fine Arab stallion that had had the misfortune to be p.r.o.nounced the fastest of the team by the Green faction stables that housed and trained Vespasian's horses; the beast gave a snort and rubbed itself hard against Magnus' hand. 'I mean, what if Flavia had just suggested this because she's jealous and thinks that you give more attention to the horses than you do to her?'

'Of course she didn't; she knows just how much these animals mean to me.' Vespasian's voice was tight with emotion; he had grown fond and proud of his pets, as he thought of them. In the five years that his Arabs had raced for the Greens in the Circus Maximus they had competed on twenty-three occasions and had won a staggering nineteen of those races; they were the best team in the Greens' stable and, arguably, the best team in Rome. It had squeezed his heart every day for the last two months knowing that he would have to give one of them to Isis, but he could perfectly understand Flavia's reasoning and cursed the machinations of Pallas and Seneca for having brought him to this situation now that the day was finally here. 'At least I'll still have four to race as a team,' Vespasian said ruefully, stroking the flanks of the beast that steamed as a result of the last run around the circus that he had insisted it had. He took the halter and walked towards the open gates of the Flammian Circus and then on to the Temple of Isis where Flavia and Caenis awaited.

'I beheld a great wonder in heaven, a woman clothed with the Sun, with the Moon at her feet. And on her head was a diadem of the twelve stars. Hear me, O Mother Isis, hear and save. O Queen of love and mercy, whose raiment is the Sun, who is crowned with stars and shod by the Moon, whose countenance is mild and glowing, even as gra.s.s refreshed by rain.'

Vespasian stood with a fold of his toga draped over his head as the priestess of Isis continued to recite the ancient prayer calling upon the G.o.ddess to hear their supplication. Next to him the magnificent stallion skittered occasionally; the beat of its hoofs. .h.i.tting the marble floor echoed around the dim, columned interior of the temple, fugged with incense. Flavia held her palms across her chest as she faced the statue of Isis wearing a dress of the same rich blue as the G.o.ddess's; her eyes were brim with moisture, although whether it was from communing with her G.o.ddess or from the heavy smoke of the burning incense, Vespasian did not know. Magnus stood just staring at the stallion; his one good eye was also glistened with tears but Vespasian knew that this was a genuine show of feeling for the demise of the beast who had, along with its team mates, won Magnus more money in bets than any other horse in his long experience of betting on his beloved Greens. It was a sombre atmosphere in which the priestess finished the prayer and the time for the despatch came closer.

'Mother Isis, hear us,' Flavia pleaded, holding out her hands in supplication. 'Accept this sacrifice and hold your hands over my son, t.i.tus; keep him safe from the crime that is to be committed. Take this stallion, Mother Isis, star crowned, in atonement for my husband's small part in this affront to motherhood. Take, hear and save.' Flavia bowed her head and re-crossed her arms on her chest as the priestess began a chant in praise of the G.o.ddess being invoked.

Vespasian glanced at Magnus; the time had come. Four acolytes, youths dressed in Isis-blue tunics decorated with the twelve golden stars of the G.o.ddess arranged in a circle, came forward from the shadows, two bearing a great bronze basin that they set upon the ground before the stallion, who looked down at it curiously, checking whether it contained food or water it did not.

The third acolyte handed Magnus the stunning-mallet and the fourth gave Vespasian a foot-long curved bronze blade with an ivory handle inlaid with silver moons and gold suns. The stallion took no notice of this development and stamped its foot a couple of times as if impatient as to how long things whatever they were were taking.

Vespasian moved forward to be level with the horse's neck as two of the acolytes held the beast's halter, worrying it so that it began to pull against them. Vespasian and Magnus shared another quick look; Magnus' right arm arced in a blur of motion. There was a crack as the mallet slammed into the stallion's forehead just above the eyes. Its front legs shook and the animal staggered but remained upright as Vespasian rent a gash, slow and deep, across its throat, releasing a torrent of warm, iron-tanged blood that turned his arm red as it gushed down to be collected in the basin. Too dazed by the blow to comprehend in its equine mind what was occurring to it, the stallion just stood, trembling as the blood cascaded down, splas.h.i.+ng its fetlocks. Its eyes rolled back so they were nothing but white and its mouth and nostrils foamed red; its plight must have then become clear to it for it began to struggle against the halter and kick out with its back legs. But to no avail, the acolytes held firm and the beast's struggles diminished as its strength waned until, with a hideous gurgle from the gaping wound, its front legs collapsed and its head sank to the floor just as the basin, now full, was dragged out of the way. Death followed slowly but surely as the back legs lost their power and the stallion fell onto its side, its eyes still rolling. Vespasian fought back the tears that Magnus was now openly shedding as the horse made pitiful attempts to lift itself back up, each more feeble than the last, until it lay still, its chest barely rising and falling.

And then that too became still.

Vespasian performed the rest of the sacrifice in a haze of misery, barely aware of removing the heart and liver to the accompaniment of the prayers and chants of the priestess and Flavia and hardly remembering the pouring of blood libations on the altar and at the G.o.ddess's feet. But still it was done and it was done well so that the procedure did not have to be repeated and he should lose another of his prized possessions. It was with relief that Vespasian completed the ceremony in the knowledge that Isis had accepted the sacrifice, but it was with foreboding as to what was to happen that Vespasian walked with Magnus down the steps of the temple and began his journey south to a.s.sist in a matricide.

CHAPTER VI.

'I DON'T BELIEVE IT!' Agrippina threw down the invitation, which she had barely glanced at, and stared at Vespasian; he could feel the venom. 'My son has tried to poison me twice to my certain knowledge and would have succeeded had it not been for a friend writing to warn me and to advise me as to which antidote to take. And then, the last time I slept under his roof the ceiling of my bedchamber mysteriously collapsed; I would have been crushed had it not been for the fact that my bed was next to a tall and st.u.r.dy piece of furniture. After going to all this trouble why would he want to be reconciled with me and pretend that we are a loving mother and son?'

'Perhaps he feels the anger of the G.o.ds at attempting such a hideous crime,' Pallas suggested, 'and he wants to make up for such deeds by showing you the filial honour that you deserve, which is why he has, seemingly spontaneously, chosen to invite you to celebrate the feast of Minerva with him.'

Vespasian was not astonished by Pallas' brazen lie as he stood before the couple sitting in the shade of an olive tree on a terrace overlooking the Bay of Neapolis with the hulking presence of Vesuvius in the distance; it was what he had become used to in the years of wading through imperial politics. It was what came next that caused him to start.

'Besides,' Pallas went on, 'when you're with Nero he would hardly dare to kill you in public and receive the opprobrium of all for being a matricide; so if there is to be an attempt on your life then it will be aboard the s.h.i.+p. I suggest that Vespasian and Magnus accompany you there and back with your freedman, Gallus, to defend you against any a.s.sa.s.sination attempts out at sea.' Pallas looked at Vespasian innocently. 'You'd be only too pleased to do that for me, Vespasian, wouldn't you?'

Vespasian gritted his teeth; he could not let on that he knew what was to happen. 'Only too pleased, Pallas.'

'There you are, my dear; problem solved.'

Agrippina did not seem convinced and gazed out over the sea, glimmering with warm afternoon sun and speckled with fis.h.i.+ng boats; in the distance a trireme pulled south, headed for one of the ports at the other end of the bay. 'I don't know, Pallas; I don't trust this, it's too sudden and has no logic to it. Last time I saw him, at the beginning of the month, we had a major row about how he was comporting himself with Otho's wife, Poppaea Sabina, now that he's as good as exiled Otho by sending him to govern Lusitania. I tried to explain to him that if he divorced Claudia Octavia he would be losing quite a substantial piece of his legitimacy as she is Claudius' blood-daughter. He laughed at me and showed no inclination to reconciliation, quite the opposite in fact; he told me that he would sleep with whomever he wanted to and would marry Poppaea even if it meant having Claudia executed and ordering Otho to commit suicide if he continues refusing to divorce Poppaea. And he threatened to kill me, yet again, if I tried to interfere.'

'Perhaps he's realised that even an emperor has to keep up appearances.'

'No; I didn't bring up my son to worry about what other people think. I brought him up to take what he wants and not to care about others. I brought him up to be emperor. When he was a babe I had his horoscope cast by two different astrologers; both said that he would become emperor and both said that, once he did, he would kill me. I replied: "Let him kill me so long as he becomes emperor." I'm starting to think that I spoke rashly.'

Pallas scoffed. 'I've never believed in the ridiculous Babylonian so-called science of astrology. Augury, yes, because that is interpreting the will of the G.o.ds at this present moment through bird flight or lightning or whatever; and their will changes as circ.u.mstance does. To think that the course of one's life is completely mapped out by the position of the planets at the moment of your birth is ludicrous; it means that the G.o.ds have no influence upon how we lead our lives because it's been pre-ordained.'

Vespasian enjoyed Pallas' reasoning and watched carefully as Agrippina tried to refute it in her head.

'But he did become emperor,' she pointed out.

'Of course he did, but that was not because the planets had pre-ordained it; it was because you and he desired that event more than anyone else and had the will to dispose of all that stood in his way.'

As Agrippina digested this, a skein of geese came into view, flying in formation from the direction of the Emperor's villa at Baiae. 'What would an augur say about that?' she asked pointing at the birds.

Pallas shrugged. 'I'm not in the college of augurs and nor have I ever taken much interest in the science. What do you think, Vespasian? Do you have any experience in augury?'

'I do,' Vespasian lied, knowing that Agrippina was yet to be convinced. 'I once considered applying to Claudius for a position in the college of augurs but then ...' He looked with regret at Agrippina. 'Well, then I fell out of favour. However, my reading of that sign would be that, in conjunction with the s.h.i.+p sailing south, the geese returning north would mean that you will go south to Baiae and return north to Bauli without any incident.'

Agrippina watched the geese fly overhead; as they did so the formation changed and another took the lead at the apex of the 'V'.

'Renewal,' Vespasian found himself saying, astounded by his unabashed dissembling; the signs of bird flight had always been a mystery to him. 'It's quite clear that you will come back after there has been a renewal.'

Pallas took up the theme. 'Which fits in perfectly with the Emperor's stated aim of this dinner. A reconciliation; a renewal of trust.'

Agrippina's dark eyes bored into her lover. 'Is that what you really think or are you just trying to persuade me to my death?'

Pallas did not show what he thought; he rarely did. 'Don't go then, my dear, and see what happens if you refuse the Emperor's invitation and hospitality. If, however, your fears are founded and he has decided to kill you, then kill you he will, whether you get on the s.h.i.+p he's sending or not.'

This clinched it for Agrippina; she nodded slowly as her mind ran over the logic of the argument. 'Yes, my dear, you're right; I have to go if I want the chance of any power ever again. For too long have I been excluded, my opinion not registered; this is a final opportunity and if my son plays me false then I shall go out with defiance, but if he's genuine then I shall do everything within my power to draw him to me and keep him captivated. I shall accept the invitation.'

'You have made the right decision,' Pallas said, although he knew that to be a complete lie.

What he was unaware of, however, was that Vespasian knew that too.

Magnus sniffed the air as the trireme slipped along the coast, its oars rising and dipping in time to the high-pitched call of the stroke-master's pipe; lights began to twinkle in the luxurious villas along the sh.o.r.e as dusk fell on the holiday playground of the wealthy. 'I'd be happier if this s.h.i.+p was taking us all the way back to Rome rather than dropping us off at what I can only a.s.sume is going to be a venomous dinner, if you take my meaning?'

'I do indeed, but I don't think Nero will try poison.' Vespasian looked over to Agrippina reclining on a sumptuous couch on a dais in the bow of the s.h.i.+p watched over by her bulky freedman, Gallus. She was dressed for seduction, in the finest of everything; each item, whether it be jewellery or a garment, had been chosen to accentuate her still very desirable femininity; a femininity she evidently planned to use on her own son in a final attempt to lure him back into her incestuous clutches. Two braziers kept her warm as her body slave, Acerronia, attended to her coiffure, maintaining it from any damage caused by the slight breeze.

'Well, I ain't going to be tucking into any tasty morsels there.'

'Don't worry, you won't be invited to. I can't see Nero wanting to recline to dinner with the likes of you when he's got his mother to kill. You'll be perfectly safe.'

'What about you?'

'I imagine that I'll be asked to join them as one of the witnesses to the great reunion so that I can swear to just how well they were getting on together before she was so tragically taken from the Emperor.'

Magnus contemplated this as the landing jetty on the sh.o.r.eline of the grounds of Nero's villa came into view. Two great torches flamed at its end and within their light half a dozen silhouetted figures stood. The trireme's trierarchus began calling out a series of orders in fluent Nautic; the s.h.i.+p slowed and then, as the larboard-side's oars were hauled in, it slewed around until, with considerable grace, it nudged the jetty and came to a creaking rest.

'Mother, my darling! You've come at last.' From within the group of silhouettes Nero, with Burrus next to him, emerged, his arms extended towards Agrippina, still in her position in the bow of the s.h.i.+p. 'Let me help you.' He moved to board the vessel but the gangplank had not yet been fixed in place. 'Herculeius! How dare you keep the woman who bore your Emperor waiting?' He clapped his hands, staccato, and the trierarchus issued a stream of nautical oaths and speeded up the process of lowering the gangplank by kicking the nearest sailor up the backside and clouting another couple around the ears so that they stumbled and nearly dropped their load.

Eventually, and with a few more bruises inflicted, the gangplank was in place and Nero rushed up it, knocking an unfortunate sailor off the side so that he fell onto the jetty, his right leg slipping between it and the hull of the s.h.i.+p as it bobbed gently back and forth against it, crus.h.i.+ng the limb; his screams were ignored as the Emperor helped his mother to her feet and took her into the warmest of embraces.

'Oh, Mother, my darling Mother, it has been too long; a whole month,' Nero crooned in a voice loud enough for Vespasian to hear despite the agony of the injured sailor. 'How this misunderstanding between us has been allowed to fester, I don't know.' He threw back his head with his right hand placed languidly on his brow in the manner of an actor in a tragedy. 'I blame myself, Mother, and I promise to do all in my power to make it up to you.'

Agrippina, who had hitherto done nothing to express joy or otherwise at the reunion with her son, allowed herself a smile. 'In which case, my sweet boy, you will be doing a lot seeing as you have so much power; enough to share some with your mother to make up for your negligence.'

Nero laughed off Agrippina's naked appeal for a position at the heart of his regime and, with formal elegance, escorted her from the s.h.i.+p; Burrus and the three Praetorian centurions accompanying him to guard Nero and his mother snapped salutes as the injured sailor was hauled away by his comrades, still howling with pain.

Vespasian and Magnus followed the imperial couple at a discreet distance down onto the jetty where Seneca was waiting. 'How is she?' he asked in a whisper, his eyes showing apprehension in the torchlight. 'I mean, has she indicated any, how shall I put it, reluctance, yes, reluctance that's it; has she indicated any reluctance to be reconciled with the Emperor?'

Vespasian played the innocent, pretending that he had not guessed, along with his brother, the real reason why Agrippina had been invited here and just who was aiding the Emperor in committing matricide in order that he too could benefit from Agrippina's death. 'She knows that whether the Emperor is playing her false or not is irrelevant, as if he's not then this her last chance at power, and if he is then she's doomed never to be back in favour with him anyway.'

Seneca chuckled. 'Sensible vixen to calculate in such a way; but I think that she'll be pleasantly surprised as the Emperor is entirely genuine in reaching out his hand in friends.h.i.+p no, love, yes, love, that is the just word in this case.'

'Is it? How gratifying,' Vespasian said without feeling the least bit gratified by the lie given by Seneca concerning the Emperor's alleged motives.

'Yes, it is, isn't it?' Seneca chuckled again and slapped Vespasian on the back. 'I do love a family reunion; it makes for such a happy occasion. Come, my dear Vespasian, you must join us in recognition of your part in bringing about this joyous event. I believe you've met Vologases, the Great King of Parthia?'

'I did, a few years ago now. Why?'

'Excellent, excellent. Come, we have much to discuss and to celebrate.'

And so, with a 'what did I tell you?' glance at Magnus, Vespasian accompanied Seneca towards Nero's seaside pleasure villa.

And pleasure was indeed the watchword in this palace of delights that the Emperor had stuffed full to the brim with luxury. Every imaginable taste could be catered for whether it was for the flesh of either s.e.x or none, be it thin, fat, deformed, old, or, indeed, young. But if carnality was not your whim then music, theatre, gourmet cuisine and the finest wines were also on offer. However, if you were more of the outdoor type then there was a stable filled with some of the finest horseflesh money could buy, ready to be driven about the oval track Nero had had constructed at the rear of the villa. There was even an exercise area next to the bathhouse, not that Nero exercised that much but he did appreciate, from time to time, watching others do so; especially should they be at the peak of physical condition. Any pleasure could be indulged in in this villa, any pleasure, that is, save one: there was no death for amus.e.m.e.nt although there was death as punishment. Nero had recently decreed that gladiatorial contests should not be to the death and should instead be about the beauty of combat, the elegance of sword play, the skill of the fighter, and to that end he had banned all gladiatorial blood from the arena. It also had the gratifying side effect for the profligate Emperor of allowing him to put on ever grander displays without having to pay the gladiatorial schools for the lives of their dead property. To most people's surprise, Nero kept up this regime in the privacy of his own domain but there was so much else to distract his visitors that no one seemed to mind unduly. But, of course, they were still only too well aware that should they displease the Emperor during their visit then the moratorium on death was only for amus.e.m.e.nt, not punishment; no, for the elite of Rome to be in the presence of the Emperor always involved the presence of fear and not even Agrippina was exempt from it. And so to cover her fear, so that her son would not notice it, she allowed herself to enjoy the fruits of Baiae.

Nero, however, had not brought his mother to Baiae just so that she could indulge in the pleasures that it offered; far from it: he had brought her here to woo her before witnesses. His objective was that by the end of the evening she would feel completely relaxed and at ease in his company and he went about this mission with an extraordinary energy. It was he who served her the first cup of wine, making a point of tasting it first to show that whatever she may have thought him guilty of in the past he was not trying to poison her this evening. It was Nero who deferred to her on the choice of music that the ensemble of musicians, placed discreetly behind intricately carved wooden and ivory screens, should play. Nero himself chastised a slave who had been clumsy enough to brush against Agrippina's arm as he served her water for her second cup of wine; and to show his filial concern for the presumption of one so far beneath his mother, Nero ordered the hapless man to be flogged then and there until the whiteness of his ribs could be seen through the tattered flesh and streaming blood. Yes, Nero was the model son trying to make every effort to ensure that his mother had the most relaxing and carefree of evenings.

And Vespasian observed all this along with a couple of dozen other senators, summoned to bear witness to the joyous occasion. He watched the solemnity with which mother and son said prayers and made sacrifices to the G.o.ddess Minerva; and he, along with his colleagues, stood with a fold of his toga covering his head, partaking in the ceremony, as the would-be murderer performed the rites sacred to the virgin G.o.ddess of music and poetry alongside his intended victim. He partook of a meal of such extravagance that even Caligula might have felt a twinge of envy, joining in the toasts and savouring recipes of Nero's own concoction as they were entertained by troupes of dancers and acrobats from all over the Empire. He listened intently as Nero praised his mother, calling her the best of mothers and affirming that any good son should tolerate outbursts from their parents and try to soothe their behaviour. He and the rest of the witnesses pretended not to notice the salacious kisses exchanged by the reconciled couple and they feigned not to see the lingering caresses that also pa.s.sed between them; but they applauded wholeheartedly when Nero raised Agrippina to her feet and announced that they would leave the company for a short while so that they could walk and talk in private around the gardens. When the imperial couple returned, not long later, Vespasian and the others welcomed them back with equal enthusiasm and tried not to think about how the gra.s.s stains came to be on Agrippina's stola around the height of her knees and why her hair on either side of her head was ruffled as if it had been subject to a fierce grip.

Soon it was time for the parting and Nero spilled many tears at the thought of being separated from his mother but extracted a solemn promise from her that she would allow him to return the visit the following evening. 'Mother, you have made me the happiest of sons,' Nero declared looking to the heavens, his left arm raised.

Agrippina played her part and cradled Nero's chin in the palm of her hand and, pulling him close, kissed him full on the mouth. 'To be reunited with her son after an estrangement is a mother's dream.'

This sentiment was commended by all present and joy seemed unconfined.

'Anicetus!' Nero called, once he was able to master the emotion of the moment. 'Where are you? Is it here?'

A man stepped out of the shadows, a man whom Vespasian was sure had not been there before. He wore the uniform of a prefect and Vespasian knew him to be a freedman of Nero's and recently appointed the commander of the fleet at Misenum a few miles north up the coast.

'Well?' Nero enquired.

'Princeps, it has arrived and it is splendid.'

Nero clapped his hands together like an excited child. 'Excellent!' He turned to Agrippina. 'Mother, I have had a beautiful thing created for myself but, despite its beauty, it cannot please me nearly as much as you responding so favourably to my overtures of peace; it makes me so happy to know that there is nothing but love between us now. So therefore, Mother, come and see what I've had crafted for my pleasure that I now, spontaneously, give to you in celebration of our peaceful accord.' He took Agrippina by the hand and led her from the hall; Vespasian and the other senators followed in close attendance.

Through the villa Nero led them and then on out into a night chilled by a freshening wind. Across the lawns they went, down towards the sea. And there at the jetty, on the opposite side to the trireme upon which they had arrived, was moored another vessel. Even in the light of the two torches still flaming at the jetty's end, Vespasian could see that it was painted white and its metal fittings were gilded. And he could see why this evening had been almost four months in the preparation: it was magnificent. At its prow was a swan's neck and head, elegantly carved and covered with white feathers each individually attached. Amids.h.i.+ps were two wings, one on either side; again these were feathered. Protruding from the stern and forming a covered seating area was the tail of the bird so that the whole vessel resembled a swan swimming.