Empire r-2, page 67
part #2 of Rome Series
“What does that mean, exactly?” said Marcus, to whom this dictum had never quite made sense.
“It means that Roman magistrates take action against the Christians only when there is a formal complaint against them. No complaint, no action.”
“That would seem to put a great deal of power in the hands of their neighbours,” noted Marcus.
“If the Christians persist in their perversity, then they must live or die at the discretion of the decent, law-abiding majority.” Hadrian put down the clay model he was examining and raised an eyebrow. “Wasn’t one of your relatives a Christian?”
“I hardly think so,” said Marcus with a laugh. His denial was genuine. Marcus had never been told about his Christian great-uncle.
“Oh, no, I’m quite sure about this,” said Hadrian, who had reviewed every aspect of the imperial dossier on Marcus when he was deciding the fate of Apollodorus. “As a matter of fact, isn’t that talisman you wear some sort of Christian amulet? I’ve always presumed it was handed down from the Christian in the your family, and worn by you for sentimental rather than religious reasons, since you yourself clearly are not a Christian.”
“A Christian symbol? My fascinum? Certainly not!” Marcus touched the fascinum. “This heirloom was given to me by father in the presence of yourself and the Divine Trajan. The fascinum long predates the first appearance of the Christians.”
“Calm yourself, Pygmalion! Perhaps I’m mistaken about your amulet. Nonetheless, I can assure you that the brother of your grandfather was indeed a Christian. I can’t recall his name at the moment, but I know for a fact that he was executed by Nero after the Great Fire. It must have been quite a scandal at the time. That’s probably why you never heard about it. Families have a way of falling silent about the scandals in their past; the children are the last to find out, if they ever do. If you don’t believe me, ask your friend Suetonius the next time you see him. In his research, he’s certain to have come across the Pinarius who was a Christian.”
“With respect, Caesar, Suetonius is not my friend,” said Marcus, flustered and taken aback by these revelations.
“No? Didn’t Suetonius send you a personally inscribed copy of his imperial biographies?” Was there anything Hadrian didn’t know, thanks to the vast network of imperial spies?
Marcus cleared his throat. “Yes, Suetonius sent me a copy – but I didn’t ask for it, and I swear I’ve never read it.”
“No? You should. It’s not bad. Rather smutty, but I suppose the salacious details are what keep most readers scrolling forward. Ah, but I think your son has finally arrived.”
They turned at a sound from the vestibule. Amyntas entered first, looking a bit shame-faced from fear that Marcus would blame him for the delay. Before he could speak, Apollodora swept into the room, wearing her best stola. She had never forgiven Hadrian for the death of her father, but in his presence she had been careful never to show a trace of bitterness. She was followed by Lucius, who at eleven was very big for his age, almost as tall his father. Lucius’s green eyes and fair hair had come from Marcus, but his build seemed to have come from his grandfather Apollodorus.
Glad to leave behind the emperor’s unsettling revelations about a Christian relative, Marcus proceeded with the unveiling. He strode to the statue and pulled away the sailcloth.
Hadrian seemed to see the statue as if for the first time. He gazed at it for a long time, then reached out to touch it. Marcus saw on his face the same expression of awe he had displayed when he first saw the Melancomas statue, long ago.
“You captured him, Pinarius,” Hadrian whispered. “You’ve done the impossible. Now you must do it again.”
“Again, Caesar?”
“We must make more images. Each slightly different, so as to capture different aspects of his divinity, but all as true to life as this one. They can serve as models to the others who will make images of him all across the empire. Are you up for it, Pinarius?”
“Nothing would please me more, Caesar,” said Marcus, with a quaver in his voice. The prospect of dedicating his time and talent to the creation of more such images – which to Marcus were as much an expression of devotion to his dream-god as to Hadrian’s beloved – filled him with happiness.
“I’m glad your son is here today,” said Hadrian. “To show my gratitude, I want to offer a very special opportunity to young Lucius. Recently, casting horoscopes, I discovered a curious fact: your son was born on the very same day as one of my proteges, Marcus Verus. Since the boys are exactly the same age – almost to the minute – I propose that we introduce your Lucius to young Verissimus-”
“Verissimus, Caesar?”
“I call Verus that sometimes. He so loves Truth that I can’t resist punning on his name. Well, if Lucius and Verus are compatible, the two can be educated together.”
Marcus looked at Lucius, who seemed a bit overwhelmed at this idea. “I fear my son might be at a disadvantage, Caesar. I’ve tried to provide good tutors for him, but his education thus far could hardly have rivalled that of your protege.”
Hadrian smiled. “Don’t worry, I’m not expecting Lucius to provide competition in the fields of scholarship. Verus has a prodigious intellect; sometimes the breadth of his knowledge surprises even me. But Verus also loves every kind of sport. He could use a companion his own age for boxing, wrestling, ball games, riding, hunting, and so forth. What do you say?”
It occurred to Marcus that his son might be more than a match for young Verus in any sort of athletic competition; Lucius was uncommonly big and strong for his age. Marcus looked to Apollodora, whose eyes were wide with excitement. Despite her bitterness against the emperor, she could see what a tremendous opportunity was being offered to their son. At the age of eleven, Lucius Pinarius would be admitted into the innermost circle of the imperial court.
Lucius was too young to wear a toga, but he did own a very finely made tunic that Marcus deemed suitable for his meeting with Verus. Apollodora fretted that the boy’s recent spurts of growth had rendered the long sleeves a bit too short, but Marcus told her not to worry. “They’re not as fussy about such things at the House of the People as you might think,” he said.
“The House of the People?” Apollodora laughed. “No one but you calls it that anymore, husband.”
“No?”
“I’m pretty sure all that pandering to the common folk ended when Plotina died.”
“I stand corrected. Well, then, Lucius, are you ready for our visit to the House of Hadrian?”
A courtier met them at the entrance to the imperial palace at the appointed hour and escorted them to a lush garden with splashing fountains. It was here, for the time being, that the statue of Antinous had been installed. On a stone bench beside the statue sat Hadrian with the boy Marcus Verus, who was his distant cousin and a great-great-grand-nephew of Trajan. The curly-headed Verus had a prominent nose and a small mouth. He had been brought up in the most rarefied atmosphere imaginable, surrounded by philosophers and scholars of great renown, and he carried himself with a composure beyond his years.
Hadrian introduced Verus to Marcus and his son. When Lucius expressed his honour at such a meeting, as his father had coached him to do, Verus shook his head. “The honour is mine, to meet a fellow my own age whose grandfather was a friend of the great Apollonius of Tyana.” He turned to Marcus. “Did your father have many tales to tell about Apollonius?”
“As a matter fact, no day passed without his recitation of a story about Apollonius. My father called him Teacher, and was greatly devoted to him, in life and in death.”
Verus looked genuinely excited. “You must share those stories with me! They should be written down.”
“Alas, my hand was meant for a chisel, not a stylus,” said Marcus.
“But you must dictate those stories to a slave. The people who actually knew Apollonius are almost all dead now-”
“Adorable, isn’t he?” said Hadrian, who reached out to muss the boy’s hair. Verus responded with a very boyish roll of his eyes. “I’m thinking someone should sculpt him at this age. Perhaps you could find time to do it, Marcus, though I hate to interrupt your work on the next statue of Antinous.”
“It would be my pleasure, Caesar.” Marcus looked at the boy and envisioned at once the expression he would try to capture in stone – a mixture of innocence and wisdom, sophistication and guilelessness.
“I understand that your father was also a close friend of the late
…” The boy hesitated and looked to Hadrian for guidance.
“Verissimus realizes that you cannot yet have heard the news, which arrived just this morning by imperial courier,” said Hadrian. “Epictetus is dead.”
Marcus drew a breath and lowered his eyes. “Truly, he was the very last of my father’s circle.”
Verus took Marcus’s hand. “Perhaps we can find comfort in the words of Epictetus himself: ‘We are disturbed not by events, but by the views which we take of them.’ Is that not true, even of the death of loved ones?”
Marcus smiled ruefully. “I’m not the philosopher my father was. I’m not even sure what those words mean.”
“If you are pained by an occurrence outside yourself, it is not that occurrence which disturbs you, but your own judgement about it. And it is in your power to wipe out that judgement now.” Verus spoke with extraordinary conviction for one so young.
“Well spoken, Verissimus!” said Hadrian. He turned to Marcus. “The genealogists tell me the boy is descended from wise King Numa, and I think they must be right.”
Marcus nodded. How was his awkward, taciturn son ever to keep up with the likes of young Verus?
“I propose that these two boys should spend some time with me at Tibur,” said Hadrian. “What would you say to a bit of riding and hunting, Lucius?”
“Apollonius of Tyana was opposed to the killing of animals,” said Lucius gravely.
Hadrian laughed. “Excellent! You and Verissimus have a ready-made subject for debate: can a lover of philosophy also enjoy the hunt? You shall come, too, Pygmalion. I’ve selected a site for the tomb of Antinous, and there are a number of other sites I want to show you – for the baths, the library, the great pool…”
“It will be an honour, Caesar.” Marcus raised his eyes to the statue of Antinous, the god who had brought him so much good fortune.
AD 136
On the sixth day before the Nones of Maius, Marcus Pinarius and his son, Lucius, stood among the crowd of courtiers who filled the porticoes surrounding the ancient Auguratorium on the Palatine Hill. Before the altar, the emperor himself performed the augury to mark the passage to manhood of Marcus Verus, who stood in the middle of the gravel-strewn courtyard, wearing his first toga.
At fifteen, however mature his intellect, Verus still had no beard, and his delicate features were closer to those of a boy than a man. Hadrian’s beard and hair had more grey than ever, and his face had an unhealthy pallor; it seemed to Marcus that the emperor looked considerably older than sixty. It was rumoured that Hadrian was suffering a serious illness. He had begun construction on his own mausoleum.
Marcus was involved in the building of the new mausoleum. “All the other imperial tombs are already full,” Hadrian had told him, “and I have no intention of spending eternity crammed next to Trajan inside the Column.” The structure was to be a vast circular building not unlike the mausoleum of Augustus in design, but much larger, located on the banks of the Tiber across from the Field of Mars. It seemed to Marcus that Hadrian could not be content unless he had some vast building project under way. Now that that the Temple of Venus and Roma was at last completed, along with the Pantheon with its magnificent dome and the sprawling imperial villa at Tibur, what was left to build except his mausoleum?
At the dedication ceremonies for all those grand projects, Marcus had been among a select group of architects and artists who had received the emperor’s highest accolades, but those honours could not compare to the one that was to be bestowed on the Pinarii this day. No sooner had Hadrian taken the auspices for Marcus Verus, declaring them to be highly favourable, than he called out the name of Lucius Pinarius and asked him to step forward.
Lucius looked down at his father – at fifteen, he was already slightly taller than Marcus – with an expression of sudden terror. The boy’s combination of athleticism and shyness had made him an ideal companion for Verus; their differences complemented each other. But this was no time to be timid. Marcus cast a look at the boy that he hoped was at once stern and supportive, then gave him a tiny shove to start him on his way.
Lucius stepped forward, hesitantly at first, but then with greater confidence. Instead of standing in place, Verus stepped forward to greet his friend. Hadrian made no objection to this lapse of decorum; he had grown quite fond of Lucius in recent months, and it had been his idea to make the donning of the manly toga a dual ceremony including both young men.
However awkward he might feel wearing it, Lucius looked splendid in his toga, Marcus thought. To him, the boy disproved the popular notion that humanity was in decline, dwindling in intellect and physical prowess with each generation. It seemed to Marcus that his son combined all that was best from the bloodlines of his parents, and Marcus could see no reason why Lucius should not surpass his ancestors in every way. Before the most important people in Roma, the emperor himself took the auspices, declared them favourable, and announced that Lucius Pinarius, son of Marcus Pinarius, had attained all the privileges and duties of a citizen of the greatest city on earth.
Among those who converged on the young men to congratulate them was the man whom Hadrian had recently adopted and named as his successor. Lucius Ceionius was in his middle thirties, too old to attract the sexual attentions of the emperor but nonetheless a wildly handsome man with a statuesque physique. As Hadrian had once remarked to Marcus Pinarius, “In the whole empire, there is no handsomer man than Lucius Ceionius.”
“Surely that’s not the reason you picked him to be your successor,” Marcus had responded, in jest.
“Don’t be so certain of that,” Hadrian said. “If beauty is a sign of divine favour, then Ceionius has it in abundance. Sometimes, when I look at him, I think I’ve adopted a god, not a son.”
It struck Marcus that Ceionius, on this day, did not look particularly well; he had the same unhealthy pallor as Hadrian, and while Marcus looked on, the man suffered a fit of coughing so violent that he had to leave the courtyard. Hadrian watched him depart with a worried look. Someone leaned towards Marcus and spoke in his ear:
O handsome youth, the blissful vision of a
No sooner glimpsed than snatched away.
“Favonius!” said Marcus. “Leave it to you to twist the words of Virgil into an ill omen.”
“Virgil? I had no idea,” said the scurra. “I was quoting the emperor, actually. I overheard him utter those lines earlier today, when poor Ceionius first appeared.”
“Is he seriously ill?”
“Caesar seems to think so. I’m told he cast a horoscope for Ceionius and the results were most alarming. Poor Hadrian! Just when he had the future all neatly planned out, with the empire cordoned off, and his temples finished, and his mausoleum under way, and the next emperor selected – poof! Fate deals an unforeseen reversal. Congratulations, by the way, on your son’s ascent to manhood, and in such esteemed company. The future of the Pinarii looks very bright.”
“Thank you.” Marcus was irritated by the man’s flippancy but managed a gracious nod.
“Almost as bright, if I may say so, as that curious bauble at your breast. How the gold catches the sunlight!”
Marcus reached up to touch the fascinum, which on this day he was wearing outside his toga, for all to see, since this was the last occasion on which he would ever wear it.
“You’ll excuse me now,” he said. “I need to go to my son.”
Hadrian was already conducting the two young men to a private chamber just off the Auguratorium. For the ceremony that was to follow, Marcus had requested that no witnesses be present except the emperor and young Verus.
The small, quiet room was sparsely decorated. Dominating one wall was a bust of Antinous set in a niche. This, too, had been Marcus’s request, that the only image present should that of the Divine Youth.
While the emperor and Verus stood to one side, Marcus approached his son. Now that the public ceremony was over, Lucius looked quite relaxed. He smiled as Marcus lifted the chain over his neck and held the fascinum aloft.
“My son, you’ve seen this amulet many times, hanging from my neck. Before me, my father wore it, and before him, his father. The fascinum has been in our family for many generations, even before the founding of the city. It has protected us, guided us, given us strength in times of trouble. You are a man now, with all the uncertainties of life ahead of you. On this day, I wish to pass the fascinum to you, so that you may never face those uncertainties alone. As it has guided me, so let it now guide you. And just as it was given to me in the presence of the emperor – the Divine Trajan – so I wish to give it to you, here before Caesar.”
Marcus placed the chain over his son’s head. It was strange to see the gold talisman glimmering upon another breast, and for a moment Marcus felt a pang of regret. Had his father felt the same regret when he gave up the fascinum? If so, he had never spoken of it, and neither would Marcus.
For a hour or so, before the banquet was to begin, the young men were left to themselves.
“I don’t know about you,” said Verus, “but I’m taking off this toga and changing into something less cumbersome.”
“You shall just have to put it on again for the banquet,” said Lucius. “Besides, I have nothing to change into.”
“You can wear one of my tunics, though it may be a bit short for you. No matter, we’re men now, and allowed to show our legs. Let’s go to my rooms.”
A statue of Minerva met them as they entered Verus’s apartments. Around a corner, a bust of Socrates had pride of place upon a pedestal. On the ceilings and walls there were no paintings of warfare or scenes of seduction, or of maidens dancing or gladiators fighting; indeed, there were no paintings at all. The walls had been coloured a placid sky blue, a color that was conducive to study and philosophical discussion, according to Verus.
“It means that Roman magistrates take action against the Christians only when there is a formal complaint against them. No complaint, no action.”
“That would seem to put a great deal of power in the hands of their neighbours,” noted Marcus.
“If the Christians persist in their perversity, then they must live or die at the discretion of the decent, law-abiding majority.” Hadrian put down the clay model he was examining and raised an eyebrow. “Wasn’t one of your relatives a Christian?”
“I hardly think so,” said Marcus with a laugh. His denial was genuine. Marcus had never been told about his Christian great-uncle.
“Oh, no, I’m quite sure about this,” said Hadrian, who had reviewed every aspect of the imperial dossier on Marcus when he was deciding the fate of Apollodorus. “As a matter of fact, isn’t that talisman you wear some sort of Christian amulet? I’ve always presumed it was handed down from the Christian in the your family, and worn by you for sentimental rather than religious reasons, since you yourself clearly are not a Christian.”
“A Christian symbol? My fascinum? Certainly not!” Marcus touched the fascinum. “This heirloom was given to me by father in the presence of yourself and the Divine Trajan. The fascinum long predates the first appearance of the Christians.”
“Calm yourself, Pygmalion! Perhaps I’m mistaken about your amulet. Nonetheless, I can assure you that the brother of your grandfather was indeed a Christian. I can’t recall his name at the moment, but I know for a fact that he was executed by Nero after the Great Fire. It must have been quite a scandal at the time. That’s probably why you never heard about it. Families have a way of falling silent about the scandals in their past; the children are the last to find out, if they ever do. If you don’t believe me, ask your friend Suetonius the next time you see him. In his research, he’s certain to have come across the Pinarius who was a Christian.”
“With respect, Caesar, Suetonius is not my friend,” said Marcus, flustered and taken aback by these revelations.
“No? Didn’t Suetonius send you a personally inscribed copy of his imperial biographies?” Was there anything Hadrian didn’t know, thanks to the vast network of imperial spies?
Marcus cleared his throat. “Yes, Suetonius sent me a copy – but I didn’t ask for it, and I swear I’ve never read it.”
“No? You should. It’s not bad. Rather smutty, but I suppose the salacious details are what keep most readers scrolling forward. Ah, but I think your son has finally arrived.”
They turned at a sound from the vestibule. Amyntas entered first, looking a bit shame-faced from fear that Marcus would blame him for the delay. Before he could speak, Apollodora swept into the room, wearing her best stola. She had never forgiven Hadrian for the death of her father, but in his presence she had been careful never to show a trace of bitterness. She was followed by Lucius, who at eleven was very big for his age, almost as tall his father. Lucius’s green eyes and fair hair had come from Marcus, but his build seemed to have come from his grandfather Apollodorus.
Glad to leave behind the emperor’s unsettling revelations about a Christian relative, Marcus proceeded with the unveiling. He strode to the statue and pulled away the sailcloth.
Hadrian seemed to see the statue as if for the first time. He gazed at it for a long time, then reached out to touch it. Marcus saw on his face the same expression of awe he had displayed when he first saw the Melancomas statue, long ago.
“You captured him, Pinarius,” Hadrian whispered. “You’ve done the impossible. Now you must do it again.”
“Again, Caesar?”
“We must make more images. Each slightly different, so as to capture different aspects of his divinity, but all as true to life as this one. They can serve as models to the others who will make images of him all across the empire. Are you up for it, Pinarius?”
“Nothing would please me more, Caesar,” said Marcus, with a quaver in his voice. The prospect of dedicating his time and talent to the creation of more such images – which to Marcus were as much an expression of devotion to his dream-god as to Hadrian’s beloved – filled him with happiness.
“I’m glad your son is here today,” said Hadrian. “To show my gratitude, I want to offer a very special opportunity to young Lucius. Recently, casting horoscopes, I discovered a curious fact: your son was born on the very same day as one of my proteges, Marcus Verus. Since the boys are exactly the same age – almost to the minute – I propose that we introduce your Lucius to young Verissimus-”
“Verissimus, Caesar?”
“I call Verus that sometimes. He so loves Truth that I can’t resist punning on his name. Well, if Lucius and Verus are compatible, the two can be educated together.”
Marcus looked at Lucius, who seemed a bit overwhelmed at this idea. “I fear my son might be at a disadvantage, Caesar. I’ve tried to provide good tutors for him, but his education thus far could hardly have rivalled that of your protege.”
Hadrian smiled. “Don’t worry, I’m not expecting Lucius to provide competition in the fields of scholarship. Verus has a prodigious intellect; sometimes the breadth of his knowledge surprises even me. But Verus also loves every kind of sport. He could use a companion his own age for boxing, wrestling, ball games, riding, hunting, and so forth. What do you say?”
It occurred to Marcus that his son might be more than a match for young Verus in any sort of athletic competition; Lucius was uncommonly big and strong for his age. Marcus looked to Apollodora, whose eyes were wide with excitement. Despite her bitterness against the emperor, she could see what a tremendous opportunity was being offered to their son. At the age of eleven, Lucius Pinarius would be admitted into the innermost circle of the imperial court.
Lucius was too young to wear a toga, but he did own a very finely made tunic that Marcus deemed suitable for his meeting with Verus. Apollodora fretted that the boy’s recent spurts of growth had rendered the long sleeves a bit too short, but Marcus told her not to worry. “They’re not as fussy about such things at the House of the People as you might think,” he said.
“The House of the People?” Apollodora laughed. “No one but you calls it that anymore, husband.”
“No?”
“I’m pretty sure all that pandering to the common folk ended when Plotina died.”
“I stand corrected. Well, then, Lucius, are you ready for our visit to the House of Hadrian?”
A courtier met them at the entrance to the imperial palace at the appointed hour and escorted them to a lush garden with splashing fountains. It was here, for the time being, that the statue of Antinous had been installed. On a stone bench beside the statue sat Hadrian with the boy Marcus Verus, who was his distant cousin and a great-great-grand-nephew of Trajan. The curly-headed Verus had a prominent nose and a small mouth. He had been brought up in the most rarefied atmosphere imaginable, surrounded by philosophers and scholars of great renown, and he carried himself with a composure beyond his years.
Hadrian introduced Verus to Marcus and his son. When Lucius expressed his honour at such a meeting, as his father had coached him to do, Verus shook his head. “The honour is mine, to meet a fellow my own age whose grandfather was a friend of the great Apollonius of Tyana.” He turned to Marcus. “Did your father have many tales to tell about Apollonius?”
“As a matter fact, no day passed without his recitation of a story about Apollonius. My father called him Teacher, and was greatly devoted to him, in life and in death.”
Verus looked genuinely excited. “You must share those stories with me! They should be written down.”
“Alas, my hand was meant for a chisel, not a stylus,” said Marcus.
“But you must dictate those stories to a slave. The people who actually knew Apollonius are almost all dead now-”
“Adorable, isn’t he?” said Hadrian, who reached out to muss the boy’s hair. Verus responded with a very boyish roll of his eyes. “I’m thinking someone should sculpt him at this age. Perhaps you could find time to do it, Marcus, though I hate to interrupt your work on the next statue of Antinous.”
“It would be my pleasure, Caesar.” Marcus looked at the boy and envisioned at once the expression he would try to capture in stone – a mixture of innocence and wisdom, sophistication and guilelessness.
“I understand that your father was also a close friend of the late
…” The boy hesitated and looked to Hadrian for guidance.
“Verissimus realizes that you cannot yet have heard the news, which arrived just this morning by imperial courier,” said Hadrian. “Epictetus is dead.”
Marcus drew a breath and lowered his eyes. “Truly, he was the very last of my father’s circle.”
Verus took Marcus’s hand. “Perhaps we can find comfort in the words of Epictetus himself: ‘We are disturbed not by events, but by the views which we take of them.’ Is that not true, even of the death of loved ones?”
Marcus smiled ruefully. “I’m not the philosopher my father was. I’m not even sure what those words mean.”
“If you are pained by an occurrence outside yourself, it is not that occurrence which disturbs you, but your own judgement about it. And it is in your power to wipe out that judgement now.” Verus spoke with extraordinary conviction for one so young.
“Well spoken, Verissimus!” said Hadrian. He turned to Marcus. “The genealogists tell me the boy is descended from wise King Numa, and I think they must be right.”
Marcus nodded. How was his awkward, taciturn son ever to keep up with the likes of young Verus?
“I propose that these two boys should spend some time with me at Tibur,” said Hadrian. “What would you say to a bit of riding and hunting, Lucius?”
“Apollonius of Tyana was opposed to the killing of animals,” said Lucius gravely.
Hadrian laughed. “Excellent! You and Verissimus have a ready-made subject for debate: can a lover of philosophy also enjoy the hunt? You shall come, too, Pygmalion. I’ve selected a site for the tomb of Antinous, and there are a number of other sites I want to show you – for the baths, the library, the great pool…”
“It will be an honour, Caesar.” Marcus raised his eyes to the statue of Antinous, the god who had brought him so much good fortune.
AD 136
On the sixth day before the Nones of Maius, Marcus Pinarius and his son, Lucius, stood among the crowd of courtiers who filled the porticoes surrounding the ancient Auguratorium on the Palatine Hill. Before the altar, the emperor himself performed the augury to mark the passage to manhood of Marcus Verus, who stood in the middle of the gravel-strewn courtyard, wearing his first toga.
At fifteen, however mature his intellect, Verus still had no beard, and his delicate features were closer to those of a boy than a man. Hadrian’s beard and hair had more grey than ever, and his face had an unhealthy pallor; it seemed to Marcus that the emperor looked considerably older than sixty. It was rumoured that Hadrian was suffering a serious illness. He had begun construction on his own mausoleum.
Marcus was involved in the building of the new mausoleum. “All the other imperial tombs are already full,” Hadrian had told him, “and I have no intention of spending eternity crammed next to Trajan inside the Column.” The structure was to be a vast circular building not unlike the mausoleum of Augustus in design, but much larger, located on the banks of the Tiber across from the Field of Mars. It seemed to Marcus that Hadrian could not be content unless he had some vast building project under way. Now that that the Temple of Venus and Roma was at last completed, along with the Pantheon with its magnificent dome and the sprawling imperial villa at Tibur, what was left to build except his mausoleum?
At the dedication ceremonies for all those grand projects, Marcus had been among a select group of architects and artists who had received the emperor’s highest accolades, but those honours could not compare to the one that was to be bestowed on the Pinarii this day. No sooner had Hadrian taken the auspices for Marcus Verus, declaring them to be highly favourable, than he called out the name of Lucius Pinarius and asked him to step forward.
Lucius looked down at his father – at fifteen, he was already slightly taller than Marcus – with an expression of sudden terror. The boy’s combination of athleticism and shyness had made him an ideal companion for Verus; their differences complemented each other. But this was no time to be timid. Marcus cast a look at the boy that he hoped was at once stern and supportive, then gave him a tiny shove to start him on his way.
Lucius stepped forward, hesitantly at first, but then with greater confidence. Instead of standing in place, Verus stepped forward to greet his friend. Hadrian made no objection to this lapse of decorum; he had grown quite fond of Lucius in recent months, and it had been his idea to make the donning of the manly toga a dual ceremony including both young men.
However awkward he might feel wearing it, Lucius looked splendid in his toga, Marcus thought. To him, the boy disproved the popular notion that humanity was in decline, dwindling in intellect and physical prowess with each generation. It seemed to Marcus that his son combined all that was best from the bloodlines of his parents, and Marcus could see no reason why Lucius should not surpass his ancestors in every way. Before the most important people in Roma, the emperor himself took the auspices, declared them favourable, and announced that Lucius Pinarius, son of Marcus Pinarius, had attained all the privileges and duties of a citizen of the greatest city on earth.
Among those who converged on the young men to congratulate them was the man whom Hadrian had recently adopted and named as his successor. Lucius Ceionius was in his middle thirties, too old to attract the sexual attentions of the emperor but nonetheless a wildly handsome man with a statuesque physique. As Hadrian had once remarked to Marcus Pinarius, “In the whole empire, there is no handsomer man than Lucius Ceionius.”
“Surely that’s not the reason you picked him to be your successor,” Marcus had responded, in jest.
“Don’t be so certain of that,” Hadrian said. “If beauty is a sign of divine favour, then Ceionius has it in abundance. Sometimes, when I look at him, I think I’ve adopted a god, not a son.”
It struck Marcus that Ceionius, on this day, did not look particularly well; he had the same unhealthy pallor as Hadrian, and while Marcus looked on, the man suffered a fit of coughing so violent that he had to leave the courtyard. Hadrian watched him depart with a worried look. Someone leaned towards Marcus and spoke in his ear:
O handsome youth, the blissful vision of a
No sooner glimpsed than snatched away.
“Favonius!” said Marcus. “Leave it to you to twist the words of Virgil into an ill omen.”
“Virgil? I had no idea,” said the scurra. “I was quoting the emperor, actually. I overheard him utter those lines earlier today, when poor Ceionius first appeared.”
“Is he seriously ill?”
“Caesar seems to think so. I’m told he cast a horoscope for Ceionius and the results were most alarming. Poor Hadrian! Just when he had the future all neatly planned out, with the empire cordoned off, and his temples finished, and his mausoleum under way, and the next emperor selected – poof! Fate deals an unforeseen reversal. Congratulations, by the way, on your son’s ascent to manhood, and in such esteemed company. The future of the Pinarii looks very bright.”
“Thank you.” Marcus was irritated by the man’s flippancy but managed a gracious nod.
“Almost as bright, if I may say so, as that curious bauble at your breast. How the gold catches the sunlight!”
Marcus reached up to touch the fascinum, which on this day he was wearing outside his toga, for all to see, since this was the last occasion on which he would ever wear it.
“You’ll excuse me now,” he said. “I need to go to my son.”
Hadrian was already conducting the two young men to a private chamber just off the Auguratorium. For the ceremony that was to follow, Marcus had requested that no witnesses be present except the emperor and young Verus.
The small, quiet room was sparsely decorated. Dominating one wall was a bust of Antinous set in a niche. This, too, had been Marcus’s request, that the only image present should that of the Divine Youth.
While the emperor and Verus stood to one side, Marcus approached his son. Now that the public ceremony was over, Lucius looked quite relaxed. He smiled as Marcus lifted the chain over his neck and held the fascinum aloft.
“My son, you’ve seen this amulet many times, hanging from my neck. Before me, my father wore it, and before him, his father. The fascinum has been in our family for many generations, even before the founding of the city. It has protected us, guided us, given us strength in times of trouble. You are a man now, with all the uncertainties of life ahead of you. On this day, I wish to pass the fascinum to you, so that you may never face those uncertainties alone. As it has guided me, so let it now guide you. And just as it was given to me in the presence of the emperor – the Divine Trajan – so I wish to give it to you, here before Caesar.”
Marcus placed the chain over his son’s head. It was strange to see the gold talisman glimmering upon another breast, and for a moment Marcus felt a pang of regret. Had his father felt the same regret when he gave up the fascinum? If so, he had never spoken of it, and neither would Marcus.
For a hour or so, before the banquet was to begin, the young men were left to themselves.
“I don’t know about you,” said Verus, “but I’m taking off this toga and changing into something less cumbersome.”
“You shall just have to put it on again for the banquet,” said Lucius. “Besides, I have nothing to change into.”
“You can wear one of my tunics, though it may be a bit short for you. No matter, we’re men now, and allowed to show our legs. Let’s go to my rooms.”
A statue of Minerva met them as they entered Verus’s apartments. Around a corner, a bust of Socrates had pride of place upon a pedestal. On the ceilings and walls there were no paintings of warfare or scenes of seduction, or of maidens dancing or gladiators fighting; indeed, there were no paintings at all. The walls had been coloured a placid sky blue, a color that was conducive to study and philosophical discussion, according to Verus.
