Scandal takes a Holiday

If you all plan to thrash Theopompus into offal, Pa, don't tell me." Pa looked cheerful. I am sure the young man will respect our point of view, son."

Oh yes. Six or eight of you back him into a dark alley, and give your opinions in the customary ma

Fathers know how to explain things." From mine, that was rich.

Posidonius is a kindly fellow. He won't push her too hard, he brought her up very nicely, and she will see his reasoning." I laughed bitterly. Plainly you know nothing about daughters!"

Don't be like that, son." As usual, my father was shocked to find anyone criticising his past behaviour. He really had convinced himself that abandoning a wife and infant children was fine. Now he was hurt and I was angry. Some things don't change. I noticed his silent companion watching us with a kind of reserve. He was older than Pa by as much as a decade, if the entire crowd supporting Posidonius were of this type, the vigilantes were hardly in their prime. This man was overweight too, flabby and hook shouldered. I wondered if he was another auctioneer, like Pa; I could imagine him fingering fine art objects with those chubby, rather white fingers. He wore what must be a valuable cameo ring, vivid white glass over deep lapis blue, which appeared to show a miniaturised pornographic scene. It was the kind of thing that appeals to men who call themselves co

They act as if they own the streets," said Pa.

Maybe they really do, public works are the main activity at Ostia. I reckon they are trying to take over." I licked my lips, agitated by the honey's stickiness. This is a sick town."

What do you think?" Pa asked the man with him.

Marcus is right." Cheek. Calling me Marcus was too damned informal. But with my father always ready to see me as prudish, I bit back my irritation. Sons are treated as children by their fathers" friends. Arguing about it gets you nowhere. Never one to be outnumbered in a vote, Pa changed the subject.

Marcus is chasing Cilician pirates."

I am looking for a missing scribe," I corrected patiently for the other man. Pirates, I am reliably informed, do not exist, and absolutely not in Cilicia nowadays."

So who's doing the kidnaps?" scoffed Pa, while the other man looked on in silence. This time I gri

How's that?" I prompted. I was still being polite, but something about him was getting on my nerves. He gave the impression he enjoyed being controversial.

They had a way of life," he said. Some called it piracy; to them it was their natural mode of business. If it was all taken away from them, they were bound to find a new occupation. People have to live."

You sound sorry for them."

I understand their position." He seemed detached, yet added, We had the same thing here, with the dispossessed farmers. It caused absolute misery." I could remember my grandfather, the one on the Campagna, sounding off about old land reforms', which drove countrymen out of tenancies where they had farmed for decades. Gramps kept his farm – but we all thought he had done it by tricking someone else. All his neighbours thought so too. So you view the Cilician pirates as unfortunate displaced persons?"

Naturals for a life of crime," Pa sneered. He hated most other nations. He would say that was because he had done business with them and learned what they were like.

Naturals to be blamed for everything, anyway," his friend said. So what do Cilician pirates have to do with your missing scribe, young Marcus?" Once again I tried to ignore his over-familiarity. Diocles may have been writing memoirs for one of them, but my hunch is that he was really interested in this kidnap racket. Theopompus and Posidonius" silly daughter may yet gain a mention in the Daily Gazette."

We won't be the only ones chasing Theopompus!" growled Pa.

His comrades won't thank him for publicity."

You have tied the kidnaps to the Cilicians?" asked the other man of me.

They have inadvertently let me identify a couple of their group."

Could be dangerous for you."

If my scribe turned up, I'd be out of here. The kidnappers have both the navy and the vigiles on their tail now. It can't be long to a showdown."

So then goodbye, Cilicians! If the navy and the vigiles are closing in, they may find your scribe for you. You might lose your fee." Well, thanks for that! Favonius, I have to go…" The man had slipped away almost before we registered his polite self-extraction. He left behind a whiff of shaving unguent and, for me, a slightly cheated feeling. Nobody at the Emporium called my father Favonius. He was Geminus, his long-adopted cognomen. Geminus to everyone. Well, to everyone except Ma, in one of her vengeful moods. She insisted on using the name he had had before he ran away from us.

You do know who that was?" Pa was signalling the waiter to refill our cups. He had already laid money on the marble to cover it so I was trapped. I shook my head. Should I?"

Too right, my boy! That weird streak was your Uncle Fulvius." I gazed at Pa. He nodded. Suddenly, I gri

XXXVIII

Helena was intrigued when she heard of my meeting. So why didn't you recognise your uncle?"

It's been years since I met him. I never saw much of Fulvius anyway. I can't have been more than five or six the last time, it was before Pa left us. My long holidays on the farm were later; Ma used to take us all to run around and tire ourselves out, when she could get somebody to give us all a lift into the Campagna. By that time Fulvius had gone."

Gone to do what?" asked Helena. What is the real story?"

He didn't fit in."

He was driven out by the others?"

No. Fulvius voluntarily took himself off."

Unhappy?"

Just bloody awkward, I'd say."

Oh, nothing his nephew inherited then!" I got out of that by asking how Helena was progressing with the Diocles tablets. She had read them all already. I was not surprised. On a waxed tablet of her own, she had quoted bits she wanted me to see. A large proportion of what she had collated involved the meetings Albia had described, which were clearly confrontations between ships, where the named vessels came off worst. People were sold into slavery. Goods were seized and marketed for profit. Then occasionally deaths were noted.