See Delphi and Die

An owl shrieked, very close at hand. Since the room now contained seven people, it became perilously hot. Just as I was preparing to do something about it before somebody collapsed and crossed the Styx, I fell back asleep.

They all survived. Next morning I felt as if I had eaten rabbit shit, but the rest were cheerful. Helena and Albia had gone out to buy breakfast. I could hear the lads playing ball energetically outdoors in the street. On what passed for a balcony, Young Glaucus was discussing short-distance sprint techniques with Aulus.

I cleaned my teeth with an old meat skewer and a piece of sponge, splashed my face, combed my hair, and turned yesterday's tunic inside out. Travelling was much like my early years as a run-down informer. Young Glaucus kept himself immaculate but, from his uncombed hair and limp tunic, it looked as though Aulus had taken to the life of a lazy loner. I joined them, saluting my brother-in-law with affection."Greetings, exemplary associate! Well, this is a fine problem you have landed me with.'

"I thought you would be intrigued,' chortled Aulus. Then the hangover caught up with him; he went pale and clutched his head. Glaucus and I rearranged him in a prone position, then as the balcony was cramped Glaucus went out to exercise. I sat quietly reflective until Aulus felt up to hearing all our news.

Of Helena's two brothers, Aulus made me most wary. I never felt sure which way he would jump. Still, it was good to see him again. We had worked together; I had grown fond of him. He was about my height, sturdy, though with a young man's body – not so hard as me, and bearing fewer scars. He had the family looks, dark eyes and hair, plus the family humour and intelligence. Even in Greece, the land of beards, he had remained clean-shaven like a good Roman. He had always been conservative. Originally he had hated the thought of his sister living with an informer; later, I think he saw my good points. Anyway, he accepted that our marriage was a fact, especially after we had children. He was a cautious uncle to Julia and Favonia, still too raw to be comfortable with very young children.

There had been problems finding a career for him. He should have gone into the Senate; still could, if he wanted to. The Camilli had had a relative who disgraced himself, which by extension disgraced them. That did not help; then Aulus and his brother Quintus quarrelled over who would marry an heiress. Quintus won her. Aulus lost more than the rich wife, for bachelors don't win elections, so he sulkily gave up

on the Senate. He was rootless temporarily, then surprised me by becoming my assistant. During a case where we acted as prosecutors in the Basilica Julia, he decided to become a lawyer. I joked that for a man who complained that my career was seedy, he had chosen one even more polluted. But a legal career would be better than none (and much better than mine. The senator sent him off to Athens before Aulus had a chance to dither. But his reaction when he heard of the murders at Olympia showed that his time working with me had stuck him with a love of mysteries.

"Let's not talk about the murders until Helena returns. So, how is the academic life in Athens, Aulus?' He sat up slowly."This will be disgusting, I see.'

"Athens,' declared Aulus, working his brain into use,"is absolutely full of pedagogues, all specialists. You can choose any branch of philosophy. Pythagorean, Peripatetic, Cynic, Stoic, or Orphic.'

"Avoid all of them. We are Romans. We despise thought.'

"I certainly avoid the dirty ones who dress in rags and live in barrels!' Aulus had always been fastidious."Men with big beards and big brains teach absolutely everything – law, literature, geometry – but what they are best at…' He slowed down again, lost for words temporarily.

I helped out. Is drinking?'

"I knew how to party already.' He closed his eyes."But not all night and every night!'

I let him rest for a moment. Then I asked,"Want to tell me about your tutor? I gather he's called Minas, and has a stupendous reputation.'

"Stupendous stamina anyway,' Aulus admitted.

"Was that why you latched on to him?'

"He found me. Putors lurk in the agora, looking for newly arrived Roman i

"For heavens' sake!'

"I am just a lump of dough, thumped breathless daily.'

"Fight back before the pace kills you! He recognised your senatorial stripes; you should have travelled incognito.' I saw it all."He assumes your loving papa is a multi-millionaire. Now Minas can have a really good time – which Decimus is paying for.'

"I haven't worn purple stripes since I left Ostia. He can just spot a young Roman.'

"It's all in the haircut,' I informed him sagely.

"He earns his money, Marcus.' Aulus gri

"I must point out, Aulus, your mother has paid for me to come here and see what you are up to.'

"Then I retract!' he chortled."I deny mentioning dancing girls.'

He subsided into a weak heap. I gazed at him, impressed."So, Aulus Camillus Aelianus, son of Decimus, tell me. have you learned any law yet?'

Then Aulus Camillus Aelianus, prospective top-class barrister, looked at me without guile. Before he put his throbbing head back into his trembling hands, he just smiled regretfully.

LV

Helena's foray into the markets produced an excellent Athenian breakfast of steaming hot honey-and-sesame pancakes. Those of us who were without a hangover tucked in, afterwards filling up any cra

"What's for lunch?'

"Anything you like, apparently – so long as it's fish.' That would explain why the Panathenian Way was so full of fish-heads, fish guts, crab claws, prawn shells, and cuttlefish.

Aulus asked us to stop talking about food.

We propped him up, made belated introductions where necessary, and shared our various discoveries about the murders. Aulus had nothing to tell us about Marcella Caesia and little to add to the details we had learned for ourselves about Valeria Ventidia. But he could tell us more of Turcianus Opimus, the invalid; he had met the man.

"He was desperately ill. It was horrible. He was being eaten up inside.'

"So you think his death was entirely natural?' Helena asked.

"I know it was.'

"You were with the group when they went to Epidaurus,' I chipped in.

Aulus looked embarrassed."The others were all twittering on about their aches and pains,' he complained."They were booking themselves into dream cells – and when they came out next morning there was a big fuss because Marinus had been bitten by a dog. None of them seemed to realise that their little rheumatics – and even a few septic teeth marks – were nothing to what Turcianus was going through.'

"So?' Helena, who knew her brother well, was watching him closely.

"Well, I just felt so sorry for Turcianus. He was struggling to keep up a facade of jollity. He tried not to be a nuisance. But he must have been regretting that he ever came on that last journey, he was in so

much pain. Keeping it all to himself, he must have been lonely, for one thing.'

"So?'

"When the medics had assessed him, they tipped me the wink he was on his way out. Nobody else volunteered, so I sat by his bedside all that night. No one did anything to harm him. I was with him when he died.'